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Rhino
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Age: 47
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Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 19
Location: Tyne & Wear
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 Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 21:19 Post subject: |
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My junior with new boots!
Junior drivers please get in touch if you fancy a pay&play weekend of fun!
Last edited by Rhino on Wed May 12, 2010 20:38; edited 9 times in total |
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| Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 21:19 Post subject: Google Ads keep the POCUK free to join! |
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juniorbarnes
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Age: 43
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Joined: 26 Feb 2009
Posts: 30
Location: WEST SUSSEX
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| Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 1:07 Post subject: |
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Good work rhino!
looks really chunky on the new tyres and glad you had a good day off road, id love to get a few jr's together at a pay and play day or something that would be great fun!
as for your new shake, does it come at a certain speed and then smooth out as you accelerate through the speed or does it just get worse? putting larger tyres on a vehicle will exacerbate any underlying faults so it may be worth checking the ball joints and bushes, but first you can always have the tyres re checked for balance at the tyre shop, i used to manage a few tyre shops and anyone in the industry will tell you that its very common to miss-balance large 4x4 tyres as they have a period of adjustment when they are first fitted, they are not moulded as accurately as car tyres and can always throw up some balance issues within the first 50-100 miles, dont tell the tyre shop you know this though and they should do it for free;)
Good luck with your interior re-trim, i put mazda mx5 seats in the front of mine as they are very compact and much more supportive off road as they are sports seats, plus they look really good, ive just gotta get the rears trimmed to match up now hehe!! |
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Rhino
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Age: 47
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Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 19
Location: Tyne & Wear
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| Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 14:10 Post subject: |
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Cheers for the advice, I took junior back to the tyre shop and as I suspected the balancing was out on the front tyres by 100g (LHS) and 80g (RHS) made sure I watched them near zero the balance of each and they also did my tracking for the inconvenience! The shake occurred above 50mph and increased with speed, now its much much better, but there is an ever so slight shake, I think probably due to bigger tyres.
Interesting fitting mx5 seats, did they need any modification? do all seat adjustments work? I am planning to see how much it will cost to re-trim my original seats but will them to increase lumbar supports. Will let you know how I get on.
Do you know where I can get a decent mid section and rear silencer as I still have the original mitsi exhaust (amazingly 15 years old). Its starting to rust quite badly in places but a good tin of hammerite is keeping me exhaust going  |
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juniorbarnes
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Age: 43
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Joined: 26 Feb 2009
Posts: 30
Location: WEST SUSSEX
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| Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 16:03 Post subject: |
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Excellent result on the re-balance Rhino, its amazing that it was sent out with that much weight out of balance in the first place but like i said these things tend to pop up out of nowhere!
The seats were definately not direct replacement, i had to fabricate new mounts and bolted the mx5 seats to the juniors runners, its so difficult trying to find replacement sports seats for the juniors as space is very limited and im sure there are more options than the mx5 but these seats were freebies to me at the time so i thought it was worth the effort, heres a pic or two, excuse the bulldog fur its a nightmare to get out!!
i haven't found a reasonable uk retailer for an exhaust yet but mine is a custom job which we made in an afternoon, i think bosal may have a replacement system but i expect as usual it will be pricey, my local engineering firm may be interested in making a batch of centre sections and these wouldnt be expensive to make but the rear silencer is a different issue, ill have some words and see what i can sort out |
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Rhino
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Age: 47
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Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 19
Location: Tyne & Wear
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Rhino
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Age: 47
Zodiac:
Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 19
Location: Tyne & Wear
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| Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 19:06 Post subject: |
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Heres my attempt of re-holstering my seats as they were dirty and decided to take the covers off and dye them black.... good idea at the time but to all that might have had this idea DONT bother, the dye does not take as they are man-mad fibres. Was a ball ache getting them back on the hogs rings are tricky little bu**ers!! Yellow leather seat look quite good in my black junior me thinks 
Last edited by Rhino on Wed May 12, 2010 20:27; edited 2 times in total |
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red6
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Joined: 31 Jan 2009
Posts: 91
Location: Malta
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| Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 6:27 Post subject: |
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Admire your work juniorbarnes, as you obviously know what you are doing underneath by any chance could you suggest how to soften the rear suspension, poor roads where I live make a very jarring ride & very similar off road. Not goimg to drive in conditions like you just poor roads and very rough rocky hillside tracks.
Guess adjustable shocks would be good for me but dont suppose anyone like Monroe make them for the Junior. |
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juniorbarnes
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Age: 43
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Joined: 26 Feb 2009
Posts: 30
Location: WEST SUSSEX
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| Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 17:07 Post subject: |
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| Rhino wrote: |
Can you see my pics as I can only see them when i'm logged in???? |
i can also only see your pics when i am logged in, i always upload mine to photobucket in a private album, that way they are always available to see regardless of being logged in etc.
yellow leather would look great in the jr, plus it would be easy to clean!! i certainly admire your courage to strip the covers in the first place, shame the dye did not take. |
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juniorbarnes
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Age: 43
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Joined: 26 Feb 2009
Posts: 30
Location: WEST SUSSEX
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| Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 17:46 Post subject: |
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| red6 wrote: |
Admire your work juniorbarnes, as you obviously know what you are doing underneath by any chance could you suggest how to soften the rear suspension, poor roads where I live make a very jarring ride & very similar off road. Not goimg to drive in conditions like you just poor roads and very rough rocky hillside tracks.
