Went down to Ghost Pine Imports (a sponsor of this site) in Three Hills Alberta yesterday. Did some test driving of some Subaru Sambars then picked one, bought it, and drove home. I'm happy. That's the short story. The longer story is that I test drove two naturally-aspirated Sambars and a super-charged Sambar. The difference is profound. The NA Sambars struggled to do 100 kph. Hills and head-winds would slow them down to about 90 kph. The super-charged Sambar had no such issues. It just went. But it was out of my price range. So I picked up a NA '91 Sambar KS4, 48500 km, and in fairly good shape inside and out. I was happy then (and remain happy now), but still had to drive the 130 kilometres home. And thats where things got interesting. My father was trailing me, and my thrilled four-year-old son, in a car when he noticed that there was a wobble in my rear passenger (that's rear left) wheel before we left town. Phoned Stan (the dealer) and he arranged to drop off another wheel while we got some lunch. Finished lunch, and came out to see a stock wheel and tire in the back of the truck. Cool. We're not sure if it will fix the problem, but we'll see, and Stan has promised to help if the issue isn't resolved. So we filled the tank with gas (key point) and left town. As I was getting up to highway speed, I shifted into fifth gear and the truck started to act funny. It was as if I was pumping the gas peddle a couple of times a second. Let up on the gas a bit. Still did it. Let up completely. Same. Pulled over, waited for that heavy mass in my stomach to loosen up. Wondered why it hadn't acted up during the test drive. Realized that it was either the fuel filter or the fuel pump. Explained the situation to my father and son, then tried again. Same result. Phoned Stan and arranged to meet him back at the dealership. Unfortunately, the problem got worse. As soon as I got up to speed, the engine would start stuttering and eventually die. I'd pull over, wait a bit, try again, and repeat. It was to the point that I wasn't sure that I'd be able to make it the 1/2 kilometer to town, let alone the dealership. Stan ended up meeting us in town with a new fuel filter. He changed it, apologized profusely (nearly unnecessary), expressed that they will change the fuel filters on all Sambars now and we were back on our way. (On changing the fuel filters as a matter of course. I agree. My plan was to do this myself if they hadn't. But for a dealer, having an already attention-getting kei-truck with your company name on the tail-gate on the side of the highway in distress... Well, that can do no good.) The ride home was uneventful enough that my son slept most of the way. Mostly, we just purred along in fifth gear. When we had to stop at an intersection, I got some more practise shifting the Sambar. (While I was test driving, Stan explained that the extra linkage because of the rear-engine, makes it a bit more/less fun to shift. I agree and wonder if there is anything that can be done to improve the situation.) The truck held 100 kph unless we were going up a hill. On a flat, I could ease up on the throttle a fair bit, but it was floored whenever we went up anything but a gentle hill. A couple of times I looked down to see that we were going 110 as a result of my forgetting to let up on the throttle after cresting a hill. It was a nice drive and the sun was getting close to setting as we approached our destination. Upon arrival, my wife briefly looked the truck over from a distance and determined that I had over-payed. (I love/hate how she can do that!) I explained how well my son had behaved and that I had to make a trip out to the farm to check the livestock. On the way out of town, I picked up eleven bags of leaves (livestock bedding) from a provincial government building. My first pay-load. More than five times what I can stuff into the trunk of our Civic. Just about had a tear in my eye as I pulled onto the highway. The sun was well past set when I left town, so I turned on the headlights. A few minutes later, I was on the twisting gravel road that runs past our property. With deer everywhere, I flicked to hi-beams and was pleased to see that they worked too. Pulled into our lane and discovered that second gear is too much for the hill that straddles the threshold of our property. Yep, stalled it. Started it up, pulled in, turned it off, dumped the leaves, hurried through my chores before it got too dark to see, returned to the truck, started it up, turned on the lights...and they didn't come on. Fiddled a bit with the switch and they came on. Tried high-beams and they blasted into life as I flicked the switch but went out when the switch settled in the "on" position. No lights. Fiddled some more with the switch, jiggling it and such, and got low-beams on. Good enough for me. Pulled onto the twisty gravel road and decided to try high-beams. Highs came on as the switch crossed its threshold and then went out as it settled into the "on" position. This left me in almost total darkness, driving down a country gravel road, with deer lurking everywhere. Switched back to low-beams. Still just me in the blackness at 50 kph. Jiggled the switch a bit and pleaded, "Let there be light!" And there was light. Decided that low-beams were good enough to get me home. They were. Since I like life to be interesting, I figure it was a good day, but others wouldn't. My wife wouldn't. In fact, she's utterly convinced that I bought a lemon, but she's comparing my experience to our driving a new Honda off the lot three years ago. (And it's true that that Honda hasn't given us any trouble.) For any dealers reading this far, a fairly stringent inspection and preventative maintenance procedure goes a long way. Before we were sitting on the shoulder of the highway, I planned to change out the oil and filters, and wouldn't have paid to have the dealer do it given a choice. Now, I think this is something that should be done on every imported vehicle by the dealer. It's one thing to have problems with your vehicle at home, it's completely different when something goes wrong on the way home from the dealer. Stan was great. Really great. I'd recommend him to friends. But a boring trip home would have been better still. So today, I'll try to figure out the problem with the lights. If I can't, and that's likely because it's probably a faulty switch, I'll have an electrician (we build hydrovacs) look at it this week at work. I can't wait to huddle in the pit under the Sambar with our mechanics. My plan is to use this truck as a learning experience. I'll get it dialed-in (probably fairly easy) and spiffed-up (little more work), then if someone makes me an offer, I may sell it, and work my way up to a super-charged Sambar.
