Builds Blue Cruiser Thread (1 Viewer)

[ufg8r]

So I finished the front end a while ago and just got the rear end and Aussie locker reassembled. On the rusty knuckle balls I ended up knocking down the rust a bit with some sand paper and didn't worry about more involved fixes...we'll see how it holds up.

On the rear axle, I got in a hurry and didn't document everything like the front end, but the rear axle was much faster/easier. Did a test drive and with 4.56 gears I can pull a hill again without slowing down.....exciting stuff!

I have 33" tires with the 4 spd transmission, so I'm going about 60 mph at 3000 rpm in 4th. Speedo reads about 3 mph faster than actual when compared to GPS. 3000 rpm seems like it will be a little tough on the 2f for long periods of time, so I'll probably start towing it on long highway type trips. Around town or on back roads it should be fine.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it'll do offroad..hitting some trails this weekend to find out!

 

[ufg8r]

Was able to haul the 60 over to Hawk Pride this weekend to test out my new tow rig.

My new gearing is a big improvement and the close park was a good test run before GSMTR next week. Oh, and my rear drivers body panel found a rock on the last trail of the weekend....doh!

 

[orion]

^^^ Think that's the cleanest I've EVER seen your 60!

Really looking forward to GSMTR...

- Brian

 

[ufg8r]

^^^ Think that's the cleanest I've EVER seen your 60!

C'mon now! It's been clean before....we're just wheeling every time you are up here!

 

[ufg8r]

Time for an update on the ol’ Blue Cruiser. Between May of last year and now I did GSMTR...

The 70 Series ride...

And Southern Cruiser Crawl....

At the crawl Rukus decided to stop maintaining idle, which was pretty irritating. So a fix needed to be made.

 

[Bama4door]

@ufg8r are you going to Mardi Krawl at Hawk Pride in April?

I ran into you at hawk pride last year during west TN offroad trip.

 

[ufg8r]

First thing we tried was jumping the solenoid at the carb, no improvement. Got the rig home from SCC and noticed it idled pretty good right after washing the engine bay down, so started wondering. ...electrical?

Thought another good thing to do was the tune up stuff and check the vacuum. manifold vacuum was about 20 mm Hg so good there but went ahead and did all new silicone hoses since some of the old rubber stuff I did ~8 years ago was starting to crack.

The tune up stuff...

 

[ufg8r]

@ufg8r are you going to Mardi Krawl at Hawk Pride in April?

I ran into you at hawk pride last year during west TN offroad trip.

I’ll be there! I’m ooking forward to a lot of wheeling this spring. Have a couple other events I plan on being at as well.

 

[ufg8r]

Well, the tune up didn’t really help the idle problem much, so I started fiddling around with the connector leading to the solenoid on the carb, apparently it was not making a good cennection! After taking that connector apart and putting it back together it’s idling again just fine.

Will get one more good spring of wheeling in, and then I’m going to have it down for a while to make some more significant changes to the rig...glad winter is coming to an end here!

 

[ufg8r]

Oh, I also got a welder over the winter and started to learn how to use it. One of the first projects was to weld up some mounts to get my center console (SmittyBuilt) secured in the truck a little better.

Has been fun learning....but still have a ways to go....

 

[ufg8r]

How about you @Bama4door? Going to Mardi Krawl?

 

[Bama4door]

@ufg8r yep I’ll be there. Also planning to go to Relic Run at the end of April and GSMTR in May

 

[ufg8r]

@ufg8r yep I’ll be there. Also planning to go to Relic Run at the end of April and GSMTR in May

Nice! Those are on my list too.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

 

[ufg8r]

I've been meaning to post the Mardi Krawl update...but have been so busy in April! Managed to break stuff on the first real trail we ran and it rained like crazy the rest of the weekend. Spent all day on the Friday of the event retrieving parts and then fixing a broken rear axle and passenger side Birfield. Birfield went first, followed by the rear axle on a different trail back up to camp...was interesting fixing all this on a trailer in a downpour...

But I did win the carnage award!

Rear axle frags...

The award no one wants to win...

Was a real pain getting the cross pin out of the rear diff, ended up having to use a come along to pull it.

Learned some things while fixing the Birf but will post about that, the after effect of the broken rear axle, and Carolina Relic Run a little later.

 

[ufg8r]

What I think I learned about the Birfields is that there are some outer axles that are longer than others. Might be common knowledge but it was news to me!

After replacing the broken one with what I thought was a birf from a 60 I couldn’t get the lock out back on. We fiddled with it for a while and thought we got it...but latter I realized we had an extra c-clip. Before Carolina Relic Run I started to wonder where the “extra” came from, popped the lockout off, and realized we accidentally left the c-clip off.

So, put that back on and we’re back to lock out not fitting, even with the spring and other guts removed from the thing. So I start searching Mud and apparently from 8/75-12/78 the FJ40 outer axles are about 3/8 inch longer than the ones that come later. Solution was to get a long body Warn hub and install it, so I have mismatched hubs at the moment.

Here’s the post that enlightened me...

Locking Hub (Aisin) Won't Seat after Upgrade to FJ60 Birfield

Confirmed that one was indeed longer than the other.

Longer 40 outer on passenger side...

Shorter 60 outer on drivers...

So now I’ll probably be looking for another 60 replacement...fun stuff. Also need to address an issue we noticed when fixing the rear axle (will describe that later).

Here’s the trail I broke it on, aptly named Brokefoot...

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Good info. Sucks you have to go through it tho to get there. So your driving mismatched? Or nada?

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Cool video, harsh terrain! Is that a go pro on the roof?

 

[ufg8r]

Good info. Sucks you have to go through it tho to get there. So your driving mismatched? Or nada?

Yeah, but on the plus side I’m getting fast at doing this job! And, yup driving and have 4wd.

 

[ufg8r]

Cool video, harsh terrain! Is that a go pro on the roof?

That trail is a pretty tough one for a mildly built rig like mine. For scale, none of the guys in that video are less than 6’4”...so some nice size rocks. Go pro was clamped to top of rear door with window down.