Hey there, my friend and I are college students up in NC, he lives in a house and there's an FJ40 parked in the basement and has been sitting there since 2002. The cruiser isn't even that rusty, relatively speaking. The guy who owns the rig told the past occupants if they get it running they could just have it... Yea I know kinda crazy. He's got an 80 and I got a BJ75 Troopy, among my father's multiple cruisers as well. Here's some photos below. The entire front end is very solid! Even the front fenders. The rear is where it gets pretty crusty but nothing unsafe or impossible to repair.
Well yesterday I went over and in a couple of hours we had it running! At first no power was getting to anything, so I pulled the main ground for the battery off and cleaned everything up, boom power. Then we had no spark, sanded the points, cleaned them with electronic cleaner... still no spark. It turned out it was literally as simple as 6 new spark plugs. Put some fuel down the carb and BOOM it runs! There is no key for it sadly so I had to just jump the ignition coil and the starter for us to get spark and the starter to work but it runs! smooth and well. See the video below. Excuse the crunchy noise, the guy running the wire to the starter isn't as knowledgeable and I forgot to tell him to take the wire off the battery when it started to run, therefore the starter was still engaging while the engine was spinning.
Cool ok, it runs. Free FJ40 we hope...
Being a 68 it has the single circuit drums all around and there is no fluid in the reservoir, clutch it still holding tho. 3 on the tree feels fine. It really seems like the brakes at the moment are the only thing holding it from being able to move around a bit. There are no rear wheels, tires, or drums... all of that is missing. My guess is someone got half way through an axle seal job (since I found an old rear axle seal sealed in a box) and just lost interest.
It seems decently original... not totally screwed with or jerry rigged.
Well yesterday I went over and in a couple of hours we had it running! At first no power was getting to anything, so I pulled the main ground for the battery off and cleaned everything up, boom power. Then we had no spark, sanded the points, cleaned them with electronic cleaner... still no spark. It turned out it was literally as simple as 6 new spark plugs. Put some fuel down the carb and BOOM it runs! There is no key for it sadly so I had to just jump the ignition coil and the starter for us to get spark and the starter to work but it runs! smooth and well. See the video below. Excuse the crunchy noise, the guy running the wire to the starter isn't as knowledgeable and I forgot to tell him to take the wire off the battery when it started to run, therefore the starter was still engaging while the engine was spinning.
Cool ok, it runs. Free FJ40 we hope...
Being a 68 it has the single circuit drums all around and there is no fluid in the reservoir, clutch it still holding tho. 3 on the tree feels fine. It really seems like the brakes at the moment are the only thing holding it from being able to move around a bit. There are no rear wheels, tires, or drums... all of that is missing. My guess is someone got half way through an axle seal job (since I found an old rear axle seal sealed in a box) and just lost interest.
It seems decently original... not totally screwed with or jerry rigged.