Ulysses

Hi All,

This time ive decided a build thread is in order to keep a history and track of progress. Delivered today (17/4/18). £200 Bought as MOT failure from a garage near Kirby Lonsdale and transported by Steves transport (very good and only £100). Put onto it by forum member TonyL and met him when viewing (really nice guy with an identical red & grey Jimny).

Introducing Ulysses. Name has been decided upon based on the last three letters of the number plate (ULS). First time I felt the need to give a car a name. (Joel was happy to call it Useless).

My current Jimny (J999 MNY) is to continue to be the main beast, with this being the project/research model. Ulysses may also be used by my usual winch bitch (Joel) for when were out -n-about without the rest of the crew (or he might end up joining us in it on our outings, who knows!)

Faults identified so far with it:

- MOT failure from rust (yet to fully investigate but its defo new sills, front body monunts/behind headlights, bits or arches and probably back floor).
- Leak from intermediate prop at gearbox end (R72 box is quiet tho so may have been caught early enough to save box).
- Leak of engine oil from somewhere at the rear of the head.
- Flashing 4x4 light and airlines have been fiddled with.
- Engine light on (solved now as was a loose vac hose).
- Leak from front swivels (kingpin bearings and/or wheel bearings).
- Clutch biting point right at top of pedal travel, pedal really stiff (adjust and test out, maybe new clutch needed).
- Brakes do work but are poor (possibly with it being sat for a while).
- Starting is sluggish (possibly battery related as was better after running for a while).
- Aircon is stuck on but works well (not neccesarily a bad thing! Will just bypass it like in J999 MNY if it packs in).

Immediate plans:

Clean, strip down and have proper look at the rust before buying anything. All plastics off. If its within my abilities to weld back up then on with that (should be pretty easy stuff fingers crossed). Then its in this order:

- MOT (whatevers needed for that from below plus welding obviously);
- New tyres (currently 3 of them wont pass an MOT)
- Kingpins and front axle rebuild. Rear looks ok.
- Oils/filters/brakes.
- Gearbox leak needs sorting.

Future plans:

- R7me gearbox and excedy clutch kit
- Earlier stick transfer box & intermediate prop (probably a rocklobster or mini-lobster box if I come across one for a good price).
- Manual front hubs (AVM).
- 2" Trailmaster comfort lift kit (got as spares from J999 MNY)
- Bigger tyres (had spares and sold them )
- Rear locker (lunchbox locker or lockrite, nice and simple/cheap).

Gonna stick with the 1.3 for now, mainly becuase i have a spare block and head and its meant to be a cheap and cheerful build.





















And finally... parked up next to big brother...

Looks good! I think you have the right idea with the modifications you're planning. Looking forward to seeing how the build progresses - only question is what is the purpose f fitting manual front hubs?

A good amount of work, but a good price!

mdog18 wrote: Looks good! I think you have the right idea with the modifications you're planning. Looking forward to seeing how the build progresses - only question is what is the purpose f fitting manual front hubs?

The manual hubs are because all the vac lines are as rusty as the rest of it. They leak, so the 4x4 light flashes and they dont engage. the 4x4 controller goes into fault and thats the end of it trying to engage the transfer box. It can be fooled into engaging the t-box into 4x4, and using manual hubs is a work around for the leaky vac pipes.

when it arrived the engine management light was on, which was a loose vac pipe from the inlet manifold (someone had been trying to get it into 4x4 without knowing what they were doing). stopping the vac leak fixed the engine management light, but nothing for the 4x4.

Ah I see - thanks for explaining

My friend Joel came round this weekend to help with the strip down and asses.

Half a day saw all the bumpers and side plastics off (apart from doors) and a good blast with a super powerful petrol pressure washer.















Back in the garage we decided to spend the rest of the day playing with the 4x4 to see what was wrong with that. Front wheels off and on stands. reconected the vac hoses correctly and tried the buttons. flashing 4x4 still. Took airlines off both hubs, one at a time and found a vaccum was working well and that stopped the flashing 4x4 light, t-box engaged ok. So problem in the hub.
Drivers side was making a clunk noise when turning lock to lock, so strip down to find the CV is goosed as well as the kingpins Also found its had the wheel bearings changed by someone without the correct tool (used a chisel by the look of it).





Need to source a new CV and driveshaft. think the vac hubs may need replaced as well (have spares already from J999 MNY).

Sunday (today) i was on my own so started cutting and welding jobs on the front end...









Made cardboard templates from J999 MNY and some 1mm sheet steel cut/bent to fit resonably has got the headlight back supported again and in the right place. The whole front bottom panel was gone, so its in the bin now and im going to get creative and make something new

Great start Riccy looking forward to seeing the end results.

More progress. Front end nearly complete, just the bridge across the radiator to sort. Made some brackets for the body mounts as well

Driverside:




Passenger:

Thats some nice bodywork there, good job!

Yay! finally, the front end is complete

Put the bridge across to join it all together and welded up...



Then a liberal coat of Buzzweld RCP primer (nearly the same colour as the original primer)...









Decided to add some drainage holes into the new chassis mounts as well, they are a valley so bound to fill up at some point.

Also discovered the front panhard mount had a hole, so plated that up and more Buzzweld on it...



Sills and middle body mounts next.

I keep looking at Kiethy's red trayback one and then looking at the angle grinder . Really tempting, but must at least get this one MOT'd first

Oh, and I forgot to add that the new shafts/CV's are in now and work a treat (Thanks Maverick/Brett ), However on initial trial with the original vac hubs there was still the flashing 4x4 light

Also discovered that it had the wrong brake discs on (smaller inner bore size). No wonder they were hard to get off! So... fished some out of the scrap pile from J999 MNY and cleaned them up. Not ideal but will do for an MOT. Also tried J999 MNY's old vac hubs on with no improvement. Manual hubs are looking more and more likley

It's impressive how much these cars differ/rot differently.....mines a year newer and the chassis is so much cleaner/not as rotten.....still issues to be taken care of though.


Front end looks well mate!

I need a better look at Buzzweld as I want a shiny chassis on the new car.