After driving the last one to Mongolia we decided that while it was a very fun car to drive, we'd never get one again. Primarily because of the suspension trouble we had, yet here we are, 3 years on, with pretty much the same car.
Well it is a very fun car to drive and actually fairly economical despite what some people say. So we bought our car for £750 in the beginning of February.
When we picked up the car, we knew there were some problems because the exhaust had a hole in it that seemed to be growing by the minute, the engine had been rebuilt but needed retuning and the tyres were a bit too wide and heavy for a car that only kicks out 64bhp.
We went for this car though because the body and chassis were in pretty good condition overall and the engine had been rebuilt and was also in excellent shape.
After driving the car away, on our very first mile, we broke down. We went up a hill, or attempted to, but the car did not have enough power. We had another problem, the battery was flat so we couldn't start it up again. So we had to turn the car around by pushing it and jump starting it by driving down the hill. This eventually led us to a different route that didn't require us to climb any big hills! Our drive home was almost without event, till once again, about 3 miles from home, the car stalled. It didn't start at this point, so we had to push it off the road into a car park. After a quick inspection, we noticed the starter motor had fallen off and was stopping the car from starting. The other problem was the bolts for the starter motor were missing. At this point Alex held the starter motor with his hand while I started the car. I think it is probably worth mentioning at this point that this is not a recommended way to start the car. It hurts, it burns and you can't get your hand out of the engine area quickly! Anyway after that we got the car home.
The following weekend we fitted a new exhaust to it, replaced the battery and refitted the existing starter motor. We then got the engine tuned and gave it a test run. It ran very well, but there were still issues with the steering and power due to the size of the tyres.
So we're currently on the hunt for some good tyres.
The car we bought had been set-up for mud plugging. It had 9" of lift and the tyres that I mentioned that were a bit too big for it.
The other major problem with the car was the suspension. The first thing we wanted to sort was the suspension, so we removed the leaf over axle conversion and removed the high lift shackles and replaced those with standard length reinforced shackles and uprated 3" leaf suspension. The leaf suspension we picked up is quite special because it has an extra leaf on the front and rear, something that can be quite tricky to find. The existing set-up is fine for mud plugging but not really suitable for long distance off roading adventures.
We spent today fitting the suspension, taking 9 long hard hours of bashing the car and fitting the springs.
You can see Alex in the photo above bashing away at the leaf springs. We spent most of the time bashing leaf springs, it kind of reminded us of the Mongol Rally. You can see the photos below of the car as we've worked on it. We've developed a technique with a scissor jack that allows us to control the axle to get the springs placed in the perfect position. It still isn't easy to fit, but certainly helps. This is probably not the safest way to fit the springs, but if you don't have a car lift then it does become quite a challenge!
And here is the car with the all new suspension system that we fitted.
Now onto the next thing, replacing the tyres! We'll let you know how we get on with that.
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