[ColoCruiserJeff]

Awesome progress!! The sandblasting sure does bring the problems out, but thats easily fixed! Keep up the awesome work! The pictures keep us all motivated on our own projects!

[Henry James the 47th]

No new pics, but I have got a hold of a LHD steering box mount, and am planning to get the cab upper and lower sections blasted tomorrow. After that, I only have the doors to worry about as far as the strip-down goes.

I removed a pair of rivets on the chassis for accomodating the new steering box. I am thinking of getting a new gearbox housing and fitting the internals from a mini-truck box. I was seriously considering going to 60 series steering, but am a bit adverse to hacking away sections of the shock mounts, along wth the other mods required.

I've got a box of stuff together to take for zinc plating as well, probably next week.

[Radd Cruisers]

I agree with not hacking it up and throwing in mini truck guts.

The heavey media sure can cause a pile of work, pays to use the right stuff or you will spend hours with 80 grit on a orbital.

We should meed some time, your right around the corner.

My biz partner lives minutes from you.

Rob

Originally Posted by Henry James the 47th

No new pics, but I have got a hold of a LHD steering box mount, and am planning to get the cab upper and lower sections blasted tomorrow. After that, I only have the doors to worry about as far as the strip-down goes.

I removed a pair of rivets on the chassis for accomodating the new steering box. I am thinking of getting a new gearbox housing and fitting the internals from a mini-truck box. I was seriously considering going to 60 series steering, but am a bit adverse to hacking away sections of the shock mounts, along wth the other mods required.

I've got a box of stuff together to take for zinc plating as well, probably next week.

[Henry James the 47th]

Originally Posted by Radd Cruisers

I agree with not hacking it up and throwing in mini truck guts.

The heavey media sure can cause a pile of work, pays to use the right stuff or you will spend hours with 80 grit on a orbital.

We should meed some time, your right around the corner.

My biz partner lives minutes from you.

Rob

Hi Rob,

thanks for your comments.

Any chance you have a dead 2H kicking around? I'm looking for an oil pan.

I also PM'ed you the other day about the PTO units you have for sale. I've got a pto for my truck, but want a slightly different unit to match the split case transfer I will be installing.

The media blasting with the crushed glass went fine, so I will be having that applied tomorrow. Yeah, the other stuff they blasted with left me with a pile of work to do for sure.

[Radd Cruisers]

I posted pics of the winch on the for sale add, it would look great on your rig.

Same one i modified for the HZJ45, turned out great.

You only have to shorten thr rear shaft and the pillow blocks allow lots of clearance along the frame side.

No oil pans handy.
.

Originally Posted by Henry James the 47th

Hi Rob,

thanks for your comments.

Any chance you have a dead 2H kicking around? I'm looking for an oil pan.

I also PM'ed you the other day about the PTO units you have for sale. I've got a pto for my truck, but want a slightly different unit to match the split case transfer I will be installing.

The media blasting with the crushed glass went fine, so I will be having that applied tomorrow. Yeak, the other stuff left me with a pile of work to do for sure.

[Henry James the 47th]

Originally Posted by Radd Cruisers

I posted pics of the winch on the for sale add, it would look great on your rig.

Same one i modified for the HZJ45, turned out great.

You only have to shorten thr rear shaft and the pillow blocks allow lots of clearance along the frame side.

No oil pans handy.
.

Thanks for the reply.

I checked out the pto pics you have, and they look identical what I have. I'm looking for the pto drive unit with output shafts front and rear.

[Henry James the 47th]

Well, I've lost access to a digital camera for the time being, so my apologies for no pics.

I moved the truck and all the zillions of parts to a new place ($50/month with power and air) and have pulled the engine/tranny out. The sandblaster guy is coming tomorrow and will blast the upper and lower cab sections. The chassis is in such nice shape that I don't think I will be blasting it, save maybe for the very front of the frame at the bumper.

