CarolinaSamurai
Active Member
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2018
- Location
- Carthage/Charlotte
The sad day has finally come for me to part ways with this thing. Ended up moving away from it after college, buying a house, and now I’m painting a nursery. It’s should be a “short” few steps from being a awesome trail rig for someone that has the time. Hasn’t been out since the Covid times, but prior to that has been through Uwharrie, The Flats, the SHOP, etc. So someone might have seen it in the wild before I was left to sit.
1987 Suzuki Samurai with a title ready to sign. Parts list is long and spread out over several years, so I’ll probably miss some stuff. This was a cool rig and I am 100% happy to answer questions for an excuse to talk about the good ol’ days before life got serious.
1.6 8V FI engine, 5 speed, 6.5 gears in T-Case with ZOR Cradle, includes a not yet installed unbreakable trans mount, Tom woods driveshaft up front, not sure origin of rear driveshaft(includes some random spacers/adapters that its had over the years), Toyota pickup axles with 4.88 gears and Detroit lockers, chromo shafts and freshly installed two years ago seals. Miscellaneous trail gear bits and pieces throughout the axles (Dust shield delete, heavy duty seals, etc)
38.5 baja claws that have some age but hold air, diy beadlock. Have 3 38.5 tsls that can come with it
Jeep steering pump, Toyota box, hyrdo assist
LROR Sport Cage with added harness bar and some wakeboard boat tower speakers, Chrysler pacific bucket seats,
On jeep leaf springs with missing links for all the down travel you could want and more. Rear springs are yj springs. Front springs from a wagoneer (pin offset forward) + offset holes on the spring plates gives it several inches of front stretch.
Lots of work/thought went into the setup on this thing. Even before the engineering degree, I couldn’t stop
Things that need addressing:
After replacing the coil, distributor, and ecu, we couldn’t nail down an issue with no spark. After I had to take a smarter approach than throwing parts at it, it was determined there is spark at the coil but it’s just very weak. Best diagnosis is that somewhere between the coil and the ecu there is a wire that has degraded or a short. Someone with the time and patience should be able to resolved the issue in short form, but given that I live 2+ hours from where this thing sits, I don’t check either box.
I would change up the air intake pipe (could be free.99 with some pvc scraps) to no longer rest on the inner fender. At that point, the inner fenders can be cut out and look 100 times better.
The body is solid but has had the fenders and firewall rolled with a sledge and a cutoff wheel. This isn’t a show car, a princess, and if you’re looking for something to restore you’re best suited using this an example of what you don’t want, but if you’re looking for something that with a little work can be a great trail rig for the local area than this is perfect. Hell, I had it get stuck in third gear one day shortly after unloading from the trailer at Uwharrie and went out and rode most of the park, including Dutch John and Dickey Bell as a single speed.
As a side note… No inspection needed and plenty of power/gear to make it to 75+, just takes a little wind up. Between the stiff springs and the hyrdo assist, it’s actually driveable at highway speeds and rust, other than a floor pan that was crudely patched up, is somehow not bad. I don’t speak legalese but I’m sure there’s a couple of somethings the highway patrol could give you grief about if they knew what they were looking at. I drove it on the road somewhat regularly on weekends for a while and never had any issues.
Thinking $6500 because of the labor/parts that went into it, but its not like KBB has a section for these things so that’s an OBO. Price is lower if someone on here will spare me the trouble of the crazies on Marketplace. Located in Carthage, NC. My old man has this under a shelter that where it can easily be backed up to and winched on a trailer, and he is around just about always to work out the deal on my end since the title is in his name. Feel free to shoot me a text if you have any questions (nine10)-six95-five974. Come take this thing off my hands.
Short version, I have a baby on the way and need to find someone with a tax return that is looking to surprise their wife with a sporty new convertible.
1987 Suzuki Samurai with a title ready to sign. Parts list is long and spread out over several years, so I’ll probably miss some stuff. This was a cool rig and I am 100% happy to answer questions for an excuse to talk about the good ol’ days before life got serious.
1.6 8V FI engine, 5 speed, 6.5 gears in T-Case with ZOR Cradle, includes a not yet installed unbreakable trans mount, Tom woods driveshaft up front, not sure origin of rear driveshaft(includes some random spacers/adapters that its had over the years), Toyota pickup axles with 4.88 gears and Detroit lockers, chromo shafts and freshly installed two years ago seals. Miscellaneous trail gear bits and pieces throughout the axles (Dust shield delete, heavy duty seals, etc)
38.5 baja claws that have some age but hold air, diy beadlock. Have 3 38.5 tsls that can come with it
Jeep steering pump, Toyota box, hyrdo assist
LROR Sport Cage with added harness bar and some wakeboard boat tower speakers, Chrysler pacific bucket seats,
On jeep leaf springs with missing links for all the down travel you could want and more. Rear springs are yj springs. Front springs from a wagoneer (pin offset forward) + offset holes on the spring plates gives it several inches of front stretch.
Lots of work/thought went into the setup on this thing. Even before the engineering degree, I couldn’t stop
Things that need addressing:
After replacing the coil, distributor, and ecu, we couldn’t nail down an issue with no spark. After I had to take a smarter approach than throwing parts at it, it was determined there is spark at the coil but it’s just very weak. Best diagnosis is that somewhere between the coil and the ecu there is a wire that has degraded or a short. Someone with the time and patience should be able to resolved the issue in short form, but given that I live 2+ hours from where this thing sits, I don’t check either box.
I would change up the air intake pipe (could be free.99 with some pvc scraps) to no longer rest on the inner fender. At that point, the inner fenders can be cut out and look 100 times better.
The body is solid but has had the fenders and firewall rolled with a sledge and a cutoff wheel. This isn’t a show car, a princess, and if you’re looking for something to restore you’re best suited using this an example of what you don’t want, but if you’re looking for something that with a little work can be a great trail rig for the local area than this is perfect. Hell, I had it get stuck in third gear one day shortly after unloading from the trailer at Uwharrie and went out and rode most of the park, including Dutch John and Dickey Bell as a single speed.
As a side note… No inspection needed and plenty of power/gear to make it to 75+, just takes a little wind up. Between the stiff springs and the hyrdo assist, it’s actually driveable at highway speeds and rust, other than a floor pan that was crudely patched up, is somehow not bad. I don’t speak legalese but I’m sure there’s a couple of somethings the highway patrol could give you grief about if they knew what they were looking at. I drove it on the road somewhat regularly on weekends for a while and never had any issues.
Thinking $6500 because of the labor/parts that went into it, but its not like KBB has a section for these things so that’s an OBO. Price is lower if someone on here will spare me the trouble of the crazies on Marketplace. Located in Carthage, NC. My old man has this under a shelter that where it can easily be backed up to and winched on a trailer, and he is around just about always to work out the deal on my end since the title is in his name. Feel free to shoot me a text if you have any questions (nine10)-six95-five974. Come take this thing off my hands.
Short version, I have a baby on the way and need to find someone with a tax return that is looking to surprise their wife with a sporty new convertible.
