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Project BS3.5 - Another Budget Samurai

7K views 43 replies 8 participants last post by  kkodet 
#1 ·
Like an infectious disease that keeps coming back I don't seem to have the ability to keep a Suzuki Samurai out of my life.

To start off with, here is a bit of my history with the boxy little buggies.

BS1 - My first Samurai was an early 1988 model (there were several design changes in 88) bought for $200 in stock form with an extremely rusty body and an interior full of spiders, mold, and porno mags. It ran great, but was stuck in 3rd gear. I feathered the clutch and drove it 15 miles home where a quick fiddling with the shifter got it back working. I gutted the interior and drove it as a daily driver for the summer, including one trip to Mio where a full throttle run up Bull Gap resulted in two loose fender flares and a pin hole leak in the oil pan. On that trip lgottler also ran over a deer and whipped it into the air where it nearly went through my windshield. Alas we skinned, cooked, and ate the deer for breakfast at our campground, much to the terror of the family in the quarter million dollar motor home in the next site over.

A few months later my little brother borrowed the Samurai while I was out of town, and ignoring my "put four quarts of oil in it before you start it" warning, he promptly seized the engine so violently while driving it that it ripped both motor mounts clear off the frame and layed the engine over several degrees.

A few weeks later a Corona fueled night in the barn started a quick and dirty build. Using mainly cast off parts, it recieved a vortec 4.3 with an Astrovan four barrel intake, a T5 transmission, a spring over swap with a set of 3 inch lift springs, and a set of dry rotted 35 inch mud terrains.

Way tall, and squirrly on the street, it would do a wheely in first gear, a wicked burnout in second, and only by feathering the clutch in 3rd could it be launched in a reasonable manner.

Upon the birth of my son I sold the Samurai without ever wheeling it, to a lady out west who used it for Mud racing. She kept in touch till a few years ago, and her own adventures including blowing up the 4.3 on nitrous, and swapping in a 383 stroker along with a rear mounted radiator.

Somewhere I may have pics of that one and will post them if I find them.

BS2 and 3 were bought at the same time. Both were bone stock, and BS2 was a super clean 1986 with a slight rod knock, and BS3 was a 1990 "parts truck" that had been rolled, and the previous owner was decapitated in the accident. The highly supersticious seller refused to admit he was selling me the death rig, so he made me sign a document that I was buying the 86 for $900 and the 90 was a free gift.

I drove the 86 in stock form for about six months with lucasoil in it until it finally gave up. I don't quite remember how it happened, but someone offered me crazy money for it, so it went away. Now just
the 90 sat in my backyard.

A discussion with some friends turned into a bet of sorts, whether I could build a Samurai for decent trail use for under $1,000. So the build began, and was documented in a two part writeup in The Boondocker put out by Great Lakes Four Wheel Drive Association.

The build was a success, which included a spring over lift, a used 6,000 lb winch, some heavily cupped 33's, a welded rear, 5.12 tracker front gears in both differentials and not much more.

Here she was:

Land vehicle Vehicle Motor vehicle Car Off-roading


It saw action in Michigan, Canada, and Kentucky, and was flopped about a half a dozen times. This was the Samurai that taught me most about these little rigs, and I fine tuned my driving skills with it as well.

Vehicle Soil Off-roading Grass Off-road vehicle


That Samurai was wheeled hard and put away wet. When I took a Sabbatical from the offroad world it was used as a farm truck until the winch broke and the transfer case was blown. After sitting neglected for awhile it was sold during some hard times.

BS 3.5

Since BS2 was never "built" or wheeled, it doesn't realy recieve full rating, so the third one was really more like 2.5

I've told myself for the last few years if another 1990-1995 model (the fuel injected/big driveshaft flange years) came my way I'd snag it, and a few months ago this little 1990 popped up here.

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Sport utility vehicle Suzuki


It has an O.K. body, some rust issues and whatnot. It also is stock with exception to an SJ410 windshield fold down kit and some two inch lift shackles. The engine runs but has a hole in the side of the block where a rod came through, and the underside has a liberal coating of oil. However the price was right and it came with an Optima battery and an older carburated engine with supposedly only 40k on it. So let the build begin!
 
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#32 · (Edited)
This morning started with the removal of the driver fender flare to start figuring out what I was going to do about tire clearance now that the 31s are mounted up.



Lots of rust under the old inner flare bracket.



Using the old inner bracket as a template I cut out most of the rust with the plasma.



Making a few final cuts with a sawzall up near the headlight area I was able to remove the stock inner fender in one big piece, leaving only now the greatly enlarged wheel opening.



And replacing the inner fender, pushing it up 2 inches higher than it was before. Welding thin Japanese sheetmetal is a pain with .035 wire! I really need to set up an .023 machine!



The only modification necessary to the body tub that was necessary to raise the inner fenders was to slice and hammer over this small lip under the brake booster.



Top view of re-installed inner fender. I even took the time to cut and reweld the three small brackets that work as braces/stiffeners. The tiny factory jack still fits under the hood too.

