Newbie From Hampshire

[dan-wilks]

Evening all, my names Dan im 24 and a tree surgeon, im currently looking/trying to buy a suzuki sj to go out offroading with some friends at weekends, im new to the scene so have pretty much no idea at what to look at or look for.
Ive seen 410 and 413 for sale but do not know the pros/cons, can anyone point me in the right direction?

[dazerede]

Welcome to scuk when ur looking at buying an sj look for rust around the arches footwells as that's the most common place it is rusty and the chassis is galvanize so it no need to look there I would take some sort of jack and lift each wheel checking that wheel bearings are ok and try and get one with an mot

[mike harris]

Buy a samurai !! Not a 410 or 413 that's my advice mate

[dazerede]

Samuai is a little bit wider than the 410 413 but a 410 has lower gear ratios better off road

All u need is a decent set of mud tyres and u will be proud of how good it is off-road

[dan-wilks]

Thanks for the response, i was wondering how the 410 was cope with such a small engine as i want to keep insurance low as the 4x4 wont be doing many miles at all, just a toy for the weekends basically

[ScottieJ]

:Welcome2: to club uk matey

Insurance wise it won't make a difference they are all in the same insurance group.

I have to ask Mike what do you think is wrong with 410s and 413s? I actually think the 410s and 413s are a better base to build offroaders out of if sticking wit suzuki axles. the only benefit of Samurais is the option of a later model with single point injection and the wider axles, however the wider axles aren't always a benefit as it means you actually fit in the ruts of larger vehicles and loose ground clearance, the width only really belps if you want to lift your SJ loads, it's not hard to fit samurai axles to a 410 or 413 either + if you do this you get an extra 2" clearance on full lock for bigger tyres and a little bit more flex as the springs are mounted 2" further inboard on 410s and 413s

If you buy a 1.3 model it does make it easier if you want to upgrade to a 1.6 in future as the 410 gearbox won't mate up to the 1.6, still not that much of an issue as its not hard to source a 1.3 gearbox and flywheel etc. I actually prefer the 970cc over the 1.3 though, they are bombproof little motors that love to rev, they do often suffer from the valve stem oil seals going though, but most of them are 20+ years old so can you blame them I used to run a standard sj410 with 2" lift and 31" tyres and used to have to slow down to wait for friends in their 413s and Samurais I did spend most of my time in 1st offroad and there was no engine braking but it's not much different in a 1.3 with 31s, the thing that fixes that is a rocklobster transfer box with lower gearing in low.

If you do choose a 410 make sure it's a later model I.e. 85 onwards as they have the bigger propshafts and better transferbox.

Basically the main thing is to look hard for rust when you are buying one as that is the only downfall of SJs, doesn't matter how new or old it is, I've seen mint 86 models and then 93 models that are completely covered in rust, all depends how it's been looked after.

just don't rush into buying one, have a good look around for one and make sure if its modified that the modifications have been done well and any welding is to a good standard.

[dan-wilks]

Thanks for all the info, much appreciated. hopefully the bmw im breaking and the extra shifts im doing i can look at getting one in the next few weeks

[ferris]

to the club .

[ROBBIE]

Hi

[Jordi]

Welcome to SCUK. All SJs are super!

Jordi