FJ40 spotted in Van Nuys (1 Viewer)

[Spike Strip]

Heading East on Victory to Marks Off Road?

 

[65swb45]

Yup.

 

[65swb45]

@daveb heading in for a spa treatment.

It’s been a very long time since I agreed to take a truck in. I get a lot of calls, and there are a lot of trucks out there in pretty sorry shape. But something about this one, rustbucket that it is, that I softened up to. Probably had to do with timing, as I spent a good part of the last month warming up to wrenching again on my 45.

After spending a couple of hours doing some baseline tuneup work on the engine (which still has a disturbing noise in the bottom end) I decided it was good enough to move on to the next adventure: properly anchoring the motor.

A LOT of 40s are driving around with loose rear engine mounts. Some are exacerbated by oil leaks that soften the cushions. Dave’s was a little more serious than that.

 

[65swb45]

Yes, thats how it came to me!

 

[65swb45]

As scary as that was, the driver’s side was worse:

 

[65swb45]

The PO, aka the butcher of Bagdad, chopped up the factory fan shroud. Obviously they couldn’t figure out why the fan kept hitting it!

 

[JohnnyC]

Eeek … I learned from a bad motor mount once … after it exploded thru my radiator the second time

In my defense it had the bolt there and looked like it was still together

 

[micruz60]

Gaahh!

One bolt. . . better than none.

 

[65swb45]

Pic added. Once again, the notorious file algorithm INSISTED on rotating my pic.

Six blade fan and correct alternator pulley are on deck.

 

[Spike Strip]

Holy Crap! Butcher of Baghdad is right! Let's cut the shroud and not even investigate why the engine is tweaking.

 

[peesalot]

The fan spacer , fan & shroud need to go on the wall of you know what, along with whatever else you find, that had the floating motor mount system, almost the boltless version as well. Alot of it appears factory & in decent condition, odd the motor mounts were so worked over.

 

[micruz60]

Mark will make it right!

 

[65swb45]

We took a little detour today from starting in on the cooling system to deal with some higher priority steering issues. Replaced the main steering rod, which was a reused mini-truck unit probably harvested from the same rig the mini truck disc conversion came from. The passenger end having a stabilizer mounting hole is too far inboard for reuse on the cruiser to connect the relay rod to...unless you cut, shorten and butt-weld it back together!

 

[65swb45]

Had some time this afternoon to hobble through the cooling system overhaul (gout in my right foot at the moment.). I gotta say, it's hella nice having a beadblast cabinet. First pic shows the no-expense-spared cereal box that was the thermostat housing gasket (can't call it a thermostat gasket: there was no thermostat. ) and the undersized alternator pulley.

 

[65swb45]

 

[65swb45]

Upper housing had some pretty deep pitting, so I ran three of my own through the blast cabinet until I found one that I considered acceptable. Dave painted the replacement shroud, and after chasing all the threaded holes, it all went back together the way it’s supposed to.

 

[65swb45]

 

[65swb45]

I just talked Dave into pulling the heater box while the cooling system is open and giving it a refurb. Heater will get a little perk going back together: an NLA factory shutoff valve.

 

[Living in the Past]

I bought my 79 from a friend in 1997. He bought it a few years earlier and did nothing except use it primarily off road. It obviously had A/C at some point. He bought without a top and doors and all that was left of the A/C was a York compressor mounted on the right side of the engine. When I pulled the compressor out I found all three bolts missing from the front right motor mount to the block. With the compressor mounted the alignment to the block was off. Guess the easiest thing to do was just leave the bolts out. My friend used the 40 hard and surprised no other mounts cracked. Just got to love the quality of work from POs.

Should clarify picture is Marks.
Was the same motor mount on mine
Missing the bolt on the rubber isolator also rotation. Bolts to the block missing have no engine support.

 

[65swb45]

Cooling system is finally buttoned back up and valves properly adjusted. It took me a bit to get the Weber carb to idle properly (mechanical linkage on thermostatic choke) because they are not in my wheelhouse (Webers are for barbecuing!). But once I did, I could adjust the mixture too, and the carb seemed to be working fine. so I told Dave I was pushing a stock carb WAY down the list…for now. Still need to deal with the suspension, front axle, swapped driveshafts, yada yada.

Oh, and I got rid of that eyesore red heater hose and got some fresh black stuff in there because…


#BLACKHOSEMATTERS#