Thanks for sharing. I had a similar problem with my headlight switch when I bought the Sambar. I kinda had to balance it at a point just before "full-lock" on the switch... I suspect the contacts are corroded in that spot. I turn on the headlights every time I drive, so I think I wore off the corrosion or something... switch work fine now. Colin
Holy crap,I had to re-fill my cofee------twice. The SC's are a beautifull thing eh! Good to see another Sambar owner You get what you can afford,and every vehicle will have its little quirks. If your interested,I have a canopy from one of my Sambars,good to keep the weather off whatever your haulin
Hmm, wow, I think that with trucks that are this old and from the other side of the world it should be absolutely necessary that the dealers do a complete maintenance job on every truck as they come in. I'm proud to say that the guys I buy from take the little trucks completely apart before selling. I'm sure this really reduces problems and helps them find anything that would have come up. Because some of these trucks that new dealers are getting in could be in bad shape to begin with. So that is something I am not happy to see here in Oklahoma is these new dealers popping up that don't know anything about these little trucks. Just getting into it real quick to try to make a buck come Nov 1st. I'm sure there will be a few lemons on these roads next month.
Ask, and you shall receive. Looking out the window, I'm again struck at how small it is. It certainly doesn't feel as small as it looks. Cool.
Are you hiding or something?Where are the close up pictures. As far as seling trucks goes,I give maitenance on what I feel is needed,as well as licensing and driving myself for a few hundred KM before selling-piece of mind for me I guess
They're coming. I'm still in a house-coat, it's cold, and I'm a wimp on Sunday mornings. And I agree that trucks should be driven a good bit before sale. That's how I would do it, if I ever do it. How else are you going to catch most of the problems? In this case though, the dealer had definitely had it out a few times. They knew something was wrong but had misdiagnosed it (hind-sight is always 20-20) and thought it was fixed. My test drive certainly didn't reveal anything. The key, in this case, was new gas probably stirred up the problem.
Combination switch rebuild Rural, Congrats on the Sambar. The good news on the headlight switch: It's totally rebuildable. It is part of the combination switch that includes: Hazard light sw, Turn signal sw, Windshield wipers & washer sw and of course the headlight sw How to: Remove the steering wheel [see my photo gallery to see if your steering wheel is the same]. Start by removing top horn button cover - it's clipped on with some really firm clips. Remove nut/ washer from steering column. Use puller to remove S. wheel from column. Remove plastic shroud from around steering column - there is two pieces upper & lower. As well as some screws there is also some alignment clips that hold it together. Disconnect all the plugs that run to the combination switch near the base of the steering column. There's a ty wrap around the main wiring harness - don't have to cut it, it's the removable kind. There are 2 or 3 screws that hold the combination switch to the steering column, remove these and it should slide right off. Sometimes the "cam" for the turn signal holds it up a bit so be patient. On work bench turn combination switch upsides down. Remove all the screws that hold the circuit board on EXCEPT FOR the last one. There is some spring loaded brass contacts in behind that do the switching - they will go to God knows where if given the chance. Now that you know this you can remove the last screw just don't say I didn't warn you Clean up all the contacts with some electrical switch cleaner NOT brake cleaner - some brands are not friendly to these parts. Relube the contacts with some light grease. Reassemble the combination switch. Now that switch is back together you can clean the "cam" for turn signal, remove old lube both inside and out. I recommend a light smear of lube on the inside and out of the cam. Reverse the above list and you should be good to go. Let there be light
Hey Rural, I'm glad the rest of your trip was less exciting. Not that I want to apologize for apologizing too much but it is hard work importing, cleaning and inspecting mini-trucks and when these 'little quirks' come up you feel personally responsible. Thanks for the constructive feedback and if there is anything else we can do please just let us know. Thanks, Stan
I hear you Stan and hope that it's clear that I'm an almost perfectly happy camper. And I've attached some more pictures for everyone else.
There is definitely a fair bit of wear on the truck box as well as the inside and top of the box-sides and tail-gate. It's not obvious in the photos. Then again, I don't really care, because I can have those pieces blasted and painted fairly easily. Just have to brew a batch of beer that I'd find too boring to drink. The cab has definitely been refurbished. The seat-belts are the give-away as they are original. Still, what work that has been done looks to be done well. There is a fair bit of contrast between what has been replaced and what is original. In fact, it's pretty obvious if you look, but except for the seat-belts I have no problems ignoring it. The Sambar cabs have lots of storage nooks and crannies that are already making themselves handy. And did I mention the rear diff-lock? It has one. So I've got some little cosmetic fixes to do, but no big deal. My main focus for the moment is the engine. It acted up again today. I'll look into completely emptying the fuel tank which would be followed by a fuel filter change. If that doesn't work, I'll replace the fuel pump. Any other suggestions?
i have to admit that personally once you have the bug you will appreciate the mini in it's lack of beauty. i had my heart set on a low mileage, a/c, diff lock, blah blah blah.... in the end i was happy to get the little blue bundle of joy i purchased. it's "high milage" (100,000k+) and needs seat cushions. but i'm a sucker for a project. i like something well enough along to be streetable, but something in need of a little bit of attention. take a look at glenn's truck. it was in need of some tlc and he had some awesome tweed seat covers done, some paint and lettering. most of these are a diamond in the rough... what better project could you wish for? it's functional but still gives you an excuse to duck into the garage for a little "man" time. if it were a brand new truck all you would be able to do would be brag about how much you spent and drink beer next to it rather than get dirty making her your own. jmho you did good!! milt
I think so too. This is a practical truck, not an ego booster. Once I get the fuel problem sorted out, I'll be happy. But I'm not promising anyone that this is the last mini-truck I'll buy. And thanks Timetripper for the hints on the lighting issue. I hope to get it figured out this week because it's dark not too long after I get home from work now. And the livestock still need tending, even if it's dark. Subaru, that box cover is really interesting. I'm thinking about it. Mark
