Vitara lift kits

[smally4.0]

Hi all....

We want to put a suspension lift in a 1990 vit.swb
would like a 2 inch lift......what brands will give this giving a good ride....
i have been thinking about the kit suspensionstuff are selling..
Lovells coils & shocks but the lift is 30 to 40mm
Is there any one running the lovell set up & want lift did it give..... and whats the ride like?
is 50mm lift to much on front cv's
thanks smally

[just cruizin']

Get that kit, then some coil spacers. That will give you the lift you are chasing. You might need to flip the strut mounts to work in with the spacers.

[saffrett]

get some ome front struts some v6 gv front coils from the reckers and some td gemmi front coils for the rear and some como shocks and a 1/2 in tail shaft spacer
get 6 10mm plates and longer bolts and make a ball joint spacer for rear and you will have a 3" lift that works great and is cheap.
most of the guys in the nsw zook club run this for years

[saffrett]

get some ome front struts some v6 gv front coils from the reckers and some td gemmi front coils for the rear and some como shocks and a 1/2 in tail shaft spacer
get 6 10mm plates and longer bolts and make a ball joint spacer for rear and you will have a 3" lift that works great and is cheap.
most of the guys in the nsw zook club run this for years

[joeblow]

get 6 10mm plates and longer bolts and make a ball joint spacer for rear and you will have a 3" lift that works great and is cheap.

please don't listen to him.............buy a proper spacer.

[Gwagensteve]

X2, the research indicates that balljoints spaced this way leads to broken bolts and wonky geometry, but where can you buy a balljoint spacer for the rear of a vitara?

I've made one, and it's not that hard, but it's pretty critical component.

The Calmini replacement A arm and spacer is yucky, uses a rubbish heim joint and is not legal for road use as a result.

Steve.

PS the better option would be to lower the chassis mount end of the a arm rather than raise the diff end, but that's a whole lot of work.

[smally4.0]

Thanks For the Replies...

We have ordered Lifted Dobinsons springs from SuspensionStuff and there shockies/struts for a 40mm lift..

Will we need to fit camber bolts lifting this amount??

then we will look at fitting a 40mm body lift...
cheers smally...

[danssurf82]

u should not need camber bolts, i have 50 mm lift at the front and camber is perfect

[smally4.0]

u should not need camber bolts, i have 50 mm lift at the front and camber is perfect

Thanks smally

[TheOtherLeft]

The Calmini replacement A arm and spacer is yucky, uses a rubbish heim joint and is not legal for road use as a result.

Are Calmini arms illegal???? There's quite a few people running them and ODA1 is starting to make them. I was thinking about getting a pair until this whole VSI50 thing came out.

[fordy1]

calmini arms have always been illegal to my knowledeg but im sure sombody on here has been around longer than me

[TheOtherLeft]

calmini arms have always been illegal to my knowledeg but im sure sombody on here has been around longer than me

So are yours legal (ie use a different joint) or do you have a disclaimer, like for extended shackles etc?

[atari4x4]

I recently was defected for a few things & I returned my zook back to almost stock to clear the defect.

I left the calmini front control arms in & they didn't even look at them twice, but they are painted black instead of that ghay electric blue colour.

[TheOtherLeft]

I recently was defected for a few things & I returned my zook back to almost stock to clear the defect.

I left the calmini front control arms in & they didn't even look at them twice, but they are painted black instead of that ghay electric blue colour.

Getting defected is one thing. Not being covered by the insurance company in an accident is another.

There's a reason why it's an illegal product.

[atari4x4]

I recently was defected for a few things & I returned my zook back to almost stock to clear the defect.

I left the calmini front control arms in & they didn't even look at them twice, but they are painted black instead of that ghay electric blue colour.

Getting defected is one thing. Not being covered by the insurance company in an accident is another.

There's a reason why it's an illegal product.

point taken, i am sure they are engineerable...

[saffrett]

sorry for offering advice that was dangerous. hey just want to know wats wrong with the plate spacer. i have all my plates welded together. would that be ok that way. i ithink it would be stronger then most of the ones ive seen for sale that are just plates welded on to a bit of rhs

[Gwagensteve]

engineers are pretty relaxed about vehicle welding (really!)

I'm in the industry (weld inspection/testing) and whilst technically, welding on a vehicle falls under AS1554:1 SP, engineers are generally unfamiliar with the code and it's requirements, especially since the collapse of the DLI welder program.

