Builds 1985 Xtra Cab build

[120mm]

Welp, was going to tackle this tomorrow but the lovely bride is gone to visit family, so one thing led to another and....

The passenger side lower bell housing bolt was in a real crappy location and the driver's side upper wasn't much better but I donated a little blood and tissue to the Toyota gods and it worked out.

I'm pretty impressed I was able to single hand it with as little space as I have.

Clutch alignment? Never heard of her.

 

[pappy]

I think you'd be surprised how little the local dealership parts department wants to help out DIYers with parts. Thanks for the part numbers, tho!

Ya, I've heard stories about other dealers. I was lucky to have an awesome parts manager in the past. While he is now working out of a broom closet, I do have a good parts fella at my dealer.

 

[120mm]

Damn you, Tractor Supply!

They went and introduced a new Toyota sign this year and I'm a sucker for these.

 

[120mm]

Did a bunch of small things today. Moved Carl back out onto the driveway, washed the engine and bay. Then did some more sheet metal work. Starring to look like a nice little truck.

 

[Toast]

Looks like fun! Fuel tank, fuel lines, and fuel pump harness were the biggest PITA when I did my EFI swap. I was fortunate enough to score a complete rig which helped out tremendously. Might consider keeping it carbed if you can’t source parts. if you do end up going efi, you’re going to want to buy the flexible fuel lines new. Particularly the one from the tank to the hard line on the frame. Pretty certain the return lines and vent lines were all the same on carved rigs but can’t be 100% certain. That was years ago. Good luck!

 

[120mm]

Since today was order from Rock auto Day, I decided to keep it carbed. I know I have all the parts for that and have high confidence in the Toyota setup.

Rain was coming down in buckets all day, and I had wisely put it outside last night, I spent the first little bit using a come along to get it back inside.

I have it down to a science. Our home's builder sunk a 6 inch DOM pipe into the foundation to protect the water heater and the three car garage and that pipe were why we bought this house.

Since I was ordering parts today, I needed to see what shape the brakes were in.

I've serviced a metric shed load of drum brakes and I learned today that some drums have threads in them to allow bolts to assist the removal process.

Back drums look new. Front disks are rusted solid, including the inner passages one would bleed them with. The lines look great.

I found this front turn signal behind the front seat, and it fit perfect-ish. Just needs a coat of chrome paint to make it match.

Now, I will chase down little gripes while waiting for parts to trickle in.

 

[Thechief86]

I think keeping it carbed isn't the worst idea. It was my plan, anyway. They run fine, and it's not going to see a lot of off camber trail use or anything.

 

[jgranthevagrant]

Hahaha. I thought all drums had threads in them to assist removal. Must be no end of fun without those.

 

[pappy]

Hahaha. I thought all drums had threads in them to assist removal. Must be no end of fun without those.

I'll tell you what. If I ever had a set of drums that didn't, I would be pulling out the drill and tap.

 

[120mm]

I'll tell you what. If I ever had a set of drums that didn't, I would be pulling out the drill and tap.

I've been servicing drums since the early 70s. Never knew about the threads.

I imagine they were stripped out on the garbage in have worked on.

Sure makes it easier that's for sure

 

[120mm]

Originally, the pump wouldn't draw from the tank. I took the opportunity of the engine being out to hook up vacuum to the fuel line and left it while I did other things. I'd come back from time to time to pump the vacuum back up, and eventually it went from pulling tar looking goo to fuel bubbles to a nice flow of clean fuel. Took a few hours but very little effort on my part.

My lovely bride was gone this week, so I was using her spot to do work. She comes back tomorrow so I reorganized so I can transfer parts from the old engine to the donor when it arrives.

 

[120mm]

Today was a great day. My new (to me) engine showed up in a Coolio Toyota truck.

Now to remove all "E" bits while I wait for my gasket set to arrive.

 

[120mm]

Finally got the EFI intake off

That little hex wrench long bolt that goes through the manifold can go F itself. Ended up stripping it out since the head is made of tissue paper grade metal, and turned it out with a Knipex.

The engine that came out

The engine going in

In case you can tell by the pics, the engine that came out looks pretty rough despite being fairly low mile, while the 240k engine going in looks great

I'd already put the fuel pump on for grins, but it's then I noticed it wasn't clicking when I turned the motor over.

Of course, the engineer who designed the stupid manifold bolt was sick that day so some smart engineer designed the pump eccentric to be replaceable without pulling the cam.

Swapped that sucker over and also swapped distributors. The actual mechanical part of the conversion from EFI to carburetor is pretty much that simple, unless I'm missing something.

I'm waiting for gasket set to actually do this for real.

 

[120mm]

I got replacement turn signals and installed them. Rock auto sent all new mounting hardware so that is taken care of.

The tailgate latch was broken but a new replacement was cheap and easy to replace.

My FJ40 came with an extra Weber carb so I placed an order to LCE Engineering. A bit of a foreshadowing here.

 

[Greek Cruiserhead]

Late to the "party", love your project!
Thanks for sharing your progress.

 

[120mm]

Not much to report, but my bumper came today. Needs some adjustments to fit proper, but fills the spot.

 

[120mm]

It was a slight struggle to get the bumper to line up, but then I realized the aftermarket bumper had arrived flat. I put an arch in it and it lined up perfectly.

I got a package from LC Engineering and was able to mount my Weber and seal off some of the unwanted smog equipment. Still several holes to plug though.

 

[120mm]

Nothing like removing vaguely brake shaped chunks of rust and replacing them with shiny remanufactured units.

 

[120mm]

While I'm using existing sensors to plug holes in the intake manifold, one is perforated for vacuum or EGR purposes and it is pretty big. After wasting my time at various auto and hardware stores for the correct bunch, I channeled my inner s***box whisperer and altered the current resident of that hole into a cheap/free plug.

 

[120mm]

Got the last two block off plates in a big brown truck just now. Threw them on and it just remains to hook up vacuum, fuel and water lines. And then slap it in

One thing most instructions I've seen neglect to explain how to resurrect the heater circuit, as the heater circuit water pathways are used in the old system. Took a bit of research, but I'm getting hot water from an unused nipple under the intake manifold and returning cool water using the old hardline.