Kirkynut's Jimny (aka Daddy's Tractor) - The Evolution continues...

I don't think you can work it out mathmatically as there are too many variables - just compress the wheel up in the arch as much as you possibly can by driving it off road in a controlled way - ie: find a big hump and drive up it inch by inch to see what happens to the point of how much you are ever going to get it and look to see if the tyre is catching on anything.

If it doesn't catch, leave alone, if it does, look at how far the bumpstops are from hitting and extend by a little over that to allow for the rubber bumpstop to compress a little. If you raise it oo much, trim a little off the rubber.

Do the same with front and rear but turn the steering lock to lock to check it won't catch in any position.

I was fortunate that my mate lifted it up on a forklift on one wheel for me!

Kirkynut

I took the Jimny offroading properly for the first time yesterday since the new tyres were fitted and the rear extended bumpstops work a treat, they are just the right length - 2" of tube and 1/4" of plate. They stop the wheel from catching the arch with about 1/3" to spare.

My fears of the body and chassis rising up on side slopes due to the spring not being able to allow the axle up instead were put to bed, it is fine. I got out of the truck to look when they were touching and the truck was at quite an angle but was nowhere near rolling and could have gone over a fair amount first. I think my bottle runs out far sooner than the Jimny will roll, unless I do something silly, at which point I expect it would most likely go over on it's side anyway.

The front tyres scrub a little at the rear of the arches, but I do not want to lose the arch liners and it's not too bad, so it will stay as it is.

I'm a happy bunny now.

I don't often get piccies of myself off road as I'm always the one taking the piccies! I asked my mate to take a couple though, so here they are:







It was only a little plod around, nothing too serious, hence the spare is still on the back!

Our club site has been very wet recently and is only just starting to dry out. It has an easy side, which is not necessarily easy these days and is currently drowned and a modified only section, which is more hardcore and can be quite damaging. The cage is a necessity all over our club site.

I can't say how good the Malatesta tyres are though as it was too dry to give them a work out and any mud terrains would have coped.

I did find I could go alot slower and had more control and did not have to use momentum much with their added grip.

Kirkynut

Here's a piccie of my JimJam at our Club competition last year. I quite like it. It was taken by a fellow club member.

Kirkynut

I've spent a fair amount of money on the Jim Jam this month - can't tell the handbrake exactly how much or she'll have a fit after we've just paid for a kitchen!!!

Anyway - My Jim Jam now sports ORA Castor Correction Arms front and rear and Superpro Bushes in both arms and Panhard Rods!

It now handles like an off road dream more than a boat but needed a new set of tie rod ends as they were pooped and the firming up of the bushes showed this out as complete full on Death Wobble - but that's all fixed now and water under the bridge - I've forgiven the Jim Jam for nearly killing me!

I have also solved another problem that has been plaguing my Jim Jam for some time - leaky swivel balls, despite new wheel bearings and kingpin bearings several times over with many new axle tube oil seals.

Having put right many of the wrongs of the previous owner over the 3 - 4 odd years I've owned my Jim Jam - I have to admit to a bit of a boob myself.

When I bought the car from KAP Suzuki I asked them whilst I was there what solutions there were to the vacuum operated hubs and they sold me quite cheaply a set of fixed hubs and cut down some spare front wheel bearing nuts to allow these hubs to fit without needing a spacer as Martin sells in the Big Jimny shop. Spacers were not about in them days of old and no-one really had put SJ manual hubs on Jimny's and told everyone else about it. Big Jimny was only just gaining momentum back then and I had not even joined!

I put the fixed hubs on and when I sold my SJ I took the manual hubs off that to put on the Jim Jam.

It's so long ago that I don't remember doing it but I must have found that the manual hubs do not just bolt on, even with the cut down bearing nuts. They foul on the plate / washer / spacer that sits behind the circlip on the CV shaft where it comes through the steering knuckle.

