1988 samurai LWB build

[kris97ranger]

ok so! big progress today i FINALLY got a belt that fits! its for a tractor but F*** it it's gonna work so i got that all done i also got the rad in kinda... its in the truck but not bolted down or hooked up. i also went to do my pinion seal and had to buy an electric impact from a buddy its brand new never been used 10 bucks and it was the best damn ten bucks i ever spent!! this thing is so handy i reccommend them.

i figured my fan shroud would be in the way of some things and of course it was... the hood latch wouldnt let the rad sit all the way forward as it needs to so it got cut out and now im gonna need to make some hood pins. then it went and got dark on me... so progress stopped once again hopfully tommorow i can get the rad hooked up and bolted in. then i just gotta fit my grill back in which is easier said then done. especially now that the fan sticks out the front so much more then my winch is right there. anyways heres some pics

this is the day time pic of the lights unfortuantly i already pulled the grill back out so there no picture of it complete yet

this is my luxury interior complete with mud all over the inside of the winshield from a missing shifter boot. (it kept knocking the tcase outta 4lo into neutral so i pulled it out and gotta get another one

its kinda hard to tell from the pics but this is my bent frame. its much more obvious in person also all the dirt in the pic isnt the ground... thats just some that got trapped in there. i have an old floor matt under the rad and the 1st half of the motor to try and keep things out of my pullys and such

my leaf springs didnt like racing last season or any of the jumps and now bend the wrong way. so much so that theyre hitting the tie rod ends and actually starting to bend them

and one last pic of the fatastic undercarrige that i got to lay under all day today. i actually like the mud that i was in last because its mostly clay and as much of a P.I.T.A as it is to clean it also stays up and doesnt fall in my eyes while im under there.

oh yea... the truck only ever gets washed if somthing breaks... and even then its just usually around that broken area that gets washed real well. otherwise i just put a sprinkler under the truck on the front lawn and it washes most of it off and into the grass

EDIT: i have added a poll to this thread im wondering when i go up to the 37"s if i want to stick to my swampers or so i want to step up to boggers? i run everything, rocks mud dirt trails everything except pavment

 

[kris97ranger]

YAY! its finally all back together just waiting on coolant also got my fenderwells sealed up with an old crazy carpet grills back in everything is good to go minus the lift.
i was going to work on the rear cage area, i just want to put a peak in it where the canvas top goes because it sags and when it rains there is a huge puddle of water that collects on it which i always forget about then hop in and as soon as i stop it all comes down and soaks me head to toe. but all my tubing is in the car shelter under ther 63 merc and then theres a boat in the way in front of it so i cant get to it till spring


waiting on the gf to get home so i can get pictures i dont have a camera..

 

[Jim Oaks]

Can we see more pics and specs on the Zuki?

 

[kris97ranger]

alright well thats alot of history to go through our family has had it 22 years. and im only 20! lol
its a 1988 suzuki samurai vin... lol my dad bought it in 1988 as the short wheelbase version and all stock. we used it as a dd until about 8 years ago or so. once we bought the swampers we didnt want them wearing fast not to mention e tests were getting harder. so it came off the road. it has been flopped on the side id say 3 times at least and completly rolled once. its been stood on the rear bumper so dad was staring stright up at the sky the only thing that stopped it from rolling over backwards was the spare tire. all of this was caused by climbing up a wall that was probally 65 degrees but just smooth flat rock and it was stilled carbed at the time. plus the guy we had do the breaks lines didnt do the double flare properly and when it stalled dasd didnt have breaks and came backwards fast! the rear bumper hit the ground and bent everything up for about 10" in the back of the truck it was all cut off and just left thats why after the rear wheels it s so much higher it should be the same hight as the rockers.

its been to hershy pensilvania at the ramsey national off road challenge we went competing the 4wd club we used to belong to just went down to run some trails, its also been up to the smokey mountains. alot we used to drive it there but as time went on we started getting into harder and harder trails and it was decided that its going to get towed so we can still get back to canada

i grew up in this thing we would go out 4 wheeling every weekend i love it but as dad got older he had less and less time for it not to mention that because he was a mechanic for 25 years (he retired as of last year and now sells matco tools) he didnt want to work on cars all day to come home and work on this thing. it sat for 4 or 5 years untill i was 16 or 17.

at that time it unofficially became mine and i got it up and going again. i havnt done much to it in my own way just maintence and fixing from when it was sitting. last year was the main year i got it out and going good raced in 6 bogs came 2nd twice (in the event dad was sponsoring) and had alot of fun. but because it was built for slower trails its really hard on it. in august i broke the rear axle 3 weekends in a row. then gave up spent the $ and got a proper all time spool for it and havnt had a problem with the rear axle yet.

the next weekend after getting the rear end fixed i went out and destroyed everything einside the front axle gears and all. turns out i had bad gasket somewhere and water got in it screwed everything up.