Switching to LHD has added a few more complications:

-the steering damper bracket had to have its rivets cut and I will be moving it over to the other side of the crossmember
-I'm still acquiring heater parts....
-I realized I need a new throttle cable
-trying to decide whether to go with the doors with single glass, or the divided type with vent glass. I have both.
-the seat hinge levers need to be reversed. I'm hoping this is no biggie, but just in case I have a pair of 60 series seats that I can steal parts off of if need be.
-there is a lot more bondo than I thought, but underneath a lot of it is good metal. It was just piss-poor bodywork to tart the truck up.
-have acquired a LH steering box support and LH pivot arm assembly. I cut an inner chassis plate off a donor vehicle to mount the pivot arm to the other side and have cut the old plate out in preparation.
-the electrical will be a hassle, as I will have to tear the harness all apart again and figure out what has to go where. I'm not sure where to locate the voltage regulator, though I think it will need to go on the passenger side of the firewall. I'm still debating on whether to modify the dash to accept the '83~'84 dash insert, or modify it to accept the clock and triple warning light unit. I don't need the ashtray, so that would be a good spot to put the digiclock.
-I've disassembled the steering column and am getting a new bearing for it, and will be sandblasting the parts.
-am looking for a new windshield frame. Mine is a bit rusted, and everything is on the wrong side (the wipers and motor). I could repair and convert it, but I think it will be simpler to find a good used one.
-I really don't care for the stock turn signals, and am looking to either put 70 series units on, or early 40 series type.
-I've found a donor hood to take the hood support strut mounts off of, and will be looking to tackle that soon. The one on mine was ripped off completely.
-the stripped out bolt on the thermostat housing has been dealt with ( a good excuse to buy a 10x1.25mm tap).
-probably will be putting Toyo M-55 tires on, around 31~32" by 10"
-I decided against the H55F conversion, and will be keeping the stock H41 with split transfer.

I'll try and figure out the camera thing soon, as i know pictures are what people want!

Chris

[Henry James the 47th]

Bad news today:

after putting a new diaphragm into the injector pump, and feeling pretty good about that, I suddenly focused on the side of the engine in behind and noticed a massive crack in the oil cooler cover plate, an aluminum jacket that runs the length of the engine block. Friggin' hell!! After taking the injector pump off I discovered a crack that ran for 14" :

I guess that would be one of the consequences of the p.o. not using anti-freeze, as the inner part of the oil cooler cover was quite eroded in places.

Well, learning lots, the hard way...I'm hoping it can be repaired at a local welding shop, and am checking into getting another one, new or used, from Australia.

The sandblaster guy couldn't make it today and has rescheduled for Saturday.

[Radd Cruisers]

2H right?

We are parting out a 2H.

Rob

[Henry James the 47th]

Well, still no camera, but I've been putting in time every day on the truck so it is moving along a bit and i thought I could at least write about it.

-the severely cracked oil cooler cover (a.k.a. "water inlet cover): too much of a hassle and expense to get re-welded, so I located one in Australia. Unfortunately, when the seller went to remove it he forgot about one bolt, pried it off, and cracked it. Apparently, 2H engines commonly have issue with this cover and he has sold all the other ones he had. Anyway, managed, with help from 4WheelAuto, to find another cover in Australia and that is on the way.

- I've sandblasted and painted the exhaust manifold with high-temp. paint, and re-installed it today with new studs, washers and nuts. I have taken the push rod inspection covers off to clean and paint them.

-I've blasted and re-painted the crank pulley and reinstalled it with new bolts

-the sandblaster finally made it back after 2 no-shows, and now the doors, aprons, and main tub have all been blasted and primered. The doors are in great shape, except for the lower part of the passenger door, which is a bit rotten, so I am getting patch panels from CCOT for that.

-I've been stripping paint off the chassis with a paint removal abrasive disc (several of them, of course) and have been primering the chassis with rust kill primer and primer surfacer. Another session and it should be done, ready for finish painting.

