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Some kind of wannabe sxs build (side by sidekick?)

39K views 321 replies 21 participants last post by  YotaAtieToo 
#1 ·
A while back I picked up an 8v/3spd auto/4x4/2 door sidekick. It was rough, but a buddy wanted some of the parts and I wanted the 3spd auto for a kid buggy. Got it kinda running and then lost interest.

Fast forward a few years and pretty much everything myself and my buddy owned were lost in the camp fire. Except this stupid pos sidekick :rolleyes: I ended up renting a place on 3 wooded acres that backs up to logging land, so I was figuring I may as well bring it up to beat around here.

While trying to get it running right, I had swapped ecu's to see if it would help. Well I guess I forgot to put 1 of them back in, because they all burned. So I hit up a few people I know with zuk stuff and ended up with a good ecu and an entire 4 door 99 with a 2.0 and blown 5 spd :laughing:



Thank a lot 2big bronco :flipoff2:

I also noticed this on the 2 door when I loaded it up to bring it here



So now I have a 2 door with a motor that runs like shit and a broken frame, and a 4 door with a blown clutch and reverse gear.

Fix the frame and drop the 2.0 into the 2 door, swap the auto into the 4 door or drop the 2 door body and trans on a shortened 4 door frame?
 
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#94 · (Edited)
Lmao! i constantly stare at a 90% ready to go 89 ford d60 sitting on the shelf at work.... just cant bring myself to that heavy ass axle lol.

the stock rear axle on a second gen is 60" wide wms to wms. i ran 1.5" wheel spacers so front tires would clear the struts, that put the front end at 64" wms to wms and rear was 63". im now on a 2001 f150 full size 8.8 rear axle at 65" and no spacers in the rear and imho, its not as bad as i was thinking. and explorer 8.8 is 59" so would still need spacers to even match the stock zuk axle. i think the 95 and older full size 8.8 are narrower so you could get something even closer. i wanted the width for the LT front end im going to

front needs to be in the 61-62" range to keep it close to stock and under the fenders. IIRC there was a jeep d44 front that was real damn close to that. might have been the wagoneer.

honestly id just go full size axles and run shallow off set wheels. hubs will stick out some but not terrible. you get the best scrub radius and on/off road driving then too.
 
#95 ·
Dang, I didn't realize they were 60" Wide, that's 2" wider than an ifs Toyota and 5" wider than a stock straight axle.

An Fj80 front axle is 63.5" and is a perfect width for 37s, I ran an ifs rear with 2" spacers and an Fj80 front on my old Sami and 4runner before the 60s. The width is great.

A lightweight rig with bulletproof axles works really well around here on serious crawling trails. Those axles with some 39" stickies under this rig would be a ton of fun.
 
#106 ·
Does anyone know what triggers the front diff to engage? Is it the 4wd light or a vaccum line? I can't for the life of me find the wire that went to the 4wd sensor and there is a vaccum line looking thing that came out with the trans and tcase. It may also be the breather, not sure.

I would like to drive it around before I tear the front end apart as it sits right now I'm going to install the mini spool and coil spacers, then I'm just waiting for the driveline spacer, which should be here today.
 
#107 ·
4wd trigger on the t-case does it. the rubber line is just a breather. sensor triggers the ecm, ecm triggers 4wd light and air pump which engages the front diff carrier.

if you pull the air pump connection, 4wd will not illuminate. you have to jump 2 wires at the plug to make the light come on (forget what 2). obviously if you unplug it and you are still running the factory carrier, it wont engage either.
 
#109 · (Edited)
Got the shifters in, I thought I posted this, but didn't see the pics. The auto shifter almost lined up, the 2 rear holes worked, but the auto shifter was a little longer so I had to notch the tunnel a little and use self tap screws on the front 2 holes. Tcase shifter didnt move enough to really make a difference.



