So I have had my Sidekick back together and driving it for a couple of months now.  I swapped the rear diff out of my parts rig and got my driveshaft/u-joint issue sorted.  It has been so much fun having it back!  It just slipped right back into its place as my daily after a 2.5 year hiatus!  The biggest advantage is having it to use on my property and making runs to town and back (50-60 mile round trip) and now I can keep my diesel pickup parked more.  I still have to get the driver half shaft installed to have the 4x4 operational, as well as swap out to the Aisin manual hubs my parts rig had.  No for the icing on the cake!  Not only did the parts rig I paid $200 for have the transmission and rear diff I needed to get the little Beastie on the road, it also had a ROOF RACK!!!!


Next on the list is a power window modification.  My rig is a JLX with all the options.  The driver door panel was trashed when I got the rig.  The parts rig has decent door panels in it, users for now, and much easier to repair/recover down the road.  I swapped in the driver panel yesterday.  I have some switches I got off amazon and am planning to make a switch panel to sit between the shifters for the power window switches.  Pics will come when that is sorted.
We are flat towing it to Angel Fire with us next week to hit some trails/forest roads/whatever you call them.  Super excited to get back to having fun with this rig!

Congrats on the roof rack. I like having mine. I had to replace all the hardware on the clamps. It now has 316L bolts and 304 washers. I haven't done the crossbar hardware yet. They were all rusted together.

My old rig was a loaded JLX Sport. This one isnt, so it doesn't have Cruise. I added the rear power locks and windows from the JLX. I tried to add the Cruise, but must have missed a pin on the cruise control tie in to the wiring harness.

Mine has functioning cruise on it, and I love it!  It may become my nemesis though, as I may soon have to replace the multifunction switch because the headlight portion is having issues.  A cruise equipped switch is not available for the 88-95 units, at least not where I have looked.

Setup an eBay watch reminder. I got lucky and found a new one for a very good price. I had hunted for a couple of years, before it showed up. I pulled the wiring from the old Sport, made notes on which pins, and ran the wiring, but I must have missed something.

If you can find a new non cruise assembly we can talk about a trade. Mine is becoming a trail rig with the occasional street use. It is still registered, so I can make long trips and not have to tow it. The new one is nice, since it has a crisp transition for turn signals, high beam, etc.

I am not sure what the difference is, but there is some difference between 88-95 and 96-98 switches.  I know there is a cosmetic difference, but not sure if it is more than that or not.  Last night I installed a relay kit on the headlights, so now all the switch is doing is controlling relays.  I am hoping that maybe this will take some of the load and heat off of the factory switch and maybe pull a little bit more life out of it!

I am waiting on a 120 amp relay and a fuse block to arrive this week from Amazon and I will dive off into the power window switches.  I am moving them off of the door panels so I can use the non-power door cards off of my parts rig.  Also, my parts rig has a different rear section of the center console with 2 cupholders.  I really want to use that because that gives me a total of 2 cupholders in the rig now, and they are badly needed!  I think I am just going to move the rear window switches to the ash tray area on the back of the console and make a plate of some sort for them to sit in.  That makes them accessible from the front and rear easily enough and I can eliminate the door switches.  I still am working out a mount for the front switches and door lock switch.  I currently do not have the front part of the console installed, and I think I am going to keep it that way, so looking at something between the shifters.

So I am thrashing to finish up a few things on the Zuk.  We are flat towing it to New Mexico with us later this week for our vacation and want to do a little bit of wheeling.  I got the driver side front half shaft installed finally.  While at it I decided to go ahead and replace the front struts.  I have had a set of GM W-body struts laying around for a few months.  Got them on closeout from RockAuto for less than $10 each (Monroe SensaTrac).  Working out just how much notching to do on the bolt holes where I can get it aligned somewhat correct.  Debating on whether or not I am going to mess with installing the manual hubs before we leave or not.  The hubs came off my parts rig and have been sitting in the garage gathering dust for several months.  I am not sure if I have the time to take them apart and clean/grease them up before we leave.  I still have to clean the rig out, swap out the passenger seat, and a few other misc items before we leave Thursday.  Hopefully I can get some updated pictures, and pictures of the strut install also!

So time for some pics and updates before we hit the road for New Mexico...
I finally installed the manual locking hubs off of the parts rig.  I was thinking they were Aisin hubs, but after looking them over, I am not sure what they are.  They do have "Made in USA" stamped on them.

I have been looking online for a fuse block to add to under the hood for accessories.  Already I had 2 extra connections hooked up to the battery, 1 for the headlight relay harness and another for the electric fan harness.  I have installed "military" style battery terminals, so adding things is not a big deal, it just starts looking messy after adding a few things.  I thought about using the PDC block out of the parts rig, so I went to look at it.  Turns out the 1997 used a PDC block with a nifty bracket that bolts to the top of the passenger strut tower, while my 1995 uses a PDC bolted to the fender.  So I pulled the PDC off the parts unit and installed it on mine.  Now I have an 8 circuit fuse block that has an additional 80 amp main fuse which I used to power the fuse block/relay I put under the dash to power Ignition controlled add-on circuits!  I am happier than a pig in slop now!  I may still clean up the install some, but I am super happy with how it turned out, especially for minimal time invested and no funds required.
Lastly, a gratuitous shot showing off the freshly installed roof rack!  The rack is probably coming off after vacation so I can clean it up and repaint, but I could not help myself, it just looks too good for it to not be on there, in any condition!

