Offroad-Express

Awesome thread man,keep it comn.
We dont see any of these at work at all, never ever, there was one that used to come in quite regular, LJ70 or 80 cant remember what it was, and we are the only chch suzuki agent
Remember looking at one of the parts books and a micro fish on them just for shits and giggles

Shot home and unbolted the motor and gearbox, roped Sarah in to help drop it on the floor. All of about 25kg??


What's left of the rust bucket got rolled out of the shed after work and hit it with the water blaster.




Its nice and light to


Back into the shed for the final Strip down to the bare chassis. My goal for tonight was get everything off and the axles removed so it was just a bare chassis, but buggered if I could find my pipe spanner for undoing the brake lines and didn't want to risk butchering anything with an open ender.

So this is were its at, 3 brake line unions to undo and its just a chassis:





I was reflecting on just how simple these trucks are.

A little bit of stuff here:


And a little bit of stuff on this shelf.


Thats it!!!!

As for the PTO, this is all I can find on the factory fitment and use:





Oh, and the colour choices


So the schedule is:

Friday night prep the chassis
Saturday morning paint the chassis
Saturday arvo help fit Boosty Spinny Turbo thing to Mudsluts L200 while the paint dries

Might start on the axle build up Sunday

Dandyish Brown gets my vote!

love that winch
good place for the navi too

Cool build thread!! Subscribe.

Like someone said, "you don't like easy". Hat's off to ya.
Great to see so many detailed pix.
I look forward to seeing the progress.
That winch looks kick ass!

here a tip for your brake hoses,
put your open ended spanner over the fitting then over the top of the spanner clamp a vice grip hard on top of the spanner head, have the vice grip oppersite to the spanner handle, now the spanner is unable to "open" and with the extra leverage that the vice grips will allow, you are then able to gentley start turning the spanner with out damaging the fitting

you can do the same thing on the pipe spanners as well if the standard spanner is starting to slip

Two metallic paint choices?! Flash!

Lookin' good

mudlva wrote:here a tip for your brake hoses,
put your open ended spanner over the fitting then over the top of the spanner clamp a vice grip hard on top of the spanner head, have the vice grip oppersite to the spanner handle, now the spanner is unable to "open" and with the extra leverage that the vice grips will allow, you are then able to gentley start turning the spanner with out damaging the fitting

you can do the same thing on the pipe spanners as well if the standard spanner is starting to slip

Sweet, I will give that a go on the proper spanner tomorrow when I get a new one

The fittings are pretty, eeerm "weathered" looking

They'l get another dose of CRC before work tomorrow

use the vice grips on them to get them off then cut them off and put new fittings on and re-flare the pipe on rebuild. then its got nice new fittings that will last another 40 years

wopass wrote:use the vice grips on them to get them off then cut them off and put new fittings on and re-flare the pipe on rebuild. then its got nice new fittings that will last another 40 years

Fcuk yeah, Plan B, there's a flaring kit floating round at work too

i have one if you cant find yours, actually i think Brynn has it at the mo so its just around the corner from you,

Awesome, great read there. I found the trick with brake line nuts were shock rather than force. Put spanner on and give short sharp shock with either hand or mallet loosens them immediately, trying to turn them with force just wrecks the nuts. Looking forward to more pics, thanks!

Hein B

Vice grips on the tube spanner for the teh win

Axles out


Chassis ready for some luurve:


Where do ya start??


Somewhere in the middle of the few hours of prep work


Finally the fun part, slapping the black shiny shit on





Between coats, I played around with the small stuff that also need salvaging.

I stripped, cleaned and lubed the spring packs:


I used some Mobil External Gear Lube, its good stuff, its sets so doesn't attract the dirt!!


The rest of this weekends missions:
Drive shafts checked and cleaned up, fuel tanks cleaned and painted, spring clamp plates cleaned up, fan shroud straightened up and painted, just some of the small jobs that ya always leave to the end and wish you hadn't



Next up this week is to sort out the axles:

Went digging around in the sheds and the diff rack out in the paddock and dredged up usable set of wide track axles.


I had to go hunting though, the rear axle I had resvered for this build previously wasn't so flash after a water blast. Its got some damage around one of the spring purches. Lucky I got a few to chose from




This week the axles will get the disc brake conversion up front, a slight adjustment to the spring perches and the rear axle might get some up graded drums. Maybe.

very nice work,as said nice attention to detail and will be a very tidy vechile in the end,which by the process pics and guys coments will be in a month or so that's just awesome mate,wish i could work this fast

por15 for the chassis is it?

So if I drop my one off you will have the chassis all prepped and painted for me in a week?

where did you get the Mobil External gear lube from?

also with the Front disc break conversion are you going to use the LJ80 steering? (drag link/ tie rod) . I noticed that the LJ80 rod end looks to have a slightly smaller taper than the SJ one. Do they fit up all right into the SJ steering knuckles?

Also just found out that some late model SJ410V's had self adjusting breaks in the rear . Straight bolt on to the LJ80 housing with no modification to the backing plate.

Tonight I decided to take on the rather un-glamorous job of stripping rusty dirty old diffs down.

