LJ 80 Samurai distributor swap

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Ruby
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LJ 80 Samurai distributor swap

Post by Ruby »

I recently swapped in a Samurai distributor into my LJ 81 and figured I would take a few pictures along the way. Credit to Smuz for originally posting about this swap, and many others that have successfully done it and shared their information. Looking around the forum I didn't see any pictures posted. This swap is EASY, and does away with the older original points style distributor found in LJ 80/81's. I re-used the original LJ cap, rotor, coil with ballast resistor, and spark plug wires. I did not hook up the vaccum advance on the Samurai distributor, Smuz did hook it up to a port on the intake manifold, but Canadian LJ's do not have that port.

What I used:

A complete Samurai distributor from a carbed Samurai, male wiring plug still attached
2 blade connectors
1 forked connector, or ring style
piece of wire about 10" long
heat shrink tubing for the connections

1. Cut off connector on end of brown wire and replace with blade connector, remove black wire attached to LJ distributor body.:
1 LJ distributor.jpg
2. Remove LJ cap and notice rotor direction, then remove LJ distributor. Place a cup or rag under distributor when you remove it, a few tablespoons of oil will come out. (repair manual suggests replacing that oil in the distributor housing before re-installing distributor)
2 LJ rotor direction.jpg
3. Slide Samurai distributor in, with rotor pointing same direction as before. *on mine I had to sand inside of distributor housing due to flaws in casting that made it difficult to insert Samurai distributor*
3 connector.jpg
4. Insert blade connector from brown wire into brown wire side of Samurai male plug. Insert another blade connector with jumper wire to positive side of ballast resistor.
4 Samurai distributor wired.jpg
THATS IT! Fire it up and set the timing.
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Revolving door of LJ's, currently down to one LJ 81
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stevec
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Re: LJ 80 Samurai distributor swap

Post by stevec »

Thanks for posting this Ruby! :cool:
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yan'o
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Re: LJ 80 Samurai distributor swap

Post by yan'o »

you gonna make a lot of friends !!!!
THX for taking the time and share .
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toontown
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Re: LJ 80 Samurai distributor swap

Post by toontown »

:beer: Thanks Ruby, this is on my to do list, and as my wife likes to say 'men are visual creatures' 8)

Mark
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Re: LJ 80 Samurai distributor swap

Post by zukimoo »

that is awesome and those pics are a perfect way to show how it's done.

I did that swap to mine and it would actually run after this.
81 LJ80, 3500lbs winch, 1.0 HO, 1000cc's of pure power....brap...listen to her go

Mods 2 come
-Lockrite in the back, -spring over done right and complete,-cross over steering,-seats,-6000lbs +- winch on front,-3500lbs winch ,moved to back,-highlift jack
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UBZ
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Re: LJ 80 Samurai distributor swap

Post by UBZ »

Ruby wrote:*on mine I had to sand inside of distributor housing due to flaws in casting that made it difficult to insert Samurai distributor* [
I had issues trying to get a Sammy distributor to fit into my F8a
maybe this was the issue :roll:
thanks for the inspiration to have another look at electronic ignition . :beer:
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Smuz
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Re: LJ 80 Samurai distributor swap

Post by Smuz »

Works good, don't it? :D
That was one of those moments when I said "why won't this work?" and just tried it.

A super sweet mod for an LJ80 that really makes a difference.
The above is my opinion. It is subject (like all my opinions) to debate, disagreement, rude gestures, and loud raspberries.
Banzai
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Re: LJ 80 Samurai distributor swap

Post by Banzai »

If I swap a Samurai distributor onto my LJ80, do I need a Samurai coil as well? I think my coil is getting weak.

I'd like to do this swap eventually, when I can find a distributor, but don't want to buy two coils.

Ron
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stevec
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Re: LJ 80 Samurai distributor swap

Post by stevec »

No, you do not need to swap the coil. In fact, I expect the coils are the same part number for both models.
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Re: LJ 80 Samurai distributor swap

Post by Banzai »

stevec wrote:No, you do not need to swap the coil. In fact, I expect the coils are the same part number for both models.
Same coil, but without the ballast resistor? I assume the ballast resistor is no longer required, once there's no points involved.

Ron
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Re: LJ 80 Samurai distributor swap

Post by brammie »

Indeed.
Remove the ballast resistor.
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Re: LJ 80 Samurai distributor swap

Post by Nathang »

Hi, I tried this with one of the eBay replacement distributors and had no spark , I was using a modern resin ballasted coil and am going to try old coil minus resistor today .
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Re: LJ 80 Samurai distributor swap

Post by zukimoo »

I did mine after breaking down in a snow storm, the old system didn't like humidity. I only changed the dist and left the original coil.
81 LJ80, 3500lbs winch, 1.0 HO, 1000cc's of pure power....brap...listen to her go

Mods 2 come
-Lockrite in the back, -spring over done right and complete,-cross over steering,-seats,-6000lbs +- winch on front,-3500lbs winch ,moved to back,-highlift jack
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