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1988 Samurai Turned Buggy

I keep forgetting to mention it, but you'll have to cut this rod off.

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It's for a forward shift transmission, where the tcase shifter is mounted in the trans. That w56 is a top shift and has no space for that.

Lucky for you I used a top shift style shift fork and iirc, even welded the little key stock on.

Look at the back of that trans and you'll see what I mean, there is a cavity that allows the rod to stick out a bit. Basically push the rod in, mark it flush, then pop it back out and hit it with a cut off wheel.
 
Got into this more today. Did a bunch of cleaning, tore down both cases. So glad Yota hooked me up with two cases. The 75% complete case has good needle bearings and main bearings.

75% case still needs cleaned, but not needing bearings will save me a pile of money on this. :smokin:

The complete built case parts are also cleaning up nicely in the Evap-O-Rust. Worth every penny.

I need to download instructions for this so I don’t have to keep watching knuckleheads on YouTube. :laughing:

Parts are cleaning:

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More parts soaking.

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This all escalated really quickly. :flipoff2:


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What site do you guys use to cross reference bearings? Pretty sure I got these bearings referenced, but want to be sure.
 
Was it driven under water or just left out in the rain ?
 
Landslide said:
Was it driven under water or just left out in the rain ?
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These were in my 90 4runner when it burned in a forestfire. I kept them since they still shifted and spun fine. That was 5 years ago, almost scraped them, but couldn't do it. At some point, the tarp blew off my junk pile. I felt like I gave him a pretty good deal for everything included considering the stupid prices of used Toyota shit these days. Obviously shipping ate up some of that, hopefully it all works out in the end.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
These were in my 90 4runner when it burned in a forestfire. I kept them since they still shifted and spun fine. That was 5 years ago, almost scraped them, but couldn't do it. At some point, the tarp blew off my junk pile. I felt like I gave him a pretty good deal for everything included considering the stupid prices of used Toyota shit these days. Obviously shipping ate up some of that, hopefully it all works out in the end.
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It was an excellent deal.

Like I said, I was going to have as much if not more into building a Samurai case, which is nowhere as strong, or as low.

Little bit of cleaning and rebuilding and she’ll be right as rain. :smokin:

Major props to Evap-O-Rust, though. Without that this process would SUCK.
 
FleshEater said:
It was an excellent deal.

Like I said, I was going to have as much if not more into building a Samurai case, which is nowhere as strong, or as low.

Little bit of cleaning and rebuilding and she’ll be right as rain. :smokin:

Major props to Evap-O-Rust, though. Without that this process would SUCK.
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I do love the Sami case for what it is. All the gearing options, plus lower high range for that poor 4cyl. All in the size of a lunchbox. :laughing: for what you want to do though, this will be killer.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
I do love the Sami case for what it is. All the gearing options, plus lower high range for that poor 4cyl. All in the size of a lunchbox. :laughing: for what you want to do though, this will be killer.
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Yeah, the Samurai case is far superior to the Track/Kick cases for gearing options. But not ideal for my build. Excellent for a light weight, mild rig, though.
 
Most of my brainstorming on this build has been done with Wuz-A-Zuk, Byro, and YotaAtietoo. I’ve also spent a lot of time perusing the buggy builds here and at the old place, and I’ll be honest, it was overwhelming how many chassis I saw guys building from kits.

So naturally it started to get in my head. :laughing:

I got hooked up with a local chassis builder from one of Byro’s buddy’s and just pulled the trigger on a chassis kit we’ve been tweaking for the past two days.

In my mind I had already wanted to build something close to the Rock Lizard, but make it closer to a Track/Kick size over a Samurai. That’s pretty much what we did, and this dude gave me a really good price on this chassis.

He’s just starting out and trying to offer a very affordable weld-your-own kit. Company is Rock Raisin Fabrication and seems like a legit, cool dude.