Frikkin hate the smell of scungy old rotten gear oil. YUK. The smell lingers around for days after

In order to build myself a set of wide track axles (100mm wider than standard) with disc braked front, free wheeling hubs and cross over steering, I need the parts from no less than 6 diffs

The parts List:

Late model LJ50/LJ80 front and rear housings

Late model LJ50/LJ80 front and rear axle shafts

LJ50 4.88 ratio front and rear Diff heads

Late model LJ50/LJ80 front and rear diff side gears

SJ410 CV joints

SJ413 swivel housings, disc brakes and free wheeling hubs

SJ413 steering draglink

So tonight I stripped two LJ50 axles, two LJ80 axles, and braved the shitty weather to drag a wheel barrow load of SJ413, SJ410 and Misc lj80 axle parts across the gully from the hay shed in the dark. We've had 5 days of steady rain, driving across wasn't an option, even in The50

So my shed kinda looks like this at the moment



LJ80 on this side:


LJ50 on this side:


The important hubs and and brakes:


Some other spare LJ80 axles rescued from a couple of rusted through housings a while back


And last but not least, the very special mint SJ410 cV's, somehow they have survived years of storage and still look mint


So I have to move the spring purches in by 50mm on the housings, split the diff heads open and swap side gears around, remove the SJ413 CVs from the hubs, remove the LJ80 axles from the CV's, fit to the LJ80 to the SJ410 CVs, fit them to the SJ413 swivel hubs, service wheel bearings, fit swivel hub rebuild kit, rebuild brakes, new rotors bla bla bla.

Any LJ buffs know what Ratio the LJ20 diffs are?? We discovered the other day that a rolling chassis I bought for $2 about 3 years ago for spare axle parts, is in fact a LJ20 chassis. Its got complete diffs still. Might have an even higher ratio than the LJ50 heads maybe??

DieselBoy wrote:Any LJ buffs know what Ratio the LJ20 diffs are?? We discovered the other day that a rolling chassis I bought for $2 about 3 years ago for spare axle parts, is in fact a LJ20 chassis. Its got complete diffs still. Might have an even higher ratio than the LJ50 heads maybe??

LJ20 is 5.6
LJ50 is 4.8
LJ80 is 4.5

Ralfie wrote:

DieselBoy wrote:Any LJ buffs know what Ratio the LJ20 diffs are?? We discovered the other day that a rolling chassis I bought for $2 about 3 years ago for spare axle parts, is in fact a LJ20 chassis. Its got complete diffs still. Might have an even higher ratio than the LJ50 heads maybe??

LJ20 is 5.6
LJ50 is 4.8
LJ80 is 4.5

Awesome, yeah LJ20 are 5.667. Big tyres for teh win, thats a shit load lower geared!!!!

High ratio LJ20 diffs it is then, actually, they might be better fiitted to The50

DieselBoy wrote:

Ralfie wrote:

DieselBoy wrote:Any LJ buffs know what Ratio the LJ20 diffs are?? We discovered the other day that a rolling chassis I bought for $2 about 3 years ago for spare axle parts, is in fact a LJ20 chassis. Its got complete diffs still. Might have an even higher ratio than the LJ50 heads maybe??

LJ20 is 5.6
LJ50 is 4.8
LJ80 is 4.5

Awesome, yeah LJ20 are 5.667. Big tyres for teh win, thats a shit load lower geared!!!!

High ratio LJ20 diffs it is then, actually, they might be better fiitted to The50

Are they the sme size centre? i though the LJ10 /20 had a smaller center than the 50/80

I intend to find out!!!

Worst part is the LJ20 chassis is doubling as the mobile diff rack, so I have to move all of this junk off it first so I can get to the axles which are still attached to the chassis



I know I have pinched one axle shaft for The50 already, so my guess is they will work some how.....

DieselBoy wrote: the mobile diff rack,

Hmm , I beg to differ on the mobile part

up date, up date, up date... it's time for an up date Pete!

suzuki1k wrote:up date, up date, up date... it's time for an up date Pete!

yeah it has been 3 days since the last one and with the speed pete works it is probably halfway to rebuilt already

DieselBoy wrote:

Ralfie wrote:

DieselBoy wrote:Any LJ buffs know what Ratio the LJ20 diffs are?? We discovered the other day that a rolling chassis I bought for $2 about 3 years ago for spare axle parts, is in fact a LJ20 chassis. Its got complete diffs still. Might have an even higher ratio than the LJ50 heads maybe??

LJ20 is 5.6
LJ50 is 4.8
LJ80 is 4.5

Awesome, yeah LJ20 are 5.667. Big tyres for teh win, thats a shit load lower geared!!!!

High ratio LJ20 diffs it is then, actually, they might be better fiitted to The50

I heard you can also adapt the crown wheel and pinion from a vitara front diff into an earlier housing - using the original side gears. Dan Cowper used to do it for rally trucks (but may only work on a 410???

Been slack this week, had a couple of "music" commitments, and got the bloody man flu

I did have a crack at a few things and made some small progress

Started the Wide Track mod

Big fat FAIL first up

In my lemsip fueled haze I cut the spring perches off the donor axles. The housings are rusty and have holes in them, and guess what, the spring perches are rusty and have holes in them too. Didn't even notice untill I had finished cutting the last perch off




So it was time for some more Lemsip and to raid the scrap bin for some steel to Booty Fab up some custom Ghetto Spring perches

This should do:


So got busy with the ruler and sharpy and got somthing happening:


Had to get freaky with the drop saw to cut the 45s


Looking more like it


Bit more grindy grindy and they were starting to really look like the bizz


So the first look at the LJ80 and the LJ50 axles side by side. Interesting the perches are exactly 50mm offset from each other.




So you can just sit them next to the standard perches and tack them on. Makes setting the up at the correct angle far to easy!!!! I just cut the original perches off afterward.


I will get a better pic of the end result when its all cleaned up properly


So why am I bothering????

This is why: LJ50 vs LJ80 rear axles



The flu can bugger off anytime it wants

i *heart* you pete....

AWWWWW, cheers man


An inspirational vid


And the road test

100k's in 17 seconds

Fabricating up some new perches is amazing DB, how did you cut the round parts out of the perches ?