Thread: Question regarding Suzuki LJ80

Originally Posted by series3

G'day everyone,

My mate has an old Zuk on his property in Moree that has been resting up for a few years, he is having ideas about getting it back up and running (as a farm hack at least).

I am fairly sure it's an LJ80 (Stockman) with the 800cc donk. I'm trying to find some information about these cars, and can't find much.

Are complete, original rust free examples rare? are parts hard to come by? Any other information/experiences about these cars from you guys? Any comments appreciated.

Sam

Mechanically these are similar to the very first 1 litre Sierras - just a different body and engine.

By now most of the LJs would have rusted away - particularly if near the coast so are becoming rare. As a 4wd similar to early sierras - pretty capable particularly in sand but do have a propensity to fall over if climbing steep bumpy stuff. Driving on road is slow, noisey and painful.

Garry

I think that a lot of them had their motors replaced with early corolla motors or similar.

I don't know if there are many around these days, of those I doubt many would be any good.

If I wanted one, then I'd be doing a western barnyard hunt for a better example.

Thanks guys. I'm fairly sure this one has a bit of surface rust on the panels, but hopefully nothing terminal. I think i can get my hands on some pictures soon

And they came standard with narrow bar treads.

Garry

Originally Posted by Slunnie

I think that a lot of them had their motors replaced with early corolla motors or similar.

I don't know if there are many around these days, of those I doubt many would be any good.

If I wanted one, then I'd be doing a western barnyard hunt for a better example.

Are you confussing it with the Diahatsu Slunnie, or was it a popular conversion for both?

Originally Posted by V8Ian

Are you confussing it with the Diahatsu Slunnie, or was it a popular conversion for both?

No, I don't know much about the Daihatsu at all, except for the BBM build on the one that Roothy competed in TTC with.

The LJ's I think are an interesting little jigger, a mate had a LJ50 and 1.3 Sierra and I had a 1.0 SOA Sierra so I had a little bit of an interest in them.

The Corolla engine was a common conversion for the LJ50, 80 and 1 litre Sierra. The Suzuki 1300 engine was far better than the Corolla conversion. I did see a Sierra comp truck with a Lancia Beta Twin Cam 2000 engine - I assumed it went quite well. Used to own a Lancia Beta Coupe - a great engine. Also had a long wheel base Sierra 1300 which overcame a lot of the shortcomings of the shorty.

If the LJ80 is in as good nick as you think and it is cheap - I would be grabbing it.

Garry

There still are a quite a few around, parts are easy to come by & they are a great little unit. Next year will see me hunting down an LJ50 to rebuild.

Plenty of suzuki forums to source parts from as well.