therealprotaco's 3rd Gen Towed Suzuki Samurai Crawler

Low range off-road has a bunch off cool samurai parts and accessories

 

Buy the Samari! Most fun you can have with your clothes on.

 

Done and done! I prefer wheeling with my clothes off though....

 

I actually just ordered most of the stuff through rocky road since the lift that was already on it came from them. That way its all in their system. I did order a new carb to air cleaner hose from Low Range though since they were the only one that had it other than ebay. Even rockauto, napa, and all of the other normal parts stores couldn't get it.

 

Nice I have no experience with rocky road but I will say stay away from calmani.
I bought a roof rack from them for like 600$ and it never showed up. They never refunded me. But yeah don’t buy from them lol

 

Literally in the same boat as you, although I think ima go with a YJ. But yeah, I’ve been getting into some trails where I’ve had to reconsider my actions lol. I’m still not entirely sure what direction to go with the taco but I think I definitely need a dedicated crawler. So vote Sammy

 

haha fuck yeah man! Keep us up to date as you work on it

 

+1

 

Good choice, its nice to have a dedicated wheeler that you can dent, break, roll over and keep your street truck in one piece. There is something about having a vehicle you can drive 80mph down the interstate, go wheel and drive home but that comes with stress and limitations. Its not a samurai but this is my play truck.

 

OP....money well spent and definitely the right decision.

I was a senior in high school when these things popped. I wanted one so bad.

 

Sweet! My first vehicle was a 71 FJ. My Dad and I put a 250 Chevy in it and I drove it my senior year of high school up in Flagstaff. I had a great Dad.

 

I forgot how fun it is to work on a Samurai....

 

Had a fun weekend wrenching mostly on a friend's Jeep JK but got a few things done on the Samurai too. Going to pick up a windshield frame, doors, a soft top, and a hood this evening after work.

Deleted the rear seat and secured the carpet a little bit better for the dog so he doesn't slide around:


Had this spare set of Baja Squadrons laying around along with a set of tube mounts so I went ahead and threw them on. Photo was before I flipped the bezel and lenses to the proper orientation. Also did a full tune up and made some spark plug wires from an Accel DIY kit that came with the Sammi. It also came with an MSD Blaster Coil but did not come with the ballast/resistor so I need to pick one up before I use it with the stock distributor:


Then I let my friends take it to the parts store to grab some grease and gear lube for one of their Jeeps. About a mile from my house the clutch cable snapped/stretched! Definitely not her fault and I'm glad it happened a mile from home and not out on the trail. I was amazed to find that Oriely's had a cable in stock for under $40! Took about 30 min to install and she was back on the road again:


All in all a good first weekend with the new toy! My neighbors must love me too:

 

Pounded out the door frames last night with a mini sledge and now the windows go up 99.9% of the way. Did the same with a junkyard windshield frame that I picked up to use until I get the full cage in and tied into the brand new in box windshield frame that I got from the PO. It is now “trail ready” for some basic trails but won’t be doing any heavy crawling until the cage is in:



Here are some before photos:

 

Loving the build, its making me want to pick up a sammy now. lol

 

She almost looks like a real vehicle now!

 

Alright, everything is now installed and functioning as it should!



I also did some maintenance on the diffs and transmission. That’s a lot of synchro in that trans oil but it still shifts fine and hopefully the yellow metal safe LiquiMoly gear oil I put in the trans will be better for the future:


The rear diff fluid looked pretty similar but without the brass.

Lastly the brake proportioning valve is dripping brake fluid. Discontinued part so I will either have to find some new old stock, use an aftermarket adjustable, or bypass it all together (may not be bad for a trail rig).

I have put about 100 miles on her to shake her down and it’s been running great so I’m going to go ahead and drag her up to Sedona this weekend and run a few trails before the new steering and suspension show up!

 

Fun first weekend out! Sheared all three rubber t-case mounts, got to have a little trail fix fun, now to order a new t-case cradle!

 

Really enjoy watching this come together!

 

Thanks! I’m enjoying putting it all together (usually....)!

So spent a little time in the garage yesterday, literally, a little, pulling through t-case to get the old mounts off. The entire thing took about 15 minutes. The hardest part was getting the driveshaft bolts out!

Definitely sheared all three mounts. The output shaft on the trans as well as the trans housing look fine so the plan is to replace the output shaft seal, install the new cradle for the t-case with new mounts and get back to business!