Builds Bean! The Adventure Continues (1987 FJ60)

[Skniper]

I found the reason why the Bilstein 33-230368 shocks seem to work for so many people, but not me…I am running the 4+ U-bolt flip kit. I didn’t realize that the flip kit also relocates the lower shock mount by a few inches. I should be good to go if I order the shorter shocks (33-230450). These are just slightly shorter than the OME shocks that are currently on there.

I’ll be exchanging the shocks this week.

Here’s the difference in the shock mounts:

View attachment 3044681

Good catch, a few days ago I started typing a response to your previous shock length post and how it relates to the ubolt flip kit.
Yea the flip kit shortens the shock space by 1.5 - 2 inches.

This bit me in the butt when I tried to mount the ubolt flip kit to mine (w OME heavies up front). With the shortened shock travel, my current shocks were going to bottom out LONG before I hit the bump stops. Glad I caught it when I did.

Anxious to see which Bilstiens work for you, I would really like to reinstall the flip kit with appropriate shocks.

 

[Bullzi]

I haven’t had any issues with the flip kit and the standard OME Shocks. They were already installed when I bought the truck. I believe they have 100+ thousand miles on them, so I don’t think there were any issues with them bottoming out or anything. The Bilsteins will have about the same compressed length and just a bit less extended length. I’m thinking they should work out just right.

 

[Bullzi]

Shocks have been sent back and I am waiting for the replacements...they said the exchange could take up to 2 weeks!

Last weekend my wife and I got out for a 3 night camping adventure. We headed down to the foot hills of Mount St. Helens for a few nights to camp with my brother's family. We got super lucky and got a campsite right on the lake! The campground was "ground tents only" and they weren't happy to see us pop the RTT . They said we could camp there just this once because the RTT was a grey area.
It was a good time, full of nice hot weather! It was nearly 90F, which is really hot for us PNW folks!

Campsite by the lake:

This was our first multi-night trip with the Dometic Refrigerator. It's kind of a game changer. We really loved how much we could fit in it and that we didn't have soggy food. We were both really happy with it!

I also bought some cable track to make a home-made cord guide. It worked perfectly!

We went in the Ape Caves, which are some of the longest lava tubes in the nation.

There were a lot of kids that we were camping with and my wife had the idea to buy a bunch of glow sticks on Amazon to tape to the children so they could be stick people when it got dark. It was a big hit !

The only downside was when my 7yr old nephew got a little too much speed on his bike and rammed into the tailgate of the Bean .
A small dent and a good bit of paint missing. The first dent is always the hardest! Vehicles always seem to be a magnet for kids with bikes...why is that?!

On Saturday, we left and headed up near Belfair, Wa with intentions of going to the South Sound Meetup and then camping at Twanoh State Park. We showed up to the meeting a little late and met up with @Maddog72 (Jim), who was hosting the meeting. Turns out only one other person had showed up and left before we arrived! Last year there were a bunch of people at this meeting and it was a great time at a great venue. I'm pretty disappointed that no one came out this year. The venue is truly amazing. Jim said he was going to try one more time to get a meeting together (maybe in the fall). I hope people can make it out!

Since there was no longer anyone to camp with at Twanoh, we headed up to the Olympics to camp with @red66toy and his family. I knew they had been planning on being up there and Chase was gracious enough to let us crash the party!

The next morning, we packed up and headed home.

The Bean did really well this trip! We covered about 400 miles and didn't have any issues. It was hot outside and the AC worked great. The compressor was cycling every 15 seconds or so, but was keeping us nice and cool. I did some testing and the cycling was based on temperature input from the thermistor, not the low pressure switch...so I think its working correctly. I'm curious how often other peoples AC compressors cycle on/off?

I was also eager to see how the transmission temps would do on the hills in the Olympics with it being so hot out. The last trans always gave me trouble and I would have to pull over to let it cool. The new trans did great...it didn't get over 180F. That massive trans cooler is working well!

