Some of you know about this build I've had going on since April of 2015. Figured I'd post it up here like i do most my other projects lol.
Started out as a 2000 Suzuki Grand Vitara I bought wrecked for 700 bucks and a clean title.
I worked on this thing for 3 straight weeks in the garage, all weekend and every day after work. I had this vision of what I wanted and was damn determined to get it done.
Had to weld in a new core support, new radiator, fan and clutch, condenser, lights, fender, grill, hood, windshield and I converted it to a Chevy tracker. She needed a host of little things along with what I fixed.
The plan was to make 33s fit and not cut into the firewall. So I cut the front of the frame off, moved it forward 4" and down 4.5". Redid engine mounts, lengthen drive shaft, changed rad mounts up, and tweaked some things to make it all work. This allowed me to get the lift I needed, clearance and still keep cv axle angle and suspension angle nice and stock. Needless to say, there isn't shit for aftermarket support for second gen Suzuki's. Rear I just made a set of 3.5" spring spacers with some grand Cherokee shocks. Added a set of 31s I got for a deal and threw a spartan locker in the back, added 4.24 tcase gears and did a 200mile trail ride 2 days after finishing it
Man was the v6 power and auto Trans awesome compared to the samurai on the road.
But I wasn't done. Had the fender and hood painted, put the outer flare back on the rf, picked up a set of new 15" wheels and got a used set of 33" mtr's to put on. Then built a set of rock rails for the rockers, cut out the bottom spring retainer for the rear spring and shrank it down so I could use 2.5 ID eibach springs. The Suzuki world is so far behind in proper suspension setup it's retarded. They like to up the rear spring rate and lengthen the spring so you get a stiff ride. Not what I wanted. BUT a set of 175 lbs eibach springs, 3" longer than stock worked out perfect. The grand Cherokee shocks actually match really nicely with the spring setup too. Then to keep the rear tires from smashing the body at full bump, I cut the rear fenders 1.5" higher and rewelded it back up.
Front end got a strut swap as well. I converted the struts to ones off the rear of a 95 Pontiac grand am, used some strut mount spacers differently than their intended use and redrilled the strut mount holes to bolt to the spindle. After some work, the spacers allow me to have accurate amount of up travel and leave 1/2" of strut travel left after the lca bump stop is fully compressed and I get more down travel then stock. I went from 6" of wheel travel to a total of 10" now. This was a lot cheaper than buying old man emu front strut setup that gave me the same setup.
Now the front diff needed attention and I wanted to regear. Stock is 4.88 but you can find 5.13 gears for these pretty cheap. So a set of those went in the rear and the front got a steel housing (they come aluminum), steel third member, samurai ring gear carrier so I have 4 point cross pins instead of 2 point, samurai locker, and ditched the stock air actuated spider gears. Outer hubs come as drive flanges but again, samurai front manual locking hubs will bolt right on without mods so on those went. Basically, the is as built as I can build it besides cv axles.
How she looked after all that work
I added a steel front bumper and warn 8000 winch with syn rope. Steel front skid plate and wound up swapping tires to a new set of KO2s cause the mtr's were too loud for me and out of balance. After all, I daily drive this thing.
So that pretty much brings it to our current state.
So far I've snapped 3 front axles, twisted 3 rear axles cause I had a bad habit of power sliding in the rain lol, and torn a Trans mount. The suspension works so much better off road than I could have imagined. I have done a few rides with rzrs that don't exactly go slow. Hell my baby girl was 3 month old and we did a 60 mile desert ride with her in there and rzrs leading. We were by no means found slow lol.
BUT, it's time for more improvements cause again, I can't leave shit alone.
Right now I have a ford 8.8 axle out of a 2001 f150 to go under the rear. It's getting 5.13 gears, Spartan locker, and a rebuild. I'm switching from the parallel 4 link setup to a 3 link with pan hard bar and trying to decide on running the shocks on a trailing arm setup or on the axle. What will dictate it is how much room I have to place the shock in the the body and keep it out of the rear seats. Plan is to get 16" of wheel travel out of the rear. I have a set of 14" 2.0 coilovers for the rear and 2.0 4" hydraulic bump stops. This is the next phase starting asap.
Next the front will get a strip down and rebuild. Keeping the stock diff but swapping the cv axles to Toyota t100 axles, building custom lower arms and extending them 3" both sides, building an uca, heimed steering, coilovers and hydraulic bump stops. Goal there is 15" of wheel travel.
Then finally, it's turbo time for the 2.5 v6 cause frankly, I miss boost when I daily it. I already have an AEM FIC 6 coming for it that I will hook up and get dialed in initially so I'm ready to turbo down the road. There isn't a way to put a stand alone in here and keep obd2 nor can you read out or flash these computers. This will also allow me to lean out boost when cruising unlike the samurai where it would run rich there and kill mpg. That was my biggest gripe.
So yeah, I'll keep this updated as I go. Goal is to have a rig that can't still rock crawl but I can go down to Baja and run it with rzrs or run the desert up here in comfort and the a/c crankin. Plus make those ever so fun "whoosh" noises under the hood
Started out as a 2000 Suzuki Grand Vitara I bought wrecked for 700 bucks and a clean title.
