6/'72 FJ55: stock drivetrain swap to '84 FJ60 drivetrain

FJ60 4 speed flywheel housing modified for FJ55

Pictured here is the '84 FJ60's flywheel housing and the FJ55 flywheel housing to motor mount bracket.

The flywheel housings are different between the 6/72 FJ55 and '84 FJ60. One difference is that unlike with the 6/72 FJ55, the FJ60 does not have motor mounts attached to the flywheel housing. On the FJ60 it seems there are 3 total mount points supporting the engine and transmission: 2 mount points on the front of the engine and 1 under the transfer case. The 6/72 FJ55 has 4 in total: 2 on the front of engine and 2 on the flywheel housing. Some solution is needed to support the rear end of the 2F engine and transmission in the 6/72 FJ55 as the frame does not have attachment points for the crossmember which supports the mount point under the transfer case.

The FJ60's flywheel housing (2F to 4 speed) seems to be have been evolved from the same design as the 6/72 FJ55's (F to 3 speed). As such on the FJ60's there is almost the same interface for where the bracket would be on the 6/72 FJ55. The FJ55's bracket has 3 big bolt through-holes through which 3 12mm x 1.75 bolts attach the bracket to the flywheel housing on the 6/72 FJ55's flywheel housing.

The FJ60's flywheel housing comes with 2 (not 3) holes located in the exact same places as where the 3 holes are in the 6/72 FJ55's. In the FJ60 those 2 holes are drilled and tapped but are threaded for 10mm x 1.25 bolts, not 12mm x 1.75 bolts as is the case with the 6/72 FJ55. Those holes are not used to support the engine in the FJ60. I am guessing they were used to attach a bracket which simply positioned the clutch slave cylinder. I do not know as I did not pull the engine from the FJ60 and it came separated from its matching transmission, which I am also installing with the engine.

See my previous message for more details about the bracket and flywheel housing interface:
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showpost.php?p=8786470&postcount=12

So, the point is that the (pictured) FJ60's flywheel housing has been modified. It now has a 12mm x 1.75 threaded hole where the 3rd hole is in the 6/72 FJ55's flywheel housing. Hard to tell from the photo but the new hole is the one on the right. I test fitted the engine with the bell housing and two brackets (matching one is on the other side of the flywheel housing) installed on the FJ55 before the hole was drilled, so I know everything fits together in place.

The current plan for supporting the engine and transmission is as follows: in the rear on the the flywheel housing, 2 10mm x 1.25 bolts (10.9 hardened) and 1 12mm x 1.75 (stock) bolt holding each of the 2 FJ55 brackets onto the flywheel housing. The FJ55 rear motor mounts will be attached to the stock mount horns on the frame rails. The front will have the two legs from the 2F and will use the 2F motor mounts to attach to the original mount horns on the FJ55 frame rails. So the frame rails are unmodified and there will be a total of 4 mount points, all of them the original locations on the frame rails.

There will not be, at this time, a support under the transmission/transfer case. That will be added later. There may be a Fairey overdrive getting installed in the spring, or maybe some similar solution to keep the RPMs down while speeding along on the highway. Unfortunately, Poser doesn't seem to like the Faireys:
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showpost.php?p=1148636&postcount=9

Although the 4 speed transmission and its transfer case are heavier than the stock 3 speed, I think and hope this plan will be sufficient to support the engine for now. I do not plan on wheeling the truck hard until there is a support under the transfer case. If anyone thinks this is a bad idea, speak now please.

In terms of paint, the pictured can was used to paint the flywheel housing, but not the bracket (that one is Plastikoat engine enamel 216 New Ford Gray). I am not a fan of old-school rattle cans but that's what I have to work with; I'm not set up for hazardous painting, here. Gray was selected because it will help with early leak detection.

FJ60 flywheel housing

Here's a freshly painted FJ60 flywheel housing. Bolt holes were taped up before painting but everything else got a fresh coat. The original did not seem to have any coating on some mating surfaces. But I couldn't figure out why I should do the extra work to tape those surfaces off.

If anyone knows a reason why I should remove some of this paint, please speak up now.

Looks good, I like the way you work!

Thanks, Pablo. Learning the slow and hard way. For example, someone's idea of spraying a small bit of paint into a cup and using a q-tip like a low-grade paint brush for touch-up when you don't care what things look is a good idea. But my version of spraying into a styrofoam cup took it in a bad direction. The paint ate through the styrofoam in less than a minute.

Throw out bearing replacement tooling

Two "SST" for throw out bearing replacement.

