Suzuki 4WD Club of Victoria

Hi all, I'm a newby here, I've just purchased a 96 sj80 to set up as a beach rig, so.... I'm keen to hear from anyone who has played with suspension mods, lift etc. I intend to repower with a livelier donk, g16 b or something to that effect, ideally an auto , enough lift to run, say 31s and a vitara power steer box. I've been screwing with cruisers and patrols for 20 odd years and have them worked out pretty well...... I'm in new territory here, and the lack of variety in available performance bits is a tad discouraging..... Any advice welcome.

Hi Phil.

Firstly the coil sierra suspension it a minefield. You can try some ebay springs and struts (ultima, I think), but beyond that, there's nothing available off the shelf for that model. They had a very short production run and the suspension design doesn't really like lift. I'd leave it alone - maybe try some KYB struts, but I'd avoid lift.

That's OK though, because suspension lift doesn't have anything to do with fitting tyres. The three ways to fit bigger tyres are body lift, bumpstop spacing and/or guard trimming.

To run a 31" tyre a 2" body lift and seams hammered flat is all that's required.

A G16B is a great swap. An auto is cool too- I'd recommend using an AW-4 from and G16B from a donor vitara or X-90. Use a trail tough fitting kit for the AW-4.

You'll really need a leaf sierra transfer case to sort your gearing out with the taller tyres. With the auto, a 1.0 switch light case might be all that's required - Its about 12% lower than the coil case in high range and with the better gearing spread and torque of the 16B you should be just fine. For beach work I'd avoid lower transfer case gears than the 1.58 high range and 2.55 low range of the 1.0 case or you'll never be able to run low range in the sand - it will be far too low.

Some ideas to mull over in any case.

Steve.

Thanks Steve. Ok, I'm in the market for sundry conversion bits, it's proving a bit of a struggle sourcing vitara stuff down here, your advice much appreciated. Cheers, phil