Builds Bean! The Adventure Continues (1987 FJ60)

[Bullzi]

Mounted the new trans cooler and power steering cooler to the condenser today!

I know, I know...I used those crummy little plastic ties to mount them directly to the condenser... . I really didn't have another option. The size of the coolers made it impossible to make proper mounting brackets. I have very little clearance as it is. I had to bend the line in front of the condenser into a new shape to make it fit. It was hitting the center brace for the grill / hood latch mechanism.

Everything feels sturdy and it should be fine...the last one was mounted this way for the last 150k miles.
If it seems like I'm trying to convince myself, it's because I am!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture with both coolers mounted and the front brace, but here it is with just the transmission cooler mounted:

Very little clearance in a few spots - I actually had to bend the condenser outlet tube out a bit to get it to fit under it:

I'm having a hard time deciding what fluid I want to use in the power steering system. The box takes DEX III or something like that, but the pump is GM and takes power steering fluid. I know a lot of others just put DEX VI in and call it a day. Previously, I was using Amsoil Power Steering fluid, and I think I might just keep using it. Its more expensive, but has a higher temp rating and supposedly will condition the seals better...who knows? The fluid that came out of the paperclip cooler seemed pretty clean...it only had 5 - 10k miles on it though.

I am going to route the power steering lines next. I am going to go from the box to the Magnefine filter, to the new cooler, through the paperclip and then back to the reservoir. This isn't the ideal order, but it will make for the cleanest routing of the lines. I could always take out the paperclip, but it is still in good condition and it seems worth it to have a little extra cooling.

 

[Bullzi]

I added some weatherstripping around the radiator and fan shroud to help prevent short-circuiting of hot air in the engine compartment. It actually took a lot longer than it should have! Came out nice though.

There is still a gap at the bottom of the radiator, but I left this so any water that comes through has a place to drain.

 

[hudd07]

I don’t even have an FJ and I read every word. Very very impressive. You did a great job explaining and documenting everything

 

[Bullzi]

I don’t even have an FJ and I read every word. Very very impressive. You did a great job explaining and documenting everything

Thanks for the kind words! I can get pretty wordy, so I’m impressed that you read it all!

 

[NookShneer]

I added some weatherstripping around the radiator and fan shroud to help prevent short-circuiting of hot air in the engine compartment. It actually took a lot longer than it should have! Came out nice though.

There is still a gap at the bottom of the radiator, but I left this so any water that comes through has a place to drain.

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Up there with @TheNeek for cleanest and most detailed work on a Freeborn 6x Series.

Nice work! Can’t wait to see the truck again.

 

[Bullzi]

Up there with @TheNeek for cleanest and most detailed work on a Freeborn 6x Series.

Nice work! Can’t wait to see the truck again.

Wow, thanks! But let’s be real, @TheNeek is on a completely different level. His bracket game is second to none!

Hoping to have this thing mostly buttoned up by mid-February…but you know how that goes

 

[TheNeek]

Wow, thanks! But let’s be real, @TheNeek is on a completely different level. His bracket game is second to none!

Hoping to have this thing mostly buttoned up by mid-February…but you know how that goes

You two are too kind. I'm excited to meet Bean and see all this fantastic work.

 

[NookShneer]

Josiah when you get the bean wrapped let’s plan a quick camp weekend on hood canal. Twahnoh?

 

[Bullzi]

Josiah when you get the bean wrapped let’s plan a quick camp weekend on hood canal. Twahnoh

That would be great! There are so many cool spots out here! We camped at Twahnoh this summer at a weekend cruiser meetup and it was awesome. There are also some great spots in the Olympics. Can’t wait!

 

[Bullzi]

Finished the install of the transmission and power steering cooler lines. I am happy with how they turned out. I wish they were fancy AN lines, but this was the budget option and they came out nice.

I made a small mount for the Magnefine in-line filter for the PS system. It is mounted on the frame rail brace on the drivers side. I used zip ties, so I can easily remove it/replace it when the time comes.

I still need to finish bleeding the PS system, but I need to pick up some more fluid to do so.

 

[Bullzi]

I plumbed in an ‘H’ into the heater circuit today. It’s been something I have been going back and forth on, but ultimately decided I’d do it while I had great access with the fender off.

