:BUILDS: Blinded by the diesel, revved up like a duece - 1975 BJ40 (1 Viewer)

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Rusto

SILVER Star
Joined
Sep 19, 2015
Threads
83
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919
Location
Durango, CO
Well, I did it. I bought a 40 series LandCruiser to go with my FJ60. It's a 1975 BJ40 originally from Costa Rica. This will be the official build thread, as it needs a lot.
TONS of good things about it for sure. I'm already learning things and broken promises I made to myself, so I feel like I'm off to a perfect start.

Lessons I've learned (this will be updated regularly)
1. Don't do your first and only in person inspection at 8:45pm after a 900 mile drive.
2. Be willing to walk away, even if you drove 900 miles and had agreed on price. Had I done that, I could have saved some money.
3. Stay true to not getting a 40 if it's been repainted, as repaints hide a lot. "don't buy the paint"
4. Don't go over your budget, no matter what.
5. Be willing to throw all your rules out the door if it's the make and model you want and right there in front of you for the taking..

The good:
  1. Diesel. Always wanted one, now I have one. Runs good.
  2. New full OME lift with 5 BFG KO2's
  3. Drives straight and true with no slop.
  4. Original interior including headliner
  5. Incredibly clean, untouched frame and underside. Crazy how clean it is. supposedly garage kept in Heredia, Costa Rica while it was down there.
  6. Floor plans, tub, etc is very good shape (I think)
The bad:
  1. Classic LatAm respray, even on wires and hoses in places, which probably means classic poorly done filler in places.
  2. The top has horrific rust. It looks like the seams in between the roof (steel in LatAm models, I believe) were bad, water got in there and it just sat. And sat, and sat.
  3. Pulls hard left when braking.
  4. Rear sill repair starting to bubble.
  5. Some bondo present on doglegs underneath paint
  6. one rear seat frame busted
  7. Door stopper on passenger door compromised.
  8. Emergency brake inoperable.
  9. Glow plug light doesn't work (PO says glowplugs work, just not the light, we'll see) It does start easy.
  10. Temp gauge in operable
  11. Lighting has some bugaboos. Intermittent tail lights, one headlight out, one front blinker is always on in white, one in yellow, etc..

The plan:
  1. Get the title transferred and add Collector Plates. - Done. Collector plates definitely the way to go. $96.00, but registration is good for FIVE YEARS!
  2. Order / Download FSMs. Done.
  3. Give it a good cleaning! - Stripped some of the cheap paint off from under the hood while cleaning, but it's coming off anyway at some point.
  4. Baseline all "systems"
  5. Address the hard left braking (leaky wheel cylinder is my hypothesis at the moment) - it actually evened up with a little driving. Probably just needs a good flush.
  6. Basic tune on the motor. I know nothing about diesels other than they use compression and no spark, get good mileage and can run on biofuel. I think the idle needs to come up a bit
  7. Get lighting sorted out - It was mostly just 12v bulbs and a 12v switch used instead of 24v. Easiest electrical fix to date.
  8. Get emergency brake operable. Looks to just be missing the cable. We'll see. Pretty easy rebuild. Wasn't the cable, but a part within the brake that had broken. Just rebuilt it, painted it up nice, and put it back in. I now have a functional e-brake!
  9. Fix passenger side door stopper.
  10. Start uncovering rust on rear sill and elsewhere to stop the spread now and correctly.
  11. Source and install OEM heater (most from FJ, I assume, with blower motor from 24 volt BJ) - Has assembled most of the parts, but putting this on hold while I baseline everything else.
  12. Fix/replace rear seat frame - This was welded for the repair. Looking good.
  13. Address other small body imperfections
  14. remove all signs of over spray on wiring, hoses, etc (constant work in progress)
  15. remove and repair top. Needs all new gutters and thorough, proper rust repair.
  16. and in the immortal word of Johnny Cash, "drive, drive, drive, drive, drive"
I hope to do EVERYTHING myself, which means I'll need to learn how to weld at some point.... (got a Hobart140 for Christmas!)

