Fixing All The Problems With My Mini Jeep... 

Ed over at C90Adventures can surely tell all the problems to be had with one of these. He’s doing a series of riding one to Moab.

I know exactly what the problem is. If you take the boots off the rack and pinion, you will find one side has an extra plastic spacer/stopper. you need to cut one of them off. I was dumb enough to buy one of these. Lol.

Tyler what you could do is just strip the whole thing down to a metal frame and then rebuild it to your liking

This is how to fix the steering, remove both tie rods put the steering in the middle and adjust the tie rods to fit back in with the wheels straight. Tons of RU-vid videos on how to fix this Jeep

Who wants to see a 3 day solo overlanding survival trip using only wish survival gear?

I believe the reason it turns to the right better is because you're sitting over the left tire. It gives the left side more traction. As a kid I had a Powerwheels Jeep and noticed the same issue.

I am absolutely here for Tyler’s mechanic work videos! ✊🏼

Like having a real Jeep! The Jeep experience.

The throttle cable needs to be secured to the frame not to move so bad.

The 13mm and 14mm thing is because most people don't have two 13mm wrenches. I find it very convenient

Yikes at that battery, that's nightmarishly dangerous, you're lucky there wasn't a fire from it.

To fix the steering you need to take the rack n pinion off and center it before you put it back in

Did anyone think that Left and Right turning looked exactly the same?

Your ball joint is fine. It's the play in the control arm that is loose

You would put a 13 mm on one side an a 14 mm on the other side because a lot of people have one set of tools at home. It looks like that Jeep is mostly scrap so i'm impresed they at least thougt of that haha!

He's supposed to be a mechanic but this video still has that "what's a sweet potato?" vibe

I think the 13mm on one side and 14mm on another is so if you only have one wrench of each size that you don't get stuck in a situation of not being able to tighten it. That way you can grab both wrenches from your box and actually accomplish something, rather than be short a wrench if you don't have extras.

Tyler use two tape measures and adjust the tierods so they have the same number on both tapes. In front of tire and rear of tire plus use a 6 foot level or a drywall square from front tires to rear tires to square all four tires up and it will be 100% aligned!

Use a degree finder at the steering wheel to find center. Full Left and right you might half to do a little math to find true center. Once you figure out center of the rack do your left tie rod first then your right then put the steering wheel on straight. Some of the Chinese racks do have too many spacers on one side. Some of them have a center mark on the back if the rack from the shaft to the housing. Some times there just plane defected with a short adjustment from one side to another right at the tie rod because the threaded part is too short. I had a go cart do the same thing. Bought two defective racks and had to use something to find the degree left and right it wasn’t perfect but it worked better then guessing.

Great to see you truly in your element, getting all analytical and mechanical.

Tyler bought himself an A Grade Chineseium death trap 😂

If you have a welder, you could weld up some brackets to make the seat closer

I think the reason the bolt was a 14m and the nut is a 13m is incase you are working with one set of wrenches your not gonna have two 14s...though I don't know a single person who works on cars and what not that only owns one set of wrenches or sockets 😂😂

I almost spit out my coffee seeing how the brake caliper hit the shocks! That is no bueno good sir, not one bit! That will make the caliper "reset" each time they hit (the cylinder will compress during long turns making so you will have to pump the brake to get back too "both pads touching" which is super duper dangerous!) So what i would do is adjust the top and bottom ball joint "main bolts" (the parts that are connected to the chassis, not the wheel assembly) so that the whole wheel assembly gets further out, adjust the steering rack pins so that the brake caliper does not interfere with the shocks, shim up the "driver POW right side" top ball joint arm so it does not rock back and forth (your atempt to tighten the balljoint was futile seeing it SHOULD be free moving but the top linkage arm is meant to hold the assembly from backwards/forwards movement, hence why they almost always are A shaped) TL;DR this is like buying a second hand LEGO set that the guy before you where drunk while assembling, all the pieces are there.. but not correctly put together

You have a loose wheel bearing and likely a loose connecting arm as well. That would explain the turning issue and wheel wobble.

I couldn't help but notice below the banjo bolt on the brake caliper, It looked like there may have been an adjustable bump stop on the control arm/knuckle? Gotta love buying new sh¡t and having to work on it before using it.

I would say take it back and try another jeep lol

One side is 13 mm and the other is 14 mm, just in case you have only one set of wrenches.

