Samurai Owner (past or present)? HELP ME!

[juanblzer]

Hey all,
With the recent demise of my daily driver's rearend I had to borrow my dad's 1987 samurai. I am pretty new to samurais but he has about 3 that are being developed into some decent projects. About 3 weeks ago I was driving the sami hardtop when I was pulled over for going 75mph on a little down hill section of hiway near my house.

This thing is scary to merge into traffic with! I get passed by bicylcles for god's sake!

I've never, EVER, had this little samurai over 63mph! I didn't argue with the cop but he said he clocked me going 78

.
The same day I went to tow my 1970 c-10 with the exploded 12 bolt and the rear axle fell off while we were strapping it. I had to drag it out of an interection on its brake shoes! THen I called the bank and found out I was $200 overdrawn. I was so out of it I didn't argue with the H.P. officer!


But then I started thinking...
Without a doubt, this samurai is lacking the power needed to attain such speeds. IT is completely stock except it is running 30 inch BFGallterrains. THe speedo was recalibrated and such but that is it.

I really need fellow suzuki owners (PAST OR PRESENT)(with samis around the same year as mine) to write me letters detailing the power their stock samis put out and the speeds able to be attained by their sami.

I am a teacher and I can barely afford to feed myself. This is an injustice. There were about 5 other vehicles around me at the time and I had to almost stop to merge over because all the cars around me were going so fast I couldnt pull over.

Please take the time to do this: you'd really be helping a citizen, responsible 4wheeler, coach, and teacher a great deal.
I figure any amount of witnesses will help my case.
The posted speed was 65mph.

juan enriquez
4472 N. Miner Rd.\
Prescott Valley, AZ
86314

 

[az-k5]

Juan,

What axle gears does it have? 5 speed tranny? Do you have a tach for it?

You can use all of those numbers to explain top speed (I have done it when "clocked" at 80 <- up hill).

Also look up zuks of arizona. They have a local board and can help you out.
http://www.zuksofarizona.com/pages/655982/index.htm

sorry about your luck

 

[juanblzer]

yes Matt,
it does have a tach and a 5 speed (both stock)

 

[az-k5]

What RPM does it do at 40, 50, and if it can 60? You can use this to show that at 78 the motor will be past its red line.

 

[pauly383]

You can pm me friend Mike at crawlinaz.com . His screename is zukbronco . He could chat with ya about Sammi's

 

[blazinzuk]

I have driven several stock samis and 80 mph is easily attained on a downhill sections if your motor is strong. 2 of my zuks would cruise at 70-75 if it were flat and there was no wind. I would say go to court over the ticket chances are you will get it reduced to at least a non moving violation. I got a ticket where the cop said he clocked me at 82 on a flat stretch speed limit was 75 went to the judge told him I drove a stock samurai and didn't have to pay a dime. Although the reason the cop gave me the speeding ticket is because "these things roll over too easily for you to be going over the speed limit" So it is kind of a crap shoot. Good luck with stuff.

 

[joez]

If you had sami's that were 88.5 and beyond, 80mph is relatively easy to get to, but not in an 87. Even downhill they struggle to get to 80.

 

[RustBuket]

I've driven a tracker..don't know how related they are but it could do about 80mph on flat if you shifted high enough into the power band. Dunno if thats relevant but I thought I'd add my two cents.

 

[BigOrange90Jimmy]

75 in a zuk is very possible, especially on a slight downhill with a tailwind. Mine has 29" Super Swamper TSL/SX's with a welded rear end. I can cruise on a straight and flat road at 65 with no problem. They are HEAVY tires for the anemic motor, and the added drag from the spool doesn't help either. At 65 MPH, my tach is reading 3400 RPM's and the speedo reads 55.


The Samurai in it's carb'd form comes from the factory with 64 whopping horsepower and 3.73 gears. The newer ones with fuel injection manage about 80 HP.

Add a camshaft or the Doug Thorley header, you're knocking on about 80-90 HP with the carb'd engine.

The Zuk makes up for this significant lack of power with the transfer case. It is actually an underdrive unit. Gear ratio in high range is something like 1.8:1.

hope this helps

 

[74757685k5]

i had two compleatly stock samis and they had a hard time geting to 60 usually it was 50 or so .it also had about 250lbs of stereo intead of a back seat . it took a long mile to get to speed.

 

[joshua632]

Thats funny my 3cyl. metro has no problem doing 80 and its a Zuki.

 

[flatline]

This case is very possible **really**


I had an 88' zuki with 8" lift - 31x12.50 boggers on 10" wheels , atlas transfer case, detroit locker front and rear, flowmasters, weber carb, thorley header, high flow cat, upgraded all ignition items ( coil and such ) hotter plugs, 89 octane fuel, with tube bumpers front and rear, nerf bars, stock interior

a friend kept beside me in a brand new Z71 @ 90mph on the highway, now it did take a while to get there, but it made it to 93mph ( rough estimate ) give or take 2mph either way.

78mph is very possible with your setup, I would actually take it out and have someone do the same for you and see if it's actually possible. Find out what speed you redline @, not what your speedometer shows! cause that is wrong.

your calibration might be correct @ the speedometer/transfer case, but it's not right with the tire selection. Take it to a calibration shop and have them test it and show the paper to the judge if its wrong or off! They will likely ask you to have it fixed and to slow down,

 

[grimjaw]

A friend of mine bought a 87 sami JX new. I don't think it would do 75 mph if it fell out of an airplane. I remember seeing a bumper sticker on one theat read '0-60 in under 15 minutes'. Good luck.