So after all the work, finally let the Zuk do what it was made for!  Went with the fam to Red River, NM and we hit the Goose Lake trail.  I was proud of the rig.  Going up we had to use low range, but I left the front hubs unlocked.  You have to cross the Red River at the head of the trail, and that was the only real challenge.  A more judicious person would have probably not made the crossing, as the water was over the headlights.  The best part, on the way down the DW started asking about what we could do going forward to make the Zuk more capable when tackling trails.  For those who have not been there...Goose Lake is a mountain lake at 11,700'.  It was absolutely magnificent.  Now gratuitous Zuk/Family pics and splashing water shots!

Yes you could run the stub axle shaft and ds CV without other modifications.

Drivers side on the differential has a "about" 14 inch axle shaft with three lobes on it.  There is a CV shaft bolted to the three lobes that goes outward to the wheel hub.  On the Passenger side there is a double splined CV shaft that slip into the differential and wheel hub both.  It is easier to change the Drivers side CV shaft because it can be unbolted from the differential.  On the passenger side the easy way is to remove the ball joint and lifting the hub up and outward slip the CV from the differential and then wheel hub for replacement.
Now, if you take the ps CV shaft and cut it off just at the base of the CV cup, then take a ds differential axle cut the lobe off, and weld that lobe onto the stubby axle end you just made, you will have a ps stubby axle shaft.  Now the ds CV will bolt onto the ps stubby alxe and you won't have to tear the whole ps apart to change broken CV's.  So now you only have to carry one CV shaft (because it will work on either side) and is much easier changing. 
The real trick is to measure the total compressed length of the ps CV shaft, then measure the comp-ressed length of the ds CV shaft.  The difference is the length of your new stub shaft with the lobe welded in place.  (If you weld is not true it will wobble.)

Just remember.
Every modification begets another modification.  Always!

I thought the cv axles were different lengths. I want to do the stubby cv axle mod on my rig and I am confused a little.

The drivers cv will work on both sides if I make a stubby adapter the right length?

I seen this stubby adapter with counter sunk holes looks like the one I need? Or does anyone have measurements of the length to cut each before you weld?


|removethispart|@jollyZuk your rig is looking awesome. I love the oem rack I need to find one for my 2dr

It looks like that would be what is needed.  Where is that seller located?  I am assuming they are working on RHD vehicles.

It looks like that would be what is needed.  Where is that seller located?  I am assuming they are working on RHD vehicles.

Not sure I sent them a email. I know vit mods makes these adapters too

It's awesome seeing you out and about with the family. My youngest likes going off road with me. As another ginger, great looking family. I have missed driving mine. I have been driving other toys, while this one was far away in Utah. Most of the reason is that the Sidekick is so much more fun to drive in Utah.

Toys- If I do the axle swap on mine, I will probably just build my own, as I have all the tools necessary.  I just have to decide if there is any reason to swap out the front diff from my 97 parts rig first.  For what I do with the rig, I just don't see that much advantage of 22 vs 26 spline axles.  I do plan to keep the diff as a spare, but I can use the pieces to have a stub axle ready and waiting with it.

Ridjo- It has really been a blast!  We got cut short on our adventure today.  We were about halfway to Greenie Peak when the heat from the exhaust melted the outer sheath on the clutch cable and we lost clutch usage.  Luckily, we were at a place that was easy to turn around when I discovered the issue, so we were able to get turned around and just crawl back down the track in low gear into town.  A few hose clamps and a couple pieces of metal rod, and she is ready to go again!  Or at least drivable to put around town until we get home and get a new clutch cable ordered.  I did check the AutoZone in Taos where I bought the hose clamps and they had 1 of the later model clutch cables in stock!  I do have the bracket off my parts rig to convert to the later style clutch cable, and I may look into it.  They tend to be less $$ than the older style.

So something of a sad update on our New Mexico adventure...On Tuesday we were on our way to Greenie Peak outside of Red River, and having a great go of it.  I was running in 4 Lo, hubs unlocked, crawling up the trail.  We came to a split in the trail and stopped to double check the map and make sure we were heading the right way when I noticed I had no control of the clutch!  I was pretty sure I knew what the culprit was, and checked the clutch cable.  Where it passes by the exhaust manifold, it had gotten hot enough to melt the outer sheathing and render the cable useless!  The PO of my 'Kick had a second 'Kick he had built and used it for off road adventuring.  He had told me when we were chatting one time he had melted his clutch cable, not one, but twice under similar circumstances.  He blamed the header he had installed.  But he said crawling in 1st gear, lo range he lost his clutch.  He said this happened at the same place on the same track twice!  Well, we got turned around, and nursed back down to Red River in low gear, having all the fun that comes with not being able to disengage the clutch.  I was able to make a field repair with some metal rod and half dozen hose clamps.  Now the clutch is working as well as it did before until I can get a new cable.  Other than that, we had a lot of fun, and even with the small incident, it did not leave us stranded!

Too bad the issue interrupted the family fun. I am glad that you weren't left stranded. Unfortunately these vehicles are starting to need more than just normal preventive maintenance.