Suzuki Club UK

Rear axle bearings

Next job on the list to do as its MOT relevant. Plan is to change both bearings and replace diff oil giving the rear shoes an overhaul in the process

Pressing on the new bearing together with stop collar. The first kit i bought was a blueprint one and the collar was too big and fel straight off the shaft again. I had to order a genuine item from suzuki which cost £12







Re surfaced the brake shoes and friction surface of drum with emery cloth and gave it a clean up in the brake washer



Before




After




Il be fitting the shaft this weekend just hope my fill plug comes undone on the diff because i lost all the oil when the shaft was removed.

There is a slight amount of axial play in the shafts on each side. Is this normal or something wrong?



This will give me play in the wheel surely

This is the side i didnt get chance to clean up properly at work. I found the handbrake mechanism and a piston to be siezed. Its a second hand part i assumed would work straight away

Put the play down a little end float it doesn't worry me everything's built up ok and the backplate bolts flush up to the axle housing

Cleaned up the handbrake mech from drivers side as it was siezed.



Having trouble with this side at min. Even with the shoes backed off fully, the drum seems to bind unlike the passenger side. Still need to bleed them up and operate the pedal a few times so maybe they will settle into a better position?

Either that or the backplate is bent?

Welding begins

Been a while since iv updated this as its been sat in a friends garage awaiting welding to begin. Went for a first look at it today and pleased to say that its coming on well


Pictures are always better than words so heres loads

::::UPDATE::::

Been to see the progress again this weekend. Nearly all the welding has been done apart from the drivers rear corner. The rest has been done and seam sealed and filler applied which just needs rubbing down before paintwork

The brackets for the wings are been repaired and put back on to house the new plastic arches. A bead of sealant will bond these to the body and stop water getting in behind. There will be plenty of action taken to stop future rust too.

They are going to be designed in such a way that if the anus suffered a knock to any wing, it will pull off the plastic spat instead of damaging the body.




I will be using the original sill trims so a bracket is going to be made to hold these. It will be held on by individual brackets to allow water to escape. The sills are going to be drilled at each end and filled with waxoyl or some other oil to protect against rust, rubber grommets will hold this in.

The whole underside is going to be painted in Shultz stonechip put on with a compressor.

To enable me to use the existing sill trims on the new sills some custom brackets have been made to support them, we have designed them so the water does not get trapped and cause rot, which is the basic problem of the original design

Coming along nicely! good plan with the trim brackets as well that should work well!

Rear light refurb

After assessing my original lights i decided that the broken earth contacts were too difficult to repair properly so went on the hunt for another set. Harder than i first thought it seems

In total i found and rejected 3 sets of replacements before spotting a nice looking set on Ebay. I cleaned them up and found just a few minor repairs had been made and some scotch locks were fitted for trailer wiring. I removed these as they collect dirt and corrode

I dont have any before pics but these are the finished units




I have cleaned up the earth contacts and covered them in grease to prevent corrosion


Some of the bad repairs i cut out and soldered together, finishing it with shrink wraps




I began taping the wires up with loom tape like this but then realised that this will hold moisture and probably not do the wiring any good, its really for internal wiring this really


Instead of the lamps having 2 earth points i joined them together to make one. I have made the wires longer than needed to aid fitting and help make any future repairs easier


Main problem it seems is that the lights and wiring are so exposed to the elements in the open bumper. Made worse by the fact that its an off road vehicle. Care should be taken to protect any exposed wires from dirt and water and seal any joints properly. A lot of the wiring in the loom has gone black and dirty inside which makes things difficult. Before soldering i had to clean the core wires with brake cleaner and emery cloth to make them shiny again so they take the solder.

Running the wiring through the cab instead of underneath is probably the best way but i wont be doing this myself.

Rear arches nearly complete now. All the welding work is finished and has been seam sealed and Shultz undersealed. This will be applied to the complete underside and chassis legs. It stays slightly tacky and does not allow stone chips to damage the finish and cause corrosion



The cream coloured product around the arches and along the sills is Gravitex. Basically a barrier that will not let water past. As the arches will no longer be removeable this needs to be very well protected and sealed to prolong the life of thhe vehicle.







The sills have been completely replaced and the ends have been plated up. Holes drilled in each end allowed waxoyl to be sprayed in and completely covered from the inside. A special multi hole nozzle ensures complete coverage. Its then bunged up and painted over so it isnt visible







You can see the welding where there were previously holes near the body mounts.






This was the worst area of rot around the fuel filler neck






This side had already had a previous repair when i bought it, it wasnt the best quality so most of it was cut out and done again, the shape of the arch is different to the OS though as this joins straight up to the inner wing, the offside rear has maintained the standard valley as it joins the inner wing

Nice job.

The little hole with the bung is a great idea.

Dan