samurai??? toyota??? HELP NEED DIRECTION ADVICE

ballou

New Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2012
I've had many 4x4's all fullsize, customs and stocks, now i find myself in a pickle hoping you guys can help with some direction and advice. I picked up a partially modified 87 rust free clean title samurai in a local junk yard for 300.00. It has a spring over lift with 3in blocks on the back and add a springs in the front someone has put the drive shaft spacers on it and the factory shock on it are doing nothing, it is as stiff as a duece and a half in the supsension dept. it can easily clear 38's. The motor seems to have had alot of work done to it header, aftermarket head, snorked. Drive shafts were out of it when i saved it after instaling the shafts, and borrowing some 32" tires and wheels being it didn't have any, I put a hot battery in it and some sprayed some gas in the carb it cranked and ran!!! With out hesitation I took it for a road test it would haul ass for such a small 4 banger. Untill the rear end locked up, pulling the rear drive shaft into, and ripping the rubber mounts holding the transfer in, less than 2 miles from my home. The rearend is toast after closer look the rear axle housing was bent inward (diffcoverarea) and was putting pressure on the ring and pinion which had only alittle water and a lot of rust in it no oil! I hate not to do something with it with as little money i have in it being that everthing but the axles do not work. Now I have been holding out I have picked up a set of 34x10.50x17 super swamper LTB's with the warranty nipple's on them at same junk yard for 200.00 with matching 5x5.5x17x9 crome steel wheels for the sammy. Also picked up a 1978 Toyota 4x4 running and driving w/powersteering it is a rustbucket and has no title for 200.00. I need my shop back the sammy's on stand's in my shop. I need help to repair or to sell help!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Post up a Want To Buy ad for a stock Sami rear end over at Zuwharrie.com. I had to do the same thing due to a broken axle shaft a while back. I got the whole rear end plus rear leaf springs for $50.

http://bbs.zuwharrie.com/

I'd get rid of the blocks and lower it some. Use stock leafs packs on top of the axles to fit those 34's., and trim the fenders as necessary. You are going to need some lower TC gears. Buy some new stock transfer case mounts from Low Range Offroad to start with.

http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/index.php/suzuki/samurai.html
 
do i consider using any of the parts from the yota (driveline or axles) or just rebuild my sammy stuff. Also i live in louisiana where red clay and grey gumbo with the ocassional baygull is in abundance. I'm not looking to compete in any race or rockclimb. Just looking to build a reliable, capable sammy that can hold its on off road, and can enjoy a sunday drive on the highway. With out holding up traffic. Surely i can run in low range when using 4x4 and run approx. 55mph on the highway? With of course some gearing upgrades Advice???????????????
 
ballou said:
do i consider using any of the parts from the yota (driveline or axles) or just rebuild my sammy stuff. Also i live in louisiana where red clay and grey gumbo with the ocassional baygull is in abundance. I'm not looking to compete in any race or rockclimb. Just looking to build a reliable, capable sammy that can hold its on off road, and can enjoy a sunday drive on the highway. With out holding up traffic. Surely i can run in low range when using 4x4 and run approx. 55mph on the highway? With of course some gearing upgrades Advice???????????????
Click to expand...

Your original post sounded like you just wanted it fixed and out of your garage. That is why I suggested picking up a stock Sami rearend and throwing it under there. The wheels your 34's are on won't fit the Yota axles either, so you will need to buy some 6 lug 17" rims. If you've got time and money to do the swap, then I would install the Yota axles under the Sami using the Yota driveshafts since all of those parts are stronger. You will need adapters to bolt the Yota DS's up to the Sami TC.

You will not go 55mph in low range. You will struggle to go 55+mph in high range with a stock Sami 1.3 motor and heavy 34" tires.

I'm running 34" LTB's on my Sami axles, with a 1.6 16v Sidekick motor and 6.5:1 TC gears.
 
Will I need too cut and move the pumpkin on the rear (toyota) for the sammi swap or can I get on and off road use without moving the pumpkin by just grinding on the driveshaft where needed. Also can I use the steering box off the yota on the sammy and the powersteering?????????
 
No need to cut up the rear I've seen plenty with just a stock Yota axle under them. As for steering idk but I do know you don't want to use the Yota sa box. Maybe an ifs box and convert to hysteer.
 
I'm running a front IFS toyota shaft in the rear shortened, and a rat adapter on the transfer case, it has the double cardan joint so the centered toyota rear axle works pretty good very little vibration and its strong too! i would prefer to have the offset housing but i hav'nt broke mine yet so no upgrade.
 
you can run the off set rear just need the right drive shaft and im running a samurai high stear draglink to a tracker powerstering box and a toyota tie rod works great locked on 36s
 
So my stock yota axles have 4.11 gears will the ssammy be good wwith those gears or will i need to change them?
also some of u recommended tc gear up grade so for example if i wanted to be able to run 45-55 on highway..
... and still be able to clean the mud out of the tread even if i had to run in low range off road what tc gear shounld i use???
remember my brother in law owns an autosalvage
 
yea with a 34 u will need either case gears (6.5 from Low Range Offroad is what i have with 33s ) or numerically lower axle gears, my mall crawler has approx a 34" tire and it is geared 5.12 it will cruise 60mph with stock motor no problem I havn't crawled it much but it doesn't feel too bad in low range and cleans the tires out pretty good just my 0.02 cent
 
ballou said:
So my stock yota axles have 4.11 gears will the ssammy be good wwith those gears or will i need to change them?
also some of u recommended tc gear up grade so for example if i wanted to be able to run 45-55 on highway..
... and still be able to clean the mud out of the tread even if i had to run in low range off road what tc gear shounld i use???
remember my brother in law owns an autosalvage
Click to expand...

Get some 6.5:1 TC gears from Low Range Offroad. No need to fool with the axle gears. Those TC gears along with 4.11's in the axles on 34" tires will be perfect. That way if you ever blow apart a ring and pinion, you can pick up a stock Yota third member for cheap, and roll out.

http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/inde...i-6-5-1-transfer-case-6-5-1-t-case-gears.html
 
6.5:1 tcase are the way to go. there awesome in low range and help a little on the street too. i have the 6.5s and 4.30 tracker diffs and 34s (but building my yota rearends with 4.11s now) and can keep up with traffic on the interstate and crawl everything i point it at.
 
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