Hmm, never thought of that.  I guess I figured it wouldn't be very easy to tell the difference between .795 and .865. 
If understand that correctly it means that in 5th gear, one full revolution of the input shaft would result in slightly less than one revolution of the output shaft.  Is that right?

I guess you could turn the input shaft 10 revs and see if the output rotated 7.9 or 8.6 times.  Still seems tricky.

Sorry, I kinda got carried away with the info and added some that isn't real relevant to your situtation.  Let me try to clear things up a bit.....

All 86-95 samurai's had a 1.3 8V engine.  86-89 were carbed.  90-95 were fuel injected.
Tranny ratios, therefore, are based off of year, and have nothing to do with the engine.

Your current tranny ratio in 5th is .86.
Any tracker or sidekick 4x4 tranny (89-98) is compatable with your engine (no matter whether it came from one with a 1.6L, 8V or a 1.6L, 16V engine....the blocks are the same).  The only sidekick/tracker tranny that would not be a direct bolt up to your engine, would be the ones that came behind a select few 89 sidekicks that had a 1.3L, 8V, CARBED engine (these are very rare and highly unlikely you will ever see one in your life).  FYI, 99.9% of trackicks have fuel injected engines.....either TBI (8V engines) or MPFI (16V engines).

No, samurai trannys are not directly swappable with trackick trannys.  For one, the samurai's use a divorced tcase (not mounted directly on the back of the tranny, like on the trackicks).  Secondly, the samurai bellhousing is not the same size as the trackicks, so an adapter will have to be used to mate a samurai tranny behind a trackick engine.  Bottom line on samurai trannys....don't even bother to try to use one, in your situtation.

As mentioned, use the "put it in 5th gear and spin the input shaft and check to see how far the output shaft turns" method.  For an .86 ratio, the input shaft will turn .86 revolutions for every one turn of the output shaft.  For a .795 ratio, the input shaft will turn .795 revolutions for every one turn of the output shaft.  There are no physical markings/differences in the different ratio trannys, that I am aware of, to verify which ratio 5th the tranny has.

Physically, the majority of drivetrain parts are interchangelable between the 89 thru 98 trackicks.  There are some electrical type parts that are not.  If you want to know about a specific part, just ask.

Hopefully, that cleared up some of the confusion.

Man so man options, so little time and money.   

Thinking about this has been makng me think about doing an engine swap, which is an idea I have toyed with for a long time but never taken too seriously.  If I was to swap, I would want to go to a larger engine-- probably a v6 or something.  Of course, that would yank me out of the friendly world of bolt-on and into the world of fabrication. 
I've got to admit, my favorite engine swap idea would involve an aluminum block V8 I have out in my garage.  It is a 1962 Oldsmobile Jetfire 215.  Pretty small, but powerful.  The bare block weighs about 50 pounds.  It was the first production engine to be turbocharged AND get one HP per CI.   

Man, you don't know how many times I've dreamed of cramming that thing under my hood.  I can even get block hugger headers from aluminumv8.com and if I relocated the radiator it just might fit.  Of course, then I'd be looking at a completely different tranny and beefier rear-end. 

Oh, well-- back to reality, but I guess everyone has to have an out-there dream.   

If you want a 4x4, your best/cheapest/easiest option is adding a 4x4 5 speed tranny with tcase and associated 4x4 parts.  Then you just need to decide if you want the .86 5th gear or the .795 5th gear.  My opinion....stick with a tranny with the .86 5th.....especially if you plan on putting on bigger and/or heavier tires.  I would say the 8V engine would be marginal trying to pull a .795 5th gear with just stock tires.

Well, that's the thing.  I didn't think a stock tracker tranny could hold that much HP and if I went with a larger engine I would be forced to upgrade trannies too which would probably have me borrowing from a Heep or something.  Not to mention the need for bell-housing adapdations.   

What's the stock HP of my 1.6 L 8 valve?  70? 80? 90?

My problem with every project of mine, is I figure if I'm going to sink some time into I might as well go all the way, but then I end up in large project that is hard to finish.  Look no further than my garage for proof of that.  Literally.  I started jacking the whole thing off the foundation because I couldn't stand hanging shelves on wall with the foundation not level.  Now I am waist keep in the project of leveling the dang thing (one corner was 11 inches lower than the opposite one) and I still haven't finished hanging my shevling.  lol   

Gosh, I kill myself.  *sigh*

~Brad

I would agree, that if you were going to do an engine swap, the best thing to do would be to use the tranny that came behind your replacement engine....that way you know it will hold the HP and there is no engine to tranny adaptions that need to be done.

Stock HP on a 1.6, 8V is 80HP.
Stock HP on a 1.6, 16V is 95HP.

I have heard that the auto trannys are rated at around 200HP....but that is just what I have heard, no proof.  So, if that is true, I would think the 5 speeds would be rated the same.....as a general rule, manual trannys are stronger than auto's.