Front install is done. It was a loooong weekend (And it rained for most of it... yay!)

There were a few issues... mostly due to very incomplete instructions - but for the most part the kit is pretty damn nice and went together well.

There are some things to finish up - breather tube, locknut on draglink, bolts for the front driveshaft yoke so we can put that on etc... but it's unquestionably a SFA vehicle now

My pics HERE

Awesome

Hey Glen, you are gonna have to send an updated pic to Peterson's for the December issue.

congrats.
It looks great!

Badass, dude!

NICE!!!! Now we needs picks w/out the saggy ass. Cuz you got the hard part done.

How 'bout this?


The rear brake line is missing.... dunno if Calmini failed to pack it or if we just lost it

Is that a standard part you can get somewhere else?

Maybe one of these days I'll take the rest of the foam off the radius arms

kaiser that look awesome

that looks bad ass.. congrats.. now go get some pics of it flexed out..

TO continue watering down this thread.

The welds on the axle brackets LOOK at least as good as the welds on that SLR arm.

The welds on the arms look awesome.

To finalize, a good looking weld means chit. Kasier has personally seen a GREAT looking weld fail. T

Now about the kit.

The cal kit is awesome, very well built and everything is VERY tough. I was impressed, especially when comparing it to some jeep lift kits.

The instructions sucked ass.

Things to know:

1. Get a locknut for the drag link to calmini conversion tube 7/8" 18pitch.

2. The cross bar goes on the outside of the front shock hoops.

3. to install the springs on the fox coilovers push up on the bottom spring mount and it will slide off..then remove the snap ring and slide the mount off.

4. Set the springs 1 1/4" down from top of threads to top small spring, then 3 1/8" down from top of threads to top of plastic spring spacer.

That was 18 pitch, not 14. Right hand thread.

Available here: http://www.partsmikeparts.com/jam_nuts.htm

So how does it drive on the street?

When I drove it the ride/drive was beautiful.

The steering it still a bit loose - but I blame that on it being 20 year old stock Jeep stuff. I'll be upgrading to a new tough DOM setup soon.

We took it up to Disney, OK this weekend (about a 5-6 hour drive) and it was surprisingly nice. You can definitely feel the heavy axle under there when you hit bumps - but that's to be expected.

At one point I had it up to 85mph and it was nice and smooth.

The rear end is already sagging pretty significantly, though. We have a Frontier axle handy (spring over) so I'll probably swap that in and go back to my stock Nissan shackles - that should come close to leveling me out.

Yeah that rear sags out some but with a SOA it could be fixed and like you said changing the shackles. That is my plan in the next few weeks also.

That's good to hear Kaiser. Congrats.

BTW - one thing that isn't mentioned on Calmini's page that is cool as hell is that they pre-assemble most of the stuff for you.

This doesn't sound like a huge deal - but it really makes a difference. There is no 'hardware kit' like most things come with these days (a big bag of random bolts and hardware) - every bolt, bushing, washer, heim etc comes already in the hole that it is supposed to be in. They said they even preset the heims to approximately the settings that they have on their prototype truck (i.e. they're not screwed all the way into the radius arms, trackbar etc - they're actually set properly) - so you just slap 'em in and go.

The coilovers weren't preassembled - but I can understand that as they are just reselling those parts - they don't make the springs or shocks...

That's good news Kaiser...I'm looking forward to getting all the swap stuff in...already have the axle, and all should be done and swapped in by the end of January. How long did it take Calmini to get the swap kit to you, if you don't mind me asking? Trying to work out timing on the install, and it would help to know what they're average ship time is on the swap kit. Thanks!

It's hard to remember now... I think it was about 3 weeks - which was about 2 weeks longer than they said it was going to take - but it got here.

That's good to hear...I was actually counting on it taking 3 to 4 weeks. Thanks for the info.