1973 FJ40 SM465 Swap (2 Viewers)

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I am starting an SM465 swap thread to document what I’m doing in the hopes it helps others. Also, I’ll probably have a million questions and need advice. I have a 1973 FJ40 with a SBC 350 in it attached to the Toyota 3 speed transmission and transfer case. The drivetrain is leaking bad and I have the SM465 from another project. I also have an old AA adapter attached to another 3 speed case I am swapping in.

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It’s being put together after a bad last few years. I got it up in TN two years ago and my Dad has done some good work taking care of rust and replacing some of the metal. It was rotted out bad in a lot of places but it’s starting to come together. So, there’s no transmission hump right now which made it easier to get to the transmission and TC.

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As you can see, the transmission and TC got hung up on the exhaust. It took a lot of moving and pushing and pulling to eventually get it out. I had to disassemble the TC linkage because it was hitting the frame. The Harbor Freight transmission jack wouldn’t go low enough to drop it out (picture) so I had to Jack the truck up to get it out. The motor had support under the oil pan and it got jacked up too. Finally got it pulled out.

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I’m replacing with a rebuilt SM465 and an older style AA adapter to a Toyota 3 speed TC. It looks like there is a leak at the sealed bearing on the AA input shaft. I got a new bearing to replace this one. I called AA and they said there were no other seals underneath the shaft so I hope replacing the bearing will stop some of the leak. I got a gasket set so I am replacing all of them in the TC too.

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I’ve posted a lot of stuff and I hope I’m not being redundant on here. I’m now at the point of replacing the bearing on the input shaft of the TC and possibly (probably) having to cut the exhaust (pics) to be able to fit the SM465 and TC back in.

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I’m replacing the flywheel, clutch, and pressure plate from a lightly used 72 Monte Carlo. The bell housing is from that same setup. I’m going to get that installed soon. I bought a hydraulic throwout bearing kit and extra braided line to eliminate the slave cylinder and fork.
 
If you pull the seats you might be able to get it in from the top. I used an engine hoist and installed my NV4500 through the passenger door. I was also able to rig a sling off the roll cage and had a transmission jack under it for extra support when moving things around.
 
If you pull the seats you might be able to get it in from the top. I used an engine hoist and installed my NV4500 through the passenger door. I was also able to rig a sling off the roll cage and had a transmission jack under it for extra support when moving things around.
Thanks. I’ll probably try that. It’s really tight going from underneath. I really don’t want to have to cut the exhaust but I might have to on one of them. The SM465 is a lot bigger than the factory 3 speed.
 
I go from the top also , I use a jig, tripod type thing or tie it to my roll bar and hang it from a come a long ,gives u room to get in and work and you can swig it all around where ever u need it to be to slide it into place. Nice, I love my SM465. My kits pretty old too, I used a two wheel drive transmission, keep up the good work

,,spud shaft

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I go from the top also , I use a jig tripod type thing or tie it to my roll bar and hang it from a come a long gives u room to get in and work and can swig it all around where ever u need it to ge to slide it on to place. Nice I love my SM465. My kits pretty old too I used two wheel drive transmission keep up the good work

,,spud shaft

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Yeah, guess I’ll take the seats out so I’ll have more room. Dropping it in from the top will allow more room to move it around. Great pics on your setup. Way more splines than I have on mine! Ha ha.
 
I’m replacing with a rebuilt SM465 and an older style AA adapter to a Toyota 3 speed TC. It looks like there is a leak at the sealed bearing on the AA input shaft. I got a new bearing to replace this one. I called AA and they said there were no other seals underneath the shaft so I hope replacing the bearing will stop some of the leak. I got a gasket set so I am replacing all of them in the TC too.

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So, there is a seal underneath the sealed bearing! That is what is leaking. It’s part number AE24931. I’ve got to order one of these then I’m gonna put the replacement bearing on.

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It would help if we could see a few more pics from not so close up do you have the adapter housing removed from tranny ? Would like to see tranny output and also transfer case input. Must have a spud shaft still in the tcase. Plus where are the pieces that center the tcase to the adapter housing. Can’t tell what’s going on from some of the pics. Like which are tranny and which are tcase.
 
i looked at some old pics i took of mine slightly different spud shaft ,i only have one seal on mine its in the Tcase and it would be the OEM Toyota seal ,that the input gear would seal against ,on my sm465 output ,no seal ,open bearing ,then adapter housing then the spud shaft is installed into tcase ,you would have to pull spud shaft to change seal in tcase ,couple pics
first pic ,no seal inside SM465 and open bearing ,gear oil can get into the space inside the adapter
second pic shows where seal would be located inside tcase , the internal gear of tcase that runs inside of the Toyota seal for the input shaft gear, or your spud shaft would go through this seal that's found inside tcase after pulling your spud shaft out,
third pic is the AA bearing from kit that is sealed that keeps the oil in the tcase if it was not a sealed bearing all the gear oil would flow between the two cases ,usually overfilling the tcase leaving a low gear oil level in SM465 but only one seal it seams in this setup ,and one sealed bearing a;ll to keep gear oil in tcase the sm465 can leak into the adapter housing ,just paper gaskets between the adapter housings,

hope this makes a bit of sense, hard typing on my old iphone 5S .im getting to old i cant see the tiny keyboard very well lol

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Sure why not. I pick up the 2 wheel drive version for $150-250 bucks Canadian. They are great transmission granny low first gear. Most dont want them because they don’t have the overdrive like the nv4500. I prefer the less shifting myself and don’t need overdrive just run bigger tires lol
Sm465 pretty durable as long as you upgrade the third gear snap rings to the solid spacer then it is bulletproof

Are these trans worth anything? I have a pile of them.
 
i looked at some old pics i took of mine slightly different spud shaft ,i only have one seal on mine its in the Tcase and it would be the OEM Toyota seal ,that the input gear would seal against ,on my sm465 output ,no seal ,open bearing ,then adapter housing then the spud shaft is installed into tcase ,you would have to pull spud shaft to change seal in tcase ,couple pics
first pic ,no seal inside SM465 and open bearing ,gear oil can get into the space inside the adapter
second pic shows where seal would be located inside tcase , the internal gear of tcase that runs inside of the Toyota seal for the input shaft gear, or your spud shaft would go through this seal that's found inside tcase after pulling your spud shaft out,
third pic is the AA bearing from kit that is sealed that keeps the oil in the tcase if it was not a sealed bearing all the gear oil would flow between the two cases ,usually overfilling the tcase leaving a low gear oil level in SM465 but only one seal it seams in this setup ,and one sealed bearing a;ll to keep gear oil in tcase the sm465 can leak into the adapter housing ,just paper gaskets between the adapter housings,

hope this makes a bit of sense, hard typing on my old iphone 5S .im getting to old i cant see the tiny keyboard very well lol

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Yeah, makes sense. You have a setup similar to mine. Here’s a pic of the spud shaft on the TC. I’m just going to replace that seal and use my replacement bearing. I’ll see how it holds up. Like you said, it’s all paper gaskets everywhere else.

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