-the steering box mounting has been installed on the left side - I used 3/8" bumper bolts, inserted front inside the chassis, then cutt the excess bolt threads off with the zip wheel..

-through help from some locals i have sourced all the parts for the heating system, including blower and main box. The box is in primer and will be repainted and then, thanks to a rebuild kit from Shane, will be brought back to hopefully near-new operating condition.

- pulled the full floater axles out and rear diff. Left side leaked, so the seal needs looking at. The gaskets were also missing from the axle caps, and I've orderered new ones, along with new third member mounting studs.

-spare tire holder/crosspiece has been blasted, primed and repainted and is ready to be reinstalled.

-steering box components have been blasted, primered, painted, and put back together, with new rubber bump stops, 60 series brake switch, and new bolts.

-vaccum reservoir tank is back together with the mount, all painted with a new brass plug installed. JIS and NPT threads are a bit different, so I elected to retap for NPT.

- factory power steering pump arrived from Australia, and its a really nice bomber unit. It is mounted to the right hand engine support strut (a unique piece which came included with the pump and pulley). I'm thinking of getting a new power steering case and having mini-truck guts put into it, though I may need to economize a tad and go with manual steering for the near-term.

- I scavanged some hood parts off another hood, and will soon weld in the mounts for the hood support rod and the silencer hold-down clips.

-pulled apart a 60 series axle for the disc hubs, and will tackle the install onto my drum brake front axle in the next week or so.

-trying to puzzle out the tachometer situation. The factory tach is made in such a way as to be easily viewable when looking at it from the left, but when looking at it from the right it is partially obscured by its cover plate. Besides, the only place in the dash I could put it interferes with the heater's side defrost port. Am wondering if I might need to go with an Autometer guage and sell the factory unit. Also, figuring out where to mount the digi-clock and triple warning light unit is leading to some further head scratching.

I will try to sort out a camera, either beg/borrow/steal, whatever, so I can get some pics posted up.


-Chris

[Henry James the 47th]

Found out today...and too bad, that post-'85 2H engines are not the same as pre-'85 engines, and many parts, like the cooler cover, do not interchange. Part need to come from either Oz or Nippon for pretty much anything on the engine, save for the glow plugs and a few odds and ends.

[Henry James the 47th]

I was able to borrow a digital camera today and catch up on a few pics for this build thread. These are sized a little small, but better than no pictures eh?

The first is the winshield washer reservoir mount, which I re-welded. I am just learning to Mig weld, and it's tough trying to get good when learning on sheet metal, that's for sure.

The next two shots are repairs I have done to the roof -the small one to close up a hole where an antenna had been installed, and the other to patch a rust hole (this neccessitated removal of the spot-welded main rib under the front of the roof panel).

[Henry James the 47th]

The next two are repairs to one of the fenders, A crack had precipitated around the shock mount cut out, so I stitched it up and then welded a gusset in.

Then I removed the spot welded mount for the indicator lamp, and welded the hole shut. I am going to be installing 75 series indicator lamps as the design makes a lot more sense to me.

[Henry James the 47th]

The next are a couple of shots of the engine and transmission/transfer assembly as it now sits. I've de-rusted and repainted the shift levers and the mounting plate, as well as the pulleys, the exhaust manifold, alternator mounting bracket, and a few other bits. I'm waiting on a gasket set and the oil cooler cover so I can put it back together and onto the chassis again - hopefully by the end of this coming week.

[Henry James the 47th]

Here's another shot of the engine.

On another note, I recently discovered that the parking brake lever that mounts on the transmission tunnel is different between RHD and LHD models. The LHD model has a longer mounting, taking advantage of it's position relative to the transmission inspection cover. It's a stronger arrangement than what the RHD trucks have AFAICT, and it means that my parking brake levers ( I have a spare) are of no use.

Fortunately, I was able to locate a good condition parking brake lever, which I will pull this coming week and fit into the cab floor. The cab comes with the mounting bracket pre-installed on the underside of the floor for both LHD and RHD mountings; I simply have needed to cut out the hole in the middle of the mounting, drill out the holes for the bolts, and then weld in some captive nuts.

