235/85-16 on Stock Suspension, No Body Lift & All Original Panels

Lambert... Your on Big Jimny with a Jimny & there's a guy on ebay doing Jimny stuff called Lambert Engineering.... Why aren't you the same guys ? It's not as if Lambert is a common name like ... Dave.

Rhino Riders... a blast from the past.
Still talk to Leigh and have a few of his Suzukis.
X8GGY = K9 RJD Dave....  Ah ha !! Cymru am byth !!!!
There was something you said that I was going to answer in this next post anyway...
It was justifying the expense of the portals.
(I dont know how to do quotes so screenshot will have to do)
 
Ha!! I wish.
What I did do is a comparison of cost between the portals and the conventional way of doing a  4" lift with gearing and all the similar hardware as in the portal kit to run 235/85-16s.
Here's  how I how I justfied the added expense of the portals...

4" Suspension Lift.                 £1,100
Front HD 1/2 shafts.                 £600
Rear Full Floating Axle kit         £800
Rear Disc Brake Conversion.   £500
4 Manual Free Wheeling Hubs £200
410 t-case (19% hi reduction)  £300
SJ t-case conversion kit.          £300
Longer Braided Brake Lines.    £100
​Total.Propshaft Spacers.         £100
Total.                                        £4,000 = €4,800

My portals weren't much more, as like I said I got a "killer" deal. The 1998 - 2018 portals are a lot cheaper than the 2018+ whose price was quoted somewhere on this forum which i could certainly not afford.

Makes me think of the Mastercard add....

15" Clearance at the diff......PRICELESS.

And its that that drove me to go this way plus the stress the portals take off the diff & shafts. (But add to the axle cases.... shhh)
 

wrote:

wrote:

Lambert... Your on Big Jimny with a Jimny & there's a guy on ebay doing Jimny stuff called Lambert Engineering.... Why aren't you the same guys ? It's not as if Lambert is a common name like ... Dave


 

Made me laught some of my cold tea out of my mouth.......
Ah but he is Timothy Lambert whereas I am Lambert Coverdale, why wouldn't everyone know that, I mean it's not like I had to look him up on Companies House or anything. Haha.

This Jimny has fought me tooth & nail.
So many of the big bolt on parts have not gone on as simply as they should have.
Is it because its a convertible ?
1) Front bumper requiring 0.5" x 20" strip from the back to be cut off and extra played welded to top of chassis In order to fit.
2) Rear bumper brackets having to be almost remade then even when it all lined up a small piece had to be cut away for it to fit properly.
3) Rear hubs not centering in wheel arches.

This last point I'll detail next.
 

The whole point of this build was to keep everything stock with just the addition of the portals and not have to cut anything seeing as that's how the kit is sold.
So I was dissapointed when the rear axle didn't center up in the arches and I had to trim back the plastics.
It just didn't look right, so I thought my only choice/solution would be to move the axle back a couple of inches by either relocating the radius arm mounts back or making longer radius arm then relocating the panhard chassis mount.
I found a local fabricator Joe who i just happened to meet with his friend Jeff in Moab in the late 90s. I layer met Jeff in England in the early 00s through Leigh.
Joe was hesitant to relocate the axle and thinking outside the box decided to pivot the portal hubs.
The rear flenges were unbolted and welded to the axle. They can still be removed if necessary but right now they fit the Jimny perfectly and even gained a fraction more ground clearance.
Most importantly the tyres clear on full stuff all the way round....

just.   

 


 

Stock suspension works well.

 

 

 [attahment=40520]PXL_20221219_224346812.jpg[/attachment]