Suzuki Club UK

So a mate had an SJ which failed its MOT in high style, but had a rock-solid chassis.

He also had a Polo diesel, on which the gearbox had gone.

I'd been after the SJ for ages, because he hadn't been using it, but now was the time to strike - I swapped the SJ for fitting a replacement gearbox to the Polo. Here it is when it arrived:





First things first - unload the clutter:



It had rotted out around the back of the front seats, so I stripped everything out:



and sorted that (and the split metal around the bolt-down points:



I also bought this, but it was an absolute turd:



So we hacked the ROPS off it. It also came with a couple of scummy bucket seats, so I fitted one of those:



Still on proper rails etc, as per regs.

Then competed all last year, until this happened:



whoops

Here's that moment of stupidity in full:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/Sq6VerqTEpU[/youtube]

Here's the ROPS being made ready to be fitted:



Here's the cage at the stage it is yesterday - welded down on all six stays with box on the front outriggers to support the windscreen stays:



Next up is to notch the diagonals and weld them in, along with finishing the second bucket mount and the harness bars.

Once that's sorted we have a small alloy fuel tank to go on the rear tray, which is where the battery is going as well. Unfortunately extracting the screen cracked when it was being 'gently eased out', so I need a replacement one of those, as well as sorting out the screen mounts, as these both broke when I rolled it.

Oh and at some point a Weber carb was fitted to it - we've found it's no good on trials, as it tends to stall the engine when it's at steep angles - there is an SU being prepped to go on.

All this has been done with assistance from a couple of mates - one who runs a Tomcat-shaped comp-safari motor in SCOR's championship, the second of who is a VAG tech and is one of two people sharing the workshop were the SJ gets worked on.

I remember watching that

Glad your sorting it out, keep the pics coming.

Ian

Ha, I like the decals, Don't see many like that!

Those top graphics in full:

those are some funky graphics, perfect little vehicle for trialling! That is an interesting cage design, have you tested it since fitting it?

The design is sound and will be fine once it has the diagonal/s welded into it.

I know what you mean about the it looking funny though - it has longitudinal hoops instead of cross hoops of material. If you check the Blue Book this is still a valid cage design and should be safe enough.

As it's not been completed I haven't tested it yet. The aim is to finish it on Thursday evening, get the other jobs sorted and then compete on Sunday.

There is a reasonably long list of 'what could possibly go wrong' which may prevent this from happening, but hey - you've got to put a stake in the ground.

More after Thursday night.

Got the diagonal and harness bar welded in last night.

And the second seat mount sorted.

Not going to be ready for this month's trial though :(

Didn't take any photos, because I'm a dumb-ass.

I had to do some gusseting on a garden fork this afternoon.

This meant some time at the workshop, so I got to do some gusseting on the mounts of the SJ:



And I grabbed some pictures of the rear hoop:



Got the top to do and the other side as well. Still hunting for a fuel cell to replace the original, as that hangs down a bit far at the back for my liking.

On Thursday night the SU carb adaptor was reviewed, but someone appears to have welded it up about 45 degrees from where it should have been. While we were in there we found that the bolts that mount the Weber were loose, so it's possible that the fuel starvation we had experienced on previous events was due to the carb flapping about, rather than the angle of the dangle.

Nice.

Just out of curiosity have you done the weber carb mod? I think there is a thread on here - if I can find it

http://forum.suzukiclubuk.co.uk/vi ... er/#p17029

What scottie says half way down the page

Cheers for the pointer.