BJ74 LHD Conversion (1 Viewer)

[Devils Paw 80]

Cool, I like your different attack of the swap, haven't seen that before. I have the same project coming up, but will have to wait till June. Will be doing the RHD to LHD on a LJ-78 and also a drivetrain swap. Don't know yet about the paint. Will have to see how my body color matches up with the "new" body colors. Keep us updated.

Ya get the 78 from Wayne? Shouldn't be a problem registering the new cruiser, right? Glad to hear you're keeping the 70 alive, more or less. I sold my 70 to a guy in Anchorage because of the frame rust.
BTW, that's a great project Lumpy. If you ever wanted to sell it, I would think the value would be much higher as a LHD.

 

[lumpy70]

Update. A big progress day. First picture is the Brown Bread sound deadening insulation, second is all of the pedals and heater core attached.

I suppose from now on it will start to look like any old LHD truck. Not sure if you guys want to keep seeing pictures.

Thanks for the encouragement Gashog, I have been wondering that myself if I chose to sell what it might be worth.

Craig.

 

[crushers]

i don't think you are out of the woods yet...
keep posting up your progress.

 

[lumpy70]

Fair enough Wayne.

I've still got all the wiring to do and find out if all of the 13B-T bits fit well in a LHD engine bay.

Craig

 

[coldtaco]

Bret, the 70 will live on in the 78 even though there will be more 78 than 70 in it. I did buy one of Wayne's 78's.
Craig, all the 13B-T stuff should fit fine I would assume since my 70 got converted to the 13B-T, but a expert did the fit. Keep us updated till you are finished.

 

[crushers]

Bret, the 70 will live on in the 78 even though there will be more 78 than 70 in it. I did buy one of Wayne's 78's.
Craig, all the 13B-T stuff should fit fine I would assume since my 70 got converted to the 13B-T, but a expert did the fit. Keep us updated till you are finished.

crap, i never did send you the second BOS, shoot me an email direct to wayne@crushersrule.com with your fax number and i will get one off this week...

sorry, still catching up on the move and the 2 fiberglass 40 restros i am doing.

 

[lumpy70]

OK, it's been a while, but I've been busy on the truck.

Here is the electrical process which I think will be controversial but I know what I'm doing and I have strict quality controls.

To make all the RHD controls move over to the LHD side, I had to cut a bunch of the harnesses. This is what I did:

1) Cut the harness in the middle (not near either end) and strip the wires
2) One at a time, wire-by-wire match up the wires on each end
3) Wind back the stripped wires onto each other, then tug test.
4) Solder, then tug test
5) Heat shrink
6) Put new harness into wire loom
7) label each end so I can troubleshoot if I need to without pulling the dash apart.

 

[lumpy70]

Here is a work day with some friends (willing slaves) getting the engine back in.

One thing we discovered and hadn't prepared for was that the crossmember for the Auto was 12" further back than the H55F was going to be. A friend willing to do the grunt work spend 4 hours with a grinder chopping them off and then we did another 2 hours of prepping and welding them on in the new position.

 

[lumpy70]

Final look at the wiring harnesses.

 

[lumpy70]

A little dirty, but starting to come together as a LHD.

Craig.

 

[crushers]

looking good Craig...
i see the big boy took a day off his house reno to pitch in...

 

[Phil in BC]

My god you guys are adventurous. I'd say you need a hobby, but looks like you already have one. Personally, I prefer fishing! Good job with the swap.

 

[coldtaco]

Cool
I got done with my firewall swap, now got to move the 70 front body mounts on to the 78, then install the drivetrain and the front rad support and rad and hoses and posision the drivetrain so to weld the engine mounts and transfer mounts. Then swap the FF axles into the 78. Then combine the wiring harness of the 78 with the wiring harness from a 80's drivetrain, maybe even use some of the wiring harness from the 70?

 

[prado t]

Keep it up! thanks for an update.

 

[lumpy70]

Sooooo, the lesson of the day is that if you feel you don't need to move your fuse panel, think really hard about where you are putting the heater fan.

C.

 

[lumpy70]

Truck wouldn't start, couldn't figure it out.

Solution? You know the thing that makes it so you can only start an automatic in either PARK or NEUTRAL? That wire needs to be shorted out for the H55F to work. What a pain.

So after connecting the harnesses that weren't connected, a LOT of fuel bleeding and cranking, and figuring out where I had the vacuum lines crossed so it wouldn't stall when I took my foot off the clutch it started and ran today. I haven't driven it yet, Sunday I hope.

I attached a picture of the A/C lines before I button the front up. Note to others doing a similar project, save as many of the original hard lines as you can. I scrapped them all thinking they wouldn't work with the LHD and started from scratch but it turns out I could have used 75% of them. Would have save myself a couple of hundred dollars on custom A/C lines.

Craig.

 

[lumpy70]

It's ALIVE

Well, it's alive. I drove it to work and back today.

It made a few weird noises and a couple of minor issues which I need to figure out, but I am officially a LHD BJ74 driving around town!

I've still got more piecing together of the dash to do so I'll post those up as I go.

Craig.

 

[Rigpig]

Good work! Always thought it would be a good swap!

 

[coldtaco]

Congrats Should be done with part two tomorrow if nothing gets in the way.

 

[prado t]

Good work, I have Geo MT+s too , to keep them from cupping keep the tire presure above 30 psi for ashphalt travelling, you probably know that already. Enjoy!