Make yourself a backrest pillow with your Amazon sewing machine. 👍

It looks like to me the problem is play in the steering box itself when u had it turned all the way to the right drop the tie rod off the hub and pull it in and out just to see if there is play ,check both sides while ur at it, nice video bud 👍

Loved this video! I would love to see more like this, and hope you continue to update us

Has anyone seen c90adventures video literally driving like to Moab on this mini Jeep? It’s a good couple videos for sure, if you haven’t, I recommend you do. It’s deff worth the watch.

Tyler the diesel mechanic working on an automobile!

You should extend the steering wheel and shifter to you

You have a good base model to work with, now its time for upgrades and modifications to make it what you want, there are so many ways to improve this jeep, I know if I owned one the first thing my mind would do is start to figure out ways to improve things on it and what kind of upgrades I would do to suit the environment of where I will like to take it. I love to do mods and change things to make things work better or more to my liking. Enjoy your jeep, and make it Yours.

I would say try shifting you weight to the other side when turning and see if that makes a difference , also on some old go carts only one rear wheel pulls so it turns better in one direction better than the other

Dude I need to reset your rack loosen up the steering column pulled apart count you turn tool off to turn to the right set it to the center and there you go if far as goes at play you got to tighten everything up

An educated, guess would be they limit your left-hand turning to prevent rollovers as a safety feature.

Also look up Ackermann my dude, that will show you that the "outer" wheel turning more than the inner wheel is bad

Could it be the knuckle assemblies are on the wrong sides? Because the design of all other wheeled vehicles have the calipers on the trailing side instead of the leading side. In other words, the calipers on the front wheels should be at the back of the assembly and the calipers on the rear wheels are towards the front. The locations are engineered to increase brake efficiency. If the brake calipers on the front are facing forward the torque of the braking causes "lift" on the front tire contact area, decreasing the friction needed to stop. The front wheel calipers facing the rear of the car causes "dive" under braking., increasing the friction. The rear wheel calipers facing the front also causes "dive". The differences are because of the relationship of the weight of the car in respect to the caliper location. In other words the front calipers have all the weight behind them. The rear calipers have all the weight in front of them. Also the momentum and direction with the kinetic energy respective to vehicle weight is a factor.

Tyler. . . I CAN see the issue all the way from here😂😂 Adjust both upper and lower ball joints on the left-hand side(standing in front of the jeep) because the left is a lot closer than the right. So if you adjust it where the knuckle is further away from the shocks, then your turning will be sorted too as it won't bump into the shock so quickly

@TylerTube Too Maybe try putting spacers on the hubs?

I would actually like to buy one of these disassembled and build it myself.

My man Tyler buying premium Chinese junk and expecting a premium German made BMW or something 😂 love the little jeep. Should take it mudding! Lol

Tyler also swap your front brake calipers and the stoppers will be upside down and they wont hit the bolts will still line up and you cab still bleed them out with the brake lines

the issue you have is that it is a fixed drive to the rear axle, so no diff this make the jeep wants to push forward like some quad bike so for you to turn one rear wheel needs to slip in order for you to turn, as you are sitting on the left side it then make it difficult to turn left. if you were to sit in the center i think it would turn both ways the same .hope this helps

"I hate cotter pins" he says as he uses a wire cutter to try to straighten one and pull it out, instead of a pair of pliers like a normal person. :D

Seems like lots of things are made to turn better to one side. I can think of like riding mowers with a steering wheel, go carts, and apparently whatever that thing you bought. Could be because they want you to turn that way for either mowing or circle track but that's a guess.

Check the control arms driver side shock at the bottom looks like it points out more then the passengers side for the steering

What a nightmare, I would have suggested that you try using the warranty or returning for another one

6:00 That makes sense to me, if you're repairing in the field with a standard toolkit, you're not going to have two 13's. A 13 and a 14 though~

you should just pull the front end and put one that's a little bigger and you can adjust better. and make it a bigger wheelbase it would be a little safer as well. also you should just rebuild it and show us what it can be.

I think I can buy shifter extensions might want to check it out.

I think that different size bolts are there because it's kind of unusual to have 2 exact same size wrenches unless You re a mechanic or something

Remove that seat and make your own and suit it as best you can for your height

You take that thing off any sweet jumps?

Things made for shaq 😂

The reason they use different sizes for the nut and bolt is so you do not have to have two sets of tools to complete the job. A lot of import cars are like that.

Those front shocks are adjustable btw. Turn that silver sleeve near the bottom and it will adjust preload. In other words softer or stiffer suspension.

