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2000 SsangYong Musso

TJDukit

TJDukit

I.Y.A.A.Y.A.S.
Location
Clearfield
Figured I'd share this rig with you guys since it's not something many of you will ever see let alone know exists. This isn't going to be a build thread since I am not going to be doing anything to this rig at all except driving it back and forth to work and hopefully find some mild trails to wheel it on.

It is a 2000 SsangYong Musso. I hear they are fairly popular in Australia and they are quite difficult to find much information on. This one has a 2.3L Mercedes 4cyl Turbo Diesel with a Mercedes auto trans and a Borg Warner transfer case with a 2.48:1 low range. Up front it has an IFS D30 and the rear has a solid D44 with a coil sprung 4-link panhard setup.

After driving it around quite a bit today I've figured out a few things about this rig.

It makes 101HP at 4000RPM and 154 lb-ft at 2400RPM which makes it a little underpowered but even on decent hills it pulls well enough. It won't get out of it's own way very quick but it will get there. Very slow but consistent power no matter how steep the hill is.

The interior of this thing is CHEAP. This rig only has 156000 kilometers on it but I'm sure everything that can rattle inside does. It's a very bare bones kinda rig even though it has electric windows and A/C.

Everything I read says it should get about 30mpg on the highway and 20mpg around town which is a huge plus for this thing since it weighs 4300lbs.

It even has a rear facing two seat fold up bench in the back making room for 7.

Here's the one pic I have of it right now. I'm sure I'll get some more posted up and maybe if I'm lucky some pics of it off-road.



I guess I would say it would compare to maybe a second gen 4-Runner in size and on paper capability off road. I really wish I could bring it back to the states with me to do some serious mods to it but that's just not a possibility. This thing needs an SAS and some 35's.
 
TJDukit

TJDukit

I.Y.A.A.Y.A.S.
Location
Clearfield
They are korean but at least one company in Russia makes them. Daewoo made them for a bit before going back to SsangYong.
 
TJDukit

TJDukit

I.Y.A.A.Y.A.S.
Location
Clearfield
Heres the single worst thing about this rig.



These cup holders are about 1.5 inches deep and not even 2 inches around. Not sure what I'm supposed to use them for.
 
TJDukit

TJDukit

I.Y.A.A.Y.A.S.
Location
Clearfield
Really missing having a garage right now. The power steering in this thing just took a dump. Gonna have to do my least favorite thing and pay someone to fix it.
 
TJDukit

TJDukit

I.Y.A.A.Y.A.S.
Location
Clearfield
So two weekends ago I took this thing on the longest drive I've had it on. I drove 3 hours to Kunsan Air Base to visit a good friend who happens to be there for a deployment.

Max speed in this is right at 160KPH or 100 MPH. At that speed I looked our the rear view and saw a cloud of black smoke. It really doesn't like to go fast at all.

Then last weekend I took it to go north to meet up with the Teraflex guys. About 20 minutes from home cruising between 130 and 140 KPH it decided it didn't want to be in Drive anymore and randomly kicked down to third gear.

Not good at all. It shifted so hard I heard the rear tires chirp for a second. It really scared the crap out if me. After a couple minutes in third it finally up shifted again. It did that one more time but this time I was only going about 100. It recovered from that and it didn't happen again.

I'm being very hopeful that no serious damage was done. I'm pretty sure it red lined pretty hard on that first downshift. It seems to be running ok but has developed a rough idle but only sometimes. Other than that it runs just fine.
 
TJDukit

TJDukit

I.Y.A.A.Y.A.S.
Location
Clearfield
So on to the next big flaw. As you can see in this picture when the window is rolled all the way down the glass still sticks out a little.



At first it was just an annoyance when driving with my arm out the window.

Three days ago I was getting in the car and just touched the top of the glass with my wedding ring and the glass exploded inside the door. I'm guessing it was a combination of a serious weak spot in the glass and the sharp beveled edge of my ring.

Luckily it was a cheap fix. I brought it to a shop off base and had the oil changed and window replaced for about 115 bucks.
 
TJDukit

TJDukit

I.Y.A.A.Y.A.S.
Location
Clearfield
Stupid Mercedes engine and trans. Had a cracked transmission line. Due to the stupid sealed bs they put in it I had to limp it to the shop with almost no fluid in it and no way of adding fluid or the ability to check it.

Everything is good now but what a pain.

I had also noticed recently that the driver side seat was so broken down that my hip would start hurting after five minutes of sitting in it.

So I decided to swap the passenger and driver seat over. Luckily the seat and frames had the same bolt pattern so it worked great and it almost feels like a brand new seat.
 
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