79 BJ40(wolf) resurrection

[simonliew]

Hi all,I bought this bj40 from my customer n friend Tom 3 months ago for my son,he’s 21 and in uni.
Tom had built this truck about 15 yrs ago,he had his friend who owns a hotrod shop did the bodywork,OME suspension,shackle reversal,front n rear bumpers,roll bar,bodywork,Saginaw power steering,skid plates,sliders,I did the arb lockers and 5:29 gears,marks gear,turbo and intercooler.
Tom has always have a few cruisers and a few British sports cars,he decided not to go wheeling anymore about 6 yrs ago, we use to go toBHCC,Williston roughrider rendezvous,and we even went to Moab .since Tom is restoring triumph,mgs,Jaguars now,wolf have been sitting outside the shop for a few yrs.so l finally struck a deal with Tom and load wolf up on a trailer, but wolf needed a lot of work.
I didn’t like the rear Cadillac disc brakes, the handbrake never work good, didn’t like the batteries installed inside on the right rear wheel well,same as the arb compressor.
The roll bar was made out of 3” exhaust tubing.

 

[simonliew]

So my son and I decided to work on wolf during Xmas holidays,we took the rear disc brakes out, remove batteries from inside the truck,going to mount batteries under the hood, and I’ve some bj60 rear drum brakes around my shop, I’ve just use the bj60 rear diff housing to build an 80 width front diff for my crawler.
Going to craft the bj60 rear drum brakes onto the rear fullfloat diff.
Wolf had a heart transplant about 15 yrs ago when the hotrod shop built her,a 3B and h55 from a bj60, so I needed parking brake to be at the rear hence tge bj60 drum brakes.

 

[simonliew]

Front fenders moved up

 

[simonliew]

Batteries n arb compressor removed

 

[simonliew]

In order to pass the provincial safety inspection,I’ve to build a wider front bumper and move the exhaust from beside the passenger dr to the rear.....

 

[simonliew]

Have to grind away some metal on the fj45 fullfloat housing to fit 60 series rear brakes for the parking brakes.....

 

[simonliew]

8 bolts full float vs 60 series 4 bolts

 

[SuperDuperCruizer]

Damn... that's an awesome modification. Most guys are looking for the later full-floaters that come with the integrated parking brake. You just demonstrated an early full-floater can function in exactly the same way with a modified late style backing plate. What are you going to do for the hub seal?

I'm assuming from this, that an early semi-float axle can be setup with an integrated parking brake in the same way?

 

[stevebradford]

Front hub dust seal fits... with slight trimming.

I did the same but instead of modifying the axle housing flange I ground out and welded in new metal to the drum backing plate.

Just take some tin snips and nip the flange back on some of the corners to clear the brake adjuster.

Also I used front hub hardware lock washer and nuts to keep it all the same for the front hubs and rear on my truck.

The one maybe problem with it is you will be running the hubs on diff oil which works well in fact most seals have failed and guys are all ready. But some guys don’t like it, I have never had an issue with it.

 

[simonliew]

Didn’t have to do any mods for the hub seal, the hub seal is on the back side of the full float hub

 

[stevebradford]

Dust seal. The dust seal is there to help save the Hub seal.


Hub seal.

Hub dust seal.

In my case running diff oil in the hub if the hub seal were to fail and I wasent running the dust seal the oil would ruin my brakes. But with the dust seal if a hub seal were to fail the hub dust seal driects the oil/grease out the back of the drum backing plate and down onto the backside of the tire.

 

[simonliew]

The 45 and 60 series rear full float never come with dust seal from the factory,
But it’s a good idea to put one in like the front....

 

[SuperDuperCruizer]

Strange... I always assumed my full floater came with the dust seal from the factory that way. I’ve had a few 60-series FF and one 40-series FF. Since each of them had the seals when I disassembled them, I thought the dust seal was a factory thing.

 

[stevebradford]

Strange... I always assumed my full floater came with the dust seal from the factory that way. I’ve had a few 60-series FF and one 40-series FF. Since each of them had the seals when I disassembled them, I thought the dust seal was a factory thing.

Mine came with dust seals.

 

[simonliew]

You can be right,when I got my truck, the rear drum brake was gone, it was replaced with the Cadillac eldorado disc brake system which the parking brake never worked good so I replace with the 60 rear drum

 

[stevebradford]

What did you do for the e-brake cable? I welded the brackets on to fit a 60 series shortened parking brake cable.

 

[simonliew]

I also have a 60 series cable,was going to shortened it or just put a spacer on one end.
How did you shortened the cable?

 

[stevebradford]

I just clipped the end or it off to the length I needed about 3 inches shorter I think. got a wire cable crimp and hammered that on the end.

 

[SuperDuperCruizer]

A new one for a 40-series is not too much $$

 

[simonliew]

Not in Canada
About $200
Rockauto is like $50