Mid ’76 FJ40 Federal Resmog (1 Viewer)

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Oct 11, 2011
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Location
Ventura County, CA
Mid ’76 FJ40 Federal Resmog

I was recently presented with the opportunity to get a rebuilt ’76 FJ40 from a friend for a sweet deal. The only problem was that I’m in California, and it was from out of state, where it didn’t have to get smogged. As a result, it had headers, and was missing the air pump system, EGR system, and most of the emission computer functions.

From taking off the first air filter cover nut, to getting a passing smog test, it took me about 2 weeks of pretty solid weekends and weeknights. I had gotten a bunch of used parts before I started disassembly, so that I wouldn't be sitting around with it taken apart.

I was lucky enough to find some fellow form members who had used parts for sale cheap. That, plus a stupid amount of money at SOR for nuts and bolts and such, and a whole bunch of work, and I’m smogged. Having SOR 30 miles from my house is dangerous! I took a bunch of pics of the process and have added some notes for anyone going through the same process.

Note that I did deviate from a few original components for practicality, not all the steps necessarily apply to your resmog, and sorry for some of the pics being blurry. Also, I realize that my entire engine compartment needs to be restored. At this point I just needed to get it smogged before my temp registration ran out.

I split this post into two, since the form won't allow me to make a post with more than 20 pics at a time. Also, the pics are linked from my photobucket account, so if they disappear and you want to see them, send me a PM.

My FJ is an 8/76, which was a transition month. I went with the earlier components, since they were what came to me. Later 8/76 models had the 3-piece exhaust manifold and flange mounted EGR pipe, but many of the other components were similar. More on that below. I set mine to match Federal specs.

The year-specific emissions manuals from Toyota are important for piecing these systems back together, especially if you want to troubleshoot them. Unfortunately, you're forced to buy the information for the 20R, 4M, and 2T-C engines in the same manual. There is also an additional California addendum, for non Federal models.

Ready for disassembly.
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Air cleaner housing removed.
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Carb fan thermo sensor mounting.
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Throttle linkage bracket.
Note the yellow cap is where the EGR hose goes. The vac actuator with the blue hose is the TP (throttle positioner).
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Carb and manifolds removed.
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New manifold set disassembled.
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Headers on build fixture.
I didn't want to have to come up with an entirely new exhaust system, so I made a quick fixture off the headers picking up the engine mounting studs and the exit flange.
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New downpipe on fixture.
Using a stock exhaust stub, I had a local exhaust shop bend up a section of tube and put the flanges on the end. Those bends done without an inside mandrel are kind of rough, but they'll do for now.
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Downpipe O2 sensor bung.
Flash forward into the future, I wanted to put an O2 sensor bung on the pipe so I could use my wideband to tune the carb. Note that you need to disconnect the smog pump to get accurate readings. All that extra air pumped in bumps the AFR up a few points.
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Early '76 EGR cooler.
Recognizable by its boxy shape. Later ones had a cutout on the forward end, still with an aluminum outer plate. Latest ones were that same shape, but all cast iron. All the aluminum plate ones all suffered erosion from exhaust gasses. The one I got looked OK on the outside, but it had eaten through the bolt bosses, and the inside was shot. The one that I passed on with my second batch of parts had visible holes through it. When I went to SOR to look at what they had, the best boxy style one they had also had visible holes.
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EGR cooler gnarled up innards.
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Another major difference between earlier and later EGR systems was the tube fitting type. On the earlier ones, there was a 1" compression fitting on the exhaust manifold. (Don't bother trying to loosen this one in the vehicle, I had to use a 24" crescent wrench). The EGR cooler end had a 1" flare fitting, and a smaller flare fitting, maybe 3/4" for the flex pipe to the valve.
Later systems had a 2-bolt flange on the exhaust manifold, and compression fittings at both ends of the EGR cooler.

I needed to adapt to the newer style cooler, so I cut off the flare and added some extra length to my egr pipe. It needed about 0.70" extra.

Newer style fully cast iron EGR cooler with modified pipe.
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EGR valve line differences.
The EGR valves also have different fittings pre and post 8/76. Earlier ones have a flare fitting, and later ones have a compression fitting. The matching cooler has the appropriate fitting
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SOR heat riser insulator plate.
The manifold set that I got was missing the heat riser insulator plate, and only had 1 gasket. This caused the sandwich to be the wrong height, and the shared bolt holes were excessively offset. The original insulator plate has a bump in it to accommodate the swing of the butterfly, and the SOR plate is flat, so the butterfly needs about 0.3" trimmed off of it.
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Manifold set with heat shields.
The manifold has a couple of heat shields, and the front one has the hookup for the heated air cleaner. The front one can go on after the manifold is installed. I had to install the rear one before the manifold went in, and then take the bolts out and shift it over to get to the exhaust manifold studs.This may be different on the 3-piece manifolds.
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Smog pump
The smog pumps are another gross part of this process. If you're planning on getting a used one, get more than one, and you might have enough parts to make one good one. It has fiberglass blades on an eccentric cam that ride inside of carbon guides. One carbon guides per pair has a spring plate behind it. These break, and get spit out of the pump. They're also nasty with old grease inside. The rotor has a shim or shims on the shaft that are critical. I ended up needing to use the shims from both pumps in the one I rebuilt. Also note that if you have the style with a single nut on the pulley, THE NUT IS A LEFTHAND THREAD!! Now I have a tapped shaft and a custom washer.

