Big Black 2F Build

[Trollhole]

Good friend of mine has owned this 77 cruiser for the past 8-9 years. It's a pretty well known cruiser in the TLCA community and owned by at least 4 people prior to my friend. It's a mustard 77 40. With all the bells and whistles. One of the first Orion cases made. ARB lockers front and rear, onboard air among a plethora of wiring that would make any engineer scratch his head.

The old gal came to me because my friend has a young son and wanted to get the cruiser back in good shape. She had been sitting under a carport for quite some time so when I went to pick her up she had a good coating of dust. What was supposed to be a month of looking her over and getting her running again has turned into a new heart transplant. It seems at some point in her life the crank nut loosened and the crank pulley began to beat up on the key and keyway. Probably took several years for this to happen but eventually it got to the point where the crank just cannot be saved and well lets face it it's a 77 2f. There are better rebuild candidates out there. So this thread will document my latest journey into rebuilding a motor into a somewhat hopped up 2f.

 

[supercal29]

Subscribed!!

 

[Griffin]

low sprung mustard 77, air lockers all around, orion case, fresh motor rebuild....mmmmmm tasty!

 

[Ctenosaurian]

That is exactly what had happened to my 76 2f when I bought it. I had to replace the crankshaft on mine. I will be interested to watch this thread.

 

[jbee]

soft top?

interesting to see the factory soft top bows installed, was there a soft top at some point? Looks like it has barn doors so not originally a FST?

I'll be interested to see what block you start with. I often see 2f motors going cheap, wondering what it will take to build a monster.

 

[ken_79-fj40]

Mine wallowed out the balancer pretty good but the crank was OK. The nut actually fell off it right after I bought it. And from then until the rebuild it wobbled something fierce. My machinist couldn't believe it didn't damage anything running like that for 20k miles. You probably already know this but make sure if you plan on using an open chamber head that you can get pistons for it. That was the big $$$ issue on my rebuild.

 

[Trollhole]

interesting to see the factory soft top bows installed, was there a soft top at some point? Looks like it has barn doors so not originally a FST?

I'll be interested to see what block you start with. I often see 2f motors going cheap, wondering what it will take to build a monster.

It's got a factory soft top. Pretty rare one. White vinyl. Has soft doors as well. But all that is sitting in a closet now. I can't remember if it was a real st but it does have the door straps.

 

[Trollhole]

Mine wallowed out the balancer pretty good but the crank was OK. The nut actually fell off it right after I bought it. And from then until the rebuild it wobbled something fierce. My machinist couldn't believe it didn't damage anything running like that for 20k miles. You probably already know this but make sure if you plan on using an open chamber head that you can get pistons for it. That was the big $$$ issue on my rebuild.

Yep not going that route. Going with an 84 2f out of an fj60.

 

[subzali]

What kind of bumper brush guard combo is that?

 

[DonkyFly40]

Subscribed

 

[tucker74]

What kind of bumper brush guard combo is that?

It's the 4+ which bumper plus the Aussie brush bar, I don't see them listing the brush bar anymore

http://www.man-a-fre.com/parts_acce...unt Bumper for WARN 8274 Heavy Duty Winch.htm

I remember that truck from my first TLCA event, it was owned by someone in the Dallas LSLC chapter IIRC. I remember it because of the Stockton widened wheels and OEM soft top. Such a sweet setup, think I have some pics of it back in the day somewhere ...

Tucker

 

[subzali]

It's the 4+ which bumper plus the Aussie brush bar, I don't see them listing the brush bar anymore

http://www.man-a-fre.com/parts_acce...unt Bumper for WARN 8274 Heavy Duty Winch.htm

I remember that truck from my first TLCA event, it was owned by someone in the Dallas LSLC chapter IIRC. I remember it because of the Stockton widened wheels and OEM soft top. Such a sweet setup, think I have some pics of it back in the day somewhere ...

Tucker

Look closer
http://www.man-a-fre.com/parts_accessories/aussiebrushguard.htm

Nice, that's the direction I think I want to go anyway. Gonna pull off my current MAF deluxe hoop bumper and sell it.

 

[tucker74]

Knew I had a pic somewhere, here it is in March of '05 out at K1:

Tucker

 

[BigRedFJ40]

I wheeled with that rig years ago up in New Hampshire at one of the Fall gatherings........ that was a sweet rig. glad to see it still looks good!

 

[ClemsonCruiser]

So lets get to the important stuff, what is going to be the color scheme

 

[Southeast Overland]

That crank problem looks familiar.

 

[Trollhole]

Picked up the replacement motor this weekend.

 

[ClemsonCruiser]

We need some action in here.... come on Troll get it in gear

 

[Trollhole]

We need some action in here.... come on Troll get it in gear

Shut it JP. I'm working on it.

 

[DougAustinTx]

Unless I had a good used engine ready to overhaul, I would be inclined to weld up that crank snout and recut the keyway. Wonder how many years we have before the cranks become hard to find?