Mounted the trans cooler, I used 2 hard mounts and 2 of those ghetto zip tie like deals that they come with, so it's only half ghetto :flipoff2:



Pit the coil spacers in, these were on the 2 door no idea what brand they are but the lip just didn't work, I ended up cutting it off all 4 of them. The rears were about 2.5" and the fronts were about 2" I think the front might be too much, it didn't move at all when I sent it down :laughing: I won't be messing with those things again with out a coil compressor, what a pain.



Finally sitting on its tires again, just waiting on my driveline spacer and I can test drive.

 
#110 ·
I suppose I could walk outside and look at mine but how hard would it be to just make some new a-arm mounts that reach a little further out to get you the right width for the toy axles
 
#112 ·
Driveline spacer came last night, but I'm trying to deal with the trailer. Came from out of state, so dmv wants to do a Vin verification. Well the manufacturer only put on a sticker, and not surprisingly, after 20 years you can read it :rolleyes: well I stamped the Vin in the frame and went back to dmv and said "oh, I found the vin"

Nope, have to go to CHP :shaking: what a joke.
 
#117 ·
Filled the tank up with good gas and 2 bottles of fuel injector cleaner, changed the fuel filter and plugs, cleaned the map (I'm assuming, back of the intake manifold) and maf, plus unplugged the egr. Drove around for a few hours and it ran great. I plugged the egr in just now when I got back and it seemed to still run good, so maybe it was just a combination of all the other stuff making it run bad. I'll have to see next time I get a chance to drive around.

It's still not perfect though

Trans will sometimes not react with slight amount of throttle and then bang into gear, it will do this a few time then seem good.

Tires rub (obviously) the front isn't as bad as I thought, but will need attention before any real trails.

Shocks are too short front and rear, it's basically topped out just sitting there. Longer shocks for the rear are no big deal, I may space the bump stops down also to help with rubbing. I know they make spacers for the front, but I'm wondering if that's a bad idea with the stock cv's? They look pretty steep as it is.

It definitely needs way more gearing even low isn't really low enough for cruising down tight trails. High is OKish for the road but not great. Basically, exactly what I have been saying for a while is that a Sami case with ~1.6 high and 4.xx low would be perfect. It is tempting to just drop some 4.24 gears in the stock case and go. Sami cases are getting hard to find, plus I'd have to figure out drive shafts, source and intermediate shaft, a tcase mount, a trans mount, ect. But the use able high range might be worth it.

My 6 year old helped in the paint job a little more :laughing:











 
#118 ·
Working a deal right now to get a 4.16 Sami case for this thing. I was hoping for 4.9s but I think it will work well for what I'm doing. If this thing progresses I'll just switch to a track kick doubler. In fact, I'm thinking about just mounting the sami case behind the stock case divorced and then just lop off the stock front out put and cap it. :laughing:

Probably not though. Just the Sami case would work perfectly. After driving on the road in low (1.8) its not bad, but anything over 30 its revving a little. So the 1.55 or so of the 4.16s should be great. Plus low is about 2.5 times lower, which should be plenty with the auto.
 
#120 ·
So since you guys got my head all spinning on building a steel front diff, or at a minimum basically completely remounting what I have. I've thought about using the 2 door rear axle to build a front center, which would be cool.

But why not just use a Toyota ifs center?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pi...t-differential-vitara-56k-say-what.html?amp=1

They are everywhere, cheap and 4.56s weren't too un common in the 2nd Gen 4runner. The cv's would obviously bolt up, spartan lockers are available and cheap.
 
#122 ·
i would have gone toy if they made 5.13 gears but 5.29 are too far apart to run high speed in 4wd and not break shit. i also didnt like the fact id spend all that time putting a new diff in only to gain .5 larger ring gear.

I had another thought about this stupid diff..... :homer:

Remember when everyone was breaking Sami tcases? Then someone realized that you just needed to brace the case. I'm thinking about hard mounting the diff and adding as much bracing as I can. Now obviously the difference is that there are steel diffs available, which is just a better option, but I'm just curious as to how much the aluminum diff will take with some bracing.
all you gotta do is brace the pinion. its strong till you have to back up and front end is in a bind, thats when the pinion mount breaks and shit gets floppy. ive seen guys strap the top of the pinion down to the other side of the frame and have no issues.
 
