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

[Volcano cruiser]

Hans,
Thanks. According to most of the guys in the club they are of the view that as I drive it, translating from spanish, that I'm going to feel how much the old girl "wants" and "needs" the 5spd. In response I just say that "she" won't be the only woman that has ever found me to be "frustrating". I'm headed over to the shop now to take a look at possible new spots to place the dual battery tray.
John

 

[lostmarbles]

I've been missing reading recent posts of yours too John.

You did very well avoiding that fake H55!

"Becoming knowledgeable about what you're buying and always double-checking for yourself" is the policy I like to practice too (whereever possible). And I adopted this at a very young age after buying a "lemon" (Triumph Tiger 110 motorbike) that a respected relative & neighbour said was "a very good buy". (They meant well - but unbeknown to me at the time - they just weren't competent/experienced-enough to advise me.)

 

[Chamba]

Hans,
Thanks. According to most of the guys in the club they are of the view that as I drive it, translating from spanish, that I'm going to feel how much the old girl "wants" and "needs" the 5spd. In response I just say that "she" won't be the only woman that has ever found me to be "frustrating". I'm headed over to the shop now to take a look at possible new spots to place the dual battery tray.
John

Pity about the 5 speed. As long as you don't go over 85-90 KPH, you won't really notice the lack of a 5th gear. You'll find that your new engine is not nearly as loud at high RPMs as your B was.

The only drawback is that if you ever do get a 5 speed, you will have to change the drive shafts again.

Can't wait to see photos!!

Cheers,

Josh

 

[ToyRoverlander]

In the end I decided since the bell housing fits my old H41 as well that I will rebuild it and run it behind the 1HZ until I can either find a good H55 here or can figure out how to get a new H55 shipped here for a reasonable price

Correct me if I'm wrong. But does that mean that if you got an H55 bellhousing you can fit an H41 behind the 1HZ? What clutch do you use then?
Might be an idea one day, if my 3B ever blows up or something, to put a 1HZ in there....

 

[Volcano cruiser]

Correct me if I'm wrong. But does that mean that if you got an H55 bellhousing you can fit an H41 behind the 1HZ? What clutch do you use then?
Might be an idea one day, if my 3B ever blows up or something, to put a 1HZ in there....

Great question. Yes, the bolt pattern for the H55f and the H41 are the same so they can both use the same bellhousing. My problem was that the 1HZ shipped with a H151 attached. The bolt pattern for the H151 and the H55f/H41 are different. They had to make up a custom clutch disc as the clutch disc that came with the 1HZ was set up for the 21 spline input shaft of an H151. The H41 has 10 splines.

Edit:
Here is the summary of the mating of the 1HZ to the H41 step by step:
1) Got the 1HZ mated to an H150 which was too long for my SWB 40 without cutting and moving the cross member.

2) Sold the H150 and went looking for an H55

3) Got the bellhousing to mount the 1HZ to a H55

4) Tried but failed to find an H55 and decided to stay with my stock H41

5) **Picked up a clutch (275 mm) for the 1HZ**

6) **Took said 1HZ clutch to a clutch specialist shop here**

7) **Clutch specialist used the 1HZ clutch as a base and made me a custom clutch which could take my coarse spline H41 input shaft**

8)**Installed my custom clutch and drove my newly 1HZ laden 40 to work**

 

[ToyRoverlander]

Awesome. So basically if you find a 1HZ which used to have an H55 behind it, a H41 will fit as well. Kewl...

 

[Volcano cruiser]

Awesome. So basically if you find a 1HZ which used to have an H55 behind it, a H41 will fit as well. Kewl...

The key is (1) get ahold of a 1HZ in good shape (2) if it doesn't come with the bell housing for the H55f that you get your hands on the correct bellhousing to connect the 1HZ to the H55f (3) once you have the 1HZ with the correct bell housing for the H55f you can bolt either an H55f or an H41 to it as they have the same bolt pattern. As we discussed above you will want to get yourself a new clutch disc done up with the matching spline count for the input shaft of the tranny that you are going to run.

