Did these mods a while ago, but in trying to remedy a problem they caused, it was necessary to redocument these two mods on this website, now it's being updated again... I did wander off from updating my site for a while and frequented a discussion forum, and chronicled my mods on there, but recently left the forum (no offence guys!) and have now started updating my own site again... So it makes sense to describe the mods here, which leads to the article on how I'm trying to remedy the problem they caused. LOL, hope you followed that... here it is anyway! -

From the beginning then! LOL, the lift on "Stealth" my latest Vitara is achieved using Grand Vitara springs -

I bought these new from a motor factors, but most people pick them up from breakers... as you can see they are approximately 1.5" taller than Vitara springs, and so give the Vit a 1.5"ish lift...

These are being combined with a set of Bits4Vits (my company) Spring Spacers and 2.25" Strut Spacers (I also do these as machined spacers too now), to give the required 3" of lift...

So, anyway, back to the job in hand... whilst fitting the suspension lift it seemed sensible to do the "Hagen Widening Mod" at the same time. The link takes you to Mike Hagen's original how-to article on the Zukiworld website. Mike's a legend in the Suzuki world, and I've done a few of his mods over the years (tanklift, widening mod, and the "Granvil" mod which is also featured on this page). So I read, and re-read, his article, and then set about recreating it, here in the UK, on my drive! LOL

So, as above picture, with the suspension in pieces, work commences...

Had a measure and a think, and then went out to collect the bits I though I needed... some longer 14mm diameter bolts, a couple of 14mm drill bits (always hand to have a spare!) and some "square" washers (from B&Q!)...

Back home, and I used the pillar drill to drill the square washers out to 14mm diameter holes... to take the rear wishbone mount's bolts...

Then, I got an offcut of flat steel bar and cut the end of on a diagonal to match the angle of the wishbone's mounting area... i.e. just covering the original hole...

Then, thinking for once!, I used a tin of red spray paint through the mounting hole, to mark the template for where the original hole was...

... I then drilled it out to 14mm and used one of the new bolts to hold it in place... following Mike's instructions, but not wanting to bash the lip of the crossmember down or weld a washer over the hole... long story about altering chassis's in the UK! LOL, but the short version is we don't want to be cutting and welding chassis!, anyway, I then marked the position of the new hole with the black cross above...

... and then drilled the position of the new wishbone mount hole on the template... as close as I could get to the edge of the chassis crossmember whilst still leaving plenty of meat at the edge...

So, double checking before drilling, and I'm happy with the new position, so I bolt the template in position and drill through the new hole in the template. The template ensures my holes are all in the same place, and that the drill can't slip whilst I'm drilling ;)

And there we have one of four new holes... I use the template to drill the other three... so they are all spot on accurate... hmmm, been thinking again!!!

And this is where those square washers come in... I use a slitting disk in the angle grinder ("Mr. Angry" for those that know me! LOL) to cut the washers so that they sit dead flush against the chassis's bent over lip... this will stop the bolt moving around in the new hole... it also serves another purpose of "hiding" the original mounting hole... I've been through an MOT with this mod on ;)

A wider view and you can see the position of the washer...

And this is the desired result... you can see from the original position in the middle of the spring seat how the wishbone has moved out - naturally as we've drilled the pivot mounting hole further out - but also forward, as it's had to swing on an arc using the front mount as a pivot... this is the whole point of this mod, to swing the wheel and tyre out and forward, so that it clears the engine firewall / back of the arches... so I've got 31" x10.5" tyres without cutting or bashing the wings AT ALL! The other reason is to leave enough room on the driver's side (UK spec) to use a passenger driveshaft on the driver's side... more on that below...

Halfway through... I was transferring parts from the white Vit to the new "Stealth" Vit... errr, time for an upgrade, caused in part by driving - unsuccesfully - through a lake! (Farley Quarry)... But I'm older and wiser now... won't be doing that again in a hurry! LOL

So, 31" tyres, and look at the clearance!

One little problem though... driver's side tyre is straight...

