What did you do to your jimny today?

Hi Scmike, Still making my mind up about some wax. Normally only keep my cars for three years however the Jimny I think may well be an exception. Depends on whether you can actually buy a new Jimny in 2 years, so may well end up keeping this one for a long time so it would be worth getting some wax in there. Like your idea about fitting the shackles etc before venturing off road.

wjamieson wrote: Like your idea about fitting the shackles etc before venturing off road.

Hi WJamieson, I can't take credit for this, I have seen it done at plenty of off road sites and also on WW2 Willys Jeep. You just need to figure a way to hold the strop on top of the numberplate to prevent you driving over it!
It works well, saves all that "ankle deep in mud" whilst you try to attach the recovery strop :laugh:

Fitted interior LED lights into the back (turns out to be a bit of a saga)... Was going to use the feed from the interior light but couldn't face the hassle of going under the headlining...Bit of head scratching and decided to splice into the feed to the rear door switch.



To get better access, I unbolted the seatbelt mech...
Cut the wire and added a male & female spade



Then, joined the two lights together in series...



And connected to the rear door switch...



A n d nothing happened...
So reconnected original wires together just to make sure there was power and
then decided to try the lights in parallel....which did work but, not as bright as expected
(I already have the same lights under the wall units in the kitchen!)
So thinking that they may be OK in the dark, I waited and had another look.



Still disappointed but this was better than no lights!

The next day...

After mulling it over, I decided to start again by checking the voltage going to the rear door switch
and it was only 10.4V? I had recently ran a live feed from under the steering column down the right hand side to the rear door to fit a 12V outlet in the back and a switched live to the reversing cam in the back door.



So, I took a feed from the switch across the boot lip to the live feed of the LEDs and

VIOLA!



Gaz

Yesterday I finished this off......

I took the battery out to attend to some minor surface corrosion on the edge of the battery tray and the very thin metal bracket which holds the electrical relays. . I also painted the battery hold down strap where what looked like powder coating was largely falling off in a single piece. I simply painted it with black smoothrite. It looked galvanised so whether the paint stays put is another matter as maybe a special primer was needed and I did not have any.

I'd had the spare wheel repaired last weekend when finding it flat. The valve had failed and I found that the tyre depot opposite the local supermarket was operating so had them replace the valve while we were food shopping, keeping social distancing as required. .

With the slight relaxation of lockdown and the ability to drive to locations for exercise we took the opportunity to go for a walk and went in the Jimny. Here is a photograph of it parked there. It still looks good for a 21 years old, and in need of a good wash as well. Must look into addressing the rust on the steel wheels though. I’d checked the tyres just before and found them over pressured, having been last inflated by a garage. I let them down to the correct pressure and it drove much better. The spare had been pumped to 36 psi by the tyre depot as well so also let that down..

Paul

Lambert wrote: Took Dreadnaught out for a drive today. Very interesting. Fired up nicely enough but probably wouldn't have stood a second go if she hadn't caught. Clutch was really squeaky and much higher than I remember. Brakes were nasty and grinding and not happy. By the time I arrived the destination the expansion bottle was like a well shaken bottle of kopparberg, all bubbles. Al things being even not a bad first drive after about 7 weeks sat up and fortunately the destination was to the garage who are replacing the head gasket and fitting a new clutch. There's light at the end of the grand vitara shaped tunnel.

When do you expect to have it back by Lambert?

Kirkynut

kirkynut wrote:

Lambert wrote: Took Dreadnaught out for a drive today. Very interesting. Fired up nicely enough but probably wouldn't have stood a second go if she hadn't caught. Clutch was really squeaky and much higher than I remember. Brakes were nasty and grinding and not happy. By the time I arrived the destination the expansion bottle was like a well shaken bottle of kopparberg, all bubbles. Al things being even not a bad first drive after about 7 weeks sat up and fortunately the destination was to the garage who are replacing the head gasket and fitting a new clutch. There's light at the end of the grand vitara shaped tunnel.

When do you expect to have it back by Lambert?

Kirkynut

I want to say the end of the week? But I honestly don't really know. While the guy is competent and capable he is also not the world's best communicator. Hopefully though he is able to give it his full attention given how quiet trade is at the moment.

Been a little while since I had a chance to tinker.

Removed the front bumper to fit the winch. Holes drilled for the front plate to fit onto. Bumper comes with lots of pre-drilled holes but not one of them was in the right place so just removed them.

Also gave the front end a lick of paint while it was exposed.

Could you use a strong magnet Scimike?
I have a set of these, Very Strong !
www.mudstuff.co.uk/expedition-hooks.html

Please please please remember to protect the bottom of the rad. from flying stones etc. I know you are fitting a winch but that will not cover all of the unprotected rad.Does anyone have any contacts or info. on suitable mesh?

Roger

Roger Fairclough wrote: Please please please remember to protect the bottom of the rad. from flying stones etc. I know you are fitting a winch but that will not cover all of the unprotected rad.Does anyone have any contacts or info. on suitable mesh?

Roger

Thanks for the concern John. When the top-half of the bumper is back on the radiator is fully covered; more so with a winch in place.

I had a pleasent essential roundtrip to Norfolk yesterday. In the Jim for about 8 hours in total and loved every second. Even managed to get the fuel economy up! I know the Gen 4 gets a lot of attention but wasn't expecting the entire bug population to want to get a very up close and personal look at it! Never thought I'd be happy to be stuck at a level crossing, a great time to get out and wash the bug juice off.

We went on the hunt for some Norfolk ford's to drive through and did some 'newbie is a shiny new car' offroading. I'm still a bit of a chicken and don't want to dink the paintwork but I found some good spots for when I feel ready to take the plunge. Tried to take some pictures but the cameraman doesn't do well with technology. Got a nice one though before the mud and bug mayhem started.