With the LS family of engines there should be some flow through the heater circuit at all times. This allows the engine to run a little cooler. From what I understand, it’s because the thermostat uses some of this coolant to know how much to open…I could be wrong on that though. With the nature of the Toyota heater valve, if the heater is off, there is no flow through the circuit.

This should drop my temps a little (not that they were very high) but I’m curious to see if this makes a difference. I already had the ‘H’ since I had been planning on doing this a few years ago and never got around to it.

The only downside will be a very slight decrease in heater function and a few more possible leak points. I’ll be sure to update in the future with the performance difference (if any).

I used some of these hose pliers to prevent all the coolant from leaking out. Worked pretty well - I think I only lost a few cups total.

Here is the ‘H’ pipe I used from Vintage Air:

 

[Bullzi]

I'm slowly but steadily making progress on the Bean. I picked up a few bottles of Amsoil Synthetic Power Steering Fluid and filled/bled the system. With the PS system buttoned up, I put the driver's side fender on. Finally some forward motion!! I also installed the inner fender and that Raptor coating makes it look sharp!

I still need to put the fender aprons on, but unfortunately they are very red, so I need to get more material to make some more.


With the fender on, I got to work re-installing the ECU brackets, which I had painted this past fall. I reinstalled the ECU on the brackets and made sure there was enough room for the new Bussmann fuse box I will be adding. Previously the transmission control module sat in this spot, but the 'new' 6L80 has a built in computer, so the old TCM was removed.

For a while now, I have been wanting to clean up some of the old wiring that went to the 2F. There were a lot of connectors whose purpose were unknown.
Here is an example of the original wire harness and the messy connectors.

There were either 6 or 7 connectors that I was able to get rid of...these were mostly for the emissions computer and I was able to use the wire diagram from the FSM and my multimeter to confirm that they were no longer needed. One of the connectors was for the 2F AC idle-up function as well. I wanted to get rid of these connectors, but I hate dead wires in wiring harnesses because my future self can never remember what they went to or why they were cut. I decided to label the wires before wrapping them back into the harness. I reused the black wire with a yellow stripe for triggering a few relays in my Bussmann box...the BY wire goes to the engine fuse in the interior fusebox and will be hot when the truck is on.

In the picture below, you can see the 'dead' wires cut and labeled. You can also see the BY wire with the factor splice. I cut this wire before the splice and am using it to trigger some relays when the ignition turns on.

Here's the wire harness all cleaned up and wrapped up with some Tesa tape. Much better!

Next order of business...for whatever reason...was to fabricate the mount for my HAM antenna. Not sure why this came next, but it did.

It came out pretty nice and I was able to use the existing hole for the hood spring to mount it. I'm trying my best to use existing holes for mounting accessories.

With the HAM antenna out of the way, I started working on a panel to mount some of my accessory equipment. This includes a SwitchPro and fuse, a circuit breaker for the rear power and a ground buss-bar. I also mounted the Bussmann fusebox next to the ECM.

I used existing holes to mount a panel that the equipment is mounted to. I used Starboard plastic from the local plastic shop. I was able to find remnants for a few bucks! Here it is:

Here are a few shots of it all installed. It was a lot of work to wire it all! It's nowhere near fully wired, but I have a good jump on it! It is way overkill and a little too complex. If I ever did this again, I would find a way to make the truck much simpler. Luckily I created a really detailed wire diagram, so I am able to follow that and will have that in the future if I ever need to troubleshoot or add to the system.

I think next on the list is to vacuum down the AC system and fix my upper radiator hose. Then I will install the passenger fender and get started on the wiring on that side.
My upper radiator hose is kinked really bad where it enters the waterpump. I need to find a way to resolve this...I was thinking of maybe adding an internal spring. Not sure yet, the way it has to shwoop under the intake makes it want to kink. I may need a coupling with a bit of that super flexible radiator hose that has all the ribs on it. TBD!

 

[TheNeek]

My OCD is very satisfied by this post.

 

[Cruiser Cult]

I'm slowly but steadily making progress on the Bean. I picked up a few bottles of Amsoil Synthetic Power Steering Fluid and filled/bled the system. With the PS system buttoned up, I put the driver's side fender on. Finally some forward motion!! I also installed the inner fender and that Raptor coating makes it look sharp!

