Looking to install a front Samuri axle into my 96 Side Kick. Any info would be great as I now have the parts from Hawks & plan to start cutting off the front end so just the frame rails are left. I live in San Diego and don't see many "trick" Suzuki's around here to check out first. Help from Zukiworld locals would be the thing right now..............OK, It's a X90 but still it should be the same. Thanx

Are you doing it with coils or leaf springs?

I was planning on leaf springs. Coil would be nice but looked harder to set-up.

your going to need spacers or wheels with like zero backspacing. i was thinking on doing the same thing but decided a yota axle would be my first choice. its much stronger and if your going throught the trouble, make something with a little more beef. it will be more $$$ because your going to need a rear and gears... blah blah blah, but it will run 38s without any trouble and breackage. but the cheaper way is the samurai axle. your gears will fit and bolt pattern is the same. good luck
lance

Hi mate,  there a couple of them running in the Uk , i m not a fan of leaf springs but its a lot easier to do than coils

i did use spacers to gain the correct width, kick calipers and discs fit fine , and the R&p gears either the whole carrier or just teh R&ps but some spacers needed.

here is a couple of pics of my setup.

took me about 6 weeks, and about 10 months to finally get it right only recently i have actually got the shock rates and handling back to a good level . lots of ironing out

finish product









Im now running around 8 inch suspension which is great for articulation, also running teh calmini strengthened shafts for the sammy axle and arb , my weak point is cvs but is the easist thing to change

What spring rate did you end up with in the front Mark?

I tried some rears cut down to increase spring rate about 20 % more i think, then calmini cut down but they were too much again,  I wanted to try running soft springs more damping so i had road handling and offroad flex

so Ended up with stock lwb springs , i run Es3000 as main shock and a set of es9000 that sit along side but dont actually bottom or top out

the es 9000s give me back that road handling but didnt effect the offroad infact seems to have helped put a bit of pressure on the ground .

so soft springs to cut out that slamming down and lots of damping

so far so good

Thanx for all the info. If at all poss. would you mind a few more pic's of where you made the trailing arms mount & how you mounted the springs to the axle. I have a shop www.protrux.net.  We can build what is needed just don't like doing the job over if we can help it. I'll post back some pic's of where we're at to date. Thanx again

I tried some rears cut down to increase spring rate about 20 % more i think, then calmini cut down but they were too much again,  I wanted to try running soft springs more damping so i had road handling and offroad flex

so Ended up with stock lwb springs , i run Es3000 as main shock and a set of es9000 that sit along side but dont actually bottom or top out

the es 9000s give me back that road handling but didnt effect the offroad infact seems to have helped put a bit of pressure on the ground .

so soft springs to cut out that slamming down and lots of damping

so far so good

Do you mean LWB rear springs?  I was looking at the figures the other day. Spring rates at the wheels are identical but with a lot more lift I would have thought that you would need a little extra stiffness to cut pitch and roll a bit. I haven't got any figures for the LWB springs though.

i will sort out some more pics of whee the mounts went , i did use my roll cage mounts as part of the rear so it was nice and strong.

Rhinoman, yeah spring rates are the same. after adding teh second shock it has improved the road drive alot so allowing me to keep the spring soft for the off road side of life.

if i had to drive every day i would need about 15% increase or uprated springs but braking handling is fine at present.  I have gone with 25% uprated springs on the rear as tehy are new which do help a lot but limit upward movement due to there rating ,

its that ever struggle to find good road mannors and great off road ability is the issue, i think i have found the happy medium now . soft springs bucket loads of damping.

just the steering to sort out