Builds Clifford is home again- a 1965 FJ40 FST

[red66toy]

Retail therapy?

It soothes the soul . I can’t hear the wine over the nice exhaust sound. What problems?

 

[rainingagain]

Anyone have ideas on this sound? Everything is fresh but it seems like it’s coming from the flywheel/clutch area. Squealing with no clutch pedal pressure. It’s not the belt. Really hoping it’s not some deep bearing. I don’t want to rip this all out especially since all the bearings are new

I listened to it a few times and man I hate to say it but it sounds like your throwout bearing on its way out.

You said there is an air gap between the bearing and the pressure plate fingers. What are we talking here? 1/8th, 1/16th? When's the last time you checked? When it's running, do the fingers "spin out" and thus contact the bearing and start it spinning? You should be able to check this with the inspection cover off I would think.

What kind of manual trans driver are you? I'm not dissing, just trying to understand. Do you pop it in neutral at a stop light or sit with the clutch pedal pressed?

Does it quiet down or go away if you light press the clutch pedal, i.e remove slop and the air gap between the bearing and the clutch fingers?

Does it scream like a banshee when you disengage the clutch / press the pedal?

If there is no air gap when the clutch is engaged and the bearing is constantly spinning, they will eat themselves fairly quickly. Generally speaking here, for applications that require an air gap.

 

[red66toy]

I listened to it a few times and man I hate to say it but it sounds like your throwout bearing on its way out.

You said there is an air gap between the bearing and the pressure plate fingers. What are we talking here? 1/8th, 1/16th? When's the last time you checked? When it's running, do the fingers "spin out" and thus contact the bearing and start it spinning? You should be able to check this with the inspection cover off I would think.

What kind of manual trans driver are you? I'm not dissing, just trying to understand. Do you pop it in neutral at a stop light or sit with the clutch pedal pressed?

Does it quiet down or go away if you light press the clutch pedal, i.e remove slop and the air gap between the bearing and the clutch fingers?

Does it scream like a banshee when you disengage the clutch / press the pedal?

If there is no air gap when the clutch is engaged and the bearing is constantly spinning, they will eat themselves fairly quickly. Generally speaking here, for applications that require an air gap.

So everything is fresh as can be! I haven’t been able to drive it much since it was only recently drivable. So basically less than 100miles on new Koyo bearings. Throw out bearing isn’t touching and doesn’t spin when the engine running and the clutch pedal isn’t depressed. I spun it by hand and it’s smooth as butter and no play.
At stops I pop in neutral and wait.

 

[red66toy]

Here is a shot from underneath

 

[rainingagain]

So everything is fresh as can be! I haven’t been able to drive it much since it was only recently drivable. So basically less than 100miles on new Koyo bearings. Throw out bearing isn’t touching and doesn’t spin when the engine running and the clutch pedal isn’t depressed. I spun it by hand and it’s smooth as butter and no play.
At stops I pop in neutral and wait.

Here is a shot from underneath

Interesting. Thanks for the additional info... yeah, not the throwout bearing me thinks. Sorry, I tried my 7 second video diagnosis .

 

[red66toy]

Interesting. Thanks for the additional info... yeah, not the throwout bearing me thinks. Sorry, I tried my 7 second video diagnosis .

I really appreciate it!

 

[red66toy]

SOR exhaust showed up! But noticed right away that the welded flange was welded crooked…. Doesn’t seem right to me. :/ Doubt it’s going to seal well. I have an email into SOR.

Rest of the kit looks promising. Plan is to remake the OEM muffler bracket in stainless steel since my truck is missing one. @tahoe40/45 is kindly sending me one to use as a template. I’ll post up in the CC thread to see if there is interest beyond just me for an SS bracket. Excited to get this all together.

 

[RevISK]

SOR exhaust showed up! But noticed right away that the welded flange was welded crooked…. Doesn’t seem right to me. :/ Doubt it’s going to seal well. I have an email into SOR.
View attachment 3752792
Rest of the kit looks promising. Plan is to remake the OEM muffler bracket in stainless steel since my truck is missing one. @tahoe40/45 is kindly sending me one to use as a template. I’ll post up in the CC thread to see if there is interest beyond just me for an SS bracket. Excited to get this all together.
View attachment 3752802

How much shipping does SOR charge for an email?

 

[red66toy]

SOR finally got back to me. Apparently the flange is supposed to be angled like that. They said the stock one was also angled. That seems odd to me but I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and bolt this system up and see! @RevISK , they kindly waved the normal $20 email transit fee since it was a product quality question…

 

[middlecalf]

I couldn’t find any reference or picts that show the down pipe angle wrt the exhaust manifold. My down pipe is also from SOR and I just don’t remember what it looked like up close like your pic, installed it looks pretty vertical (90-deg to manifold), but there could be a slight angle. I take it you don’t have your original for comparson?

