Builds 1974 HZJ40 Build (1 Viewer)

[The Eradicator]

are those 15" steel wheel with the hobcap pins?
and they fit on BJ73 front axle with the brake caliper on?
i tried toyota 15" steelies on my HDJ55 with 60 series front axle and the wheel hit the caliper??????

Yes they are; part number 42601-60072. They clear the calipers and tie rod ends just fine.

Brake proportioning valve from City Racer and Wayne's fuel filter mount are installed. Fuel hardline should be here tomorrow.

I got to test out the new Eastwood line flaring tool... much better than parts store rental junk.

 

[The Eradicator]

Fuel and brake lines are finished. Everything is ran along the driver's side to keep it away from the exhaust. Hardlines aren't difficult to make, but are time consuming if you are trying to make them look tidy. I decided that, since all of the lines and mounting needed to be custom, I might as well go with easy to find 3rd gen 4Runner brake fittings.

The old fuel tank was rusted out and patched with fiberglass. Reproduction tank from CCOT to the rescue.

 

[The Eradicator]

Test fitting the Corbeau sport seats. I know that it seems like seats should be a distant consideration, but before taking the frame in for powder coating I needed to sort out e-brake cable routing. That meant positioning the e-brake lever, which required the console and seats to be in place. Or I just wanted to make engine noises and pretend to drive...

The passenger side Corbeau seat adapter required some modification. The placement of the rear right rail bolt interfered with the fuel vent line. Here you can see the tab I welded on to move the bolt over.

In the pretend test drive I found that the transmission lever came too close to the seat in 2nd gear. Bending the shifter at the narrow section near the bottom fixed that issue and put the it in a much more natural position.

Between the seats, e-brake lever, and further back shifter of the H55, there was not going to be room for a tuffy or similar console. Since I was using the e-brake handle from a 3rd gen 4Runner anyway, I decided to try out a 4Runner center console too. That worked out nicely because the 3rd gen console houses the e-brake mechanism. The vehicle is going to be more 4Runner than FJ40 before long. The BJ73 e-brake cable is the correct length and attaches perfectly to the 4Runner lever.

 

[The Eradicator]

Mmmm... OEM steelies. Wrapped in 33x10.5 KM3s. We have the hubcaps, but I am liking the utilitarian look without them.

 

[davegonz]

Very cool! I love my turbo'd 1HZ in my 60. Great choice for a 40.

@bottombracket see this thread?

 

[bottombracket]

Oh man, this is perfect. My ‘77 and I am heading down this pathway at some point. Awesome work!

 

[gearinstalls.com]

Wow Charlie,
That's a cool build you have going there.
ZUK

 

[The Eradicator]

With the placement of all brackets and holes in the frame figured out, it was time to begin disassembly.

Almost every captive nut on the frame had a bolt broken off in it. For most of them I was able to remove the bolt remnants by welding fender washers to the stubs, grinding the welds flat, and welding nuts to the washers. A couple required new nuts. The body still has about 30 bolts that have broken off and rusted solid stuck in it. Removing those is going to be a tedious job.

Loaded on the trailer for delivery to powdercoater last Friday. We should have it back by the end of the week.

While waiting on the frame, I have been welding on the axles. In an attempt to keep these axles from warping, I am chaining them down, preheating, and welding an inch at a time. I am letting each weld cool to room temperature before starting the next. It took me a day and a half to finish the front axle at this pace. Hopefully I'm being overly cautious, but we'll see once the diffs are back from ZUK.

 

[thecrazygreek]

Those axle housings aren't going to warp...

Great looking build so far!

 

[gearinstalls.com]

Hi Charlie,
I just received 2 - 9.5" diffs from MO.
ZUK

 

[cruisermatt]

This is coming along really nice. 1HZ/H55 in a 40 is an amazing combination. What gears are you going with in the thirds? Hopefully 3.70's, anything else is too low on the street IMO. Aftermarket low gears in the splitcase will give some super grunt off road.

Thanks for those part numbers on the Toyota brake fittings. Nice to use tee's with tabs that have a factory look instead of the crappy looking universal versions. You did a nice job on all your lines. And isn't that flare tool just the best? I love mine.

 

[The Eradicator]

Hi Charlie,
I just received 2 - 9.5" diffs from MO.
ZUK

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Awesome, Ken. It'll be interesting to see how the bearings look; they were making some nasty sounds on deceleration when they were in the 73.

This is coming along really nice. 1HZ/H55 in a 40 is an amazing combination. What gears are you going with in the thirds? Hopefully 3.70's, anything else is too low on the street IMO. Aftermarket low gears in the splitcase will give some super grunt off road.

Thanks for those part numbers on the Toyota brake fittings. Nice to use tee's with tabs that have a factory look instead of the crappy looking universal versions. You did a nice job on all your lines. And isn't that flare tool just the best? I love mine.

