Builds Aimless build: 60 Series (1 Viewer)

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Suddenly my jack stands don’t seem all that bad! @Hojack

Hopefully wrenching will recommence this Friday/Monday. Our fire season is going much longer than anyone anticipated so I may be working all the way through October, which is welcome but unexpected.
 
Both axles are underneath the 60, things did not quite go to plan however. The shackle angles are terrible in the front with the actually arched springs. So the springs will need to be shifted forward and the shackles may need to be addressed or changed. The rears are okay because nothing changed but those may need to assisted at some point as well.
So I still need to figure out/install steering, brake lines, rear disc conversion, 14 bolt gear change, rear locker install, ECU re-pin for O2’s.

Also I realized that once the 37s get under this thing, it’s going to be huge... so the suspension may need to be readdressed at some point. Again.... it’s going to be stupid wide still as well.



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I got more done on Monday, stripping the brakes off the 14 bolt for the disc conversion. Ran into a road block when I tried to repress the studs into the hub after the drum was pulled. I tried the lugnut method and I tried a hammer, both failed. Without an actual press I’m pretty stumped.
 
Well shoot, a lots happened...

After having my bearings pressed at my local machine shop, Custom Machine in Dallas is great, I was able to reassemble my 14b without further issue.
Basically I assumed I would only need to reassemble the rest and I would be done. I was wrong, unsurprisingly.
Assembling my beadlock rims and tires (Battleborn rims and 37x12r17 SX2) was straight forward but incredibly time consuming, and a bit nerve racking from time to time. So that took nearly a full day off and on, occasionly doing other things to maintain my sanity.

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Then I moved on to the brakes, gotta get those bled, usually takes about an hour. I figured an hour easy....
About three days later and the brakes still would not build pressure, if anyone else ever does a swap like this I’ll tell you right now, a new brake master won’t cut it. I installed a brand new Land Cruiser brake master and after much trail and error and many other problems we determined it simply couldn’t produce enough PSI to properly support the one ton Chevy brakes.
So we custom built an adapter and retrofitted an enormous Chevy one ton brake master to the Cruiser booster. Works like a dream and stops the rig well.

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So it goes and stops after about two weeks of dedicated wrenching, so I dropped it off at RJs Chassis Dynamics in Salem for the 14b to receive new gears and locker. It’s now got 4.56s front and rear, with a Detroit rear. Some day I’ll go selectable front as well.

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Okay so after all that it’s know at Hamms Fab getting armored. And with that, this thread is all up to date, I should be able to go pick the Cruiser up in about a week, and hopefully take it to go find snow soon.

It still needs many other things, including panhard(?), antiwrap, shocks, belly skid, powertrain tuned again, etc.
Probably will go back through the suspension as well and maybe redo the shackles an stuff.
 
Cruisers taking longer than expected for the bumper and sliders to be built, makes me wish I had my own shop to build them for myself. Hopefully it’ll be done by the end of this week.
 
I’ve had the Cruiser back for about a month now and I’m slowly knocking out my to-do list.
As of now I’ve:
-extended rear drive shaft 1.5” because when I swapped the engine the power train moved forward about 1.5”.
-I’m figuring out a power steering leak, it’s slow but persistent. I think I may have it stopped now.
-I moved the OBD2 plug-in into the interior for easier access and interface.

There’s always more to do but the big stuff currently is I need a new battery, on one of them the side post stripped on the ground, so I need a new one.
The rear diff needs its 1000 mile oil change for the gear break in.
Front diff has a drip so that’s cool....
I want to move one battery over to the drivers fender and I need to clean up the wiring, it’s pretty bad.
A shroud and another e-fan would be nice.
I should probably change most of its fluids....

My wants list is it’s own thing and it’s longer than my arm, but it’s all getting there.
 
How is driving on the road with the detroit in the back? Any unexpected ratcheting?

IMO I think the front spring frame side mounts need to be redone completely. I'd outboard the front shackle mount to be able to run a straight shackle rather than the offset one. Once we get @Hojack squared away we could make a trip out and knock those out. I'm glad you got rid of those lift blocks up front too.
 
Yeah, those thin offset shackles seem like an disaster waiting to happen. Are they even 1/4?" I agree with @boots4 , you want a short straight shackle that's 3/8" thickness.
 
The Detroit is pretty manageable I feel, it “unloads” at random times, usually in parking lots an such. People always think I’m breaking something, it’s pretty loud. But on the road it’s fine, I’ve had a few other rigs with Detroit’s before.

The shackles are on my list, I should probably move them up in the order though... most of the suspension hardware is on the list. It’s all holdover from the “shop” that swapped the 6.2 diesel in. A shop that I hope has since gone out of business, sketchy work. Those lift blocks are case and point...
@boots4 That’d be cool, thanks! I do most of the work at my brothers shop, I’ll send ya a message when I’m getting ready to rework that.

Went wheeling at Cline Butte. I think I blew the rear seal on my steering box, I bonked my diffs more times than I can count and broke my already cracked rear pass taillight. It was a great trip though, it did great on the rocks.

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The SX2s hooked great, as expected, and the suspension did great. It had plenty of crawl and plenty of grunt.
 
Also anyone looking for good CBs, I’m running a President McKinley CB, it’s a great radio. I’ve ran and tuned many radios and this was a pleasure to use. Lots of handy features and solid sound quality in a compact package, with very little effort I’ve got 1.2 swr with my Wilson antenna.
 
Anyone have a source on new fuel tanks? Mine is causing all sorts of issues. Or is it better to just try and clean it out?
A fuel cell maybe?
 
I have a 1984 fj60 tank that i took out to put a 62 fuel in for an ls swap can ask my customer if and how much he would sell it for. The 62 tank he got was rusty as 4letter word took me days to get it clean enough and i still put por tank sealer in it big pain
 
@tmxmotorsports shoot me a pm if their willing to sell, I’m sure shipping an such would be killer, but I’m running out of options.

This is what I’m up against:
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I can’t go below half tank without this packing up my fuel filter. Anything above that I’m pretty good. I carry a lot of spare fuel filters around...

On a side note, I put some free carpet in my cargo area. Got it from the 8-plex we just finished, it’s obviously not made for automotive applications but it’ll work in the short term and cut down on some noise.

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