Or is that an outward angle? That’s possible looking at mine, to get the pipe closer to the frame maybe?

 

[red66toy]

I couldn’t find any reference or picts that show the down pipe angle wrt the exhaust manifold. My down pipe is also from SOR and I just don’t remember what it looked like up close like your pic, installed it looks pretty vertical (90-deg to manifold), but there could be a slight angle. I take it you don’t have your original for comparson?

Or is that an outward angle? That’s possible looking at mine, to get the pipe closer to the frame maybe?

The down pipe I have I am unsure if it’s original in certain parts. It has been modified at some point in its life. But the flange was square/parallel with the end of the pipe. For the SOR pipe, depending on if the pipe end is square with the manifold or the angled flange, it results in a pipe position change of a few inches at the muffler end. So this will definitely be a “it works” or “no way it works”. That muffler isn’t going to allow a few inches of pipe variance coming into it. Only one way to find out I suppose at this point. But I wanted a written confirmation from them before I tried to bolt it all in.

 

[rainingagain]

Where is this on the system?

I couldn’t find any reference or picts that show the down pipe angle wrt the exhaust manifold. My down pipe is also from SOR and I just don’t remember what it looked like up close like your pic, installed it looks pretty vertical (90-deg to manifold), but there could be a slight angle. I take it you don’t have your original for comparson?

Or is that an outward angle? That’s possible looking at mine, to get the pipe closer to the frame maybe?

I am pretty sure mine is stock but I'm not sure that I could get a clear pic. That is the downpipe right? I'll see what I can get after work today.

 

[red66toy]

Where is this on the system?

I am pretty sure mine is stock but I'm not sure that I could get a clear pic. That is the downpipe right? I'll see what I can get after work today.

I am going to test fit the pipe a little later today and see how it all lines up. I’ll report back and may ask for a pic of your 40s exhaust setup if it doesn’t all fit on my end. Thank you!

 

[DesertFJ40]

It's not suppose to be like that, I would post a Pic of mine here, since I took it out and having laying off to the side. But unfortunately it got bent when I was liffing the engine up with the hoist. The whole exhaust system was still bolted on from the front to the rear. So the flange lip got bent upward and the first bend on the downpipe got bent inward as well. The pipe should be flush with your exhaust manifold, like you said, to prevent leaks. However, it might still work. It's just that one bolt will be threaded in more than the other once you put the exhaust on. It might be able to compensate for the off-set angle.

 

[red66toy]

It fit! This is just a test fit and I used a rubber test gasket on the downpipe as a mock up for the squishy OEM gasket. It seems like it will seal based on the compression pattern on the rubber. Fingers crossed it does the job in the end!

Muffler fitting:

The rear kit is technically made for 69+ trucks but works for earlier rigs. One tiny issue for pre-65 trucks is the rear exhaust hanger mounting. Early trucks had only one bolt while later used two. The way this hanger mounts should still work. I can line up one bolt and the rest of the bracket rests on a frame gusset giving it support thankfully. So I’ll use a good lock/biting washer on the single bolt and we should be good.

Next step is to paint a couple parts before installing this fully and firing it up.

 

[red66toy]

Got the exhaust all in and I was excited to finally be able to bolt on the factory skid plate…. Nope! Won’t fit with this exhaust. This pipe sits too close to the frame rail. Darn. But I’m also wondering if I have the wrong skid plate. This big flap at the back of the skid plate hits right where the exhaust pipe runs. Anyone with an early rig have a pic of their skid plate?

The exhaust system tucks up even with the bottom of the frame rail. The solution here may be to just chop this skid plate up to clear.

 

[DesertFJ40]

Are you using your original 3 speed skid plate? From what I remember reading, a 3 speed skid plate won't fit as a direct bolt-in with a 4 speed transmission. You either have to modify your existing skid plate a bit (I think you weld an extra section of metal, just not sure where) or you put in a 4-speed style skid plate.

I may be able to get a picture for you tomorrow of a modified skid plate. It's my father's 1978 Fj40 , he has a 4-speed, 3 speed transfer. He bought an early 3speed skid plate to use since he wanted the thicker metal as opposed to his original 4-speed skid plate. As far as I am aware, that modification of extra welded metal will translate to our early style Fj40s. He also has our style of exhaust pipe and it runs underneathe the skid plate like the 3-speed Fj40s.

Edit: or maybe you're suppose to cut the back flap part? Hmm, I'll go tomorrow, I need to pick up some tools anyway. And I'll also get some measurements of how close the exhaust sits to the rail.

 

[middlecalf]

‘63 45 but maybe the same as a 40.

 

[middlecalf]

I don’t recognize that near tab in your plate pic. For comparison…

 

[red66toy]

‘63 45 but maybe the same as a 40.
View attachment 3761700

Yeah yours looks like the parts book from 1965. A flatter profile. Looks like maybe I need a different skid plate, or at least chop this one up to a flatter profile.