2/75 rebuild (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Nov 22, 2015
Threads
31
Messages
994
Location
Louisiana
It all started when I began working on my uncle's FJ60, it was my deceased uncles truck and left to him. I rebuilt all the suspension, front and rear diffs, TC ect. I'd never worked on a LC before (I've always been a made in America kinda guy). From the start I was impressed by the beefiness of it's drive train. I had to learn about it has I went, so as I searched for information I came across IH8MUD. (thanks @Spike Strip, Danny @pngunme and the rest of y'all for making me feel welcome). Thanks @Coolerman , Mark for his wiring diagrams, and for parts @cruiseroutfit Kurt at Cruiser Outfitters, @orangefj45 Georg @ Valley Hybrids, @65swb45 Mark Marks Off Road, @Cruiser Corps, @Racer65 @Trollhole , Merl and Glen at Classic Cruisers. Body parts came from Real Steal Land Cruiser Parts. As I was finishing my uncles 60 another relative died and he had 2 FJ40s, this 2/75 and I think a 71. They wanted to sell this one and keep the older one.
We all know how it all starts, you just want to do so and so and before you know it the tubs off the frame. This story is no different. It wasn't running when we got it, fuel system was gummed up and engine was shot. No lights worked at all, windshield wipers would not work, POs had done some jacked up stuff to get fire to the ignition system. Rats had chewed the wires up in the dash, y'all get the idea anyway. This is not concurs type restoration by no means but wanted it mostly stock with OEM parts and fasteners, and it isn't being built to sell. We wanted the tub to be stronger then factory so the main beam and rockers are 14 ga. We have used some later model pieces, and have tried to make it so it will be in the family for a long time. It's not going to be crawling or used for mudding, it will mostly be for taking the grand kids out on the back roads. Maybe taking the wife out on nice nights and driven often if not everyday. Going down to the bottoms to do some shooting, camping and such as that. I've lost most of my pictures when we first got it.
Here it is right before we took it off the frame after taking out the engine, tranny and transfer. I had got all the wiring and all the electrics working and rebuilt the harness at this point.
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Uh huh... bout time! Lots of detail will be expected of your favorite chore....... body work ;):beer:
 
ok here we go....so after getting all the electrics working and replacing all the light assemblies which included rebuilding the harnesses. Oh also had to replace the emergency flasher switch that I later found out came out of a mid 70s Corrola and wire in the correct pig tail for it. I got it running well enough to drive a little just to check out the drive train. It didn't take long to figure out the engine and transfer needed rebuilding.Here it is right after we got it March 2016
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Looks can be deceiving! Another one with on the lifts right before snatching everything out.
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I'm pretty happy here
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Being blown apart. Found that the main beam was rotten.
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I'll start adding some details shortly.
 
My driver's side floor pan looks identical as does the passengers. Mine even has the red dot, what's the story there??
 
Jealous of your garage. Cool ol' office chair too.

My driver's side floor pan looks identical as does the passengers. Mine even has the red dot, what's the story there??

That old chair came from a unit I was in when we reorganized and became Mechanized Infantry @Flatlanderfj40 , I've had that one and another one I keep in the gun room for a looooong time. I love them. @Flatlanderfj40 when I removed the old tar like insulation it left that dot, the factory must have painted it after the insulation was already in the floor man.

Oh and thanks man I've wanted my own shop for as long as I can remember, it took me a long time to finally have one built. When I was a kid there's no telling how many engines us kids pulled and stabbed using a come-a-long hooked to a tree limb. Not to mention transmissions laying on our back, ain't nothing like being soaked with ATF and rolling around in dirt.
 
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I says to myself... "If I had a cool shop with a lift and plenty of nice tools, I could do some jam up work like all these talented guys on the forum do".......................

And then that sneaky little voice known as reality whispers in my ear: "Dude, REALLY" :rolleyes:

Keep it coming... especially the simple projects that fellas like myself can copy!
 
When I started pulling the engine apart I noticed it was a lot stiffer to rotate the crank then it should have been. Can't remember now what rod cap it was but this one was the culprit. Someone had swapped the cap and not resized it, causing it to grip the crank.
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I'm glad I didn't run it much, might have done some major damage. Crank was in pretty good shape considering.
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The cylinders were worn pretty bad and needed to be bored. Looks to have been ringed a few times, when some of the rod caps were removed the rod assy. would slid down the cyl. on their own. If it weren't for the ridge at the top of the cyl. they would have fell out on the floor.
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Head didn't seem to be to bad, but would be gone over and built has needed. Some of the valves were leaking, I had put gas in the ports here and you can see the ones that leaked.
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The dist. was a HEI type and the gear was worn bad. I got one of Mark's @65swb45 that was OEM style electronic, nice piece.
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Camshaft and lifters were sent to Delta Camshafts and got reground, cam came back as there RV type cam. Think its like 430 lift or so and more duration then stock. I believe IIRC the stock lift is 377 its a nice bump over stock.
 
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this is the same one we all been avidly following the body work in the "what have you done this week" thread, right?

if so, awesome! if not, still awesome
 
Gator, stock cam lift is .367" intake and .372" exhaust. Sounds like you have the old Downey Hoursepower Cam (not the Torquer Cam), which would be .430" lift intake and exhaust. That cam can technically be used with the stock valve springs (border line) since it lifts .430" and your stock springs do not coil bind until .440", but that's sure cutting it close. Also you could have some valve float with the higher lift cam since your stock springs are only rated at 59 to 71 lbs. Downey use to sell upgraded springs for these cams, but I can't get a line on them now for you. They were Pioneer #053432700 (no longer a good number), rated at 120 lbs. to prevent valve float, and did not coil bind until .570" of travel. I have sent a message to Pioneer asking if anything like these springs still exist, I'll let all y'all know what they tell me as soon as I hear.
 
Yes sir, @Downey and thanks. You know your onions . I was very close to coil bind, on the worst ones less then .040 out. I had them swap out the valves now all is good, weird thing is I only had a problem on the exhaust side. The head was resurfaced and the block was decked so that added to the mix to.
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Used another rocker arm assy., and cleaned up the all the pads. The shaft had around .010 or so wear and would cause valve adj. to be off when it moved back and forth on the shaft.
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A lot of work! Not perfect but way better.
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Used assy. lube on anything that might have needed it.
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While all this was going on I was thinking about building something to run it on.
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@Vossie yea man, its the same one. Finally getting around to making a build thread. Sorry for taking so long to do it.
no apology needed, good to see the heart that will go with all that awesome body work you've been doing
 

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