Back To My Roots: A Suzuki Samurai Project

[stuntnuts]

Well....things got scary and escalated quickly over the weekend.

The proper carbide burr tool arrived on Saturday so I was able to continue on with my "transmission modifications" for the Acme Adapter plate:

The tool was fantastic and gnawed through the aluminum casing so much more efficiently than that grinding stone I was previously using. No clogging, just effective material removal. It was too good, in fact. I ended up removing too much material (or actually just about what is required to fit the nut and for socket clearance, IMO), and put a hole in the case. :banghead: I immediately had plans to scrap the entire project and sell everything on BaT, but it occurred to me that the hole I put in the case is luckily only in a bolt hole cavity in the bellhousing portion of the case. So nowhere near anything containing gear oil. I may plug the hole up with epoxy or something, but there is nothing in that hole but a case bolt:

The other side went much smoother, as there is way less material required to remove, and nothing thin enough to be in danger of going through it:

After the transmission was modified, I finalized the mock up of the Acme Adapter plate and everything seems good:

When I pulled the transmission out, I noticed a good amount of gear oil by the driveshaft. Under further investigation, the output shaft seal was all cracked. I honestly can say that I've never seen a rubber seal as brittle as this one was. It crumbled as I tried to pop it out. I eventually got it, but it was ugly:

Next up, I inspected the clutch release lever mechanism. I noticed a "fair" amount of play in the shaft, so I decided to replace the bushings. Similar to, the output shaft seal, the clutch release lever seal was also super brittle and breaking apart. That is probably why the bushings were worn. I took everything apart and called up the good folks at lowrangeoffroad.com for some replacement parts.

At this point, seeing as how I have to wait another week to get these parts delivered and installed, I've got some down time. I figured that since I'm replacing all the oil seals in the transmission, I might as well re-seal the case halves as well. I mean, what's a $6.00 tube of RTV and a few nights of my time, right? When I pulled the transmission out, it was covered in oil from the leaking valve cover gasket, so I couldn't really tell if there was any gear oil seepage. I'd hate to install everything and immediately notice gear oil leaking out from the old gaskets, so better safe than sorry.

I'm pretty sure someone has been in there before, because the RTV used currently is black (which I don't think is OE) and pretty sloppy. I've taken apart a few VW transmissions before, but never one from a Samurai, so I'm a bit nervous. We'll see how it goes.

Here is the Input Housing Bearing retainer removed. It is in really nice shape, the shaft that the throw out bearing slides on looks like new. It did have to be removed regardless so I could replace the input shaft seal, which is behind it:

That's all for now. I plan to start splitting the case tonight....yikes.

 

[Spokerider]

Thanks for posting pics of your project and trans re-sealing. I'll be following your progress. 
That's a project I gotta do too.....rebuild that spare trans I have. Just a matter of committing to do so.


One thot on your adapter plate mounting to trans......you *may* wanna radius the hard edges a little where you removed material on the bellhousing. Less likely for a stress fracture to begin on a radiused corner vs sharp corner.
Just a thot...?...

 

[stuntnuts]

One thot on your adapter plate mounting to trans......you *may* wanna radius the hard edges a little where you removed material on the bellhousing. Less likely for a stress fracture to begin on a radiused corner vs sharp corner.
Just a thot...?...

If the tool was smaller in diameter, I would do just that. But working with the bit I have, it would be nearly impossible to round up the hard edges without grossly enlarging everything.

 

[melbakid]

[member=24473]stuntnuts[/member] I just wanted to say I have enjoyed your write up!     The pictures have been great along with the explanations for each one. I am looking forward to seeing continued progress on your build and swap. I love diesels, but gassers have a special place in my heart. [lol] I have never seen this one done before and I am intrigued by it.

 

[stuntnuts]

Last night, I split the case halves and everything came apart pretty easily. To my untrained eye, things inside looked good. All the bearings spun nice and I didn't detect any gear damage. With the oil looking semi-new and the gasketing job so messy, I'm convinced that someone other than the Suzuki factory has been in here before.

