Gaz's reasonably priced jimny..

Thought id chuck up a progress thread of the jim.Dont have alot of pics to date but i will explain what ive done and post the pics i have.I bought this jimny in need of work/tlc with a short t+t,im on a budget as money is tight (when is it not).i plan to keep it simple but having friends who have had jims with basic off road mods ive seen what a set of tyres and a small lift can do.i sold my 300 tdi disco as it was rottern and nearing an mot,popped on here and seen this after a viewing and a bit of a think a price was agreed and i bought it,no real risk for what i paid as i couldnt drive it due to a collapsed wheel bearing worst case if it was completely knackered i could break it and move on but all seems well so far



I got the car recovered back home due to a collapsed osf wheel bearing and imediatly set about removing the hub.(i can do all the repairs myself been a time served tech)



After fitting the bearing i thought first thing was to go for a slow local drive to see what was what,this wasnt good,the brakes hardlys worked pulling terrible to the left,there was lots and lots of play in the steering,and when putting it in 4wd it was evidedent that the osf cv joint was completly shot the banging was terrible.so after jacking it up and having a look round i needed,x4 king pin bearings as they were all shot and guessing had been like that for a long time,i got 2 sets of wheels with the car and 4 of the tyres were scrubbed indicating the bearings had been like this,osf cv joint,a osr axel oil seal as fluid was dripping from the back plate.and a full brake strip down check and over hall.not many pictures as said.



after doing all of the said things above,and i found that the slides in the calipers were nie on siezed so all freed off and rears cleaned and adjusted i no had a jimny that drove id say now safely.after a road test it was clear the jimny was suffering from the "death wobble".when i ordered the bearings a ordered a shim kit so after some tweaking ive got the wobble nie on gone and this is without balancing any wheels yet,so quite pleased.



Id gave the jimny a good once over,removed the rear tints,removed all of the chrome as this was not for me,found a small ammount of corrosion in the boot the usual place i treated these and hammerited them as its still pretty solid hoping they will pass a test.i also had to do some repairs to the wiring for the front lights as the jimny has had some spot lamps fitted and found that scotch locks and wires just twisted together were the culprit so soildered everything up and they now all work.i was now happy to put the jim in for a test even tho it wasnt due till the end of the month this would give me time to sort any problems thats picked up.

picture before dropping off for test.



The jimny passed with a couple of advisarys,i know the mot place but they dont turn any blid eyes to anything id rather know if there was problems.

The advisarys were osr brake just met efficency this was the side that was soaked in diff oil so i whipped the drum off again brake cleanered the shoes again and nipped them up seems ok now.

The corrosion i found was advised but he said theres nothing to worry about was happy with that.

He thought there was some play in the nsf somewhere now he knew id replaced all the king pins as he could see all the gasket sealer and where everything had been cleaned.when i got back from the test centre i could still feel a bit of play/knock in the steering so after jacking the nsf up there was no play in the wheel at all so i dropped the car down and got my dad to work the steering wheel and you could hear a slight clunk after looking about and swinging off this i found that the panard rod on the ns was loose after removing the that was siezed in i cleaned all the treads refitted and tightened that was that all the play gone drives so much better.

Next was the emmissions he said it had just scraped through,now after this it got me thinking,the jimny does seem heavy on fuel in fact worse than my old 300tdi disco that had done 220000 miles.after working out my mpg's im averageing around 18-20 mpg i was putting this down to the fact id been playing in the snow etc but decided to put my code reader on and behold p0420,this is an emmisions fault after double checking it was apparent some one had removed the engine managment light bulb to me this is false economy,so ive removed the o2 sensors and tested them they are both working fine and react as they should so after some digging ive put this down to a heavily carbond up cat,the jimny still goes as well as expected for a 1.3 so it hasnt collapsed and it doesnt rattle,this is where im at at the moment im toying with de-catting it now i have an mot and spacing the 2nd o2 sensor but im waiting on my parts lad to get back to me about the price of a cat.ive also re-fitted a new eml bulb







I still have a fair bit of jobs stuff i want to do to the jimny but its and on going thing,ive sold alot of the standard chrome and sold it on giving me a bit money back in all helps,ive also bought off nezzy55 on here a set of white modulars 8 spokes with insa sahara 195 80 15's with 32mm spacers to fit,ive also got a 2" spring spacer lift coming.ive also got a friend fabbing me up some recovery points ,after fitting these this should get me out playing with my mates fingers crossed.will keep updating and try get more pictures lol thanks for looking so far

Nice little Jimny I can't wait to see what it looks like with the white modulars on.

looks like you've been busy!

Glad you are getting it sorted, taking out the engine check light is very naughty of someone!!

Like you I dont have an endless pit of money so its a case of being clever and frugal. But it does not stop me making a massive wish list

Thanks for taking the time with photos & what you are at, glad you are able to have some fun in the snow ....

Looks to be coming along nicely, it will look great once you have the spring spacers on and wheels,.

it may be worth getting some of martins shock relocation brackets to give a little more travel in the rear shocks, when I had my spacers in with the standard shocks it was quite harsh over speed bumps before fitting the brackets.

That is a fantastic write up , great to see you doing the work and in the right order get the car sorted then get the upgrades , and seems you have made sensible choices on the upgrades to

Thanks for the great replys its appreciated,ive just re-read my write up theres a few mistakes but i was in a bit of a hurry this morning when i done it.to note ive got shock extenders coming aswell.

Couple of tweeks today

new rear number plate the number makes me laugh a bit,bet people were calling me a kox when going sideways past then in the snow



When i got it i noticed that the rear wiper stopped when at the full sweep,i put this down to a siezed motor and ordered a new one,but the other day i noticed something about the spare wheel it didnt look like it was sitting right,after closer inspection the tailgate has taken a knock and its bent in over a bit.thus causing the wiper arm to get stuck against the tyre.need to have a think on this one



Also the top tailgate hinge had dropped so i removed this today



Ive had a right fight with it today,took it over to the garage i work at (when its busy,im self employed and not there much at the moment always the same in january,hence how i have a bit of time to do odds and sods on the jimny during the day) rather than replace it i was confident i could bodge sorry repair it lol,had to tap out the old snapped pin with lots of shouting,a couple of drifts and heat,got there in the end i just need to tidy it up fit my makeshift pin and put a layer of paint on it then i will refit this tomorrow.

gaz3359 wrote: Thanks for the great replys its appreciated,ive just re-read my write up theres a few mistakes but i was in a bit of a hurry this morning when i done it.to note ive got shock extenders coming aswell.

Good stuff you are one step ahead

Love the wheels mate haha, its coming along nicely give me a shout when its reddy to go playing, a mite tag along

Looking good mate. Did this come with chrome handle surrounds?