Anyway, not a terribly long list, and I can drive it around during most of the work.

And now... what you've all been waiting on. PICS!



Home.jpg


Passenger door stopper.jpg


Rear Sill.jpg


Roof pic with Rust.jpg


2nd Roof Pic with Rust.jpg
 
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More pics...

Frame Pic 1.jpg


Underneath rear bed.jpg


Drivers side view.jpg
 
Congrats and good luck brave sir!

I did that once...twice.

Once I overlooked the rust on an FJ60...really bad idea buying a really cheap "slightly rusty" 60 from Pennsylvania...
Second was an 80 series, at night in below zero temps...I overlooked A LOT, but only lost a few hundred on that deal, not happy but new owner was OK with everything.

I've not had the dis-pleasure of owning a South American rig, however I have seen a few.
 
Good find. I’ve picked up both my old Toyota oil burners sight unseen hundreds of miles from home and I agree, it’s hard to walk away once you’ve committed so much. But hey - they can’t be too nice otherwise you wouldn’t take it anywhere fun! :flipoff2:

Not a whole lot to do on the old B for a tune up. Change the fuel filter and fill the new one with diesel purge
Amazon product ASIN B00CPL8OVE
Idle is easy enough to adjust. Consider replacing the leather diaphragm given the questionable history on the truck (lots of threads on this). You can hose clamp the air lines that go between the Venturi and diaphragm for good measure to prevent possible runaway. Check your valve lash. Think about new glow plugs before winter. Hmm what else .... :hmm: not much on these old tractors. Drive it!

Edit: forgot about the primer pump, if yours is leaking you can replace with a Bosch unit - generally well regarded compared to the original and pretty cheap
 
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That's some good stuff, @John in Utah. you've help start me down the path... didn't even know anything about no leather diaphragm. And I'd heard of runaway on a diesel, but didn't think of it with these old B's for some reason. Good to know. I expect to really start digging in this weekend, but that was before I promised my 7 and 5 year old I'd take them exploring in the San Juan's on Saturday. so we'll see.

in the meantime. I just went and laid under it, gobsmacked. It's definitely it's best side. I've found a couple of less than dime-sized spots where there's any sort of rust. So, for now, all I have to share are more pics. :)

Drivers Side Dogleg from inside.jpg


driver's side floor pan.jpg


Driver's side under seat - only rust.jpg


Passenger side dogleg, from underneath.jpg


Passenger side front fender.jpg
 
couple more

Body Mount.jpg


Underneath rear bed.jpg
 
Okay... I finally have something to report. It's officially underway.

First order of business... get all the lights working as they should. I bought it with one headlight working, one tail light and the front running lights working.
What didn't work - none of the blinkers, no reverse lights, no brake lights, left headlight and nothing on the left rear lights. Somewhat worried as to what I may find when I started digging in.

Lucky for me (so far) the PO was in way over his head (I wonder if the same will be said of me some day). Everything on this is 24 volts as I'm sure most of you know, but the PO didn't. Burnt out 12v bulbs abounded. So, while replacing the bulbs, I decided to go all LED, save the headlights, where I went semi-sealed beamed halogen.

I also replaced the 12v flasher with a 24v one that supports LED and prevents the hyper flash. Stripped off a bunch of over spray on the buckets while I was at it.

And as of last night, I have fully functional brighter headlights, running lights all around, blinkers blinking at their normal rate, reverse lights, tail lights and brake lights! whoop! Nothing like fixing all the running lights for less than a $100, when I was worried about all the potential pitfalls of chasing electrical gremlins.

Over view of Odd Iron Off Road and offerings for Land Cruisers and off road vehicles - Order stuff from these guys. Super knowledgeable, helpful and available. I'm not one for putting stickers on my vehicles, but I'll be putting theirs on my 40. Any additional press I can give them, I will.
 
