Well I got the struts and Jeff's strut spacers in, and did a camber alignment. I got a cool little camber guage from JC Whitney that makes this job a whole lot easier. But enough about that. Now that I have the strut mount spacer in, the shaft of the strut rides at about 5 3/4 inches out, leaving about 1.5" in the strut body at ride height. ( NOTE: the new struts were .25 " shorter!? or aprox 7.25" of exposed shaft, where my original ones measured a bit over 7.5" of exposed shaft. WTF is that about?)   IT's an improvement, but to me, 1.5" of shaft in the strut body doesn't sound like enough. I'd be a lot more comfortable with 2.5-3", and that would mean adding another 1" of spacer. Or I could just flip the strut mount again and get another inch. Most of what I've learned about suspensions came from the motorcycle world, so I may be totally off with this, but I think for the best ride quality, and best traction, the wheel needs to be able to move down in it's travel at least 25/30 % of it's total travel. Meaning the strut should be about a third of the way in compression at ride height. Someone please correct or educate me if I'm incorrect. Still have to work on that.
I haven't been able to figure out the lower mounting points for a limit strap either. I was going to make a tab to mount the lower part of the strap off the upper strut mount bolt ( the camber adjustment bolt) but it puts the strap too close the the inside of the tire and it would rub. The top mounting point will be much easier if I can figure out the bottom. Back to the drawing board. Blacktrack, I'm almost positive there is no alternitive to the OME strut if you want a longer strut. Calmini was supposed to be coming out with a longer strut, there was talk and a rumor of the thing actually being seen at some event, but alas, it evaporated like most rumors.
 

What about a loop that connects to both sides of the lower strut bolt and puts the strap to the inside if the strut, keeping it away from the tire?

Ah, a new day with a fresh perspective. I'm going to go back out today Drone and take another look at things to see what I can see, your loop suggestion is definitely worth looking into. Also, did do a test drive and ride was much smoother. I guess new struts will do that for you. When I finally got around to replacing the drivers side strut ( original with about 30k on it) It also had some damping issues, and felt like there were air pockets in it. The stoke was uneven, soft, then hard, then almost nonexixtent resistence at the top. I guess these things are NOT industructable!

This Sucks. I finally finished building my limit strap set up for the front struts, and it came out pretty nice. Problem is photos won't load! I ended up welding a tab to the bottom back of the strut. The OME strut, as well as stock struts have a formed wrap around mounting bracket that is welded to the strut body. This mounts to the knuckle. This is where I welded the mounting tab for the lower end of the strap. For the top mount, I took what Drone said, about some kind of "ring" mounted to the upper strut mount bolts, and remembered someone mentioning a exhaust flange is a similar size to the strut mount. Sure enough, a Chevy header flange fits the strut mount perfectly! So, I got a few of them ( JCWhitney again) and welded a tab perpindicular to the face. This mounts under the upper strut mount and the limit strap connects the two. Whats cool is I can adjust the amount of droop in the front end by adding 1 or 2 more exhaust flanges above the strap mount to lower it up to 3/4". Right now with no additional spacers, the strap begins to tighten up at about 5.75" of strut extension, or just beyond ride height. 7.5" is the max, topped out. Givin the amount of strap stretch, I should be just about right for a soft stop. Wife's gonna work on the photo thing today, hope I can get some up later.

Sounds like a neat project, can't wait to see the pictures. 

DUH! After it was all together, and looking pretty good, I ran into another problem: spring bow, forgot to account for it. As the wheel turns left or right , so goes the strut. I still got rubbing on the coil as it turns so it's back to the drawing board. I'm seriously thinking it's time to buy a Toyota.

I'm seriously thinking it's time to buy a Toyota.

For parts right!?!?! 

You would have to move the strap to the front of the strut to get it out of the way...

Or move the strap to another part of the body or other location.  As long as it connects to the A-arm it should be ok.

All of that aside, does anyone know of a longer strut with an application for another vehicle that will bolt up to Tracker/Sidekick/Vitaras.  I think the rear Crown Vic shock swap is pretty common knowledge to anyone who's spent five minutes researching suspension on this board.  I was just wondering if there's a similar cheap cheat for the front that I hadn't read about in my last few years on here.  Probably not, since I've never seen anything; just curious.

I have read that Dodge/Hyundai colt struts work, but haven't ever seen them in action. They are longer.

I have read that Dodge/Hyundai colt struts work, but haven't ever seen them in action. They are longer.

Dodge/Mitsubishi Colt?

I bought a set of the Dodge Colt struts. They are about an inch longer that the stock struts but offer no extra travel over the stock struts. I decided to just return them.

Derek

Quote

I'm seriously thinking it's time to buy a Toyota.

For parts right!?!?! 

   

I dunno, beginning to get tired of chasing maintenence problems. Finally got the motor where I want it, now the suspension is going to give me fits. I'm thinkin a nice late model used Taco extended cab 4wd with all the creature comforts. Then leave it stock!

You would have to move the strap to the front of the strut to get it out of the way...

Or move the strap to another part of the body or other location.  As long as it connects to the A-arm it should be ok.

I'm going to look at mounting it to the a arm, then directly to the frame, maybe that'll work. Cant put it on the front of the strut, tire's in the way. That's the first place I tried. If I had narrower tires, maybe a 32x 9.5 it might fit in front of the strut.
   

...and today I blew #3 at Tierra del Sol.

That's a pain.  Have you thought about switching to Billstien's?  They might be able to hook you up with something for rallying.

I can at least report on the difference the strut spacers make now. After a long nightime trailride, I experienced NO topping out at all, and the ride quality is vastly improved. Still working on placement of the straps, pretty sure I'm going directly from the frame to front of control arm.

...and today I blew #3 at Tierra del Sol.

If your still running stock length struts, sty adding more strut spacer to bring them down a bit, if not try OME's ( their longer ) with a Jeff's spacer.