Soon to be SJ owner!

[MHR1294]

Hey everyone, I'm Martin

I'm bringing in an SJ30, fancied something a bit different from the norm!

I'm sure I'll be frequenting this forum often when it arrives.

No idea what the original colour is, but I like it. Might loose it down the beach when lockdown is lifted

[SherwoodNash]

Fab

Be sure to fill us in, in all the logistical process and also the financial side if you so wish.

Good Luck

[MHR1294]

Thanks

I'm using an importer in the Northeast (BHP Imports who I used 2 years ago go bring over a Suzuki Alto) to do the legwork for me.

I won the car at auction for its reserve price (about £2900). plus de-registration fees and shipping it's about £4200 total for it to leave Japan.

Shipping is via RoRo, and NOT a container. containers are more expensive, take longer and more likely to get dented etc.

Once it arrives here, customs, duty, VAT, registration, road tax and the importers fees comes to about £2500*

This is an estimate, It should qualify for VAT and customs duties at 5% as it's over 30 years old.

So, OTR it should be about £6700. It's quite a lot for an SJ, but being 2 stroke and good condition it's a bit different (and cars are money pits anyway).

I'm hoping it'll arrive before the end of July. I wonder what the insurance will say when I tell them there's no door locks...

[ScottieJ]

Man I would love a 2stroker. Looks awesome.

Do you still have the Alto? which shaper is it as I have a load of NOS Alto parts like mud flaps and other random bits.

[MHR1294]

Mn I would love a 2stroker. Looks awesome.

Do you still have the Alto? which shaper is it as I have a load of NOS Alto parts like mud flaps and other random bits.

Same here, I just really wanted a 2 stroke also minimal rust as I've got one that appears to have spent most of its life in the South of Japan.

I know it's got unique axles, different pcd for wheels and a really short diff ratio, I'm sure it's something ridiculous like 4.777 so might swap them for regular UK spec SJ axles (if they fit I'm sure they will) to make it a bit more friendly on our roads. I don't mind doing 45mph but think it'll get tiring hahaha, assuming the ratios haven't been changed already!

I don't think you'll have parts to fit this. It's an HA36S Works it does excellent donuts in the snow

[ScottieJ]

Thats a bit strange that it has a differnet PCD on the wheels,the PCD is the same between all the earlier LJs and later SJs so i'm not sure why the Sj30 would be the only model with a different PCD, that's not like suzuki at all. Are you sure it's not 4.55 or 4.88? Those were the ratios in the lj80 and lj50 so it sounds like it has LJ diffs fitted, sj410 diffs should fit in that case but you will have to fit some later yokes to your props as the flange is bigger (gone into a bit more detail below).
I presume it's got drum brakes on the front looking at the hub flanges on the front (not the clearest picture though) I would imagine that its got the same axles as the SJ40 aka the series 1 SJ410.

But Yes you could just swap out the whole axle assembly so that you have discs up front and the auto adjusting drums out the back, thr spring spacing will be the same. You will have to run hybrid propshafts though as it will have skinny shafts fitted, you will need to run later 410/early 413 prop yokes at the diff end, this requires you to build up a UJ that has internal circlip type 2 caps in the prop and 2 external circlip Type 1 caps in the diff yoke.

Ah yeah, all the parts i have are for the older classic Altos.

[MHR1294]

Yes, drums all round.

I misunderstood the PCD. I can see on Suzuki website it's the SJ40 "Jimny 1000" which is different. It has a 6 stud pattern. Japanese ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport didn't want people to be able to fit SJ40 "Jimny 1000" wheels to the SJ30 "Jimny 550" because the Jimny 1000 isn't a kei car. It's probably just a Japanese market thing, I've never seen a 6 stud one here anyway?

I've just found the ratios from Suzuki website https://www.suzuki.co.jp/car/jimny/spec ... /sj30.html

1: 3.834
2: 2.358
3: 1.542
4: 1.000
R: 4.026
Transfer: 1.741 and 3.052
Diffs are 4.777

It'll be a few months before I can investigate!

If you've got Alto parts to get rid of, I'm sure someone off Kei Kars in the Park group will buy them

[ScottieJ]

Ah yes, sorry I have seen the 6 stud pattern before, I forgot there were some JDM models with that, always wondered why it was.

Looks like it didn't last that long though as they Just went back to 5x17.9 on all of them when the Ja71 came out I've never seen a 6 stud one anywhere else in the world except Japan.

Looks like yours is 5x139.7 as well so thats handy if you fancy some wider wheels

Nice find, thats interesting, I'd like to see what transfer box it has fitted, with those ratios it looks like it might be an LJ stye transfer box.
*edit* Just spotted in the brochure it's an early SJ style transfer box, that's got a nice reduction in low! You could gear it up with an early SJ40 transfer box instead of changing the axles, it would be much less work and I know someone that should have one.

I'm 99% sure the diffs will be the normal LJ80/410 size, however there is always a chance it's got the LJ50/SJ10 size, IIRC they are a bit smaller.

I've not heard of Kei cars in the park, I'll have to look it up

[MHR1294]

Oh yeah, the low range is very very low! I've got a nice steep hill just up the road from my house I can go and test it.

I never even thought of changing the transfer box... it's so obvious to me now. I'll go chuck the ratios into the calculator and see what differences it makes.

It's got taller tyres on it, be interesting to see what size they are as that'll affect it too. Hoping to get close up photos of it this week I'll have to get stocked up on 2 stroke oil as well be a few months at least before it's even close to the UK.

KKITP are a bit more active on the Facebook side of things, the forums (like all tbh) are moving really slowly these days.

[ScottieJ]

The guy I thought might have one doesn't but I have other contacts that might so if you want to go that way just let me know and i'll ask around.

I have requested to join the facebook group, just waiting for approval