Next step is to change the fluids before SAS6 in August. We will also be getting out camping a few more times before then. Its shaping up to be a really fun SAS trip with a bunch of people convoying out from Wa.

 

[Bullzi]

Shocks finally arrived and I had some time to install them last week.

These are the Bilstein 33-230450 with 360/80 valving.

Shock length compared to OMEs:
Extended:

Compressed:

I have the 4+ U-bolt flip kit, so installation was simple (no bushing modification or replacement required).

I wish they compressed just a smidge more. I have about 3.25" until I'm into the bump-stop and the shock only has about 4" of up-travel at ride height...so if I get into the bump-stop hard, I could end up bottoming out the shock. I have some 0.5" high density plastic that I may use to make bump-stop extensions. That would give me a little more wiggle room.

So far I like the characteristics of the shocks. They are much stiffer than my worn out OMEs. They absorb the potholes better and are really nice on-road. I need to drive with them quite a bit more before I form an informed opinion though.


While I was driving and flexing out the new shocks, I heard a loud thud from the rear of the truck and found that one of the rear shocks had lost its upper bolt. The shock was resting on the exhaust. What are the chances that right when new front shocks go on, the rear shocks give me trouble?!

I was able to patch the melted plastic cover with some thin ABS and tape. It should hold just fine.

The real bummer was I lost my custom washers I made out of the FJ62 upper shock bolts. I have no idea how long the bolt had been gone. When I put these shocks on, I had torqued the upper bolts with the torque wrench...I guess that's not good enough. This time around I added some red locktite. Hopefully that keeps them from backing out.

 

[Bullzi]

Its been a minute since my last update - Over the past month, I haven't done a ton of work to the Bean, but we have been getting out and traveling/camping a good amount. Most notably we went to SAS6 in Colorado, which was an absolute blast!

We did the drive down in 3 days and stopped off in Portland to pick up my wife's 16 year old cousin. This was his first foray into the amazing world of Land Cruisers and by the end of the trip he was spotting and calling out cruisers before we even saw them! We were lucky enough to drive down with @gt7058a (LS Swapped FJ62) and @MichaelRoamer (JDM HJ61). It's always a good time when your sandwiched in the middle of a few nice cruisers!

The first night was too hot to camp (High 107F, Low 91F), so we stayed in a super dodgy motel with cockroaches . My passengers weren't exactly psyched on that haha. The next day we hit up the Land Cruiser Museum in SLC. This is such an amazing place!!

That night we camped on some DNR land outside of SLC and there was some rain that turned the clay into thick mud. IH8MUD!!! It dried like concrete and we had a heck of a time getting it off in the car-wash the next day!

We rolled into Ouray, Co on Sunday and hit up our first trail (Corkscrew Gulch) on Monday. This was a great warm-up trail to get used to the area. Nothing technical, but great views and a really fun trail!

Above: @Kleatus 's pup 'Cruiser' begging to drive Corkscrew.

 

[Bullzi]

The second day, we did the Mineral Creek Trail. This was by far the most technical trail of our trip. It was awesome...a little scary, but so awesome!
I want to give a huge THANK YOU to Klaus (@Kleatus) for trail leading our group for the entire week! There is no way I would have had the confidence to drive some of the obstacles (especially on Mineral Creek) if he wasn't spotting.
Our convoy most days consisted of @Kleatus, @MichaelRoamer, @gt7058a, @epaul, @BigBenFJ, @rlocke49 and ourselves.

I hate how pictures make everything looks so tame!

By far my biggest concerns were the off camber areas. That RTT isn't light, and I could feel it wanting to pull us over!

My passengers basically walked most of the trail...they got a little nervous that I might steer them off a cliff or something


Day 3 was supposed to be our light/easy day after Mineral Creek, so we went up Yankee Boy. This was a short trail, but there were 2 sections that were a challenge. Nothing too crazy except for some mega wheel lifts! I wish I had them on camera! I didn't realize it at the time, but the Bean was weighing in at around 7200lbs on the trails! I went over a scale on the way home and we were at 7250lbs!!!