#121 ·
I had another thought about this stupid diff..... :homer:

Remember when everyone was breaking Sami tcases? Then someone realized that you just needed to brace the case. I'm thinking about hard mounting the diff and adding as much bracing as I can. Now obviously the difference is that there are steel diffs available, which is just a better option, but I'm just curious as to how much the aluminum diff will take with some bracing.
 
#126 ·
Well I think I figured out the trans surging issue........

Turns out they work better when they aren't low on trans fluid :homer: I filled it after I installed it and forgot to check it after I ran it and got all the air out. It actually puts down a noticeable difference in power, it will spin the tires in 2 high now.
 
#127 ·
Clearances the fenders a little more. The front barely rubs the firewall at full stuff and it's actually a smooth area, so not too bad.



The rear was still rubbing pretty bad on the fender lip, I pulled the tire on the passenger side and hammered the lip over. For some reason, I didn't do the driver side and this time out I ended up chunking the outter lugs pretty bad :homer:

We went out for a few hours in the pouring rain today. Climbed some really steep muddy hills will out spinning a tire. The thing is actually pretty plush, the only thing that sucks is that you can feel and hear the shocks topping out over bumps. I'm going to grab some longer ones for the rear using this graph, and I'll worry about the struts after I redo the front end.

Suzuki Sidekick – Geo Tracker Shock Options : Zuki Offroad

Had the 18 month old, 3 month old and the wife (6 yr old is at school) What's funny is that in certain ways there is more room in this little thing than the 90 and 96 4runners we have/had. The seating position and leg room is way better, there is a ton of head room and it really doesn't feel much narrower, if at all. All 3 have the same width factory axles, so maybe they aren't that far off. The zuk is definitely shorter, less room between the front and rear seats and about half the room behind the rear seats.

Anyways, the reason I posted an update, we broke it! :laughing:

Got stuck in this nasty clay hole. As I was on the come a long, the wife was giving it steady throttle and sawing the wheel a little. Right when the front was starting to grab harder ground, it stopped spinning. I'm guessing passenger side cv since it was making noise right before that, both had torn boots.



So I guess I'll be working on the front end sooner than later.
 
#129 ·
Of course he has the stuff I need, too bad you guys are too far away, and paying $100 to ship a $25 diff is hard to justify.

There are a million 2nd Gen 4runners being parted out and 4.56 was somewhat common, so I should be able to come across one. Plus it's one of the few parts no one wants off of them.
 
#130 ·
That thing is awesome! I'm super interested to see how the toy IFS diff fits and installs. I have that IFS stuff available to me but I'm out of samurai t-cases.
 
#131 · (Edited)
So I spent the day pulling my dual case and 60s out of my burnt 4runner. I'm pretty optimistic that the tcases are good (twin sticks, marlin 23 spline adapter and 4.7 rear, longfield chromo rear output and marlin 30 spline front output) they still have oil in them, shift fine and spin like normal.

If someone made an adapter to go straight from the 3spd to toyota cases, I would have ordered it already. From what I found, low range made one for a while but it looks like it's discontinued?

I guess I should just stick with the Sami case for now, but having those cases available makes it tempting.
 
#133 · (Edited)
Thanks

I came across those pics searching as well. Og kicker 4. My old samurai had the ott divorced adapter to dual Toyota cases.

It's too bad ott isn't still around they made neat odd ball stuff.

I remember seeing a 22re to sm420 adapter kit on their site :laughing:

Like I was saying over text, I like the idea of trying to broach the zuk splines into the tcase input. The problem I would imagine is that you can't broach a blind hole.

The other idea would be to steal the female input out of the tracker tcase, then bore a hole into the Toyota tcase with a tight press fit, then tig them together.
 
#136 ·
I'm pretty sure I have calmini strut spacers at the house if you want them. I definitely had them, they were installed on the Green 2wd and the new struts broke right away. I pulled the spacers when I did the A-arm conversion. I'll put them in the mail when I get home if you can use them.
 
