Long post....
84 FJ60 had a major meltdown two weeks ago. At first I was panicked and sickened, but got some great advice from past posts on this forum and wanted to share my tale in order to help someone else out in the future.
I'd been fighting with keeping the HB tight for several years. In retrospect I should have Loctited it down the first time it happened but....finally the key got literally smeared inside the pulley, the crankshaft keyway had been wallowed out, and the nut had worn such a groove in the pulley that it couldn't cinch it down.
Approaches that had been discussed were JB welding up the keyway, brazing a new key in the keyway, and welding and grinding the crankshaft. My thoughts were: 1) JB weld is good, but not that good. 2) I've never brazed before and couldn't conceive of how to get the crank hot enough, but I guess it can be done. 3) Always wanted a welder, easy to convince the wife that it's that or a new motor!
Man-a-Fre has the new aftermarket balancers for $250, but delivery was going to be six weeks, so was going to bite the bullet and get a new one. For that price, it's cheaper to buy from Specter, get the club membership, and pay shipping than to go to the dealer, so that's what I did. The guys at Specter twisted my arm to buy a used one for $200. I was reluctant but, after being assured it would have a good keyway I went for the used one. Got a little PO'd when it had two nice grooves in it from the last oil seal. Oh well, nothing a speedi-sleeve couldn't fix. So I painted it up, looks like new, saved $300.
I practiced a little with the welder while I was waiting for parts, but am by no means an expert. Got a small Craftsman MIG, didn't want to run all over to get gas so just used the flux core wire and made sure to clean and brush often.
I used a Dremel with a few stone wheels and a carbide cutter bit to shape up the crankshaft. It took a lot of patience, but wasn't too bad. I had plenty of time while waiting for parts to be delivered.
While practicing my welding, I built the "SST" to hold the pulley in place while torquing the nut. If I'd had that three years ago, I wouldn't be writing this. Just some 1/8" x 1 inch steel bar from Home Depot welded in a J-shape with enough space inside to get the 46mm socket in. Wedge it under the frame and torque away. ( I've read several astronomical torque readings for that nut, up to 300+ ft-lbs. My 2F manual says 116-144 ft-lbs!!!) My wrench only goes up to 140, I probably went to ~170 with no loctite yet, I want to make sure the timing cover doesn't leak.
One last thing. When replacing the timing cover, I was so extremely meticulous about doing everything right, only to find I couldn't get the "blind" screw under the water pump to thread in. After much cussing, I realized that the flange for the oil cooler hose bracket is too large to fit on the outside of the timing cover and still get the holes to align! Was this meant to go under the timing cover???? That's a leak waiting to happen. I ended up getting out the dikes and cutting the flange down so it would fit on the outside.
Running great for now, only time will tell. Thanks to Hamo for his posts regarding this fix.
84 FJ60 had a major meltdown two weeks ago. At first I was panicked and sickened, but got some great advice from past posts on this forum and wanted to share my tale in order to help someone else out in the future.
I'd been fighting with keeping the HB tight for several years. In retrospect I should have Loctited it down the first time it happened but....finally the key got literally smeared inside the pulley, the crankshaft keyway had been wallowed out, and the nut had worn such a groove in the pulley that it couldn't cinch it down.
Approaches that had been discussed were JB welding up the keyway, brazing a new key in the keyway, and welding and grinding the crankshaft. My thoughts were: 1) JB weld is good, but not that good. 2) I've never brazed before and couldn't conceive of how to get the crank hot enough, but I guess it can be done. 3) Always wanted a welder, easy to convince the wife that it's that or a new motor!
Man-a-Fre has the new aftermarket balancers for $250, but delivery was going to be six weeks, so was going to bite the bullet and get a new one. For that price, it's cheaper to buy from Specter, get the club membership, and pay shipping than to go to the dealer, so that's what I did. The guys at Specter twisted my arm to buy a used one for $200. I was reluctant but, after being assured it would have a good keyway I went for the used one. Got a little PO'd when it had two nice grooves in it from the last oil seal. Oh well, nothing a speedi-sleeve couldn't fix. So I painted it up, looks like new, saved $300.
I practiced a little with the welder while I was waiting for parts, but am by no means an expert. Got a small Craftsman MIG, didn't want to run all over to get gas so just used the flux core wire and made sure to clean and brush often.
I used a Dremel with a few stone wheels and a carbide cutter bit to shape up the crankshaft. It took a lot of patience, but wasn't too bad. I had plenty of time while waiting for parts to be delivered.
While practicing my welding, I built the "SST" to hold the pulley in place while torquing the nut. If I'd had that three years ago, I wouldn't be writing this. Just some 1/8" x 1 inch steel bar from Home Depot welded in a J-shape with enough space inside to get the 46mm socket in. Wedge it under the frame and torque away. ( I've read several astronomical torque readings for that nut, up to 300+ ft-lbs. My 2F manual says 116-144 ft-lbs!!!) My wrench only goes up to 140, I probably went to ~170 with no loctite yet, I want to make sure the timing cover doesn't leak.
One last thing. When replacing the timing cover, I was so extremely meticulous about doing everything right, only to find I couldn't get the "blind" screw under the water pump to thread in. After much cussing, I realized that the flange for the oil cooler hose bracket is too large to fit on the outside of the timing cover and still get the holes to align! Was this meant to go under the timing cover???? That's a leak waiting to happen. I ended up getting out the dikes and cutting the flange down so it would fit on the outside.
Running great for now, only time will tell. Thanks to Hamo for his posts regarding this fix.
hey, not knocking it. I've done lots of thing out of necessity
. just, don't mix up where the bolts and screws from the timing cover go. take pics and post up.
