..And so it begins.... my BJ40 frame off restoration

[JuanJ]

Hello John,

Too bad. But 30+ year old bolts are likely to break.

However, it is not something that happens only to old rigs. Back in 2001, a supervisor and me were driving back to our base camp, after a field job, in a brand new Toyota truck (a Hilux, I think,) eight or nine months old at the time. Some 60 miles from our destination, we heard the same sounds you did, and the truck came to a sudden halt. Broken driveshaft bolts at the flange, shaft jammed into the road dirt.

We tried to call the dispatcher (no cell phone on that area back then) but we were in a "dark" spot and the radio was useless. So we decided to take out the shaft. It took a while to tear it down. Then we shifted the transfer to H4 and went on.

Back in base camp, we notified maintenance. "Another of these trucks with this problem," they said, "thankfully you guys did not call in for a mechanic." As if we had not tried...

It turned out that this particular truck and two "siblings," bought at the same time, had defective bolts and joints, which broke when you least expected it; replacement parts were just as fragile. That production batch was defective, and we found out the hard way. Eventually good parts came in.

This is not a reason to lose confidence in your Cruiser, which was built tough, and built to be repaired. In time you will correct everything previous owners repaired poorly or not at all. Give the old lady a chance.

My two cents.





JuanJ

 

[beejay42]

Gday John,
sorry to hear about the drive shaft- but extra sorry to hear about the shakes to your confidence in your beasty, and your doubts.
I won't go into all this too deeply, but I hope your opinion swings back around- and I firmly believe the 40 is a truly great platform for what you are planning.

Hans,
I'd love to see detailed pics of each rack and especially the full rail system that you used to reinforce the fiberglass gutters. I have to tell you that I am more than a little concerned about the ability of thos gutters to support much weight, even with the weight well distributed. I'd love to do somethiong similar but I have dreams of a RTT + roof rack storage and all good sense keep telling me to anchor the roof rack to the lower body. However I like the looks of your setup so if you got pics send them my way.
P.S. what size tires are you running there?
John

I read this as I was running out to work this morning (yes on a sunday). I took one quick snap, and forgot to take more later as I was planning.

Forgive the ratchet strap stuff in the way and the two ladders up there- but here is the full rail system for the gutter. It is a rigid line of steel that follows the bend on the 40 roof. It sits very flat the whole way along and I feel confident that it is sharing the load well. You can just see the top of the hard rubber sleeve that fits over the bottom of the rail. Also of course there is rubber bits under the clamps.

A few months back I borrowed a friends rack to help move house, a home-made job, very similar to mine except made of aluminium (whereas mine is all steel), and his only has the three supports like mine but no full rail. I liked his, and you might be rather horrified with the amount and weight of stuff I piled up there. But now I have mine I realise how much better and more safely it fits the gutters and shares the load.
The most important thing with my bolting system (which my friends rack lacked) is that little horizontal bolt that lockes the clamp firmly in place against the gutter.
The whole thing is rock solid. I can climb up there and jump around and it doesn't shift 0.1 of a mm.
I don't know the maximum weight I would feel happy about putting up there, but it would be a lot, and more than enough for camping/cruising for my needs.

These racks come from TJM without the mesh running vertically around the cage. Mine was added and welded on very nicely by a PO. Looks a little like the mest from a security door, but I don't mind it at all.
Here is the only image from it on ebay.

Good luck with it all mate, hope your spirits lift soon.
Hans.

 

[rloaderro]

Really sorry to hear about your accident. I also have a BJ40 which is my DD for about 6 months now. I also climb a pretty big hill everyday on the trek to work - and since it's a BJ I have to get a pretty good "running start" to make it up. With the motor racing I play out that same "BOOM" that you heard everyday. I can picture pretty well exactly how it will feel and sound... in the middle of rush hour. So far it hasn't happened.....

But with that in mind I would appreciate any advice on what to look for - with prevention in mind. I know the manual says to tighten bolts every 1000km or so... any ones in particular?

 

[Volcano cruiser]

Really sorry to hear about your accident. I also have a BJ40 which is my DD for about 6 months now. I also climb a pretty big hill everyday on the trek to work - and since it's a BJ I have to get a pretty good "running start" to make it up. With the motor racing I play out that same "BOOM" that you heard everyday. I can picture pretty well exactly how it will feel and sound... in the middle of rush hour. So far it hasn't happened.....

But with that in mind I would appreciate any advice on what to look for - with prevention in mind. I know the manual says to tighten bolts every 1000km or so... any ones in particular?

