Serious wheel wobble!

Found the problem!
Panhard rod is bent pretty bad, that bad that it seems to be rubbing the sump and I think that explains why the steering wheel is sitting cocked to the right!
No idea how this happened, It's been offroad (Thats what it was bought for) nothing crazy, just general mudding.

When I bought it I noticed a slight pull to the left and slight tyre wear on left wheel, then a vibration at about 50mph, thought it was a wheel weight. Then it went from bad to worse, mechanic said he's never drove a car that did what this does, it's like it's trying to kill you! In fact it's that bad the chassis is off-line, need to get a chassis alignment done as well to be sure!

Plan of action is, take panhard rod off tomorrow, lots of heat, red hot and try hammer her back into shape. If all else fails then it's a new one from Suzuki at £80!
Everything else seems 100%, all joints seem good and theres no slap out of anything apart from a little from the steering box, But i'm nearly sure it's all to do with the Panrod.

The bit that anoyed me was the mechanic, he recons Suzuki Jimnys arn't made for off road at all and that they are a dangerous toy car and shouldn't be used off road as they will break!
Also mechanic says the Jimny doesn't have a Kingpin and to ask what you mean by this?

I will report back, I've also got some pictures.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this...
Cheers!

Change your mechanic he is an idiot.
You will straighten a jimny panhard rod over your knee lol.

Once straight get a length of half inch angle welded along it's length. Don't get said mechanic to do it thou :evil:

See the problem is he really isn't, he has been working on cars for 30 odd years he's always done our cars and has always done a fantastic job! He has cured problems that other mechanics haven't picked up on.

The weld sounds a good job, I will do that tomorrow morning.
Cheers. J

Strictly speaking, he is correct, a jimny doesn't have kingpins.
Trucks still do, as do "proper" cars (ones designed before 1950)

However, over the last 50 years we have started referring to the main steering pivot on a car as a kingpin.

I have to say I would refer to the ones on a jimny as "Swivel bearings", but I know what people mean when they say kingpins.


The panhard rod is a hollow tube btw, it will easily bend back straight.

Ok maybe idiot was strong, he clearly has no clue about off roading.
I have had a number of trucks over the years, including landrover, toyota. The Jimny is a super tough wee truck with very minor modifications.

jimnys DO have king pins and kingpin bearings in fact they are nearly the same as land rover ones just different sizing.

as for the mechanic....i would never use this man as he definitely does not know jimnys very well ie not knowing about king pins and saying they are not for off road. he may well be good with other cars but i wouldn't trust him with my jimny