Well I must have though, taken that plate / washer / spacer thing out and it'll go on fine - which it did. Little did I know then that this plate / washer / spacer draws the Birfield part of the CV into a seal in the steering knuckle which keeps it in place and stops the CV wobbing about.

It was fine until I read all about Death Wobble and decided I would replace both front wheel bearings and King Pin bearings to ensure the dreaded Death Wobble would not inflict it's horribleness on me!

In doing so I pulled the Birfield part of the CV from this seal and never really pulled it back into it as I never used this Plate / washer / spacer thing again to keep it drawn into it. This allowed the CV to flop about inside the knuckle slightly, pressing on the axle tube oil seal as it went round slightly wonky, allowing oil to leak out into the swivel housing.

Well in an effort to fix this as I could not understand what I had done wrong - and it was clearly me as it had been OK before I touched it, I have read every fix on here and replaced wheel bearings once and king pin bearings umpteen times.

I even changed the axle for one from a scrappy thinking maybe I had bent a kingpin or even the axle. It was a good thing anyway as the captive Panhard rod bolt on the old front axle had no thread and the previous owner tacked a little weld on the bolt with a wing and a prayer it would stay put - except it didn't and came out at Slindon the other year!

So whilst waiting for new Tie Rod Ends to arrive after the Death Wobble finally inflicted me - now solved by these - I looked once again at all the diagrams, manuals and pictures I could to see what I was doing wrong and found these Plates / washer / spacers on a set of old vacuum hubs I have in the workshop - perhaps the originals I removed all those years ago.

I found that these Plates / Spacers / Washers are supposed to be fitted and after trial fitting them once again I could feel that the Birfield had been drawn into the seal and it hit me what was happening!

To say I feel a little silly is an understatement - especially as a friend came and rebuilt the front axle with me recently to see if he could see what I was doing wrong and asked if it should have a spacer / washer there, like our old SJ's used to - and I was convinced it never had one!

Not to worry -all fixed now and the fixed hubs are temporarily back on until I order some spacers up from Martin!

Kirkynut

I don;t get to update this much as I have not done anything new to the Jimny for some time. It is now wearing a set of standard jimny steel wheels though as it was never my intention to use the SJ steels but one of the Jimny steels I bought was found to be buckled when my Mobile Tyre Fitter mate came round to fit the new tyres. So I dug the SJ van steels out so I could use the tyres.

It's also now rocking on ORA castor corrected arms front and rear, 3" BigJimny springs, Rough Country shocks and Superpro bushes.

Anyway - today it passed it's MOT with no advisories - and so it should with all the new parts it has had fitted service wise lately - all new bearings everywhere, all new bushes everywhere, all new suspension - oil change, collant change and new rad just before last winter etc.

I tell you what - if Ilavished as much care and money on a normal road car as I do this Jimny it'd never dare go wrong!!!

Kirkynut

Some more pics of my Jim Jam in action last year - not many piccies of it this year as work has stopped me playing much.


















Kirkynut

We have managed to get out laning a couple of times this year though. I've posted these piccies somewhere in the past I think but here they are under this and for those who missed them first time round:








I like to spectate and take photos at winch challenge events and have historically followed the Challenger 4x4 events run by the All Wheel Drive Club. Again, this year I've not been able to get to many due to work commitments, but hopefully that will be different next year.

My camera is a digital SLR but is a bit of an antique with only basic lenses so I've been making do with what I've got. But I think I'll be investing in a new more expensive modern one with fancy expensive lenses next year!

Here is a link to my photos from the last round of the 2012 Challenger I got to at East Grinstead on 27/05/2012 - be aware - I like to take piccies so there's a few! It lacks Zuks but despite them being taken over by Landrovers they are awesome to watch - and if I had the money, I would love to compete at this level and above!

s937.photobucket.com/albums/ad216/kirkyn...rinstead%2027052012/

Kirkynut

A quick piccie of my Jimjam in the snow recently - no updates really - just a quick mobile phone piccie!

Kirkynut

Well the Jimjam passed it's MOT for another year with no advisories - Woo Hoo! To be honest I knew it would be OK and did not have that worried feeling I have had in the past with it when I take it for an MOT.