The only bolts that I ever tightened were the bolts that hold the drive shft flanges to the t-case and the differential. I got in the habit of giving those a close inspection after going out off road with my club. again I only ever found the bolts on the front shaft, used in 4wd, that seemed to loosen after several hours off road. That is what is so frustrating about this (a) never had a problem with the rear shaft bolts (b) I haven't taken the rig off road in a month or more and it was fine whe I got back from the last trip.

P.S.
each time I had to tighten the bolts they were checked to torque specs by my mechanic.

 

[lostmarbles]

The only bolts that I ever tightened were the bolts that hold the drive shft flanges to the t-case and the differential. I got in the habit of giving those a close inspection after going out off road with my club. again I only ever found the bolts on the front shaft, used in 4wd, that seemed to loosen after several hours off road. That is what is so frustrating about this (a) never had a problem with the rear shaft bolts (b) I haven't taken the rig off road in a month or more and it was fine whe I got back from the last trip.

P.S.
each time I had to tighten the bolts they were checked to torque specs by my mechanic.

Were they the "special OEM bolts designed for that application" or just "standard bolts from a hardware store" John?

I would never fit standard bolts there. (The OEM bolts are quite different and much stronger.)

And some say that you must always replace them when you disturb them (with new OEM bolts & nuts) but I admit I never do.

And I don't think you should EVER need to be continually checking and retightening the same bolts (wherever they are located). After all....That is what "Locktite" was invented to overcome.

(So obviously I use blue loctite on all my driveshaft flange bolts/nuts - particularly since the same ones have now been removed and refitted MANY times - so there is little self-locking left.)



PS. Perhaps if I had more power and treated my vehicle more roughly I may want to replace my flange bolts/nuts, but the way it is ----- I think the 30 year-old bolts will remain there till I die! (And Toyota NZ are hopeless to deal with. Perhaps if someone can point me to an Internet vendor selling those bolts I may actually give my cruiser a birthday present and replace them.)

At the moment - I certainly don't look at those 30-year-old bolts of mine as "a potential source of failure". (That why I suspect "running them loose", "over-torquing" or "standard hardware-store bolts" in your case John.

 

[amaurer]

PS. Perhaps if I had more power and treated my vehicle more roughly I may want to replace my flange bolts/nuts, but the way it is ----- I think the 30 year-old bolts will remain there till I die! (And Toyota NZ are hopeless to deal with. Perhaps if someone can point me to an Internet vendor selling those bolts I may actually give my cruiser a birthday present and replace them.)

p/n 90105-11010

Toyotapartscenter.net

"Part number 9010511010 was superseded by part number 9010511H00."

9010511H00 $2.77
BOLT SET,HEXAGON

 

[Volcano cruiser]

Were they the "special OEM bolts designed for that application" or just "standard bolts from a hardware store" John?

I would never fit standard bolts there. (The OEM bolts are quite different and much stronger.)

And some say that you must always replace them when you disturb them (with new OEM bolts & nuts) but I admit I never do.

And I don't think you should EVER need to be continually checking and retightening the same bolts (wherever they are located). After all....That is what "Locktite" was invented to overcome.

(So obviously I use blue loctite on all my driveshaft flange bolts/nuts - particularly since the same ones have now been removed and refitted MANY times - so there is little self-locking left.)



PS. Perhaps if I had more power and treated my vehicle more roughly I may want to replace my flange bolts/nuts, but the way it is ----- I think the 30 year-old bolts will remain there till I die! (And Toyota NZ are hopeless to deal with. Perhaps if someone can point me to an Internet vendor selling those bolts I may actually give my cruiser a birthday present and replace them.)

At the moment - I certainly don't look at those 30-year-old bolts of mine as "a potential source of failure". (That why I suspect "running them loose", "over-torquing" or "standard hardware-store bolts" in your case John.

Tom,
Given the history of PO maintenance on this rig I think that you may be onto something with the hardware store bolts piece. I have to admit that I just assumed that these were OEM as they were what came with the rig and who changes those out. I'll have to take a look at some true OEM ones to know for sure. Any way that you cut it now that I have a p/n for the OEM ones ( thanks amaurer) I can order a new set all around, front and back, blue locktite them down and call it a day.
John

 

[beejay42]

Yep, what Tom said (IMHO).
Unless I have missed a trend somewhere, those bolts don't seem to be a regular failure point.
Something must have happened to them, or more likely in my mind, they were not the right ones.

I can't be sure about what I am about to say, because a lot of other stuff has been upgraded on this rig, but I believe that Matt Mcinnes 40 (the mule) still uses standard OEM flanges and bolts.
With all that new power, he has had a fair few drive line causalities- the bolts seem to have remianed fine though.

Here is a bit of the damage

John, do you have the remains of your flange bolts? Any chance of a photo to try to figure out if they are the right ones?

