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I am Sam

Covecrawler

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 21, 2020
Member Number
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273
A little back story;
A friend found this in the valley trader for $1200. Gummed carb, SPOA, 3”TG springs, 5.8:1 Tcase. Beat and neglected. I went with him to pick it up and told him I would buy it when he was finished with it.

A couple years later he tired of it and I scooped it up, his HOA was on his ass and the Weber carb he swapped on was garbage.

It got a $66 Amazon 3k carb. I lowered the front with CJ5 springs, installed 26spline chromo shafts front and back. Put a tracker hybrid rear diff in it, SPUA with Isuzu springs. I’ve been enjoying it like this a while. I also built a cage to keep my wife and kiddo safe.

 
This pretty much how I bought it, broke a couple rear shafts, ruined a 5.12 third member with the broken shaft. This led to the tracker hybrid since I have more tracker diffs. The suspension was too tall so it went SPUA at this time as well.
 

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Here’s a few pics of the cage. 1.75” .120 DOM, simple. A pillars go through the dash, unlike the cage kits. Rear cage is simple, I don’t love the look of how it turned out, but it’s functional for now.

I also more recently rounded up a decent set of 35s and got them mounted. I need to trim the fenders and bit and see how many axles I can snap now. I’ve done the Toyota axle thing, that’s not really where this one is headed.
 

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The little 1.3l that can in this samurai is smokey. Some days it runs clean, other days it smokes like a freight train.

I have a built, high compression, ported head, isky cam 1.3l I was getting ready to swap. Then this 2000 tracker popped up for $400 delivered. I bought it sight unseen. It has 98k on the clock and is rusted pretty badly. Perfect donor.

Couple questions to the 2.0l guys;
Who has used the tracker trans with the engine? How well does it fit.

Is there anything like this that works for the 4x4 5 speed trans?

I don’t really want to run the samurai trans, adapter and flywheel don’t fit in my budget and seem a little light duty for the engine.

I have a 2wd tracker trans from a 1.6l, but it makes the intermediate shaft pretty short, I ran this setup in my last samurai with a 1.6l 8V.
 

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Looks and sounds oddly familiar, name and all :flipoff2:

Just looking at the 00 5 spd, it's much larger, looks very similar to a Toyota W56. I'd look up what guys had to do to make those fit. Which will definitely involve a whole new tunnel.

Trail tough told me that you can not do a divorced shaft off of the 4wd 5 spd.

If you already broke with 40 hp, what is your plan to keep them alive with 3x's that?
 
Looks and sounds oddly familiar, name and all :flipoff2:

Just looking at the 00 5 spd, it's much larger, looks very similar to a Toyota W56. I'd look up what guys had to do to make those fit. Which will definitely involve a whole new tunnel.

Trail tough told me that you can not do a divorced shaft off of the 4wd 5 spd.

If you already broke with 40 hp, what is your plan to keep them alive with 3x's that?
The name is definitely a play on your thread since we have extremely similar Samurais.

I have no real plan to keep the axles alive. It's currently running the "weaker" Gorilla shafts in the back, with no problems.

I'm looking into/measuring up a sidekick axle with dana 44 30 spline shafts, which I feel is going to be necessary with the 35s.

Anyone have a link to info on Track/kick transmissions or dimensions? Or a OTT dana 300 doubler...
 
The name is definitely a play on your thread since we have extremely similar Samurais.

I have no real plan to keep the axles alive. It's currently running the "weaker" Gorilla shafts in the back, with no problems.

I'm looking into/measuring up a sidekick axle with dana 44 30 spline shafts, which I feel is going to be necessary with the 35s.

Anyone have a link to info on Track/kick transmissions or dimensions? Or a OTT dana 300 doubler...
Same graffics and all :laughing:

I don't think the axle ls are weak for what they are, but they have their limits. I won't go into all the hybrid shit I've been thinking about since it's all in the "built zuk axles" thread.

Ott is looooong gone. The guy who builds the doublers is like a mystery. Id love a kick doubler, but not sure if I'd trust a little welded coupler to not strip out over time. As far as length, I want to say the doubler with a Sami case ended up almost exactly in the stock spot in a Sami.
 
I like it!

What Isuzu springs are you running?
Thanks!

They are out of a 199X Isuzu pickup, I have another pair of them from a Rodeo. They’re very similar to first gen Toyota rear springs.

I plan to put the other set in the front, SPUA. They ride a lot nicer than the TG 3” samurai springs.
 
The zu springs are basically the same length as the yotas and maybe a half inch off the centerpin offset. I have 4runner OME springs on the back of my trooper and just drilled a new spring perch hole to fine tune it in the wheel well.