It has only done 1750 miles since the last MOT and all of those have been on the road, so there was absolutely no reason for it to fail.

I gave it a once over on my last set of rest days not realising the MOT was due on 6th October, just because I like to give my cars a once over every now and then to know everything it tickerty boo. So I knew when I checked my documents the other day and noticed the MOT was about to expire that it would be fine.

I did notice the other day though that the driver's side front extended brake line had begun to rub on the tyre where it had turned for some reason. I think as I drove through flood water recently it might have got caught on something and got pulled round at the joint on the inner wheel arch. No great problem. A spanner on the joint turned it back round, bending the rigid pipe so it's nowhere near doing it now. Fortunately it had not been doing it long so no damage caused.

I really must get out in the Jimjam now and use it for some greenlaning.

I have a few little bits I'm going to do to it soon aswell, so more piccies to be taken I hope.

I considered selling up to be honest as it doesn't get used and a Disco would be nicer size wise etc. The thing is I have so much money invested in the Jimjam that I'd not get back, I love it and the Mrs loves it too and doesn't want me to sell up.

The idea of trips further away has come up, perhaps the Pyrenees etc. This is a reason why I wanted something bigger like a Disco. A Disco is a Land Rover though. Land Rovers are simple to work on and parts are easily obtainable and cheap - but there's a reason for that though! All of my mates drive Land Rovers and they are always fixing this and that and the other needs replacing. They've all replaced steering boxes at £300+ a pop for example - when was the lasttime you heard of a Jimjam steering box needing replacement - and if you did you'd get a second hand one as they are all so good!

So the Jimjam stays and will get more use in the next year!

Long live the Jimjam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kirkynut

The spare wheel cover has been deteriorating on my Jimjam over the last year or so with a tear that has only been getting bigger.

As I had mounted my rear number plate and it's light to the spare wheel cover bolting them to a piece of ply that sandwiched the number plate and light with the cover, this was becoming a problem I had to solve!

I can't have the number plate on the bumper as it's an ORA rear bumper and the tyre would cover most of it so it couldn't be seen and when I've done proper off-roading in the past I take my spare off the rear door and have dropped off some nearly 90 degree drops, so would take off any number plate lights as I slide down.

The solution:

I bought the spare wheel disc cover from eBay and it arrived yesterday. Now I was under the misapprehension that the bottom of the 3 bolts that hold the spare wheel on was how this mounted to the wheel - but how wrong was I!

They must have a 4th bolt or stud for the cover to bolt to - why I don't know but Suzuki must know the answer!

So I had a piece of studding welded to my Bits4Vits spare wheel spacer - Dave doesn't do them any more for some reason, so don't go looking! The number plate is only held on to the disc with self tappers and I always carry a full tool kit in my Jimjam so I'll always be able to get it off to get the spare off.

I then gave it a bit of a clean and de-stickered some of the stickers I have applied over the years that are no longer relevant or I just don't like. I thought about completely de-stickering it but I thing the Mrs would get the hump if I took off the ones of the places we've been to off.

So here it is as it stands today:

The other job I wanted to get done today was to re-locate the battery from the boot to under the bonnet using one of Jimnybits battery trays - The Jimnybits website tells you the maximum width of battery the tray will take but does not mention height and I did not think to test fit my Numax before buying the tray.

So it will come as no surprise to you now that my Numax is too tall and you can't shut the bonnet with it in place, no matter how far back the battery goes in the tray. Obviously it needs a bit of clearance so as not to short the battery out on the bonnet too!

I shall keep the tray for the future and when the Numax calls time I'll replace it with something not so tall. It's a shame as the Numax battery is a really good battery which stores a lot of power and can put out a lot of Amps when required. We shall see - the battery tray might end up for sale on here at some point, along with a barely used ORA Steering Damper kit I've no use for!

I would like to get the battery out of the cabin for obvious reasons with it being a lead acid battery.

Kirkynut