Build 1978 FJ40 Mustard Yellow - almost perfect thread.

[OGBeno]

Man. I miss Tilda Bogue.

 

[wngrog]

Man. I miss Tilda Bogue.

We need to smash some trees with Weenie 3 before it escapes my evil grasp.

Red says hi. I’m in the roof watching that dime work. I might fall off.

 

[wngrog]

I burned a tank of gas in the backpack blower, spent an hour on the zero turn then got my ass kicked with the Billy Goat....I quit when it ran out of gas as well.

After all that fun I decided to take a break from work while I waited on @under_psi and line em all up

My wife and daughter even came out to see the colors

 

[wngrog]

We made quick work of bleeding the brakes. Having the nasty old fluid out already was a bonus.

Lou drove his bad ass V8F40 with H55 up.

I have a little punch list.
The ECU is blinking on and off. I reseated the plug and the SD card. The truck does not stop running so I’ve no idea what that is.

 

[wngrog]

So, how’s it drive you ask?

Well, it’s not perfect yet but I’ll be working on that



I need to burn in the front brakes some some. Even with the rear drums and the OEM proportion valve the rears are kicking in first on a panic stop. Notice the little fishtail. Lockwood drives 911’s so he can handle that but hopefully the fronts will burn in with more driving

 

[wngrog]

I rolled the windows up and basked in the rattle-free ride. It’s truly amazing what a good set of gaskets and a headliner will do for a truck.

 

[wngrog]

Got back from a couple days in New Orleans to this beauty.

I can’t wait to jump into this one with both feet.

The Weenie 3 build has come to a sad end. I get to keep that one for a while to shake it down but all the real work is done.

This one, being a rescue and sell had a few items that will be addressed and some great bling added as well.

In the last 3 hours and 40-50 texts later we have a HUGE pile headed this way

City Racer @Racer65
49Tire @wct49
Mike @Cruiser Corps
@orangefj45 at Valley Hybrids
@lcwizard at 4Plus Products
@SMG for hardware
@Fourrunner for Cables
Redline provides the Sniper kit to get the OEM cleaner back in the mix

I even enlisted the Parts Guy formerly known as Beno into the party for some OEM items this truck really needs.

Can’t wait for this stuff to start rolling in

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One month later.

152 hours of labor and about $18,000 in parts later we have ourselves a new Land Cruiser.

I have a few weeks before John picks it up to finish the small items and let this Sniper learn.

This is a top shelf Fj40. I’m ready for the owner to enjoy.

 

[jomelo]

I’ve been pretty spoiled the last 6 months. @SNLC made quick work of a really cool PZJ77 - just in time to drive 2500 miles (or “about 20 hours” according to TLCA article) to the 70 series Meet N Greet in Tennessee. A few weeks later, my new Heritage Edition arrived and @Eric Sarjeant started on another fun project. And now this one and it’s really been special. This truck is definitely a keeper.

 

[PAToyota]

I think you need one of these for your leaf issue!

 

[wngrog]

Had an off site adventure today picking up a new Cruiser but when I got home there were some parts in house for Mustard 78

This hodgepodge was installed with RTV and a Phillips #2 and they were frozen solid.

I busted out the master bolt extraction tool and the proper JIS head via Wits End

Finished Product. Beautiful.

 

[wngrog]

Couple of things went in last night and early this morning that came in from @ToyotaMatt and @RLMS

So, the charcoal canister discussion we’ve had here and in other threads. On a 40 with a carburetor and maybe even an early low pressure TBI system you can get away with no charcoal and evap. My 45 and 40 don’t have it. The 40 was not designed for it (1968) and neither was my 45 (1967)

I tried to eliminate it with my FJ60 and had fumes and pressures and smells and lots of related issues.

So.....the charcoal goes in. Redline has come up with a sweet bracket that mounts to the blower box that puts the charcoal canister up and out of the way of the EFI lines they sell.

You pull the 6mm bolts out of the blower and if you happen to have some longer 5mm in the house use those. I did not so I tapped out the captive nuts and added 6mm with nuts below the plastic.

Matt sells a vacuum gauge kit for a carburetor that he sent me a sample of. The vacuum T in the kit is the perfect metal junction to T I’m the needed check valve for the vacuum.

I used a used 60 series check valve I purchased from Justin at Redline but you can also use a Delco. It’s important to run this check valve into the vacuum advance line. This way you are only pulling vacuum and fumes off the canister when the dissy pulls vacuum and not at idle.

 

[wngrog]

Next up I added this cool little temp sending unit cover Matt sells.

This wiring loom is the best I’ve found outside the stuff Holly sends. Love it. Looks very OEM

All plugged in and working

I also added new engine firewall grommets

New speedometer cable. Now I can get some speed runs in

 

[jomelo]

This is just wild. Making plans to travel in two weeks.

