Build A pig for Father's Day

[WarDamnEagle]

I'd bet what you have is M12x1.25. Someone could have replaced the knuckles at some point?

I appreciate the input but they are 11mm. I can also tell that the thread pitch is slightly different on each end of the studs but both ends will screw all the way into my 7/16-20 thread sizer. That would be the thread sizer that doesn't have an 11mm option. I don't even have any 11mm taps. Getting a set on order though.

 

[PabloCruise]

Finally found some brake fittings that are very close to OEM. Had a couple of near misses before I found these. Slightly shorter unthreaded lead-in but otherwise dimensionally more or less the same. Not sure about the silver vs yellow plating. Some of my OEM lines appear to have been yellow but some, like the rear brake cylinder jumper below, were clearly silver.

https://www.zoro.com/surr-nut-inverted-flare-m10-x-10-thread-pk4-br205/i/G6392158/?utm_content=item_1&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=202507_EM_Transactional_ShippingConfirm_None_None_1&smtrctid=202057934

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One of the previous near misses were these from the company that @J Mack referenced. These are the same fittings that they are using on their premade Toyota brake lines (they sell premade lines as well as fittings and line). They are also more or less perfect except the nut is an 11mm wrench. Did not know that until I started comparing them to the originals.

Pardon Our Interruption...

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Nice find!
It has been tough to get a minute to sit down and read in here for more than a few minutes!

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Waiting on new studs to finish the front axle rebuild and Mastercoat paint to finish the front springs. Really anxious to get a rolling chassis together but all I can do is wait. In the meantime, I put the tire carrier back together. If anyone powder coats these parts, like I did, don't coat the sides of the center spool that holds the chain, like I did. I had to remove all that powder to have enough clearance to put it back together without major binding. Or just cerakote the parts like @J Mack would likely suggest.

Given the inaccessibility to the top of the two rivets, I made a buck out of some 1/2" square bar stock using a circular bur bit. I then just mushroomed the bottom of the rivet using a center punch followed by a drift punch. There's no load on these rivets so I wasn't particularly worried about my unorthodox technique. I did paint the rivets with Mastercoat silver before I installed them. Just needs a little touch up. Used Amsoil moly fortified grease to reassemble. Operates smoother than I anticipated.

If you ever need to paint rivets, btw, put a paper towel over a magnet and stand them up on it. Works very well to keep them upright while you brush or spray

Here are the rivets and burr bit that I used:

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

Also bought a new circular clip (retaining ring):

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Given a couple of other, recent threads, maybe I should share a few more "rust repair" photos. Some of these photos are before sandblasting and others are after. To say that Kelly is disassembling until he runs out of either rust or pig is an understatement.

 

[greenbeast]

I have no comments about scope of what you have going on there.

Gonna be beautiful

 

[bobm]

load of remediation

 

[RUSH55]

Hopefully he doesn’t get burned out

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Hopefully he doesn’t get burned out

Kelly? I don’t think so. This seems to be his passion.

 

[tucker74]

Those ‘78-‘79 changes bit me many times, I’ve owned a ‘76 40 for many years and bought a ‘79 pig. I’d go to my stash for this or that to finish something up and The body work is looking good, you’ve clearly got the right guy!

 

[PabloCruise]

Started working on the front axle rebuild while watching paint dry on the second set of rear springs. The SST is fairly easy to use but, like a lot of these procedures, it takes a few minutes to fully understand what they are asking you to do. After going through the procedure and getting all the measurements I threw all the shims into a pile (existing and the ones that came with the front axle rebuild kit) and started playing with combinations. That was the point where a degree in engineering coupled with a new Mitutoyo digital vernier caliper that measures to 0.01mm became a major hinderance to progress.

The original shims were the same side to side, a 1.0 and a 0.5 on top (1.5mm total) and a 1.0 on bottom for a total shim height of 2.50mm. As previously mentioned, I got almost no preload on the bearings with that shim combination when I reinstalled everything and torqued it down. When I ran through the procedure with the SST, the total shim heights were 2.06mm on the driver's and 2.08mm on the passenger side. No wonder there wasn't any preload with the original shims.

According to the measurements taken with the SST, I specifically needed the following shim thicknesses:

Driver's Top - 1.12mm
Driver's Bottom - 0.94mm
Passenger Top - 0.88mm
Passenger Bottom - 1.20mm

This is the best I was able to do with the shims to hand. Number one goal was to keep the overall shim thickness as close as possible.

Driver's Top - 1.09mm
Driver's Bottom - 0.97mm
Passenger Top - 0.99mm
Passenger Bottom - 1.10mm

I installed the steering knuckles and get between 5 and 6 lbs on the driver's side and 4.5 and 5.5 on the passenger side. That's with the nuts torqued to 50 ft-lbs. FSM spec is 43 to 54.3.

New oil seals are due in tomorrow and I can finish up the front axle.

Good work!
The last time I did a knuckle rebuild I got frustrated with the fish scale and put all the shims back in where they came from.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Good work!
The last time I did a knuckle rebuild I got frustrated with the fish scale and put all the shims back in where they came from.

I had a 0-50 lb scale that was pretty worthless for measuring 5 lbs. Bought a 0-20 lb scale and that one worked well. I did test it by weighing a couple of sizes of iron skillets and the fish scale indication matched the kitchen scale very well. You can only work to a certain range though as the tension will vary a bit as you pull the knuckle through its range of motion.