 
#33 · (Edited)
After picking up the kids from school I spent some time finishing up the rear disc swap. I know this looks rough, but it is totally functional. This was also a "dry run" Idea and I may clean it up later. I followed the instructions as were posted in the earlier link. My only small modification/add to them was to tack weld the spacer washers (top of caliper bracket) because I could already see them falling out into the mud on the trail during a repair since they are sandwiched between the caliper and bracket. Now, rear shaft replacement is a 15-20 minute job tops, vs. an hour plus for original drum setups.

 
#34 · (Edited)
The raising of the passenger side inner fender went faster now that I had an idea where to cut and what to do. After everything was welded up on both sides I went ahead and sprayed the "fixed" areas with spray bedliner in a can, since that's apparently what one of the previous owners of this rig already did. I was impressed how well it blended in.

I did take the time to measure the "virtual lift" and both inner fenders were raised exactly two inches. I probably could have pushed it another inch, but there would have been several other clearance issues I'd have to deal with. At two inches I have just enough room to make everything work.



Here is a shot of the drivers side, you can see the stainless header is now installed. I had to add about 6 inches to the O2 sensor wire.

 
#38 ·
I hope so too! My fingers are really crossed right now. I am having a huge issue with my left eye that will probably require some immediate medical care, so I'm hoping it won't interfere. I should know monday. I only need one to drive!
 
#41 ·
With the front inner fenders both lifted up, packaging became a bit of an issue.

The first mod was the stock air box, which as you can see now is fed by a PVC snorkel. The upper rubber tube hit the hood, so I took the lid off and spun it around backwards to fit, and it just barely does. Then I had to expand the vacuum line (no idea what it does) and it all fits nicely now.

The battery proved to be fun. The shortest easily available top and even side post batteries are now about 1/2 inch too tall to fit under the hood. However a standard Optima, which can be mounted in any position, just barely fits sideways which I felt was a perfect option.



The rear brakes buckled up nicely. However 1988.5 and newer Samurais use a strange rear brake line setup in that everything is fed to the drivers side wheel cylinder and then taps out and goes to the passenger side. This wouldn't work with my plans, I needed a T like most conventional vehicles. I found that an early 90's Toyota pickup had the perfect T, metric like I needed, that bolted in. And as an added bonus my parts truck had extended braided lines! The T on the Toyota had a cool little bracket that bolted perfectly to the top of the samurai housing where the parking brake used to bolt up. I was then able to re-use the stock passenger side brake line, and stole the passenger side brake line from the Toyota rear for a perfect bolt up with the proper metric fittings. Using front brake hoses with the brackets cut of a junk Samurai frame I tacked them up. Everything is mounted high and out of the way.

 
#42 ·
I needed taillights, as the stock rear bumper is now gone. So I drew them on with Red Crayon.






























Actually I plasma cut the rear fenders for oval Semi trailer lights, measuring 1/2 inch in from the edge closest to the tailgate. There is barely enough room for them.




And done

 
#43 · (Edited)
CB mounted up, and I finally found a rig that an ammo can works as a console in!



Using a harbor freight winch plate I cut, ground, and welded it to fit the front, cutting out the stock grille and header panel to push it as far back into the radiator as possible. The covered everything in more bedliner.



All mounted up! I did a great job trimming the stock grille to fit around the winch, then went to install it and realized i trimmed it upside down, durp! So the whole center of the grille got chopped out and i just trimmed the stock plastic mesh to fit. I kinda actually like the look anyways. I also mounted the winch controller under the hood to the radiator core support as you can see in the earlier pic. I think it is a cleaner look and it keeps it from getting damaged.



New bestop top installed, snorkel made, and rear fender flares re-installed for now. This is as far as I got before leaving for Gitchee Gumee but she is ready!

 
#44 ·
Post Gitchee Gumee Report:

The Samurai worked much better than hoped, although there were some goods and bads.

The rear fender flares lasted all of about two hours of wheeling. They just didn't have enough clearance and the tires ripped them off. The front shackles have to go, which I already knew. They hang down too low and racked a ton of rocks. And this thing NEEDS power steering, as I found in a few tight turns. And with stock T-case gears there is a lot of riding the clutch in rocks. So lower gears are also in the plan.

The really bad news is that the engine that the PO gave me is pretty worn out. It smokes badly and has a slight lower end knock and an upper end tick. It still moves at highway speeds but the oil fumes gas you out if you have the windows up, so another motor is in the near future.

As for the good, keeping it low was the right choice. My last couple of builds were Spring over and very tippy. I ran this thing at all sorts of angles and it stayed firmly planted. I have no plans to go much higher than it is. I still want better articulation, and I did bend a rear main leaf, so I'm thinking a YJ spring under conversion may be perfect.

I did not expect much of a braking difference with the rear disc conversion but was I every surprised! It stops and holds at any angle and is great! It was probably the best thing I did!

Everything else worked great, as it should, and I was very pleased. Usually I leave a trip with a ton of ideas for change, but not this time. I am very happy with this rig.

Here are a few pics of it in action:





One of the final lessons from this build is that Stainless headers transfer heat well. During lunch I hose clamped a can of Chili to the header, and promptly forgot about it for a couple of hours till I hit a small tree on the run, heard a loud pop and saw steam. I thought I punctured the radiator till I smelled the Chili!
 
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