Smog pump guts.
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Continued in the next post…
 
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Continued…

The smog pump mounting bracket mounts underneath the left motor mount. It has its own bosses on the motor, and it can be removed and installed without touching the motor mount.

Bracket mounted.
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The smog pump tensioner bracket attaches to one of the lower water pump bolts. If you don't have this, you'll need a longer bolt and a spacer.
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I had to work around the crazy PS bracket to make my setup work. I will definitely be replacing it soon. It's a huge chunk of steel that appears to be made partially from another OEM's PS pump bracket. Despite all that beef, it's mounted to the engine with a single piece of steel angle that picks up two of the the exhuast manifold bolts. Needless to say, it's less than rigid. I had to cut some serious metal out of this to make it fit with the smog pump tensioner bracket.
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EGR cooler installed.
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EGR valve installed.
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Air injector tubes installed.
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Make sure your air rail check valve is working before you install it. One of the ones I had flowed under push, and leaked under pull. It did resist some backflow. The good one resisted push, pull, and backflow.
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ABV and plumbing. This is the valve that goes inline with the smog pump output. Its actuator port connects directly to the gas filter on the intake manifold.
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The SST section of the emissions manual lists a diagnostic box (PN 09990-00080). Somehow I was able to locate one of these dinosaur boxes in working condition. It hooks up to the inspection connector in the drivers footwell, and inline with the VSV. The box shows you with LEDs what sensors are registering, what VSV functions are commanded, and lets you simulate vehicle speed and some VSV commands. The service manual has procedures for doing most of the diagnostics without the box as well, but some of them you have to be driving with a vacuum gauge connected.
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Using the box, I was able to diagnose that my emission computer wasn't functioning properly. When I simulated speed, the TCS (Transmission Controlled Spark, aka controlled vacuum advance) and TP (throttle positioner) outputs weren't activating. I swapped in another computer, and the TCS worked, but not the TP. When I disassembled the first computer, I noticed that many of the connector solders were cracked. I reflowed them and put the first computer back in, and everything worked. I guess years of vibrations and the occasional foot kick beat up the solder joints. As an aside, I had a heck of a time getting the plug out of the computer. The little tab on the connector was partially broken, and wasn't fully disengaged. I ended up needing to use a small pick to get the clip disconnected.

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Those speed-related VSV functions get vehicle speed from a 4 pulse per rev sensor built into the speedo assembly. When I finally got out for a road test, my speed readout on the SST box was inconsistent, and the speed-related functions weren't activating.

I took the speedo assembly out, and found that the spade connector from one of the speed sensor wires had inconsistent continuity with the pin on the round speedo cluster plug. I added some solder to these crimped connections, and it solved the problem.
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The TP is supposed to keep the carb at high idle above 20mph (i.e. if you let off the gas and slow to a stop in neutral, the engine is supposed to be idling around 1200 RPM until you get below the specified speed. The TCS advances the ignition timing above a certain speed. This is likely critical to the smog check.

HAC tube
Also known as a thermostatic air cleaner, this system uses a flexible metal duct between the exhaust heat shield and the intake duct on the air cleaner housing. There's a small actuator inside the duct that controls a diverter flap. When the engine is cold, it pulls air past the exhaust manifold. Once the engine is warmed up, it pulls air through the end of the duct. These tubes are commonly available in 2", and the mating connections are closer to 2.125". With enough stretching, pulling, pinching, and squeezing, the 2" will fit, but not the best.
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I also did a valve adjustment, changed the oil, gapped the points, checked timing, and gapped the plugs. My engine was a rebuild with only a few thousand miles on it, so some of the exhaust valves had tightened up a bit. Also the oil was seriously black.

Emission Stickers
These stickers are nice for the smog shop to identify your smog equipment and components. I think they have a book that lists what you're supposed to have, but the stickers don't hurt, especially if you're federal and not CA spec. I put the main sticker where I've seen them (passenger side, under side of hood), and the hose routing sticker on the driver's side, as I haven't seen an example of its factory placement.
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Smog Check Day Zero
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I went for my test drive and fixed the speed sensor problem on the morning that I was going to do my smog check. My AFR seemed OK at idle and speed, but I wasn't positive what its limits were to pass.

I took the test, and they were extremely thorough. EVAP system tested, gas cap tested, all components visually identified. Just because it's the first year of smog, doesn't mean they're any less strict. You don't get your result until the test is all the way completed. I held my breath, and... Gross Polluter!!! Such a let down. I thought I had been so thorough. My HC and NOx were fine, but I was way over on CO.

Luckily the Test Only shop I went to, did a free retest. I went home, did a quick bit of research, and pinpointed the power valve. I pulled off the top of the carb, disassembled the power valve plunger, and found that it was stuck in the actuated position, and full of gross varnish.

The power valve piston is about 3/8" diameter, and is held in with a lock plate and single screw. It's spring loaded, and should move freely. The power valve gets manifold vacuum from the VSV unless the TP switch on the gas pedal is actuated. It also does a little bit on startup. So, basically I tried my smog check with full throttle enrichment the whole time. I didn't get a chance to take any pics since I was in a bit of a hurry.

There's an easy way to see if your power valve plunger is moving freely. Start the engine, let it warm up for a bit, pull the air filter housing cover off, and look for the forward-facing vacuum port on the carb, near the throat. Pull the hose, and the plunger should drop (but you probably won't notice). Here's the check part, plug the hose back in while listening closely to the top of the carb. You should hear a little "click" when you connect the vacuum line.

Once I got the carb back together, I reconnected my wideband, and disconnected the smog pump hose to the air rail. At smog test RPM (1600 RPM), the power valve makes a huge difference. With the power valve off (under vacuum), AFR was around 13.7-14.0:1. Disconnecting the vacuum line dropped AFR down to around 12.6-12.7. That's a big difference. 12.7 is a max power AFR, and 14.7 is stoichiometric (all fuel consumed).

Back to the smog shop about an hour later, back on the dyno, and I passed! HC and CO levels were a little less than half way between average and max allowable. NOx was about average.
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So there it is, a long journey over a short time, all so I could get that precious license plate. Overall, the cost wasn't obscene, and definitely worth it to have it configured in a way that I can smog it and not have to find a shady shop to pass it. I hope that something in here helps someone else doing the same job.
 
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Wow, great post! Don't have to do that here, at least yet, but it's great that you documented the process.
 
Nice work, but wouldn't a '76 be exempt (soon if not already)?
 
That is a lot of work and a great write up. Dealing with this every two years was one of the major reasons I sold my '76 FJ40. Any cruiser year model newer than '75 is never going to be smog exempt in CA.
 
That sucks. Washington State requires new vehicles coming into the state to meet CA standards. On the reasonable belief that there are not that many old vehicles left on the roads, they have just eliminated the requirement for testing. :)

Any cruiser year model newer than '75 is never going to be smog exempt in CA.
 
Impressive.

I went the other way and desmogged, and swapped to a 71 frame. Nice work for sure.
 
I found the box on eBay. There happened to be one for sale when I was looking. I did a google search for the part number, and the listing came up. The guy selling it had all sorts of old school Toyota dealer tools. I have no idea how often they come up. PM me if you want his eBay username.

Sadly, the CA rolling smog exemption window ended with '75 vehicles. If I remember correctly, the bill passed at the same time as the single occupant HOV hybrid bill. The HOV stickers are now expired unless you have a NGV or full electric, but we'll likely never get the smog exemption back.

There's worse things, it's not like the FJ had tons of power to begin with!

I am thinking about bypassing the air pump though, since I know it has a history of failure. Plus the A1 Cardone rebuilt one that's available has a multi-bolt pulley, and the ones I have are all a single nut.
 
This will serve as a nice reference for my 5/76 if I ever need to troubleshoot. The air pump has been deleted on mine, but everything else smog-related is in tact.
 
So you're the one who pulled that box off of ebay - I kept looking at it thinking WTF will I use that for ?

Wonder if it's good for 60 series ... :hmm:

I got a bunch of his other LC SSTs.

btw, there are smog-legal headers for '83 and earlier, in CA, but you have to retain all the egr stuff - header has provisions egr components. Mark's Off Road has them Not on web site, you have to call. See my sig.
 
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This knob is shown in the manual, and you can see it on the Emission Device Checker, but there is no mention in the 1975 Emission manual as to what this knob does. Directly above is where all the wires come out of the box.

Knob as shown in the manual:
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This knob is shown in the manual, and you can see it on the Emission Device Checker, but there is no mention in the 1975 Emission manual as to what this knob does. Directly above is where all the wires come out of the box.

Knob as shown in the manual:

Looks like a fuse cap, with a small SFE or AGx fuse hiding inside.

:cheers:

Steve
 
This is a great write-up! Thank you for doing it. I am in Colorado and need to pass an emissions test as well. I thought my '76 would be exempt, but, sadly not. I will definitely be spending more time staring at this post so I can figure out what all I need (wasn't in the boxes of parts that came with the truck) and where the heck all those things go. I already learned a ton from this post -- e.g. what goes onto that capped line on the carburetor (EGR connector).
 
This is a great write-up! Thank you for doing it. I am in Colorado and need to pass an emissions test as well. I thought my '76 would be exempt, but, sadly not. I will definitely be spending more time staring at this post so I can figure out what all I need (wasn't in the boxes of parts that came with the truck) and where the heck all those things go. I already learned a ton from this post -- e.g. what goes onto that capped line on the carburetor (EGR connector).

I live in Denver and got my '82 to pass smog. You can reach out to me or the Rising Sun guys for helpo. We're having a rally this Saturday you should come to. 2016 Rally Links - Let's get the word out! - Rising Sun Member Forums
 

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