1973 FJ55 Cummins project (1 Viewer)

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So this is good therapy for me. With my TLE it is often hard just to get motivated to get up and do anything.

Anyway today I worked on the pig. I figure if I do one thing a day then it is something.

Today I finished pulled the dash open. I removed the stereo and all wires to it. I also tracked down other wires not needed. After cleaning the turn signal switch I installed it and tested the connections. Tested the low and high beams. Turn signals still down work but I will get to them later. Right now I am just going through and cleaning house and ridding the truck of stuff not needed.

When it finally started to get dark I carried the instrument panel in to clean. I pulled apart both gauges, cleaned them and made any repairs, colored the needles red as they had UV fadding, cleaned all electric connectors and put them back together. Cleaned the turn signal indicators inside and out. Tested all bulbs and replaced those needing it. I mist just replace them all with new ones anyway.

The instrument panel looks like crap. No different then any of the several pigs I have owned in the past. No cracks or tears in the vynl. but it was pealing away from the backing. So I filled up two 2 liter bottles with hot water. I then cleaned out the gaps and filled them with some Ultimate Glue. I did not have any Gorilla glue left so this will have to do for now. I then put some cloth around the top of the bottles and pushed them through the holes. This sealed the gaps and I hope to have it cured by tomorrow.

I cleaned several of the male connectors with sand paper. They had a ton of corrosion on the terminals. Makes you wonder how any electrons where even make it through all that crap.

The rear driving lamps work, passengers side lamp is burnt out. Brake lights work fine. So tomorrow I want to completely go through the rear lights and make sure all the wiring up to the dash is good. If things are going well I would like to do the front too.
 
No energy today what so ever. So I pulled the two bottles from the gauge cluster padding and it turned out very good. Looks nice. I put everything back on and the instrument panel is ready to install into the pig when the time comes.
 
Today I pulled off all the light lenses and bulbs then cleaned the sockets with a wire bottle brush. Checked all ground connections and such. Then installed new bulbs. Looks a ton better with the parking lights on.


I bought a set of 70 series turn signals for like 40 bucks. They are brand new OEM. The place I bought them from said they are being shipped out. So I hope to have them this week and ready to install.
 
cool, keep up the pig work!! yes corrosion is a pain!!
 
Okie dokie.... as requested... a brief run down of the mods.... :p


The truck started life as a rig for the FBI. Royal Rose bought the truck from his FBI neighbor. Royal converted the pig over to a Cummins 6AT 3.4 TD with an SM465 and the J30 T-case. He also converted to a Scout power steering. For those that know this truck it has been used very hard.

Now some pics of the conversion from this web site
CIS Auto Web's Diesel Land Cruisers
6at2.jpg
install6at5.jpg
install6at4.jpg
 
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ridgerunner bought the pig and did the following upgrades:


-Hydroboost power braking system
-Ranger II overdrive
-Toyota 4 speed H42
-*J60 Aussie fullfloater rear axle
- Aussie Locker in the rear axle
-Rear axle Chevy disk kit
-‘77 disk front axle
-Rebuilt MAF springs in front, custom Alcans in back- 2.5” lift.


some pics of the hydroboost
boost3.jpg
boost4.jpg
boost5.jpg
 
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brian at one time had these awesome Volvo C303 axles under one of his pigs.. I wish I could have bought these when they were up forsale.
I ran those same tires on my FJ55 when he took them off his truck.
m1.jpg
m3.jpg
 
In one of the pics, I spotted a PTO port on the right side of the tranny & knew it wasn't a 3 spd. LC tranny, so I did a little searching & found this email from Royal back in '03:

I 've got a UPS version of the 6AT 1988 in a 73 FJ55 compression cold of 380-400 psi rebuilt injectors 200 psi higher cracking pressure. sm465 tranny w/toy 3speed tcase, 4.11 diffs and procomp 33x12.50 tires. I've been daily driving it for a year and a half and have almost 15,000 miles on it. mileage is between 15.5 and 18 mpg EGT ( post turbo)on the flats at 65-70 mph is 450 in the winter 550-650 in the summer depending upon the a/c. climbing a long hill I will keep it between 950 and 1000. I really like this motor I just wish I had the $$$ for a five speed. would I do it again? sure. I started out with mitsu diesel from an 80 dodge truck that blew apart and the 6at was the next cheapest alternative( can you tell I built this thing an a strict budget? Happy cruisin' Royal Rose
 
Ahhh... thats good to know... i changed the info for Royal.... and corrected the info for Brian.... Brian installed an H42 with the Ranger OD..... but i didn't even pay attention to that one photo from Royals install. :popcorn:
 
MiniPigg said:
ridgerunner bought the pig and did the following upgrades:


-Hydroboost power braking system
-Ranger II overdrive
-Toyota 4 speed H42
-*J60 Aussie fullfloater rear axle
- Aussie Locker in the rear axle
-Rear axle Chevy disk kit
-‘77 disk front axle
-Rebuilt MAF springs in front, custom Alcans in back- 2.5” lift.
Click to expand...

Royal did the disks front and rear and the aussie. The Aussie was the wrong one though and the axle shafts were able to slide in and out of the housing about half an inch- Aussie Locker corrected it for free years after Royal installed it. There was no discernible wear on the locker after a couple hard years on and off the road. I also put a new injection pump on it. On the trip to drop it off at Dave's I drove it easy, kept it at 55-60mph and got 21-23mpg for over 1000 miles.
 
ridgerunner said:
Royal did the disks front and rear and the aussie. The Aussie was the wrong one though and the axle shafts were able to slide in and out of the housing about half an inch- Aussie Locker corrected it for free years after Royal installed it. There was no discernible wear on the locker after a couple hard years on and off the road. I also put a new injection pump on it. On the trip to drop it off at Dave's I drove it easy, kept it at 55-60mph and got 21-23mpg for over 1000 miles.
Click to expand...

thanks bro... I was hoping you might step in to help correct some of the information. :)

when you have time send me an pm letting me know how things went.
 
So today I opened more of the dash. I pulled the switches and some more wiring. I have one part of the wiring harness completely off and I am seriously thinking about pulling the rest of the wiring harness and weeding out all nonessential wires to clear up some room and simplify things.
 
Ok... before I start cutting wires and making room.... I dont think I need the smog computer (EMS) any longer.... and I am sure there are some relay switches I wont need either.... being this is a diesel now... its a late 1973

chime in and correct me before I start frankensteining the wiring harness.
 
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