Did Suzuki ever sell a Samurai in N. America with an automatic tranny?  Is so, what are its weak points?  

The reason that I'm so interested in an automatic versus a manual tranny is because I'm in a wheelchair and must use hand controls to drive, otherwise a manual would be a lot more fun.

Robert

    I don't think so   I just got an 87 tintop and I am really thinking about a 16v and an auto swap I love the auto for wheeling
  sorry to hear about you condition although I bet hand controls could be pretty cool off road

What 16 valve engine are you referring to?  That sounds to me like a viable alternative.

As for the hand controls I've been using them off road in my Jeep for a few years without any problems.  Just takes a bit of getting used to.

Robert

A lost of people will swap a 1.6L (8 or 16 valve) engine out of a kick and put them into their samis.

You could just use the whole drivetrain and get your auto that way.

Good luck.

Hey,
I haven't done this to my sammi but I was reasearching
it and what I found was that the biggest obstacle is the size of the automatic. Apparently what folks say to do is cut the tunnel to make room for the larger size. Of course you also have the normal size issues with the motor hitting the hood..

-Allen

I know of a guy in Germany who has adapted his sammy to go with hand-throttle and all of that stuff. He's in a wheelchair too so maybe you could ask him about things, here's a link to his site: http://www.suzuki-sj418.de

u can get the engine mounting kit from calmini or sky actually i think everyone makes this kit. just get the motor mounts and the new wiring harns. add a 2" body lift and all clearnce problems r solved the tranny is 2 1/16"s longer than the sami tranny. use the slip yoke out of the tranny and the small driveshaft between the sami tranny and the t-case. mount everything and then bring it a the drive shaft shop depending on ur fab skill level. i priced it at a sop and it was $65 to have it fitted and installed. i think this a good idea alot of people have had vibration problems with this portion of the install. the trany brace can be fitted from the doner vehivle. make sure u get the computer. this sounds like a lot of work but with an extra set of hands and planning u could do it in about 3 days. oh try to move the t-case so u can keep ur stock drive shafts. i got a price on the full swap and the shop said $3200 including the engine and trany i thought that was to steep so i did it my self. i spent $250 on a totaled tracker with a 16 valve with power steering. in all it was about $1000 to do the swap including beer.

I got an automatic in my sami without a body lift or any cutting