Suzuki Club UK

Brilliant, I love anything like that, I bought a manual for a russian truck (ural 375) and it has just a small bit of handwritten text in the front cover with a milage, its best bit of the manual, it makes me wish I knew more about the history of my truck, I only know of my previous x2 owners, James brown before me and Kevin smith before that, both SCUK members prior to my ownership.

thats brilliant Ed! my dads cavalier has got similiar book with oil changes etc , shame my sj never came with such things just a v5 and few old mots

Given she was called Blondie for 25 years I think I might have to start calling her it too.

I mean, if I moved house and everyone there started calling me Steve, I'd be weirded out.

The old girl seems to have devloped a squeak.

Going round slow right handers in Hull this morning she was making a noise that sounded like worn out brake squealing. Going to take a wheel off when I get home and have a look at the brakes and see if there's play in the bearings.

Right, looks like the old girl's due for a few bits doing. Luckily I've got a sizeable chunk of student loan left over from September and I get my next £2000 in January so I can afford to spend some on her.


She definitely needs front springs. I suspect if the springs are shot, the shocks will be too.

I need to get her jacked up and get a wheel off to look, but I think the front brakes need something doing because she squeaks under light braking and squeaks when I turn semi-hard right.

Is there an easy way to check the state of the rear brakes without fetching the drum off? Can the drum wear out? I'm not that familiar with drum brakes.

Handbrakes starting to go soft again but I can probably solve that with a little adjustment. I doubt the handbrake shoes are worn out......

Also, how do you know if the rear springs and shocks are gone too?


Worst case scenario I'm looking at springs, shocks, pads/shoes, discs/drums and bushes all round. I need bump stops too.

Who? Where? And how much?

Cheers

yeah the rear drums can wear out like disks as its part of the friction surface, but more than likely its just your pads, take some care getting your drums off they're probably stuck on the brake shoe lip so you may need some extra force to get them off.... and too much force leaves you with a lemon shaped hub! the best way to check your shocks is to get them off then give them a push and a pull and see how they feel (and if there are any leaks) how do your springs look? are they parabolics? My friend had parabolics on hs 410 they looked buggered all the time but really weren't it was just how they sat!

When it's light tomorrow I'll take a picture of the rear springs. They look alright to me, but I know that unhappy front springs means they're worn out. The rears will be as old as the fronts and I don't know what an SJ feels like with new springs and shock all round or what an SJ with knackered springs and shocks feels like.

She does seem to go 'face-down, ass-up' in the corners though which tells me the front is soft.

As tramp says looking at the shocks are they leaking?

Look at the outer "cover" is it rotten and knackered? Grab the shock one end at a time and try and shake it and twist it. If it moves the bushes have probably gone. Inspect the bushes look for perishing and cracking. Over time the rubber bushes break down. Rub them and see if you get loose flakey rubber bits on your hand.

As for springs. I've never seen an SJ on new springs but give me a few weeks and i'll have some

The obvious thing is shape. Over time they go flat, they can crack but I haven't managed to do that yet. If it hasn't been off roaded highly unlikely that are warped or twisted. At that age I would just expect them to be tired and flat.

I've ordered +1.5" but i'm going to measure the height and clearance before and after and see what I actually get.

Again, no real way of inspecting rear brakes without drum removal. If it is seized DON'T bray the drum with anything harded than a leather possibly copper mallet. It may distort or crack. If your Zuk doesn't have the plastic hub cap with the wheel on you'll be able to see the four hub nuts. Leave the wheel on and undo the four nuts. With the axle jacked up and supported properly on stands bray the tyre from the back with something like a 5lb hammer all the way round and it will free the drum. As the drum wear you get a lip on the outside edge which will foul on the shoes as it comes off.

Once you've brayed it a few times you'll feel the drum come loose. I usually leave the wheel on and just wiggle and perservere? Spelling? Till it comes off then when you fit new shoes put them on the smallest setting drum back on and adjust them up. Not sure if 410s have auto slack adjusters

Jordi

Here's the pictures of my springs. Not sure how easy they are to see but the fronts are bending upwards a bit and the rears are a bit flat in the middle.

mine were like that, i got my new springs from http://www.japanese4x4spares.co.uk/suz-sj1.html
they are great, and my car sat about 2"/3" higher after fitting new springs, the only thing was the rear springs had the bolts in the wrong way round, think they were setup for spoa so i took the bolt out of each of them and put them in the right way...

heres the difference mine had against new ones: