87 Suzuki Samurai

[DETN8R]

I've been without a 4x4 for a few years now but finally came into possession of this Suzuki Samurai.

It had a few issues passing emissions but I finally got it on the third try.

Replaced the Carburetor because I botched the first one trying to rebuild it. I'm sure it still works but I have extremely limited time to work on this thing.

This was the carburetor when I first got it. The post that attaches the air intake was attached to the air intake and not the carburetor. It should have been in that hole in the middle. The gasket was trapped in the choke.
I'm pretty sure that this was a rebuilt carburetor that a previous owner had installed. It had the venturri nozzle installed which I've read wasn't done at the factory until later and one of the coolant hoses to the automatic choke control isn't the original.

One of the first things I did was to replace the factory Tape Player. I purchased a $13 two speaker amp on amazon and re-wired the speakers.

I soldered some wires onto the PCB on the inside so that I wouldn't have to deal with a barrel connector.

I've upgraded the set up with a cb-radio and a ram mount phablet holder.

I mounted the antenna on the rear tire carrier and used some cushioned straps to hold the cable.

One of the things I hated about my Jeep was that it was white. So I decided with this rig I was going to go all black. I let my nephew strip the paint off of the old hood and painted it black with Duraliner bedliner.

I also painted the front and front fenders. going to work my way back with the doors and the back of the Samurai over the summer. I had a hell of a time getting the doors off. I bought an impact screwdriver from Harbor Freight and that has quickly become a favorite tool of mine.

This hole in the exhaust was patched with some foil (of all stuff) and some clamps. It looks like it ripped off of the bracket at some point.

No big deal. I used some exhaust patch tape and some strapping to fix it. I thought. I drove to Pueblo to visit my mom, a 100 mile trip.
On the way there the engine stalled out and I had to pull over. I got the engine to start back up and was able to get the remaining 30 miles to my moms house.
Once I got there I looked at what had happened.
The exhaust split in two on the way there.

I used my moms car to run to the auto parts store to get something to fix it. Luckily I hardly ever drive this thing around without my tools with me.

I've since added a couple more clamps on each end. It passed emissions like this so I'm going to keep it for a while.
I did pick up a complete exhaust system from a buddy, but the tailpipe comes straight out and I've heard that the exhaust fumes can roll back into the cab when they're routed that way. This exhaust, which I'm positive isn't the original has the tailpipe coming out to the side. I'll hold onto that exhaust just in case.

The negative terminal on the battery was loose when I got it. We put a screw into the terminal strap to hold it tight which I knew was a temporary fix. I know I'll want to run a winch and some other lighting accessories soon so I purchased some $5 Fastronix Military Spec Battery Terminals from Amazon.
They are quite beefier than the stock terminals.

I didn't have a crimper or the crimps to use to on the larger main wires coming off the battery but I recently learned a trick at work. I used some big ground lugs to attach the wires. I had to drill out the mounting holes on the ground lugs to 3/8" to fit on the fastronix battery terminals.

I've got some larger lugs saved for when I had a winch and some other electronic goodies I have planned.

So I've noticed recently that this beast is drinking oil. I checked the dip stick last weekend and noticed that it was DRY! I changed the oil again because I've blown a few engines this way. So when I went wheeling yesterday I noticed that the oil on the dipstick was between the marks on the dip stick, which I suppose means that it ate half the oil I put it into it because the reading was at the top mark on the stick when I changed the oil. I've also had to top off the coolant a couple of times now. The temperature on the dash stays pretty consistently in the middle mark so I haven't been too worried about overheating.

I suppose my planned list of mods/repairs are:

• Fix The Engine Drinking Oil/Coolant Issue - Whether this means a rebuild of the head or just a head gasket I don't know. I honestly have to DD this thing and can't really afford to be out of a vehicle at this point. But I feel like its coming...
• Battery
• My-Side Harley Carb Kit
• Roof Rack - Packing Camping gear for two adults and a toddler now
• Skid Plates - Diff Armor
• Rear Tire Carrier
• Rear Cage - Minimally since now I have a daughter to worry about keeping safe.
• Full Cage - One can dream
• The Transfercase Cradle from Zuks Off Road
• Lockers
• Lift - I'm going to try to resist the urge to want to put this thing on 37s. I suppose I'd be happy if I could get it on 33s as I don't ever have the money to keep a rig purely as a toy. I have to Daily Drive this.

Anyway. I'll try to keep this thread updated it.

 

[Somecallmetimm]

Great looking ride!!!

 

[Dake21]

Wow, it looks very clean! Up north they are all rusted to death.

 

[DETN8R]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Well. This weekend I decided to take a chance and drive this beast 240 miles to Grand Junction to visit my girlfriends family for the the Fourth of July Weekend.
I got some advice from another Samurai group as to some spare parts to take and set out on the road. All in all I put about 600+ Miles on the Samurai and it got great gas mileage. Around 20+mpg! Way better then the 10mpg I got in my TJ.

