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1st Build Thread Attempt - Cheap Suzi

Funny how some think big tires tear stuff up, when they will usually just roll over the obstacles easier. Obviously if the driver wants to, big tires can tear stuff up.


Having a tire limit size is the dumbest shit ever, I wouldn't go there just because of that. Our wheelin group is very mixed. It would be dumb if one or two guys couldn't go because they had 38s when a guy on 37s can :rolleyes:

Yeah, I totally agree.

That's what happened now, half our group cant go here because of the tire restriction.
 
Finally got my ceiling up. What a difference it made, along with the new LED lighting.

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Finally got around to tearing apart the front end after breaking it the last time out. The splined inner star in the birf broke and it wiped the splines off the inner shaft. TG claims they will warranty it, so $50 later at the UPS store and the broken one is on its way.

The problem was the tire catching leaf spring at full lock, in reverse, in four wheel drive. I decided to install IFS hubs to gain an additional 1.5", in addition to the 1.5" wheel spacers ive been running for years. The wheels have 3.75" back spacing, so hopefully some day I'll buy new wheels that will let me ditch the spacers. Im mildly concerned about the wheel and trunking bearings with what is essentialy a 3" wheel spacer, but we'll see what happens.

Useless pic of the mockup. Drilled the FJ60 rotors out for the 6 bolts that the rotor attaches to the hub via. Pretty standard Pirate content circa 2003, it just took me this long to do it I guess.

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IFS hubs and 1.5" spacers on the front. She looks pretty wide now but it should take care of my tires munching the leaf springs at full lock. Eventually ill get some wheels with less backspacing and lose the spacers, but this will do for now.

Just waiting on my shaft to come back from TG and it'll be back in commission again.

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It was time to address the steering. I didn't have enough room to push the Toyota IFS steering box ahead enough for adequate clearance between tie rod and drag link. With the LF at full stuff and tires steered to the left, the tie rod and drag link would hit. Not good. You can see from the first picture that, even at full droop, the two bars would cross.

Nothing exciting or Earth shattering here. Basically ripped off the IFS box, had to cut my shock tower and some other brackets off also.

I decided to use an FJ80 steering box. The first step was to see where it would need to go on the frame, which I then found out the power steering pump would have to be moved for clearance. I built the bracket to use a Toyota 4cyl pickup pump. I kind of lucked out, was able to drill new holes 1.5" lower than the existing holes. This gave me (barely) enough clearance from pump to steering box.

Cut out some 1/4" plate to weld on the frame to help brace for steering box mounting. I plated inside and outside of the frame.

I was able to use the 2wd 4cyl Yota pickup high pressure hose with a little modification to the bends in the hard line.

A few things are left to do..I need a slightly larger power steering belt, need to shorten the steering input shaft, modify the shock tower and weld it back on, weld brake line brackets back onto the frame, etc.

After a quick flex check, the drivers side spring can go inverted pretty far and there is still a slight gap between pitman arm and tie rod. I still have to put together some bump stops, but its nice to see there's no contact even when its inverted further than it would normally go..

It sucked wheeling before, always worried about the tie rod and drag link hitting. Im almost certain I messed up the old IFS box last time out because of the contact. Hopefully this works better!

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Got it up and going today, and it seems like the power assist is very weak.

Maybe its time to upgrade the pump?!
 
All buttoned up, for now.

Had to modify the shock tower a bit to make room for the new box.

I made the decision to go with a TC pump. I have the pressure line and fittings ready to go, just need to purchase the pump.

I'll update again when that time comes.

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Went for a light wheeling trip last weekend. The steering works much better now, but it definitely needs a different pump and cooler. I was sure that I was going to have a power steering fluid fire, so that was cool. I've already got the pressure hose and AN fitting adapters for the box and TC pump. Ill be ordering the pump and pulley soon and will build a bracket. The Explorers I build to smash have a nice trans cooler, I think I'll try using that for a power steering cooler.

Anyways, happy Saturday fuckers.

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I've had a MSD 6AL ignition box that I had in my old Toyota sitting on the shelf for years, and after a NYE escapade including too many wobble pops and relentless disregard for the amount of RPM the engine was turning, I thought it'd be a good idea to install it, just to have the rev limiter.

I'm only mentioning it here because it is a question that gets asked quite a bit on the Samurai FB groups, so here's a quick and dirty rundown of how I wired it.

The majority is self explanatory, hot to hot, ground to ground, switched hot, coil positive and negative, but what about the purple and green coming off the MSD box?

Under the rotor is are two electronic pieces...you need to bypass the igniter. Unscrew the red and white wires from the igniter cut the eyelets off, these will go to the purple and green coming off the MSD box. The green from the box goes to the red and the purple from the box goes to the white.

The picture of the distributor should explain what to do.

Its nice to have control over the limiter again!

Hopefully someone in need will find this info handy someday.

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Pixked up another one! This one is rust free and originally from NC. Unfortunately it was in a minor accident and insurance totalled it. I paid $900 for it as a rolling chassis. Front axle has a fresh knuckle out rebuild, rear has disc brakes, newer Crown YJ springs and a YJ swap kit of unknown origin.

My plan is to swap the body onto my frame, as my current body is in poor shape rust wise. I'll hold onto the springs and sell the rest. The body has hood damage, and needs both front fenders and core support.

Happy weekend guys.

