Ulysses

More fiddling with the floating rear setup today...

Started on the passenger side (as it was in better light). Stipped off the old jimnybits/renault rear disc kit, out with the half shaft and oil seal/oil guard thing. All apart in about 30 mins including the cup of tea.

Started with a test fit of everything before applying sealant and torque wrench. Some confusion at first about where to align the caliper mount point. Put the adapter plate and caliper on to see how the handbrake would work. With already having the jimnybits kit I have the reducer sleeve tubes on the handbrake cable. I decided to try and take them off and make shorter versions as I found the cable protruding wasnt enough. Cue much messing about with pipes and little success...

Wrong way:


Right way:






all of which didnt work because I hadnt made the smaller tube long enough (doh!). Binned them and remembered that the handbrake has adjuster nuts underneath and inside at the handbrake lever. Undid them most of the way and hey presto! it works with the Jimnybits tubes (did have to shave a tiny bit off the caliper hole to fit properly). So back with them on and now the handbrake works as it should...




Next was to mount the spindle for the front hubs and brake backing plates:


then the bearing carrier, which fitted without the halfshaft in, but was fouling on the brass bush inside it. Removed that as its part of the vac hub system and not needed...



That then fitted ok. Everything back to bits and sealant applied, nuts torque'd up including the big 4-pin nut that holds the bearing carrier on. Then manual hubs fitted from the spares stash. Wheel spacer back on and tyre. Turns out ive gained 11mm width on the axle now (22 with both sides done presumably). Ran copper brake line along the axle but left connecting for now. Wheel back off again for brake bleeding next playtime. Also managed to get the other side done as well (apart from brake connection).



So next time its connect and bleed the brakes through with new fluid, hopefully without any leaks! test run. I dont expect it to feel any different, but feel smug in the knowledge that its going to last better and be easier to swap when it does go. It does however look a bit odd seeing 4 manual hubs on a Jimny Will serve as a measure to slow down a would be thief (put t-box in neutral/remove stick and undo all 4 manual hubs = stumped thief hopefully)

Awesome mate! Pushing the boundaries once again...!

Can you post photos of the disk and caliper in place without the wheel on, and a side shot of both wheels with free wheel hubs on?

Dave

Nice work Matey
Best get me some overtime in at work
I need this set up

Good engineering......

sniper

For Dave, some more pics. Sorry I dont have one with the wheel on from the side as its back off and on axle stands until I sort out the brakes (caliper needs to come off and turn over to do the bleeding as nipple is in the wrong place). It does however look exactly the same as one of the front wheels (i.e. manual hub sticking through the middle).





Jack you need to get saving and sourcing parts. The £335 for the floating 'kit' is only about half of the spend needed to get all the bits together. The Russian (Andrey Kim) is helpful and honest so at least there is support for it. James Priestly also has this kit so now theres at least two of us who know how it all works

Thanks Riccyn

Weird seeing a free wheel hub on the back!

You can have a front wheel drive now then.

No problem, Yes front wheel drive is an option, though I suspect the lobster box wont like it much!

Lambert wrote: Now you have it fitted it seems to be a fairly well engineered kit. Did you find a supply of the half shafts in the UK or are you still relying on getting them from Russia?

Still from Russia. From messenger conversations with Andrey he has seen two problems with the shafts (although I dont know out of how many hes sold that is). More issues were reported by him with the vitara fixed hubs not lasting than anything else, hence why I have gone for manual ones, Andrey was recommending fixing some of the standard Jimny vac front hubs to use on the kit. They are sealed which is attractive, whereas my manual hubs are a bit open to water ingress.

I believe from google that it is possible to get a shaft made from a broken one pretty easily in the UK, so worst case there is options there. I dont expect to brake the shafts to be honest. They are very heavy duty jobs so should survive!

Floating rears finally finished this weekend.

I picked up some new brake pads for the golf calipers and noticed they were the same as the ones for the renault brakes I had been using. Surely the renault caliper wont fit on the golf bracket then? Yep she does and fits well too That saves a load of work bleeding brakes and making new brake lines thankfully...



And the handbrake works just as before:


Next was the hubs. Discussions about this with various people highlighted that the shaft is able to move in/out of the diff by a given amount. I didnt want the shaft to be able to move out as it introduces the risk of shaft damage.
There are two options at this point. No.1 is to use the vitara fixed front hubs and cut down the bearing retainer nut a bit:





Cut the edge of the nut here to allow the vitara cap to fit back fully:


Or No. 2, my way, which is to weld caps onto the internals of the manual hubs. Wasnt sure it would work or cause issues, but it seems ok so far from the test drive...





Then it was fiddling about with the ABS sensors. I had bought some cheap ones for a very early jimny off ebay and fitted them. The go into the axle stub in the same way as they would on the front of the car. A little bit of grinding to the axle end plate is needed to make room for the sensors. I unpicked the wiring from the new parts plugs and fitted it into the old wiring connectors so it looks factory and works properly. Forgot to take pictures of that of course, but no light on the dash is a good sign









So yes, wheels on and off out for a test drive which worked well and no funny noises. Back for a wash and a quick bit of flex testing in the garage on ramps (to check the brakes dont hit anything on flexing). Its working well now. Got up the ramps in lowbox 4x4 without the lockers or any wheelspin so I presume theres more flex avaliable

So to summarise on the floating rear kit:

Parts:
1x kit from Andrey the Russian consisting of 2x shafts and 2x axle end plates with oil seals fitted.
1x pair of front bearing carrier spindles with retaining nut/washer (ABS ones if for an ABS Jimny)
1x pair of front bearing carriers (you may want to put new bearings in at this point for peace of mind)
1x pair of either Jimny fitment manual hubs or MK1 vitara fixed front hubs. The standard Jimny vac hubs can also be locked on and used for this
1x pair of rear brake caliper carriers & sliders from a MK4 VW golf/Skoda octavia and others (not the GTI ones, just a basic model)
1x pair of either Renault megane rear brake calipers (preffered choice because of bleed nipple location) or MK4 VW golf rear brake calipers
1x set of brake hoses to suit relevant caliper choice plus t-splitter and drop pipe from chassis (as per used in the Jimnybits kit)
1x set of brake pads to suit (both are same part for either car) plus a set of Jimny front brake discs to match the front ones on your car (usually the larger 108mm centre bore)
1x pair of the handbrake adapter tubes that come with Jimnybits rear disc brake conversion kit
1x pair of front ABS sensors from an early Jimny as complete units (circa £45 on ebay)
8x M8 bolts/spring washers for attaching the Russian plates to the axle casing
4x M10 fine pitch bolts/spring washers for attaching the VW caliper carrier to the axle end plates
2x M6 bolts/nuts/washers for fixing the ABS sensor in position

Fitting is pretty much all above so you can see how it all works. Is pretty expensive if you have to buy all the parts outright, luckily I had a few of the parts in as spares already. I would expect to be spending around £600 for all the parts if buying outright.

The major benefit is now its one small set of spare parts to carry and that covers all 4 corners