As a result, they tend to specifiy "X-ray" on anything critical and ask no more questions about welding qualifications or procedure.

A ball joint spacer won't be welded in a way that is possible to X-ray, so MPI testing would the the method of choice. This method is cheap and quick- if you took it to most NDT labs they wouldn't charge much at all to test it. (<$150) This would satisfy the engineer that the spacer is safe to use, as long is they thought it was adequately strong.

Calmini front arms are the same - they require MPI of the welds- they are quite nicely welded and pass the requirements of AS1554 easily- and then there is no reason why they won't be engineered as legal.

The problem with the Calmini rear A-arm (other than that the welds require MPI inspection) is the crappy $15 heim joint. Heim joints might be cool on Pirate4X4, but they are illegal on road vehicles in australia AFAIK. It's crap design anyway - it has inadequate travel and binds on articulation

Steve.

[Toecutta]

My Calmini Kit is Engineered with the "Crap" heim joint so they can't be that illegal

[lay80n]

My Calmini Kit is Engineered with the "Crap" heim joint so they can't be that illegal

Engineered and legal can be two different things. I have seen an engineer sign off on extended shackles too, but it didnt make them legal.

Layto....

[saffrett]

my mates just past the other day with 4x16mm plate spacers in the diff and the engenieer didnt say any thing. steve wat would u sugest would be the best type of spacer to replace the plates with.

[Gwagensteve]

my mates just past the other day with 4x16mm plate spacers in the diff and the engenieer didnt say any thing. steve wat would u sugest would be the best type of spacer to replace the plates with.

There's two elements to this

A) Was the engineer informed of the spacer and how it was made? It seems that sometimes car builders play "spot the mod" with engineers - ie if the engineer doesn't spot it, it must be OK.

That's not the case. If it's not specifically mentioned on the certificate, it's not been spotted by the engineer, so it's not covered.

B) The "best" type of spacer is one that offsets the ball joint to take account of the geometry change - you can't just space the all joint up - it needs to be moved backwards to retain stock pinion angle. As a result, it can't be just done by fitting longer bolts and a spacer - the pinion will be rolled upwards which might lead to vibrations (and lifted vitaras can often suffer from vibes due to the slip yoke design)

I don't have any photos of the one I made with me. It was 10mm plate.

Steve.

[saffrett]

okm i see wat ur saying but my pinion angle seems fine and i dont have any vibes coming from the tail shaft. i have a 1/2 in spacer in there though. would that help.

[Gwagensteve]

okm i see wat ur saying but my pinion angle seems fine and i dont have any vibes coming from the tail shaft. i have a 1/2 in spacer in there though. would that help.

It will help with adequate slip yoke engagement but not with dissimilar uni angles.

I'm sure what you've done isn't a problem, but I'm aware that some spacers with long bolts have been unreliable so when we did Cj's we set it up to keep the pinion angle as per stock.

Steve.

[Toecutta]

My Calmini Kit is Engineered with the "Crap" heim joint so they can't be that illegal

Engineered and legal can be two different things. I have seen an engineer sign off on extended shackles too, but it didnt make them legal.

Layto....

I would have thought that if it is on the engineers report that in turn would make it legal, otherwise what would the point of the report be?

I had extended shackles listed on a report I had for a zook years ago, that made them legal as the car was then registered "legally" with the shackles.

How is that not right?

[TheOtherLeft]

My Calmini Kit is Engineered with the "Crap" heim joint so they can't be that illegal

Engineered and legal can be two different things. I have seen an engineer sign off on extended shackles too, but it didnt make them legal.

Layto....

I would have thought that if it is on the engineers report that in turn would make it legal, otherwise what would the point of the report be?

I had extended shackles listed on a report I had for a zook years ago, that made them legal as the car was then registered "legally" with the shackles.

How is that not right?

There's a reason why the RTA here in NSW have been coming down hard on dodgy engineers...

I always thought you can always get sent over the pits even when engineered if they (police/rta) thinks there's something dodgy. I spoke to an engineer about this and he confirmed this too.

[Toecutta]

That sounds crap

In the ACT, and I have been through this getting something regoed, If it is on the report there is nothing the RTA can do about it.

Maybe everyone should move here

[fordy1]

what do you think about this unit then???

http://www.outdoorauto4x4.com/picture.a ... ID=1973717

if it is a problem with legal then i need to mention it.

The arms i can supply are also not legal.