Additional Info: The previous owner of this Samurai purchased it from the family of a friend of his, when he sadly passed away from Alzheimer's Disease (same person who towed it with his RV for all of those years), so any service history prior to my PO's ownership is unknown. 

The transmission shifted really nice in the car and the only noise I ever heard was at around 3,000 RPM, if I let off the throttle, I'd hear a whine as it revved down. I have no idea if that was the transmission or the transfer case. Since I'm not a transmission expert and I lack the presses, bearing splitters, etc, I'm not gonna tear into it beyond this point and start throwing bearings or whatever at it. I'll live with the noise.

Transmission halves split up:

The tail end portion and the upper case half all cleaned up and ready for reassembly:

I plan to clean up the lower case half tonight and hopefully start putting things back together, as well...

 

[stuntnuts]

I got the case halves and tail end section back together last night and the input shaft feels like it has a ton of resistance on it now, very hard to turn by hand. For a lack of better terminology, it's like I set bearing preload too tight, but I didn't mess with anything of the sort. It spun great before I put the tail end back on and it shifts good by hand. I may have to split it again and see what I goofed up.

Anyone ever experienced this?

 

[Spokerider]

Never been in a zuk trans before....however, as a thot.....could it be;

Gasket thickness difference?
A bearing shim out of position?
The lack of oil on gears / bearings?
In gear when you try to turn the input.....as in being in 5th gear?

 

[cygnus x-1]

I got the case halves and tail end section back together last night and the input shaft feels like it has a ton of resistance on it now, very hard to turn by hand. For a lack of better terminology, it's like I set bearing preload too tight, but I didn't mess with anything of the sort. It spun great before I put the tail end back on and it shifts good by hand. I may have to split it again and see what I goofed up.

Anyone ever experienced this?

 
 
That doesn't sound right.  It should be easy to turn by hand.  I would guess one of the bearings isn't completely seated in the tail housing.  Try taking if off and see if that frees up the input shaft.  Could be a chunk of old RTV or something got stuck in there.


C|

 

[stuntnuts]

That doesn't sound right.  It should be easy to turn by hand.  I would guess one of the bearings isn't completely seated in the tail housing.  Try taking if off and see if that frees up the input shaft.  Could be a chunk of old RTV or something got stuck in there.


C|

I took the tail end case off last night. As soon as I un-torqued the case bolts, everything spun freely. I inspected the areas where the bearings seat and everything looks clean. I did notice the reverse idler gear spins with a lot of resistance on its own shaft, by itself.

I re-sealed the case and re-installed it. I torqued the bolts to 15 ft/lbs and the shafts are once again hard to spin. Ugh....

 

[Spokerider]

Well, you know where the problem lies...?.

Maybe you need a thicker gasket?

 

[cygnus x-1]

Well, you know where the problem lies...?.

Maybe you need a thicker gasket?

 
 
When I did mine there were no gaskets, only RTV.

Still sounds like something isn't seated or aligned right.  Unfortunately you might have to take the main case apart and try and assemble everything dry first to figure out where the issue is.

One other thing you could try (this will sound crazy but it's really not), is to tap on the ends of the main shaft and counter shaft with a soft faced hammer, before putting the tail housing on.  This might help to seat the front end bearings if maybe they're off a hair.  The bearings are all pretty substantial and won't be damaged unless you really wail on them.


C|

 

[stuntnuts]

I put the driveshaft in and spun that by hand in neutral and I was satisfied with the resistance, or lack there of. It is MUCH easier to turn that than the actual input shaft. I think I'm all set and was just being paranoid...

 

[stuntnuts]

I'm more than midway through my Christmas vacation and I got a lot done over the past week, so I might as well update this thread...

I got the transmission back together after pulling the tail end case apart again and verifying that all the shafts spun easily. They did, so I re-sealed it and torqued everything down. The output shaft still spins the same when assembled, but does spin much easier when I spin it with the driveshaft installed instead of trying to spin the output shaft itself. I think I'm "OK"...