 

[PabloCruise]

I had a 0-50 lb scale that was pretty worthless for measuring 5 lbs. Bought a 0-20 lb scale and that one worked well. I did test it by weighing a couple of sizes of iron skillets and the fish scale indication matched the kitchen scale very well. You can only work to a certain range though as the tension will vary a bit as you pull the knuckle through its range of motion.

Ah, I did not think about the range of motion.
I imagine the most important position to have the proper tension is pointing forward - going down the road - and few degrees either side of that.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Amazing how much floor space opens up when you start bolting things back together. Before and after:

A 2 post lift and a 4T Walker long reach are a great combination for installing springs and axles.

 

[Lifelong40Fan]

Such a nice shop!

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Such a nice shop!

Thanks Mike. We were certainly blessed to buy a house with a 40x40 red iron shop hidden away in the woods. I have since added a 20' lean-to on the right side. FWIW, if I was starting from scratch I would build a 50' deep by 60' wide building with the same height walls (16') with a 25' lean-to on one side. Of course I would probably manage to fill up whatever size I built.

 

[greenbeast]

Thanks Mike. We were certainly blessed to buy a house with a 40x40 red iron shop hidden away in the woods. I have since added a 20' lean-to on the right side. FWIW, if I was starting from scratch I would build a 50' deep by 60' wide building with the same height walls (16') with a 25' lean-to on one side. Of course I would probably manage to fill up whatever size I built.

It sneaks up on ya! First you’re telling yourself no way I could fill this, then you like “crap” how did that happen!

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Didn't get much time at all in the shop yesterday but did change out the knuckle studs, washer, and nuts. Also finally got the spring clip liner material so I cut that to size and installed with new clip hardware. For those that haven't been following along, I refurbished my rusty OME springs using Mastercoat silver ultimate rust sealer and their AG111 topcoat. I installed new greaseable interleaf liners and spring clip liner material. I replaced the center pins with high strength socket head screws from McMaster Carr. ARB (OME) wanted something like $17 each for the pins and it was impossible to tell what length I was buying with the information that they provide. The socket head screw heads are just a tad larger diameter than the OME pins but fit into the plates without issue. I also replaced the clip bolts and nuts via McMaster Carr as ARB doesn't sell those separately. The springs also got new bushings, shackles, pins, etc. I opted to go with Cruiser Outfitters generic brand for all of those parts and I have to say the quality is as good or better than the original OME parts.

I did have to slightly enlarge the front spring seat center holes by ~1/8" to fit the nuts on the spring pins. Kind of odd as the new nut wouldn't clearance the hole and neither would the old OME pin nut. I can't recall how those were seated when I removed the front axle but it had to be an issue at the time. I guess you can still tighten the U-Bolts without having that plate sitting completely flush with the bottom of the spring but it certainly wouldn't be ideal. Regardless it isn't an issue now.

You have to remove about 1/8" of material from the shoulder of the bushings that are used on the fixed ends of the springs. So that's 4 bushings front and 4 bushings rear. The shoulders are nominal 1/4" and you need to take them down to 1/8" to clearance the spring hangers. I used a belt sander with 50 grit paper and it worked quite well. You just have to make sure you keep the shoulder even all around which wasn't very difficult. The bushings that go on the shackle end of the springs do not need any modification.

I still need to cut the U-Bolts to length. They are just snugged up at the moment and haven't been torqued down. Cruiser Outfitters recommends 80 ft-lbs for these U-bolts btw.

Yes this was a lot of trouble and yes I could have just bought new springs but these springs were only 10 years old and were very rusty. At least with this coating system I feel like I have a better chance of not being in the same place 10 years from now. I guess time will tell.

The spring clip liner material part number is ARB R274BK. It comes in a 2 meter length and has to be cut to size. I had Cruiser Outfitters cut it into 20" lengths for shipping. The spring interleaf liners come in packs of 6 and you will need 5 packs as the front springs use 4 front and 3 rear. The rear springs use 3 front and 3 rear so that's 26 total. The part number is IL01YE.

 

[Lifelong40Fan]

Greg, I might recommend using a metal marker to mark the position of the knuckle nuts so you can easily tell if they begin to loosen.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Greg, I might recommend using a metal marker to mark the position of the knuckle nuts so you can easily tell if they begin to loosen.

Good suggestion Mike. I have that same yellow marking pen.

Just a cautionary note, the instructions that Cruiser Outfitters sends with their front rebuild kits must be from a later FSM because it gives a torque spec of 71 ft-lbs IIRC for the knuckle stud nuts. The online FSM I have been using is for '75 FJ40/55s and it specifies 43 to 54 ft-lbs. I torqued these to 50 and then came back and torqued them all up to 54. I sent my '77 manual with the body to Flagstaff unfortunately but I assume it would be the same as the '75 manual. I'm guessing the 71 ft-lb spec is for the larger (12mm) studs which I believe is '79 and up.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Another short day in the shop but I did get all the U-Bolts cut off and torqued down. I chamfered the edges on the grinder. Not quite a factory finish but U-bolts aren't the most pedestal grinder friendly configurations. I know there are many ways to cut off U-bolts but I didn't want to use a grinder with a cut off wheel in the middle of the shop. I really need an outdoor vise. I opted to go with a Sawzall with a Diablo carbide tooth, heavy metal blade. Got a very straight cut without damaging the nuts by using a heavy (1/8" thick) rubber washer as a spacer/guide. Worked very well and the Diablo blade went though all the U-bolts very quickly.