Already regretting building Toyota axles at this point and plan on setting money aside to go bigger and run 40’s. :smokin: :homer:

48” dash bar, 52” shoulders, 48” floor. Comes in at an estimated 363lbs. Pretty sure I shaved off about 2 years going this route. Especially since I have no idea what I’m doing. :flipoff2:

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Told you so :flipoff2:

Don't worry about tons and 40s, doesn't gain hardly much over 35-37s and toyota axles on a super light little thing like this.

You add tons and 40s, may as well do 42-43s, then you have basically no power to move them at all and you want a bigger motor, ect.

Run what you got, I promise if you learn to wheel it to its potential, you'll hurt a lot of guys feeling with 10x's the money, bigger tires, motor, ect. On a lot of stuff.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
These were in my 90 4runner when it burned in a forestfire. I kept them since they still shifted and spun fine. That was 5 years ago, almost scraped them, but couldn't do it. At some point, the tarp blew off my junk pile. I felt like I gave him a pretty good deal for everything included considering the stupid prices of used Toyota shit these days. Obviously shipping ate up some of that, hopefully it all works out in the end.
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Gotcha, it’s sad there are so many Forrest fires out west burning everything up including peoples homes and all their belongings. Extremely depressing to see.

Good to see it get another round of life put back into it. I enjoyed going through Toyota transmissions years back. Although I had a FSM I still took photos of the tear down process in stages. That paid off a ton as some parts were not covered in the manual and sometimes they were apart for a while waiting on new parts to put them back together.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
Told you so :flipoff2:

Don't worry about tons and 40s, doesn't gain hardly much over 35-37s and toyota axles on a super light little thing like this.

You add tons and 40s, may as well do 42-43s, then you have basically no power to move them at all and you want a bigger motor, ect.

Run what you got, I promise if you learn to wheel it to its potential, you'll hurt a lot of guys feeling with 10x's the money, bigger tires, motor, ect. On a lot of stuff.
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^^^ yep, been there done that. One tons and 42’s under a Toyota built 22RE turbo transmission with doubler. Stole all my wheel speed completely and where we wheel in the Midwest, you need wheel speed. One thing I loved about it was I could beat the ever living crap out of it and not worry about breaking it… except that one night up on the mountain top when I broke a D60 knuckle on an aggressive line. There’s no moving your rig anywhere when that happens :laughing: Luckily a buddy had one back at the tow rigs and had to fetch it.

But I missed the quick speed snaps of the Toyota axles and 36” tires.
 
Landslide said:
Gotcha, it’s sad there are so many Forrest fires out west burning everything up including peoples homes and all their belongings. Extremely depressing to see.
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Lots of beautiful area burned up the last 10 years. Of course it's never San Francisco or capital hill :laughing:

Landslide said:
Good to see it get another round of life put back into it. I enjoyed going through Toyota transmissions years back. Although I had a FSM I still took photos of the tear down process in stages. That paid off a ton as some parts were not covered in the manual and sometimes they were apart for a while waiting on new parts to put them back together.
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ive never done a trans, but the tcases are very straightforward.

Landslide said:
^^^ yep, been there done that. One tons and 42’s under a Toyota built 22RE turbo transmission with doubler. Stole all my wheel speed completely and where we wheel in the Midwest, you need wheel speed. One thing I loved about it was I could beat the ever living crap out of it and not worry about breaking it… except that one night up on the mountain top when I broke a D60 knuckle on an aggressive line. There’s no moving your rig anywhere when that happens :laughing: Luckily a buddy had one back at the tow rigs and had to fetch it.

But I missed the quick speed snaps of the Toyota axles and 36” tires.
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Imagine literally half that power with the 1.3 :laughing:

Whats funny is that I'm right in the middle of 1 tons and 42s on my 81 Toyota, but it's already long and heavy since I made it a 5 seater. Front axle is the other thing I saved from the burnt 4runner.

I'd like to build a similar rig to this thread. Maybe even smaller. There is just something so fun about a tiny rig.

