Been doing a bad job keeping up on this build, but I wanted to list a quick update. Have been having some issue where the truck gets really close to overheating (I put the heater and fan on full blast in the middle of the summer and that has kept it under the red but man, is it terrible on a hot day), usually in stop and go traffic or when I've been running it on the highway and then stop and go. I probably need to overhaul the cooling system, hoses, rad, water pump, etc. since they have been sitting so long. My brother did some research and decided the fan clutch might be a good place to start. Ordered an FJ80 replacement fan clutch and swapped it out this past weekend. I meant to add photos and some steps because I had a hard time finding some but I forgot. It's pretty straightforward as everyone says, if not annoying - getting those wrenches in the right place to pull the bolts sucks, especially if you have big hands. My brother and I bought a new rachet wrench set and that helped a lot - some sort of extension or long set of wrenches would have been better. Unbolted the clutch, pulled the battery and unbolted the fan shroud, pulled the top coolant hose to move the shroud, dumped coolant everywhere and made a mess, pulled the fan and clutch out, unbolted the fan from the clutch. Scrubbed most of 30 years of grime off the fan. Bolted fan back to old clutch and almost finished reinstalling before realizing (f*%$). Pulled it back out, bolted fan to a new clutch, bolted back in and put everything back together, mostly. Added coolant and fired it up. Success! There was a wash of air coming off the block that I have never experienced before in a year of wrenching. The fact that this beast did not overheat all summer running a garbage fan clutch is a testament to the longevity of these motors. So far, have driven it really hard all week and haven't gotten the needle one iota over temp. So far, so good!
Gave up on bolt below the battery for fan shroud. Does anyone know if this is going to be bad later? I couldn't get it back in for at least 30 mins, dropped it and couldn't find it and finally gave up. Bolted everything else tight, seemed fine to me.
To note, make sure you have one of those long magnet sticks for fishing bolts and wrenches that don't fall all the way through the engine bay cause it's going to happen multiple times.
Also meant to mention a follow up to an earlier post about the rear brake drum rebuild. Thanks to some correspondence, encouragement, and youtube videos from
@mtbrown619 (big shoutout, thanks man!) a few months ago I finally grabbed a buddy and rebuilt the brake drums! Photos coming. Definitely still need to rebuild the master cylinder and do a proper bleed but stopping power and my super soft brake pedal has already improved significantly!
Lastly, I angered the resto gods by installing a touchscreen head unit, and some new rear speakers. I kept the original radio thats only working part-time just in case I ever sell the truck, but it's pretty nice having some tunes on my commute now. Still no bass whatsoever, and definitely need to do something about the front speakers, but a decent improvement. Anyone have a link for some fronts that drop in without modding the door or suggestions to add some bass? Would love to hear them.
Next moves: found a guy that can fix my busted vinyl on the tops of my interior doors. Thinking about also having him do a new carpet. Gonna start shopping for carpet. Last question: anyone have a glass guy in Denver that can fix my windshield? My guy doesn't want to do it, something about the gasket being a pain?
Lastly, found some used 33's on craigslist and put them on my saggy (as you can see in the photo) stock suspension. I could not be happier with the results!
