Build 1991 FJ80 - The Long Game | Build Thread | 1UZ Swap

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Been a bit since I've been able to make any real progress worth mentioning outside of me thinking and planning. (2) daughters in Girl Scouts had me super busy for the whole month of March selling cookies :cookie::cookie::cookie:. I was able to get in the shop for bits and pieces at a time but didn't have any real progress until just this past Friday through Sunday.

I scrapped the shifter cable idea. I had purchased a B&M cable and a heim joint and had this whole plan to drill/grommet a new hole through the floor, flip the bell crank, fab cable brackets etc. etc. but then realized that tucking the trans that far up into the tunnel would cause my transfer case shifter to be about as long as a 18 wheelers shifter so I decided to just lengthen the rod linkage and all shifting geometry stays the same for the transmission gear shifting.

What I did to figure out how long of a section I needed was to just cycle through the selector in the cab, starting in the Park position and then moving the arm of the safety switch down to Park, measured the distance between two points (I went center eye to center eye) then cycled through all the gears to make sure the measurement didn't change much. My filler piece came out to only needing to be 5-15/16" or something like that. Cut, welded and painted and test cycled through gears and it was great. No pictures yet of it installed as I'm still working on the transfer case linkage and cross member fab.

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As noted earlier in this thread, my transfer case shifter is about 9" forward of the stock floor hole. Using 3/16" plate steel, I fabricated an adapter plate so that I could relocate the shifter back to its original position.

The front (4) bolts are where the stock shifter location was and the back (2) bolts are where the hoist hooks were located.

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After some measuring of how high to raise the transmission relative to the position of the shifter height sticking out through the floor, I settled on a good height, supported the trans with a jack stand and rechecked measurements. Once you've got that number (I measured from the top of my adapter plate to the top of the floor pan where the shifter comes out), that number shouldn't change much as that will also be what dictates your cross member rise (more to come on that later). You've at least got a "Zero" point now to work with for everything else for this to come together. Once you're zero'd, re-install the transmission shifter bell crank and rod assembly to make sure the bell crank does not smack the top of the t-case, preventing you from cycling through your gears. If it does, lower your trans even more until smooth, un obstructed cycling is achieved.


The transfer case shifter has some odd rubber isolated bushings and such that I would think just prevent unwanted vibration so once I knew where my shifter was going to be, I traced the outside of the shifter, center punched the holes with a punch, drilled the holes 7/16" in diameter then, using a paint pen, traced the bushing deals and transferred the diameter to the hole. Then, using a "uni-bit" stepped the holes larger to achieve the "recess" into the steel for the bushing to sit in.

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I have templatized the plate so if anyone wants the template - let me know! Here is the finished product. It covers the two bolts that were located where the hoisting hooks were but that's fine, they actually help align the shifter squarely. The next trick is going to be figuring out linkage for the t-case.

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Thank you! It was just the simplest solution (just extending the rod). I'll be posting up an update on the crossmember here soon. I'm just not completely done with it yet. Still lots more to do but its progressing nicely. I'm slowly collecting all of my exhaust components too. I put the 2" lift springs on as well so i could start drooling and picturing myself driving it.

Parts I've got on hand:
Parts still need to order:
  • Too many to list here :p
 
Crossmember Fab part 1

Material used:
  • Salvaged stock/aftermarket 3/8" plate skid plate/crossmember for mounting ears (free.99)
  • 3/16" wall 2x4" steel tube (5' was $87)
  • 3/16" plate for pedestal/bridge for mount (24x24 sheet $37)
  • Structural grade 10.9 bolts, and washers (not the flimsy cheapy ones). Paid $100 for 8 bolts, 16 washers (wtf 😭)
Method:
  • Figure it out as I go.

I discovered pretty quickly that a man should never get rid of (2) things.....there is more than this and I'd be curious to hear your thoughts but #1 Scrap steel & #2 Lumber. I thought I learned this awhile ago but my desire to have an organized and clean non-hoarder shop sometimes over powers those rules of life...

I had this beefy 3/8 plate skid plate that I had no use for anymore and sure i could have sold it but I didn't have any scrap plate (see above rules of life) and I didn't want to spend the time fabbing and drilling holes. So I instead cannibalized this one for its mounting ears. It is important to note that because I was welding 3/16" plate to 3/8" plate, I used my oxy/ace set up with a #6 rosebud head on it to pre-heat the 3/8" plate before welding it so that i'd ensure deep penetration of my little 140 welder. The below will be an over-simplification of the process that this was.

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The next tricky part was finding out these angles. I just used a combination of cardboard cut outs and trial and error grinding. All to find out the drop arms needed to be at about a 45 degree angle 🤓.

