60 series steering column into a 40

[Henry James the 47th]

For about $60 I had a local machine shop turn this adapting collar to join the 40 lower shaft section to the 60 unit.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Then I made sure that the lower bearing could be removed upwards (it could, and then drilled some holes in the collar and welded it to the 60 shaft. The 40 column piece was then media blasted and primed with anti-rust chemical.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Last picture i have for the moment. The column is reassembled now and waiting to be put back in place to I can get the length of the 40 piece sorted out.

i have a little sheet metal work to do around the raised opening for the column on the dash, as well as put the cab back on the chassis to be able to figure out the remaining details. More pictures will follow as this proceeds.

I still haven't found the exact steering wheel I want yet, though I have been looking at a bunch of different ones.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Once i put the Bandierante steering box in place, I discovered that I needed to shorten the coupling piece, and get a little machining done to the end of the 40 series coupler to allow it to slide a little further into the coupler. I also had to chop down the shaft on the coupler another 0.5" to complete the modification. That means the connection if completed, and all that remains is a little more work on the dash sheet metal to the left side of the column.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I am leaning towards using a drift pin to secure the connection of the lower flange to the shaft, and maybe to reinforce the sleeve to shaft connection.

I completed the lower dash lip sheet metal work.

 

[Hugh Heifer]

Ever finish this...and has anybody else tried it?

 

[freebie]

Thanks for all the info Henry, I plan to put a 60 steering column in my 42 soon and this is a great thread.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Oh - forgot all about this thread. Thanks for the bump.


The steering column install is still going ahead, and I now have everything finished and have had it all assembled and working. I still need to plumb the p/s fluid lines, and will probably install a p/s cooler. I fabricated a mounting bracket for the p/s reservoir some weeks ago (detailed in my build thread, linked below).

I'm also looking for another steering wheel - I've settled on a wheel around 14" diameter, with 3.75~4.0" of dish. Grant makes one or two that fit the bill, but first I'm hoping to find another Toyota wheel that will do the job.

The steering gear is all connected up now, with the recent purchase of a new oem drag link. The drag link end for the pitman on the Bandierante gearbox I got from Brazil.

I have nearly completed the re-wiring of the harness, which proceeded from scratch, incorporating the 60 column wiring, along with the 60 fuse center and 60 relay pod. Any day now I will complete the fusible link connections at the battery and power up and test out the harness.

I will post up some more pics when the details are ironed out. It is looking like it will work fine.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Well, this is still moving along. The column now has a new wiper switch, the install of which was detailed on my build thread around page 34 or 35, and I have a new light switch on the way too.

I've been working on the body for the past month or two, and recently did some more work to the dash, so I thought I would post up a couple more shots to show the progress there.

The steering wheel still remains to be decided upon. I sat in another 45 the other day and realized that the legroom is tight no matter what - the seat just doesn't go back very far. I'm still thinking of getting a Grant steering wheel around 14" diameter, with 3.5~3.75" dish, but I keep looking for options anyhow. That smaller wheel will give a little more legroom. Of course, with the column tilted up all the way, the legroom isn't so much an issue, but I'm trying to get as much as I can.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Things have moved along a fair bit since the last update. The parts are finally going back together over the fresh paint, and the column is back in position.

The biggest snag i discovered in this type of conversion, and it didn't become apparent until late in the game, revolved around something i wouldn't have suspected: getting the wiper motor to work.

My original plan was to use the 60 column switch to control the wiper motor and washer fluid pump. Using 60 switches leads to using 60 relays, and for intermittent wiper motor function you need a relay with a built-in timer of some sort. As it turns out, you can't get the 40 series wiper motor to work on the 60 series relay. There is something incompatible between them. I heard from someone else who tried the same conversion that they had an electrical engineer take a look, and after a bunch of work he did manage to get the wiper motor to operate, but not on delay mode.

for a while i thought this whole conversion might be doomed, but upon further consideration, I realized that desperation was demanding i not give up quite yet.

After considering using a 60 series motor, a definite no-go proposition, I was looking to see if there was another type of 40 series wiper motor available, and staring at dozens and dozens of other Japanese brand wiper motors in three wrecking yards, all to no avail. Then I discovered in some parts catalog info that I had laying around that Toyota had a 40 series intermittent wiper option available from April 1981 onwards, but only in Europe and Australia. And there was also, whaddya know, a "wiper control relay" also listed, coming into existence, at the very same month and year as the intermittent switch.

Now, call me a conspiracy theorist or whatever, but since there is no wiper relay used in the normal 40 series 2-speed wiper set up, the only purpose i could see for the control relay was that it must associate directly to intermittent wiper function. I then realized that this relay was the key to making this conversion work.

