anyone know anyone in TN on I40???

[PabloCruise]

Bellhousing off. Hopefully reached the bottom of this self-induced rabbit hole. Time to start cleaning parts, modifying fj60 bellhousing for 55 mounts, and assembly.
Onward!

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Wait, what? Why can't you use your 55 bell housing?

 

[PabloCruise]

Pounded the pilot bearing out with bread. Took 5 minutes. Piece of cake.

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Plus you could make sammich in the garage....

 

[Lifelong40Fan]

This is from an old Toyota Trails. I gave it to Kurt to host.

Thanks Thomas, that's helpful.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Lifelong40Fan]

Wait, what? Why can't you use your 55 bell housing?

I can't reuse the stock 3 speed bellhousing bc I'm putting in an H41 4 speed tranny and it won't fit. So, I drilled and tapped a few holes on an FJ60 bellhousing to fit the stock 55 mounts at the bellhousing. After I get everything installed, I'll see if I should add a tranny crossmember as well. Hopefully, shouldn't have to, but the H41/split case is much heavier than the 3speed tranny/tcase.

 

[PabloCruise]

Wow, I had no idea a 3 speed bell housing would not take a 4 speed…

 

[Lifelong40Fan]

Rear hangers are hung. Ran out of mig wire. Not the greatest welds. Had to contort myself all around trying to get in there to weld. I don’t think they’re going anywhere though. Going to buy more wire and finish up after doing a little grinding. Got the pilot bearing in and in spite of using old one to pound the new one in, still managed to mangle it a bit. Off to Napa to see if they’ve got it one. Oh well, making progress.

I wire wheeled the frame on Saturday as best I could. You know, it’s good enough for what will be a family wagon driver and not a show rig. Got por15 coming in tomorrow. Plan to coat the frame after the hangers are finished.

 

[Lifelong40Fan]

Wire wheeled and cleaned the frame with acetone. Por15 after lunch. Hopefully, won’t get it in my hair and bedline my head. Turns out the only option is to shave your head. Ran that experiment about 20 years ago btw. Wife didn’t think it was very funny when she woke up besides a bald husband!

 

[WarDamnEagle]

I hope you use their metal clean first. I'm a fan of POR15 but that stuff is awfully particular about prep.

 

[Lifelong40Fan]

New gaskets and front tranny seal installed. Was going to put in new output flange seals in the tcase, but the gaskets that I replaced looked new and the flanges look like they’ve been into recently. So, gonna chance that they’re okay. If they leak once installed, I’ll deal with them then. Now, to clean up and get lift in place for tranny/tcase installation. Got friends visiting from PA, so may be Monday.

 

[Lifelong40Fan]

Back at it. Bellhousing and clutch installed. Started it and it started right up. Time to clean up and move tranny/tcase and lift into position. Maybe try to install this evening or tomorrow. Got a huge mess to clean up.

 

[Lifelong40Fan]

Nothing but absolute pure frustration! I’ve had the assembly close, maybe 1/4 away from bellhousing but couldn’t get last bit. The back end is so heavy and cocked to passenger side it makes it impossible to align from underneath. Worked a couple hours last night and this morning and pulled it out again to start over. My ears, eyes, mouth just full of dirt. Anyone been here? I’m ticked and kicking myself for being such an idiot. This is 10 times harder than putting the sm465/tcase in my 40 a few years ago.

 

[RUSH55]

Anyone been here? I’m ticked and kicking myself for being such an idiot.

Yeah, been there lots of times. Something just wants to fight you so that the victory is that much sweeter.
As long as the clutch plate is lined up through the pilot bearing, the splines are correct (must be since you said you were within a 1/4(“?). I’ve had to put the trans in 1st gear before and rotate the output on the t-case while having someone depress the clutch pedal in order to get everything to finally slip into place. Normally shouldn’t have to do that, but there could possibly be something keeping the clutch center from being perfectly square to the pilot.
On the bright side, the workout should be good for your pecs and tris!

 

[Lifelong40Fan]

It's in. Took too many hours, but it's in. Overall, I had the assembly lined up with two 3/8" bolts going through the bellhousing bottom holes that I could tighten by nuts inside the bellhousing. I could then line up easier that way and use the cherry picker to lift the back end. I did this no less than 4 times and was never able to close the last 1/4" to 1/2" gap between the bellhousing and the tranny without that feeling when tightening the bolts "somethings not right here". Today, once again managed to get it to the same spot, but this time I had a single top bolt in. Again, the tranny was about 1/4" from the bellhousing, but the top was about 1/2" away and I couldn't get the top any closer without that bad feeling again. The top bolt was just way too hard to tighten. Finally decided to back all the bolts off to where they were easy to loosen/tighten. The tranny moved back about 1/4". Then I decided to see if the engine moving would straighten everything out. Clearly the problem was getting into that stinkn' pilot bearing. The starter torqued and POP. That did it and the tranny was mated to the bellhousing. All the bolts would go in by finger now.

Lessons learned after putting the assembly in 4 times:
1. use cherry picker to lift the assembly slightly behind the center of mass so that the tranny input shaft is pointing down, not straight. It's easier to lift the tranny input shaft to position it into the throwout bearing than use the lift to position it.
2. use a second chain to connect to cherry picker to chain that is across the assembly. Position the lift chain so that the shifter is clocked at about 1 oclock when looking at the bellhousing.
3. use 3/8" bolts with nuts in the bottom two holes and get the assembly within 1/4"of the bellhousing when using the cherry picker to support the weight in the rear. The top of the tranny will be spaced further away from the bellhousing than the bottom, but should be around 1/2" to 5/8" away
4. disconnect power to the dizzy and turn the engine over for final alignment.

Sorry for the detail, but if I'm every stupid enough to do this again, it'd be nice to see these lessons.

 

[bobm]

Smiling now!

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Congrats! Hope you had a cold one or two afterwards.

 

[Lifelong40Fan]

Rear springs and axle are in. Turning to plumbing brake lines, installing front and rear line locks, and new booster/MC. Lots more to go, but just caught a brief flash of daylight.

 

[Lifelong40Fan]

Rear brake hose brackets are welded in. Cut off the unused mounting bracket for brake line T off the front axle and moved it to the rear and welded it in too. Ground, cleaned up and painted. I’ll run the rear brake line next chance I get. Just a little progress, but moving forward.

 

[Lifelong40Fan]

Rear brakes, MC, and line locks are plumbed. Ran Napa out of brake fittings, so can’t finish until more arrive on Monday. The pig is back on all 4s, so once brakes are plumbed, might be able to take a ride if I don’t have to modify the rear driveshaft. Got 15” steelies arriving next week and will be ordering new tires soon. After I get her running and stopping well, then it’s back in the garage for FI.

 

[bobm]

Whats Fi

 

[Lifelong40Fan]

Fuel injection. I bought a used Affordable FI kit that was on an FJ60. Sent it back to AFI and had them set up for an F engine. Gonna have to have my driveshaft shortened, so that may take a while.