Another green laner build

Well, problem solved. Buying all Suzuki replacement parts would cost £500+. Rather more than I'm willing to pay considering it will probably not make a noticeable difference to performance. I went for plan E and made thin shims to put under the existing shims.  About £15 in shim stock plus a couple of hours cutting them roughly to size then finishing on the lathe.
There's not much to show here but the head is now done and reinstalled. I need to wait until the painting is finished before I can test it.

While I was waiting for the Suzuki dealer to get back to me the diffs arrived. I started a separate thread on my experience with them.

The end is nigh! I just need to repaint the front, spray more waxoyl and and put everything back together. It's nice to see it finally off the ramp after 2 months.  I moved it to the 'spray shop' (basically a tent made from 2x4 wood and plastic sheet with a big fan blowing outside).

Many roloc discs later and all of the rusty paint is removed and all surfaces sanded ready for primer. I'm not going for a show finish here. I just want a uniform colour without rust bubbles.

 

2K epoxy primer on and drying. This stuff covers a multitude of sins. I may just have enough time for at least one colour coat later this evening.

 


 

Base and clear applied. Not the best spray job I've ever done but it does the job. I ony had just enough 2K clear. You know it's tight when you end up washing the last traces out of the cans with thinner to make sure you get all of it. This was left over from a previous project and when I checked a few days ago the cans they felt like they had more in them than they actually did. As it turns out I ran out pretty much as I finished the last coat!

 

Looking good

Shame about the faff around with the diffs. They looked promising.

Yes, the front diff was a bit disappointing. So far the response from HF has not been great. The sales lady doesn't seem to really understand what is wrong.

Today was mostly spent reassembling everything. When I started the engine for the first time after doing the head it spat about a pint of water out the tail pipe. I had a minor heart attack until I realized it was probably left over from the original leaky gasket.
My previous intermittent starting issue came back as well. The good news is that I finally figured out the fault. The bad news is that it's a sensor that has to be ordered in so that kills my plan to take it for a test drive/green laning run this weekend. At least I managed to take it for a quick play in the field and prove the lockers work.
Oh well, I can spend the weekend tidying up and making the towing/jacking inserts. I may even get time to rig up some mounts for the sand ladders. They should fit neatly on the roof rails.

First the good news - the jacking/towing insert idea works.  It even looks fairly close to my cad drawing.

 

Here it is installed on the front.

 

Now for the bad news - I took it for a bit of a test drive and there was a lot of bearing noise from the rear diff. When I installed the locker I cut corners by leaving the pinion alone. It turns out the large pinion bearing is toast. I don't know why I didn't notice the bearing noise on test drive when I bought it. Hopefully the new bearings, seal and crush tube will be in sometime this week. Lesson learned - when fitting lockers don't half ass the job. I did the same on the front but that diff has had very little use and it sounds good so it should be fine.