Fantastic progress mate, despite the cost you wont regret replacing the floorpan in that tub, have you moved into that new house yet it must be close to finished?
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x2 on that the only way to confirm what compressed/extended lengths you need is to cycle the suspension to measure it anything else is just guessing and running the risk of shocks that bottoming out or cant extend fully and that results in limiting travel and usually damaging the shocks
congrats on getting the engine started up mate :) its not unusual for anything that gets hot to smoke a bit after a rebuild as it burns paint, oil, residue etc off, if the timing is retarded too much your exhaust manifold and exhaust will get really hot and if its retarded enough it'll glow red
as already mentioned don't forget to check/upgrade/replace your battery cables while your at it I went through a few starter motors with hot start problems until I found I had a problem with the earth lead connection
those rear cross members aren't the best for towing off you'll get away with it but they tend to start twisting my old fj45 had a towbar mounted much the same as that and although it had some diagonal braces tied back to the chassis rails it still twisted up towing heavy trailers, when I did the...
don't quote me and all markets were different specs but my understanding is only LX models came out with a factory H55F 5 speed someone will advise if that's not correct, my 40 has one but its been retro fitted by a previous owner
I've run a centreforce clutch in my 40 for the past 6-7 years with stock master and slave cylinders and mines always been light on the pedal, its still got all the weights on the diaphragm fingers, the 2f clutch in my 70 series setup as a twin disc has a heavier feel than my centreforce
if your longer drive train extends past the tube crossmember behind the stock transfercase location your under floor tank wouldn't be likely to fit anymore
if your running longfields you want to use their chromoly hub gears as well, not sure if they fit warn hubs but I've put some into a set of Asian hubs, I've got an old longfield birf here that the splines stripped when a standard hub gear blew apart and wrecked the birf
personally I never mess about with defective seatbelts I'd use aftermarket or anything else anyday rather than put myself or anyone else at risk, last time I changed my fj40 seatbelts I used the retractors out of a 2000 Toyota camry and swapped my belts onto them the retractors were a pretty...
I know its a lot more mucking around and you don't have accessory bolt holes in your heads but you can always fab up a custom bracket to mount the pump up a bit higher away from the steering shaft, just have to make sure you've still got enough belt wrap around the pump pulley so it doesn't slip