I worked on this thing for 3 straight weeks in the garage, all weekend and every day after work. I had this vision of what I wanted and was damn determined to get it done.
Had to weld in a new core support, new radiator, fan and clutch, condenser, lights, fender, grill, hood, windshield and I converted it to a Chevy tracker. She needed a host of little things along with what I fixed.
The plan was to make 33s fit and not cut into the firewall. So I cut the front of the frame off, moved it forward 4" and down 4.5". Redid engine mounts, lengthen drive shaft, changed rad mounts up, and tweaked some things to make it all work. This allowed me to get the lift I needed, clearance and still keep cv axle angle and suspension angle nice and stock. Needless to say, there isn't shit for aftermarket support for second gen Suzuki's. Rear I just made a set of 3.5" spring spacers with some grand Cherokee shocks. Added a set of 31s I got for a deal and threw a spartan locker in the back, added 4.24 tcase gears and did a 200mile trail ride 2 days after finishing it
Man was the v6 power and auto Trans awesome compared to the samurai on the road.
But I wasn't done. Had the fender and hood painted, put the outer flare back on the rf, picked up a set of new 15" wheels and got a used set of 33" mtr's to put on. Then built a set of rock rails for the rockers, cut out the bottom spring retainer for the rear spring and shrank it down so I could use 2.5 ID eibach springs. The Suzuki world is so far behind in proper suspension setup it's retarded. They like to up the rear spring rate and lengthen the spring so you get a stiff ride. Not what I wanted. BUT a set of 175 lbs eibach springs, 3" longer than stock worked out perfect. The grand Cherokee shocks actually match really nicely with the spring setup too. Then to keep the rear tires from smashing the body at full bump, I cut the rear fenders 1.5" higher and rewelded it back up.
Front end got a strut swap as well. I converted the struts to ones off the rear of a 95 Pontiac grand am, used some strut mount spacers differently than their intended use and redrilled the strut mount holes to bolt to the spindle. After some work, the spacers allow me to have accurate amount of up travel and leave 1/2" of strut travel left after the lca bump stop is fully compressed and I get more down travel then stock. I went from 6" of wheel travel to a total of 10" now. This was a lot cheaper than buying old man emu front strut setup that gave me the same setup.
Now the front diff needed attention and I wanted to regear. Stock is 4.88 but you can find 5.13 gears for these pretty cheap. So a set of those went in the rear and the front got a steel housing (they come aluminum), steel third member, samurai ring gear carrier so I have 4 point cross pins instead of 2 point, samurai locker, and ditched the stock air actuated spider gears. Outer hubs come as drive flanges but again, samurai front manual locking hubs will bolt right on without mods so on those went. Basically, the is as built as I can build it besides cv axles.
How she looked after all that work
I added a steel front bumper and warn 8000 winch with syn rope. Steel front skid plate and wound up swapping tires to a new set of KO2s cause the mtr's were too loud for me and out of balance. After all, I daily drive this thing.
So that pretty much brings it to our current state.
So far I've snapped 3 front axles, twisted 3 rear axles cause I had a bad habit of power sliding in the rain lol, and torn a Trans mount. The suspension works so much better off road than I could have imagined. I have done a few rides with rzrs that don't exactly go slow. Hell my baby girl was 3 month old and we did a 60 mile desert ride with her in there and rzrs leading. We were by no means found slow lol.
BUT, it's time for more improvements cause again, I can't leave shit alone.
Right now I have a ford 8.8 axle out of a 2001 f150 to go under the rear. It's getting 5.13 gears, Spartan locker, and a rebuild. I'm switching from the parallel 4 link setup to a 3 link with pan hard bar and trying to decide on running the shocks on a trailing arm setup or on the axle. What will dictate it is how much room I have to place the shock in the the body and keep it out of the rear seats. Plan is to get 16" of wheel travel out of the rear. I have a set of 14" 2.0 coilovers for the rear and 2.0 4" hydraulic bump stops. This is the next phase starting asap.
Next the front will get a strip down and rebuild. Keeping the stock diff but swapping the cv axles to Toyota t100 axles, building custom lower arms and extending them 3" both sides, building an uca, heimed steering, coilovers and hydraulic bump stops. Goal there is 15" of wheel travel.
Then finally, it's turbo time for the 2.5 v6 cause frankly, I miss boost when I daily it. I already have an AEM FIC 6 coming for it that I will hook up and get dialed in initially so I'm ready to turbo down the road. There isn't a way to put a stand alone in here and keep obd2 nor can you read out or flash these computers. This will also allow me to lean out boost when cruising unlike the samurai where it would run rich there and kill mpg. That was my biggest gripe.
So yeah, I'll keep this updated as I go. Goal is to have a rig that can't still rock crawl but I can go down to Baja and run it with rzrs or run the desert up here in comfort and the a/c crankin. Plus make those ever so fun "whoosh" noises under the hood
