Axle breathers

As part of the rebuild I decided to fit my own axle breather kit. My Jimny has the old "hosepipe" style which was large, untidy and the hosepipes had hardened off over the years. 

 The kit comes with instructions so the pictures here just illustrate a couple of the steps and show how the overall kit looks and fits together.

In the basic kit you get a TAP and connectors to fit to the axles only.

You have to prise the little caps off the diff breathers and then using the tap,  cut a thread into the breather pipe. The first picture shows me using a Tap wrench (not supplied) to run a thread into the breather with the supplied tap. This cuts a thread that you can see in the other pictures.

I then smeared the thread on the little union and tightened it into place. The hose is a push fit so I ran it as a single length from the rear axle, securing it with cable ties along the chassis rail and up into the bonnet area and into the snorkle.

I cut a short length and pushed this into the connector on the front axle. 

I took the pipe from the front axle up to the chassis rail where the long pipe from the rear was located and cut the pipe and inserted a T-piece that ten joins the front into the main pipe. 

The add-on breather kit permits you to connect in the transfer box and gearbox in a similar fashion, using the t-pieces to connect into the main breather line.

Here I have drilled and tapped the transfer box (Note the picture shows an SJ transfer box which is what I have on my car, a Jimny box has a similar fitting.

​The question I am often asked is whether the metal swarf from the drilling and tapping gets into the differentials and gearboxes. Testing shows that only a very tiny amount does. Indeed I drained the differential after doing one above and the magnetic plug had no swarf on it at all.