Years ago we were at the hammers on Thanksgiving. Long story short some local guys ended up at our camp looking for parts and later took us wheeling up wrecking ball. The guys rig was basically exactly what op is building. Little zuk motor on propane. RingR adapter, w56, dual cases and toyota axles on 35s in the most bare bones chassis you could imagine. Just 2 seats with a small patch of expanded metal on each side to put their feet on. No firewall, no trans tunnel, just crazy good visibility everywhere. Pretty sure it was even still leafs and regular steering box in the front.

That thing went everywhere, it was awesome.
 
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wasn't this one was it? I think it had a thread on the old forum. wish i could find it again, I just saved this one pic. absolutely barebones.

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SKULLYOTA said:
wasn't this one was it? I think it had a thread on the old forum. wish i could find it again, I just saved this one pic. absolutely barebones.

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Buggies like that are awesome but around here, you’ll be a total mud puppy with out some body panels to protect you.
 
I like that chassis. 👍 It’s very similar to my Lizard OG 2.0. With some trunk space. What’s the length, nose to tail? Mine is 106”.
Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

As far as the heavy axles and bigger tires thing goes, with the small engine. I wheel out west in California, Arizona and Utah primarily. I have a 1.6 on propane with a turbo. 9 inch axles and 42s. Front tires are 3/4 full of water. Wheel speed is not really a problem for me. One of the biggest benefits I have is that I do not have enough power to break any of my drivetrain. I do understand how wheel speed might be more of an issue where it’s slippery and you guys don’t have as much traction.
 
FleshEater said:
Yeah, fully ready to weld. Since this was his first smaller chassis he gave it to me for $3,000 to my door. Normal price is $3,500.

He thinks the total length is 116”. But is double checking.
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Normal price is 3500 shipped. Overall length is 118" nose to tail (116' was center of tube measurement from bendtech) These kits come plasma notched and cnc bent ready to weld out. The goal is to get fully established and start turning out kits before tax season. This chassis can fit everything from a zuk 1.3 to a jeep 4.0 and everything in between.
 
Here's a couple screenshots from fusion 360 with an LS,TH350, and driver drop Atlas at 108" wheelbase with 40s
 

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Is the chassis 1.5" or 1.75" tubing?

My bare chassis was 696lbs. It's almost all 1.75" .125 wall except the sliders are .188. Belly skid and boat sides are part of the chassis and are 1/4" plate.

I love my buggy with Toyota axles and 40" Irok stickies. Great diff clearance, light weight and so far no broken parts.

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untchabl said:
Is the chassis 1.5" or 1.75" tubing?

My bare chassis was 696lbs. It's almost all 1.75" .125 wall except the sliders are .188. Belly skid and boat sides are part of the chassis and are 1/4" plate.

I love my buggy with Toyota axles and 40" Irok stickies. Great diff clearance, light weight and so far no broken parts.

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40” stickies on Toyota axles…how many busloads of nuns have died?

:flipoff2:

Bottom is all 1.75”x.188 and the rest is 1.75”x.120 wall. He might have added some 1.5”x.120 as support.

Hopefully he chimes in. Acairns2019
 
Maybe I don't have enough weepow to break anything. High pinion front, 4.88's, spools, RCVs front and stock rear shafts. Front Range keyed steering arms and upgraded trunnions.

Suzuki 2.0/4-speed auto/Tracker doubler to Toyota t-case with 4.7's
 
Untchabl, when I had Toyota axles with 39” reds. All my axle breaks were because of shock load, not the power of my 1.6. But I don’t poo poo 💩 on anyone choices. There are plenty of guys that have 💩 on my choice of dodge knuckles. But they haven’t failed me yet. 🍻
 
Its all in driving style. I know guys who ran 42s on stock Toyotas or D44s. And I also know guys who tear up 35 spline chromos on 35s and a 22r :laughing:

Sometimes bigger tires are almost easier on parts, roll over stuff easier. It just depends.

I ran 39 reds on my Toyota axles in a full body 4runner with good luck.
 
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