Earlier in the week I swapped out every vacuum line I could find and added this check valve that was missing from the TCAC system.


It helps keep the air going into the engine at a constant temperature and for some reason it was missing from my Samurai.

So, as I've mentioned this thing has been drinking oil and I made sure to bring extra. I've seen this spot used for storage by other people and it fit the 5-quart jug just great.

It drank a quart or two of oil on the trip up to Grand Junction and I have yet to see how much it drank on the way back as I just got home about 3 hours ago.

 

[DETN8R]

I picked up some seafoam and a leak down tester from harbor freight. Not sure if the tiny compressor I have here is adequate for the leak down test but I hope to yield some helpful results soon. I plan to do a wet compression test and add the seafoam to the oil here soon.

I came across another item that was inside the Samurai when I got it. It appears to be an old timing belt so I'm hoping that one of the previous owners replaced the timing belt and a nice new one is inside the cover.

 

[DETN8R]

Spent some time this Saturday performing a less essential modification to the Samurai. I made the doors removable by modifying the hinge.
My nephew, Jason, helped me make some mirror relocation brackets as well.

In retrospect I should have been trying to diagnose the reason for my low compression but spending some time teaching my nephew some basic fabrication seemed funner.

I used a sawzall to cut the hinge off the door.

Using the removed hinge and some flat aluminum stock and the mirror I marked the holes for the hinge and for mounting the mirror. If anyone is curious, a 10-32 screw fits the stock mirror holes perfectl.

I drove around a bit on Saturday to drop my girlfriend off at work and the mirror relocation brackets worked well.

I painted the body mounted hinge brackets with duraliner bedliner.

I ran out of bedliner just when I needed it most. I wanted to paint the relocation brackets as well but I'll have to do that at a later time.

Hopefully today I'll do a leak down test on the engine and clean out the dead leaves in my vents.

 

[DETN8R]

Quick update. Finally got around to that wet test. Showed about a 15psi increase on cylinders 2 and 4. Change on 1 and 3.

Using the leakdown tester I was able to verify that I was losing pressure by hearing it come out of the valve cover.

I suppose I'll plan on doing the cylinder rings and head gasket and the suggestion was made to do the rod bearings as well.
I suppose if I tear into it this much I'll replace the valve stem seals as well. I don't know.... Seems like a big project and I've never torn into an engine this much.


In the mean time I've replaced the starter and the wiring to the start as well as my own homebrew clicky starter fix using a relay and a fuse.

I'll post some pics soon.

 

[Somecallmetimm]

Nice rig. I love the simplicity of your mirror relocation. Do you have any problems with vibrations?

I removed the driver's mirror, and altered a mirror for a Jeep CJ and attached it to the window "hinge". It works, but the door hits it when en opened.
The problem is usually solved by going around doorless, but that's not an all season solution.

Keep up the good work.

 

[DETN8R]

Nice rig. I love the simplicity of your mirror relocation. Do you have any problems with vibrations?

I removed the driver's mirror, and altered a mirror for a Jeep CJ and attached it to the window "hinge". It works, but the door hits it when en opened.
The problem is usually solved by going around doorless, but that's not an all season solution.

Keep up the good work.

No issues with Vibrations on mirrors yet. Yeah. If I leave the mirrors on the relocation brackets the doors will hit them too.

FYI, if you swap out your mirror door screws with socket head screws. a 4mm allen fits both the metric socket cap screws and 10-32 socket cap screws. I keep a 4mm allen in the samurai for easy swapping of the mirrors.


Thanks.

 

[DETN8R]

Did a little bit more maintenance today. Whoever owned this Samurai before me swapped the oil switch out with a oil pressure gauge. I'll have to get another switch to replace it but in the meantime the oil pressure gauge install they did was not up to par.

The tubing is broke or the this fitting is leaking. I think I may have been losing a bit of oil through here because my Samurai never left wet spots anymore so I think it was just squirting out while I was driving.

They ran the line to the gauge right through the firewall without using a grommet or anything.

I had mentioned that I had needed to replace my starter. I was hoping this wasn't the case so I first tried my own clicky starter fix. Apparently the starter is powered straight through the ignition switch unlike most other vehicles who do this through a relay. A fix is to add a relay in place of the starter wiring so that the ignition is powering the relay and the relay is relaying power straight from the battery to the starter. This didn't solve my poor starting problem but I think it was a good addition none the less.

Installing the new starter was pretty easy. Just remove the air box to get better access.

At some point in the last few weeks I cleaned out all of the dead leaves sitting in the heater vent box. I used a conduit plug to plug up the hole. My vents still blow out some leaves every now and then but I can live with it for a while. I'm told to get great results I have to remove the entire dash and clean everything out with a pressure washer.

