Jimny suspension questions

CSAJS wrote: Hello!
My jimny is pushing to the left. The people from aligment said that everthing is ok.
I raised it with HD OME springs, front and rear. At the front i ad more 3cm. My jimny as iron front bumper and a t-max 6500 winch. An iron rear bumper, roof rack with spare tyre.
i managed to put strait. But keeps on pushing to the left.
I was tinking to change my panhard bars (front and rear). I´m waiting for my caster corrections. compare to a original one he is only 5cm higher.
should i get used to it or look for something else.
Thanks

Africa-Angola-Luanda

When you say its pushing to the left, do you mean the axle sits to the left or the car pulls to the left when driving/braking?

Also to Vaxxi, the shock relocators are a worthwhile mod on any Jimny imo. They improve the range of travel of the shock and aid with the flex, mines only mildly modded and i can already see the benefit.

dadam wrote: Relocation won't affect the height of your rear, it's the springs length that does it

Got it. So the only difference after mounting the rear shock repositioners will be the shocks being a bit more compressed ?

dadam wrote: Some castor bushes would be perfect for 2" lift, but only if your front springs look like bananas!
Most of the 2" lift kit are pretty conservative for the springs shape.

The thing is I don't think an entire lift kit was fitted to the Jimny, just springs + shocks + extended hoses. These are the only pics I managed to find of the installed parts:

Springs don't look too "banana shaped", but I'm thinking the bushes will correct the self-centering of the steering and align everything properly.

Cocopolo wrote: to avoid that the shock + repositioner lenght is not too much for the spring travel

Got it. According to the pictures found above, it looks like the shock + repositioner will be much longer than the spring, so this risk exists indeed

Cocopolo wrote: - radius arms mount guard ... usefull only to grab mud inside them and loose ground clearance

Removed from the list, I was thinking the same thing.

Cocopolo wrote: - lenghtned steering arms ? never heard about them

I'm talking about this one (basically ensuring the steering shaft has a good grip after lifting). I've checked on my Jimny and it's indeed under 2 cm of grip left.

Cocopolo wrote: - even if for 2" lift the castor bushes are enough, the castor arms are much more better: they are usually stronger than stock ones, they can set the castor to a value higher than stock (better driveability and steereing response), and you can use with them the genuine rubber bushes which flexes much more better that castor bushes

I agree with you, but it seems castor corrected radius arms are only available from 3" upwards. I don't intend to go higher ... for now.

Cocopolo wrote: - adjustable panhards for 2" lift are not necessary for correction of axles position, but are a good improvement as they have usually heavy duty constructions against the weak stock ones ...

An adjustable Panhard is quite expensive, so if it's not really necessary I'll wait until the factory one breaks

mcjimny wrote: They improve the range of travel of the shock and aid with the flex, mines only mildly modded and i can already see the benefit.

I was thinking the same thing, but losing a spring sure doesn't sound too good is it worth getting the bushed relocators versus the regular ones (double the price) ?


Thank you for all the answers, I now have a better idea of how things work. So the buying list would be:

- rubber castor correction bushes
- adjustable panhard
- steering spacer
- rear rubber radius arm bushes (might as well do them too if I change the fronts)
- ring mount shock bushes (same as above)

Sounds good ?

mcjimny
What i mean is when i acelerate or in normal tarmac driving. If i remove my hands from the wheel it will go to the left.
When i brake fast it goes to the same side but that i´m used to it. My previous car was a Samurai and he use to do the same.
My front springs with the car raised it has the "banana shape", and after added a 30mm Spring Spacers its more shaped.
Some days ago i raised the jimny to do some checkups, because hear off-road is every day (running away from trafic), and i notice that the from and rear axle they were not align.
Thank you in helping me understand the efects off changing my jimny!

Check all the measurements to the manual, you may have a distorted chassis.

For a quick check measure the hub centres on each side to see if they are the same.

1) The steering extension is needed when BODY LIFT is done ... if you have only SUSPENSION LIFT, it is not needed at all, because the position between steering wheel and steering box did not change

2) If you put 3" corrected arms under a 2" lifted jimny, you will have the steering more self-centering than the stock one, and more precise on small angles ... before my actual 5" lift, i used same front arms with a 2" lift, and the drive was very good ...

3) overall if i was you, i will delete ALL items from your buying list and add:

-rear locker

this is far the best mod. you can do on your jimny at actual stage if you like to offroad it ...

I have a 3 centimeter body lift also, that's why the steering spacer.

Hmm, so it would be okay to use 3" corrected arms with a 2" lift ? will a prop spacer be needed too ? I don't wheel it so hard to require a locker yet

facade wrote: Check all the measurements to the manual, you may have a distorted chassis.

For a quick check measure the hub centres on each side to see if they are the same.

Between the hub centres on both sides the measure is 2265 mm.
At the front:
left: from the frame to the edge of tyre 475 mm
right: from the frame to the edge of tyre 465 mm
At the rear:
left and right from the frame to the edge of tyre 345 mm
note: i have spacers at the rims of 30mm and 215/80 r15 as tyres


sorry but my units is mm

Seems your front axle is 5mm out of centre: I wouldn't have thought that would make much difference though.

Did you have all 4 wheels alignment checked?
I was thinking you had a bent axle tube or twisted frame (Chassis), but with the hub centres spot on the same it doesn't look like the axle is bent.
You could still have a frame twisted along the axis of the car I suppose, or maybe a soft/cracked spring on one side, does it stand square on level ground?

Also check wheel bearings swivels and steering joints for play, and the condition of the rubbers in the leading (and trailing: sometimes it is the back axle that steers the car) arms.

When you brake, thefront suspension compress ... due to panhard bar, the axle moves slightly on one side (to the right if you jimny is left hand drive, to the left if your jimny is right hand drive) ... thus, the car tends to pull on one side ... the softer and taller are the suspension, the higher is the side effect, but also with stock car you can feel this.

Facade:"Did you have all 4 wheels alignment checked? "
Well...
The first thing i did was the wheels alignment checked, but they said that everything was ok. And i have the report, witch didn´t convinced me. because the measures they aren´t equal on both sides. Im loking the meaning of the words from portuguese to english. I think i can translate like this: front toe 0º28' front caster 0º1' rear toe 0º02' rear cater 0º10'
Facade:"...wheel bearings..." " ...rubbers..."
A couple months ago the right rear bearing "broke", i replace it just on that side maybe the left side has some wear and pules the car. but theres no sound or looseness.
Some of the rubbers shows signs of wear... i already order new ones to replace all including caster corrector.
Facade:"...does it stand square on level ground?"
height FL 665mm FR 670mm RL 670mm RR 675mm

To Cocopolo
I always thought that as to do with brake lines. Because my samurai didn´t had panhard bars. And on my jimny the brake lines they are very similar.
My car is left hand drive.

Once again thanks for the suport from all off you, helping figuring out this reaccion!