1975 Mustard FJ40 Project Thread

[aging fleet]

Over the summer, I just drove it, but by the winter I had a few more things on my list.

The brake and clutch master and slave cylinders were old aftermarket units so they were replaced and I dropped my carb off with @FJ40Jim.

When Tony got this 40, it didn't have jump seats so he found one short and one long seat to get something back there. I was able to track down another set of short seats and put together a set I was happy with. Also sent my cluster to @JVZii to have it refreshed and the odometer fixed and cut off the welded on chrome exhaust tip.

I threw the top back on since the garage was tall enough and continued with a few cosmetic items. This takes us to the Spring of '23, and this is pretty much as it sits today.

Outside of a sticky needle valve that I think I sorted out, I've just been driving it. Currently I've put over a 1,000 miles on it this year and am starting to get my project list ready for the coming winter.

 

[aging fleet]

We put a few thousand miles on the 40 since the last update and continue to drive, fix, and improve as I'm able.

While is hasn't given me too much trouble, I was still running into issues with my fuel bowl overfilling and flooding from either a sticky needle valve or float. I got pretty good at whacking the air horn with a ball peen to unstick things, but I needed to figure out what was going on. The 40 was also running a bit rough at idle and was falling flat above 50% throttle.

I chased the idle stumble first and started by replacing plugs, cap, rotor and swapped my original coil out for 90919-02113 which is still available from Toyota. I was throwing parts at it and tuning without much success. Vacuum held at a steady 20 Hg at idle throughout the process, but things just weren't right. While digging into the ignition system I found the vacuum advance port on my distributor wasn't holding vacuum. JimC recommended testing the outer HAC port since it wasn't being used and sure enough, that side of the cannister and its diaphragm was fine. The outer port doesn't provide as much advance, but some is definitely better than none.

@Jdc1 invited a bunch of us up to NE Ohio in the Fall of '24, which was about a 5 hour round trip for me. The 40 got me there and back, but it started hesitating off-idle after returning home. Decided it was time to tear the carb apart.

CA 28mm/33mm venturi carb

I used a combination of parts out of a Keyster K11-368A and the SMP Hygrade kit. When I tore it down, the carb had 116/200 main jets and 55/70 in the idle circuit, seemed a bit small even for a CA spec carb. The federal jets in the Keyster kit were probably too big so I bought a few spares from @mattressking. I tried a few combinations, but landed on 132/180 in the mains and 70/90 idle jets. The accelerator pump plunger was damaged causing my off-idle hesitation.

After reassembly and install, it ran great, but I had no vacuum secondary. @greenEFSI helped me track down an issue caused by the hygrade carb base gasket, but the throttle position switch on my gas pedal was also limiting the accelerator pedal movement. Once the switch position was adjusted, I got enough travel in the linkage to allow the secondary valve to open. It took days to track that one down, @Toybota I'm sure that was causing problems for you too.

Adjusted timing, lean dropped, checked vacuum, and set idle. Pulls hard at full throttle and super smooth at idle, think we're good here.

 

[aging fleet]

Tony added the OME 2.5" lift over 10 years ago, the ride was pretty brutal so I swapped out the Nitrochargers for a set of 5125s. I used 33-233970 in front and 33-186542 in the rear which is a bit homebrew, but they seemed appropriate for my 40.

Some tech:
Front: Bilstein 33-233970 (7.4'' of travel)
- Compression length - 13.00''
- Extended length - 20.4''
Rear: Bilstein 33-186542 (9.24'' of travel)
- Compression length - 15.11''
- Extended length - 24.35

Since it was running and riding well, I got after some electrical items. On the outside, Koito H4s were installed. Inside, I didn't have a dome light or the wiring that fed power from the harness to the b-pilar. @Coolerman got me hooked up with the wiring and the new dome light was an ebay purchase. My under-dash light for the heater control was missing so @Wadesters sold me one of his spares and I added new bullet connectors from Mark since the original connectors had been cut from the harness. The burnt out bulb in my headlight switch was replaced and I cleaned up the wiring to the license plate bracket.

After a few years of searching for a (reasonably priced) air inlet horn, one popped up on ebay last week and was delivered to my house and installed today. Not sure how much more I'm going to do over the winter, but I'm really looking forward to getting back on the road this spring.

Thanks to everyone who helped with parts and advice over the past year.

 

[greenEFSI]

Great work! It’s so awesome to dial in all the small bits to complete the whole package.

 

[Jdc1]

We put a few thousand miles on the 40 since the last update and continue to drive, fix, and improve as I'm able.

While is hasn't given me too much trouble, I was still running into issues with my fuel bowl overfilling and flooding from either a sticky needle valve or float. I got pretty good at whacking the air horn with a ball peen to unstick things, but I needed to figure out what was going on. The 40 was also running a bit rough at idle and was falling flat above 50% throttle.

View attachment 3800953

I chased the idle stumble first and started by replacing plugs, cap, rotor and swapped my original coil out for 90919-02113 which is still available from Toyota. I was throwing parts at it and tuning without much success. Vacuum held at a steady 20 Hg at idle throughout the process, but things just weren't right. While digging into the ignition system I found the vacuum advance port on my distributor wasn't holding vacuum. JimC recommended testing the outer HAC port since it wasn't being used and sure enough, that side of the cannister and its diaphragm was fine. The outer port doesn't provide as much advance, but some is definitely better than none.

@Jdc1 invited a bunch of us up to NE Ohio in the Fall of '24, which was about a 5 hour round trip for me. The 40 got me there and back, but it started hesitating off-idle after returning home. Decided it was time to tear the carb apart.

View attachment 3800956

View attachment 3800957

CA 28mm/33mm venturi carb
View attachment 3800958

I used a combination of parts out of a Keyster K11-368A and the SMP Hygrade kit. When I tore it down, the carb had 116/200 main jets and 55/70 in the idle circuit, seemed a bit small even for a CA spec carb. The federal jets in the Keyster kit were probably too big so I bought a few spares from @mattressking. I tried a few combinations, but landed on 132/180 in the mains and 70/90 idle jets. The accelerator pump plunger was damaged causing my off-idle hesitation.

After reassembly and install, it ran great, but I had no vacuum secondary. @greenEFSI helped me track down an issue caused by the hygrade carb base gasket, but the throttle position switch on my gas pedal was also limiting the accelerator pedal movement. Once the switch position was adjusted, I got enough travel in the linkage to allow the secondary valve to open. It took days to track that one down, @Toybota I'm sure that was causing problems for you too.

Adjusted timing, lean dropped, checked vacuum, and set idle. Pulls hard at full throttle and super smooth at idle, think we're good here.

Was great to meet you, Brad. Your ‘75 is the definition of rolling resto and proves they don’t have to be down for 10 years to make perfect.

Well definitely gets some events going in ‘25.

 

[aging fleet]

Was great to meet you, Brad. Your ‘75 is the definition of rolling resto and proves they don’t have to be down for 10 years to make perfect.

Well definitely gets some events going in ‘25.

Appreciate the kind words Jesse, looking forward to getting back together with the OH crew.