#140 ·
So a buddy sent me a link to a way to good of a deal on a 4.56 diff with an arb......... Unfortunately it's a Tacoma diff so it's driver drop and high pinion, it's cheap enough I may grab it just for the arb. It would drop into the 96 4runner I have also if it doesn't work out with the suzuki.

Snowballs are a bitch
 
#141 ·
I was thinking about the offer on the strut spacers and remembered that I could tell the ones on it are pretty blown out, sooooo.....

I did some googling and decided to try the cheap-o route with the shocks and struts.

Rear shocks

Suzuki Sidekick – Geo Tracker Shock Options : Zuki Offroad

Front struts

Longer Struts For Your Geo Tracker – Suzuki Sidekick : Zuki Offroad

So the rear is just a list of stem top style shocks that are longer, pretty simple.

The front I figured would be harder since they're struts, but someone figured out some gm cars that have a very similar rear strut that will bolt up with a little egging out of one hole.

For those who don't know, apparently there is roughly 2" of strut shaft showing even after you are on the bump stops. These struts have a 1 3/4" longer body, which works out, plus that nets 3 1/4" more extended length.

Paid like $110 for all 4 on Amazon, so we'll see.
 
#144 ·
I was thinking about the offer on the strut spacers and remembered that I could tell the ones on it are pretty blown out, sooooo.....

I did some googling and decided to try the cheap-o route with the shocks and struts.

Rear shocks

Suzuki Sidekick – Geo Tracker Shock Options : Zuki Offroad

Front struts

Longer Struts For Your Geo Tracker – Suzuki Sidekick : Zuki Offroad

So the rear is just a list of stem top style shocks that are longer, pretty simple.

The front I figured would be harder since they're struts, but someone figured out some gm cars that have a very similar rear strut that will bolt up with a little egging out of one hole.

For those who don't know, apparently there is roughly 2" of strut shaft showing even after you are on the bump stops. These struts have a 1 3/4" longer body, which works out, plus that nets 3 1/4" more extended length.

Paid like $110 for all 4 on Amazon, so we'll see.
that goes for 1st gen only, not 2nd gen. you will top the shock out long before you hit the bump stop. I know because im running those struts. you will either need to space the bump stop down and limit your down travel (its going to droop out ALOT) or reverse your strut mount spacers to move the mounts up higher. cruise through my thread and look for the red spacers. I gained 2" of down travel (about perfect for max droop/angle on stock CV) and still had full up travel. i have 10" of wheel travel overall with this setup.
 
#156 ·
Pulled the stock diff out, man that thing is light, I pretty much lowered it out with one hand :laughing:

Side by side they look very close, dimensionally at least.



Rough mock up doesn't look too bad. I was a little worried about the rack and pinion being in the way, and I was right. I'll figure something out. Might have to lop off the mount on the diff cover.

The other issue is that I it's about 1-1.5" off center and can't move over anymore because it's into the oil pan. The one write up I saw, the guy lifted the engine up. Looking at this rig, the motor mount brackets bolt to the frame. My plan is to unbolt them, lift the motor up as high as I can and then weld the brackets to the frame. I may have to notch the crossmember a little also.

Sounds like a lot, but it doesn't seem that bad to me.



I also messed with one of the struts a little bit, I only had to file the holes a tiny bit to get it to bolt up, but the camber was way off. I need to borrow a die grinder to slot the top hole so I can lean the tire in. I wasn't to wait until I get the Toyota cv's in first though because it looks like it could be close.

Also dealing with a bear getting in the garage :laughing: we normally leave 1 door open about a foot for the mountain cat that came with the house. We'll a few days ago a bear got in, knocked my front 60 off the jack stands, spilled a gallon of nasty burnt gear oil, and ate like 40 lbs of cat food. :eek: so I figured I'll just put a bolt in the door so it can't open more than a foot.

He wasn't impressed



Also been burning a ton of brush, leaves and whatnot. This was the solution to keep the damp stuff going while it's been raining. Just kept it at idle and man did it get intense.

 
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