If you have owned a Jimny for any amount of time you will have come across the "Death Wobble". As you accelerate through 30-40 mph the steering wheel starts to wobble and this can rapidly become un-controllable to the point where it is dangerous. But it doesn't happen everytime and most of the time you can accelerate through it. On the way back from Oxley's Shaw mine started to do it. The problem can be caused by a number of problems:

1. Front Kingpin Bearings worn

2. Front Wheel Bearings worn

3. Steering arm/axle bent.

Sure enough, when I got home and jacked it up it looked like it was time for a new Kingpin bearing. As I also had a clicking CV joint, I decided to strip the lot down. However when I got it apart the Kingpins were fine. Feeling with my fingers I could just detect a slight movement in the wheel bearing. I took the wheel bearing out (see my guide) and found out something really strange......

I have had some problems recently. Everytime I release the clutch pedal when under load (ie. Steep hill or obstruction whilst off-roading/trialing) I got a loud BRRRT! noise from somewhere under the car.

Another common problem with Jimnys is a sticking/rough clutch cable. The clutch pedal becomes very heavy to press and there is a roughness you can feel under your foot. In fact this is such a common problem with off-road driven vehicles that I would check the clutch cable first rather than change the clutch.

The problem is that the cable seems to pull mud and dirt back into the cable sheath and gradually the cable liner wears through. So to changing the clutch cable.....

Wow! Little did I know what this would involve when I started. Previously I have changed the clutch on my SJ410 which was not simple, but was a reasonably acheivable task. However the Jimny is a different matter. All in all it has take nearly 3 weeks of various evenings (probably about 16 working hours in all) to do. Everything is against you, basically the bolts are all hidden and very stiiff and there is no space to work in. The Suzuki workshop manual was clearly written by someone sitting in a nice clean, air-conditioned office which was nowhere near a real vehicle.

One of the first MOT problems was poor braking efficiency at the rear, I could not sort this one out. However a mention on the difflock site had Zukijimny mentioning bias valve.

The Jimny has a variable (automatically adjusts with load) bias valve location above the rear axle.

It is mounted to the body and attached by a spring to the axle.


Of course, for the MOT the car was emptied, including removing the spare wheel from the back door (because of concerns about obscuring the rear lights) meaning there was no weight (no seats, no tools, no carpets - nothing). With no weight in the back the bias valve is basically switching the rear brakes almost totally off. There is an adjustment on the valve but mine was almost fully adjusted already due to the spring lift. Therefore I loaded up the back with the spare wheel and tools - and passed!

Martin