My Conversion (or how I spent spring '06)

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fe sus

fe sus

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Feb 18, 2006
Threads
217
Messages
1,306
Location
Olalla
Website
www.rhodescreations.com
Hi mud haters! I thought I'd post a little play by play of my 3B/H55f from an 83 BJ60 into an 84 FJ60 swap!

First things first, I sold my 99 Ford Ranger. It bored me. Wow! I got $7000! I want a diesel Land Cruiser! Buy and import one for $7000? Not a f*cking chance!

So... I bought a nice little rust free FJ60 from OR/CA ($3350) and brought it on up here to WA, then found a rusty but well running BJ60 up in BC ($2000USD) and brought it down here... ahem...
Here they are on the way back from the great white north!

FJandBJ1_lr.jpg


Next I pulled everything that looked like it might be of value from the BJ60 and started trying to sell the stuff I didn't need...
bj60_no_engine.jpg

since I began parting it, I've sold well over $1200 worth of parts, with pending sales that will put me over the original purchase price while leaving me with a nifty 3B and 5 speed for my rig (affectionately known as Brown Sugar).
Then pulled the 2F (still for sale!)
2F.jpg

Welded in the engine mounts that were loving sawzalled from the BJ60 frame, which itself was chopped up and is now well on it's way to becoming re-bar...
p_enginemount.jpg

installed the 3B/H55f combo...
3B_install.jpg

3B_installed.jpg

and that's where I am now!
Tonight I hope to get some more crap hooked up, i.e. drive-shafts and vacuum stuff, then the fuel system and coolong system... should be rolling by the end of the week!
Oh, and I've done this all while keeping my girlfriend (barely) and working a full time job! I pulled the first part from the donor rig 5 weeks ago... current project cost of about $6000... but expect to end up in the area of $5k when it's done... or when I mpve on to the next phase... anyone wanna sell me a cheap AXT? Heh...
Good luck to anyone wanting to do this! It's not the easiest thing, but it's not rocket science... more like... weird science... except with out that hot chick coming out of my computer....
 
SMART way to get a good running, relatively rustless BJ60--well done!

RE: turbo--you've seen the turbo threads in the FAQ here right? Your skills are 100% begging for a junkyard turbo project....

Welcome to the diesel cruiser club!

Cheers,
B
 
Great! Now remember not to throw out too much good stuff off the BJ.

I would build your own turbo. read all the threads you can on it. Very much discussed on here.

Congrates on the job. Please tell as much as you can.
 
Thanks for the support all... I'm off to the garage to hook up the cooling system and repair some minor brake line issues... last night all I managed to do was the power steering... the cooling lines had to be swapped and they're not super easy to get at unless you pull the front clip... which I was trying to avoid... anyway, it's done now. I'll snap some photos and post em up later on... depending how late I stay at the garage...
 
Great thread ,we love the diy diesel swaps. Keep it comin:cheers:
 
SO... last night sucked... I was bolting up the drive-shafts and found that the flanges on my 373 diffs don't match the flanges on my BJ60 drive shafts... hopefully I can cob something together from the old shafts/411 diffs... is there any reason why I can't just remove the flanges from both sets of diffs and swap them out? I want to keep the 373 gearing for fuel economy reasons...
 
fe sus said:
is there any reason why I can't just remove the flanges from both sets of diffs and swap them out? I want to keep the 373 gearing for fuel economy reasons...
Click to expand...

No reason at all. Both rigs would have had 3.7s but I'd look for some 4.11s if you are going to run anything larger than stock tires.
 
Hmmm... so I've heard. The BJ60 came with 4.11 gearing (or so I'm told), but I'd really rather stick with the 3.7... I know it will cost me some low range, but I plan to take this rig all over north america... there's a Yukon trip and a Baja trip in the works... thanks for the confirmation on my flange idea... I'm back to it...
 
You can always swap later but I think you'll find you'll rarely be able to use 5th until you turbo. Probably be ok with 31s or less.

