Rock around the clock - while swerving
by Andre Christiaan Cloete
(Pretoria, south africa)
it is about the jimny, with weight on the roof, rocking sideways as soon as you swerve a bit (jimny with 50mm lift from old man emu). It also rocks when a big truck passes and then it lies down in the corners.
Frankly, this axle bounce and rocking, gets dangerous. Well, maybe it is the way I drive. But in south africa, the distances are vast and I can not take days to get to the destination. I took action. Yesterday was this first time and the results were better than expected. No rocking and no lie down in the corners and no axle bounce.
I am talking about a torsion bar, naturally. NO, you do not get torsion bars for jimny rears. NO, no one has a plan on how to accomplish this. Boy did I search. There is also no space for these expensive after market replacements for vehicles that come with torsion bars. I do not have a round head and I made a plan and I spent a bit of time on my back below the rear axle, studying the lay of the land, so to speak.
The poa was born. Get angle brackets from a metal shop and bolt them to the two towbar mounting points. THen bolt a U shaped bar of 1 meter and 70mm wide, to these. Then, find single bolt torsion bar brackets from a scrapyard and have them welded to the 1 meter bar. Do a mock up and a lot of measurements to make sure no fowling on the left and right, specially the right. Have 16mm bar manufactured. Sidearm lengths also 400mm like the front. Similar widths and lengths, but make the bar narrower than the front. Get linkages and drill two holes. ONe in each side of the swing arm, just behind the ABS cable mounting points.
get polyurethane bushes and fit it. The design is available. There is more than enough articulation. I do not care what the purists say, it works and I do not have to struggle to get to my destination. Really, the landis and cruisers and fortuner etc, all has torsion bars, why not the jimny.
I still have to tell you about extra fuel tank and front disc and caliper replacement, another time
