1970 in CT (1 Viewer)

[ryanwk628]

Someone near me just posted a JT outfitters power steering kit on Craigslist with a used mini truck box. Asking $650. My 33s are right on the upper limit of a mini truck system. Worth it? Power steering seems to get a lot of love in the best mods thread. If I did it, now would be the time right?

I would definitely want to modify my air cleaner to clock it out of the way.

EDIT: I need to stick to the plan and finish what I started. I think when I eventually do PS it will be a mini truck setup. It just looks the least invasive and I probably wont go with JT after doing some reading. I am going to keep my eye out for a used PS gear box and rebuild it. I knew a few mini truck guys who may have one kicking around.

 

[ryanwk628]

I took advantage of this January thaw we saw up here in the North East to roll my cruiser out and degrease some of what Ive uncovered. First the paint scraper, then a can of degreaser and the hose. I also got a lot of parts painted.

I put on the new water pump and the lower T stat housing, getting ready for when I reinstall the radiator and fill up the coolant. Those SS hose clamps @Racer65 sells are nice!

Not sure why it is rotating my pictures....

Anyway I worked on the radiator getting that assembled. I went with the 3 core. It fits in the bracket nicely but I can see where the Champion unit is missing one hole. I transferred it from the shroud.

This is the drain that everyone complains about. I am going to try to make an extension. Shouldnt be hard, just need to match the thread size first.

Im going to use a Derale 15" SS flex fan. People have talked about the steel ones fatiguing and breaking. $100+ for an OEM plastic one was not sitting right with me. The water pump is surface that interfaced with the old fan was 1.125" dia. This is 5/8". Found a spacer/adapter. Both are on Amazon I will post pictures when its done.

 

[ryanwk628]

Little things like this heater hose grommet are holding me up from putting everything back together. I ordered it a week ago but it has yet to ship. Same with the fuel line fittings I ordered to make a new line for my Trollhole carb where the fitting is tapped 90 degrees from stock.

I the meantime Im getting anxious so I drew up a battery hold down and asked one of our shop guys to cut it out on our waterjet. After working on my FJ40 this weekend it was nice to come into work and find this on my desk! I will weld on some 1/2" angle and paint it black.

 

[Tancruiser]

Oh I want one .

 

[ryanwk628]

Got a lot of odds and ends in the mail this weekend so I can button up my cooling system update but while I have the space I'm crossing off a few other things.

The heat riser butterfly has been flapping around in the exhaust manifold. I pulled the carb and intake. Thankfully the intake was not cracked as I was concerned it maybe as the heat riser tends to want to be in the up and down orientation.

I'm going to zip wheel the ends of the rod off, put it in the warm position and put a couple of tacks on the ends to seal them up. That should take care of the valve flapping in the breeze and I won't have to worry about cooking my intake.


I'm also replacing the exhaust gasket with a Remflex. This one had a small leak and while I was in there I might as well. I circled where it was leaking.

This thing is thick! 3/16" maybe. Does it compress down? I'm almost hesitant to use the small one between the exhaust and intake because of the thickness

 

[antFJ]

i did a ton of research and decided to take the flapper valve out and get the holes welded shut on my exhaust manifold. The design of the older manifolds is different than the 2F version that had a plate between the two. If you try to put a plate between yours you will have to custom make it (I'm pretty sure no one sells one for the F) and even if you can get one it will most likely mess up the alignment with the intake manifold because it will be too thick. I remember reading something about the air flow designs and that the F engine intake is much less likely to crack.

bolt your manifolds loosely together then bolt them to the truck then final assembly.

I used graphite paint and brushed it into the cast iron manifold... pretty awesome stuff. Soaks into the cast iron and won't burn off or rust. oh and might as well get it machined flat while you're at it

 

[ryanwk628]

Switching to a trollhole carb so here are some side by side pics for reference. There are some obvious and not so obvious differences. The way the linkages are is different, not bad just different. I had to cut my throttle cable to thread it into the linkage and lock it in with a set screw. It's a one wire set up which I'm going to run to the coil like the old carb was rigged. I had to cut off the shaft to clear the PCV input on the carb spacer like many others have. Overall I'm excited! It looks great.

