Transfer cases

Erm I'm just watching a YouTube of an American building a very custom sj based recovery buggy which yeah ok whatever it's a distraction. However what is interesting is that he is using a defender transfer box as it drops on the same side as the suzuki. OK he is running it behind a 2.0l suzuki vitara motor with an American automatic coupled to a married transfer case from the vitara with the front drive deleted making it a doubler before the actual land rover case which is in turn converted to a divorced style input flange apparently as a kit from ashcroft transmission. 

This is interesting because it is suggesting that a permanent 4x4 case could be easier than I have been lead to believe, I say easier it's still going to need quite a lot of work but it results in full time 4x4 and traction days. 

Sounds interesting!

An LT230 is quite a lump to fit under a Jimny! And about 3x the weight of a Jimny transfer case.
As I jump between a Defender and a Jimny fairly often, I've come to much prefer the RWD Jimny for getting around the farm. More power + an LSD makes any trip around a stubble field into a mini rally stage, and a wet concrete farmyard is mini drift track. You simply can't have that much fun in a permanent 4x4.

Busta wrote:

An LT230 is quite a lump to fit under a Jimny! And about 3x the weight of a Jimny transfer case.
As I jump between a Defender and a Jimny fairly often, I've come to much prefer the RWD Jimny for getting around the farm. More power + an LSD makes any trip around a stubble field into a mini rally stage, and a wet concrete farmyard is mini drift track. You simply can't have that much fun in a permanent 4x4.

The 4th Gen is an utter pain on the stubble. You can't turn of the DSC. Making it practically undriveable in 2wd unless you plan to only stick to 1st gear and gentle inputs. Even in 4wd it will still reactivate the DSC at about 20mph or under. Making itself very well known if you try and corner at any sort of speed.

Very annoying really.

Not sure I'd call the LT230 a lump. Plenty of 80" wheelbase CCV motors use them, i.e. a vehicle with an 8.6" shorter wheelbase than a Jimny.

Do you have weights for the transfer boxes? You can pick an LT230 up and move it ok on your own. Remember they also have a transmission brake too, so it is more than just a transfer box. I know everything on the Jimny is smaller, but is the Jimny transfer box really 3 times the weight?

Busta wrote:

As I jump between a Defender and a Jimny fairly often, I've come to much prefer the RWD Jimny for getting around the farm. More power

More power?
Do you mean an older Ninety, i.e. pre-Defender (pre-1990)? As Tdi Defender has 107bhp (and very easy to tune at home). Td5's have 122bhp and easy to map to 150-190hp. There are even some 320hp Td5's these days with other supporting mods. The TDci Defenders are also 122bhp and easily map to 170-190hp too, but of note is the fact they have loads of torque. 369lb-ft in mapped form. The V8's never had less than 137bhp and up to 182bhp in stock guise.

With manual hubs and the centre diff lock or a helical centre diff you could still have rwd if you wanted to maybe not quite as convenient as vacuum hubs or just put a manual electrical switch for those. Yes it is physically big so will protrude even further bellow the chassis rails but delete the output brake and it starts to become manageable. And internally you will never break it even with big power for a jimny. And they have so many ratios available as standard down to 6s.