The stock isuzu springs are pretty much the same across the board from amigo - pickup - rodeo- trooper. ~48" long and ~8-9" of arch, with some slight differences in leaf count. No factory military wrap but the OMEs would have it.

I have a set put aside for my Sami if I ever decide I need more than what the OME sami rears on all 4 corners give me.
 
The zu springs are basically the same length as the yotas and maybe a half inch off the centerpin offset. I have 4runner OME springs on the back of my trooper and just drilled a new spring perch hole to fine tune it in the wheel well.

The stock isuzu springs are pretty much the same across the board from amigo - pickup - rodeo- trooper. ~48" long and ~8-9" of arch, with some slight differences in leaf count. No factory military wrap but the OMEs would have it.

I have a set put aside for my Sami if I ever decide I need more than what the OME sami rears on all 4 corners give me.

Interesting.

Do they have a milwrap?

Nice that they have some arch vs the flat Toyota rears.
 
Their is no military wrap on my set.

I have them bolted into the factory samurai spring mounts, and a shackle mount welded onto the rear bumper mounts. It stretched the rear wheelbase about 2-3".
 
The OME dakar springs have a mil wrap but stock do not. You could probably mix and match toyotas and zu springs to get the mil wrap yota main + 2nd leaf and zu leaf or two for a bit more arch.

I was initially going to run them SUA in the rear w the long side forward and a wrap bar but it would have given me more lift and potentially eaten up some departure angle. Since I'm just tootin' around on 31's, I kept it simple for now.
 
The OME dakar springs have a mil wrap but stock do not. You could probably mix and match toyotas and zu springs to get the mil wrap yota main + 2nd leaf and zu leaf or two for a bit more arch.

I was initially going to run them SUA in the rear w the long side forward and a wrap bar but it would have given me more lift and potentially eaten up some departure angle. Since I'm just tootin' around on 31's, I kept it simple for now.

Good to know, I'm guessing the milwrap is on the short side like Toyotas?

I am looking for some leafs with more arch to run in the rear. Maybe for just a hair more lift, but mostly so I can mount the front eye up higher so it's not such a rock anchor. :laughing:
 
Good to know, I'm guessing the milwrap is on the short side like Toyotas?

I am looking for some leafs with more arch to run in the rear. Maybe for just a hair more lift, but mostly so I can mount the front eye up higher so it's not such a rock anchor. :laughing:
Yup, short side has full mil wrap, but IIRC the long side has that sorta half wrap:

31C4PF1FTIS._AC_.jpg

But if you were going to go with OME's you could just get the 4runner/pickup rears which are typically easier to find and have a good amount of arch to them. The stock zu will not have any mil wrap but they would prob do ok on a Sami.
 
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Yup, short side has full mil wrap, but IIRC the long side has that sorta half wrap:

31C4PF1FTIS._AC_.jpg

But if you were going to go with OME's you could just get the 4runner/pickup rears which are typically easier to find and have a good amount of arch to them. The stock zu will not have any mil wrap but they would prob do ok on a Sami.

I thought you were talking about the ome leafs for an Isuzu?
 
Yeah sorry, I was but I thought maybe we were talking past each other a little.

To clarify:

Stock zu - no mil wrap, more arch than toyota

OME zu - mil wrap short side, partial wrap long side - nearly identical to the toyota OME springs aside from spring rate, so either or would work for your purposes with some leaf fiddlin'.

OME specs:
  • Zu medium load CS028 - 250mm free arch, 170 lb/in rate
  • Zu heavy load CS029 - 250mm free arch, 216 lb/in rate
  • pickup/4runner medium load CS009R - 230mm free arch, 217 lb/in rate
  • pickup/4runner heavy load CS010R - 230mm free arch, 285 lb/in rate
 
Here’s what the Isuzu springs look like in mine. Sitting right at 3.5” lift and 1” rear stretch.
 

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You even have the same floor jack as me! :flipoff2:

Those look pretty good, I'd probably flip them around and build new hangers for my use.
 
Same jack every sloppy mechanic in the US has. Hard to beat for the price.
 
I got the front fenders chopped for the 35s. I’ve been daily driving it a bit, I’ve been impressed by the 1.3l pushing the 35s around.

I have to come up with a solution for the fuel filler neck still and do some messaging of the rear fenders.
 

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That thing looks so good :smokin: Makes me regret going spring over and I haven't even really got mine on the road yet.
 
Had mine not been pre-beat I probably would have gone more lift and less chop chop. Glad you like it.
 
The name is definitely a play on your thread since we have extremely similar Samurais.

I have no real plan to keep the axles alive. It's currently running the "weaker" Gorilla shafts in the back, with no problems.

