Builds An HJ61 followed me home to Texas (1 Viewer)

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Inching closer today.

I figured out the power steering pump. The low pressure return line hose clamp was crappy and worn out, and wouldn’t tighten. I’ll bet I was sucking air in. I replaced it with a Terrain Tamer clamp and all is well. No more moaning and groaning.
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Since I had the dash apart I replaced the antenna.

There is a factory radio delete plate there now but speakers cut into the door, and some horrible a$$ bent wire masquerading as an antenna. Someone obviously had a radio of some sort in there in the past. I couldn’t get it to loosen so a disc grinder helped solve that problem.

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New manual antenna in place and the end parked in the dash for whenever I put a radio up in there.

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Bolted the t case back together with some new parts. The hi-lo lever is still available new, which is hot. I have one wave washer still on order but it is all back together and functional now.
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Finally I put the new to me wheel from @4060seriesnut on. It is nice and tight the whole way around with no delamination.

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Front driveshaft and skid plates are next and then it’s drivable.
 
This morning I got up, drove out to the barn, checked all my fluids, packed tools and FSM’s for the road, swallowed hard, and drove up to @davegonz ’s house to wish him a happy birthday. I have noticed in my limited drives that when letting off the throttle or putting the clutch in, the engine would drop below 600 RPMs and stall more times than not. I got up to Dave’s and adjusted the idle up to around 750...
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And everything smoothed out. After getting his 1HZ turbo 80 fired up for the first time (yeah Betty White), I then drove 20 minutes back down to work and everything is fine. She pulls hard on the highway and is a pleasure to drive.

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Rolled 465,000km on the way home tonight.
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Advice time: I would like to paint the shift knob numbering white like it came from the factory. I tried using a white Sharpie paint marker and frankly the quality sucked. Any better advice? When I wiped the excess off the top of the knob, it left a thin white film over everything. I’m sure that will wear off with shifting, but any better suggestions?

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Touchup paint pen?
 
@Paco, of all the shifter subtypes, I like the one that came on the truck the absolute best. The five-speed one linked above definitely matches the T case, but for every day driving I like the factory shape the best.

The one I dislike the most is the one that we always see for sale here in the US, it is gray, with a recessed ring around the shifter numbers, and it is overall much, much smaller. I have one on my h55 converted FJ62, and I’m going to try it for a few months and just see how much I actually hate it.
 
Bbracket said: "The one I dislike the most is the one that we always see for sale here in the US, it is gray, with a recessed ring around the shifter numbers, and it is overall much, much smaller. I have one on my h55 converted FJ62, and I’m going to try it for a few months and just see how much I actually hate it."
Any pics Bbracket?
 
This one. It’s actually black on my 62.
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The Denso throttle return springs came in from Maarten at Cruiserworld. The dang things were really expensive (20 bucks per spring)!!! But I wanted to give new OEM springs the best chance to fix the twitchy throttle response.

Here is a 30 year old compared to the brand new one. I slipped them in place and the throttle definitely feels less twitchy. I drove on some bumpy roads around the ranch trying to emulate the same conditions that would make it a buck uncontrollably, and it definitely seemed a little bit smoother. I think that, as others have mentioned before, one of the rare dampeners would really fix the problem, but this certainly seems to make it a little more drivable for now.

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Grant’s still enjoying it. I can definitely see us driving this truck at Roundup in March.

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Also: throttle return spring part number is Denso 091041-0370.
 
I remember a thread that had a pic of one of the springs in a rubber sleeve. Have you seen that?
 
Dave, they come in an annoying rubber sleeve, which makes the inner spring a total pain in the rumpus to put on. I took them out for the glamour shot.
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So I got a new white paint marker and painted the letters. This time I let it dry. It’s a hot mess. I need to polish my knob now.

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Nate prefers fourth gear.

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@coldtaco Yes, they are a single spring with a rubber boot over top of them. You need two of them.

I would say that my throttle response is at least 50% better. It will still buck and jump on really bumpy stuff, but I’ve definitely driven smoothly over some things that previously had made it buck uncontrollably.
 
OK as seen by the time stamp. I discovered this thread about 7 hours ago. And read it in its entirety while watching the office before it gets pulled from netflix ( i never watched it before). I bought a Hj61 awhile back and now looks like I am saving to send it to @roma042987. Also @bottombracket love the name and the write up.
 

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