I rebuilt the clutch release lever assembly with all new parts and it is nice and tight and feels like butter:

I also installed the last seal, which was the output shaft seal. If you recall, this was the one in the worst condition. Hopefully this replacement will keep things dry underneath the truck:

I also RTV'd the hell out of that hole I put in the case housing when "modifying the transmission" to accept the larger mounting nuts. It isn't sealing oil or anything, just keeping dirt and debris out of the bolt hole.

The Crankshaft Snout Cutting Guide Tool arrived right before Christmas. It was at that point I knew things were going to progress at a good rate over the next few days:

Between family obligations on Christmas Eve and Christmas, I was able to sneak into the garage and cut the crankshaft snout, with the handy-dandy guide tool Gracana loaned me. From the get-go I was never excited to permanently disfigure a perfectly good ABA crankshaft, all in the name of a Samurai swap, but I really had no choice. After obsessing for weeks on which method I would use to cut it, I decided a good ole hacksaw and a guide tool was best. That way, no chips would fly into the crank bolt holes, if I freehanded it with a cutoff wheel or turned it to dust with an angle grinder, and I felt that slow and controlled with a hand tool just made more sense. As you enjoy the next series of pics, please envision my level of stress and concentration while performing this task:

The Guide Tool in position:

And the cutting begins:

And continues:

Until finally:

I never want to do that again:

Now the Acme Adapter Plate can finally be permanently installed:

And next, the Acme flywheel:

This is the Petroworks Clutch Kit:

Clutch Disc installed:

Pressure Plate installed:

Next it was time to install the transmission and see how the meat and potato portion of this Acme Adapter Kit functions:

It bolted up fine. I had a little difficulty getting the input shaft splines aligned with the clutch disc, but that's what you get when you're doing this alone, while the engine is swinging on an engine hoist pendulum. It finally gave in, the splines meshed, and I was in business:

This is the now-passenger side of the ABA, where the Samurai starter will mount to:

This is the now-driver side of the ABA:

When it came time to pre-install the starter, I ran into some issues. The diameter of the starter body was about 1/4" too thick to properly slide into position. The result was a misaligned starter and a lot of swearing on my part. Remember that carbide burr tool I purchased to remove material from the transmission, I repurposed it to also remove material from the starter. I literally spent all morning, the day after Christmas blindly grinding this stupid thing to fit in properly.

The Acme Adapters installation manual suggests using a Suzuki Sidekick starter for their diesel swaps and I was under the impression that it was for the additional cranking power required to turn a high compression diesel engine over. Well it is, but after speaking with Jeff at Acme, he informed me that the Sidekick starter actually also has a smaller body diameter and would slide in like a champ.....without modification. At some point I'll track down a nice Sidekick starter, but the time being, my modified Samurai one is going in.

Here's a few pics from that whole ordeal. I was grinding this blindly, because I couldn't exactly tell where it was clashing. I ended up turning my kid's art project into a feeler gauge and ground that general area until I could slide it in. For reference, the orange construction paper slides through, but the Dewalt cardboard backer does not. I was tired of grinding, so construction paper-thick clearance is all I'm getting:

I also took the time to clean up the exhaust manifold gasket surface prior to dropping the engine in. I can't wait to get that sweet Fox exhaust manifold to the machine shop to prep it for installation:

I took a bit of time to finish up cleaning all the parts that I'd be reusing from the Samurai, that I hadn't gotten a chance to clean up yet. Engine mounts, modified starter, transmission mount, and transmission lower cover plate:

Stock Samurai engine mounts mounted to the Acme Adapter Mount Brackets:

I prepped the lower coolant lines to install prior to dropping the engine in to make it easier on myself. You can see the elusive early-AEB coolant pipe and the other coolant line off of the water pump. I've decided that I'm not running a factory VW oil cooler, so that pipe which used to tee off to it, now just continues straight up to the upper radiator hose. I'm pretty proud of this, as it seems like there was never a clean way around that Acme driver side engine mount bracket and this appears to do the trick and is pretty darn factory:

For Christmas, my dear sweet wife, who is very patient and tries to be understanding of this project surprised me with a set of 87--> mirrors for the Samurai. They are aftermarket, and look it, but they are LIGHTYEARS better than the little bicycle mirrors that the 86's came with. I will not miss those mirrors, no matter how bad the quality of these ends up being. The truck looks proper now and I love the visibility they will provide:

After that little side project, it was back to the main event. THE MAIN EVENT... Seeing how this ABA engine using Acme Adapter diesel swap parts will fit in the Samurai. I had my buddy Turner come over to give me a hand swinging the ABA into the bay. The hoist and leveler works as good going in as it did pulling the stock engine out. I had to crank it to about 45 degrees to get the tranny in the tunnel, but after removing a few links in the chain, it was no problem:

And it's in, sitting on its own mounting points it really does look beautiful in there. The clean bay and the clean engine and components looks great in person and such a transformation:

Now the bad news......it ain't gonna be plug and play. As you can see in the next couple of pics, a portion of the ABA intake manifold sits way too high to close the hood. :banghead: As of right now though, it's OK, I have options:

There are several areas of concern besides the hood clearance...

The ABA alternator and belt are dangerously close to the steering shaft:

And the oil pan is about 1" from the front axle AND the engine has to drop for the hood clearance:

The stock Samurai mount on the passenger side, in its proper position for diesel engines, as intended by Acme Adapters:

Obviously this isn't going to work out. So first things first...let's try a Mk4 2.0L AEG intake manifold and see if that one is lower profile. These manifolds are a pretty common swap on ABA engines. I'm not sure why, as IMO they are ugly without the engine covers, but at this point....function over form.

I ventured out to the local pick and pull junkyard and was on the hunt for a Mk4 Golf or Jetta or New Beetle intake manifold and valve cover (required to use said manifold) for a cheap price. I found about 6 of them and got one for the bargain price of $30. It was a very cold morning, freezing rain was falling, and I cut my finger, bled all over said parts, the car, actually several cars, and my tools. For some reason coagulation is forbidden in junkyards in freezing cold conditions. But whatever, I got my parts and headed home. I pulled off the ABA intake manifold and valve cover to try out the AEG manifold. It fit, but still hit the underside of the hood, just in a different spot. Seeing that either manifold hits, and that I hate the appearance of the AEG manifold, I scrapped that idea and decided to get the ABA one back on there and find a way to accommodate that one.

Peep the blood on the manifold:

So folks, that's where I'm at. My next attempt is to try 1972 Dodge Dart 318 engine mounts in place of the stock Samurai ones. Supposedly these have bailed out several people in similar situations. I'm hoping for the best. It would be fabulous if just swapping out those mounts was all I need to do to address the the hood clearance issue. These mounts are similar shape to the Samurai mounts, but 1/2" shorter and have offset studs, which I could use to my advantage. If not, some bracket modifications of some sort will follow. I'll find out on Tuesday when the mounts arrive.

If you are wondering about the inevitable front axle/oil pan clearance issues, I've got a set of front Trail Gear 3" lift springs on order.

Stay tuned...

 

[Zuki4x4]

Nice pics  [red_s]

My experience with the 318 mounts was far from "ideal"...

You have to modify the hard mounts (drill out the stud mount) to accommodate the larger mount studs (I'm assuming you will have to also on the Acme hard mounts?).

The mounts I tried also had a little "nub" on them and I could never for the life of me get them to sit straight...

Maybe you will have better luck?

Also, not sure if the pic I posted of the TG 3" springs helped but it looks like you have some on order.  8)

 

[Spokerider]

Yes, the lower you drop the engine, the closer the oil pan gets to kissing the diff.
You're experiencing the same problems that everyone else that has done this swap has had to work around. It's all part of the fun.
It's all about making compromises??...or alternatively...... buckets of $$ to solve the fitment issues.

 

[Itschrisb]

Hey nice samurai and I'm interested to see how you like the ABA in there. I'm a long time VW guy myself so this is intriguing. As far as your oil pan clearance goes I know some of the extreme MK3 guys have shortened their pan and pickup to get it above their subframes. I'm not sure if there is anything in production but it seems like you could probably come up with something yourself. 

