Dave's "S200KYS" Jimny 'laner Build...

Yeah!!! Excellent :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

G O J I M N Y ! ! ! lol

I reckon it's learning off my wise old friend Brett (Maverick on here), much more preventative maintenance goes into this Jimny than my previous Vitaras...

Yes, G O J I M N Y s indeed... looking forward to getting out again soon

Big load off then, Dave :woohoo:

Nice one

Gus

Good news Dave, well we don't want the blog stopped do we ...........

Nice one!! Let the new blogs commence

Got a bit of spare time this afternoon (have been catching up with some DIY lately) and finished wiring the new solenoid for the rear winch -



I reconnected the dashboard switch remotes into the solenoid, after working out the wiring... that red rocker switch on the top of the solenoid box is actually a selector switch, and not a manual IN / OUT switch, in the back position - where it is in the photo - it's used for the wired wander lead, in the middle it's OFF, and switched the other way it lets the radio remotes operate. So I wired my dash remotes in the same as the wander lead... You can see the two (brown and green) wires connected to the solenoid and sticking up, whereas the originals are pointing down, and the blue wire is joined to the common positive red wire coming out of the back of the rocker switch... All tested and working and ready for a "4x4 play day" on Sunday with Brett (Maverick on here), a change from greenlaning...



Ahhh... mustn't forget to fill the grommet with some black mastic, so it can dry by Sunday!

I've recently been having the "Death Wobbles" again, so yesterday I decided to strip the front end and see what's going on...



Wheels off, axle stands underneath the chassis, and a trolley jack supporting the axle...



Hmmm... that doesn't look too good! The tie-rod is banana shaped!

Hmm, and the dust guard on that AVO adjustable shock doesn't look too good? Looks like it's been fouling on the shock when it closes up...?



Ahhh...So, I jumped onto the Forum and asked if anyone had a spare one...

(Which turned up this morning! Many thanks to J999PRE James



Meanwhile, I started looking at the shock...



Yup, the shock main body tube has been fouling on the dust cover, so I'd better take them off? I've always run shocks without the concertinaed poly covers you normally get with them, as they tend to hold wet mus in them and cause corrosion, but with these being open at the bottom they seemed a better idea...? Maybe not?!



Looking at the others, they've all been fouling a bit?... Will chop them off later!



Whilst stripping I remembered I need to swap the caliper mounting bolts, as the ones supplied with the HD front shaft and CV kit by RS-Mfg where a little too long and I had to fit a couple of washers in as spacers... So I re-measured them and ordered 4 of each bolts 5mm and 10mm shorter than the ones supplied, from eBay... So they should turn up soon ready to replace these...



I reckon the bent tie-bar will be the source of the death wobbles, as the wheels would have been running out of alingment, toeing out at the front, as the bar at the back of the axle was bent, but chasing the death wobble I figured I'd remove the Panhard Rod and check the bolts weren't loose in elongated holes. But having welded 5mm thick 'washers' I'd made it wasn't that, as I gave them a good wiggle with the bar removed...



... both ends... and it wasn't that, so...



I changed the bushes in the Panhard Rod ends to Bits4Vits ones, as I'd read on this board that softer poly bushes (like SuperPro, etc) had been known to cause issues...



Both ends replaced and new bolts fitted as a matter of course...



Hmmm, noticed the steering damper mount had worked loose and was also at a bit of and angle to the bracket, so I'll sort that too...



Back to the shock dust covers then... the offending one removed from the front...



And bolted back in place... must wash the shock bodies and give them a spray of paint too!

[img]http://www.bits4vits.co.uk/repairs1015/DSCN0567.jpg[img] Hmmm, you can see why they foul here, with the axle drooped (not even to full extent as there's a jack supporting the axle remember) you can see the dust cover hangs down not straightly aligned with the shock body, and will foul it on upward articulation... So I decided to whip them all off... [img]http://www.bits4vits.co.uk/repairs1015/DSCN0568.jpg[/img]

Cutting the back ones off to save taking the top shock mounting bolts off...



Done, freely moving shocks!



Waiting for the tie-rod to arrive (which it did next day!) I got a pair of track rod ends ready to fit the new bar...

AHA!... look what I've got



A set of ROCKWATT's HD Steering Bars! Now, that was timely!

Available now in the Bits4Vits store -

www.bits4vits.co.uk/store/jimny/rockwatt...jimny/prod_1191.html



Will be fitting these bad boys on Sunday, so more photos then...



Flats machined into them for spannering, and come black powder coated...

£128 the pair - steering bar and tie-rod bar...

Tie rod ends and nuts as pictured are available from Martin's store within this fine site

Dave

Fitted the new steering bars today -



New HD steering and tie-rod bars from Rockwatt, via Bits4Vits...



That's better! My old tie-rod was bent like a banana! LOL :laugh:



Quickly followed by the steering bar...



I then raided Bits4Vits stores for a pair of black polyurethane bushes and cut them with a hack saw and then sanded them with the angle grinder so that the steering damper sat nicer -



Adjusted everything so that the steering wheel sat straight and the wheels were parallel to each other... may take it to a mate for laser aligning, but it felt fine on a test drive, and the wobble has all-but gone...



Done! Ready for a day in the Lake District this coming Sunday, hopefully....... :dry:

They look nice & shiny Dave ... :whistle:

Tadpole wrote: They look nice & shiny Dave ... :whistle:

Not for long! Should be covered in parts of Cumbria next Sunday