Help me understand my Jimny please

Hi there,

I’ve only just joined the forum and have only recently acquired a Jimny Gen 3.

It was purchased from a friend of a friend who used it as a town vehicle mostly. He tells me that the owner prior to him did a fair bit of modifications but he’s not entirely sure of the details.

What’s prompted my post is that the vehicle came with 30x9.5r15’s miss that were quite worn. Two days ago I had new mud tyres installed and since then I’ve noticed that the driver side front wheel seems to be sitting more rearward in the arch and just rubs on the rear fender arch at the start of turning right.

I was told that the car was lifted and had some gearbox work done a few years back but not much detail.

Ive had a look under the car and I’ve made some progress by taking photos and googling.
It looks like it’s had a 50mm lift done using new springs. The springs are Cobra springs which are sold by a NZ company.

The springs are paired with Ultima shocks which are for Jimnys lifted between 40-60mm.

Thats about as far as I’ve gotten. I’ve read online that lifting can cause issues with alignment due to panhard rod issues.

Ive taken some photos and I was wondering if someone could tell me if there is anything else under there that’s not stock?

 

The body to tyre gap should be even on both sides. That it isn't could be a few things. It's possible that the brackets on the chassis are worn allowing the control arm to have moved, alternatively with the lift needed to get the tyres under it it's entirely reasonable that someone fitted castor correction bushes in the arms, if they didn't follow the instructions they might have either the wrong bushes in the wrong holes or the offset in the bushes in the wrong orientation. Alternatively those tyres might imply that whoever fitted them really went for it off road and has somehow bent either the brackets on the axle or the axle itself or it's worse and the actual car is bent. Ultimately it's a matter of careful examining to find what is different side to side and repairing stuff.

As for the red gearbox I couldn't tell the difference between the two main types just by looking but that it's red not bare aluminium suggest at minimum a rebuild but others will be able to assist with identifying it.

As Lambert says the distance between the tyre and body work should be even. If it was the front you would say it’s the front bumper which is not straight, but the back is rather solid.

The radius arm should set the distance quite well, so check the mounting points for any sign of damage. I am not sure if the radius arms are all the same length, but aftermarket ones are available, so perhaps one of the arms at the front is different.

If the bushes are that worn, the car will handle terribly, or if something is bent it should be very obvious on the road. What’s it like in a straight line at various speeds?

Or jack the car and feel for play or movement at the front, especially the driver’s side.

We can’t really tell much from the springs, but even if they were wrong the wheel shouldn’t be too far back. It’s also got a steering damper fitted, which is good.

Probably best to wait for your wife to go to work before looking through the aftermarket accessory catalogs.

Robin

Thanks for your replies. I’ll have a look underneath today. The time difference between to UK and NZ isn’t conducive to a flowing conversation 😂

On the road the vehicles is “ok”.

It doesn’t veer to a particular side and between 10-80Kph it’s quite manageable. In general, the car needs a fair bit of revs to get to 100KpH. It seems happy at 80Kph.

Between 60-100Kph, it has a tendency to pick a direction it wants to go and follow that. It literally feels like you’re driving in high winds but the directions changing each time. Not sure if that makes sense.

I had a look underneath today. Can someone confirm if these are stock panhard rods with stock mounting points (I.e no relocation brackets)?is it possible with the arc a panhard creates that it could slightly shift the drivers wheel more rearward if the vehicle were lifted?

I inspected the radius arms and couldn’t appreciate any obvious bends. I’m not familiar enough with bushes to know if they are ok but they all look pretty similar. Photo included.

i did notice that the steering dampener bushes look worn.
 

That looks like standard bushes in standard arms which will probably not be helpful with your stability issues. Do you have pictures of the arms as they attach to the chassis?