My wife's cousin, Chase, airing us down to 20psi for the trail:

That evening was the group picture - So many cool rigs!

 

[Bullzi]

Day 4 was our last day of trails in Ouray and we decided to go up Imogene Pass. This was by far our favorite trail of the trip. It was the perfect combo of technical and fun. The views were also amazing!

On the way back from Telluride, we took the Last Dollar Highway. This was a dirt road with fantastic scenery. Everything from aspen forests to wide open plains with giant views. Chase drove this section and did a great job! There was one especially rutted out section of trail that he navigated easily. We even got to engage the rear locker!
He drove us all the way back into our camp at the KOA...I think he might want a Land Cruiser as his first car now!

On Friday we packed up and headed home...but now without stopping in Moab on our way back! We hit up a super easy road/trail with @Kleatus and @gt7058a. The views were EPIC!

We said our goodbyes to Klaus and family and headed back towards Washington with @gt7058a.

 

[Bullzi]

The drive back seemed to go by quick. Its amazing how well these LC9 equipped trucks drive at speed. Speed limit was 80mph through much of Utah/Idaho and we were able to maintain it most of the time! Both @gt7058a 's truck and the Bean had swaps by @torfab in 2015ish.

Our camp site outside of SLC.

One of the highlights of the drive back was seeing Heavy D Sparks towing his Sanny excavator with his big-rig through the Salt Lake area. Heavy D has a Youtube channel that I like to watch and I felt kind of famous driving next to him. I honked and I think it freaked him out a little, but he waved. I tried to hail him on the CB, but didn't get an answer

Back in Washington going over the Tacoma Narrows bridge:

This was such a great trip! We have been trying to go for a few years now and finally were able to do it. I can't wait until next year!

The Bean did great! We drove through some very hot areas (107F) with AC on and pulling passes...there were no overheating issues and the AC kept us cool the entire time. Not to mention we were super heavy at 7250lbs! The transmission also did great. That giant cooler in the front kept it very cool and I only once saw the trans temp reach 195F on the trails (which is nothing!). I was really impressed with the capabilities of the Bean. This was the hardest wheeling to date that I have done in it.
Next year, I will be ditching the RTT for a ground tent on this trip. It just makes sense with the off camber sections and we will get a little better gas mileage on the way there and back.

We had zero breakages except for our transmission shifter cable getting hot and gumming up a bit. It made it hard to get into gear, but not impossible. I have already replaced it and it is smooth as silk once again!
There is a section of the cable that runs close to the exhaust and it melted the inner plastic sheath. In the picture below, the red is the inner plastic sheath melted through the outer cable.

The inner red sheath should look like the upper part of the picture (smooth).

The bean is all cleaned up and ready for its next adventure!

No real damage except for a few diff scrapes on the rear diff and one small chip in the rear bumper powder coating where we came down on a ledge.

I also need to figure out a way to remedy my tire rubbing in the front...the paint on the inner fenders was completely rubbed off. I know others that run the same size tires without rubbing, so maybe I need a different offset on my rims?

Thanks to all who made this trip super fun (@Kleatus, @gt7058a, @MichaelRoamer, @rlocke49, @BigBenFJ and @epaul)! It was great to meet everyone and can't wait to see you all next year!
Also, we haven't forgotten about getting everyone pictures...hoping to get pictures and videos to everyone soon!

 

[Bullzi]

I’ve been enjoying driving the Bean lately and haven’t been doing a ton of work on it…but that’s about to change -

Thanks for being enablers @torfab and @NookShneer

 

[NookShneer]

I’ve been enjoying driving the Bean lately and haven’t been doing a ton of work on it…but that’s about to change -

Thanks for being enablers @torfab and @NookShneer

View attachment 3224391

So excited to see you do this!

 

[torfab]

That suspension kit is a game changer for the 60 series!

