I keep seeing more questions than answers on the DIY YJ swap. I plan on doing it myself. I am not an awesome fabricator, so if I can do it you can too. I have two samurais. One all zuk drivetrain, had it for years, been building it slow, cheap and beating it like it owes me money. I have replaced EVERYTHING on it at least once. My other zuk is my project, the plan for it is toyota axles, trans and tcases, yjs, 2.0 tracker engine and stretch like elotsips. So far I have it sitting on the axles (thanks to ratchet straps!) and a pile of parts, like yjs, and toy tcases. I actually had some home made missing links and rear shackles... sold em... wish I hadn't. I have planned all along to used Sky's YJ kit, mainly because its a nice kit, and he is a local boy, so I try to support local businesses, and the people I wheel with! Now that funds are short and the nice zuk (generally referred to as the "Red Sammy") build is on hold, I keep dumping money into the White Zuk.
So last weekend I went to the boneyard and picked up some ford shock towers and mercedes arms, along with one 4door sidekick front caliper... that'll come in handy later. I also found some track/kick Superwinch hubs... I'll sell those to help fund this endeavor. I'm broke and living on student loans, so every bit counts! So here is how my white zuk sits some of you may recognize it as I did have it up for sale awhile back... to finish the red zuk... that didn't happen.

It has the calmini shackle reversal, spoa with a Zlink. 5.12s, 34" ltbs.
The suspension was like that when I bought it. I has worked fine, but doesn't flex near what YJs do. Plus I think it sits an inch or two higher than it needs to. Hell parked next to 4RnRick's it sits two inches higher... and he is on 39's! So I have done my homework a bit, and have decided I can make my own YJ swap. I figured there is probably a DWG or DXF files out there with all the brackets, shackles and spring plates needed. Maybe there is, but I haven't found them. I have found a few different drawings though:


(also a couple attached pdfs)
However since I have acad 2009 at my fingertips I think I will use these as a reference to draw up my own brackets and shackles. Then I can go and get them cut out on a cnc plasma table. If I like them enough I can use them on the red sammy too.
Another thing I am considering, it just came to me today, after seeing the asian auto parts YJ shackle reversal, and since I have a shackle reversal now, is that their shackle looks REALLY similar to a stock XJ rear shackle. Which I just happen to have laying around since we just lifted my buddy's XJ.
So I'm busy with school, and am generally pretty good at procrastinating, but stay tuned, I may have some good low budget stuff!

If your going to Toyota axles with YJ's, heres the pass side spring pad.


I have sky-man's Samurai to Toyota kit on my right.


Looking forward to seeing your write up.

Amilla

Nice, yeah I need to draw up spring plates too. I will be doing toy axles on the Red Sammy, for right now I'm concentrating on the White Zuk which is still on zuk axles. I plan on using Sky/Rick's Toyota swap plates as well. They are nicely made, and to me worth the money.

So I've drawn up my plates, but been busy with school, graduating this term. I have also been determining how I am going to address the spring plates. Looking at my buddy's XJ, I noticed two things,
1. The Dana 35 is tiny, the tube is about the same size as the samurai
2. The leaf springs are the same with as the YJ.
So I added the plates to my junkyard list, I saw a yj that still had front springs last time I was out there, and several xjs with rears... so there's one more thing I don't have to make.
I found a set of Rancho RS9000s for the front, which should work out nice with my ford shock towers. They are the same length as my buddy's zuk with ford towers, and toyota springs. So I figure it'll work well. Need to relocate shocks in the rear, probably the top and bottom. I'm considering putting the xjs in the rear and comp cutting it, and moving the fuel tank. Hopefully this little project will pick up momentum rapidly after finals and graduation.

Looking forwars to your wright up I'am getting ready to do a wrangler spring swap in the rear of my Sammy and any info you come up with will help me greatly.

Made another trip to the junkyard today and picked up all my spring plates. There were no YJs out there, but the XJ ones work fine, and one set I found laying on the ground, didn't even have to pull em.
I'll take some pics. I also got my shackles drawn up, not using missing links. Doing 6" shackles, and I have the rear spring mount moving the spring eye back 3". By my measurments that should put the axle a little more than 1" forward, which will line up perfect with the steering box. Going to try to get the plates and shackles cut tomorrow, but I haven't gotten around to buying steel. I doubt they are open on saturdays.