I'll be picking up a 87 samurai this weekend and will be renting a uhaul tow dolly to go get it.  Whats the best method for the samurais.  I want to tow it front wheels up on the dolly.  Do you put the transfer case and tranny in nuetral?  I have read some conflicting info so far.  :^)  Also this one has a dead engine.  Any tricks to getting a dead vehicle on a dolly is appreciated. 

One more thing.  Any towing laws that I should be aware of?  Do I have to have those magnetic flashers?  What about tow dollys on the interstate?  Are they allowed?

Just pull the rear drive shaft you will be fine, I think you will need two 12 mm wrenches there are only eight bolts.

If the tow dolly has lights then no additional lights are required.
If it is a short tow in day light I would not worry about any.

You should be able to push it onto the dolly with a couple people. You could load it when your tow vehicle is headed down hill too. Or get your tow strap or simular out and have another vehicle next to yor tow pull it up on. That works good to get it up on a regular open trailer too.

I was really hoping to not have to remove the rear driveshaft.  I'll be at the sellers place and don't want to be wrenching for an hour under the vehicle on the grass.  :^)  The trip is 90 miles.  I would assume if I was on broke down the tow truck driver wouldn't disconnect the drive shaft.  :^)  So, put both in neutral? I emailed the seller to find out if it has auto or manual hubs but do not have an answer yet.  I suspect all samurais came with manual right? 

What type of hubs doesn't make a difference because they will be in the dolly! In theory you should be able to put both in neutral and be fine. I would reallt suggest pulling the rear shaft though! I had a sami years ago that i use to tow in neutral and one time it stuck in neutral. The transfer case that is! Had to take it apart to fix it. Ever since i pull the shaft!

I believe that you want the tcase in neutral AND the trans in 2nd gear I hear...

Check out the following link:
http://www.greatlakes4x4.com/archive/index.php/t-764.html

My owners manual says to tow with the rear wheels on the dolly and the front hubs unlocked

Yeah the manual says to tow it with the rear wheels on the dolly.  The reason I mentioned the hubs is because somewhere I read a possibility that in neutral on the transfer case the front and rear driveshafts are locked together like in 4wd and if you had auto hubs and you started to pull they could lock up and then the rear wheels drag.  I am not sure if that is true or not.  If thats true it would have to be TX in 2wd and transmission in neutral.  If thats not true then you might want to run tx in neutral but put the transmission in 2nd so the gears get oiled?  I have been told that besides the blown motor the tranmission is supposedly bad on it so I may not have to baby that part but I do want to reuse the tx case.   Once I am off his property if I come accross a lot that I can pull into I may pull the rear driveshaft.  I am just leary on having bolts break or get stuck trying to remove it and there I sit with no tools and a now off balaced shaft that now I can't just pull home with.  :^) This vehichle has been garaged for the last ten years due to the motor but we are in the midwest and its a '87 so I still anticipate rust issues with the bolts for the times before that.  :^) 

Even with the transfer case in N, with the rear wheels on the ground turning , both drive shafts are still turning. Transfer case in N  only disconnects from the transmission. By pulling the rear shaft, it stops all movement of the drive train with the front hubs in freewheel. Then you can flat tow & not have or create any new problems.   

I have over 4,000 miles flat towing on my 1991 Sammy. The previous owner had over 100,000. It has never seen a tow dolly, or has it had the rear driveling disconnected.

I suggest you consider getting a tow bar, and flat tow. As I recall, do not disconnect the drivelines, transfer in neutral, tranny in second, about every 250 miles start and run the engine for a few minutes. I never run the engine. I think these are the instructions on the transmission tunnel.


Wayne

I already have the tow dolly reserved.  I assume a tow bar would require hard mounting to the vehicle.  I have no idea if this thing will be a keeper or not until I inspect the frame.  The guy said the clutch is in the back seat and motor is taken apart but it rolls fine and would not have a problem being towed.  Your guess is as good as mine as to what it will be like once I get there.  :^)  So I am probably looking at putting the tx in 2wd and the tranny in neutral.  This will disconnect the front half and at least I won't have to worry about the front hubs locking for some reason.  Then the concern would be the wear on the tranny which is supposedly already bad.  If I can get pulled over in a lot after I leave his property I may investigate pulling the shaft. 

After reading your last post, I would pull the driveline, before leaving.


Wayne

You can pull just the back half of the drive shaft and prop the front half up. Takes under 15 minutes this way. disconnect at the slip yoke.

Well I made the trip today and arrived in one piece.  I did end up pulling the driveshaft which was just four 12mm bolts.  Last night I picked up a 24V cordless impact wrench at menards for $99.  It is rated at 210 ft/lbs and it zipped the bolts off with no problems!  The rear tire on the sammy popped while driving back  and shredded itself but lukily it had a good spare on the vehicle.  Oh, and the rain and everything else that went wrong.  :^)  The good news is the frame is solid, floors are all fine, fenders wells are solid and the only rust is under the plastic rocker guards whcih can probably be cut out and replaced.  All the metal on the underneath side of the rockers are fine.  And there is a little rust patch on the hood front that has gotten through.  All in all not bad.  The clutch was in the back of the vehicle and the motor was laying in the engine compartment not connnected to the tranny.  :^)  So next step is to try and get a title for it.  The guy I bought it from took it on trade for work and he never got it registered in his name.  Carfax says its clean and hasn't been titled since 1995 and it still had the 1996 plates on it.  So once I get a title for it I'll start on replacing the engine and go from there.  The clutch plates were completely worn and I wonder if maybe the trans is ok and it was just the clutch.  Any way to tell if a manual trans is ok besides driving it?