Miraculously, this relay is still available out of Japan, so I have one on the way. I'm confident that so long as I wire it correctly, the relay will give me delay wiper mode, and that means, I kid you not, that this entire conversion hasn't been a total waste of time.

Whew!

Anyway, here's a few pictures of the column mounted into place today. Nearly finished. I even found the throttle cable bracket no problem to mount, very close to the stock location.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

another few pictures of the column. The Shadow Grey column cover is a new part.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Here's how the dash and steering set up are looking now:

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I had to do some minor shimming with washers to get the steering box into good alignment with the steering column shaft. The copper bolts slide into place easily.

I then had to make up an exhaust heat shield to protect the head of the ZF p/s gearbox - a spare exhaust manifold heat shield provided the basis.

 

[Coolerman]

Man you have put a lot of work into making that column work, but it sure looks good... I like the tach also!

 

[4XLT]

HJ -

Did you ever decide on a steering wheel? Wondering about smaller Toyota steering wheel options...

thanks

 

[Henry James the 47th]

4XLT,

well, things kind of decided themselves, at least for the interim. I had a last minute rush getting the truck together, and wasn't able to find the perfect steering wheel, despite searching quite a bit. I put a 60 series steering wheel in there, which at 15.75" is a bit larger than might be ideal ,but interestingly, it has been just fine so far. I do have the column fully tilted up, and the view of all the gages is excellent.

I wonder what sort of Toyota wheel might be the best choice? I looked at so many different ones in wrecking yards and couldn't find the right ones. I though a wheel from an old 1980's Celica might do the trick, but they are the same diameter as the 60 series, surprisingly.

Another option I am strongly considering, for the future (maybe) is taking a good condition 40/60 series wheel and sending it to a guy in Australia who professionally makes them to pretty much whatever size you want, keeping the stock appearance:

PEARLCRAFT. The most beautiful steering wheels: Welcome

Not too cheap I'm sure, but would solve the problem perfectly. Or go with a Grant, Momo, or other similar after market wheel. For now, I'm doing fine with the 60 series wheel.

 

[Land Cruiser Rob]

Very helpful thread, just did almost the exact same to my 45 project using tips from here.

How did you make out with the intermittent wipers? Was the relay a success using the stock 40 wiper motor? Why is the 60 wiper motor a no-go? Is it just physical size?

 

[darwink1]

Right on youll love the tilt man.

I did mine a lil different and didnt have to cut the dash or the firewall. I did have to remove a section of the rib. I found that if mounted flush to the fw the column stuck out too far and since I m using the stocker minutely adjustable seats it was too close. My seats are moved back a good 2" to boot. After cutting the rib I made a bracket that protrudes out from the firewall roughly 2-3" and bolted the column to that. Used the original 40 fw column hole with a custom gasket seal dealie.

All that was left to do was to trim the ears at the top of tthe column (the old mounts that bolt under the 60 dash) so they cleared the 40 dash and weld the old 40 column mount to the bottom of the 60 column. I extended the intermediate shaft to the right length and was done.

When im in the truck I have the tilt 3/4 of the way up and the seat all the way back , surprisingly it ended up feeling like my sixty and even with the tilt all the way up I dont hit the roll cage cross bar which was a bonus since it went in after the steering. Cutting and bending the brake and clutch pedals so theyre closer to the fw is another mod that helps with ergonomics

Its cool to see what others come up with.

D

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Very helpful thread, just did almost the exact same to my 45 project using tips from here.

How did you make out with the intermittent wipers? Was the relay a success using the stock 40 wiper motor? Why is the 60 wiper motor a no-go? Is it just physical size?

Ah, the intermittent wipers. It turns out, after a bunch of research, that there are two types of wiper motor fitted to the 40 series. The usual kind, for non-intermittent wipers, is positive ground. For the intermittent wipers the wiper motor is negative ground.

Here's a couple of pics showing the wiring difference between the two motors:

90802 is the regular type.

90808 is the correct motor for the intermittent wipers:

It was tough to figure out, as the Toyota EPC will only say what a NLA wiper motor model has been subbed up to - it doesn't indicate the differences between the models.

I finally obtained a NOS 90808 wiper motor, but I haven't installed it yet. My truck is off the road for the winter and needs some body attention elsewhere. I believe I at last have the parts (wiper switch, wiper relay, and correct wiper motor) to get the intermittent wiper function happening.

The 60 wiper motor is a no-go because it is too large to fit under the wiper motor cover.

 

[Land Cruiser Rob]

Great to hear, where did you source the 90808 motor? I may try that with the 60 relays, since I'm going with the entire 60 harness anyways.