Only one vac input though? My previous carb had three. Am I missing something?

 

[ryanwk628]

I checked my manifolds against a straight edge and they seemed very good. I decided not paint them mostly because they haven't been for 47 years and I maybe going to headers in the future.

I put the flapper in the warm position and tacked it in place. My logic was that it was designed to run with this and it will shield the underside of the intake from excessive heat. It also meant I did not need to make plugs. Once tacked I cut off the ends (not shown) to clean it up and to also remove where I touched off on the shaft hahaha

The remflex gasket says it crushes 50% and will take up variations of 1/16". I'm well within that. I painted everything with copper coat and torqued it to spec (25 ft lbs). It does compress, and also leaves a lot hanging out. I used carb gaskets this time after I found out the PO did not. Also replaced the oil filter brackets with JIS. No 13mm wrenches for me.

Did the engine bay heater hoses with Gates hoses with the SS two wire clamps. One 6' length of 5/8" from Amazon was enough to do both. Also fixed the PCV set up. The PO did some hose in a hose thing because he didn't have the grommet and used an aftermarket valve. It's all Toyota now. Since the fuel fitting on the carb is 90 degrees to what I had I'm going to make a new fuel line. Very happy with the progress.

Stainless Flex fan mounted to the gates water pump with the flex a lite spacer/adapter and some JIS bolts. Easily clears the new belt. Should move air pretty well and was half the cost of an OEM plastic fan for both the fan and spacer, plus free two day shipping with Amazon prime.

 

[antFJ]

see post #18... i think you're going to want to re-consider welding that valve closed. Like I said the F engine manifold operates differently than the 2F

mr. toyota says "If the valve is stuck in the closed position the intake manifold will be subject to excessive heat after engine warms up to its normal operating temperature resulting in poor acceleration, lack of power, and poor high speed performance."

Heat Riser Block off plate...

 

[ryanwk628]

see post #18... i think you're going to want to re-consider welding that valve closed. Like I said the F engine manifold operates differently than the 2F

mr. toyota says "If the valve is stuck in the closed position the intake manifold will be subject to excessive heat after engine warms up to its normal operating temperature resulting in poor acceleration, lack of power, and poor high speed performance."

Heat Riser Block off plate...

Thanks, a very good thread I referenced before doing this. I think when you say closed you're describing cold but I welded the valve in the hot position, which is the position on the right in the picture below. Logic being I don't intend to drive my 40 in the winter and it has been operating the last few years with it flapping in the breeze. Headers don't use a heat riser and work just fine. If I welded it in the cold position it would be an obstruction to smooth exhaust flow and continue to warm the carb beyond what was intended possibly cracking the intake. I feel like removing it all together would create a void in the elbow that would be a detriment to exhaust flow where you would have turbulent air swirling in the corner and continue to heat the intake. So I welded it in the position it was designed to be in when hot.

Pighead's reply in post #21 is more inline with my thinking: "The manual makes for funny reading in a few places, I figger it was just a bad day at the translator's typewriter..." hahaha.

EDIT:
I drew this cross section to illustrate what I was concerned about if I removed the riser all together. I think it would both impact flow and continue to warm to intake without a block off plate.

 

[antFJ]

those are the pictures i was looking for! sounds like you've got it figured out

 

[ryanwk628]

I made a new fuel line tonight to work with the trollhole carb (input tapped 90 degrees over.) Ordered 25' of 5/16" line. I'm glad I did because it took four tries to get it right!

Tube cutter I borrowed from a friend works awesome

I got a $12 Tekton Amazon Prime bender. It's cast aluminum and impressed me for the price. Tricky to get used to though and awkward to hold both ends but also keep the tube oriented how you want it while you clamp it in. A friend to hold things in place would help.

