Diesel sidekick

[jamesmross]

I've been thinking pretty hard and serious about doing a diesel (VW) sidekick. The only thing I haven't worked out are the rear axle gears. For the diesel to live comfortbly in the sidekick it would need higher gears like the 3.73's in the samurai. I was wondering what would be involved in putting the sammy diff into the tracker rear axle? I understand that the front axle would be a direct swap but the rear is different. It is also an option to just swap the entire sammy axle into the geo. I've been thinking about this because I want the fuel economy of the diesel and 4wd of the sidekick. I'm not considering this for a trail vehicle either, I would want this for a daily driver.

There are numerous sources about swapping the diesel into the sammy but not the sidekick. I want to do the sidekick, and probably will try to regardless, because I think that its a better platform for it. I think it would be better because you can use the much larger geo flywheel and clutch. I also have a friend who wants to know what you would need to mate the VW diesel to a sidekick auto tranny.

To recap I would like to know if/how you can put the higher geared sammy carrier into the rear axle of a track/kick.

[phil_j]

just wanted to make sure you know that the overall high range reduction in a tracker is actually slightly less than in a samurai since the tcase is 1:1.
that said, ive looked into the same swap, 3.73s into a kick axle, and couldnt find much info. with slightly larger tires and a 1.6 youd probably be fine with the stock diff gears. a 1.9 though, and youd probably still be overgeared even with larger tires.

as for your friend, acme has kits to mate the vw to sammy, kick, and toy trannies....auto and 5 spd

[mud-magnet]

actually sammys and kicks have the same high range..... the kick cas is 1:1 with 5:125 R&P's and the sammy is 1.38 t-case and 3.73's... both are 5.13ish total
as for what to use, personally i'd put a pr of stock 4.11 toyota axles under it with say 31-32"s should drive nice

[jp008]

http://acmeadapters.com/index.php?sound=Y

[jamesmross]

I see now that there is oil pan clearance issues with the diesel in the sidekick, I wonder if that can be avoided with a body lift?

My overall goal is to have the 4x4, lightweight, diesel all in one package. I also want to do as little modification as possible to the rest of the vehicle and I also want to stay as close to stock tire size as possible. I want to build this vehicle with fuel economy as one of the main goals which is why I haven't considered doing an axle swap (I do happen to have a set of 'yota axles I could use).

I do know that the kick has the 1:1 high in the transfer which is why I want to use the kick. I just figured that the 3.73's would put the engine in an RPM range that would be better for it. Another reason I want to use the 'kick is that its not as boxy as the sammy and would probably cut the wind better.

Thanks for the replies.

[AFTERMARKET4X4]

Closest ratio you could get for the Kick rear axle would be 4.30 and yes they would drop right in. The Sammy center section could be installed in the rear of a Sidekick by building a custom axle housing, but probably not worth the mount of work inolved. Drop in a set of the 4.30's and go up a tiny bit in tire size and you should be OK.

Sean

[Chet]

I am collecting the parts to do what you are proposing! With my calmini 3+3 I can go to a 33x9.50 tire and 4.62 gears (from an auto) and it will be perfect.

Prob the easiest way to get 3.73 rear would be to swap in an early bronco 9" and go from there.

[phil_j]

gearing still works out to 5.26 in a samurai. small difference, yes. i never said it was huge...but lower, regardless. i didnt mention toys since he said he wanted to dd it, and assumed he wanted to stay ifs and not go overboard with it.

[ksa421]

I have a 1.6l TD out of a VW in my Kick. The guys over at Acme adapters out it in for me. Check out the website some posted above there is a ton of ifon on there.
As far as gearing goes I am running the stock 5.13 gears and 32 in tires and it seems to do okay. I am running 3000 at 60-65 and still get over 30mpg.

With the oil pan Acme sells a modified oil pan that will work with a stock kick.

Here is a link to a post I did on Zukiworld about it, in case i fotgot somethin here

http://www.zukiworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=8322.0

It can be done for alot cheaper that we paid.... You just have to find a good running motor with the right compression. My dad and I just dont quite have the know how or the time do have done it oursleves. I am sure we could figured it out eventually but it wouldn't have turned out as nice. The motor looks like it came from the factory like this

[jamesmross]

Does anyone know how much wider the tracker axle is than the sammy?

From what I can dig up I think its about 5" wider but I haven't found any specific info on it. I searched but maybe I didn't do it right.
The stuff I found says that the sammy axle is about 52" from wms to wms. The only conclusive stuff I could find says the front IFS on the tracker is 5" wider than the sammy. So I don't know...

[Satan Inside]

anyone put a diesel in a trackkick?
what would be a good choice?

[catzuk]

As I have done a lot of research into putting a diesel into zuks, the place to be isn't here. Try Zuwaharrie.com as they have a zuk diesel only section, and the other I read daily is on yahoo.com goto groups and do a search for samurai diesels. Lots of great info there. You will also see a few other members from here on those sites as well!

[vwzzuk]

Just got back from a hunting trip with a diesel sidekick softop. With stock gearing and 30 inch tires, at about 3000-3800 feet, it did just fine running around in 4x4 on some steep rocky deactivated roads. Its a softer ride than my samurai's because of the coils and IFS. Motor is a stock 1.6 Ecco turbo diesel from a Jetta. Got about 30 mpg in that context. This summer in Yellowstone, it got 38 mpg running around in 2wd up at that altitude.

[cj_zuki]

Suzuki offered the Kick (Vitara or Escudo) in other markets with Peugeot 1.9 and Peugeot and Mazda 2.0 turbo diesels running 4.30 R&P's.

The standard Kick rear should be 57.1" wms to wms and the Sport should be 59.1" wms to wms.

[suzuki88com]

In europe were marketed 6 diesel engines for Vitara. 5 are Pugeot and 1 of Mazda. The Vitara evolved to become the Santana 300/350 with a block 1.6 HDI of 92 cvs


http://suzuki88.webcindario.com/Vitara%20prueba.htm :smokin: