At first I was just looking for some wheels and just when I wasn't looking :eek: BAM!! up pops an '88 hardtop. It has just over 140K and so far seems to be in pretty good shape. I couldn't pass it up for only $800!! The chickie that was selling it was asking $1500 and HAD to sell it because she was moving/flying to New Orleans this morning at 6am. Soooo, I "bailed her out" by taking it off her hands! ( last night at 8:30;) )

At this point I have a few minor items to attack due to the baking sun here in AridZona. The driver's door handle is broken on the outside and the passenger window crack is also wasted. Stupid stuff like that is hopefully all I'll have to do for a lil while. Can anybody offer me some basics to keep this DD up and going until I have the chance to introduce it to the dark side?!? :vader2:

Come payday I will be changing the oil & filter, the air and fuel filter, and most likely the tranny and t-case fluids. Any suggestions to fluid brands and weights? It has some groaning going on and I'd like to get some extra life out of it. I know in my older cars I had run specific plugs and wires but would also like suggestions on brand and gap. Anything to give it a little extra spunk:rolleyes: but not so much as to end up a victim of the AZ smog nazis!

Sorry for the offending "newbie" session but the Zuki is a totally different animal to me. Some rigs are kinda picky about specific components and brands. I'd like to cut out some of the learning curve if possible. An old friend of mine has one but suffice to say its only a ghost of its former self.:D

Thanks for any and all info you can give!! :beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer:

Best mod you can start with is a spoa.
Gap I believe is at .32
On plug wires I know wider is better, don't know of any "performance" wires frankly they won't really help an aging old zuk. Best engine performance thing you can do would be a new cap and roter, new plugs, fluid change, and adjust your valves.
Welcome to the addiction. check out www.azrockcrawler.com his is one of the best websites. For vendors check out North coast off road, Trail Tough and asian auto of arizona. They are pretty much the only vendors that get my business. Trail Tough being number #1:D

Samurai's are the most basic kind of vehicle on the market. There hella easy to work on, easy to maintain, but are a little expensive 'cuz there japanese. I ran mu sammy on one of those :rainbow: ridingmower batteries cuz i so broke and it ran. Change the oil enery 3Kand make sure the spare is good, and it should, last about another 20K, drive the motor till it dies and put in somethin better.

:beer: congrats

For plugs I would use the NGK (BPR5ES @0.028 to 0.032). DON'T use any of the fancy high energy ignition plugs. I made that mistake once, and the Suzi has such little spark that I had no power at all from them. For engine oil, its 10W-40, for gear oil its 80W-90, 75W-80, or 75W90. The zuk motors seem to have lousy distributor caps, so I would change that. A new oxygen sensor can help too a lot if the old was in shot.

As for the engines, they seem to never die. They just run along in their old age complaining about life with piston slap, smoke, loss of power, etc. But they keep on runnin.

By the way, welcome to the "dark side" :vader:

Petroworks can help with the door handle problem, as they have cast aluminum handles (in & out). I run lucas oil stabilizer in everything, including the tranny. All the trannies will make noise after aging a little, if shifting is a problem get a shifter "sheet"(bushing) from Petroworks for the trans & x-fer. and a shift repair bolt for the trans(30.00 for the kit).Spring over axle (S.P.O.A.) is the easiest way to lift a zuk @5-6", as a bonus it will get you a softer ride and about 20-22 " of articulation(stock is about 12"). Petroworks has an excellent kit , it requires some welding, but is very easy to put on. I recommend the Rancho 9000's with the controller, as you can chage shock settings on the fly.Get a Thorley header(smog legal) and a hi flow cat. W/ 2" pipe and your choice of muffler (cheaper the better), mine is a bullet type for ground clearance. Run the pipe in the stock location out the side , or you run the risk of CO poisoning(experiance talking here), it is like that for a reason!!!!!!!!!A good upgrade after that is put a set of rear springs in the front and either use missing link(collapsable)shackles or make a frame extension for regular shackles, (@26-30" of articilation).Now that you know a lot a of zuk voodoo get busy!! here are pics of this set up working:www.secretreality.com/photography/specialgallery/carca-www/image68.htm
www.secretreality.com/photography/specialgallery/carca-www/image69.htm
www.secretreality.com/photography/specialgallery/carca-www/image70.htm
www.petroworks.com

I agree with Petroworks, Gary has what you need, and Dave from asian auto of arizona is in your back yard

http://www.asianautopartsofaz.com/suzuki/index.html


http://www.petroworks.com/

Thats a dang good price, luckily I got mine free, but it probably needs more work than yours... Go through the Carburator with some cleaner really good, and do the rest that everyone has mentioned... I did plugs, wires, cap, rotor, synthetics, valves, and cleaned up the carb and she runs like a 3 legged dog, but thats not to bad for the little 1.3 now is it?

Check to see if the Carburator has the 'air tube' upgrade done to it, it eliminates the flat spot. if not the kit can be had from modst anyone cheep.

do a search for more info on it. I dont know the particulars.

Know that the 1.3l Zuki does not last long. If all of those miles are driving and not towing, I would caution spending a bunch of money on performance items. I don't believe that they will help much on a tired old engine. Hope your smog is more relaxed than ours in CA. These things are a pain to keep smog legal. Sounds like you got a great deal though, and if you do have to do a rebuild down the road, it's easy and fairly cheap. Zook on!!