The finished fuel line. I started from the 90 over the t stat and worked out from there. Working from one end saw too much stack up. This way it was only two bends to the end from the 90, then trimmed the excess so it bottomed out in each hole and installed the Toyota crush fittings.
2 x Union Nut (90402-13041)
2 x Fuel Line Olive (96395-71400)

 

[SteveH]

Excellent work and photos. Thanks for saving another one!

 

[ryanwk628]

Excellent work and photos. Thanks for saving another one!

Thanks! I couldn't do it without Mud as a resource and really appreciate the support from other members.

Wish I could do a full frame off but I really dont have the room or resources so its a rolling build. Dealing with all these little things now, fighting rust and coating new bolts with never seize will make things easier when I do buy a new tub. Thats the plan for now at least.

 

[Cruiser Parking Only]

Great Thread so Far! Nice detailed pictures. What part of CT are you in?

 

[ryanwk628]

Great Thread so Far! Nice detailed pictures. What part of CT are you in?

Thanks! I'm on the other side of the state in Newtown right off i84 about 20 minutes east of the NY border. I do love Mystic though! My friend just bought a home out there

 

[ryanwk628]

My question about the differences in the vacuum ports on the new carb vs what I had opened up a can of worms looking at distributor options, dented side covers, vac advance theory, etc. I have a vac retard dizzy which Im told (or searched and found instructions telling me) to cap the vac port and set the advance to 10 degrees. So I guess I wont need my vacuum switching valve in this set up... ?

I posted this in a stand alone thread with a two part questions:
1) What to do with my vac switching valve and just wanting to be clear Im not missing something. Disconnect and remove? Leave it hooked up?
2) Anyone know of a diagram for the 4 ported vac switching valve so I can plumb it up if I get a vac advance dizzy (trollhole, DUI, rebuilt toyota)? Or would I just port it right to the carb, again not needing my switching valve.

EDIT: Im getting some good information in that other thread and will update both when I figure this out.

 

[ryanwk628]

Been doing a lot of little things before I have the bib and radiator out of the way. Worked on the splash guards a bit part of which was essentially rusted to the frame. Drilling out and re-tapping those holes on the frame was fun with the engine in the way. I wish I took a photo of the 1/4" angle driver attachment with a chuck stuck in it to hold the tap drill but I needed two hands to hold it.

27 years of caked on grease and grime was nasty. Soak with degreaser, scrape a layer off, repeat. In hindsight I probably shouldnt be doing this in my sink.

Stacking tacks to remake the ears. After they were welded I ground these smooth and shaped it up with the dremel then POR15ed them.

Now I can put everything back in and get it back to running so I can move it around while I work on it

 

[mdsims]

Been doing a lot of little things before I have the bib and radiator out of the way. Worked on the splash guards a bit part of which was essentially rusted to the frame. Drilling out and re-tapping those holes on the frame was fun with the engine in the way. I wish I took a photo of the 1/4" angle driver attachment with a chuck stuck in it to hold the tap drill but I needed two hands to hold it.

27 years of caked on grease and grime was nasty. Soak with degreaser, scrape a layer off, repeat. In hindsight I probably shouldnt be doing this in my sink.
View attachment 1399342

Stacking tacks to remake the ears. After they were welded I ground these smooth and shaped it up with the dremel then POR15ed them.
View attachment 1399343

Now I can put everything back in and get it back to running so I can move it around while I work on it

I'd be murdered if my fiancé caught me doing that. And it's my house!

 

[ryanwk628]

Things have been slow on the 40. Winter finally showed up in the NE and I have been slammed at work. My current work project is reverse engineering NLA replacement gears/gear boxes and 5 axis gear milling for small batch orders (vs hobbing.) Trying to get cutting time down and avoid specialized tooling. Approximating the involute within reasonable tolerances.

Add to that it is budget season in CT and myself being a municipal volunteer, my free time has been spent fighting with our state which proposed to pull the rug out from under us regarding education funding midway through our budget process. Lots of things I would rather be doing, like wrenching on my 40, but someone has to do it.