I'm looking into/measuring up a sidekick axle with dana 44 30 spline shafts, which I feel is going to be necessary with the 35s.

Anyone have a link to info on Track/kick transmissions or dimensions? Or a OTT dana 300 doubler...
It all depends on how you drive. Stock rear axles will survive with 35s, if you drive with a little finesse, instead of "hammer down" or get the rear end bouncing. My buddy runs Q78 swampers (35.5" tall) on stock rear axles and does fine. I run 34" TSLs on mine and have done fine.

The early 89-98 trackick transmissions will fit the samurai tunnel, by spreading the lower sides of the tunnel. I want to say the 99+ trannys are bigger/wider, but I don't recall for sure, not that familiar with them.

If you are looking at doing a kicker 3 type setup...trackick tranny and modified tcase married to a samurai tcase via an adapter, the samurai tcase will set in the stock tcase mounts. I run this setup using an 89-98 trackick tcase and tranny.

I thought I heard someone on ebay was selling the adapter pieces that go on each of the tcases to build a kicker 3 setup and you just had to source a piece of pipe that fits between the adapters and weld it up.
 
It all depends on how you drive. Stock rear axles will survive with 35s, if you drive with a little finesse, instead of "hammer down" or get the rear end bouncing. My buddy runs Q78 swampers (35.5" tall) on stock rear axles and does fine. I run 34" TSLs on mine and have done fine.

I was impressed with the abuse mine took on labor day, I don't think they're weak. But going to the bigger sidekick diff seems like a waste with tiny shafts.

The early 89-98 trackick transmissions will fit the samurai tunnel, by spreading the lower sides of the tunnel. I want to say the 99+ trannys are bigger/wider, but I don't recall for sure, not that familiar with them.

Spread as in a little hammer/bottle jack love or cut and weld?

The 99+ trans is much bigger. I had them side by side at one point. The 99+ looks very similar to a Toyota w56. Which I why I said I would look up what it takes to fit a w56. The bell and clutch looked much bigger, which probably makes the whole process worth it.

If you are looking at doing a kicker 3 type setup...trackick tranny and modified tcase married to a samurai tcase via an adapter, the samurai tcase will set in the stock tcase mounts. I run this setup using an 89-98 trackick tcase and tranny.

I thought I heard someone on ebay was selling the adapter pieces that go on each of the tcases to build a kicker 3 setup and you just had to source a piece of pipe that fits between the adapters and weld it up.

Guy in canukistan is making them, he posted up in the zuk doubler thread.
 
I was impressed with the abuse mine took on labor day, I don't think they're weak. But going to the bigger sidekick diff seems like a waste with tiny shafts.



Spread as in a little hammer/bottle jack love or cut and weld?

The 99+ trans is much bigger. I had them side by side at one point. The 99+ looks very similar to a Toyota w56. Which I why I said I would look up what it takes to fit a w56. The bell and clutch looked much bigger, which probably makes the whole process worth it.



Guy in canukistan is making them, he posted up in the zuk doubler thread.
To spread mine, I sliced the bottom of the tranny tunnel where it meets the floor from the front of the tunnel back to where the floor raises for the seat. Then I took a couple of 2x4 boards and the samurai scissor jack and started cranking until it was wide enough for the tranny to clear. I want to say I spread it about 2" on each side. It has been 14 years or so, so I don't recall exactly.

Yeah, a rear trackick axle is a waste of time, IMO. The spline count is the same as a samurai and the shafts usually break at the splines. The diff is bigger, but who ever breaks gears?
Plus the diff offset is different between a trackick and samurai rear axle so the driveshaft will have compound angles to it. Not that big of a deal, but just more BS to deal with.
 
I was impressed with the abuse mine took on labor day, I don't think they're weak. But going to the bigger sidekick diff seems like a waste with tiny shafts.



Spread as in a little hammer/bottle jack love or cut and weld?

The 99+ trans is much bigger. I had them side by side at one point. The 99+ looks very similar to a Toyota w56. Which I why I said I would look up what it takes to fit a w56. The bell and clutch looked much bigger, which probably makes the whole process worth it.



Guy in canukistan is making them, he posted up in the zuk doubler thread.
I've broken and twisted the splines on 4 stock rear shafts on 32s, when the two broke it took out the carrier adjuster nut, and trashed the ring and pinion on the way off the trail. From now on I will fix it where it breaks. I keep spares at camp and use the SJ410 backing plates now.

His price is super reasonable for the doubler, I checked out his Facebook page. I homebuilt a kicker 3(ish) setup in 2007, I used a ujoint between the cases. It worked great, other than being long, I still have it, but would never use it again, too booty fab. I don't really feel the need for the extra gearing.
 
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