The top photo is removal and it involves a large socket. The bottom photo is installation and involves a $5 bit from the plumbing department at ACE Hardware.

Clutch fork boot

SOR's 018-13B CLT FORK BOOT- fits 8/74-8/87 FJ40/55/60. It came simply in the pictured plastic bag. Only ID on it is a logo of a hexagon with "TG" inside it and the code: "31126-60021-A C5".

New one seems like a good fit. The old one is shot. I guess 30 years of road life bloated it? It came from the 10/83 FJ60's flywheel housing, not the '84 one I'm installing but part lookup seems to say they should be the same part.

Transmission cover gasket

Hopefully a 700c bicycle inner tube will make a great, cheap, reusable FJ55 tranny hump gasket. It has the perfect length for the task.

1. Cross cut the tube to one full length and cut out the valve stem.
2. Cut up the tube to 4 different lengths, 1 for each side of the cover. The cuts are not simple cross section cuts. Use a razor blade such that there will be little leftover squares of rubber (pictured) and each of the 4 lengths will have 2 correspondingly shaped square tabs, one on each end.
3. Use rubber cement (I got mine from the pictured inner tube patch kit) to glue the 4 lengths together via those tabs.
4. Place gasket where it will go on the cover.
5. Cut out the rounded corner.
6. Cut very small Xs at the bolt holes.
7. Push a bolt through each hole and use the razor to cut away now obvious excess bit of rubber.

One concern is to make sure the cover or floor pan doesn't have any irregularities, that will let water in. Your gasket may be alittle thin, to compensate for those bad spots.

I used what I had on hand, also. 1/8th thick dense neophrene, cut in strips.

I like the bellhousing color, are you carrying it through out?

Yeah, Scrapdaddy, I haven't tested this new gasket in place yet. I expect to be taking that cover off repeatedly in the next year or so until I'm satisfied with the engine and gearboxes. I didn't want to have to clean up dumdum goop every time. I'll report back when it's tested and debugged.

I'm running multiple paint tests i.e. I've got lots of differently colored components at this time. I will be overhauling and painting 2 FJ55s and 1 FJ40 I currently own. I haven't settled on an exact color but it will be something gray for leak detection purposes. I like the color of the bellhousing as well, thanks, and it is one of the best results so far but I want to see what it looks like in place. I want everything as lightly colored as possible without being the mechanical equivalent of publicly showing white underwear above jeans.

Low gloss but easy cleanup is another trade off I'm playing with. Technology-wise, I'm just burning through all these rattle cans I purchased.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showpost.php?p=8810102&postcount=86

I've cleaned and prepped rather thoroughly but already I am unhappy with how weak these 1K paints are. On the other hand, I do not trust these 3M half face charcoal canister masks enough to be playing with 2K epoxies and isocyanates.

Long term though I'll go for some 2K paint after I get a full supplied air set up. In the mean time, these rattle cans enable cheap enough color and gloss tests without endangering my health while doing a good enough short term job of keeping the oxygen and iron molecules from going to war.

Another temporary paint solution

This ain't no Freeborn Red but it's a cheap enough, close enough temporary solution to preventing oxygen from corrupting the minds of what steel is left. Rustoleum Painters Touch "249082 Satin Colonial Red"

2K paint including some high build primer, maybe even bondo, sounds like what will be needed for a full restoration. That or just reskin the door. This door essentially represents me learning the maximum scaling limits of what can productively be done with a couple of jars of navel jelly. I see reverse electrolysis pits in my future.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showpost.php?p=8826551&postcount=122

So since you are going with the 60 bellhousing, I'm assuming you are going to put in the crossmember off the 60 to support the transmission/split-case. What are your thoughts on a e-brake?

Tucker

FJ60 transfer case support crossmember

The FJ60's 4 speed and split transfer case are heavier than the stock 3 speed and smaller transfer case that are being replacing.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showpost.php?p=8792316&postcount=47

I was thinking, hoping, praying, that the modified bellhousing would be sufficient to support these heavier components, in the short term while not doing any heavy wheeling nor rock crawling. But long term I really want to use that mount point under the transfer case and somehow attach the FJ60's cross member to the frame rails. Then I would have a total of 5 points where the engine assembly would attach to the frame.

The FJ60's cross member and 2 brackets to attach it to the frame rail are almost exactly 29" at the widest when assembled, as shown poorly in this picture. That's a few inches short of what will be needed in between the FJ55's frame rails.

I actually have 2 sets of these available, and a welder. So, I will at least assemble and test drive the truck with just the 4 original mount points of the FJ55 set up. Then I will know exactly where the cross member needs to attach to the frame rails. I have not made up my mind as to how that will be done and am open to suggestions.