Guess adjustable shocks would be good for me but dont suppose anyone like Monroe make them for the Junior. |
well firstly thanks for the comments,
When thinking about softening the rear suspension its important to know why it feels the way it does, the main contributing factor to the bumpy ride is the absolute lack of weight over the rear of the vehicle, the rear suspension only supports the vehicle body and whatever is inside it, the whole axle is unsprung due to the fact it is a solid live beam type and so the vehicle is sprung on top of the axle, unlike the front which is fully independently sprung meaning much more of the vehicles weight is placed onto the suspension, this setup naturally makes the front feel noticeably softer than the rear especially on a vehicle which is as light as the junior and is something that a few other owners have asked me about.
on my current junior i have increased the spring and shock length to increase travel and provide clearance for off road use, whilst doing this i found i was able to be more selective over spring rates and shock rebound rates and i certainly ended up with a softer and more controllable ride with at least twice the component strength than the original items but with the obvious increase in ride hight.
Im assuming that you want to keep your junior at the original ride hight and there are a couple of options available that may help here but as all my junior experience is based around 'making things bigger' this is just educated guess work
Firstly check that both your rear springs are intact, it may sound strange but when i got my junior i broke rear spring after rear spring before i upgraded and this was on mildly rough terrain, the problem with rough roads is that they are a direct cause of high frequency rebound and this is a common cause of shock and/or spring failure,
Due to the roads you are driving and if your springs are in good shape then i would be very inclined to replace your shock absorbers for aftermarket ones, you may not be able to notice any external leakage on the strut tubes but the damage is done to the piston/cylinder internals,
Your right that companies such as monroe, pro-comp etc don't make a shock option for the junior, but all is not lost, the shocks i used on mine were meant for an old series landrover with a 2 inch lift and fitted fine, i also removed some adjustable koni shocks from the rear of a suzuki samurai and these also have very similar fittings and dimensions to the standard junior items, i will measure the suzuki ones next time i am in the workshop and hopefully i can help in tracking down some good aftermarket items which will certainly ease the bumps better than the standard/worn out ones ever could.
hope i have been of some help |
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red6
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Joined: 31 Jan 2009
Posts: 91
Location: Malta
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| Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 19:59 Post subject: |
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Many thanks, plenty to think about, will check the springs tomorrow. am in Malta & the spares situation is worse here, absolutely nothing for Juniors and UK breakers refuse to post anything. But may find somewhere helpful with other shockers - no chance of springs unless say Samaurai etc are similar.
Really odd that there are non broken as there are thousands of the little devils here, must be too reliable. (Waited 9 weeks for rear window seals from Japan.) |
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red6
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Joined: 31 Jan 2009
Posts: 91
Location: Malta
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| Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 14:01 Post subject: |
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Hello juniorbarnes- I checked the springs - look OK but the rubber bushes on my shock absorbers are horrible - do you think standard Suzuki Samarai schocks might do? No chance in Malta of Junior ones but Suzuki a possibily, if I unbolt one is it a case of just measuring the uncompressed length or more to it?
Thanks |
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juniorbarnes
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Age: 43
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Joined: 26 Feb 2009
Posts: 30
Location: WEST SUSSEX
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| Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 21:01 Post subject: |
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Hi Red6 sorry for the late reply i have just started a new engineering job last week and i have been a bit consumed by it all! your right its the closed and open lengths that are important, Samurai shocks may well be a close fit so id definately give them a try but as the Sammy is leaf sprung the shocks are quite stiff so it might be an even bumpier ride, if you can find them over there id look at the suzuki jimny rear shocks, the jimny is coil sprung like the Jr and im pretty sure they are ring mounts top and bottom so would probably go straight on, definately worth a look at least
Good luck and keep us posted
Pete |
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red6
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Joined: 31 Jan 2009
Posts: 91
Location: Malta
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| Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 22:10 Post subject: |
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Thanks again
Dave |
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makrin
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Age: 40
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Joined: 30 Oct 2010
Posts: 116
Location: Bradford
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| Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 11:07 Post subject: |
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Impressive little motor you have there, love it!
I think there's a hell of a lot of work for me to do to get anywhere near what you've done. Hell, at the moment mine bottoms out on the front springs going over speed bumps 
I really need to find a decent garage to help me get this little beast to 4x4 standards - I lack a drive way and the tools and knowledge to do this kind of stuff  |
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kingbrian
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Age: 61
Zodiac: 
Joined: 31 Dec 2010
Posts: 36
Location: hastings
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| Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 17:20 Post subject: body lift and tyres |
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| your jnr looks great... that good i have shot out and bought one!! but can you please tell me what lift and where i can buy the kit, also what are the tire size i can go too on that height of lift. You have created a monster!! how about a snorkel or a winch???? |
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