Nice work. Liking that rear jerrycan holder. At least it's low down so should help with the CoG.


A friend of mine used to have an SJ413, with some mud-plugga remoulds on it, it was great off road. went places my defenders couldn't get to....


...but then out on bumpy tracks like on Salisbury Plain, I could put my foot down and keep my fillings in place, he was shaken to bits! horses for courses.


you not tempted to stick in a nice little 2 litre or 1.5 ish diesel engine? would help economy and waterproofness? should be easy with the remote transfer box.

"you not tempted to stick in a nice little 2 litre or 1.5 ish diesel engine? would help economy and waterproofness? should be easy with the remote transfer box."

I hope not , zukes very waterproof as standard , and you can do without the clatter of a diesel JMHO

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Current : 2007 Mowag Bucher Duro 6x6 Motorhome , 2006 Sedici 4x4, 2007 Range Rover supercharged

had my sj410 swimming before now. only thing I found was a bit of bath sealant on the distributer where the cap joins and the a spray of wd40 on the distributor, coil and plugs

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1990 Landcruiser H60. Full rebuild completed 2014

Hi Diesel Jim,

Thanks mate. Trying to keep the weight as low as possible so the bumper was a good solution. Also acts as protection and a extra way to lock the back door. I have faith in the Suzuki engine so not really tempted to change it up. I do like diesels though

Go the Zooks!!!!

Haha good work mate, WD40 is works wonders.

Should I shouldn’t I, should I shouldn't I hmmmmm……

After some deep thought and a strange desire to complicate things as much as I possibly can, I decided to pull apart and rebuild the whole engine!



Off with the rocker cover to expose the glorious innards.



Bottom of the head + inlet manifold



Onto the block



Crank shaft, yeah baby!



All looks pretty damn good, but with the kms I’m going to attempt to on this trip I will feel much better knowing everything is fresh, revived and squeaky clean. New piston and rings ordered + rebuild kit, head and block have been sent away for reconditioning. Time to sort some custom draws....

the advantage of all this is you will literally know the vehicle inside out for the trip, which is a real bonus. try and run it for a good while before leaving though to shakedown any teething troubles.

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1990 Landcruiser H60. Full rebuild completed 2014

As is mentioned elsewhere their weight (or lack of it) is their core strength.

Unstoppable and when you screw it up big time, they are easily pushable/pullable.

With the fabrication you're doing it looks like you're going to overload yours...

I did over 20,000kms over 6 months in 1992/3 with a buddy in an SJ410 - which looks the same Nairobi to Cape Town and back.
We had 8 x 10l plastic jerries on the roof, and a spare wheel with camping equipment at the back of the roof rack.

The suspension is difficult to get right, they are set up for a fine point between unladen and fully loaded. Empty they bounce around and over laden they bottom out. if you have a puncture, it hardly affects the vehicle at all (when unladen) and running on a blown rear tyre doesn't shred it to bits at 60kph (I discovered this from necessity not ignorance)
Adding a winch to the front and a jackable front bumper means your front springs WILL need altering for something stiffer. (this will make the bounciness when unladen more apparent!)
If I remember their payload was 800lbs, or 380kg's - not far off a Motorbike!

The roof rack needs to be mounted onto a piece of steel that runs the full length of the roof channel before it is of any use.

In short these Suzuki's are the "Jack Russells" of the car world - Everyone loves them, they can do anything and in the company of bigger stronger faster, vehicles, the Suzuki will establish itself as the boss in very short order.

Enjoy, and try not to do too much to them, they're built to the same standards as Hilux's and consequently given their weight they're much stronger than Cruisers and Defenders.

Shortfalls are lack of Diff lock, and Axle articulation - not earth shattering, and given its weight a passenger and shifting the luggage around can overcome some of the lack of diff lock.
The Jacking situation is also a disaster - a hi-lift jack is overkill, and the standard jack is impractical off road. So you need Jackable sills, front and rear points or full length bars.

Adding taller tyres helps quite a bit, it does increase the gearing for long distance driving, and low range is low enough not to worry anyone

Good times

G

Thank you sir, this is really good to see! After two lovely volkswagens, I promised myself a 4wheel drive for an adventure. And off course I looked at the big and cool looking bad boys. But I'm broke. This looks like a new love. I found some good looking examples in my country and when I get back I'm starting to save for this.

Keep it up! Love to see the end result! And I'm jealous of your skills. Overhauling an engine.... :|

Alex

Yeah mate, That's a big reason why I wanted to pull it down. Fingers crossed I don't get to many issues along the way but if I do, I should be able to figure it out.

Hey Photographicsafaris,

I haven't meet one person that can fault them in there ability and reliability.

Yeah, I'm trying real hard to keep it under the GVM which I should get. Keeping all the accessories to a minimum. The back bumper is 18kg which is a bit heavier than I would have like but keeping the weight close to the ground and having a solid rear bumper was worth it.

I'm just running the existing suspension, it has a 2inch lift with koni shocks

Good advise on the roof racks, moggy 1968 ran into some problems there. I manage to score a aluminum cage that mounts along the entire gutter so happy days

Lots of good tips there, cheers for the heads up bud

Hey Alex,

Cheers mate

They are cheap to buy, cheap to run and unstoppable off road! Ticks all the boxes.

Good luck

Custom box building time!

Kind of just winging it here, I have a rough idea of what it will look like but as the building goes on I keep thinking of new ideas or having to adjust bits to suit. The big goal is trying to keep it as light as possible but having enough storage for all the gear for the trip.



First up, framing up the skeleton



Using this pocket hole jig + glue for the joining. Quick and strong









Adding dowels for strengthening on the storage box joins









All primed up and ready for top coat

wow, nice woodworking, fancy doing mine when you've finished

Need to build some kind of racking system in mine, but it won't be to this standard

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1990 Landcruiser H60. Full rebuild completed 2014