 

[thecrazygreek]

Watch that speedo.... check the gauge side. I installed a new one as well. Didn't last 1k miles...

Great work!

 

[wngrog]

Watch that speedo.... check the gauge side. I installed a new one as well. Didn't last 1k miles...

Great work!

You had the cable jammed up at a 90* when you pushed the cluster back in.

 

[Dizzy]

Couple of things went in last night and early this morning that came in from @ToyotaMatt and @RLMS

So, the charcoal canister discussion we’ve had here and in other threads. On a 40 with a carburetor and maybe even an early low pressure TBI system you can get away with no charcoal and evap. My 45 and 40 don’t have it. The 40 was not designed for it (1968) and neither was my 45 (1967)

I tried to eliminate it with my FJ60 and had fumes and pressures and smells and lots of related issues.

So.....the charcoal goes in. Redline has come up with a sweet bracket that mounts to the blower box that puts the charcoal canister up and out of the way of the EFI lines they sell.

You pull the 6mm bolts out of the blower and if you happen to have some longer 5mm in the house use those. I did not so I tapped out the captive nuts and added 6mm with nuts below the plastic.

Matt sells a vacuum gauge kit for a carburetor that he sent me a sample of. The vacuum T in the kit is the perfect metal junction to T I’m the needed check valve for the vacuum. View attachment 2201783
View attachment 2201784

I used a used 60 series check valve I purchased from Justin at Redline but you can also use a Delco. It’s important to run this check valve into the vacuum advance line. This way you are only pulling vacuum and fumes off the canister when the dissy pulls vacuum and not at idle.

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It looks like you are connected to the evap on the tank, and if the only line coming out of that canister is to the Sniper 'port,' then it seems reasonable that fuel vapors enter that way. For the SBC and stove-bolts that I've looked at it is a bit more complex than that. Because the vac signal is used to open an stand-alone purge-valve, only, and the vapor purge actually occurs like the Land Cruiser's stock setup - entering the intake manifold, but not bleeding into the 'port' vac signal that also controls spark timing, and thereby increasing pressure on the distributor diaphragm. (Edit) It looks like this: Amazon product ASIN B000C7UOOS
However, some GM charcoal cans have the purge-valve up top, they look like this: 1994 GMC S15 Jimmy 4WD Sonoma New 17092089 17113150 AC Delco Fuel Vapor Canister | Tracy Performance Corvette Sales, Parts and Service It is different than the one on the '78 in that there is a small diaphragm on top of the can, combined with the can, and there are three barbs, akin to an electrical relay, one to only trigger the flow of vapors to the manifold.

 

[wngrog]

I think you are overthinking it.

The charcoal canister needs vacuum but not at idle.

This T and check valve only allows the fumes to be drawn into the base of the Sniper once the Distributor vacuum advance kicks in.

 

[thecrazygreek]

You had the cable jammed up at a 90* when you pushed the cluster back in.

Perhaps,

But I'm just saying it may have crawled out on it's own. If it was 90 out as you say, it would not have gone as many miles as it did.

Was the drive end sheared?

Regardless, great work...

And a question on the hfs and the new shocks... was it a huge improvement? (Did you drive it before the upgrade?) It was my first hfs install as I liked the rear wheel centering, military wrap and shackle angle but didn't care for the stiffness of the shocks.

 

[SNLC]

One month later.

152 hours of labor and about $18,000 in parts later we have ourselves a new Land Cruiser.

I have a few weeks before John picks it up to finish the small items and let this Sniper learn.

This is a top shelf Fj40. I’m ready for the owner to enjoy.

Nice feeling ain’t it!

I got done with that PZJ77 the day before John flew in. Absolutely no way I am sending this truck on a 3,500 mile road trip with a week long off-roading trip tossed in without testing.

So 3pm the day before he landed we took it out on the highway, up over the mountains and up a pretty good 4wd trail. We had to test it under all conditions John would be putting it through over the next two weeks. I was very happy with the Cruiser and the next day, so was John.

Cheers

 

[jomelo]

Nice feeling ain’t it!

I got done with that PZJ77 the day before John flew in. Absolutely no way I am sending this truck on a 3,500 mile road trip with a week long off-roading trip tossed in without testing.

So 3pm the day before he landed we took it out on the highway, up over the mountains and up a pretty good 4wd trail. We had to test it under all conditions John would be putting it through over the next two weeks. I was very happy with the Cruiser and the next day, so was John.

Cheers

@SNLC that was definitely a fun project! Stressful too because there was so much we both wanted to do to the truck but time was not our friend. Maybe it needs a v2 build as well....