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To find out what the angle needed to be of the horizontal arms pointing forward and at an angle toward the front of the truck, that was just using a tape measure and giving myself an extra 4" or so to position where needed. I eye-balled the angle mostly and pointed the drop arms in the direction I wanted the horizontal arms to go.

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Next, I used my laser to align the driver to passenger tie in piece relative to the outsides of the transmission mount and sharpie'd the outside edges. Notched the two horizontal arms and welded in place

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Where i'm at now, I now need to fabricate a "bridge" or "pedestal" for the trans mount to bolt to. Here's some pics of a cardboard template i've cut up. I'll gusset the outside edges and obviously weld a plate to the top for the trans mount stud holes. As pictured, a bunch of dirt and mud will collect in this area acting like a scoop so I'll actually flip it around so that I access the bolts from the other side.

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Crossmember Fab part 2

Here is some pictures of fab for the pedestal/bridge where the mount will mount to. I used my step-bit again to elongate and make the holes slightly larger to aid in installation.

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Ground off all the mill scale and primed/painted. These aren't worth spending the money on powder coating for obvious reasons so just used a rattle can gloss rustoleum. I'm happy with it.

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I get wanting to use the OEM frame mounting points, but putting your crossmember on a cantaliver like that with all the weigh of your transmission and transfer case hanging on it is not a good idea.
There’s a reason why the original crossmember went straight across and it’s not convenience.
 
I'm running it. If it fails on the trail then i'll revisit. But for now, this is what we're doing and my hunch is it will be totally fine. The trans/t-case isn't that heavy 2-300#'s.. there was no way to run the crossmember straight across like OEM without cutting and re-welding the radius arm mounts. I didn't want to get that deep into it. If i'm cutting radius arm mounts off, it will be to 3-link the front, not to install a crossmember.
 
bowtech4life said:
I'm running it. If it fails on the trail then i'll revisit. But for now, this is what we're doing and my hunch is it will be totally fine. The trans/t-case isn't that heavy 2-300#'s.. there was no way to run the crossmember straight across like OEM without cutting and re-welding the radius arm mounts. I didn't want to get that deep into it. If i'm cutting radius arm mounts off, it will be to 3-link the front, not to install a crossmember.
Click to expand...

Better yet - if it fails on the trail - I'll just 3-link it 😂
 
Here’s the finished product on the truck.
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Here’s the stub of the transfer case linkage that I trimmed and welded to support the transfer case shifts. The adapter plate works perfectly and it is nice and solid shifting. No flexing
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I don’t think I expect it to last long. It’s pretty sorry. Will likely be looking at a better solution down the road. For now though, it works.
 
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I think the crossbrace is more than strong enough. The problem I see is it’s put all the weight on the leading bolts.
That and it’s hanging down way more than most and will get hung up a lot.

Not trying to rain on your parade. Been following your build from the start.
And your doing a great job.
 
Broski said:
I think the crossbrace is more than strong enough. The problem I see is it’s put all the weight on the leading bolts.
That and it’s hanging down way more than most and will get hung up a lot.

Not trying to rain on your parade. Been following your build from the start.
And your doing a great job.
Click to expand...

Thanks @Broski - my feeling (singular) isn't hurt. And it wasn't taken that way but I join you in the sentiment about it being so low. That bothers me for sure and I knew it while fabbing it that it was going to impact my ground clearance which is very annoying. I honestly didn't know what else to do and how else to design it. Plate would flex, welding straight to the frame was not something I wanted to do yet to remove the cantilever. It could have either halted the project or I can push through and fabricate something to the best of what I know and what I could come up with. I guess i'm just gonna have to run 42's 🤷‍♂️.....😂

All things I have thought about and things that I'm choosing to deal with and accept. More then happy to hack it apart and try a different method or maybe tucking it up higher or doing some other type of crazy bend.....I just want her on the road. If it helps, I installed that other crossmember before deciding to go this route and the t-case sagged even lower then this. yes its not sagging that low all the way across the belly. Do I like it? not really. But I'm choosing to live with it.
 
It’s had to see everything from pictures on the net.
But I would think that instead of have the mount welded to the top of the tube one could just drill holes in the top of the tube and bigger one’s on the bottom that corresponded to the top one’s to pass the bolts through.
That would save 1.5-2” without losing any strength.
 
Thats brilliant....drill oversized holes for sleeves (large enough in dia to feed a socket in) so the studs poke through on on the mount. dang it. Its getting hacked. stay tuned
 
I have made no progress on the Land Cruiser. I can't bring myself to chop the crossmember up...
 
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