View attachment 2900745

View attachment 2900747

I still need to put the fender aprons on, but unfortunately they are very red, so I need to get more material to make some more.


With the fender on, I got to work re-installing the ECU brackets, which I had painted this past fall. I reinstalled the ECU on the brackets and made sure there was enough room for the new Bussmann fuse box I will be adding. Previously the transmission control module sat in this spot, but the 'new' 6L80 has a built in computer, so the old TCM was removed.

For a while now, I have been wanting to clean up some of the old wiring that went to the 2F. There were a lot of connectors whose purpose were unknown.
Here is an example of the original wire harness and the messy connectors.
View attachment 2900751

There were either 6 or 7 connectors that I was able to get rid of...these were mostly for the emissions computer and I was able to use the wire diagram from the FSM and my multimeter to confirm that they were no longer needed. One of the connectors was for the 2F AC idle-up function as well. I wanted to get rid of these connectors, but I hate dead wires in wiring harnesses because my future self can never remember what they went to or why they were cut. I decided to label the wires before wrapping them back into the harness. I reused the black wire with a yellow stripe for triggering a few relays in my Bussmann box...the BY wire goes to the engine fuse in the interior fusebox and will be hot when the truck is on.

In the picture below, you can see the 'dead' wires cut and labeled. You can also see the BY wire with the factor splice. I cut this wire before the splice and am using it to trigger some relays when the ignition turns on.
View attachment 2900762

Here's the wire harness all cleaned up and wrapped up with some Tesa tape. Much better!
View attachment 2900754

Next order of business...for whatever reason...was to fabricate the mount for my HAM antenna. Not sure why this came next, but it did.
View attachment 2900771



It came out pretty nice and I was able to use the existing hole for the hood spring to mount it. I'm trying my best to use existing holes for mounting accessories.
View attachment 2900776

With the HAM antenna out of the way, I started working on a panel to mount some of my accessory equipment. This includes a SwitchPro and fuse, a circuit breaker for the rear power and a ground buss-bar. I also mounted the Bussmann fusebox next to the ECM.

I used existing holes to mount a panel that the equipment is mounted to. I used Starboard plastic from the local plastic shop. I was able to find remnants for a few bucks! Here it is:
View attachment 2900773

Here are a few shots of it all installed. It was a lot of work to wire it all! It's nowhere near fully wired, but I have a good jump on it! It is way overkill and a little too complex. If I ever did this again, I would find a way to make the truck much simpler. Luckily I created a really detailed wire diagram, so I am able to follow that and will have that in the future if I ever need to troubleshoot or add to the system.

View attachment 2900775

View attachment 2900774

I think next on the list is to vacuum down the AC system and fix my upper radiator hose. Then I will install the passenger fender and get started on the wiring on that side.
My upper radiator hose is kinked really bad where it enters the waterpump. I need to find a way to resolve this...I was thinking of maybe adding an internal spring. Not sure yet, the way it has to shwoop under the intake makes it want to kink. I may need a coupling with a bit of that super flexible radiator hose that has all the ribs on it. TBD!

Fantastic work! Can’t wait to see it in person. -D

 

[Bullzi]

Fantastic work! Can’t wait to see it in person. -D

Thanks D! Can’t wait until it’s all buttoned up and I can come out to a Seattle Cruiserheads meeting!

 

[Bullzi]

Been working on some random interior wiring this last week and had the time to pressure test the AC system. My brother has a set of decent gauges he let me borrow and he also had an adapter to hook the gauges up to a nitrogen tank. I took the opportunity to pressure test the system before vacuuming it down and I’m glad I did!
I thought I had a small leak because I didn’t have much refrigerant in the system, but I figured I had taken care of it when I replaced most of the system…When I pressurized to ~75psi, the hose adapter on the compressor started leaking pretty badly. I was able to scramble and find a new set of rubber impregnated aluminum rings at NAPA. They had to order them from a full kit which was a bummer, but they were able to get them next day. I got those installed today and charged the system to 125psi. I’ll leave it for the next day or so, but so far there are no leaks!

Here’s a picture of similar compressor hose adapters. These are the seals that were leaking.