 

[chelo]

I’ve been enjoying driving the Bean lately and haven’t been doing a ton of work on it…but that’s about to change -

Thanks for being enablers @torfab and @NookShneer

View attachment 3224391

They definitely ride diffrent and the long trips are really more enjoyable. What is your rear setup?

 

[Bullzi]

Going air bags In the rear? They definitely ride diffrent and the long trips are really more enjoyable.

I’m going to keep the current suspension in the rear for now. I have OME heavies with airlift airbags to help out. I’m excited for how big of a difference just doing the front suspension is going to be!

 

[chelo]

I’m going to keep the current suspension in the rear for now. I have OME heavies with airlift airbags to help out. I’m excited for how big of a difference just doing the front suspension is going to be!

Your going to love it. I have the torfab kit and like you, I have rear leaf just to keep it simple.

 

[Bullzi]

I've been working on refreshing the 80 series axle a little each day after work and have most of it cleaned and painted. It was quite a bit rustier than it first seemed and I took the easy way out and had the axle blasted for $50. Everything else was cleaned with flap disks and rolloc scotch-bright pads.

Before painting, I added a tab for the brake line tee. I put it in the same spot as the 60 axle. I’m hoping I can reuse that tee and the axle to frame brake line.

This stuff cleaned up pretty nice!

One of the knuckles had a broken off bolt in it, so I had to drill it out. Luckily it came out easily. A few others were marred, so I am going to be getting new knuckle studs.

When I bough the axle, I was given a panhard adjuster that you weld to the stock panhard bar. This is not necessary for this project, but I thought it would be a cool thing to add. This also seemed like an easy project to tick off the list. (Instant gratification)

 

[Bullzi]

I added some metal tech caster correction plates to the axle. These were the ones that Torfab recommends for the appropriate final caster. I think they are the ones for a 4” lift? Even though my lift will only be around 2”, this will give me the right caster number.

Install is very simple - just a little bit of cutting with the grinder:

I did add a weld to the leading edge for some extra security. The directions don’t call for this, but it felt like a good idea:

I had a heck of a time removing the tie rod ends from the steering arms! I had to resort to cutting them off and welding a giant nut to them so I could use the impact gun. Even then, I had to use two pipe wrenches to help ... a bunch of heat from the MAP torch.
The threads on the inside of the steering arms are a little buggered, but I think I can clean them up.

Last but not least I “machined” some new grooves into the birfs to relocate the snap rings so I can run locking hubs. I was able to use a bolt to finagle the birf into an old pipe threader. Then I used a grinder to cut the groove while the birf spun. Almost like a poor man’s lathe

It actually came out remarkably well! If these birfs were in decent condition, I would have had them machined but they are pretty worn. I am going to swap sides to hopefully get some more life out of them.

Lastly, I added a new clip to the end of the axle shaft and put the birfs back on.

Painted knuckles!

My goal is to start cutting brackets off the Bean in the beginning of March. I’ll cover all the axle rebuild stuff in this thread, but will start a new thread for the actual suspension swap stuff.

 

[cruisermatt]

The 80 Tie rod tubes are available new for very reasonable price

 

[Bullzi]

The 80 Tie rod tubes are available new for very reasonable price

I saw that, but it is still about $200 with shipping and that’s more than I want to spend if I can avoid it!

Thanks for the heads up though!

 

[kirvesmies]

cuts a new groove for a c clip with an angle grinder n pipe threader........n doesn't show us the sparks flying. that's ingenious as fawk man, way to look after it
so this means i gotta go n find an old pipe threader to build a broke man's lathe

 

[Bullzi]

cuts a new groove for a c clip with an angle grinder n pipe threader........n doesn't show us the sparks flying. that's ingenious as fawk man, way to look after it
so this means i gotta go n find an old pipe threader to build a broke man's lathe

Sorry for the lack of evidence for the sparks…it’s a one man show around here!

The ultra broke man’s lathe is just chucking it up in a drill