Kirkynut's Jimny (aka Daddy's Tractor) - The Evolution continues...

Thanks for that I was hoping to use ice hockey pucks on the rears between the original bumps and the chassis but looks like I need to check that it will come appart 1st. For the fronts the only solution I could see is similar to what you have there with a raised point of contact for the std bump.
Having done the maths I worked out that with my shocks and a 3" spring lift I need to extend the fronts by 40mm and the rears by 70mm :ohmy:
I will probably give it another trip out lanning 1st though to see if its really needed.

I don't think you can work it out mathmatically as there are too many variables - just compress the wheel up in the arch as much as you possibly can by driving it off road in a controlled way - ie: find a big hump and drive up it inch by inch to see what happens to the point of how much you are ever going to get it and look to see if the tyre is catching on anything.

If it doesn't catch, leave alone, if it does, look at how far the bumpstops are from hitting and extend by a little over that to allow for the rubber bumpstop to compress a little. If you raise it oo much, trim a little off the rubber.

Do the same with front and rear but turn the steering lock to lock to check it won't catch in any position.

I was fortunate that my mate lifted it up on a forklift on one wheel for me!

Kirkynut

I took the Jimny offroading properly for the first time yesterday since the new tyres were fitted and the rear extended bumpstops work a treat, they are just the right length - 2" of tube and 1/4" of plate. They stop the wheel from catching the arch with about 1/3" to spare.

My fears of the body and chassis rising up on side slopes due to the spring not being able to allow the axle up instead were put to bed, it is fine. I got out of the truck to look when they were touching and the truck was at quite an angle but was nowhere near rolling and could have gone over a fair amount first. I think my bottle runs out far sooner than the Jimny will roll, unless I do something silly, at which point I expect it would most likely go over on it's side anyway.

The front tyres scrub a little at the rear of the arches, but I do not want to lose the arch liners and it's not too bad, so it will stay as it is.

I'm a happy bunny now.

I don't often get piccies of myself off road as I'm always the one taking the piccies! I asked my mate to take a couple though, so here they are:







It was only a little plod around, nothing too serious, hence the spare is still on the back!

Our club site has been very wet recently and is only just starting to dry out. It has an easy side, which is not necessarily easy these days and is currently drowned and a modified only section, which is more hardcore and can be quite damaging. The cage is a necessity all over our club site.

I can't say how good the Malatesta tyres are though as it was too dry to give them a work out and any mud terrains would have coped.

I did find I could go alot slower and had more control and did not have to use momentum much with their added grip.

Kirkynut

Here's a piccie of my JimJam at our Club competition last year. I quite like it. It was taken by a fellow club member.

Kirkynut

I've spent a fair amount of money on the Jim Jam this month - can't tell the handbrake exactly how much or she'll have a fit after we've just paid for a kitchen!!!

Anyway - My Jim Jam now sports ORA Castor Correction Arms front and rear and Superpro Bushes in both arms and Panhard Rods!

It now handles like an off road dream more than a boat but needed a new set of tie rod ends as they were pooped and the firming up of the bushes showed this out as complete full on Death Wobble - but that's all fixed now and water under the bridge - I've forgiven the Jim Jam for nearly killing me!

I have also solved another problem that has been plaguing my Jim Jam for some time - leaky swivel balls, despite new wheel bearings and kingpin bearings several times over with many new axle tube oil seals.

Having put right many of the wrongs of the previous owner over the 3 - 4 odd years I've owned my Jim Jam - I have to admit to a bit of a boob myself.

When I bought the car from KAP Suzuki I asked them whilst I was there what solutions there were to the vacuum operated hubs and they sold me quite cheaply a set of fixed hubs and cut down some spare front wheel bearing nuts to allow these hubs to fit without needing a spacer as Martin sells in the Big Jimny shop. Spacers were not about in them days of old and no-one really had put SJ manual hubs on Jimny's and told everyone else about it. Big Jimny was only just gaining momentum back then and I had not even joined!

I put the fixed hubs on and when I sold my SJ I took the manual hubs off that to put on the Jim Jam.

It's so long ago that I don't remember doing it but I must have found that the manual hubs do not just bolt on, even with the cut down bearing nuts. They foul on the plate / washer / spacer that sits behind the circlip on the CV shaft where it comes through the steering knuckle.

Well I must have though, taken that plate / washer / spacer thing out and it'll go on fine - which it did. Little did I know then that this plate / washer / spacer draws the Birfield part of the CV into a seal in the steering knuckle which keeps it in place and stops the CV wobbing about.

It was fine until I read all about Death Wobble and decided I would replace both front wheel bearings and King Pin bearings to ensure the dreaded Death Wobble would not inflict it's horribleness on me!

In doing so I pulled the Birfield part of the CV from this seal and never really pulled it back into it as I never used this Plate / washer / spacer thing again to keep it drawn into it. This allowed the CV to flop about inside the knuckle slightly, pressing on the axle tube oil seal as it went round slightly wonky, allowing oil to leak out into the swivel housing.

Well in an effort to fix this as I could not understand what I had done wrong - and it was clearly me as it had been OK before I touched it, I have read every fix on here and replaced wheel bearings once and king pin bearings umpteen times.

I even changed the axle for one from a scrappy thinking maybe I had bent a kingpin or even the axle. It was a good thing anyway as the captive Panhard rod bolt on the old front axle had no thread and the previous owner tacked a little weld on the bolt with a wing and a prayer it would stay put - except it didn't and came out at Slindon the other year!

So whilst waiting for new Tie Rod Ends to arrive after the Death Wobble finally inflicted me - now solved by these - I looked once again at all the diagrams, manuals and pictures I could to see what I was doing wrong and found these Plates / washer / spacers on a set of old vacuum hubs I have in the workshop - perhaps the originals I removed all those years ago.

I found that these Plates / Spacers / Washers are supposed to be fitted and after trial fitting them once again I could feel that the Birfield had been drawn into the seal and it hit me what was happening!

To say I feel a little silly is an understatement - especially as a friend came and rebuilt the front axle with me recently to see if he could see what I was doing wrong and asked if it should have a spacer / washer there, like our old SJ's used to - and I was convinced it never had one!

Not to worry -all fixed now and the fixed hubs are temporarily back on until I order some spacers up from Martin!

Kirkynut

I don;t get to update this much as I have not done anything new to the Jimny for some time. It is now wearing a set of standard jimny steel wheels though as it was never my intention to use the SJ steels but one of the Jimny steels I bought was found to be buckled when my Mobile Tyre Fitter mate came round to fit the new tyres. So I dug the SJ van steels out so I could use the tyres.

It's also now rocking on ORA castor corrected arms front and rear, 3" BigJimny springs, Rough Country shocks and Superpro bushes.

Anyway - today it passed it's MOT with no advisories - and so it should with all the new parts it has had fitted service wise lately - all new bearings everywhere, all new bushes everywhere, all new suspension - oil change, collant change and new rad just before last winter etc.

I tell you what - if Ilavished as much care and money on a normal road car as I do this Jimny it'd never dare go wrong!!!

Kirkynut