Well it took a couple months of sporatic evenings and weekends but we finally got the rig on the road. What we have in the 88 Sami is almost the works, a few things to add yet but the wife says no more for now, what we have is:

Complete 1.6L 16v FI
Shogun 1.6L Swap Kit
Complete Kick Fuel Tank and System
RRO's 5" SPOA
RRO's Over the Top Steering
RRO's 4:16 T-case
RRO's Panhard Bar
OME Steering Damper
Duetch Tek Long Travel Shocks
Breeze 4" Shackles
Breeze Diff Guards
Breeze Traction Bar
Breeze Axle U-bolts
Poly Spring Bushings
Kick Goodies on the Steering Column (Combo Switch & Ignition)
31" x 10.5" x 15" winters on chrome ford wheels
TAD 90 Ch
A few other items?

Still need to mount the 8000# Warn. Waiting for these parts from RRO's to install and we are done for now:

Trannys Shifter Kit
T-case mega mount
T-case Reverse S shifter
OTT Stage II

Was gonna get all my parts from RRO's but Shogun Samuraiz had the Swap Kit here when I needed it and Santa gave us the Breeze parts. Late in the spring or early summer we will be looking at installing ARB's (fr & rr), 4.62's or 4.57's, Birfs and armor. Will think about paint after a season of wheelin'.

From this forum special thanks need to be given to:

jeffsimons and
mrfuelish

for their advice, comments, and encouragement, all was greatly appreciated. Will try to get a pic or two posted somewhere.

WOW!!!! are these things a blast to wheel with.

Glad to hear ya got her going, mine is set up perty close to yours,how do you like the power going from not keeping up with traffic to passing everybody and drag racing the ricers   I just put my 33's on for the snow man what a diffrence in the snow and the mud, this thing just floats over stuff and the ride is alot better, will be doing gears and lockers myself when I get to feeling better (or like it) have had the parts for a while and will be building my other 88 samurai with a 16 valve also, one for trail and one for snow, would like to go 8 to 1 low range gears but have not heard from anyone running them yet? maybe run a kicker 2 down the road? so far I have been running mine for almost two years with the 16 valve and love it. have fun  

Pat's Custom and I were out last night wheelin' in a local sandpit with a foot of snow, jumping over piles of snow, racing at every hill we could safely try and climb and anything else we could find to do. Climbed a hill and when we came over the top the front of one side of the rig dipped a bit came up and then the rear dipped. We looked at each other wondered what it was. Turned around and took a look what it was. Here drove that side through a two and a half foot hole with barely a notice that it was there. As I have never experienced the SPOA before you gotta love what they will do. So far I am totally impressed with the little rig and what they will do. Can't wait for 4.57's or 4.62's and the ARB's to see if it will climb a tree.

The roads are a little slippery up here to be racing down any highway, if I caught one of the piles of snow in the middle of the road I may be rolling, but not on the wheels. Will take me a while to get used of driving the Sami after driving my 454 Vortec 2500 GMC crew cab short box for a few years.

You could put a couple of sand bags in the rear of your zuk till you get used to the power, mine will spin the rear tires easy when the road is wet yet alone icy, when it dries up you can have fun with some of the v8's also, hope you break in your clutch first, get some miles on it befor you go racing.

I am just sitting at home waiting for my special thanks check to arrive. Just kidding. Glad I could help. Let's see some pictures. Jeff

I am just sitting at home waiting for my special thanks check to arrive. Just kidding. Glad I could help. Let's see some pictures. Jeff

Hmmm, I figured help and advice was free around here. After this build I need to rebuild my cash supply so you may wear out your couch before a check from me arrives. Could sell you a few pix though, may speed up the check. Been too busy test driving this thing to get any pix of the finished product but I have a few of the installed parts.

Haven't a clue as to posting a pic here.

The guy up here that let us use his shop has been working on an interesting project, he has built up an SJ 410 from scratch and installed front and rear steering, it's quite the rig. He has fabricated or modified everything himself on this SJ except the motor and tranny which he rebuilt.

EXPLOSIVO set up this site for freebie posting
http://www.eye-irritant.com/upload/
So no more excuses
Lets see some pics

Thanks, I'll try and figure it out or should I keep you all waiting. Jeff did you get the pix I sent you, your yahoo account may not like that many megs.

Havin' fun with this upload crap, would be nice to do it directly in here but I guess we got what we got. Here's what we started with


Two of us trying to stare the motor off the old wreck

Pats Custom work to get the filler to the Kick tank and a couple pix of the mounted tank



Couple pix of the front end, once I get the parts from RRO's the entire steering will be over the springs. That funny lookin' thing in there is Pat.

A few more pix, well almost, run into a few hiccups on the way here so all you may get are the links. Unless someone knows how to copy the pix from the site.

http://www.eye-irritant.com/august2004/Throttlle%20Bracket.jpg

http://www.eye-irritant.com/august2004/Air%20Bracket.jpg

http://www.eye-irritant.com/august2004/16v%20in%20Sami.jpg

http://www.eye-irritant.com/august2004/Another%20Fr%20end%20Pic.jpg

http://www.eye-irritant.com/august2004/Traction%20Bar.jpg

http://www.eye-irritant.com/august2004/Tank%20Back.jpg

http://www.eye-irritant.com/august2004/Still%20in%20shop.jpg