Chet's 1974 FJ55 Build

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cml25 said:
Well not much done lately, put new battery cables on. The old ones came apart in my hand when I took them off. Had all the fluids changed and brought it over to inkpots to see about welding up some brackets for my front seats. Still have to figure that one out.

I wanted to take the front turn signals off and sand them down and paint them but ended up destroying one of them... 35 year old plastic is a little brittle, add a rusted out bolt and you got hour plus mess :( My passenger brake light isn't working now. I'm hoping it's because the turn signal is gone in the front? I replaced the brake switch (broken in 2) but it didn't seem to help. I have a new set of the 75+ FJ40, 55 turn signals but need the correct foot for them. Anybody know who sells them or the correct front turn signals?

On a good note my daughter was born on Friday morning and we finally get to go home tomorrow.

Here's a pic. of Camille 9lbs 11 oz

CamilleKellyLamis155.jpg
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Wow! Congrats on Camille!!! :clap:

Don't you have two other daughters? Wow - house full of girls! :bang:
 
hey chet, its really coming together man. the cruiser lean is a leaf spring thing. if i remember right the pass front has a little more arch to it for the different spring perch and it seems like it has been agreed upon that is the culprit most of the time.

not a whole lot you can do short of replacing springs, but heres a few tips you can check into, does it have 3/8" spacers on one side? like mini lift blobks? you can either remove them or swap them to the other side like i did when i brought my piggy home. you can also make spacers to lower the pass side (SUA thing) but we dont like to lower. you can even try swapping the springs right to left.

lemme know if ya stilll need help with that seat bracket or anything else.

oh and congrats on a 3rd girl,,,,,,, i think;p.
 
The Gator bedliner looks great, how is the smell now that it's dry? I had issue's with Speedliner smelling , it was almost toxic. I know you guy's will think I'm nuts but I really want a bedliner final coat on my floor and this looks great.

Lou
 
The cause of the lean is leaf springs on the drivers side are almost flat compared to the ones on the passenger side. I'm sure replacing all of them is the way to go. I talked to Alcans and they thought I had a small 3" lift because I'm running 33" tall tires without any problems. Does that seem right?

Rhino, I might take you up on the seats, really, really need to get that done.

The Gator guard has almost no smell now that it's cured fully. For a while it was really strong but after a few weeks the smell vanished. I'd recommend thinning it so it doesn't go on so thick.

I had a local auto place do the valve adjustment and adjust the carb and install the right distributor (thanks Rhino) with the pertronix electronic ignition. It starts right up and ran really smooth...until 2 miles down the road when it died on me. I could barely get it started and when I did it barely idled before dieing. Ended up getting it towed back to the shop. Not a good day. I'm guessing they wired something wrong with the electronic ignition or don't have it timed right? Also having a hell of time getting the brakes adjusted right. I installed the NOS Toyota Brake MC and new shoes all around, bled the system and adjusted the brake pedal rod. Everything works great for a little while and then the pedal gets hard as a rock and locks up the brakes. I adjusted the rod as far back as you can go and still had problems. The shop looked over everything, bled the whole system again, re-adjusted the rods and they are having the same issue... WTF!? What are we missing? It has not been a good week on the pig front.
 
Well found out they didn't have the distributor in correctly and it wasnt pumping oil to the motor. They spun the oil pump by hand to get oil flowing and re-installed the dist. I guess it runs fine now. Now what do I look for as far as engine damage? How would you know if something got screwed up other than weird noises and poor performance? This shop was recommended by other LC club people here in AZ and they "seem" to know what they are doing.....

Chet
 
cml25 said:
I installed the NOS Toyota Brake MC and new shoes all around, bled the system and adjusted the brake pedal rod. Everything works great for a little while and then the pedal gets hard as a rock and locks up the brakes. I adjusted the rod as far back as you can go and still had problems. The shop looked over everything, bled the whole system again, re-adjusted the rods and they are having the same issue... WTF!? What are we missing? It has not been a good week on the pig front.
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most likely one of two things. either the pedal rod adjuster is out of wack, or the small booster pushrod(protuding from front of booster-center of the fourstuds retaining the master cyl.) is too long.
 
luke i dont think your crazy,, after i move the rear wheelwells i will bedliner the whole inside floor and up the sides about 6".

chet if the engine is running smoothly you should be ok on damage, just pay attn for a while to any ticking or knocking that may develop.

like brett said, and since you replaced the MC, i'd check the rod from the booster to the MC, it is adjustable and needs to be right. unfortunately you have to take the mc off again to check it.
 