John

 

[EldarKinSlayer]

Update por favor.

 

[guistou]

This topic needs fresh pics!!!

 

[Volcano cruiser]

Back in the game!

Ok guys, sorry to have been away so long. I will not bore you guys with the general hub bub of my life since my last post here. While work and life have been going at a crazy pace I have been gathering parts for the last of my major system mods. I now have the following mods all going on starting this week:

Turbo - Since January i was able to get my partial bits of a CT26 Turbo over to a turbo shop here. It was re-built and balanced. I also now have the exhaust manifolds from Toyota. Finally I spoke to some guys here who race and they turned me on to a local source for silicon hose for turbos.

E Lockers - As some of you may recall I scored a rear e locker from an 80 series a while back but was frustrated because I didn´t have ready access at the time to the rear short side long splined inner axle. I called up Sheldon at G and S Cruiser parts looking for the inner axle and the other bits. In addition to the bits and pieces, Sheldon had another rear e locker from an 80 for sale. I am now old enough to recognize what must be divine providence so I grabbed it up. I had ordered Armaurer´s (Drew) controls and cool retro switches and he was good enough to add extra connectors into the packet. I followed his top notch instructions and built a harness from scratch for the front e locker and stripped and rebuilt an existing harness for the rear elocker. As such I now have front and rear e lockers, harnesses, controllers and switches. The rear was installed today and the front will go on in the coming days.

Rear disc brakes - This has been a very difficult mod to source parts for and keep everything Toyota. The toughest so far was finding anyone here who was willing to cut me brackets from some large pattern knuckles. Again I found a shop who did the job last week and I now have a nice set of cut knuckles. The 80 series master cylinder and booster, rotors, calipers etc also all arrived last week so work will begin to install this stuff. A question to follow on this later.

Once I get this stuff on I plan on wheeling and testing it all hard for at least two weeks before I get it broken down stripped, sanded and painted. There will definitely be things that I´ll do along the way later but this is it for major mods before painting. I´m just glad to be back at this instead of staring at the mailbox as I have been for the last six months.

 

[Volcano cruiser]

Toyota Rear Disc Brakes on a full floater rear axle:

My goal here was simple. Because of where I live GM parts are not readily available, Toyota parts are. Second I run 15 inch rims and it seems to me that I have a better selection of tires on 15s than exist, at least in this market, in the 16 and 17 inch rim ranges. As such If I wanted to stay Toyota and stay with 15s then kits were out and cut knuckles were in. I´m following this excelent write up which the author was kind enough to update with additional pics of the knuckle cutting process.

Rear Full Floater Disk Brake Conversion

I needed the picture book to be able to work the machinist in Spanish to get the job done. The knuckle brackets came out great. As the shop was getting to work on this today I got a call from the owner to come by. This is what I found. the first pic is what is described in the write up as a pre 79 rear FF spindle. The second is mine I have an 80.

As you can see from the pictures I do not have the large eight bolt silver "plate" that the knuckle bracket bolts behind. I have a four bolt flange which is identical to the rear FF axles that we inspected today on a 70 series, both of the shop owners 80s and another guys fourrunner. Can you guys confirm that I am either missing that "plate" in which case what is it called so I can hunt one down or it will be time for plan B, fab a plate to mount that bracket to. I solict your thoughts guys as the shop is busy working on the e lockers right now while we all think this over.

 

[Volcano cruiser]

Ok, we spent several days debating different ways to skin the cat. The problem was that if we used the cut knuckle brackets on my axle at most secure the brackets by three holes. Additionally because of how the brackets sat on my axles even after opening it up, it sat a few centimeters high making the top of the caliper bind on my 15 inch rims. So then if we kept the brackets and the rims then we needed to go with smaller calipers. Neither ditching my rims nor going for smaller calipers with less stopping power appealed to me. On Saturday we took a ride out to the only salvage yard that regularly has Cruiser parts. The problem is that you have to need what thery have on hand that day or forget it. We roamed round looking for various bits and pieces and way in the back under a pile o c r a p was a rusted to c r a p 79 FF rear axle with the correct bolt pattern. After a half an hour of hard bargaining $40.00 USD passed out of my wallet and the axle was mine. Given that all I really needed was the housing I was not worried that what we needed would clean up nicely. We did a test and the bracket fits like a glove with 6 bolts holding it down and my 15s sliding right on top no worries.