Thanks. The diffs have 4.11s in them, which I was planning to use, but you have me reconsidering that. 4.11s and stock t-case gears put it at 2500 rpm @ 70mph. 3.70s would drop that to 2300 rpm, but the 1.1:1 high range of lower t-case gears would put it back up to 2500 rpm. It really comes down to whether or not it will end up with 4:1 transfer gears.

 

[cruisermatt]

I assume your planned tire is 33”, right?
It’s been a few years but on my friends 40 with 1HZ/H55 I think we swapped gears back and forth between 4.11/3.70 like three times.
The 3.73’s were a lot better on the road but there was a noticeable lack of grunt offroad, and the 4.11’s were great off road but felt like it was topping out to early on the street.
I’d think 3.73’s and the 3:1 splitcase gears (that don’t change the hi-range) would be perfect, but you could always add them later. 4:1 is awesome but like you said puts at 4.11 essentially. Maybe you need bigger tires

Listen to this guy, he knows more then I

I will agree with Joe. The 1hz and h55 in a 40 is sweet. I recommend 3.70 diff gears with this setup ... works perfect with tire size up to 35"

 

[The Eradicator]

We painted the axles last night.

The only noteworthy bit of busywork I did while waiting on welds to cool was to modify the front dust shields. I have two issues with them: they like to trap small rocks up against the brake rotor, and the permanently affixed brake fittings make it so that you have to disconnect brake lines to get into the knuckles. The fix for the first issue is to trim the shields back to just rings. To make the brake fittings removable, I ground out the rivets and welded captive nuts to the insides of the shields. This allows you to remove a caliper and set it aside without cracking open lines, which should speed up trailside birfield swaps.

I've been working on extracting the bolts that are stuck in the body. The most time consuming to remove are the ones where the nut needs to be replaced and it is in a box section with no access to the backside. For example, this bolt directly behind the fuel tank was rusted solid and its head was rounded off. Even if I were to remove it, the metal underneath was bent and punctured. So, I cut out the surrounding sheetmetal, including a pitted spot (might as well get two birds stoned at once), and welded in a new piece with a captive nut.

 

[gearinstalls.com]

I"ll post a couple pics of the front 9.5" with Harrop with new bearings with a good 3.70 take-off.

Charlie was very interested in the condition of the used bearings. I figured as loose as the bearings were that they would be mostly trashed. Surprisingly, the carrier bearings were not trashed. The rollers were remarkably "OK"...the races were showing pitting signs but not too terrible.

The inner and outer pinion bearings. The tapered rollers themselves were in ok condition which is surprising since there was about 1/16" of in/out play on the bearings so they should have been getting battered around. Now both races appeared to be worn much more than the inside roller bearing. Races were pitted and looked older.

New inner and outer races were tapped in.

The same .0465" shim was used with the new bearing on this 370 take-off.

 

[gearinstalls.com]

This is with backlash tight at .006"......driveside appears a little deep.

Coast suggests maybe a little deep

The comet tail says maybe a little deep. I may take .003" off and see what happens.

 

[gearinstalls.com]

Reshimmed down to 043.....took about .0035" off.

Drive side....looks good but will tweak it .001 deeper I think. "take-off" gears can require a real fine tuning.

Coast.....favors the toe end but hard to get a big shift to center.....

Comet tail is definitely near the root.....the .001" more depth will help here, too.

tail favoring the root.
Now to add .001 to the pinion shim...and drill the hole for the Harrop grommet.

 

[gearinstalls.com]

.044" shim now....only .001" more but that makes the difference here.

Harrop 29/64" hole drilled.

inside view.

Last chance to hi-speed wire brush the gasket surface and is now very smooth.
Now to shim up the "solid collar" that is built into the pinion shaft.

 

[The Eradicator]

The frame is still at the powdercoat shop, so I've been working on what I can. All of the broken bolts are out of the body.

I also repaired the windshield knob tabs. The metal underneath was tearing away and had to be replaced.

New parts for the rear axle. Bearings, seals, wheel cylinders, and brake shoes.

This arrived. Dakota Digital RTX instrument cluster. I'll provide some details on it once it is wired up. For now, though, it goes back in the box and into the house for safe storage.

 

[The Eradicator]

Today I installed the oil pressure and coolant temp sensors from Dakota Digital, cleaned up all of the axle parts, and assembled the axles as far as is possible without the diffs. One of the supplied adapters was used to fit the temp sensor to the stock location on the oil cooler. The oil pressure sensor threaded directly into the block after running an 1/8" NPT tap through the hole.

Hubs cleaned up and ready to slide onto the spindles.

The birfields weren't moving freely. I pulled them apart and found corrosion and an unusual amount of wear for a part-time 4x4. A new set will be on the way tomorrow.