New rear axle assembly has arrived

Well it has taken a while to get the new rear axle assembly with the right ratio. Finally found a dismantler who was happy to "count the teeth" and his price was right so I ordered it from Queensland which is about 2000 k's away. It arrived this morning and will be going into my Jimny on Saturday.

Will take the radius arms into specialist to fit new poly bushes on Friday.

Taking the original axle casing to Suzuki during the week to ask why the original welding did not penetrate the metal but just sat on top all the way around. It is 11 years old and 400,000 plus k's but I rather suspect it wouldn't have broken if the welding had been up to scratch.

It will be good to get back on, and off, the road again though

did i read that right 400,000 plus k's

not bad for a little jimny

Holy crap that nearly to the moon and back NASA spec Jimny

Awww come of it guys, heaps of Jimnys have big mileage over here in Oz. They go forever and the climate is kind to cars. My Falcon has 313,000 k's on it and they frequently go over the million k's without a murmur. A few of the Jimnys in my group have over 500,000 k's. I nicked up to Brissy a fortnight or more ago and picked up my small speedboat and drove back, doing 3801 k's from Wednesday morning until Friday arvo. Big k's is nothing here, just gotta keep the fluids up to 'em, change filters reg and do the maintenance.

Glad you got it sorted. As a matter of interest what was the diff ratio?
Be interesting to see what Suzuki have to say - probably nothing!

Hi Obarno. I am not sure what Suzi dudes will say apart from "It is long out of warranty". But the Law here in Oz is that merchandise must be of merchantible (is that a word?) quality and that this factor is not constrained by time. Ie, if you only discover the fault 10 years down the track, it is still a fault that must be rectified. Unless, of course, you have beaten the equipment to death, which is ones own fault in that case. I called in Tom Hogg, a welding engineer and gas line Welding Inspector. He took pics and scrapings and wrote a report ($95) saying that the welding had never penetrated the surfaces but was instead butted onto the outside of the housings and apparently held together by "Magic" (my word ) and the supporting radius arms etc. So, if no action then I will go to the "Small Claims Tribunal" and spend my $32 and present my claim. The tribunal has lower standards than the normal court system, deals with claims under $10,000, legal fraternity not permitted and decisions binding Nothing to lose hey.

Hi ZookFastback
Interesting situation as that weld would presumably have been made by an automatic machine, and not hand welded. So maybe it has happened to other cars as well. I think you were very lucky to get home with it, but even more lucky that it didn't cause as accident.
Good luck with your claim!

I built some axle welding machines years ago when the ford transit as its known over here was RWD
The cases on those were not so much welded more fused together bacically you bought the 2 parts together + on one - on the other it would then strike an arch bettween the 2 parts draw them apart to increase the arc and weld pool before slamming them back together machines sceamed like banshees as the arc was drawn apart very cool but never seemed like a good old MIG or Arc weld

Hmmm, interesting chat with a Suzi rep. He reminded me that the soft-tops were made by Santana Motors in Spain and that Santana declared bankruptcy. Lol, I am not paranoid, the world really is conspiring against me

Anyway, don't care. Main thing is to get up and running. If anyone else has had the same problem with axle housing welding would be interested to hear from you. Class action as opposed to non-classy action

Hmmmmmm could be i was happy to see mine had a J for Japan prefix on the chassis number
Santana did the S3 late landrovers over here from what i beleive they were not so good and the Spanish SJs and Sammies were shocking for rust and poor build quality ive still got a Jap SJ 26years old not mint but still all there

its only the soft top jimnys that are made in spain i think

Old rear axle assembly removed at last. I have never done this sort of work before so I go slow and take plenty of photos.

Nothing seized up in the bolt side of things so all is going good and will use the same bolts for re-assembly. Must remember to put that purple thread stuff on after I have cleaned the threads with wire brush. Poly bushes haven't arrived yet so may not get to assemble over weekend but no hurry, got plenty of cars.