Jimny rear radius arms

Last year the daughters Jimny had a advisory that a bush on the offside rear arm was showing signs of wear. So I obtained two spare arms and replaced all the bushes and painted them with designs to replace them when I do the clutch during the year. Unfortunately as things went other priority jobs came up until all of a sudden its Mot time again! She needs the car for work and it was a balancing act to fit the car in to work on it whilst she still had wheels for work.(We live in Stoke and she works in Derby) Anyway I sorted other wheels for her (my Tiguan) whilst I took the Jimny back to my local garage for the test. This time it failed as the bush had deteriorated and he felt it had to be done. He also decided one of the brake pipes was rusty enough to need attention too. And of course it is one of the front to rear ones about one third from the rear axle. What a pain that is. Anyway I decided that fate had chosen the time for me to do the radius arms. I had read all about the horrors of bolts having to be cut out (In fact the spare arms I got had the remains of the bolts still in the bushes when I got them)and the elongation of the mounting brackets and all that entailed, but apart from getting the first bit of motion on the nuts after scrapping as much of the muck and rust off as possible and getting the 17mm spanners to actually go on the nuts and bolts, they all came out free and undamaged. The brackets are as they should be and they went back just as well. I would say one hour for each all in. And that is working off axle stands with the diff supported with a jack as per the manual until the final torqueing when the axle needs to be unladed. I have decided the garage can use their ramp to struggle and repair/change the pipe. After that its on to the clutch and cable. I have again read about the ways to do it and have decided, for me, the best way is to take the engine out as it seems like really hard work to do all the removing of the exhaust, the prop shafts, the boxes and all that entails lying on your back when the engine removal is a much simpler. I have a crane and can do it myself. It will also allow me to do some repair work and cleaning in the engine bay too.

Hi mickt i changed my clutch on Wednesday , i did it under the car on axle stands didn't remove the exhaust or the front prop fully just took it of the t-box end and removed the short prop to the g-box . You dont need to take the g-box out fully to swap the clutch you can slide it back on to the crossmember and leave it there . Only took about 3 hours to do in total . Just something to think about I'd say it would be easier than a full engine out job . Cheers David

I am 68 and a might arthritic especially in my shoulders and hips and so to try and do it like that would be torture and dangerous for me. Mind, even Suzuki recommend to remove the engine!

Changed my clutch to a paddle clutch a few weeks back.....on my back.....I'll start using the hoist in the garage when I get to 68 matey!

I've never enjoyed making/changing brake pipes myself either....unfortunately I'm poor so force myself ::

I do not mind making them on a bench but its the getting them off and then on on this car is the nightmare. The garage mentioned they would just cut the pipe and then using an inline connector replace the corroded bit. Trouble with that is the pipes on the car are steel and the replacement pipe will be copper. The trouble with the steel is the flaring as the steel is more brittle than the copper and getting a good flare can be a nightmare. So they are going to do it on their ramp on Wednesday and then they can do the retest.
As regards the elongation and damage that can occur to the radius arms axle mounting brackets I reckon it must be the off-roading cars that suffer due to the extended movement arcs they are put under!