Death J40 rebuild (1 Viewer)

[Vonhitch]

Ok so I bought this 74 fj40 over a year ago that was a project someone started but didn't really finish and it had some issues. Winter is coming so a couple days ago I decided to get on it and make it trail ready. The plus of what he did before I got it.
He already put a sbc and 700r in it. He did a soa and 4x4 labs gm steering conversion. It had the front disc conversion and was turned by 4x4 labs also had a tilt column.
The problems... The guy was a hack and his welding sucked and the wiring was a a mess. He made the trans x member so you can't remove it. Hacked the dash. Hacked taillights in it. Welded angle iron over the rusted sill area in the back but get this welded it to the tube bumper. No need for rubber body mounts just make it solid!!! Anyways I'll fix it.

It was a good start but it overheated fast. He was relying on an electric pusher fan. So the first thing I did was move the radiator forward added a clutch and a suburban fan now it's 195 all day long even when it's roasting hot.

I decided to make it my own and redo a lot of what was done. So I got a couple sets of 55 springs so I'm doing this now.
It's got 55 springs in the back now and they are long. And soft.
Here's what it looked like before I got into it

 

[Vonhitch]

So I cut the disaster off at the back.

 

[Vonhitch]

I started on the 55 springs in the back. I got new perches and plates from Luke at 4x4 labs I grabbed the 3 sets of 55 springs I had scored off CL and went at it. The pinion angle was not right so I re perched it. We won't talk about how the old ones were welded on, lol.

Springs are pretty flat and long a lot of info on here was why went with them the last pic shows how tall they are and how much longer they are.

 

[Vonhitch]

So my bushings came in and away I went yesterday. I cut the rear bushing perch off and not going to weld it till the front is sorted out and I will probably make new shackles. Currently it was running anti inversion shackles but they are only 3.5" long

 

[Vonhitch]

Today I got to the front did a shackle reversal and used three leaves from a 55 re drilled and three from the 40 spring packs. Pics show a stock 40 then my combo pack and two 55 springs.

 

[Vonhitch]

Truck is now at 101" wb
I have so much to do not bad for a couple half days on it though.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

cool project, I like your Manx.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Keep it up

 

[Vonhitch]

Got side tracked with work but got rid of the crappy b&m shifter today and installed an American shifter