Build 1st FJ40, '76 - SMOKEY - Puttin’ her Back Together

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I have been off the project for about a month - sort of. I decided to get a good compressor and am 90% of the way done getting it powered up and getting the air lines run.

I've attached the pictures of the beast. I must say I'm impressed with the amount of air it produces, and how relatively quiet it is. Quincy 7.5.

Tomorrow, they will come to run the air lines.

Design of the air system attached as a PDF.

Before Power
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With Power
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Do yourself a favor - make sure when plumbing in the system you add drops at every 10'-15' to collect water . As the air heats up from long run times it creates condensation in the piping and pumps water vapor into your tools , blaster , paint gun ect . I use ball valves at the bottom of each drop , about 16" off the floor so a bucket can be used to collect the water . Also , in the past we've built a back and forth loop on the wall near the pump to help cool the air coming out of the tank - also to prevent water buildup in the lines and it works pretty well .
I checked out your drawing - pretty good basic setup with risers built in to drain condensate back and keep it from pooling - good plan . If you run lower pressure tools at a regular point , say a bench you can add a short whip hose and mount a regulator on the wall - keeps things nice and neatly organized .

Btw - if you haven't done it yet , remove the stock drain valve cock from the tank and replace it with a street elbow and piece of pipe - should be 1/4"-3/8" NPT and add a ball valve at the end to drain the tank . Those stock t-handle valve cocks have a nasty habit of spinning loose in the handle after awhile - then you'll have to change it out anyway . When we drug mine out of the old car wash it came from (early 80's built ) it nearly broke two of us in half loading it , destroyed a two-wheel dolly and bent an engine hoist unloading it - with the valve open nothing came out . It was completely plugged and the handle just spun doing nothing . Removed the whole valve and found nearly 40-50 gallons of water in the old bugger . Makes sense when you looked at the tank - it had an odd line in the paint just about that height . No wonder it broke it's legs off and was leaning against the wall , still in service .
Runs great to this day , new legs and all ....

Sarge
 
Nice outfit. Does that mean the new paint shop is soon to be open?
 
It's finally all plumbed, holding 175 PSI.
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Hooked the air line into the blast cabinet, and knocked this out in 10 minutes, wearing my work clothes!

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Man, this is going to speed up the cleaning process. I can't wait to see what other wonders the compressor hold forth. Never used air tools - and am eager to see the wonders of HVLP.
 
Gah! You're catching up to me with all this fancy tooling! Some of us still have to wire-wheel the rust off ;)
 
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Okay I need some help here. I'm trying to reassemble the Birfield joint bearings and I can't get the inner race to move to allow the last four bearings to fit inside. I think I'm doing this right, and have got it oriented correctly but it seems to stick and jam and won't move.

I have the protrusions of the inner race pointed out and the wide side of the cage pointed out as well.

I've got it greased up pretty heavily with a good decent multipurpose grease. Perhaps I have too much grease and it's making it hard to move the race and cage back-and-forth?

I'm following the instructions from both the factory service manual, and from @Coolerman's website that shows a step-by-step tutorial.

Hmmmm. Ideas?

And yes I got it assembled on the outside just to see if I can get the inner race to move, but even assembled on the outside it won't move once I get the two first bearings in place. Of note: I notice that the bearings will fit thru the slots in the cage from the outside, if I force them a little. I assume this is by design.
 
It is a tight fit - a bit late but those cages can get burrs on the holes just slightly and it makes inserting the balls pretty tough . I just used a small pry bar to persuade the cage around to where it needed to go when finishing the last few balls . It's a bit of a learning curve , just keep at it . It's sort of a rocker action while turning around the circle when moving the cage - that's how it moves the easiest .
Tough thing to type out , easier in person .
Sarge
 
Thanks @Weber Sarge - I was "a feared" as we say down in Tennessee, to pry it too hard. I was fully greased, up to my wrists, prying lightly with a large steel punch, outside the Birf, and it still wasn't moving. Good to know it just needs "convincing". Thanks.
 
Well those won't be rusting anytime soon!

What kind of blasting cabinet do you have?

I purchased a 10+ YO Rayzist cabinet (kinda like this one, but without the recycle system and height adjusting feature http://www.rayzist.com/Equipment/2034.php) from my buddy who owns a trophy shop. They do etched glass with it, and had long ago bought a new one that was a little nicer. I tell you, this was a $4000 machine ($400 for me - my first "bargain"), and it kicks some serious butt. Has a 50# pressure pot, and vacuum system that sucks the dust right out the rear. I put in about 20# of crushed glass, and it had about 10# of some fine AL Oxide in it, and I have gone thru that stuff about 4 times now, and it is still cleaning.

I put in an apron from the truck on Friday just to see how hard it would be to blast the body myself. It did very well, just slowly of course (with an 1/8" nozzle and 25 CFM, what would one expect?). But, I can buy a 3/16" nozzle and try that, or even a 1/4". I won't be able to blast continuously with a large nozzle, but I can blast and 70-90 PSI for extended periods of time and probably get some decent coverage. I keep fighting the disease to "do it all myself". I just hate handing wads of hundos to other people when I have the time and the desire to do it (well, until it gets hard and boring anyway, then I usually wish someone else was doing it).

Apron photos. 3 layers of paint: red (flaked off) a primer or gray color, and the original mustard yellow. You can see a little yellow here and there. I was just testing it.

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