Passenger's side is cocked! LOL... time to wind out the track rod ends until they look right... I got it aligned professionally afterwards...

Right, that's the widening mod done... Mike's instructions are easy to follow, once you get the principles in your mind... and indeed, I've got 31"s on my truck without having to bash, cut and fold the inner arches... :D

Now, carrying on with the rest of the mod', this has been christened the "Granvil" mod in the UK... it's partly a bastardisation of Calmini's "Anvil" axle product, mixed tongue-in-cheek'ily with the loveavle shopkeepers assistant from the "Open All Hours" series of programmes featuring the late, great Ronnie Barker as the shopkeeper, and David Jason (later DelBoy in "Only Fools and Horses") as his long suffering shop boy... So the two mixed together give the "Anvil"s ability to run passenger side shafts both sides, mixed with some good old British humour... so hence the "Granvil" nickname...

So, back to Mike's article, and a couple of tell-tale pictures -

Mike indicating where to cut the driver's side driveshaft to get the stubby axle shaft we're going to use to make out shaft adaptor from...

Mike's finished article... it's now got the three bolt flange off the end of the passenger side's halfshaft - i.e. the shaft from within the long tube side of the front axle.

Sooooo, armed with a few shafts -

I begin cutting! You can see the stubby shaft sat on the floor on the left of the photo...

A close-up... hmmm, yes, looks like the one Mike has in his pictures?

A test fit in the axle... I think it needs a bit off it, and concerned about how flat I've got it, I take it to the machine shop that makes a lot of my Bits4Vits products, and they machine it down on a lathe for me...

And drill countersunk holes in the rear face of the three bolt flange (off the long half shaft) so that I have plenty of clearance between the new stubby shaft and the axle mounting bracket, and particularly the bolts sticking out of it... more on that later! ;)

Close-up, you can see how they've machined the faces for me, and I've ground the edges ready for welding... not 100% confident to weld something this important, I drive up to the fab. shop I use...

And one of their top welders TIGs the two pieces together for me ;)

Close-up of the weld.... there's a root weld underneath, then a nice big follow up on top... Never seen a TIG welder in action... was quite surprised to see someone manually feeding a stick in in this day and age... I'll stick to my MIG thanks ;)

Reassembling it all, and I'm still worried about how close the three bolt flange is to the top of the bottom axle bracket bolt (missing in the photo above) so...

I cut a piece out of the front axle drop bracket!

Still plenty of meat on the bracket, but I'm happier the head of the bolt is a little further away from that spinning three bolt flange... it would make quite a mess if they came to blows!!!

And here it is all in place... again, explaining the reasoning, the idea is to have the same passenger (UK Spec) driveshafts on both sides of the axle... this is done for a couple of reasons -

1) A common spare(s) can be carried,

2) It's a helluva lot easier to change a shaft if a CV fails... undo the three bolts, steer hard right hand down and slip the shaft out, replacement in, and bolt it all back up again... compare that to stripping the front suspension or front axle out to get the "normal" driver's side shaft out and back in :D

Ah, one other thing to mention...

As we've moved both wishbones out, the driver's side to get the combined length of the stubby new shaft adaptor plus the passenger side shaft in (as the two together are slightly longer than a normal driver's side driveshaft)... it means that the passenger side shaft is now a little too short... so I measured the gap...

... and had an ally spacer milled up to suit!

I think it was about 6mm from memory, but can measure it if anyones wants it...

Just had it made round as it was easier... you could make it "triangular" if you wanted to match the three bolt flange...

Right... the purpose of re-describing all this was............ as a symptom of these two modifications, I now get brake fade (loss of brakes!) on full right hand lock... I've traced it to the fact that the repositioned wishbone, combined with the lift spring and spring spacer, and the angle of the wishbones due to the total lift applied, cause the springs to bow / bulge out, and one hits the brake disk caliper at full lock, causing the piston to compress in, and this results in moments of brake fade... not good when you're coming down a mountain pass, full right lock on, and your brakes fade!!! LOL

I'm trying to remedy this here.