Would moving the axle forward at all help? Like with a YJ or RUF setup?

For hood clearance you could do something like this. https://www.google.com/amp/s/forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php%3f5266539-ABA-short-runner-intake-DIY&amp=1

 

[stuntnuts]

The 1972 Dodge Dart 318 engine mounts arrived.

Stock Samurai mounts on the top, Dodge 318 mounts on the bottom:

In this pic you can see the true benefit of these mounts, the offset studs, which are 1.5" apart. This should lower the engine a little more than 1.5" according to my trigonometry:

Thickness comparison. This is critical because if the Dodge 318 mounts were the same thickness as the Samurai mounts, the engine and mounting assembly wouldn't fit in the wedge-shaped frame cradle...it would be too wide. The thinner profile mounts help keep the wedge dimension close to stock:

I modified the stock Samurai mount covers/protectors to use with the Dodge 318 mounts:

So far so good. First pic is the passenger side and the second is the driver side:

From there things got discouraging. The mount covers/protectors made the wedge dimension too wide and the engine, when lowered into the frame cradle, sat to high to get the bolt holes to align. I pulled the mount covers/protectors off the Dodge 318 mounts and reinstalled. It fit, but is still a tiny bit too tight. Don't get me wrong, with persuasion everything lines up, but it is tight. I'd like the engine to FALL into the cradle so I may have to modify the mounts some more after determining if the engine is now seated low enough to close the hood...

I have yet to reinstall the stock ABA intake manifold, so I'm not sure if I am in the clear yet. But here you can see the Dodge 318 mounts installed and supporting the engine.

Driver side mount (looking down from the driver side fender):

Passenger side mount (looking through the front where the grill would be located:

In comparison, here's the same shot with the stock Samurai mount installed:

I'm planning to reinstall the ABA intake manifold over the weekend and I'm hoping for the best. Sit tight...

 

[Spokerider]

Why don't you...??.
Modify the Acme motor mount to fit the engine the way that you want it to? Choose either the zuk mount or the Dodge mount and get the fit that you need.

I can't stop looking at the poor welds on the Acme bracket  : . The weld quality on my Acme brackets didn't look that poor. I wonder who is doing the welding for him?

Anyway.....do you have the trans attached to the engine for this mount-fitting procedure? Prolly better if you do, as far as lining up the trans to it's mounts without undue miss-alignment issues goes.

 

[stuntnuts]

Why don't you...??.
Modify the Acme motor mount to fit the engine the way that you want it to? Choose either the zuk mount or the Dodge mount and get the fit that you need.

I can't stop looking at the poor welds on the Acme bracket  : . The weld quality on my Acme brackets didn't look that poor. I wonder who is doing the welding for him?

Anyway.....do you have the trans attached to the engine for this mount-fitting procedure? Prolly better if you do, as far as lining up the trans to it's mounts without undue miss-alignment issues goes.

I really don't want to modify the Acme stuff. I'm trying to take an approach at this point where I don't have to do that. If this setup fails, that will probably be the area I will adjust.

Yes, I agree on the welds. To me all MIG welds are ugly, but these are full of spatter and shaky beads. I think penetration is sufficient and it's just cosmetic.

The transmission is attached and the intake manifold now clears the hood.    Lowering the engine in the manner I did, somehow forced the entire assembly about 1/2" further back. So I had to drill two new mounting holes on the frame for the transmission mount to not be stressed. I now have to come up with a throttle body drop plate to lower the throttle body enough to clear the hood.

Sadly, the ABA serpentine belt alternator setup will not work for this application. Since lowering the engine, it clashes hard with the steering shaft and rag joint. I'm going to have to try to use a VW Mk2 alternator, pulleys, and bracketry or else relocate a GM alternator to the passenger side of the engine.

 

[melbakid]

Would a rag joint eliminator work? You could machine down the metal disc to possibly fit in the space.

http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/rag-joint-eliminator.html


http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/900x675/213c2f08e8867d794ab84c36c21cfda1/r/a/rag_joint_eliminator.jpg