New to the forum - Northants

[Kristen]

the guy who is selling the car is being quoted £60-90 for the job, would it be best to just purchase one and fit it himself?

also, where would you recommend buying parts from?

[Jordi]

Buy one for about £3 then its a five minute job to fit.

[Jordi]

I find naffy little bits like seals aren't too badly priced from Suzuki. There is a thread somewhere on here with the size required

[Kristen]

that's great, thanks very much

[Kristen]

Since having the o-ring replaced, the car now feels like it's only firing 3 cylinders, but i think the timing is out. is this a common problem? is easy to fix?

thanks

[twiss]

Did you do it yourself? Or did someone else do it?

It sounds like the distributor has been put back slightly wrong.
I would make a mark on the distributor and the housing, so you know where they at least work a bit.
Then loosen the bolt holding the distributor in place and rotate the distributor slowly, and listen to how the engine is running. You should be able to hear it improving until it is a bit more usable.
If it makes no difference, put it back to where you marked it.

If this makes it better but not enough to get it running perfectly, you may need to undo the bolt, then pull the distributor out of the housing, and rotate the shaft (take the cap off and turn the rotor) just a small bit so when you put it back in, the gear slots into the next tooth along

once you have it running pretty well, I would use a timing light to check it is exactly on spec

I think its 12* before top dead center? Possibly...
Its a relatively easy thing to do but it might take a bit of fiddling to get it right!
Ive done it at the side of the road in the pissing rain before though!

[Kristen]

we had a garage do it as we're purchasing the car so they're having it back tomorrow to hopefully solve this problem.

Thanks

[twiss]

ahhh good stuff! no need for you to do it if the garage didnt fit it correctly!
should be a relatively quick job at a garage

[Jordi]

It sounds like its a tooth out.

Nothing major, like twiss said garage should have it done in a few minutes. Timing isn't critical in SJs, as in, if its wrong the engine wont break, it just wont run right.

[Kristen]

Hi,

sorry to keep persisting with this issue, having taken it back to garage this morning, they're claiming they're happy with their work, but now the car wont start and the garage is saying it's the starter motor.

The car had no problems running before it was taken to the garage, is there any chance it could be the starter motor, or have they bodged the job and are now trying to create a new problem in order to cover their backs?

cheers for your help, much appreciated