I have been trying to help my cousin with a 88 sami he brought.  It has been sitting in a barn for 10 years and has 49000 miles on it.  When we got it it had 8 carbs in the back and would not start. I blew out the fuel lines,put another fuel pump on.pluged a couple of vac lines and it fired right up and ran pretty smooth.  When we tried to drive it as soon as we put a load on it would kick and buck and die. I took the best looking carb in the back and put a kit in it and hooked all the vacuum lines brak up to spec and it did the same thing.  The fuel pump pumps good when unhooked and put in a pail and cranked. It will idle and rev sitting still but as soon as you try and drive it it acts like its running out of gas.   Any ideas? I was also wondering how many counterclockwise turns you should give the idle needle valve screw after seating?   Thanks.  C

I am new to the world of samurai's and I myself just bought an 87'  It is showing the same symptoms.  It seems to run great when the engine is cold but after running for about a minute it acts as if it is not getting fuel.  I replace the fuel filter which was nasty thinking that was it. Then I went for plugs, wires, cap and rotor.  I even blew back through the fuel line thinking obstruction.  I since then have found that only half of the 2bbl carb seems to working. There is a vac control for the 2bbl and I have bypassed the elect/vac control for the 2bbl and it helps but it still acts as if it is running out of gas under a load.  Not sure if it is the carb as I have found them to run upwards of 300 bucks and the sami only cost me a dollar and not  sure of how much I want to spend on it. Any help would be great.

I would check the exhaust pipe and muffler for critters !

Bad Cat? I had one that sat for a long time and the cat was bad. Was plugged and only let enough exhaust through for idling.

I will have to give the cat a try, it wont be on the road so im not afraid of passing an emissions test.