Builds Doc's 1978 FJ40 Rebuild

[TractorDoc]

Seems most go for the BFG 33 X 10.5 . . . I like the looks of them; as long as they would work on the stock 5.5 rim probably the direction I will go. Ive read some go for a wider wheel but I was hoping to get away with the rims I have. Just have to play with the air pressure and be safe installing/running them. Should not be any worse than the split ring rims on the Power Wagon. . .
I like the tires you have installed and I know you posted it once or twice in your build, do you have any better suggestions?

 

[Jdc1]

Seems most go for the BFG 33 X 10.5 . . . I like the looks of them; as long as they would work on the stock 5.5 rim probably the direction I will go. Ive read some go for a wider wheel but I was hoping to get away with the rims I have. Just have to play with the air pressure and be safe installing/running them. Should not be any worse than the split ring rims on the Power Wagon. . .
I like the tires you have installed and I know you posted it once or twice in your build, do you have any better suggestions?

Mine are BFG Mud Terrain, they are getting kind of hard to find in 33x10.5x15. We found them on Amazon of all places. I have heard of some of the early KM2s cracking the sidewall, BFG probably has it sorted out by now. I like the look of the BFG AT, but they don't fit the 5.5 rim as well as the Mud tire.

 

[TractorDoc]

Beautiful weather day. . . sun, little wind, few bugs. Didn't check the exact temperature but I was warm in just the long sleeve shirt I use to paint. Set up a table, wiped everything down, tacked everything, and sprayed some epoxy. They almost look good enough for tires if the primer was a little darker.

The fancy rim painting stands were another K-mart throw away.

I plan on hitting the outside faces with 2K filler primer; the finish color will be gray as it would have been from the factory. Not too worried about the shade of gray but I want something that compliments the blue body color. I was digging around in the paint cabinet and came across a half gallon of some leftover "dark machinery gray" from a previous tractor project. . . it has potential.

Sorry about the drips, I was using a brush and just wanted to test an area to see what the color looked like in daylight. I will also need to see how it dries overnight as I had to use a newer generation activator/hardener and I was not sure how compatible it was with the older paint.

As far as tires go I am leaning towards KO2's. Another friend of a friend runs a independent tire shop and I will see how they feel about mounting them on the stock FJ40 rims. Worst case scenario a direct friend has one of the nice mounting / balancing machines in his shop. He hauls high end cars -- had a Ford GT40 at his place last week -- back and forth across the country and is always keeping up with trailer tire maintenance. Difficult part is catching him while he is at home (and not sleeping); but he stops in my office now and again for dog meds so Ill catch up with him one way or the other.

If it does not get back to winter I am going to have to start cutting grass soon. . . not complaining as I still need to paint the rims but if this keeps up I will be forced to start work on the fenders, bib, hood, tub, etc. etc.!

 

[TractorDoc]

Repeat of yesterday's weather; maybe even a bit warmer.
Inspection of yesterday's gray test mixes looked good so I went forward with using the paint on hand. The price was right, the weather was in my favor, and it saved me a trip to the paint shop (45 minute drive one way) this week. Set up the table in the paint booth again and sprayed away.

The finished turned out great and I think the shade of gray will work with the blue. . . not bad considering I forgot that can of paint was in the back of the cabinet.

In between coats I added a few more pieces to the passenger side engine compartment. I was holding off putting the battery tray in but it makes such a nice tool tray. Looks like I will have to pull the alternator bracket off to fit the fuel lines back in their corrrect location. Under spark plug number four and bolted to the side cover is a small bracket -- its purpose was a mystery to me (and it may still be) but on the original plug wires was a plastic clip that tied the wires together. . . it fits on that bracket like it was made to go there, which is how you see it in the picture.

Other adventures today included pulling dad out of the mud -- he took the Kubota across farm to check on his bee hives and buried himself down to the axles. Luckily the big tractor was able to pull him out without trouble. Also put some new wheels/tires on the wife's J**p (she loves her JK but the 40 is growing on her. . . nobody is perfect, right?). Guess it was a wheel kind of day.

We will give the rims some time to dry/cure; will turn my attention back to the manifolds. . . unless this weather keeps up. I will be very tempted to start sanding on the fenders if Mother Nature keeps things in the 50s.

 

[Varty Yo]

7 rims??? haha they look great man!!

You did everything by hand? Looks pretty flat for a brush

 

[TractorDoc]

7 rims??? haha they look great man!!

The extra rims gave me options. . . I knew a couple of them were rough around the edges and I wanted to see how they all cleaned up after blasting/primer. Only five won the "Wonderful Wheel" contest to move on to live life on the FJ40, took time to paint those five today.

