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The tubular crossmemeber in Suzuki SJ series 4WDs is prone to rusting when the truck gets a little older and/or it can be subjected to bending if in a minor accident or the tow hook is put to use.

There is a simple fix to make it much beefier in preparation for abuse, or to repair the crossmember if it's getting rusted out over time.

To do this mod you will need to find a length of the correct Schedule 40 pipe. Dependending on how much of the original crossmember's ends have been cut off in preparation for larger tires or a beefier bumper you will have to adjust the amount you purchase.

If the crossmember ends were cut off at about the start of the frame bracketry you are going to need 36" (91.5 cm) of pipe. The pipe that I used for this mod was a length that I just had lying about the shop... the exact measurements can be seen in the pictures but to save you scouring the images for those kinds of details I will list them here:

Schedule 40
I.D. 1 3/8" (about 35.5mm)
O.D. 1 11/16" (about 42mm)

When you take your measurements make sure that you allow for a bit sticking out the end of the crossmember so that welding is a little simpler and you can finish it off to your exact specifications.

The first step in the installation process is to clean out the orignal crossmember.... some tend to be packed with mud and flakes of rust (as in Timo's case) or a bit of dust in the example shown here.

If the ends of the crossmember are coated in gobs of paint and/or undercoating you will need to clean that up a bit to get a decent weld. Suzukis come from the factory well undercoated... so depending on how enthusiastic they were at the factory the day your Suzuki was born you may have a little wire wheeling to do. I generally use a knotted wire wheel on an angle grinder for this kind of work.

The installation process is pretty straighforward. You start the pipe into one end of the crossmember and then gently tap it into place.

In the photos you can see Grant using a rather larger micrometer adjustable taptimeter to get this pipe to fit nicely. The other end of the crossmember had been smushed a little in a previous run-in with a tree or some such thing and was a little out of shape. A carefully controllled amount of force was applied by way of the BFH Grant was using to get this pipe to go in due to the aforementioned ding in the crossmember.

Once the pipe is in place, you can run a pass with a welder around the circumference of the pipe/crossmember interface to fuse the two together. When the welding is done, clean things up with a grinder and deburr any sharp edges with a round file or deburring tool to prevent any future blood-letting experiments or need for stitches.

To finish things up, apply a little of your favorite paint (I like Satin Black Rust Not) to prevent rusting and replace anything that you had to remove to do this little home-grown how-to.

This tech article was brought to you by the good guys at E4 Auto Repair in Duncan.