Build Clifford is home again- a 1965 FJ40 FST

[CruisD64]

Seeing this thread for the first time and OMG. Unbelievable! I remember this exact Cruiser and Rusty from when my brother went to Davis starting in 1997. We bought some parts from Rusty before. My brother drove around in a mustard yellow 1975 which he still has. Black top. He drove it through college and then part of vet school as his daily.

 

[red66toy]

Seeing this thread for the first time and OMG. Unbelievable! I remember this exact Cruiser and Rusty from when my brother went to Davis starting in 1997. We bought some parts from Rusty before. My brother drove around in a mustard yellow 1975 which he still has. Black top. He drove it through college and then part of vet school as his daily.

No way!!! That is awesome! I love hearing a little more history on this rig. I don't know much about its backstory .
That is super cool your brother still has his 40 and went to Davis.

 

[red66toy]

The rainy season has really kicked off here in the PNW. I have been resisting tucking the 40 back into storage mode in the garage in hopes of getting to drive it again. But once that happens the 4 speed swap will get going. In the mean time I have been attending to various projects. I recently got the front calipers replaced and took it for a test run up to visit a friend. Weather was beautiful and the brakes were perfect.

Added a fun little touch. Japanese Alpha lock for the underseat box. I put a felt backer on it to prevent excessive rattling.

Next up are making some factory looking floor mats using pyramid rubber! I found a tough little sewing machine that can punch through the rubber with ease so I can sew on the border material. While white (to match the running boards) may get dirty looking quick, I think it will still look sharp and provide some reduction in sound. If these turn out well, I may make a small run of them for others if people are interested. Currently working on the patterns.

 

[red66toy]

Ok, Clifford is in winter storage mode. Now its time to get this H42 rebuild underway. I have no idea what I am doing so this will be fun!
Made a janky stand for it so I could work on it out of scrap wood. I bought this 4speed with no known history so while I have it out I am going to rebuild it. I would rather put in the time now to refresh and have a known good unit at the end of it. Once this is rebuilt I will pull the transfercase, rebuild that and then mate them together.

Started taking things apart and labeling/organizing as I went:

Gears look good:

Rear output shaft has about 0.2mm of wear.

I think this is ok, but not entirely sure. I have a rebuild kit from @orangefj45 waiting in the wings. Next step is to locate the correct pullers to get the bearings out. I know the rear main bearing is a big PITA. But hopefully a decent puller will make easy work of it.

 

[Green Bean]

Subscribed

 

[red66toy]

Got some film back and it has me REALLY missing summer. I am trying not to think about how many more months of cold and soggy world we have left up here.

I connected with a local cruiserhead and he has the right tools to pull those big bearings in the H42. Meeting with him on Monday.
I slid on the new transfercase gear to see how much play there was on the worn section of the output shaft and I may end up buying a new shaft from Valley Hybrids. It seems like there is going to be a decent clunk if I run it as is and going through all this work, it should be tiiiiight.

 

[red66toy]

Now the party can really get started! A local cruiserhead loaned this beast to me. It grabs onto the lock ring groove of the bearings instead of using the jaws that insert into the recesses on the case. I may try and heat the inner bearing race to expand it first and then use this puller to get the job done.

 

[red66toy]

I made some significant progress today. I would also like to thank @Vae Victus for this great thread. We all stand on the shoulders of fellow past and current cruiserheads, each of us helping to make the project easier for the next person, it's what makes mud so great.

I found out the large puller I borrowed was too big for the lower shaft bearings, which have a much smaller lock ring groove. I looked around some something that would fit the bill and budget. I landed on this cheap but strong looking little guy from Amazon .
The arms were too big to fit into the bearing access ports so I had to cut down the arms but made to sure to leave as much material as possible:

I was a little nervous it was going to break like most cheap tools do... but it worked perfectly! I also heated the inner bearing races with a torch to aid in their extraction.

I put the front cover back on when I did the rear countershaft bearing so the shaft would stop being pushed in and allow the bearing to be pulled out (two bolts was enough):

Next came the moment of truth, the dreaded big bearings. I stuffed some paper packing inside since I didn't know what would move/drop and wanted to keep parts safe. Again, I heated the inner bearing race. Not a ton and the this puller made it SUPER easy.

 

[red66toy]

Next the rear one! Again, the puller yanked it out like nothing! I used a wrench to stop the shaft from moving inward

The glorious guts:

Now it's time to rebuild!
These are some of the tools that have been key. Snap ring pliers, a little screwdriver to help pry out the lock rings, common ratchet wrench, Posi-lock TJ-1, the amazon puller and a little brass hammer to help adjust the pullers and shafts.

