So I recently picked up a 88 Sammy. After driving it a bit, I decided to tear it apart, pulled out the motor, trans, xfer case, wiring harness, dash, and driveshafts. Am going to yank to axles and springs Sunday evening. All this will be getting replaced with a Wrangler engine/trans/xfercase/axles/driveshafts/wiring harness/ecu. I was going to fabricate the rear end into a 1/4 eliptical rear, but decided against that after seeing other people having issues with the rear axle wanting to steer itself while off road. So I decided to go with a full coil suspension front and back. I already have the entire Wrangler set up laying in the garage and it all only has 60,000 miles and ran perfect before tearing it out and replacing it with a bigger engine in the Wrangler. So I figured, why not. I'll post a few pics of the start of the ter down. I took the entire front end off the Sammy to make it easier to access the frame for the mounts and such.

What state are you in? i'm just guessing your in the us.

Ever consider doing a Wrangler to Samurai?

UGH!!!! what a waste of a sammy... your supposed to junk your jeep parts for a sammy!!!

somewhere the sammy gods are crying....

sounds like a cool project...albeit a total sin of the Suzuki genetic code to put inferior Heep parts in a sammy. (LOL)  but just a question?

why not drop a Suzuki V6 or 1.6 DOHC/SOHC instead.  Both engines are huge improvments over the stock 1.3

sounds like a cool project...albeit a total sin of the Suzuki genetic code to put inferior Heep parts in a sammy. (LOL)  but just a question?

why not drop a Suzuki V6 or 1.6 DOHC/SOHC instead.  Both engines are huge improvments over the stock 1.3

Mainly because I already have all the Heep stuff laying around. Going this route will save me tons of money.

Just a update:

Took the body off the frame tonight, cut out all the stock mounts and fabricated the poly motor mounts for the 2.5 engine.  Wouldn't have guessed that the body minus all the interior, would still weigh so much. It took 3 of us to lift it off the frame.  And I only needed to cut (1) of the body mount bolts, the rest all came out easily, luckily enough. The engine/trans/xfer case should be all in and mocked up on Tuesday evening, then it will be on to doing the axles and coil spring set up.  I will have to relocate the rear axle back around 6 inches though to fit the rear stock Heep drive shaft. The front drive shaft will be shortened and rebalanced to fit/keep the front axle at stock location in the frame.  I'll grab some updated pics on Tues.

P.S. The stock Sammy front axle and suspension will be going into a friends Tracker for the SAS setup.

I think it sounds cool; can't wait to see it!

just wheelin the sammy would have saved alot of hasle too

j/k

nice project!!

just wheelin the sammy would have saved alot of hasle too

j/k

nice project!!

It needed some work to even make it trail ready. It was already sprung over, but whoever did the job did it half arsed.  I didn't even feel safe driving it on the road, much less wheeling it.

Update:

Finished building the poly motor mounts last night. Welded them onto the frame and then sat the motor in place. The only clearance issue we had was the Wrangler transfer case had a extra support notch at the driver side end of it, it wasn't going to be used in this application so we cut it off and then ground it down so that it wouldn't hit the frame. The tranny is sitting lower in the rear end due to it resting on a jack stand in the pictures. I am picking up a new tranny mount this week so we can get the rear of the powerplant in place. Now onto a few new pics. Sorry about the pic quality, was using my cell phone cam.

Got the rear end in last night. Decided to stick with a leaf sprung rear end so that I could keep the same wheel base. I gained about 6 inches of width per side using the Wrangler axles. We also kept the SPOA on the rear. The front is still going to get the coil conversion. Well onto a few new pics.

Nice project you've got there 

So I have been working my rear end off the past few weeks. I got the body back on and painted Italian Olive Drab. Did a 2" body lift. The motor/trans/xfer case is in. The wiring harness is in from the engine bay to the dash. I still need to finish the rear harness to the tail lights.  I picked up a Jeep Wrangler a week ago for spare parts and the parts I need to finish my Sammy. I got the Jeep for $300, it was a complete Wrangler also, so I started tearing into it. I will use the stock Jeep roll cage in the sammy and adapt a front loop into it, yes I know it needs to be shrunken down in width in order to fit, thats already covered. I am using the radiator from the Heap along with the gas tank, fuel pump, leaf springs, 4.11 gears and axles, tail lights, and possibly the power steering set-up. The rest of the Jeep will be parted out on Ebay to make my $300 back. It has a brand new Best Top on it, that alone I canget at least $200 for and the half doors are going for upwards of $100 each. Not to mention that now I have a spare motor/trans/xfer case/ecu/wiring harness. Anyway on to some recent pics of the project. I get married next weekend so I'll finish it hopefully by December 1.

I still need to finish the front axle. But here are a few pics of the Heap I m rummaging through.

wow, at first i wasnt thinking that this project was going to work out to smooth, but you have prooved me and im sure loads of other poeple wrong. looks prett good.
How was that heep only 300 bucks? theres quite a bit of money right there in just parts.
id have to say thats a pretty darn good find.