Builds 1966 FJ40 Frame-Off Build (3rd Generation Owner) (2 Viewers)

[handcannon]

It may be too late to get this info to your machinist, but Chevy valves can be used instead of Toyota. The Chevy valve stem is slightly bigger than Toyota allowing the stock valve bushings to be enlarged enough to fit the Chevy valve. The Chevy valve head is slightly larger also letting the opening in the head be enlarged slightly.

Although I have never done this yet, I looked into it before I found that my F head was cracked. Do some searching on here to get first hand info on it.

Don

 

[Rock40]

Yeah, probably too late. The Toyota valves were still in good enough shape to have ground and this machinist does very good work. Interesting info tho, I didn't know any of that

 

[Rock40]

This afternoon was frame straightening/cleanup time. The rear frame crossmember was pretty hammered from having a large bumper welded onto it in the past. The bumper was welded in three places and the body shop in California torched it off. Jason and I knew the passenger side rear frame was a bit caved in already from a likely DUI hit/run accident while the 40 was parked on the street several years ago.

Here's what I started with...

Lots of grinding, sanding and straightening ahead...

 

[Rock40]

This is the inner portion of the rear passenger side frame rail, obviously cracked and caved in

Hard to see but this is the external part of the frame with a straight edge across it

I made this angled piece of steel in prep of straightening things. The thought behind it was spreading out force so as not to dimple the frame while at the same time being able to hammer up inside the frame rail.

I used a large piece of steel angle iron as a backing plate and secured it to the frame with large clamps. I wanted to make sure that the frame was not hammered too far back out.

 

[Rock40]

While doing this work I found these old 8mmx1.25 fasteners snapped off in the frame. They'd been painted over quite some time ago...

I love using the MIG to burn these old broken bolts out. Most of them literally twist out handtight after zapping them.

I went through the whole frame and removed all the other broken bolts also. These were the ones from the drivers side (rear) spring hanger

I noticed that the center of the rear frame crossmember was also pretty bent up, probably from towing?? The picture doesn't actually do it justice for just how bent it was

 

[Rock40]

Finished center frame rail. Jason, if you're OK with it, I'd like to weld the diagonal supports and the crossmember together so that they can't separate in the future again. If you look closely, you can see the frame cracked where somebody drilled a hole right in the center. I'll weld that up.

And here's how straight I was able to get the rear passenger side. It's within a 1/16" which is as close as I can get it. It was probably nearly a 1/2" caved in when I started.

The frame will still need some metal body filler to smooth everything out but it's pretty darn close now. The passenger side will also need to be drilled out and welded to prevent it from cracking any further.

 

[Jason Reed]

Do your magic @Rock40. Weld in the diagonal supports and "Make the FJ40 Great Again".

 

[Rock40]

Pretty slow today, I'm working on fixing the skid plate mounts. At some point, the OEM "nutserts" were drilled out of the lower frame rails and there should be 6 which hold the skid plate on. SAE hardware was being used instead but it was very hard (if not practically impossible) to get the skid plate bolted up with the drive train in place. You can see where the factory nut used to sit inside the frame rail.

This is a pretty low tech fix but it should last forever. I had a bunch of 8mmx1.25 flange nuts and I blasted them all down to bare metal. I cleaned the inside of the frame as well as I could, got each nut straight and then burned them in...

There's not enough room to fully weld all around the nut but these should work perfectly as is

 

[Jason Reed]

Great work. Those MM nuts welded in will look factory after the powder coat. Geez- SAE being found everywhere on this FJ40. What is going on? More fixes I wasn't told about I guess.

 

[Rock40]

Thanks Jason, I got back to this after attending a birthday party this afternoon. The radiator support had also been molested a bit and mixed up with SAE hardware. The two lower studs were gone completely and the 6 radiator mounting points had been drilled/tapped for 3/8x16 hardware.

I sourced up some correct 10mmx1.25 cap screws (they will use the correct 14mm head nut) and welded them into the lower portion of the mount.

Upper mount drill/tapped for SAE stuff..

I located another 6 8mmx1.25 flange nuts (they are Toyota, I think left over from my 1HD-FT swapped and burned them in. Now the mount is back to "factory like".

 

[Rock40]

I also clamped the rear frame crossmember together and ran some welds on the two frame pieces. Jason, there were two very large and ugly holes in the bottom rail of the frame. It looked like somebody had burned them through with a torch, really awful. You won't need them for your rear tow mount and they were not factory. I filled them in.

 

[Rock40]

So, I knew the rocker assembly oil feed tube was bent but I didn't really appreciate just how bent until I laid it next to an NOS one...

Thanks Mark! 65swb45 This new one will be perfect!

 

[handcannon]

Yeah, probably too late. The Toyota valves were still in good enough shape to have ground and this machinist does very good work. Interesting info tho, I didn't know any of that

In situations similar to what you are in, where the valve guides (and the valve stems also) are worn beyond specs, the guides can be bored out for the Chevy valve stems. When doing this the valves can be replaced with Chevy valves without the added expense of replacing valve guides also. You do get the very slight advantage of the increased valve head size of the Chevy valves, although you could probably never tell unless you were rebuilding for maximum racing advantage.

Don

 

[Rock40]

Spent the whole morning pulling the last little bits and pieces apart. There are SO MANY little joints in the column shift/indirect 4WD shift assembly. Some of them were stuck pretty tight

Jason, here's the pile of smallish parts that I could potentially send back to you for powdercoating. I have a pile of bigger stuff that can be done here locally, just tell me what you want me to send to California.

Jason, you will also need to address your fuel tank. I pulled the filter apart and this stuff is the consistency of fine sand. the bowl was full of it

Found another broken/repaired part. This is the shift pivot point for the 4WD rod. It looks like it broke at some point and it was sloppily repaired using a 3/8x16 bolt welded onto the Toyota piece.

 

[65swb45]

In situations similar to what you are in, where the valve guides (and the valve stems also) are worn beyond specs, the guides can be bored out for the Chevy valve stems. When doing this the valves can be replaced with Chevy valves without the added expense of replacing valve guides also. You do get the very slight advantage of the increased valve head size of the Chevy valves, although you could probably never tell unless you were rebuilding for maximum racing advantage.

Don

Don

You do know that the F135 valves are a different animal than the F145 and 2F valves, right?

 

[Rock40]

Got the call, head is totally done as of today, I'll be picking it up tomorrow and I'll post pics then. The short block will be going in to the same rebuilder mid-April

 

[Rock40]

Working toward getting everything cleaned up for powdercoating and CAD plating. I cleaned the huge chunks of grease off the bottom of the steering shaft tube and saw this....

The bushing is obviously bent but in addition, I think the tube itself is also tweaked. My first thought is the guys taking the tub off the frame got hung up on the shaft and bent it.

Spent the majority of the day cleaning parts and making sure I'm not missing any bolts/nuts/washers for CAD plating

 

[Rock40]

Piles of parts...

Here's the carnage pile from today: steering wheel upper/horn bushing, rear engine/oil pan girdle (hammered to death), 3 shift linkage pivot ball boots which are practically fossilized, rock hard and immediately split apart and the 4WD shift pivot (fixed years ago wit SAE hardware)

 

[Rock40]

The head is back....

 

[handcannon]

Don

You do know that the F135 valves are a different animal than the F145 and 2F valves, right?

I wasn't aware that they were different. Maybe you, and/or someone else, can enlighten me on the differences.

Don