 

[red66toy]

After some thought, I decided to bite the bullet and replace the output shaft with a new one. I dont want to do all this work and have a clunking transmission. Ordered via cruiserbrothers
Checked out clearances according to the FSM,
Oil clearance: 0.09mm with a FSM max of 0.12mm
1st syncro: 3.46mm with a FSM min of 2.8mm
2nd syncro: 2.52mm with a FSM min of 1.8mm
3rd syncro: 1.09mm with a FSM min of 0.8mm
4th syncro: 0.84mm with a FSM min of 0.8mm

Thankfully the oil clearance checks out and the 1st and 2nd check out. Those are both expensive to replace and I believe NLA anyways. Phew.
4th gear syncro was juuuust above the limit. But thankfully the kit from valley hybrids contained 3rd and 4th syncros so I will be replacing both.
Fresh!

All the gears have a little wear on their leading edges, but nothing looks that bad and they are all consistent. While waiting for the new output shaft the plan is to clean up the case and paint it in preparation for reassembly!

 

[red66toy]

Beautiful new output shaft arrived from @orangefj45 (Cruiser Brothers)! Ordered Monday, got here today. I am happy I bit the bullet and went this route. If there is one thing to splurge on, it seems like this would be the item to do it on.

I started to transfer all the gears on in the reverse order. First I transferred the little pin and ball bearing from the old shaft to the new. I used a magnet to get the slick ball bearing out of its pocket and into the new shaft.

Then slid on the new needle bearings. Then slid on the gears. They kinda all only go on one way thankfully. It's very obvious if you have something backwards and the parts that key into the ball bearing and pin of course need to lock onto those. Again, thankfully obvious when they do. All looks good! I threw a coat of paint on the transmission case today. Waiting for that to dry and I'll start installing the gears tomorrow. Hopefully that goes smoothly.

 

[orangefj45]

Nice work!!!!

Thank you for the order, i appreciate you sending business our way!!!!!!

Georg @ Valley Hybrids @ Cruiser Brothers

 

[red66toy]

Nice work!!!!

Thank you for the order, i appreciate you sending business our way!!!!!!

Georg @ Valley Hybrids @ Cruiser Brothers

You all have been awesome! Fantastic customer service and it's been a real pleasure in all my dealings.
Thank you for all that you do for the community!

 

[red66toy]

Started reassembly! I definitely made some errors so hopefully these tips will prevent someone making the ones I made in the future.
So once you put the gears back on the output shaft, its time to reinsert the gears. This is all layed out in the FSM and the referenced thread so I wont go into to much detail on all the steps. When it was time to insert the output shaft will all the gears, its heavy and unsupported in the case. One end you have to hold with the bearing as you drive it in, but the other end is inside the case and unsupported. Its important to not only support this end of the shaft so its level with the rear, but also prevent it from being pushed out of the front of the case. Not only that but its important to make sure this keyed washer stays on its dowel and does not move. This whole operation was definitely the trickiest part of the whole rebuild.
There is of course a SST for this, but I definitely don't have it.

Here is the keyed washer to keep in place as you drive it home. I tilted the transmission so the gravity would help keep the washer in place and from sliding forward.

I struggled a bit at first to get this done and have a couple restarts but I finally figured out a good way to not only suspend the internal end in a centered orientation and also brace it so it wouldn't move as I drove the bearing on. I used a piece of spare wire anchored on the ends to keep it all in place.

 

[red66toy]

Next came time for the input shaft!
Installing this bearing was super easy. I used a rubber hammer. Then installed the lock ring (not pictured).

Then came time to install it in the case! The FSM makes this seem like a non-event. But there is a key thing to pay attention to. First use heavy grease to install the needle bearings and carefully insert into the case. As you insert and start to hammer the assembly in, keep these tabs and notches lined up! I didn't and it all bound up and I had to take the input shaft back out and try again.

Installing the lower counter shaft bearings was straightforward thankfully! The rubber Toyota hammer brought them home. Just need to hit them in alternating fashion. I have an older transmission I think and I dont have the access side port so getting the countershaft started on the bearings and centered was a bit tricky, but lots of gentle taps all around to get it started worked.
I am so so happy to have this all together and it spins so so smooth. It shifts correctly.

So clean.

But I have a question. What orientation does this seal need to be inserted into the nose cone? This way, or the reverse?

 

[EWheeler]

Dang. Made it look easy Chase. Thanks for sharing the details. One day, I'll be coping your homework here....

 

[red66toy]

Dang. Made it look easy Chase. Thanks for sharing the details. One day, I'll be coping your homework here....

Ha, thanks. It was not as bad as I thought going into it. I definitely made mistakes and had to redo things a couple times. But I think what made the difference was having the right pullers and then just figuring out how to properly support the output shaft on install. It is definitely a more doable project than I was expecting, you got this! . Hopefully when the time comes to drive I don't find out I did end up doing something wrong.

 

[red66toy]

Ok, looks like the seal has to be the other way, like this:

 

[Green Bean]

Great job. Thank you for documenting this. Looks like you used the correct recommended SST: OEM RY wire.

 

[orangefj45]

Correct. The second pic shows the proper orientation of the input seal.

Georg @ Valley Hybrids @ Cruiser Brothers