I acquired 1974 fj40 recently and was hoping for some advice on bushings. It has a 350 swap in it. I don't really like how the fan sits so low against the radiator as well as the overall look of the body lift. From what I can tell it looks to have a 2 inch body lift. I was wanting to replace the bushings and lower it 1 inch if that is possible. Are these standard bushings? They look different than what I see for sale and some just seem to be just square tubing set as blocks. I'm not sure how easy that will be. I have plenty of room in the engine bay and transmission to go down an inch and of course will have to consider shortening the steering shaft. I took pictures of all the places the body meets the frame going from front grill along the left (driver) side to rear bumper (the final picture is the right side because I could get a better angle at that mount). Your advice would be appreciated.
1974 FJ40 body lift & bushing advice
- Thread starter Tontoy93
- Start date
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Take all that square blocks with holes and the round spacers out, lower the bib to oem, IMO. The rear sill has some spacers but not as much as those square things, look at pics for that, you will probably need to notch the hitch/bumper arms for the rear sill to sit down. Other areas of concern will be the hi/low shift linkage clearance to floor pan, FWIW my AA propeller mount sits right there too so that should clear, if it has power steering lines running under bib you'll have to deal with that. If tunnel hits , remove it and adjust tunnel as opposed to body lifting entire truck. IMO. You say you have clearance on pass valve cover to firewall and dist. to lower it ?
We need an pics of the overall vehicle 1st and suspension. What size tires are on it?
Body lifts are not that common on FJ40's. There could be a reason we can't see.
Body lifts are not that common on FJ40's. There could be a reason we can't see.
Without better pics, removing the blocks and get a new body mount kit and drop it down to stock height. Take care like the stuff @peesalot mentioned. You may have to change or fix somethings.
- Thread starter
- #6
Here are some more pictures. I included transmission and transfer case linkage. Passenger valve and heater hose. Power steering lines. And tire size “33”s. Next post will include shackle lengths.
So the frt is shackle reversal. Removing the body lift is going to be real difficult. You may not want to do it. The engine placement is a real problem. It set too far back.
I'm not sure the body will drop straight down. As @Tontoy93 mentioned the heater hoses and probably the firewall are going to interfere with the valve cover or head if you lower the body. I suspect whoever did the V8 conversion left the driveline in its stk location and installed the engine to that location. They probably decided to do the body lift to fix the heater hose/firewall problem along with other issues they ran into during the modifications. I guess he could move or remove the heater hoses, but he will likely end up having a cooling problems. The engine and driveline should have been installed 3 or 4 inches forward to allow air to flow around the engine and clear the hoses. I also wonder about the elevation and the side to side position of the engine/driveline is in relation to the frame. Is there a couple of inches between the trans/tcase and tub? We need a lot more pics of the engine compartment and mounts. I'd like to see pics of the power steering install and possibly the shackle reversal too.
You may have to remove the shackle reversal to make that happen.
Back in the day, we might buy a boat roller or two and make our own bushings as thick as we wanted. Slice off some 1" segments, or 1/2", whatever you need.
That valve cover corner is 1/2 inch off firewall, thats where my old sbc was as well, I deleted heater, stock radiator has cooled the old sbc and the ls fine. If keeping heater you have to solder a 90 on or get a hose with a 90 molded in.
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That heater hose will get worse if you lower it. I wouldn’t bother removing it. they did a decent job I run a 3 inch body lift in mine. I’m too lazy to remove mine. . Nice looking rig. 
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here’s mine. I did lift my rad, I’m also Spring over axle with body lift. Hmm.