I was doing some cleaning last weekend and wanted to get underneath the rear seat just to see what was under there. I removed the drivers side bolt with no issues but as soon as I cranked on the passenger side bolt the head broke clean off. I attempted to drill out the broken thread and tried to use some extractors to remove it but didn't have any luck. It was rusted in there extremely bad I guess.

Unfortunately I broke the nut off the body while trying to free those threads. I had to drill through a crossmember on the bottom of the Samurai so that I could add a nut from the bottom. I used a holesaw for this.

On top of that I discovered that I did have a bit of rust to deal with after all. I'll have to repair this rusted hole before winter. It's behind the rear drivers side wheel well.

 

[Ponda]

Cool project. Sami's are fun. Just picked up a Sidekick yesterday and been lurking around for ideas. Are those 235/75's? I have the same wheels on my Kick and want to keep a stockish look...

 

[DETN8R]

Nice. I had a choice between a sidekick and this samurai. I chose the Samurai because I've been wanting one forever.

Thanks for checking out my build thread.

 

[zukrider]

Looking good Fred. If the timing works out, I'll be more than happy to help with the re-ring. It's definitely a good plan to have the head checked and the valve seals replaced. Hate to do all that work to have a leak at the valves.

 

[DETN8R]

Looking good Fred. If the timing works out, I'll be more than happy to help with the re-ring. It's definitely a good plan to have the head checked and the valve seals replaced. Hate to do all that work to have a leak at the valves.

Just saw your response. Thanks. I'll let you know. Been debating with myself about dropping the money on that rebuild kit....

 

[DETN8R]

Well I've been doing a few things here and there to the Samurai since the last post.

I had to replace my window cranks a few months ago but the new cheap Amazon ones I bought broke after about a month. The tabs on the knob broke off after regular use. I used a 1/2-13 bolt to repair them. Nothing fancy. Just a button head bolt and a jam nut with red loctite.

This has been working great and I expect it to be a permanent repair.

So I decided to take the Samurai and my 2 year old daughter on their first camping trip. Me, Adam and Aaron decided to go run the Jenny Creek trail and camp at Jenny Lake this last Saturday.

I've been wanting to keep a Fire Extinguisher in the Samurai for a while. The seals on the front axle of my old TJ caught on fire once (I suppose that happens when you strip all the teeth off the pinion gear and try driving it down the high at 55mph). and I was glad to have a fire extinguisher with me then to put out the flames. I optioned a bunch of spots for this cheapy $20 extinguisher from Home Depot before deciding on the targa bar. It's actually not a bad spot and I don't hit my head on it unless I'm contorting myself weird to look back.

Also for this trip I didn't want to fight over the cigarette lighter USB charger with my girlfriend so I decided to install another one. I've had a couple marine cigarette lighters sitting in an old junk box for about 10 years now so I decided to put one to use. Space is cramped inside the Samurai but I found a good spot for it on the rear passenger side of the radio box where my cheap amp and CB Radio are.

I've been liking to keep a 5qt jug of oil with me under the hood with a funnel because this Samurai is drinking oil. Not as bad since I fixed the poorly installed oil pressure fittings but still. For the camping trip I stored some extra stuff under the hood as well. Some miscellaneous hardware and fittings as well as some gear oil.

I always like to have some tools with me in any vehicle I own but I've been shuttling my standard tool bag too and from work for working on the Samurai and it's rather large.

I picked up a tool roll from Amazon for the trip as well because I really wanted to save space inside the Samurai.

I strapped a multimeter to it in case I needed to diagnose an electrical issue.

My battery was giving me some trouble a couple of weeks ago and I finally had to replace it. I used a cheap Duralast battery from Autozone and finally got a universal battery hold down to keep it from bouncing up and into the hood. I had to drill an extra hole into the battery tray for one of the retaining rods.

The trip went extremely well and I ended up having enough room for everything. We picked up one of those fancy Yeti coolers last minute before the trip since every other cooler we had and could borrow did not fit on the seat next to my daughters car seat well enough. The Yeti roadie was PERFECT! and it kept ice extremely well and I expect to get years of use out of it. I would have preferred to save a bunch of money by going with the RTIC coolers but they're on pre-order and I have no idea where to source them locally.

We ended up strapping the sleeping bags and pads to the spare tire with some straps.

This worked out extremely well.

The trip was really fun and I have to say that the Samurai did well and it continues to impress me. I am a bit disappointed with the lack of crawl ratio though and I'm adding T-Case gears to my list of must-do up there with the engine rebuild. I had to floor the gas peddle in the 1st gear low range to make it up the rock gardens on Jenny Creek and my girlfriend did bump her head once or twice.....

I haven't done much to the Samurai since the last trip but I did attempt to fix my drooping passenger side mirror with a neoprene gasket between the ball and the mount.

Since the camping trip, which was only 1 night and by no means the epic trip I have been wanting to do by the way, I've been more or less set on having a roof rack and decided to make one. I picked up a bender and a couple of stick of 3/4" EMT conduit. I'm not done yet but I will definitely post when I am.

That's about it for now.