Glad I'm a welder fabricator I can all the problems myself including the reaching problems and the seat problems

That thing looks cool but mechanically looks like a accident waiting to happen with out fixing. The play on the hub is because that upper "A-arm" is not even a A-arm but just a rod and offers no side to side support. The balljoint on the bottom should be on on top of the hole like the upper arm/ball joint is. That way its near impossible for it to pop out since the weight is pushed into it instead of pulled. With enough force even not worn out it can pop out and run over its own wheel. Steering max angle can maybe be fixed by moving the hub closer or further to clear or create more space for the brake caliper and the horribly placed shock. And probably center the steeringbox so left and right are the same by adjusting the steering tie rods.

Need a video on your endro bike now😂

Camber in at top and camber out at bottom will give you a better turning radius, like a F1 car or go-cart.

I have one of these jeeps. Mine is the ice bear one. I live in the mountains where you can ride dirtbikes and quads on the street. I rode mine on dirtbike trails. I use it to pull a little trailer and haul firewood around my property. I use it to pull my log splitter. It seats 2 adults. The steering wheel and shifter are short so kids can drive it too. Duh. I put LED headlights, air horn, and ammo can tool box on mine. When I drive it to the gas station or grocery store people gather around to tell me it’s cool and ask questions about it. Definitely a chick magnet. I traded a Honda XR100 for it on Facebook market. Best trade I ever made.

Was the battery in there originally also an agm battery? If so, using a standard charger will cause the battery damage and could explode like that or worse

well ya know, ya could just remount the shock OR swap spindles to the other side but shock mount would be my first guess.

Pull the tie rods off the knuckles, turn the wheel side to side to find center and reattach. After that then you can fine tune the alignment

Its both horrifying and funny watching this. Love you mate 😊

adjust uper and lower control arms out to fix steering.

Grind the bump stop off. Saves a lot of time.

Adjust the upper and lower knuckle outward😊

Even mini jeeps have problems within 2 mins of owning one

@donut could do some crazy awesome stuff with this!

Tyler grease the joints if they can be. It might help

Left and right wobble is usually tie rods. Up, down, left or right, are usually ball joint issues

it doesnt have nearly enough ackerman in the steering for a vehicle like that "ie the inside tire of a turn should turn further than the outside tire" you should look up ackerman and figure out how to add it into your steering ... ackerman steering is how uk taxis work so well in the city ... and it will tighten the turning radius greatly

Just FYI and this is not gospel but charge your battery to 12v before the trickle charger. I made the same mistake and Almost burned my garage down. There is a burn mark that reminds me every time I walk in the garage. I did not read my chargers warning and yeah…. Great video!

Buy another one for parts you know your gonna need them anyway.

Is both rear wheels powered or just driver’s side?

Most metric bolts and screws have a bigger nut than the head of the screw. Probably because some people dont wanna buy a full set. So they just buy the wrenches from sizes 4 to 32mm. And about the steering, the inside wheel will always turn more sharp than the outside. If you steer left and right while only looking at the drivers wheel, ofcourse its gonna look off. In my opinion the steering angle doesn't look that bad. Maybe 3-5° of.

Seems like the lower ball joint on the right side comes little further. Maybe adjust those?

I think given the quality of the build Tyler they didn’t even give a moments thought to ergonomics of how you sit in it 😂

Let’s go hype for the jeep

Where and how can i buy one? Im in the uk

Might be able to find wheel spacers for it, or fabricate them

How’s yours holding up? Mine has now started just staying on. The gear indicator is always light up.

Usually when bolts are different sizes on each side it’s so you can fix it with one tool kit if you have to

I need to see someone put a race quad motor and trans in one of these and upgrade the chassis to handle it all….thing would be an absolute demon.

Sounds like you got the friday at 459 unit with random parts from the spare parts bin

you should make more video's like this. like how to do things. some people didnt have anybody to show them this type of stuff

I mean the front of it is all smashed up lol I can’t help but think that thing is twisted or parts of the steering are Atleast. Even if it’s not super obvious

Check EVERY screw and bolt and make sure they are all tight Might fall apart if not

that thing is dope - I would custom fab some long travel arms for it. Also hayabusa engine swap when?

i work in aviation. i take out cotter pins daily. i know your pain lol

Saw 2 today and they halted selling them for now due to some battery issues and some other problems that cropped up on them. At my local Tractor Supply.

Can't wait for this video!

Tyler showing off his skills

5:58 they are two different size hex head on one fastener, designed with in mind that the consumers that buy this are not going to be very mechanically inclined. The average joe may only have one set of wrenches and nothing else. Them being two different sizes allows you to work on it if you only have one set of wrenches 😂

The uper control arm mount is moving on the right side some crapy weld job

Just watched one drive to Moab only had to be rebuilt like 3 times