Welcome to the Board "Need_a_4wd"
First off, you will fit 235's onto a stock Kick without rubbing on the body. They will rub on the frame a little, but only when you crank your wheels all the way right or left, not a biggy. I drove like that for 2 years and there was no issues.
As for weak points, I found when you leave the suspention alone the truck is very reliable. I had no brakage at all with stock suspention. All stock drive shaft angles and CV angles are nice on the Sidekick. I've beat on it hard... and I mean it... and nothing ever went.
The largest weakness on the stock truck is the clearance, that's for sure. However all the vital components are tucked nicely over the frame. The frame crossmembers took a lot of pounding, though, so I had to replace one that the transmition sits on (cheep from the scrap yard) as my gear shifter was out of allignment a bit.
Lastly, from my experience the rocker panels are way low, so they get dragged over rocks all the time. Due to that problem I decided to go for the 2" body lift. (No brakeline issues there) The body lift allowed me to put the nurf bars, so no more body damage.
Once I put 2.5" suspention lift I've noticed that the truck's stock reliability is compromised.
In 2 years I:
broke a front axleshaft (don't know why)
replaced a CV joint
replaced rear drive shaft U joint
rear end bearing started humming.
I theorise that the last 3 problems are due to the lift.
I guess that's not too bad for an 89 truck with over 250 000K on it.
Be carefull with the 89-91 or 92 1600 8V engined ones. The early 1600 8Valves had a problem with cracking blocks. 92 or 93 and up had that problem fixed. All 1600 16 Valve
are the best choice IMHO.
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If you didn't roll it, you havn't tried hard enough!
First off, you will fit 235's onto a stock Kick without rubbing on the body. They will rub on the frame a little, but only when you crank your wheels all the way right or left, not a biggy. I drove like that for 2 years and there was no issues.
As for weak points, I found when you leave the suspention alone the truck is very reliable. I had no brakage at all with stock suspention. All stock drive shaft angles and CV angles are nice on the Sidekick. I've beat on it hard... and I mean it... and nothing ever went.
The largest weakness on the stock truck is the clearance, that's for sure. However all the vital components are tucked nicely over the frame. The frame crossmembers took a lot of pounding, though, so I had to replace one that the transmition sits on (cheep from the scrap yard) as my gear shifter was out of allignment a bit.
Lastly, from my experience the rocker panels are way low, so they get dragged over rocks all the time. Due to that problem I decided to go for the 2" body lift. (No brakeline issues there) The body lift allowed me to put the nurf bars, so no more body damage.
Once I put 2.5" suspention lift I've noticed that the truck's stock reliability is compromised.
In 2 years I:
broke a front axleshaft (don't know why)
replaced a CV joint
replaced rear drive shaft U joint
rear end bearing started humming.
I theorise that the last 3 problems are due to the lift.
I guess that's not too bad for an 89 truck with over 250 000K on it.
Be carefull with the 89-91 or 92 1600 8V engined ones. The early 1600 8Valves had a problem with cracking blocks. 92 or 93 and up had that problem fixed. All 1600 16 Valve
are the best choice IMHO.
------------------
If you didn't roll it, you havn't tried hard enough!
