Builds Bringing back my 74 FJ40 (1 Viewer)

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Been working on a disk brake swap with some mini truck knuckles I picked up from shmuckster, who helped me with lots of questions before and after picking up the parts. Very knowledgable guy. I keep running into little problems mixed with real life slowing me down from getting it done.




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one of the mini truck knuckles looked like a trunion bearing failed and cycled through tearing up the dust cover. the bearing was seized to the bottom plate (don't know its proper name) It took lots of heat and persuasion to free it. I only thought to take a picture once I had partially freed it.

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That's spindle bushing damage is no fun...
If you want to trade a good spindle with a clean brass insert for that one, let me know. I was

That inner clip breaks more often than not when separating birfs. I have a few of those laying around as well, but I suspect, based on the picture of you packing the birf, you either had them on hand or need them sooner rather than later.
 
Slow progress

When I tried to attach the steering arm to the ball joint I ran into a problem. The hole in the mini truck steering arm is larger than the factory drum steering arm so the ball joint drops all the way through tight to the ball. No pivot and impossible to tighten castle nit that far. I'll have to do some reading on here tomorrow to find the solution. Will my factory tie rod and drag link work??

Went to car quest to get the hard brake lines for the back of the dust shields and fittings. Arrived 6:02 they closed at 6....


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I think you will need to source some 78ish era 40 steering arms, they should have the correct bolt pattern for the top of the knuckle and the smaller 40 series tie rod end. May want to check some measurements of the bolt pattern on the knuckle, I used 60 series knuckles, not mini truck. There is also the old starter bushing trick.........
 
There is a brass tapered insert that many use to make up the gap in the size of the joints. It is from a GM starter bushing I think. Something that does not seem right. Anyway, there is also a steel tapered one that I would recommend. Sold by SOR.

094-23H-SPR is what you want.


Search by Part Number 094-23
 
This is a better option than the brass bushings since they won't wallow out: Cruiser Outfitters (at the bottom of the page)

Tie Rod End Shim - $18.00 ea
Stainless steel shim allows use of 4x/5x Series Tie Rod Ends in 6x/7x/8x Series Steering Arms. A great option for disc brake conversions and other adaptations. Sold individually.
(Fits 1980-90 6x Series Steering Arms & E-1984 4x/5x Tie Rods)
Part# TRESHIM
 
Sounds like same as the SOR one mentioned above.
 
I called cruiser outfitters first and was told they are out of the steering arms and are discontinuing them. They were also out of stock on the spacers but SOR had them.

Thanks stump for letting me swap for a spindle in good shape:)

pieced everything together today, just need to pick up a longer vacuum hose for the brake booster. The new master cylinder had slightly different clearances.

I still haven't checked my alignment. Not sure if I'm going to have to do anything to make it right.


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Test drove the yota. Night and day difference. So glad I went this route. Stops quick and straight. Tried some hard stops from about 40mph and the rear may have locked once slightly. Not 100% sure but it squealed for a second.

Alignment is off. Tires are about 1 3/8" toe out. What am i shooting for 1/8" toe in???


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Check out the Faqs section under "Front end info"

There's a couple of threads for adjusting toe-in.
 
This might help:

FIRING ORDER 1-5-3-6-2-4 (#1 cylinder is closest to front)
DISTRIBUTOR ROTATES CLOCKWISE

At TDC, the rotor should be roughly pointing at #1 spark plug wire. I may be wrong, but I think the mark you are looking at (off the crank shaft) will be close to TDC but also off TDC by 180* because the crank will spin 2x faster than the cam / distributor.
I think the rotor should be pointing at #4 plug-----
 
not exactly sure of the best way to bolt the 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 square tube to the frame. I saved the rubber isolators, I guess Ill drill and tap the 1/8 thick square tube and run the bolts up through the frame?? Opinions???


Weld the tube in on both sides-Assuming it's long enough to slip into the body channel above the bumper-if not just grind it down a little so it slides into the the channel on both sides--you may need to notch out the channel to get it in there. get the elevation really close, and you won't even need any shims for the lower amby door latch

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