MPG?

[ScottieJ]

I've had mine up to 80 on the gps with the 1.6 and 33s it was errrrrr interesting, actually it wasn't too bad, just took a lot of concentration

[twiss]

Mine cruises reasonably well at 80 on the motorway. That was with a 1.6 8v engine, on 235x80r15 tyres
Completely standard Samurai running gear...

[pistolpete]

mine was the same it was running about 15mpg and its best was about 19 which is why it isnt being used at the moment so would love to hear the solution, with mine i think it was a choke problem and i was trying to find out how to convert it to manual choke, i haven't done a great deal of research yet but if anyone has any pointers that would be greatly appreciated!

[twiss]

Yeah when the standard carb choke goes your MPG will drop massively... I solved it by putting on an SU carb and a few years down the line i've easily made back the cost of the conversion in fuel prices!!!

[dan_2k_uk]

I managed to GPS mine at 70.5mph the other day. Probably would have given a bit more but I ran out of road.

No idea what my MPG is.

Fuel seems to last a fair while so I dont worry about it.

Dan

[james thomas]

as far as im aware the samurai is standard, appart from 2inch body lift and chunky tyres. it also has a weber carb fitted, looks standard tho.
gearbox whines and gets worse in 5th. i have to screem the engine to get 40mph uphill in 3rd and its not even a steep hill.
im driving it in 2wd as ive heard driving i 4wd wil damage it? but i dont know what damage it does. anyone know a suzuki expert in wales?

[Edweird]

as far as im aware the samurai is standard, appart from 2inch body lift and chunky tyres. it also has a weber carb fitted, looks standard tho.
gearbox whines and gets worse in 5th. i have to screem the engine to get 40mph uphill in 3rd and its not even a steep hill.
im driving it in 2wd as ive heard driving i 4wd wil damage it? but i dont know what damage it does. anyone know a suzuki expert in wales?

They don't like going uphill on-road anyway. Mine will pull uphill in third because it's a drop ratio at every transmission, but in fourth, one to one ratio, or fifth, which is an overdrive, you'll be losing revs all the way, but as you say; third runs out at 40mph. It does depend on how the engines running though. How 'not that steep' are we talking? 1 foot in 10? 1 foot in 5? The hill that mine'll power up in third but can't maintain speed in fourth is about a 1 in 3 gradient. If your fuel consumption is as bad as ol' Tramp worked it out to be, I think you'll be seriously down on power as well as fuel economy.

How many miles has your gearbox done? It might be nearing the end of it's life.

The reason you shouldn't drive in 4 wheel drive on non-slippery surfaces is because Suzuki transfer boxes do not have a differential. When you go round a corner your rear wheels take a shorter path just as inside and outside wheels do (which is why virtually all road vehicles have a differential on the driving axle) because otherwise it would shear off the axle halfshafts. The same applies to Suzuki transfer boxes; if the ground isn't slippery, it will try and shear the shafts inside the transfer box.
The advantage of this is that when you are on a slippery surface, you have to spin a front and a rear wheel to get stuck, not just one wheel like a Land Rover for example.
That's not to say you can't use 4WD on road, just don't 'drive' in 4WD. I used 4WD low to pull our 1 ton trailer up our back drive, which has an unfinished ramp a the end of it. It wouldn't be a problem if width wasn't an issue, but our Discovery will only fit between the house and the wall if you fold both mirrors in, and even then there's about an inch either side; the trailer has about 3 inches spare. So I have to take it up slowly and the little engine doesn't have the torque to pull it up slowly in high ratio and it can't crawl up the half foot step on the left hand side in 2 wheel drive, even with the trailer off: So, I use four wheel low ratio for the 20 yards from the far end of the back drive to the road. It'll cope with that no problem. The danger comes if you drive for miles in 4WD.

IMG_0020.JPG (192.14 KiB) Viewed 11878 times

The pink lines are just to show the rough shape of the ramp a bit better and it wasn't clear from the camera flash.

[james thomas]

id say the hill is about a 1 in 10 and goes on for about a mile and a half. makes sense now with the 4wd, thanks for that. prehaps i should look for a 1600 or a 1300. the engine and box i belive to be from factory and are 72k

[Edweird]

id say the hill is about a 1 in 10 and goes on for about a mile and a half. makes sense now with the 4wd, thanks for that. prehaps i should look for a 1600 or a 1300. the engine and box i belive to be from factory and are 72k

If it's struggling on a 1 in 10 then I'd say your engine's seriously down on power.

[james thomas]

its really down on power, found that a breather wasnt blocked off earlia, so blocked it up and it ran smoother, but still is terrable at hills, and getting over 50mph on the flat