Hi folks. I'm looking for a sidekick/tracker/samurai 90-00, but I have a lot of different opinions about which kind of transmission is better for sand.

I do a lot of surf fishing at Baja, so, I have to drive some miles on a kind of soft sand, I always have had 6 cyl and auto transm, but, on 4 cyl some guys says automatic is better, and some other say "manual shift".

What you guys recommends me for that kind of use? it will be my city daily driver too, not so much drive on highways. I will travel to San Diego on a few days for looking for the car but I would like to have the best suitable car for my use.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I love wheeling behind an auto trans, but lots of people
like the control of the manual, but there will never be a
clutch to go out or change with an auto

Wild

In my experience a manual is more trouble free than an auto.  If something does go wrong, a manual is usually easier to diagnose and cheaper to fix than an auto.
Running in sand sucks a lot of power from the engine, so if you are running an auto tranny behind it, it will be even more powerless.  But with an auto, you could also take off smoother in the sand and are not as likely to dig down and get stuck.  So take your pick.
For driving on the road I'd take a manual over an auto.  But if you do a lot of city driving, you will be shifting gears a lot.  So again, take your pick.

Thanks a lot for the info.

I guess I will point to the manual transmission trying to do it as simple as it could thinking on fixing issues.

Cheers

The biggest issue I have seen with a manual is loosing inertia when shifting in soft sand.

 

I would go with the auto after fixing a couple of samurai's and trying to get the sand out of the throwout bearing where it slides on the front of the aluminum transmission and having them hang up,(petroworks has a fix for this =brass)  plus the torque multiplier of about 1.8 more torque with the automatic,if you get a 1994 or newer you also get another gear.

I vote auto too, easier on the rest of the drivetrain and no prob in sand. If you need more rpm just downshift manually.

I would go with the auto after fixing a couple of samurai's and trying to get the sand out of the throwout bearing where it slides on the front of the aluminum transmission and having them hang up,(petroworks has a fix for this =brass)  plus the torque multiplier of about 1.8 more torque with the automatic,if you get a 1994 or newer you also get another gear.

Was the plate being used to cover the lower part of the bellhousing/flywheel area?  If so, that should keep out 99% of the sand/dirt/etc.
Four speed auto trannys did not start in 1994.  They were available as early as 92 in sidekicks (4 doors only).  All 4 doors that had an auto tranny had the 4 speed auto.  No 89-98 two door trackicks had 4 speed auto trannys (other than the x90).

Yes they had the plates on, the last one I installed a petroworks clutch and used some sticky foam rubber on the plate and it helped allot.