You can see in the photo the all-new parking brake on the transfer. I need to put some non-melt grease in, along with the cable, before i can fit the new drum on. That's another part - the drum - that is different than the north American spec. drums, as it is a fine spline mount instead of coarse. This change happened in 1981 I believe. That meant getting a drum from far away - Edmonton in this case. It's a Fuji brand unit, made in Japan. The good news is that once the parking brake is done, I shouldn't have to look at it again for a long time. Along with the new drum I put in new shoes, new mounting pin, adjuster, yada-yada - only the backing plate is original.

[Henry James the 47th]

here's some shots of the chassis. It's nice to finally be putting pieces back on it after stripping it down. Feels good! My rad support is missing the metal screen along the top, and I'm deliberating on whether to weld another one in, and repaint, or just leave it be.

The third pic show the new steering box support. I used 3/8" bumper bolts, ground the square shanks down to be an interference fit in the holes, inserted from inside the chassis, and then cut off the excess bolt after cranking the nuts down.

[Henry James the 47th]

more chassis pics, the first showing the re-done sedimenter and vacuum tank, the other showing the rear spare tire mount. The rear wiring harness is coiled up and ready to be installed (if I can figure out exactly where to run it) Next time maybe I'll take pictures when I disassemble things...

The sedimenter mounting bracket is upside-down, so I'll have to flip it next time I'm working on it.

[Henry James the 47th]

Here's where the cab is at: I've cut out the rusty bits on the driver's floor and am in the process of fitting in some replacement sheet (14 guage). The first pic shows one of the re-fabbed cab mounts, my first attempt at welding. The second shows the floor pan patch piece, and the third is the outer rocker, a panel I got from CCOT. It fits really well.

Today i cut a section of corrugated floor out of a BJ60, to use on my floor so it will have the proper look when it's done (so long as I don't butcher the welding ). I will try to take pics of that as I fit it in later in the week. You can see where I've marked out in green felt pen the places where the floor corrugations terminate.

And by the way, the porta-potti is not for personal use - it serves as a bucket to catch drips from the leaky roof.

[Henry James the 47th]

A couple more shots of the outer rocker (a little blurry I'm afraid) and the floor...

[Henry James the 47th]

Here's the rad fan shroud, ready to be put back on. To the left are the reconditioned jack crank arm, the transfer boot retainer, and the shifter boot retainer. The jack rods are tucked behind the shroud.

I need to take my rad and get it tested, and I'm expecting it will not be good, considering the P.O.'s use of straight water in the cooling system.

I still need to de-rust, straighten, prime and re-paint the rad support rods.

[Henry James the 47th]

Here's a couple more shots of the engine that I overlooked yesterday:

[Henry James the 47th]

Received a small package from SOR today, so I was able to put the rear differential back on, if only temporarily. First I pulled the old studs and cleaned the flange, then ran a tap through, then installed new studs, and put the gasket on. Then I put the third member on, but will hold off on tightening the bolts for now, as I want to wire wheel it and paint it black before finishing the install.

[Henry James the 47th]

Here's the rest of the diff install. It's a later model unit with 4:11 gearing. It was supposed to be a limited slip unit, but once again the P.O. misrepresented the facts and I got ripped off a bit. At least it is in good shape, and I have a spare set of 4:11's that I'll be putting up for sale, and I'm learning lots, so i can laugh about it now.

[Henry James the 47th]

Here's the awesome new stainless battery tray that come today in the mail. It's sweet!

[Henry James the 47th]

Today was a good day - I reinstalled the engine! First off i had to put the timing gear cover back on. This came about because I had to replace the oil cooler jacket, which I found to be cracked. I had to pull the injector pump off to get at it. I realized that when it came time to put the pump back, it would be all too easy re-engage the timing gears out of sync. Therefore, I removed the timing case cover so I could be sure the gears meshed properly and that gave me the chance to replace the crankshaft seal, which had a slight weep going on.

