Do these look right to you? Just bought FJ60 digging through it. (plus build thread) (1 Viewer)

[NotoriousJJE]

Hey guys/ gals. New member here. Just bought a new to me '86 FJ60 sight unseen. This is my second FJ60. Had a tan '84 in HS and college that I sold when we had our first kid (like an idiot).

It finally got home after a couple of weeks on the back of a transporter. I debated drivng it back cross country with the kids as a camping trip, but decided against it last minute because I hadn't seen the truck and didn't know what kind of shape it was going to be in. Thank god we didn't because manuevering it around the parking lot, one of the steering rod ends fell off. Good times.

Put it on the lift and I am going through it now. The car has aftermarket wheels. They look to be 15*8 and I measured a 3.5" backspacing. However, this is how they sit in the car. The dustboot from one of the balljoints rubs on the wheel. That can't be normal can it? See these pics:

Fj60 beginnings by NotoriousJJE, on Flickr

I ordered a new steering linkage and will get that installed tomorrow.

I was looking at the truck and noticed that the passenger side wheels appears to stick out much further than the driver side wheel. What could be causing that? The frame looked straight, no appearance of damage to the car whatsover. Would welcome your thoughts.

See two terrible pics below:

Driver side:
Fj60 beginnings by NotoriousJJE, on Flickr

passenger side:

Fj60 beginnings by NotoriousJJE, on Flickr




Tires are bald and dry rotted so I need to pull the trigger on new ones. Don't know if I should think about 16"s just to give myself some clearance?

here she sits in all her glory:

Untitled by NotoriousJJE, on Flickr

 

[Nostradamus]

Good looking rig!!! Glad you're back it the FJ60 saddle.

Those wheel offsets look jenky to me. I run stock steel wheels (powder coated) with 33's and a 3in Old Man Emu lift. Love the look and ride of my rig in this config. I don't have any of that jammed up boot stuff on my setup (not running any spacers, and I have the 4Runner front caliper upgrade on the front with no rubbing).

Not a great pic, but one I was able to find on my hard drive.

My cruiser leans to one side about and inch, but I don't have a differential protrusion of the wheel on one side vs the other. I'd pull your wheels and see what, if any spacers are in there.

Where are you in FL? I grew up in Gainesville.

 

[Seth S]

Uneven wheel offset could be from a poorly centered axle or possibly from worn bushings or mismatched wheels.

 

[NotoriousJJE]

Good looking rig!!! Glad you're back it the FJ60 saddle.

Those wheel offsets look jenky to me.

Where are you in FL? I grew up in Gainesville.

View attachment 1762682

I thought it had the wrong wheels, until I pulled the driver side off and measured the backspacing. It is 3.5 inches exactly. From everything I have been reading, 3.5"-4" backspacing should work shouldn't it? If anything, I need less backspacing. maybe 3"?

Or run 16's. Just curious to see if that is the way 15"s are supposed to sit on there.

I'm in Central FLorida now. Grew up in Miami. Need to find some trails for the truck around here...

Uneven wheel offset could be from a poorly centered axle or possibly from worn bushings or mismatched wheels.

How can I inspect that? When I was looking at it, I was trying to determine if the axle had possibly slipped one way or the other on the U bolts but I remember seeing that they had guides/ on either side of them to prevent that? Here is a pic of the underside of the front end: Does anything seem unusal?

Fj60 beginnings by NotoriousJJE, on Flickr

 

[Willard]

Those wheels are bad for this. I had a set on my 60 as well. I ended up putting a 1/4" spacer on them (available at most parts stores) and long shank lug nuts. Cragar Wheel Lug Nuts 27807-4

Worked fine. You only need to do the front the rears are ok.

Oh and if you want to clean out the pitting on them have a look online on how to do this. You can get good results. I removed it on mine and they cleaned up real well.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

I’d say because I had my dust boots worn right through from aftermarket rims that tgebackspacing is wrong. Easy to see. And the alignment is way offuf one tire is kicked out because when I tried to do my toe in after adding stock rims and a new 555 TRE set w/ draglink and kept getting that result. So instead of getting too irritated I brought it to a shop and they got it right, took some fine tuning.

 

[NotoriousJJE]

Those wheels are bad for this. I had a set on my 60 as well. I ended up putting a 1/4" spacer on them (available at most parts stores) and long shank lug nuts. Cragar Wheel Lug Nuts 27807-4

Worked fine. You only need to do the front the rears are ok.

Ok. I think 16"s are in order with the same backspacing.

 

[FJ40Jim]

Won't your laser alignment rack tell if the axles are offset or dog walking?

If axles are straight with each other, then front bodywork is shifted.

 

[60Works]

3 3/8" is stock backspacing. 3 1/2" is usually OK. It's possible that the PO added 1/4" spacers, which is also usually OK. Sometimes they stick to either the wheel or hub. Look to see if you ended up with both spacers on one wheel.

