Can anyone tell me what the standard gear ratio on a 1987 Samurai would be and also if someone says the vehicle has 462 gears does that mean the ratio is 4.62? Thanks

Stock axle gears are 3.73:1, if it has 4.62:1 gears they came from a Sidekick.

Don't you need a hybrid rear axle in order to run sidekick gears in a samurai?

I'm not certain I understand the second question - what does how the gears were fitted have to do with it?  Samurais didn't ship with 4.62 gears, and the most common source of 4.62 gears is a Sidekick - whether you use a hybrid axle or not (I believe there is more than one way to do it), if you have a Samurai with 4.62 gears, there's a 99% probability they are Sidekick gears.

 Sorry for the confusion. I was always under the belief that sidekick gears did not fit into the samurai center section and so you needed a hybrid axle that was made with a larger center section (from a sidekick) in order to house the sidekick gears. If I am mistaken that would save me a lot of hassle when I go to switch mine over.

I've no personal experience but I was of the impression it was a matter of bolting the Sidekick ring & pinion onto the Samurai center and adding a "can" to prevent the cross pins from walking out.

The thread below lists a couple of different ways to do it.

https://bbs.zuwharrie.com/content/topic,3177

Sorry for the confusion. I was always under the belief that sidekick gears did not fit into the samurai center section and so you needed a hybrid axle that was made with a larger center section (from a sidekick) in order to house the sidekick gears. If I am mistaken that would save me a lot of hassle when I go to switch mine over.

Rear trackick gears do not fit samurai axle housings. But 2 sets of trackick front gears will fit both the front and rear samurai axle housings.