Re:That super short grinding noise in first gear...

Yes, Wikipedia supports your view that a chain drive is quieter but other sources suggest the need to change the chain every 60,000 miles as to a gear drive outlasting the motor.
The Gen.4 does not have a neutral in the T-box and towing it with the rear wheels on the deck will cause catastrophic damage.

Roger

wrote:

Yes, Wikipedia supports your view that a chain drive is quieter but other sources suggest the need to change the chain every 60,000 miles as to a gear drive outlasting the motor.
The Gen.4 does not have a neutral in the T-box and towing it with the rear wheels on the deck will cause catastrophic damage.

Roger

 

The chain will do starship miles if the fluid doesn't escape (or the box fills with water..) The one on my RangeRover had 225,000 miles when I sold it and there was no noise from the chain hitting the case (they don't have a tensioner and when they wear enough the slack hits the casing), the one on my old Gan 3 is up to 170,000 now.

It was a joke about the neutral in the Gen 4- is yours the only one that just clicks into low and stays there? mine and most others need really forcing into low otherwise they just jump out and have no drive. Even if you could get it reliably into the false neutral, it is still in 4wd so you can't tow it.

IIRC, the SJ transfer case has an interlock so the H-N-L selector can only move out of H when the 2WD-4WD selector is in 4wd, so neutral transfer will be 4wd and you can't tow it (Unless you modify the SJ 'box)

The series Landrover was similar, the red lever engages 4wd before it engages neutral transfer, which might have been intentional, as it was handy for winching or PTO tools to have the transfer brake act on both axles

 

Info. I have obtained confirms that a chain is quieter than gears and I have acknowledged that. The info. concerning mileage came a design engineer via. the web and was quoted verbatim. I would suggest that if a chain is so worn that it hits the case, then it is well past it's sell by date. It was this point that the engineer remarked on when he suggested a 60,000 mile life marker.
Well yes, I stop the motor and push the T.box lever down and then pull it backwards and it goes into 4 low. The handbook is Japanese translated into some European language _ha -ha - and then into English. As a new car buyer we were given a piece of plastic on which was printed a direct translation - well nearly - of the instructions that were virtually a direct opposite of the handbook. If you follow the markings on the gear knob it explains the process. So yes, mine goes straight into 4 low and stays there until I change it.
From memory my SJ series T.box had neutral marked on the gear lever. I used to move it into neutral when I parked in a duff neighbourhood as an attempt to stop the SJ from being nicked. The low life, hopefully, didn't realise the T.box had a neutral and would panic when the motor wouldn't move.

Roger

It's the rear drum brakes letting go from the auto hill hold. Use the handbrake, and you'll notice there is no noise.

Alynn wrote:

It's the rear drum brakes letting go from the auto hill hold. Use the handbrake, and you'll notice there is no noise.

Ummmm - I can "re-create" the noise at will, on a flat surface (so brakes and no hill hold involved) - PLUS - if you hold the transfer case lever you can FEEL the vibration.

Maybe your noise is different to mine, but mine is definitely not the rear brakes.

I agree with fordem and others as the origin of the noise probably being the transfer case. I had a 3rd gen for 6 years and about 200k km, manual gearbox, and it used to have a transfer case whine - back then it worried me more so I took it to the dealership and I was told it is normal. Now I have a 4th gen for about 3 years/60k km, automatic gearbox, and I have the same noise, perhaps a bit reduced. Just to be sure, when I noticed it a few months after purchasing the 4th gen I reported it to the dealership during a regular maintenance visit and I was told once again it was normal.

The noise I am talking about is a whine which is more noticeable - as some folks have mentioned - when taking off, specially on steep hills. It subsides to a background humming on highway driving for me. Not concerned about it anymore, but I have been thinking about soundproofing the cabin floor in order to make it quieter. I recently changed the transfer case oil and there was no evidence on the drained oil of any sort of issue. I agree that bigger, heavier tyres/wheels requiring more torque to be transfered through the drivetrain could result in a louder whine. I swapped the original HT 195/80 tyres for AT 215/75 ones with clearly more rolling resistance.

Regarding the different approaches to this noise that Suzuki branches have, it probably goes according to local regulations. Here in Brazil I read an article in 2020 stating that there are no laws for limiting cabin noise.

Earlier this year I put a single layer of Kilmat under the carpet of my wife's JB74, it made a huge difference to the gear noise but did not eliminate it, I'm considering a second layer, time will tell.

I don't think the whine is the transfer case, and that's because the automatic JB74 that I drove didn't do it - I've driven one automatic and two manuals, both manuals whine and the auto didn't suggesting that the whine is the manual transmission - even though the whine is road speed dependent and not affected by gear selection.

When I fitted a transfer guard to mine it made the "singing" from the transfer box really noticeable- I think the flat plate was reflecting sound upwards into the cabin.

A piece of that closed cell sound insulation stuck on the inside of the guard has quietened it down considerably.