My 2013 Jimny

Thanks for the recommendation, I wasn't aware that RCV made axle shafts for the Jimny, and in the end I went with this option, hopefully they will arrive soon and they are certainly not as easy to find in Europe as the Trailgear ones. There was also the option for the Trial Jimny axle shafts, but apart from the cost they do not work with the factory vacuum hubs which was a big deal to me. I hope the fitting will go without issues.

Well done. Keep us posted on the details of the installation.

Not much news regarding the locker installation as I still need some parts to make the modification, but in the meantime I brought home another car with the Jimny, always a rather interesting experience especially on the tight mountain roads around here. With this occasion I also noticed I need to make some changes to the winch mount, being the first I used it and the rope fitting a bit too tight. The right rear wheel bearing is also on its way out, started leaking oil right after getting home...

As I was mentioning before, at the beginning of this winter I managed to install an ARB front air locker together with a set of RCV HD front axle shafts.
Altough I was familiar with all the implications and work necessary to mount it, it wasn't really the weekend project I intended it to be, all in it took me about a week to finish the entire installation, not great when the car is your daily driver.
I won't go into detail about the actual installation of the ARB locker as I think there are quite a few videos regarding this and the ARB instructions (which can be freely downloaded) are pretty much on point, but I will focus on the issues I encountered.
I attached a few photos here and for those who are more curious about the technical details I added more photos here .
The first problem I had was the choice of front HD axle shafts, RCV Performance, although probably as strong as they claim they are, contrary to what the website and technical support are saying, they are not a direct fit for a Suzuki Jimny as RCV went the cheaper route and just used a Samurai CV joint instead of the Jimny ones. In case anyone is wondering which are the differences between a Samurai and Jimny CV joint, the Samurai one is longer by about ~13 mm, has snap ring groove at the end of splines (Jimny has it at the beginning) and is missing the shoulder for the rear vacuum seal and all of this meant in my case manual free wheeling hubs with thick spacers as nothing else would work, not a pleasant surprise. My choice for the hubs was the factory Aisin Samurai ones and this setup was a perfect fit for the factory Jimny E-Torx hub bolts. Another possible issue with the RCV shafts is the fact they do not have a ground portion for the oil seal, the shafts are supposed to be polished but in practice they are a bit rough, certainly not as polished as the CV joint itself, remains to be seen how long the oil seal lasts
The next issue I had was related to the vacuum system and the 4WD controller, probably because I have a type 9 Jimny the 4WD controller was updated and expects input from the vacuum switch for both locking (closed circuit) and unlocking (open circuit), so shorting the switch would not work. Interestingly even so the transfer case would shift perfectly through all the position, but it messes up the light on the dashboard so you are stuck with memorising the transfer case position, not very good. Plugged the pipes going to the hubs and everything was back to normal.
Other notes regarding the installation, I tought I was smart by not removing the spindle from the swivel housing and it worked great for disassembling, however putting it back together this way was very difficult and took far too much time time to get it just right. Also at this step it is a perfect occasion to replace the kingpin bearings and seals, for the work involved in my opinion it is false economy to not replace them all. Lastly for drilling the hole for the air fitting it is useful to put a piece of wood between the casing and the pinion so as not to hit the pinion with the drillbit like I did.

Overall the installation went pretty good and at the end everything was working fine with no leaks. Since then I did ~ 3 trips where I used the front locker without issues, however because pretty much all trails were either mud or snow it is hard to know how much it is helping. Either way for me this was a great mod and one I wanted for a very long time.

 
 
 
 
 

Small update as the car passed another year's service and everything is good with the exception of an occasional loud metal banging sound which happens rather randomly, sometimes on rough roads, sometimes on smooth tarmac or when braking, it varies. At the moment I am kinda stuck with this issue, after 2 trips to the service and 1 MOT passed everything looks and works fine under the car, maybe somebody has an idea?
Bought a set of old-school Bosch driving lights, quite massive for the little Jimny but I like the look of them, maybe I'll even get around to fitting them:)

And a few photos of winter fun now that we are moving to spring:)

Could the noise be the exhaust catching on something, as the rubber mounts age they can allow too much movement?