Front diff and suspension restoration suggestions 74FJ40 (1 Viewer)

[JohnJL]

Hi,

Ive owned my 1974 FJ40 for 20 years, brought it with me from Connecticut to Sydney, Australia and now in Toronto Canada. I kept up on the maintenance and treated her right, now that I have my other projects done and have the garage for it I am bringing her back to stock in a nut-and-bolt restoration. I am trying to stay faithful to stock except where safety (ie ATO fuses and relays instead of bullet fuses) or reliability are concerned. I am rebuildng the "F and a half" to stock and putting the original carb, housing, accessories, etc back on after rebuilding everything. The wiring harness will be all new, but with proper OE color coded wiring so the diagrams still apply, etc.

In any case I need some advice on the front diff and overall suspension. It has OME shocks and stabilzer, extended HFS shackles and 33" tires. I like how it sits but the springs and shocks need replacing. WHen I bought it I put an ez-locker in the back, which has worked remarkably well. I am keeping the drum brakes and axles for originality but I also want to have reliable hubs and a locking differential in front.

I have mismatching warn and aisin manual locking hubs in front now. They work but they are mismatched and look like hell. I havent easily found replacements for my 1974 year, only later ones. Interested in suggestions there.

The front diff is open, I would like to have a proper on-or-off differential, but I cant find what I am looking for. I want it fully open for daily driving, so no ez-locker or such. I believe there is an ARB option but I am really hesitant to add the complexity of onboard air and all that equipment. I dont think there is a Toyota e-locker that will fit a 1974 FJ40 but I'd love to hear otherwise. Any other front differential options?

I have never broken an axle, but I read a lot here about birfields/longfields. I have powersteering, 33" tires and soon a locking front differential so I am wondering if I should be replacing something up front there?

For suspension I am keeping it SUA, though I will flip the ubolts. I will keep leaf springs, perhaps just a 2.5" lift. I am open to suggestions on leaf spring supplier.

Shocks are the last thing I would like some advice. The Old Man Emus are worn out. I would like to keep the original look, would that be Bilstein? I have Fox shocks on my mountain bike and 911 race cars and love them. It would seen helpful to have their adjstability too when I sometimes have the roof on, sometimes off. Whats OEM on the 74?

Thanks again for the time and suggestions!

John

 

[Burbot]

Need some pics of ur truck. How stock u wanna be is the question. Not much point in putting in 10grand in painting a truck you know is going to run narrow trails and such. Oba is great when you air down or somebody needs air. Hope to see that installed this spring. The e lockers I swapped into my 80 are stockers and work perfectly. These are examples what look and performance you want?choices =compromises IMHO +Don't forget cost.

 

[JohnJL]

Thanks for the reply. I plan on finishing this for me to enjoy with my son on light offroading and work around the property. I am restoring it to the point where if someone wanted to go crazy with it later they can, but I want it mostly stock and want to keep it looking that way. I have restored a number of other cars before so I am practiced in the art of keeping to a vision and avoid scope-creep.

I can post pics later, through its all in pieces right now. Here are the summarized questions;

Is there a cable/e-locker that fits a front 1974 FJ?
What were the original shocks? Opinions on Fox 2.0?
Are birfields/longfields merited and are they available for my axles and knuckles without having to convert to disc brakes?
Favorite leaf springs or are they all the same?

Thanks

 

[pb4ugo]

I don't know if this will be helpful or not, all I can offer is my past experiences with frt lockers and birfields. Back in the late 80's I installed a lockrite in the frt, and then I started breaking stk birfields. The problem with your drum brake setup is, it has coarse spline birfields and I dont think longfields are offered in coarse spline. Fine spline longs for later model large pattern knuckles are available. Swapping to Disc using Toyota parts is not really deviating from stk form and then install longfields, if your going to install a locker. I know ARB's are pretty much plug and play, except for diff setup and drilling and tapping the third for the airline. Arb offers an electric compressor that plugs into their supplied wiring harness. ARB's comes with the airline, wiring harness and the instructions, which are pretty straight forward. Also, adapting a different compressor is not that difficult. If you're very careful when you use a frt locker, a stk birf can survive. I'm only familiar with ARB's. In the top of this 40 section there is a lot of info in the FAQ thread. The search function will be your friend.

 

[JohnJL]

Here are some pics nd background on the truck:

1974 FJ40 Restoration Build Thread

 

[Vulcan]

Sub'd. I am in similar position (except you probably didn't turn your factory diff carrier into a paper weight drilling out the locking pin) - '72 FJ40 that I don't plan to drive up the side of a mountain, but would like the option to lock the diff when conditions are right.

ARB would be cool, but it's too expensive and involved for something that I would rarely use and probably never need. I don't want an automatic locker since I'll be doing mostly city driving and also driving in snow. So I'd also be interested to know if there's an e-locker that can be dropped in without modification or new axles.

Absent a decent e-locker option, I'm probably just going to put in LSDs since my truck will see far more road miles than "off-road" miles. A lot of people don't like the LSD, but my "off-road" miles would just be light duty trails with dirt/mud/snow/gravel/grass. Would be a different story if I thought I'd ever climb rocks.

 

[ryanwk628]

I dont know what would need to be done to make it work but a Harrop E locker maybe an option. I guess it does not have windows for the rear c clips