it has the toyota 22ref motor so its a 2.4 fuel injected vs the stock 1.3 carb it came with from the factory.
spring over axle swap has been done
3" body lift,
spooled rear,
9000lb warn winch,
dual battrys
snorkel
33x12.50 r15 super swampers.
4.56 gears
it has a 1982 sj410 transfercase in it which has 10% lower gearing then stock
i was going through the calculators last night and i think it has a 41:1 crawl ratio but i could be wrong
i think it must have been about 1997 that we switched it over to the lwb frame and body but changed to the 1986 front clip and thats how it is right now

pics to follow as soon as i get them uploaded and i am going to try and get them in order in the life of the truck

 

[kris97ranger]

ok so heres the pics the 1st one has to be from 1990 because that newborn in the mothers arm is me .

then this is about 6 years later

then theres a big gap most of our pictures are actual pictures so they arnt on the computer
but we're gonna jump to when its a lwb. all miss is numorus broken axles... 3 transsmissions 2 transfercases. the original 1.3 carb motor swapped for a 1.3 fuel injected then that swapped to a carbed 2.4 toyota the rear main seal went it that it siezed got another 2.4 carb. then a fuel injected 2.4. and then i think the head gasket went in that so we're on the 2.4 fuel injected motor thats in there right now

 

[kris97ranger]

we rocked the purple for a while but then it got "painted" its actually done all in bedliner inside and out the only thing that isnt is the hood

not that its ever white....

i guess this is about the time we got the swampers which is also about the time that it came off the road

so this starts the time in ramsey

this is how we got it down ther on a car dolly behind dads 76 lincoln. its in getting painted. and when we get it back its getting a built 460

 

[kris97ranger]

alright so this is up to the point where i got it
this is at sweet peas mud bog in orangeville
all hooked up and... actually i think this is comming home afterwards....

ok here it is at the bog

after my run i was comming outta the pit i turned and went to go through theis ditch but it was deeper then i thought... the rear wheels came off the ground i hit so hard it shatterd all the transfercase mounts and bent my winch mount which is a 2" draw bar reciever

 

[kris97ranger]

ok so this is the collingwood bog.

 

[kris97ranger]

this is the last trip of the year thats not a competition.

you can tell how mcuh the lift is sagged if you look at the pics from ramsy theres one head on the the tires are level with the bottom of the bumper. and heres a recent one with them level with the top of the bumper

 

[kris97ranger]

alright so after addding all of that ive decided to make this into a build thread how do i change the thread name?

 

[kris97ranger]

ok. so its been +10 for the last few day and everything melted so i decided it'd be a good time to pressure test the truck to find out where all my coolant went. heres the problem theres no coolant in it, theres no coolant in the oil, and i dont see any leaks on the block so i dont think it can be a cracked block.

so it failed the pressure test and the vaccum test... so im thinking head gasket, itd definetly explain the over heating. but if it is that it is going to really suck because i just got the damn truck back together. now its gonna be all pulled apart again.....

but i supose its better then a cracked block.

 

[kris97ranger]

alright well im waiting on $ to buy coolant so i can pressure test the truck and see if i can see a leak in the block or rad hopfully its a pinhole in the rad or somthing along that line.

but in the meantime i decided to clean out the garage actually, it was more like tripped over a tarp stepped on a pushmower slipping and tripping on the pullcord all at once, took a header into my dads bike. trying not to knock it over and end up killed by him. and as i was doing this a found a set of buckets from a 93 ranger i forgot i had. and i want to put them in the samurai because the samurai buckets are trashed. but the problem is the seats are cloth coverd and the truck is nowhere near water tight.

95% of the time it doesnt even have doors on so my question is can i waterproof them somehow? or even how hard would it be to re wrap them in vinyl?

 

[gwaii]

that's one hell of a story on the sammy.they can be a real hoot,i know i had a lot of fun with mine....

it's a crappy photo,but you can see i was having the same sort of fun you are with yours.

and with my little girl.a little mud was no bother,too bad some dickwad torched the little sammy.
keep on building,that's quite the little mud runner you've got!

 

[kris97ranger]

that's one hell of a story on the sammy.they can be a real hoot,i know i had a lot of fun with mine....

thanks i even left ALOT out but like i said its been in the family for my entire life so theres a whoooole lotta storys. and thanks again for your help on the fan shroud. hopfully i can get out this season and show that pic of yours. whatd you have done to it?

 

[gwaii]

whatd you have done to it?

when i got it it had the stock 1.3,but i soon swapped it for a 1.6.that made a big difference.it was sprung over,and had tracker 5.13s in the diffs.had 32'' swampers for the truck/ground interface.

not really much else....i did a build on a toyota p/u,and was paid with the sammy.i had a lot of fun with it in the short time i had it.