Traded for this little truck a year ago, Supposedly only needed a starter and it could run well after months of searching for a starter I found one, however that wasn't the only issue with it. The Timing belt was stripped because the head was seized. Anyway no parts available for this little truck so I decided to make it into something fun. Project Plans: Samurai axle swap Honda D16y7 with matched manual trans 28-29" Tires (May go smaller)
First things first, remove the engine/transmission and rear suspension. The stock tire size on the sanfu is 20x10x12. This truck is a 2WD. Lots of Quirky things on it, one being the drum brakes and the wheels making it difficult to find new wheels/tires.
The frame on the Sanfu doesn't have a Square frame at any point, that made things difficult. I'm not mounting anything permanent until I get everything mocked up, so i can move things as necessary. I want to make sure all components fit and work well with each other.
This kinda brings you up to date, Started this little project End of last Week, Today I tackled the front. I had to remove the front independant suspension, went pretty smooth i have to cut the spindles out eventually. Things currently planned is to do a spring over conversion. Hopefully it won't look like a monster truck at that point. The bigger the tires I have, the "faster" it will go. View attachment 16154
You might be wondering, how the steering works on this little jewel so heres a picture of that, It goes down the steering column, under the floor where there is a 90 degree gear box that shoots towards the rack and pinion. The Gear box changes the direction of the input rotation. My plan is to mount the Samurai gear box input forward and with it being backwards it should turn the right direction.
Now the Samurai front axle can get mocked up, I had to move the axle back 4 inches from stock, because of clearance issues. I can't really make the "wheel wells" any bigger going forward so i have to move the axle back, and the plan is to cut the rear portion of the fender and either rework it and make the oem fender work, or maybe down the road build a new fender to cover the rear portion of the tire , Thats all I got for now, Project will continue further once I get the parts for the spring over conversion.
Glad you decided to make a build thread. Whoever came up with that idea must be a pretty smart guy. I see you outboarded your rear leafs. Would it not be just as easy to mount them under the frame rails, and put the perches closer together on the axle? This would give you a bit more articulation.
Also, you say you may run 28-29" tires. What size are the ones you have under it now? They look fairly proportioned for the amount of lift it appears you will need.
The frame is narrow right behind the cab and it gets much wider as it goes back, so it didn't really matter if I aligned the springs with the frame much. They are stock samurai spring perch width. I will make proper supports for the hangers when I pull the cab and bed off. The tires in the pictures are actually 29s (235/70r15)
None at the moment, been too busy at work to play with it, I did order a Spring over kit spring mounts for the samurai axles, then I can really finalize where the axles will be and actually work the suspension a little bit to see what the clearances are. I still have quite a bit of work on the front, because the frame is completely flat up there, I have to lower the spring hanger so my caster/pinion angles are correct. Still having second thoughts about the Honda Civic motor/trans, I wish I could find a cheap UTV motor that was complete that would clear up a lot of room
Sorry, I haven't updated the post, work has been super busy! Anyways, I got the Spring Over Conversion kit from DrZ Fabrication (Builds Suzuki parts). It gave me much needed clearance for the tires that are currently on it. I still haven't finalized axle placement. I still need to lower the Spring mount 2" to correct caster issues. Im still waiting on the tubing to build the shackle mounts. I also picked up the D16y8 and Automatic combo with wiring , Had a heck of a adventure getting it in the middle of a snow storm across Wyoming and into Idaho. I did some rough measurements and it seems like its going to work great. I plan on moving the bed up 4-6" to give me a little more belly height, If I measured right this will give me around 12-14" of ground clearance under the belly. In stock form, I think I had around 4" of ground clearance . Everything so far as been going smooth. I *Might* go with a 30" tire because I won't have to change the current wheels I have but thinking of making some custom 14x6" wheels to give me more options of ATV/UTV Tires. For now I plan to keep moving with the current tires I have.
Lookin' good. You could fix your caster issues by doing a cut-and-turn. The knuckles are welded into the tube. Grind into the weld, turn the knuckles to the desired angle, and presto! Lots of write-ups, especially for Toyota axles. Pirate 4x4 is a good place to find into. Samurai axles are very similar. Also, a good tirs size in the 30" range is 30/9.50/15. Not sure if it will work for you, but a lot of the Samurai guys use it.
Really looks good on the 29s. I've been arguing with myself about pushing the rear back to keep a longer wheelbase and I can see it definitely looks right. I picked up a different sort of cabover, pushing my project back again. Maybe next year...
The Caster isn't off enough to make me want to cut and turn the knuckles. Its actually within 2 degrees as is in current form. the truck turns to center correctly at this point but I want it to be closer to factory (of the samurai). Im trying to keep it as simple as possible and just match the spring layout in a stock samurai frame. As far as 15" Tires go, I really want to put on some BFG KM2's I think they would look best, and give me stronger tire then a 30" ATV/UTV Tire. I think anything bigger then 30's is going to start making it unproportional, I really wanted to push the rear axle as far as I could without making it look dumb. I think its in the perfect position, the shackle is going to sit under the bumper. I Built the rear bumper already but waiting to move the bed up to finalize it.