IMO, his only feasible option is a trackick 3 speed auto from a 2wd (unless he wants to go kicker 3 style).
He will need the flexplate off the trackick....it will fit the samurai crankshaft just fine.
He can use the trackick starter, if he wants to.
He will need to make or buy a "lucky 13" adapter to mate the tranny to the 1.3. All the lucky 13 does is mate up the lower tranny and lower engine mounting holes....since the trackick tranny lower holes are spaced farther apart than the samurai engine ones. The upper tranny and engine holes are spaced the same and line up fine.
He will need to widen the tranny tunnel a little to fit the auto (since he is using a 2wd, he might be able to get by without it.....I know if he was using a 4wd tranny/tcase combo, he would need to widen it....most of the widening needs to be done at the rear of the tranny/front of the trackick tcase.
IIRC, the stock samurai crossmember will work. A couple holes need to be drilled in it for the trackick tranny mount to bolt to, but otherwise it works fine.
The samurai intermediate shaft will slip right on the output shaft of the tranny....but it will need to be shortened, to keep the samurai tcase in the stock position.
The biggest drawback of using the 3 speed, is that 3rd is 1:1....no overdrive...so it will increase his RPMs at high speed, compared to a samurai tranny (.795 or .865 5th gear, depending on whether he has the pre 88.5 or 88.5+ tranny...if he doesn't know...the pre 88.5 tranny has a hex drain plug, the 88.5+ has a 3/8" square drive drain plug). But the 1:1 may not be an issue, I remember he was running bigger tires, but not sure on gearing....now that I think of it, I think he had lower tcase gears....so a lower than stock high range, probably enough to compensate for his bigger tires (this is assuming he is planning on doing this to his black samurai he had at the gathering). So he will run higher RPMs at speed.
There is some wiring that will need to be done....wiring the old clutch switch in (so it will start without having to push the non-used clutch pedal) and the reverse sensor (to activate the backup lights)......neither is mandatory, if he doesn't drive it on the road.
Rig up a shifter for it....some guys mod the stock trackick shifter (shorten the handle up so it will fit where the stock samurai shifter was) and use it. The good thing, is it is a cable shifter, so it is easy to use.
Definitely don't use the trackick 4 speed auto, it is computer controlled and needs lots of wiring to make it work.
That is all I can think of, off the top of my head.....how'd I do.
