I recently purchased a 1991 Samurai SJ410 and have some questions I thought you could help with.
First of all this is like I said a 91 SJ410 with 123000 miles. Seems to be in pretty good condition, 2 wheel drive with a 5 speed transmission.
First issue;
I noticed last night when looking it over that it has a transfer case. Since this is a two wheel drive I am a little confused as to why it would be equipped with one. It does not have a control lever to operate it, it does not have any holes in the floor where there was once a lever (thinking it might of been a conversion at sometime).
It is acting as a unerdrive as the driveline going in turns roughly 1.4 times compared to the driveshaft coming out turns one revolution.
Second issue;
I typically use synthetic oil in everything I own. Can I put synthetic in the motor, transmission, transfer case, and rear differential?
I am sure I will have more questions so we will deal with these two for right now.
Thank You

the T case is a reduction box and it keeps the rear drive shaft in line with the rearend as for synthetic oil go for it I run it in our Pathfinder but don't in my zuk because it gets changed to much 


Ryan

I wouldn't put synthetic in the engine.  Sometimes the synthetic will find new ways to leak oil compared to the standard oil.  RHodge is right on the money as far as the reduction box goes.  It's basically half a transfer case.

And make sure you refer to it as a SJ-410, not a Samurai.  The Sammy is a SJ-413 and uses a lot of different parts. 

Thanks for the information,
I realize it is a gamble putting synthetic in the engine as it may begin to leak.

Is there a specific weight of oil to use in the gear boxes?

Regarding the reduction box. Why is it that Suzuki would use a reduction box compared to gearing the transmission correctly for the vehicle?

Is there a link anywhere that will take me to the history of the Samurai's, SJ's, or what ever they are called.

I realize it is a gamble putting synthetic in the engine as it may begin to leak.

Synthetic won't make things leak. It's BS. I would, however, clean the crapola out of your engine & trans tunnel to make sure it isn't already leaking. Nearly all Suzuki 4 bangers develop a leak around the distributor. Search "o-ring" and you'll come up with the fix.

The majority of the benefit to synthetic is the ability to extend your oil change intervals, and therefore save money in the long run (by changing the oil every 12,000 miles or more). If your engine is leaking, or you plan on changing every 3000 miles anyway, don't bother with synthetic. More than you ever wanted to know about oil can be found: http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/.

Regarding the reduction box. Why is it that Suzuki would use a reduction box compared to gearing the transmission correctly for the vehicle?

Not sure. But they did - and it makes me happy. I get to install a Samurai transfer case to the rear of my Sidekick, and get hi & low range reduction 

Is there a link anywhere that will take me to the history of the Samurai's, SJ's, or what ever they are called.

Yep. *points to google*

I typed in "suzuki samurai" and the first few links addressed this.