Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Hi all

I have just acquired a 1994 Gen 2 Pajero 3.0 V6. First impression was the huge improvement in comfort and driveability as opposed to my bakkie. That was untill I had to make a tight turn and found I had to backup once or twice before being able to go in the direction I wanted. Don't know how the turning circle compares to other Pajeros or similar vechicles of other brands but I would like to know if there is any changes (suspension, steering)possible to improve on this.

Firstly, welcome here!

Was your bakkie a 4X4?

My Gen2 also has a wide turning circle, but I thought it came with the territory, being a 4X4.

Anton

Thanx I should have introduced myself first I guess before going off with questions. It is a 4x4 DC Colt 3.0 V6 and definately have a shorter turning circle. I am talking of 2H off course. I will problably get used to it but it seems it will be a bit of a struggle getting into a parking spot in one movement. Never really looked at what limit of free the turning of the wheels. Know there is bump stops but sure the steering rack must also play a part.

IIRC the turning circle on the Gen2 Pajero is about 2m wider than the Colt...

part of the territory being built like tanks. My Gen2 also turns on the equator!

Will ma have to adjust my driving a bit to accommodate then. Luckily the rest of the Pajero performance makes up for this. Still can't get used to how smooth and comfortable the ride is against my bakkie.

I wonder how our tanks compare with other brands on this...

Still, I prefer mine!

Anton

The Gen 3 has an amazingly small turning circle (Not sure if any other large 4x4 wagon with low range would beat it), but of course the front suspension is completely different to that of the Gen 2.

Found my bump stops on the steering to be set to maximum thus limiting the turning a bit. Adjusted to almost minimum with some improvement in turning.

Gerrit your knowledge of technical detail is always great, can you give more info on what determines the turning circle and how does the gen2 and gen3 differ?

Actually I should have said that the Gen 3 uses a completely different chassis design, not just suspension.

The Gen 2 uses torsion bar springs at the front and has a separate chassis. On the left hand side of the vehicle, the torsion bar spring has to fit in between the chassis rails and the propshaft running to the front axle. In turn the propshaft to the front axle has to fit beside the transmission, which is just about centrally mounted in order to align the rear propshaft with the center mounted rear differential. The result is that real estate is at quite a premium on the left hand side of the chassis. I suspect that this has forced the layout to adopt quite a wide spacing for the chassis rails in the vicinity of the front wheels. This limits the steering angle that can be achieved without the wheels touching. The wide chassis rail spacing is also readily adaptable to wide engines, such as large V-configuration motors.

Here is a nice picture that shows off the layout of the Gen 1 (very similar to Gen 2) quite nicely.


The Gen 3 uses coil-over-shock type struts and has unitary construction with suspension sub frames. The presence of suspension subframes instead of a separate chassis is not really that important, because the subframe looks very much like a little section of a conventional chassis attached to the unitary construction body. However, with no torsion bars to fit in, the front suspension subframe can now move quite a bit inboard, thus freeing up space behind the front wheel and allowing clearance for greater steering angles.