The lug studs aren't really long enough for both aluminum rims and spacers. It's done but can cause broken studs. I bought a truck where the PO put 2 spacers on and it had 3 broken studs.

If you decide to change wheels, look into the 16x7" 70 Series OEM's from Cruiser Outfitters. All the benefits of a more modern wheel with the OEM fit and look.

Looks like a nice truck. The silver is a great color. We look forward to seeing more pictures.

 

[Willard]

Ok. I think 16"s are in order with the same backspacing.

Or you can go with these (those a 32" WildPeaks installed). Those are non NA factory 7" wide 15" wheels .

 

[onemanarmy]

yea, just get factory wheels. they look the best anyway.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Very nice looking 60. Welcome back!

Regarding the front alignment, you sure the wheels are the same on both sides?

Switching to 16 inch wheels is a good plan (more available tires) and the factory 70 series wheels are very nice. Spendy though.

 

[rrv333]

Good looking 60. Keep us in the loop as to the solution for the protrusion.

 

[NotoriousJJE]

Those wheels are bad for this. I had a set on my 60 as well. I ended up putting a 1/4" spacer on them (available at most parts stores) and long shank lug nuts. Cragar Wheel Lug Nuts 27807-4

Good idea on the spacer until I figure out new wheels. THanks will do.

Won't your laser alignment rack tell if the axles are offset or dog walking?

If axles are straight with each other, then front bodywork is shifted.

Unfortunately mine won't. It will only give me toe, camber, and caster relative to the straight line of the car, not to each axle.

3 3/8" is stock backspacing. 3 1/2" is usually OK. It's possible that the PO added 1/4" spacers, which is also usually OK. Sometimes they stick to either the wheel or hub. Look to see if you ended up with both spacers on one wheel.

If you decide to change wheels, look into the 16x7" 70 Series OEM's from Cruiser Outfitters. All the benefits of a more modern wheel with the OEM fit and look.

Looks like a nice truck. The silver is a great color. We look forward to seeing more pictures.

I didn't remove the passenger side, but I don't think they have two spacers on there because the that's the shot of the dustboot rubbing.

Good tip on the 70 series wheels. I like the look of those.

yea, just get factory wheels. they look the best anyway.

Agreed. Really debating the black wheel look with silver truck. It looks good, just not sure if it's the way I want to go.

 

[OSS]

Swap the front wheels to test. If the offset is still on the same side, then the comments above are your guide. While the front wheels are off, you could drop a plumb line down off the hood and compare both sides relative to the locking hub dial

 

[Seth S]

The FSM might have a measurement guide in it....have to look....if so it will guide you on the lengths between given points for checking things like this.....just looked in the "Chassis-body" manual and on page BO-122 there is the chassis dimensions. you could put the truck on stands, take off the wheels, measure from the center of the hub to the frame rail or other common to both sides point and compare the dimensions to see if the axle is shifted off center (if the wheel swap trick does not reveal an issue.)

 

[60Works]

The shackle bushings could be worn enough for the springs to be flopped sideways.

 

[NotoriousJJE]

I was able to play with the truck for a while yesterday. Installed new OEM TRE's and put the truck on the alignment machine again.

Untitled by NotoriousJJE, on Flickr


Good news is that it seems like the axle is not shifted. I measured from the hub to the frame on one side and compared it to the other side and found only .5 centimeter of difference. I'm going to take it to the bodyshop Monday to double check the frame isn't bent just to be triple sure.

Bigger culprit in the "look" is that camber is off 3 degrees from side to side. So the passenger side is positive 2.8 and the driver side is negative 1.8.

Untitled by NotoriousJJE, on Flickr

Got the toe lined up but there is no stock camber adjustment available.

Do they sell shims to put under these to adjust camber? IS there another way?

Untitled by NotoriousJJE, on Flickr

Found 1/4" spacers and they worked great on the front with the current wheels. Had to order new lug nuts and should be here next week.

Untitled by NotoriousJJE, on Flickr

I have the FJ70 wheels coming with some 265/75 r16 Dick Cepek Fun Countrys.

PUMPED!!!!

It seems like I have some suspension sag and I am going to look at options for a small lift after I sort through the mechanical stuff going on with the truck.

Untitled by NotoriousJJE, on Flickr

 

[g-man]

hopefully just mix matched wheels/tires. but could be worn shackle bushings. OR this...

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Shims are avail for the knuckles. Do a rebuild and borrow a knuckle centering tool and do it right.
You can see it does have one or more in there but that doesn’t mean it’s correct.
After my knuckle job and new TREs I brought it in and the shop got the alignment nearly perfect. I tried in my driveway and I just found it too frustrating w/ the draglink tweaking too.