The Samurai (as it is known in the USA) is a short wheel-base 4x4 sport utility vehicle (SUV). It was available in both hard-top and convertible models. Standard was a 1300cc single-overhead cam engine and leaf springs.

400,000 Samurais were imported from 1986 through 1995.

Australia	|	Sierra
Parts of Asia	|	Caribbean, Caribian
Japan	|	Jimny
Various Countries	|	SJ413

[Noel Van Hook]

Height: Pure stock with biggest you can fit is 27". Mickey Thompson and Interco both make nice 27x9.5 tires that will fit stock no problem. A 215x75R15 will fit also. People will say you can go bigger, but any larger will rub under full suspension compression! Lots of people don't care about that, and so put 28" tires on anyway.

With a 1" shackle lift (2" longer shackles) and minor trimming on the front bumper you can fit 29" tires. This includes 235/75R15 tires. Trimming is easy. It can be done with a hacksaw, and is done on the inside of the bumper, so it doesn't show. The shackle lift is easy too, and 1" is small enough that the stock shocks will work.

Width: Pure stock the widest you can go is 9.5". Any wider and you rub the bumper when turning the wheel. With minor bumper trimming (see above) you can go to 10.5". You can use standard 3.5" backspacing and you’ll still clear the springs at full turn.

What I have: I run 29x10.5 swampers on 15x7 wheels, standard backspacing. To get them to fit I added a 1" shackle lift, and trimmed the front bumper. No fender trimming was required. They do not rub, ever. The truck has a nice wide, aggressive stance. The wheels hang out about an inch from the fender flares, so they do tend to throw the mud around. But they also do a good job of protecting my fenders from damage, too.

[Larry Harris]

http://www.off-road.com/suzuki/tech/btire.htm

has additional information about tires and lifts.

[Mike Graham]

When I asked this question, I got several different answers to this one. Here they are:

Jonathan Hall says: “Lock right, s/o, diff gears.”

Noel VanHook says: “Rock Lobster and tires.”

James Hiers says: “Rocklobster transfer case and lockrite.”

I'm going to amalgamate these answers and come up with a different one. I'm going to say that for general trail running the best $1000 spent to keep you moving is going to be spent on a lockrite and tires. A rocklobster is a great thing to have if you're playing on steep rocks, but a locker and tires is the best $1000 you're going to spend for general trail use. If you're building a rock-crawler, then the rocklobster and s/o just might be your best route, but never underestimate the value of good tires. Oh yeah, I'd put that locker on the front. Now, if you're planning on putting big tires on it (like 30s; see the section on tire sizes) then you may well be better off going with Noel VanHook's suggestion of tires and a rocklobster, because the increased tire size is going to reduce your torque, which the rocklobster will compensate for, both on and off road.

Although many of the drive-train components are tiny to the point of being “cute”, they are more than strong enough for the stock engine. When you start swapping in bigger engines, or increasing the power of the stock engine, and then start hurling your Sammy down boulder-strewn passages that a mountain goat would think twice about attempting, that's when you start breaking things. Of the stock drive-train components, the only consistent breakage (and again, this is only in extreme situations) is u-joints, and even then only certain people, like Glenn Wakefield, break them regularly. I think it's a Karmic imbalance thing. 8-) There have been reports of aftermarket diff gears breaking if they're not set up just right.

[Mike Graham]

Whether the engine is fuel injected or not, it can benefit from:

• K&N air filter ($50)
• MSD Ignition system
• Tri-Y exhaust header
• 2" Free-flowing exhaust
• Performance camshaft

The favorite seems to be the header and 2" exhaust. Almost everybody asked put that in their top 3 mods to make to a 1300.

If the engine in question is carbureted, then look into replacing the stock carb with a Weber.

[Mike Graham]

When the crank is turned by way of the crank pulley center bolt (using a 17mm socket) to the TDC point (the white notch on the crank pulley is lined up with the “0” on the ignition timing marks), then the intake valve rocker on cylinder #4 will be enough out of the way that you can raise the front of the cover (after removing the bolts, of course) and roll the cover to the right to sneak the back left corner out from under the vacuum advance on the distributor. Getting it back on is just a real drag in the dirt.

This is going to sound excessive, but I honestly find it easier to pull the distributor. Really. Firstly, use a scriber to make a mark on the dist body and the mount, so that you can easily realign it. Once you have the crank at TDC you just remove the distributor hold-down bolt, and the whole unit slides up and out. Even if you don't want to actually pull the dist, you can just turn it clockwise a few degrees to move the vacuum advance out of the way, and you will find that life is much, much easier. This is far easier than screwing around trying to get the cover off with the distributor in place. When the cover has been replaced and bolted down, just turn the distributor body back so that the marks line up again, and tighten the hold-down bolt. I usually check my ignition timing afterwards, but you can get away with not doing it if you line your marks up correctly. If you later decide to permanently change your ignition timing, just sand off the old marks, set the new timing, and make new marks.