To put the timing cover back on, I had to spend an hour with the gasket remover spray and gasket s-c-r-a-p-e-r to remove the old one, PITA, which was welded in there like Flint. Here's some shots of that process, finishing with the replacement of the crankshaft pulley and gorilla-size nut.

[Henry James the 47th]

After the cover went on, so did the power steering pump (visible in the last photo above. Then I took the opportunity to pull the idler pulley off the power steering pump bracket, and found the bearing to be a little tored. Off to the bearing supply house to get a pair of NSK bearings, then over to the auto supply to get a 10 mm x 1.5 mm thread nylock nut to secure it.

Next, the moment I have been awaiting with much anticipation: lifting the engine and puttin' it back!!

[Henry James the 47th]

easy does it...

You can see in the second picture that i have relocated the vacuum tank to the other side of the chassis. I needed to get another vacuum tank, but was able to re-use the bracket. The relocation means for much simpler and shorted hose routing tot he booster and the alternator pump.

[Henry James the 47th]

Then I torqued various bolts to correct settings, and then put the heat shielding back on the exhaust manifold. I manged to get a nice set of shields from a wrecker in Australia.

Then I refitted the fuel filter mount and a new filter from the local NAPA outlet.

One problem arose with the new oil cooler bracket: the oil filter bracket I had didn't fit it

After some research and cross-checking of the EPC, I was able to determine that the old oil cooler cover on my engine was mde from 1984~85 only. So, either the old cover was itself a replacement, or the entire engine is a replacement. I'll need to check the engine serial number to see what I can find. Anyway, the oil filter mounting will have to wait as the correct bracket needs to be sourced from Oz. There were two types of filter mounting bracket - one was centrifugal, with another cannister mounted on top, but I think I'll go with the standard one.

[Henry James the 47th]

Hers's a final picture showing the power steering pump in more detail.

Next I will be separating the transmission from the bellhousing and repairing a leak emanating from soemwhere inside - hopefully just the input shaft seal.

Then I need to sit the tranny back, put the new tranny mount in and that part is finally done. After that, I will pull the cylinder head and take a look-see, and put in a new head gasket - and hopefully nothing more. Then it will be on to the rear axle where i plan to replace all the bearings and seals. Then I will do a front 60 series disc conversion, and on it goes....

Hoping to get it on the road by the end of June.

[Henry James the 47th]

Well, after all that work and $$$ on the engine, and the saga of the cracked oil cooler jacket, and then the feeling of triumph at getting the engine back in, I decided to drain the engine oil. The engine had been sitting on it's pan the whole time, so I had waited to drain the oil until the engine was back on the chassis. As the plug came out, so did about 1/2 cup of water, then the rest of the oil

I knew that that was bad news and that the head needed to come off for a look-see. Another 'Mud member came to help, bringing his handy-dandy impact gun. Without it, I don't know how we would have gotten the head bolts off - 3 of them were rusted in place and I was very relieved that they came out without breaking, though it took a while and lots of penetrating oil. We lifted off the head, and the sight was not a pretty one.

In short:

-2 cracks in the head between valves
-rocker arms beaten hollow at the tips-precups cracked
-one of the valve seats was damaged from cavitation of some sort

The head gasket did not betray any obvious signs of failure. The block was another story:

-two piston tops had clearly spent time beating against something metal, poss. a glow plug tip or precup piece
-wear marks on clyinder #6 indicated broken rings
-cylinder #3 was badly eroded, like the valve seats above it

There seemed little point at this juncture looking at the bottom end of the engine. Though it was rebuildable, I certainly needed a new head, and the costs to rebuild, likely $1000/hole, were beyond my finances. I needed to find a new engine. This was a major setback in a project filled with one setback after another (or are those better termed "learning experiences"?

I then started stripping the engine down and pulled it off. Then I separated the tranny, as i had noticed an oily area at the rear of the bellhousing.