Anyway, good luck mate. I strongly doubt that this particular failure will be likely to happen to you again.


Btw. forgot to answer in a previous post, my tyres are 33, 12.5. Pretty happy with that size, though next time I might go a liitle narrower, 10.5....

 

[Volcano cruiser]

Yep, what Tom said (IMHO).
Unless I have missed a trend somewhere, those bolts don't seem to be a regular failure point.
Something must have happened to them, or more likely in my mind, they were not the right ones.

I can't be sure about what I am about to say, because a lot of other stuff has been upgraded on this rig, but I believe that Matt Mcinnes 40 (the mule) still uses standard OEM flanges and bolts.
With all that new power, he has had a fair few drive line causalities- the bolts seem to have remianed fine though.

Here is a bit of the damage

John, do you have the remains of your flange bolts? Any chance of a photo to try to figure out if they are the right ones?

Anyway, good luck mate. I strongly doubt that this particular failure will be likely to happen to you again.


Btw. forgot to answer in a previous post, my tyres are 33, 12.5. Pretty happy with that size, though next time I might go a liitle narrower, 10.5....

Hans,
The sheared bolts are gone, they are somewhere out in the street or en route to sheared bolt heaven. All I have left are the four bolts that held the shaft to the differential end. All four that held the shaft to the t-case are gone. I can see about getting some pics of one of the bolts as well as a pic of where the t case flange side bolt hole ripped through during the big BOOM, Clunk etc... Again as Tom and now you are saying I agree. I'm almost 100% certain that given the PO it would be just like him to have gone to the hardware store and bought .25 cent hardware store bolts than pay 2.77 for an OEM one.
As to tires we are runnig the same tire size, 33 12.5 15 inch rims. They have been great for the last year. However as the rainy season gets into full swing here I'm going to have to get MTs and they will be 35s. I tried some on at the shop and they look great. I'll probably go with 35s but stay with 12.5 on 15 inch rims.
John

 

[Chamba]

John and Hans,

I'm a big fan of my 33X10.50X15 BFG A/Ts, for what that is worth.

As for the drive shaft bolts: do the ones in the front have a 12mm bolt head on the bolt, and a 14mm on the nut? Is the head of the bolt indented at the top, like many other factory bolts? Are the bolts very fine thread? If so, chances are they are factory. However, when I lived in Panama, my HJ75 had very few original bolts left on it and it was only 12 years old at the time. It seems to me that Central Americans must enjoy spending their weekends removing Toyota bolts from Land Cruisers and replacing them with non-hardened, course thread bolts which they find in their yards.

That said, I've never heard of this happening before either, so I reckon that once you replace all your bolts with new, factory ones which are loc-tighted on, that should be the end of your sleepless nights.

Además, su novia probablemente impresionado por lo bien que maneja toda la cosa ... y ella fue capaz de ir de compras por un poco de tiempo más largo. No hay daño, no hay falta.​

Cheers,

Josh

 

[Volcano cruiser]

John and Hans,

I'm a big fan of my 33X10.50X15 BFG A/Ts, for what that is worth.

As for the drive shaft bolts: do the ones in the front have a 12mm bolt head on the bolt, and a 14mm on the nut? Is the head of the bolt indented at the top, like many other factory bolts? Are the bolts very fine thread? If so, chances are they are factory. However, when I lived in Panama, my HJ75 had very few original bolts left on it and it was only 12 years old at the time. It seems to me that Central Americans must enjoy spending their weekends removing Toyota bolts from Land Cruisers and replacing them with non-hardened, course thread bolts which they find in their yards.

That said, I've never heard of this happening before either, so I reckon that once you replace all your bolts with new, factory ones which are loc-tighted on, that should be the end of your sleepless nights.

Además, su novia probablemente impresionado por lo bien que maneja toda la cosa ... y ella fue capaz de ir de compras por un poco de tiempo más largo. No hay daño, no hay falta.​

Cheers,

Josh

Josh,
Ojala! Pero que bien dicho chico!
John

 

[Chamba]

John,

Gracias. Las mujeres en América Central son maravillosos. Pero también son muy similares en mi experiencia.

Josh​

 

[Volcano cruiser]

Update:
Project note:
I can not tell you guys how ready I am for this rebuild to be over. Yeah it has been fun and a real learning experience but it has taken a truly prodigous f-ing chunk out of my wallet and the bleeding really does need to stop soon. That said once the engine etc. goes in then it is off to the body/paint and upholstery guys to finish this.

