Re:Newbie buying Jimny

Hello.  I’m from Canada, and have been lurking and reading from time to time.  I’m getting ready to import a Jimny to Canada.  It needs to be at least 15 years old and I’ll be pulling one from Japan. I think I know what I want , but before I start looking I want to make sure it’ll fit what I want to do.  It’ll be sitting on 30-32” tires, skinny and easily available options.  I have some sand dunes area near me, but also mud, muskeg and snow, that’s why the relatively large tire.  I know I’m pushing the limits of the diff at this tire size and available gearing. I’ve been wheeling nearly 20 years and am quite capable of building rigs, and wheel offset , body work etc to set it up.  I know I want a 1.3 and not the kie version 660cc.  I’d prefer a manual, as I can teach my daughter to drive a standard. But not tied to it.  I wanted a newer one 05+ but the manual trans is weaker?  The older body style 95-98 coil sprung ones are cheaper for me to compliance and get on the road, but I’d prefer a newer one I think. I’m not up on axles, gearing and transmission stuff. Which ones are the strongest and with the best for building? Please correct me if I’m wrong.  But I’m thinking 1: 99-04 manual 1.3L, 2:  -05+ auto 3: 96-98 1.3 manual trans    Am I missing something major? I know I’ll be lifting a bit, dealing with major tire clearance issues, gearing with tcase gears first off and probably as deep as possible. 

So for what you are planning I would offer the following. Regardless of being from Japan the older ones are going to be more prone to needing some help with rust repair. The coil spring SJ I don't know enough about other than they exist and look cool. The pre 05 manual is definitely a good option. The post 05 manual is not weaker as such it's just that the design included bearings that were meant to be splash lubricated but this didn't happen effectively, they are rebuilt with sealed versions however and that solves it. The automatic is generally very reliable on the back of the stock motor but they specified it with only a few more Nm capacity than the engine produces. Not a big problem and additional heat management is going to help in severe use.

With regards to running bigger than 30's you will definitely need a transfer reduction set with any gearbox. You are also probably going to be thinking about trussing the axle cases. The automatic is generally going to be kinder to the shafts and CV joints than the manual but if you are bouncing around or regularly lifting a wheel and letting it spin then grab obviously it's going to snap something. You can get very expensive heavy duty shafts and CV joints but at several times the cost of standard ones the value for money is debatable. Running in mud, silt and sand it is going to render all axle bearings as service items with a similar life as the motor oil and filter so around 6 to 9 thousand miles through when combined with the bigger tyres this will only get shorter. At which point it's going to be worth considering the floating rear axle conversion as it means all the wheel bearings are the same and easier to change, I would probably do the rear disc brakes conversion too to add more reliability. Other than that and the obvious stuff like recovery points and maybe a winch you should be good to go. As for which car, the cleanest lower milage one you can get.

People I have spoken to had issues getting headlamps with DoT markings.

The later models which we call "Gen3" has shaped headlamps and don't have DoT markings as they were not sold in those markets. The earlier "gen2" models have 7" round lights which are widely available. The cross over models (gen2 with coil springs) have round lights

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If you're importing from Japan, I doubt you're going to find a 1300. For the kind of wheeling you are talking about, the 660cc isn't going to cope.

What size tyres are you planning on? Not much in the way of skinny tyres these days?

I'd have thought 32" tyres would be way too big for vehicle and engine. If you plan to heavily mod and replace the engine, drivetrain and axles, fair enough. But you then have to wonder if starting with a Jimny is worthwhile if you are going to bin almost all of it.

I'm all for modding vehicles. But watching YT videos of most of the modded N.American vehicles, I'd have thought the Jimny was unsuitable.

If you want a Jimny for being a Jimny, well thats a different matter.

Jack has 7.50 16s on his trials truck which are about 32 and that is still mostly a Jimny and a very competitive one at that.

wrote:

People I have spoken to had issues getting headlamps with DoT markings.

The later models which we call "Gen3" has shaped headlamps and don't have DoT markings as they were not sold in those markets. The earlier "gen2" models have 7" round lights which are widely available. The cross over models (gen2 with coil springs) have round lights

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 the headlights is one of my big issues. I see people have imported the 3rd gen with molded headlights but I myself haven’t seen headlights that are dot stamped. 

 

wrote:

What size tyres are you planning on? Not much in the way of skinny tyres these days?

I'd have thought 32" tyres would be way too big for vehicle and engine. If you plan to heavily mod and replace the engine, drivetrain and axles, fair enough. But you then have to wonder if starting with a Jimny is worthwhile if you are going to bin almost all of it.

I'm all for modding vehicles. But watching YT videos of most of the modded N.American vehicles, I'd have thought the Jimny was unsuitable.

If you want a Jimny for being a Jimny, well thats a different matter.

i have a Jeep gladiator on 37’s I can also wheel or use as a tow rig. The jimny is super light to tow and my local trails are more atv sized the jimny fits nicely and also has heat and a/c. I’m mostly into the jimny because we can’t readily get them. The reality a Jeep is easier to build here and probably more effective as it’s easy to get 37’s on and still float fairly easily. Tires on the jimny will be whatever I can easily get.  Rubicon take offs are easy and 255/75r17, c load rated mud tires and about 32” tall.  15” rim tires are hard to get here, but possibly side by side atv 30” tire or a 245/75r16 would be my other tire option
 

The 1.3 are around but you need to be patient. I talked to a guy in Japan that wheels and builds jimny through google translate, and he basically said the same thing, forget the 660 version.