Re:DrRobin's Northumberland Jimny

The quarry is not in use on a Sunday and the club (North East 4x4 Club) has long standing permission to use it for 4x4 play days and trials. They are more about trials and careful off road driving rather than hills too big to get up. It’s also only open to road legal vehicles which keeps it sensible.

The Jimny’s weak point is ground clearance, especially to a LR90 which has a similar wheelbase, although a Jimny has less over hang and is narrower than a 90. The 90s get one shunt on each stage, the Jimny doesn’t so it helps to walk the course and not go first.

A Jimny excels in the tight turns, just because it’s short and narrow, the garden canes are set at 7ft apart and a Grenadier can only just fit through.

Going over humps the long vehicles like a LR110 and Grenadier bottom out about the same as a Jimny, even though they have much higher ground clearance, their much longer wheelbase works against them.

Rutted tracks are a threat to a Jimny, unless you can straddle them.

The trial this Sunday is back at the quarry, I will let you know how I get on.

Robin

Another trial day down at the quarry with the North East 4x4 Club. This course was not particularly Jimny friendly, it suited vehicles with much more ground clearance, but I gave it a try anyway.



Robikn

Looks fun!

I fitted radius arm guards today, had them for about 3 weeks, but what with a holiday and the wet weather, this was the first chance.

 

 

I also have front and rear diff guards as well as a trasnfer case guard to fit, but they will have to wait unit I fit the Des Sol breather kit.

Robin
 

I fitted my Des Sol breather kit this morning. Although it went well I only got the front diff done, it took some time to route the breather pipe down the engine bay, the pipe kept twisting into the wrong place.

A tip, soak the pipe in hot water and hang with a weight, makes the pipe soft and easier to thread through.

The old valve removed, came off easy
 

The Des Sol breather adapter and pipe fitted
 

The breather box and filter 
 

Whilst I had the front of the car jacked I fitted a front diff protector as I have a trial on Sunday and a trek the following weekend 
 

I decided to spray it red so it will be easier to spot when I have scraped it and of course paint something red and it adds 50% to the strength.

Robin

I entered another trial on Sunday and had more mixed results. The surface was a mixture of soil, some sand and recycled materials, which easily clogged the treads on my Worm Drives, but the course went over some short sharp rises, two of which I failed to get over and a couple of deep rutted parts that I also failed to clear, despite a very good go. At least I wasn't the only one, a few Landys failed as well.

The bright red front diff protector is no long bright red, but at least it's done it's job and apart from a couple of new scrapes underneath nothing major was broken.

I did get a loud clicking sound when using a fair few revs to get out of a muddy bit, I think it was one of the vacuum hubs which hadn't engaged correctly, although after toggling 4WD it seemed fine.

Video and photos to follow.

Robin

I finished off the Des Sol breather kit install today, fitting the rear diff breather and the transfer case breather, then running the lines forward to the filter box next to the battery.

The rear diff was the easiest to reach and was straight forward to do.

 

I wasn't looking forwards to doing the transfer case, but with the car up on ramps and a new purchase (crawler board) it was actually easier than expected.

 

 

Finally all of the hose was routed to the front along the brake pipes, tucked up high and tied with cable ties.

It's taken me two mornings and about 5 hours to do the whole job, but I didn't rush and I was impressed with the Des Sol kit, the breather mounting points are good and solid and well thought out.

Robin

Part 1 of the North East 4x4 trial on Sunday 13th October. It wasn't a Jimny friendly course, too many short steep hils and lots of really soft stuff, with the result I bottomed out too many times.


Part 2 coming up later.

Robin

I am looking to do the diff breathers and underbody protection.

Sound like something that can be done at home. Any gotchas when installing the radial arm.protectirs ?

I bought the Des Sol breather kit, a fair bit more expensive than other solutions, but it is well thought out and everything works great on it. It took me two mornings to fit, but I took my time and did a few other jobs at the same time. I am sure there will be something local to you.

The radius arm protectors (from Jimnybits) I fitted were straight forward to fit, there was no drilling to do. The last set I fitted to my old Gen 3 needed drilling and the steel was quite hard. Make sure the vehicle is level and slacken the existing bolt. If it’s tight use a couple of jacks one under the chassis and another under the radius arm to move the positions.

I made the mistake of doing the first two on a slope, as soon as I took the bolt out the arm and wheel moved and I had to use a steel rod to get the holes to line up. When I did the other two I moved the car to flat ground and didn’t even need the jacks. Again I am sure there will be something local to you.

I bought radius arm protectors, front and rear diff guards and a transfer case plate. I have just bought HD front recovery points.

Hope that helps

Robin

does the kit come with enough parts to do both diffs and the transfer case and gearbox or just the diffs ?

The Des Sol kit includes everything you need to do both diffs and the transfer case. It even includes two Allen keys, a tube of thread lock and enough cable ties to route the supplied tube, see the following

des-sol.co.za/product/differential-breather-kit/

One tip, the tube is coiled up tight and doesn’t like to route in straight lines. I put mine in near boiling water then hung them up with a weight attached to get them to go straight. Of course you can just put them up in the sun to soften them.

Robin