Drive shafts:
On a closer inspection the collar on my rear drive shaft was broken at the joint, probably from the banging into the floor after the bolts gave way. Given that this id my only ride , as such my dd, and given that once the new engine etc goes in I'm getting new drive shafts front and rear it didn't make sense to buy a new rear shaft for use with this motor when the lengths will be different in ten days or less. I got lucky on this one. We found a used rear drive shaft, the right length, from another shop owner who is a club member. I'm driving these days like I'm babying an old Cadillac but it's riding smooth and I'm getting to work.

Engine arrival:
It is official, my 1HZ is here. I went over to the importers to visit it and to make arrangements for delivery to the shop that will do the install. Because the engine was about twenty days late in getting here the shop owner and myself have had to re-arrange the delivery install schedule. He needs another week to clear some cars out of his shop and free up a couple of bays. Here are some sneak peeks. Since it still has to be moved once more we are leaving it in the crate still strapped down. The shipping agent did a great job of packing it. It was basically sealed in a huge Tyvek bubble which itself was sealed in what looked like an aluminum emergency heating blanket and then the whole thing was crated up nice and snug. the effect is not a speck of rust or dirt on it, after fifty odd days at sea, as far as we can see. The close inspection should be in a weeks time once we get it into the shop. In the mean time here are some shots:

 

[Volcano cruiser]

More pics ....

 

[Volcano cruiser]

a few more....

 

[Volcano cruiser]

last one of this bunch. The next set will be un packing and close up inspection shots of each section, engine, transmission and transfer case. Again I'm still looking for any tips or indicators on how I can identify which transmission I have behind the 1HZ. The importation paperwork just says 5 speed and the purchasing agent in Japan just new the the year of the truck that it came from.
Thanks,
John

 

[Volcano cruiser]

Engine finally delivered to the shop

Ok finally, I made the last payment and last week and the engine was delivered to my mechanic's shop last Friday. I then had to go to Guatemala and then the U.S. for family business and now back home. I have had some computer problems but now even those are smoothed out. Here are some pics, before it was crated and skipping ahead to it arriving into the shop.

Upon arrival the shop owner inspected the engine and said that it looked brand new, not a drop of oil or grease anywhere on it and some parts of the engine are actually shiny. The shop owner has a 1HD-T powered 80 and he said that I have the H151 5 spd transmission, exactly like the one behind his 1HD-T. I looked it over and didn't see any markings that indiucates otherwise so unless you guys can point me to where marking are I'm going to declare this mystery solved.

So far the list of what we need to add to this is thankfully short:
New motor mounts
new radiator
new drive shafts

Everything else looks like it should bolt up. Basically the plan is next week when two bays side by side are free at the shop he will pull the old B engine, h41 transmission and transfer case, meassure out where the new motor mounts should go and put the new set up in. He will look to see where the he will have to cut out a new holes in the tranny tunnel for the new shift levers. Once the engine and the tranny are settled into place we can measure the exact length of new drive shafts and get the shaft shop to work on turning them out.

We can then measure exactly how much space we have for the radiator and AC condensor. We can then send the specs to the radiator shop for them to fab me up a new rad. I am told that this shop can do either aluminum or brass 4 core so I'm going to have to go there and see for myself.
I also just made a decision re: my AC condensor and an intercooler. There will not be enough space to stack the rad, AC condensor and an intercooler three deep. The AC condensor will take up about a third of the front surface area of the rad but it is neither as wide nor as tall as the rad. I'm going to measure the surface area of the AC condensor. I'm going to then have the rad shop make me a new AC condensor with the same square inch surface area and thickness but which is as wide as the actual rad. My eyeball measurement is that the new custom AC condensor should then cover the top half of the surface area of the rad. I will have the rad shop then make me another rad, the same thickness as the AC condensor, which will cover the bottom half of the surface area of the engine rad. The end result will be I will stack the AC condensor along the top edge of what will be the rad for my intercooler rad. If this can be worked out as I plan it will be a really efficient use of really tight space up front. Once the intercooler rad is in place and I have that solution worked out I can take my time to finish finding the parts to turbo the engine and install the turbo and do the final plumbing on the intercooler at a later date.

Right now I'm just waiting for a call from the shop owner that the bay is free so I can drop of my rig. He promises that I should get it back on the road within 10 days. Here are the pics:

 

[Volcano cruiser]

More detail pics and some random close ups. I'd love it if anyone could help me with the amperage of my new alternator. Also, if anyone can tell from these pics what kind of 5 spd transmission I have, I 'd appreciate if you'd pass along the information.

 

[Tapage]

I would like the K150 tranny a little more than the H151 due to the lower gears .. in the first 3 shifts ..

congrats !

 

[lostmarbles]

x2 on the "brand new engine" description John

Back on the road in 10 days - ------ - Man! You'll be so excited you'll be lucky to sleep during those 10 days