the engine im putting in my sam will have ~135hp and 140ft tq.  the guy thats helping me has got me worried that big of an upgrade will snap my stock axles.  do you think thats a legit concern?  i want to do the upgrade im just not sure if its worth doing now, and im worried i wont be able to sell my axles/wheels/tires/rollers and get enough $$ back to cover everything.  well let me rephrase that, i know it wont cover everything.  what does the glorious Zukiworld think?

I'm not a Sami "owner"....but I know more info will be needed.

1. Is it the same rig that's listed in your Signature? (ie tire size and vehicle specs)
2. What gearing are you using, tcase/axles?
3. Lockers?
4. Driving habbit? All rock?



If your all stock and all open, then no you more then likely wont snap an axle. I've seen sami's beat on trails and walk away with nothing more then body damage. But I guess it is possible still, but unlikely.

If your locked and running 4:1+ tcase on 35" tires.....then yeah your bound to break eventually, but that varies depending on your scenerio. If your on a "high traction" area, ie rock, and get pinched or all weight shifts to one wheel...then your chances increase...


I'm sure sami "drivers" can chime in and correct me, but this is just based on my experience wheeling with Samis.

You should give Trail Tough a call, they had Chromoly rear axles available for the Samurai.  But it has been pulled from their website, so I don't know if they still over them.

If your really worried they also have a cut down off-set Toyota rear axle housing. 

1. Yes same rig as in my sig.
2. 6.5 t-case gears, axles are stock.
3. no lockers but thinking about manual lockers not auto locking
4. some road, trails.  havent gotten into any rocks but living in CO im sure it will be a portion of whats driven on.

Drone, how does the sami chromoly axle stand up next to the yota mini trucks?  i looked at those for a while and assumed(i may be wrong) chomoly was kinda inbetween stock sam and stock yotas.  im looking at doing my engine swap and axles at the same time and if i do that it'll have to be 2nd hand everything so i can afford it.  however if chormoly axles are comperable to yotas then i could probably swing that

Chromoly won't do it, and yes you will snap axles.

It is recommended even with a 1.6 16v swap the minimum is a chromoly setup.  I'd recommend swapping in Toyota axles if you can.

I was going to swap in a 2.0 from a Tracker until I read about snapping stock axles.  It's got similar HP/Torque.

F....  may have found a IFS width rear yota axle, whats the difference in widths between IFS/reg

The IFS rear axle is 5" wider then a solid axle Toyota, at 55 and 58".  Unless your swapping both front and rear axles I would give trail tough a call about the cut down Toyota rear, they take 3" out of one side so the drive shafts line up properly.  I'm not sure on the specifics though.

Stock samurai:
Front = 52.5" WMS to WMS
Rear = 52.2" WMS to WMS

Stock Toyota truck front axle:
55.5" wide, 29" spring perch centers, '79-85 Toyota trucks and 4runners
63.5" wide, (set up for coil springs) 90-97 FJ80 and FZJ80 Landcruisers
'86-95 IFS front end is about 58.5" wide
'93-98 T100 IFS front end is about 65" wide

Stock Toyota truck rear Axle:
55" wide, '79-85 trucks/4runners
58" wide, '86-95 trucks/4runners
60.75" wide, '95.5-up Tacomas/4runners
66.75" wide, '93-98 T100 trucks

Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser:
front = ~56" wms - wms
rear = ~55.25" wms - wms

Toyota FJ60 and FJ62 Land Cruiser:
front: = ~58.75" wms - wms
rear: = ~58" wms - wms

i have 2" wheel spacers all the way around bc i was rubbin on the springs up front so its basically the same width.  the axles im lookin at are '82, They turn free, both diffs are open.  both for 250 then have em shipped from Louisiana ought to be just under 500 i think which isn't great but certainly not bad

Driveshafts lining up properly i thought the 80-85 yotas were to the side not down the middle.  i checked out the TT rear, would i be able/good idea to use yota rear and samurai front?  id think that would make something bind but i could be wrong.  with the rear housing and shafts and then getting the choro front the total is 635 w/o shipping and that is 135 above my ball park with shipping on the other. 

this might be a dumb question but how hard is it to cut off those 3"?  i will have access to a full shop with CNC which may or may not be the best thing for this application.

Is this a road rig or a trail rig?

I would like to keep it both.  as of now with a max speed of about 45 its around town but id like to still be able to take it to work to show it off once i get it done, or even kinda done

I still want to see how you are gonna stuff that 2.0 VW FWD engine in your sammy.  Get R' done already!

I would just go straight Toyota axles if your worried about it.  Your going to have to get new wheels, spring perches and drive-line adaptors but it keeps you running the same hardware front and rear.  You can probably sell your Sammy hardware and get some of the money back.

thats what im hopin.  Thanks for your input.  I was wanting more than one person to say it was a good idea before i spent the $$ on everything. 

Zero, man i cant wait either!! T minus 2 months, not that im counting or anything   you should come buy my DC-2s here in a month or so!!