I've got a H42/split-case in my '79 that is using the stock bellhousing transmission mounts, I'm going to a H55 5speed and will be installing a later one-piece cross member since it is even longer. I get quite a bit of movement with my current setup, but the MB diesel in mine uses really soft motor mounts to dampen vibration (yours should not be as bad). I'd still recommend a crossmember, the one you have will work but you're going to have to modify it. I'd bolt the transmission mount/center piece to the transmission on a jack and asses your measurements. You can only mount it at one spot on the transmission, so that's where you'll want to mount it to your frame.

I just put a rear axle out of a '81 FJ40 under my truck to gain the integrated drum ebrake, was wondering what you planned?

Tucker

I was planning on using the rear axle from the FJ60 for the same reason: need a emergency brake. I've got a donor sitting around and others seem to be happy with having done the same previously. I purchased some new spring perches for the axle.

threadchaser said:

I was planning on using the rear axle from the FJ60 for the same reason: need a emergency brake. I've got a donor sitting around and others seem to be happy with having done the same previously. I purchased some new spring perches for the axle.

Click to expand...

So you will inboard the perches on the housing?

Sounds good!

threadchaser said:

I want everything as lightly colored as possible without being the mechanical equivalent of publicly showing white underwear above jeans.

Click to expand...

This is pure gold...

PabloCruise said:

So you will inboard the perches on the housing?

Sounds good!

Click to expand...

Don't you have interference with the pumpkin, on the short side. Might have to fab something up.

I can't remember who it was, that did a great job with the perch.

I was under the impression that putting in the FJ60 front axle definitely was a pumpkin misalignment "cut and turn" and/or "outboard the spring hangers" hassle, which is why I'm punting on that for now.

I was thinking maybe to upgrade the front axle when power steering happens but in the short term I was just going to rebuild the existing FJ55 front axle with the FJ60's guts (knuckles and disc brakes, and match the pumpkins front and back FJ55's 4.11s or FJ60's 3.73s).

For the rear axle though, I thought I read that it was pretty straight forward. Thanks for the heads up though. I haven't dug exhaustively deep on the subject so I will before proceeding down that road.

All changes at this stage start at the engine and end at the driveshafts. Right after that I'll have to pull trigger on some parking brake solution.

"Parking brakes, to god-damned hell with parking brakes! We have no parking brakes. In fact, we don't need parking brakes."

other than opening up the inboard side of the passenger perch, there's no problem with the rear as there is in the front when swapping fj60 axles. based upon my recallection of how far from the spring the rear diff is on the 62...Will confirm with tape measure tomorrow-wifes gone to ladies nite. I wanna say there's no trouble at tall with the 60/62 rears...might swap in the 60/62s sway set-up while at it. I am rocking the H42short/splitcase with only the modified bellhousing- just as you have done. I do have a crossmember from a 62 auto trans mounted to the frame to use for a rear bushing mount, but haven't gone so far as to get the bushings and install them yet. so for now, it will at least slow the fall of the gearboxes should the B/H break. dammit, why'd I say that outloud you'll be fine to tool round town; I've laid about 7K miles of mixed mountain paved/dirt/highway/washboards on the set-up so far...

Right engine bay post battery acid recovery

Rivers of battery acid must have run down the right apron over the years. The apron and frame rail under it have been derusted and painted. This is not pretty but at this time it is all about stopping the rust. I will be tearing the entire front body apart when it comes time to weld in various bits of replacement steel and do a full paint job at that time.

Here's the same area during fail #1 of the rust removal process (Napa Rust Treatment the results of which I didn't like but I think I may have misused it; abrasives and phosphoric acid were much more thorough, if slow) and before painting:
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showpost.php?p=8810629&postcount=90

On the apron is Krylon Dual Paint and Primer 8818 gloss smoke gray. It was sprayed out of the rattle can and into a cup and then applied with a foam brush. This prevented an overspray mess in a garage that is not mine but the paint formulation is really too watery for application via paint brush. On the frame rail is Krylon Rust Tough Enamel RTA 9203 Semi-Flat Black. This was thicker and brushed on more easily than the Krylon Dual.

This is another situation where I think the mechanical strippers (various wire wheels and cups as well as abrasives on drill and angle grinder) and navel jelly were great tools but this job was too big for them. Next time I will try sandblasting, wet with a pressure washer. I got one of these I'll be playing with:
http://www.watercannon.com/p-3161-c...novi-reverberi-pump-40gpm-4200psi-50-kit.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBGMFI4FkWA&noredirect=1