More little things... pulled off the poorly painted emblems up front and touched them up. Painted the diesel logo back to glossy black, and the Toyota emblem back to black, yellow and chrome. Hit 'em both with some clear after. Used aircraft stripper to take off old paint. Worked great and DIDN'T remove any of the chrome from the plastic. Then did a lot of taping, the spraying painting, then touching up with a very small paint. Also used superglue to re-affix emblem to mounting bolt.

Had a helluva time finding a yellow that was close the emblem yellow, but I think I got pretty close. Someone here once used Testers' "phoenician yellow" a '64 Ford color, but I could only find that color made by Plasti-dip. But I found a warm yellow color from Rustoleum and Home Depot that looks pretty good.

Anyway... before and after.

Emblems - pre paint.jpg


Emblems - repainted.jpg


Yellow logo paint.jpg
 
Despite the negatives, I'd still be "revved up like a deuce" if I was the owner of that rig! Always wanted a diesel. Great pick up, if you asked me.
 
thanks @joestewart - I'm glad I have it as well. Some early easy fixes has the wind in my sails currently. Hope that continues.
 
I've "revved" up the front emblems (thanks for the edit @joestewart (can you name who wrote that tune?). Looks better already.
Now I just need to get the white off the front bib and the silver off the bezel....

Diesel repainted - zoom.jpg
 
Quick update - all the lights are still working. So happy that wasn't a big electrical issue.

I have just begun to tackle the parking brake don't really have much to offer except some good PO bashing and well-worn words of wisdom.

I went to empty the transfer case as the first step in repairing/rebuilding the parking brake and it was thick graphite gray oil and not every much of it. Like a half-pint's worth. Luckily I haven't driven much, just around town a bit - probably less than 30 miles total and no more than 3 or 4 miles at a time.

I do this with every vehicle I get, but some take me longer than others. It need to be done as soon after purchase as possible - CHANGE ALL THE FLUIDS!

And while I was under there, I saw this:

Drain plug with RTV all over it.jpg


an orange-rtv coated oil pan drain plug. WTF, people! Most likely just missing the crush washer, which is on order. I'll see when I change the oil, which is also on my to do list after parking brake. Along with a radiator flush and changing the oil in transmission, diffs, etc.
 
speaking of parking brakes - the cable is connected, but when I pull out the lever, it's like it's not connected.

Any guesses as to what's wrong?

At least it's pretty clean.
parking brake.jpg
 
Nice clean rig, I have to admit I have a diesel affliction. How's that B working in the hills? The 3b gets a little slow up the hills. Cannot wait for the turbo install!! We will have to meet up sometime halfway!

Dig the Manfred Mann reference always a favorite of mine!
 
@greenbeast - I've always wanted a diesel Toyota. I'd looked to swap one into my 84 pickup, then my 60.. So when I began my hunt for a 40, I figured now was the time.

Regarding how it runs in the hills... it is damn slow which I expected. I still need to tune it up and baseline it a bit to get a true feeling of how it runs.

I'll do that after the parking brake is fixed

And while Manfred Mann popularized the tune, Bruce Springsteen wrote it and his version is a great one as well.
 
Ah ha, I stand corrected!
Some of the small passes around here tax the 3b but it sure sounds cool going up em!!!
 
I've been messing with this a bit here and there. Not nearly as much as I want to of course, but new LED lights and a space heater in the garage have me motivated.

Parking brake is working now. Pretty easy rebuild on that one.

Choke wasn't working at all. Another easy fix... just took it off, shot some lube into it, worked it around a bit and it's nice. Took the opportunity to remove the paint overspray on it and it not only works good, but it looks good.

I'm enjoying how straightforward everything is on this thing. Even moreso than my 60, which I thought was easy to work on.

Put in new Glow plugs. Glow indicator still isn't working, but it starts much better now.

Long overdue, but all the filters, oil, fluids, etc. are getting changed out this weekend.
 
Never had a diesel LC, but have had beaucoup diesel trucks, all of which had block heaters. Did the Toyota diesels have block heaters and if not, why not add one?
 

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