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Nice Zuki and build thread you got here. My setup is pretty similar. My motors pretty tired, looking into the 1.6 swap as well. Wonder if my Harley carb would work with it. Noticed a sweet Baja in your shop too. They were my first love before the Zuki. Still have a couple sitting out in the shed just needing batteries and fuel flush. Waiting for the boys to get old enough to pass them on. Keep up the good work.
 
Nice Zuki and build thread you got here. My setup is pretty similar. My motors pretty tired, looking into the 1.6 swap as well. Wonder if my Harley carb would work with it. Noticed a sweet Baja in your shop too. They were my first love before the Zuki. Still have a couple sitting out in the shed just needing batteries and fuel flush. Waiting for the boys to get old enough to pass them on. Keep up the good work.

Sami intake manifold should bolt to the 1.6 8v, buuuut, you won't have a spot for your mechanical fuel pump. When I did my 8v swap on my first Sami, I was trying to short cut and run the carb until I discovered that. I said screw it and ran the all the efi, best thing I did to that rig. It took only a few hours to get the wiring done. And I even cut the entire donor harness in half to get it out of the rig.
 
Nice Zuki and build thread you got here. My setup is pretty similar. My motors pretty tired, looking into the 1.6 swap as well. Wonder if my Harley carb would work with it. Noticed a sweet Baja in your shop too. They were my first love before the Zuki. Still have a couple sitting out in the shed just needing batteries and fuel flush. Waiting for the boys to get old enough to pass them on. Keep up the good work.

Thanks man!

Like YotaAtieToo said, the benefits to fuel injection will be worth the work setting it up.
 
Last weekend we went up to a buddy's land to play in the snow. The extreme cold froze up the normally swampy areas, which allowed us to try some new trails. We didn't get many pics unfortunately, but it was still a good time.

Jeep is on tons and 40s
Escalade is on tons and 40s
Buddy's Samurai is on 35s and Toyotas

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A local quarry owner, the guy who bought the Sami axles out of this rig, invited me to a big party he was throwing on Saturday. They are all big mud truck guys so I was out of my element but had fun regardless. Drank too much and didn't get many pictures. Fuck mud, the cleanup sucks.

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Not that anyone gives a shit but installed 5.29s with a high pinion front with a Grizzly. Nice being able to steer again with the hubs locked in.

Also threw on one of those $99 ebay special headers. Was actually surprised with the quality.
 

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Not that anyone gives a shit but installed 5.29s with a high pinion front with a Grizzly. Nice being able to steer again with the hubs locked in.

Also threw on one of those $99 ebay special headers. Was actually surprised with the quality.

So you’re running 5.29’s...what size tires are those? Look like 35’s?
 
Is this a snail on the road? My Geo is painfully slow, and I’ve been considering going slightly bigger (32’s) on the stock 5.12’s.
I mean, it's a tired out 1.3 liter engine trying to push tires that are 8" taller than stock. :P

I'm running 6.4 gears in the t case, which offers a 17% reduction in high range. (I'm not sure about the Geo transfer case, if it's 1:1 in high or reducted like a Sami case.)

With the 4.10 gears and 35s, 5th gear was not usable unless you were on a steep downhill. Top speed was around 55 while the engine turned 4K in 4th gear. It didnt have enough nut to go faster. Last night on a quick test run with the new gears, it was a lot quicker to get up to speed and 5th gear was usable again. I was cruising 55 while the tach said 4K in 5th gear. I think I'll be able to run 60, which Im fine with. The goal was to be able to run our 55mph country roads.

It's a snail, but it's what I expected it to be. I'm just holding off until I can source a good running 1.6 engine.
 
So here's a question that someone may or may not know the answer to..

Started ordering parts for the TC power steering pump conversion. The stock Toyota one is going to end up burning up (literally - the bitch was about to start on fire) so I'm going to give the TC pump a shot.

I already have a LowRange dual v belt crank pulley on the 1.3. The LowRange TC bracket for the 1.3 states you must use a serpentine belt for the power steering. The common pulley people run on the TC pump is just a cheap mexichrome v belt unit from Summit. What's stopping me from running a v belt with the LowRange bracket? Shit should line up all the same, just have to find the right length belt.

Is there a specific reason they advise a serpentine style belt over the v belt?
 
How would you guys go about this..

The power steering cooler I have uses 10AN male fittings. It also came with hoses with the 10AN female ends, I assume 5/8" hose.

All of the universal fluid reservoirs I've found have a 6AN male fitting for the return port.

I havent had any luck finding an adapter with a 6AN female to 10AN male. Any thoughts on what to do with this hose that goes between cooler and reservoir?
 
How would you guys go about this..

The power steering cooler I have uses 10AN male fittings. It also came with hoses with the 10AN female ends, I assume 5/8" hose.

All of the universal fluid reservoirs I've found have a 6AN male fitting for the return port.

I havent had any luck finding an adapter with a 6AN female to 10AN male. Any thoughts on what to do with this hose that goes between cooler and reservoir?
Did you check with Jegs? Maybe give them a call, because site navigation kind of sucks. Jegs has a ton of AN fittings.
 
I think I got it handled!

I found the 6AN female to 10AN male adapter on Amazon, $13/piece

PSC sells the 17x1.5 to 6AN adapter for the low pressure port on the gearbox.

Now I just need to find a 10AN female to 5/8 hose barb and I'll be set.
 
Anyone at the Badlands in Indiana this weekend?
 

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Cool build. Cool sami. Cool shop - what size is it?

I got my AN fittings from speedway. But like mentioned before, call summit or Jegs.
 
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