| 1st Samurai Transmission Swap... August, 2003 |
Well, after my Samurai had blown its transmission in late November 2002 it sat dormant up in MN because I didn't have the money for
a new transmission. After I got back to IL for the summer the problem became finding one, none of the junkyards or parts places even
remotely near me had a Suzuki Samurai 5 speed in working order. I finally managed to locate one in late July for 300 bucks. I also
picked up a nice little brush guard and a new driver's side door handle for 20 each as well.
Dad and I headed up to Minnesota in Mid-August with the new trans, and all the tools we needed. Man, was that thing ever mess to
work with! Everything is pretty easy up until you actually have to move the transmission. Doing that is the hard part because even with
the engine pulled forward it's an extremely tight fit... I believe it took us about 2 hours to snake the old trans out, then about another 3 to
manage to get the new one in. The Suzuki engineers, in thier infinite wisdom, decided to weld the crossmemeber under the trans
instead of bolting it. Other than that this wasn't really too bad.. I was rather displeased with my "new, great running" trans though. It
didn't sound much healther than the one that had blown up 8 months earlier. Some Lucas Oil Stabilizer quieted it down, and it worked
great for the next 3 weeks. Then, it started going out on my way back up here to MN in September.
I'm still limping it now (November), and I'm going to pull it in December over Semester Break. My plans for then are to use the best of
my 2 transmissions, plus perhaps another for good parts to build a custom 4 speed. That way I won't have to worry about straining it
too much with overdrive, which after our inspection, was found to be what killed the last trans. It just couldn't handle that stress, and
wound up eating the bearings on the countershaft. I believe from the symptoms that this one is doing the same.
Pictures from the swap day are below.
a new transmission. After I got back to IL for the summer the problem became finding one, none of the junkyards or parts places even
remotely near me had a Suzuki Samurai 5 speed in working order. I finally managed to locate one in late July for 300 bucks. I also
picked up a nice little brush guard and a new driver's side door handle for 20 each as well.
Dad and I headed up to Minnesota in Mid-August with the new trans, and all the tools we needed. Man, was that thing ever mess to
work with! Everything is pretty easy up until you actually have to move the transmission. Doing that is the hard part because even with
the engine pulled forward it's an extremely tight fit... I believe it took us about 2 hours to snake the old trans out, then about another 3 to
manage to get the new one in. The Suzuki engineers, in thier infinite wisdom, decided to weld the crossmemeber under the trans
instead of bolting it. Other than that this wasn't really too bad.. I was rather displeased with my "new, great running" trans though. It
didn't sound much healther than the one that had blown up 8 months earlier. Some Lucas Oil Stabilizer quieted it down, and it worked
great for the next 3 weeks. Then, it started going out on my way back up here to MN in September.
I'm still limping it now (November), and I'm going to pull it in December over Semester Break. My plans for then are to use the best of
my 2 transmissions, plus perhaps another for good parts to build a custom 4 speed. That way I won't have to worry about straining it
too much with overdrive, which after our inspection, was found to be what killed the last trans. It just couldn't handle that stress, and
wound up eating the bearings on the countershaft. I believe from the symptoms that this one is doing the same.
Pictures from the swap day are below.
