"Mild" off-road plans for Jimny commuting and playing - Opinions welcome :)

Bosanek wrote: 4.
Install axle breathers. They are dead simple to install. Just buy 1/2" internal diameter good quality rubber hose (approx 6-7 m of length) and a few good quality metal screw-tight straps for hoses. Remove factory breather caps from the axle differential housings and put on the rubber hoses, and tighten the metal straps on the connection point. Lay the hoses through the underbody, in the engine bay, up to the bonnet height, avoiding hot surfaces. You do not even strictly need a "T" hose connector, as each hose can go independently up to the top. Tie the hoses with plastic strap ties.
I would recommend this mod even if you do not intend to wade, just for the peace of mind, as I have found water in my front differential even without ever going through a water deeper than 15 cm. I suspect that the splashing effect contributed to water ingress through the factory breathers. That's why I installed hoses.

Hi Bosanek,

Thanks for you posts here and the in the wiki, I'm finding them very useful.

Question re your point (4) if I may. I'm reading that the transfer box and gbox also have breathers so wondering why it isn't mentioned that these should also be extended in the same fashion. Is it that it isn't possible to reach these with the boxes in place?

I note from peoples signatures that the diff breathers are quite popular but haven't noted anyone that's extended the g/transfer box breathers. Do people just accept some water ingress and do regular oil changes with these instead?

Cheers
Mark

I did not mention transfer box and gearbox breathers for two reasons:

1. They are much more complicated to install than axle differential breathers, because they require dismounting the gearbox and the transfer box in the process.
2. Gearbox and transfer box sit higher compared to the axles (and are much less likely to get splashed by water from running wheels), and there is a lot less chance of getting their tops in contact with water, except for really boggy offroading.

So, I would advise to install breathers on the gearbox and transfer box only at the same time when you have to dismount them anyway for some other work.
On the other hand, if you venture so seriously off road that you need them immediately, then you probably have many more things to modify on the car anyway, and you know the name of the game ...

I am informing the public that I have finished all my additions to the Wiki article about tyre sizes, models and best usage practices.

The article is located here:
www.bigjimny.com/mediawiki/index.php/Tyr...age_-_best_practices


I have also finished my additions to the article about improving and modifying a Jimny for mixed on-road and off-road use:
www.bigjimny.com/mediawiki/index.php/Imp..._and_all_terrain_use

I consider both articles to be 98% finished, as far as I am concerned.

Part of the content of the first article is replicated in the second article.

Top work mate.

An excellent write-up - your hard work is much appreciated (and read)!

On the subject of turbo charging, the earlier Mini (BMW built, not the classic) had superchargers fitted. A simple upgrade to the Mini was to fit a bigger supercharger so you do come across the smaller supercharges on Ebay. There have been a number of projects to fit these to Suzuki M13 series engines. The advantage of a supercharger is the wider rev range across which the power is available. A turbo charger makes the power more "peaky" which is not what you want for off-roading.