RHINO said:
luke i dont think your crazy,, after i move the rear wheelwells i will bedliner the whole inside floor and up the sides about 6".

chet if the engine is running smoothly you should be ok on damage, just pay attn for a while to any ticking or knocking that may develop.

like brett said, and since you replaced the MC, i'd check the rod from the booster to the MC, it is adjustable and needs to be right. unfortunately you have to take the mc off again to check it.
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I adjusted that rod too. The pedal height was at factory specs, everything was how it was supposed to be. The mechanic thinks it's a bad MC. I guess it's possible the rubber in the MC is old and it's letting fluid pass when you depress the brake. Another theory is the emergency brake could be sticking and causing all of the brakes to lock up? I thought it only affected the rear brakes.

Rhino - I don't suppose you have a portable welding/steel fab operation in that Massive pig of yours :eek:
 
cml25 said:
Well found out they didn't have the distributor in correctly and it wasnt pumping oil to the motor. They spun the oil pump by hand to get oil flowing and re-installed the dist. I guess it runs fine now. Now what do I look for as far as engine damage? How would you know if something got screwed up other than weird noises and poor performance? This shop was recommended by other LC club people here in AZ and they "seem" to know what they are doing.....

Chet
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Check oil pressure...
 
cml25 said:
Rhino - I don't suppose you have a portable welding/steel fab operation in that Massive pig of yours :eek:
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actually i do,,, but since you have power at your place i'll bring the better welder instead of using flux core wire. ya know it'll be a nice road trip up to my place iffin ya get the itch.

after thinking about your brakes again maybe check for a bad booster. i dont know about locking brakes up, but a real hard pedal is usually a booster.

try this, start the rig, then press the pedal down and shut it off, work the pedal once or twice and listen for air or suction moving, then again hold the pedal down and start the rig, the pedal SHOULD move down a bit, if the booster is up to snuff.

i have gotten many bad MC's from the parts store that were supposedly rebuilt, i now only buy NEW MC's.
 
Well the replacement master cylinder is doing the same thing. I'm going to have the original put back on and try to figure it out myself. I didn't replace the springs when I replaced all the shoes so I'm starting there and I also didn't grease the backing plate the shoes rub along so maybe they are getting hung up and the springs are shot and not helping pull the shoes back? I read that a bad booster would stall the motor when you pushed the pedal down when driving, I don't hear and sucking or air sounds, just the click of the new brake light switch I put in. The only sucking has been $$$ out of my wallet trying to fix these peckers..
 
Picked up the piggie and the oil pressure seems ok, at startup it was over the halfway mark and after running for 20 minutes or so it is at the 3/8 mark. Lot of valve noise, sounds like a big sewing machine. Not sure what a good condition 1.5 F Motor should sound like. No knocking that I can tell. The brakes are still fxxxed, have to pump the pedal to get them to work. What a waste of time and money. I thought a reputable shop would do a better job :(
 
Chet, your truck looks great, I love the 33's on OEM's. Looks fantastic. Would you mind sharing with me where you got your brake parts? What parts did you get? Do you have 4 Wheel drums?

Thanks,
Andy
 
Pablo - I was in a hurry due to the baby and everything.. Next time it's your way for sure. So far I've done better work.

Andy - Thanks! I picked up the shoes at a local Checker/Kragen. I think they were Raybestos brand. The 2 front hoses were also from Checker. I replaced all the rubber brake lines except the rear one, they didn't have the right length for that. I changed all the shoes and replaced the master cylinder. I didn't change any of the wheel cylinders or the springs. I also didn't grease the backing plate which I guess needs to be done? I'm new to drum brakes and adding grease to any part of a brake setup would of never crossed my mind. Live and learn.
 
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