Also, check the ratio on the FJ60 t-case. It might have the 2.3 gears (the t-cases behind Canadian four speeds did anyway) and they'd interchange with the 1.96 ones behind the five speed. That's effectively the same as the difference between 4:1s and 3.7s in the axles. It'll get you some low range back with bigger tires.
 
fe sus said:
The BJ60 came with 4.11 gearing (or so I'm told), QUOTE]
unless the PO changed out the center sections then the diffs will be 3.7.
you can tell by counting the teeth ont he crown and pinion. the crown will have 37 teeth. if the pinion has 10 then the diffs are 3.7, if the pnion has 9 teeth then it is 4.11...
Click to expand...
 
Not sure if this answers yoru question lowenbrau, but I bought this diesel rig w/ a 5 spd installed... and I just swapped over the whole drive train, t-case and all, while keeping the drive shafts (they were different lengths than those on the FJ).

So if I have a CDN 5 speed, that would be... 1.96? This mated with 3.73 diffs would mean... no low end? I'm a bit lost...

I didn't think to check and see if the bolt patterns on the drive shaft flanges were the same... and that's the issue I now have. I tried to remove the flanges & spider joins but no luck... I'm thinking it may be time to take them to a driveline shop and let them deal with it.

I don't know what the PO did to the diffs, all I know is that at this point, I really don't want to pull the axles... I'd much rather use the FJ axles w/ 3.7 gearing and fab some flanges than deal with swappign gears and/or axles. Okay.

Besides all drive shafts... I seem to have a pretty severe leak from the rear of the t-case. I'm told there's a seal back there that should be replaced. Anyone know where to find one? Part #?

Tonight I plan to hook up the clutch and the throttle... those are the last two PITA things I have to do... then maybe I can start this beast...
 
Hi All:

Matthew, I'm very surprised that the drive shaft flanges don't match!

Sorry, my bad on the 4.1 ratio diffs; I thought I had read that spec somewhere for Cdn-spec BJ60s.

You *might* be able to swap the t-case gears; this in part depends upon whether the idler shafter diameter between the two 'cases is the same.

Regards,

Alan
 
fe sus said:
So if I have a CDN 5 speed, that would be... 1.96? This mated with 3.73 diffs would mean... no low end? I'm a bit lost...
Click to expand...

My Hj-60 87 comes factory with 2H and H55F tranny, split case come with 1.96:1 and 3.70 R&P.
 
To confirm. The flanges will swap. Just remove the nut on the end of the pinion and remember to stake it again after the swap.

The later round flanges can also be drilled to accept both patterns.

Another option is to pull the old shafts apart at the slipyoke and swap yokes.

The TLC FAQ indicated that all US H42s came with 2.3 gearsets in the t-case. You can swap the gears in an afternoon from your gasser to your diesel as long as they are both '85 or older. Replace the seals while you are in there.

Good luck
 
bigbrowndog, I wish I had those flanges... ah... that's a lot of leaves in the springs... you must have two engines?/?/?
lowenbrau, I thought of the slipyoke swap but unfortunately the shafts are different lengths... as to the diffs, I've transferred the diesel drivetrain into the gasser and kept the gasser diffs/axles. So no need to change out those gears. I was hoping to avoid pulling the transfer case apart, but since the rear seal is junk I guess I might as well... minor issue there is that I've laready sold the FJ tranfer case. Perhaps that was a bit hasty.
Alan, no big deal on the gearing... I'm learning more about 60 series LCs than I ever thought (or hoped) I would...
Clutch is hooked up. Throttle hooked up. Batteries ready to go as soon as I sort out the driveshaft issues. Will post pics when this things leaves the garage... soon!
 
question: I ruled out switching the shafts at the slipyokes because this would have meant I'd need to reverse the shafts... can I do that? i.e. remove rear shaft, swap yoke, rotate 180, re-install? seems iffy to me, but it sure would be easier...
 
fe sus said:
question: I ruled out switching the shafts at the slipyokes because this would have meant I'd need to reverse the shafts... can I do that? i.e. remove rear shaft, swap yoke, rotate 180, re-install? seems iffy to me, but it sure would be easier...
Click to expand...

short answer yes you can ..
 
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