I have read how a lot of guys go to the local pick and pull when they need a part. You guy have to understand that people are still using these vehicles as work vehicles here and as such this almost never happens for me. I get lucky once in a while but it is truly luck. I´m very stoked that we got past this hump and that we are back on track to finish the mechanical mods up. Here are the pics. BTW the doc at work thinks I contracted dengue fever this past weekend. Nothing is ever easy.

 

[Volcano cruiser]

More parts woes. Long story short once the new axle was sourced and then broken down it was clear that the lock washsers etc that hold the hubs on were for c r a p . This was to be expected when I find the axle on the ground in the back of the misc c r a p pile in a Central American junkyard. What I did not expect was that these really simple parts would not be available anywhere in the country and that I´d have to send away to Toyota in Dallas for essentially some screws and washers ans lock nuts. I further did not anticipate a mail interruption which held this all up by almost a month. Today this stuff arrived. Also more pics of the cut knuckle brackets etc. They actually came out great. With all of my woes and whining this was the best outcome. These have six bolts each holding them on instead of two. I keep the mod all Toyota. I get to preserve my current rims. The lockers went right on easily after the axle housing was notched per Drew´s write up. Here are pics of the RDB progress to date:

 

[Volcano cruiser]

more pics

 

[Volcano cruiser]

Latest parts arrival. Now we can get the show back on the road.

 

[EldarKinSlayer]

Greatv stuff so far, what has happened lately?

 

[Volcano cruiser]

It just gets better and better...not

Ok long story short all those pretty new parts that arrived from Dallas, were for the axle that is currently on my rig, i.e. the 1980 axle. The shop owner called me up with the bad news. I re-read the invoice. It seems that the lock washers and nut set for the 79 and below axle have been discontinued and Toyota of Dallas substituted the same parts for the following year axle. I called them and thanked them for the nice try and they appologized and are taking the parts back for a refund.

Remeber the reason why I needed to get the new parts was because the salvage yard axle only had the lock nut washer set on one side. So it was off to find a machine shop that could make me the 79 and earlier lock nut and washer set. Here are the pics of what came out. I had them make two sets. I will use the new stuff on the axle and keep the old intact set as spares. BTW this cost me two weeks more of down time.

 

[Volcano cruiser]

close ups of the machine shops work

here are some close ups of the shops work on the more intricate nut, which includes a brass ring and a built in rubber washer. I think they did a really good job.

 

[Volcano cruiser]

When it rains.....

Ok so all good, got the cool new machine nut washer set, everything is shiny right? Just not my luck fellas. I get another call that just tanked the day from the shop. When they put the new nut set onto the axles housing the nice sharp threads of the new stuff shreded the old threads on the spindle.

Ok I go by look at te damage and time to send the axle housing and the new nut set back to the machine shop. In about two days they cleaned off the old threads and cut me some new ones. Everything goes together like peaches and cream again The axles, rear disks and lockers are all scheduled to be put back on tommorow. Hopefully all goes well and I can get to the next piece of this, the install of the CT26 turbo and the PWR Water to air intercooler. All the parts for each have been in now for a bit it just all needs to go on so I can keep this build moving.

 

[slvyj]

Forgive me for this being my first post but just wanted to say enjoy Salvador. I lived there between 99-04 and bought a 75 FJ40. It had to be one of the most enjoyable times of my life, the country and people are great. One fascinating thing about Salvador was if it wasn't available for purchase, someone could make it from scratch. By joining a local club, I was able to see parts of the country that most gringos or even locals never get the chance to see. We also did some great trips to surrounding countries, even drove up to Cancun a couple of times.

I haven't had a chance to read this entire thread, but I will make sure I do. My FJ40 is back in the states and looking to get back into wheeling again. Have you posted any trip reports?