if i did it again, i would not have homebrewed my spring over. i would go with the
www.rockyroadoutfitters.com spring over conversion perches and their brake lines and spacers. to make a "Z-LINK" is easy enough, to replace your drag-link. as far as cost goes you will spend a couple hundred bucks on a kit to doa spring over. DO NOT mess with the lift spring kit from
www.puresuzuki.com A.K.A calmini. these kits compromise flex and ride for a "bolt on" experience. IMO if you cant weld....learn how to weld or get out of the sport. I am literally surrounded by people who purchased the lift from rocky-road and it is the only way to go.
This lift will allow you to run up to 31" tires with very little rubbing at full flex. you can run 33's but you need to do some basic trimming in order to make them behave well, ask JP008 (JIM), about his experiences with 33" MTR's on his zuk, he loves them.
As far as gearing goes, i kick myself for not getting the 6:1 gearset but i bought my 4.16:1 gears right before the 6:1 set hit the market. they offer something like a 138% reduction in low and somewhere in the range of 15-18% reduction in high negating the need for diff gears. a fellow zuker in california put his 6:1 gears up against his stock daily driver. his trail rig has 33" SSR's to give you an idea of what he is dealing with. anyway he put his trail rig in LOW and 5TH gear and his stocker in LOW and 1ST gear and the stock rig walked away at an astonishing pace compared to his trail rig!! at a cost of 850-900$ for the DIY kit, they are a bargain!! the first and only gears you will ever need and i have heard no tales of them breaking yet. they have been run in europe and australia for years.
as far as lockers, you have two options, lockright (ez-lockers), or ARB's. most of us around here just run lockrights in the rear. after running rockpile up barret canyon in north ogden, we are all wishing for front lockers now. lockers run no more than 200$ ARB's are expensive as usual.
you have the right idea on getting birfield cups for the front end. if you want to run a front locker, birfields on samurais are weak to put it mildly. some have gone to call them "CUTE" like in look how small and cute that newborn baby's hands are "CUTE". Jim phillips is going to try out some of the "longfields" for samurais. they are welded and cryo-treated for strength, but i have heard no reviews of them myself. cups are availible from rocky road as well as most samurai vendors. usually in the 90$ a pair range if i recall correctly. minor machining and press work is involved in their installation.
For rockcrawling with major gearing, it is not recomended to go over the 33" tire threshold. samurai running-gear is tough but it cannot handle anything more than 33's and be expected to be reliable. broken axle shafts are the norm for larger tire users. i have never heard of anyone breaking axles with 31" tires but i am sure it happens occasionally. jim has not broken yet but he is not that hard on his rig
.
there are a number of valuable resources for learning to build up a samurai. try subscribing to the
www.topica.com suzuki4x4 mailing list. you can expect 200 messages a day on various topics and they are very friendly to new comers. if you want to get more extreme go to the
www.pirate4x4.com BBS and get on their system. these guys are a little more rough around the edges but there is a wealth of information in their brains to pick if your question is technical enought for them. they need to have their brains challenged or they dont respond to requests well.
www.izook.com is a good board to find general info on zuks. i have found that zukers are more than happy to help other zukers as we are the underdogs in the 4x4 world and are very pleased that a zuk took first place in the last farmington RCAA (ARCA).
if you are looking at buying a zuk dont pay any more than 1500$ for a nice specimin from the late 80's. after 1990 they started in with fuel injection but expect to pay a little more for this luxury. stock zuk carbs are great at angles so dont worry if you end up with a carbed model. there are really no bad years for zuks. they are all good wheelers and you would be surprised what stock zuks can do. buck for buck, they are the most cost effective wheeling machines out there. no other vehicle comes close to becoming trail worthy for the money and time invested. i would challenge anyone to point out a cheaper rig!!!!
fellow zukers, did i leave anything out or do i need correction? this little ditty comes from all my studies combined with personal experience. I find it to be unbiased and for the most part accurate. chime in and tell me what you think.
