Suzuki Vitara vs IO Front Suspension
Last night I started googling again looking for alternatives on our current strut issue we are all having without going to the coil over. Yes coil over is the way to go but so far we dont have a fixed alternative for replacing the current strut. I know Glen has been working on his for a long time but still dont know if he actually fitted it and that it works. After reading through some forums and reading what people said about the IO & juniors suspension many people said that we have to look at the Vitara from setup. It also have a McPherson setup (What ive seen) but the pan is much smaller. Has anyone ever looked at this or have the resources to do some trials on them?
Underneath a picture Fordem posted on Daniel (Sem Loção) membership build thread. Have a look at the setup, maybe its worth while looking into?
Aftermarket kits are available
Thisis perhaps the most famous (or infamous) of them, from Calmini Manufacturing in the US. The reason I'm posting the image is so that you can see what the control arm looks like and compare them to the ones on the iO.
These control arms bolt to the original mounting points on the Grand Vitara frame, they differ from the original arm in that they have removable ball joints, and also relocate the ball joint forwards & outwards - note the position of the spring seat, it's behind the ball joint, so the axle passes in front of the spring.
The iO control arms are a simple pressed steel affair which runs directly below the axles, so there would be no way to have the springs sit on the control arm the way the ones on the Vitara do.
My feel is that creating something like this for the iO would entail too much work.
Syndicate
ahhhh
Yes - they are both macpherson strut, but the Vitara/Grand Vitara does not use a "coil-over" strut as the iO does, so there is no pan at all on the strut - the spring fits between the control arm and the frame.
It would not be possible to retrofit this type of arrangement to an iO without fairly significant modification to the entire front end - after-market coil overs of the type that Glen was considering would be much less challenging.
Here's another picture of the Grand Vitara front suspension - in this one you can see where the spring is positioned relative to the strut,