The system hooked up and being pressure tested:

I got curious and decided to cut open my old drier unit. I was wondering how it worked and what the internals looked like:

So the refrigerant goes in after it passes through the condenser. It’s mostly liquid. It goes through the inlet and comes into contact with the desiccant (the black fabric pouch) before it passes through a small screen and up the tube to the outlet.

Below is the small filter screen at the bottom of the exit tube:

Here is the bag that holds the desiccant and the desiccant itself.

Kind of fun to see what these parts actually look like inside.

 

[Bullzi]

I found that my prized FJ60 antenna switch was not working when I checked continuity through my multimeter. I was able to take it apart and clean the contacts. Works like new now!

Here is what it looks like inside:

All taken apart:

Dirty Contacts:

Clean Contacts:

Everything is back together and ready for another 30yrs of service!

 

[Bullzi]

I've been chipping away at the Bean over the last few weeks and trying to maintain some sort of momentum. It's slow going in small spurts at a time...but my wife's favorite saying is "An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox". I'm trying my best to be the ant!

First off, the AC system held the 150psi nitrogen charge for a few days and I decided to leave it charged instead of vacuuming the system. The nitrogen was dry (from a bottle), so I don't think it added any moisture to the system. Also, I will be able to easily see how well the system is sealed when I go to charge it in a few months...it should still be at around 150psi when I go to charge it. I will vacuum it down really well before charging.

As for oil and amounts, I used 7oz of Denso ND-Oil 8. I think I bought this off of Amazon.

I ended up getting 4oz of oil out of my compressor when I emptied it, but only put 3.5oz back in...below are the oil amounts that I used.

The stock FJ60 system uses 5.2oz - 6.2oz (or something close to that). My system is stock except for the compressor, which is slightly larger. I decided to use 7oz total in the system. I got some if this info from this How To LS Swap thread, and some of it I pieced together from various threads and the R-134a conversion TSB.

ND-Oil 8 Volumes:

• Compressor: 3.5oz
• Air Drier: 2.0oz
• Evaporator: 0.75oz
• Condenser: 0.75oz
  • Total - 7.0oz

Next, I started working on some interior bits and pieces. I added a small fuse box to the right of the glovebox for some constant power needs. This fusebox feeds constant power to the amp, the radio and my mirror. I like where I put this because it is hidden, but easily accessible if you take the glovebox out.

I also finished the wiring for the seat motors & heaters, my HAM radio, USBs and SwitchPro. I ended up redoing a bit of messy wiring that was in the dash as well. I got a little carried away and this ended up taking longer than expected.

I also got a little carried away with putting things back together inside...I ended up fully installing the dash, the front and mid carpet section, the new body seals (these are the molding/seals that attach to the body in the doorways), intirior trim, seatbelts and the center console. I was going to wait to install all this until I had made sure all my electrical was working but once I got started, it was hard to stop!

After the interior activity, I started finishing up with the wiring on the driver's side of the engine bay. Making this complicated mess of wiring look clean is not an easy task!
I also made some new battery cables (positive and negative). I think I'm pretty much finished up with the driver's side of the engine bay

Here are the ground cables for the driver's side battery - I did a small cable to the fender where it picks up another cable to the frame and then another to the engine block. I will do the exact same thing for the passenger side battery. This is all 2awg marine cable.

My goal this weekend is to fix the kink in my upper radiator hose and then maybe even install the passenger fender (if I have time).

 

[Bullzi]

I was able to get a few things ticked off the list this weekend - most notable was installing the passenger side fender and inner fender. It's starting to look like a truck again!

I started working on the upper radiator hose and I think I found a good solution that I will post about when I complete it.

I also found this little treat today... This is the harness side of the fusible link. I noticed that the white wire sheath was discolored and looked a bit burnt. Then I noticed that the sheath was cut. I removed the connector from the terminal to find that the wire was mangled/frayed and the terminal is almost black! The other two terminals have some decent corrosion as well. I think this is a 7.9mm female terminal and the wire is between 12 & 10awg but if someone could confirm that, I would appreciate it! I believe the other two are just standard 0.25 female terminals. I'm not sure what could have caused this, but I'm glad it didn't catch fire!!

 

[TheNeek]

The terminal size is based off the width of the male. I know .3inches or 7.8mm is the next size up from the standard 1/4 inch. Can you get to the mate and measure it?