[Mike Graham, with info from Thom Batty]

Get yourself 15' or so of plastic tubing with an inner diameter of ?". Using a pair of vise-grips, remove the cap from each breather, attach the end of the hose and fasten with a hose clamp. Using zip-ties, run the hoses to the engine compartment (leaving enough slack near the axle for axle travel) and cut off the extra hose. You can end the hose in one of two ways; either spend the money on some inline filters (fuel filters or whatever) and top the hoses with that, or just end the hoses in an arch like the top of a candy cane; if the open end of the “candy cane” runs down about 8" or so, you won't need to worry about water getting in. Higher is better. If you run a snorkel, then just plumb the hose into the snorkel so that it uses the same air supply.

[Larry Harris]

There is a lock nut and adjusting screw on top of the steering box. The proper way to adjust it is with the preload method. You will need a spring scale to measure the starting torque of the worm shaft (the one with the rubber piece that goes to the steering shaft) it should be between 1.58 - 2.63 kg when adjusted properly.

There have been many that just turn in on the screw a little to remove the free play. Be careful with this method, but it does work. Do not over-tighten the screw. Make a small adjustment and cycle the wheel from stop to stop and make sure it still has free travel with no hard spots.

[Larry Harris]

The steering wheel can not be re-centered unless you remove the wheel itself or the u-joint on the steering shaft. The only adjustment we have is for toe.

To remove the wheel, pull off the horn button and loosen the nut holding the wheel in place. Don't remove the nut completely, so's not to bop yourself in the nose with the wheel. Pull the wheel free (a puller is not required). Remove the nut, reposition the steering wheel and fasten it back down.

On the Suzuki Pages of Off-Road.com, of course!

http://www.off-road.com/suzuki/

http://www.golden.net/~juliag/suzuki/suzuki.guestbook.html

[Mike Graham]

Way at the back of the vehicle, inside of the passenger side frame rail, just forward of the rear axle is a small pop-can sized filter.

[Gary Munck]

The secondary throttle plate is operated by vacuum, there is a little hole that is the port for this vacuum.

The flat spot you are feeling is caused when the secondary either does not open or opens and then closes partially as the vacuum drops in the manifold. I hope this clears up the mystery.

On most carbs it is necessary to move the opening of this port out into the air flow. There is a small tube available that can fix the problem in the majority of Samurais.

For more information see:

http://www.off-road.com/suzuki/tech/tb4-06.htm

[Off-Road.com]

Because the locating pin that's supposed to hold it in the proper position has broken off. You need to replace it with a new one, both an easy and a cheap fix. See:

http://www.off-road.com/suzuki/samurai/shiftlever.htm

for full details.

[Mike Graham]

Because the locating pin that's supposed to hold it in the proper position has broken off and things got way out of whack. See 4.2 immediately above.

What is actually happening is the toe of the shifter is caught somewhere it isn't supposed to be, and can't get back. The solution is to remove the entire shifter assembly.

Now look into the gearbox. There are metal bars running front to back. There are notches in the bars that should line up to form a channel from side to side. If they don't, then get a big screwdriver and poke them around until they do. The channel will line up with the notch in the reverse gear spring.

Once the channel is lined up, just reinstall the shifter.

[Off-Road.com]

Because the "sheet" (as Suzuki names it, a piece that guides the transfer case shifter) in the transfer case has worn out. Order a new one and replace it. The part number is 29541-80051.

[Off-Road.com] [How to replace it yourself]

It's shot. And it'll leak a lot of oil, so keep a close eye on the engine oil level until you get it replaced.

[Don Schultz]

There are a couple of compelling reasons for installing your first locking type differential in the rear axle first:

1) Much of a vehicle's weight transfers to the rear wheels when driving up steep hills. This places most of the burden for climbing traction on the rear wheels. The shorter the wheel base, the more pronounced the effect. Under extreme conditions you can't afford to lose any traction on a back tire, even in 4wd. A good driver, with a suitably equipped 2wd and locking rear axle, can go places thought only accessible by 4wd.

2) If you are like most recreational 4x4 drivers, you spend more time in 2wd on the street than in 4wd off-road. With a locker in the rear your vehicle benefits from the added traction in both on and off-road service.

Note: Please don't misunderstand. I like and own front wheel drive vehicles but... there's a myth floating around that front wheel drive vehicles climb better than rear wheel drive vehicles. This is only because the rear wheel drive vehicles that were tested lacked positive traction (a locker) to both wheels. The same laws of physics apply to towing. That's one reason why rear wheel drive vehicles in general are used to pull heavier loads than front wheel drives.

Bottom line for 4x4'ers... two lockers are better than one, but if you must choose, stick it in your rear!

Originally it was compiled by Mike Graham. Currently, it's Scott Gomez, Editor of the Suzuki pages on Off-Road.com. Updates, additions and corrections to the FAQ should be sent to: suzuki@off-road.com. Various questions were answered by all sorts of people, often via the suzuki4x4 mailing list hosted at Off-road.com. The authors of various answers are listed in square brackets at the beginning of the section they provided.

Lots of people. Here are the general parts suppliers that specialize in Suzuki. All are United States unless otherwise noted. Please mention that you reached them courtesy of Off-Road.com.

When we have time and sufficient new material to require it or when we get fed up answering a given question via email (whichever occurs first).

Right now.