You did everything by hand? Looks pretty flat for a brush

Just did test color/coverage with a brush yesterday. . . today was full on compressed air and spray gun application. Wish I was that good with a brush. . . would probably save a lot in overspray!

 

[gator25]

Turned out nice!

 

[FJ40Jim]

The manifold heat riser plate serves to direct the exhaust gas down & out the manifold outlet. Do install the solid separator plate to reduce intake mani temp, but also maintain the heat riser flapper in hot position to smooth the gas flow.

For a clean, permanent fix, cut off the front of the shaft flush with manifold, losing the spring & counterweight. Go to the rear of the shaft and put 2 or 3 big welds between shaft & manifold to lock shaft in hot position (opposite of cold, shown in your pic). Do not weld shaft on both ends as it needs to change length with changes in temp. It is possible to do this sort of tack welding using MIG, after a thorough preheat of the manifold with propane torch.

 

[TractorDoc]

Thank You @FJ40Jim,
Wise and sensible advice from the master. I understand the principle of the heat riser and its design to deflect the exhaust downward in the "hot" position. I have one more idea to bounce off you as a way to avoid modifying the shaft/manifold in the event it ever needed to return to the original design. Could I simply install the original flapper but rotate it into the "hot" position and hold it there while I place the block off plate/intake in place? (this is thinking the bimetal spring rotates counter clockwise and gets "smaller" as the manifold gets hot) This would put a small amount of tension on the spring and the flapper would touch the block off plate, but the flapper would still rotate a small amount once the manifold was hot to the full deflect position and would not touch the plate at that time. Will try to attach a couple pictures of the pieces as I am trying to describe them. In theory this would still achieve the same result as welding the shaft. . . only I would not have to weld it.

On a side note I moved the painted rims over to the greenhouse to try and "bake" the new paint on these warm days. No one has complained yet; will see if anyone even notices they are there. The tire guy said he'd give the 33X10.5X15 BFG KO2 tires a try but he is concerned the bead will get damaged installing the second side. I may order one tire to start and see what he can do with it before I commit to the full set of five and find out I am unable to use them. He also suggested that I could have the rims widened. . . I would not be against that but of course it would ruin the perfect paint job I just pulled off. If anyone else has a better suggestion for a tall skinny tire I am all ears but spending time looking thru the archives and tire sites always brings me back to the BFGs. Anyone else run into difficulty installing these tires? Seems that those who have/run them love them.

The warm weather did get the better of me and I did pull a fender outside to start sanding on it. Looking at the life schedule I will not have time to make much progress on it -- later this week I have to drive down to Columbus for a couple days for job continuing education. It occurred to me that the fender might fit in the blasting cabinet and what do you know. . .

It fits! With this revelation I can stop with the hand sanding and fire up the cabinet to make progress as I have time. The fenders are basically NOS but I was surprised by how much surface rust was present even under the Toyota provided black paint. The shipping sticker on this fender says they were from the late 90's but I doubt they ever saw the road. It would be nice to have the fenders mounted in preparation to test fire the engine due to the components that mount to them but I think I can work without. I will just have to get creative when placing the wiring and remember to ground the coil/igniter unit.

Work and continuing education will probably take up the rest of this week but I am sure I will find my way over to the 40 at some point. I have been trying to come up with a name for it instead of just calling it "the 40" or "the truck." The Power Wagon is affectionately referred to as "Old Blue" around the farm. . . the best I can come up with for the 40 at the moment is "New Blue" (because its new to me and, well, blue). I never was good at giving names as was previously discussed in the thread; the Mrs. took away my naming privileges after I dubbed the last farm cat here at home "Kevin."

 

[FJ40Jim]

Good idea on using the solid manifold separator plate to lock the flapper valve over in the hot position.

The 33x10.50s will go on the 5.5" wheels, no problem. But technically the wheels are far too narrow for that tire, per the manufacturers spec sheet. People run them and don't die, so it can't be that bad.
Have you considered the TSL Swamper 34x9.50? Well stop, they are vicious, the feral hogs of cruiser tires, lumpy, terrible in wet or snow, impossible to balance, heavy... My wife hates them, ergo, I love them.

 

[TractorDoc]

Earlier in the week I had been doing some test fitting of the intake/exhaust manifolds to the engine. I have read about the need for proper re-alignment of the two manifolds once they have been separated from each other; I figured if I placed the port sides on a flat surface I should be able to get everything to line up evenly. After all, they just came off a running engine -- I should be able to get them mounted back up the same way, right? As usual I was wrong. My dual exhaust ports had at least 030/inch gap at the "unbolted" corner when the intake was touching the gasket with a test fit on the engine.

Checking the manifold on the bench with a square there is actually a gap between both dual exhaust ports and the intake.

The spacing of the new gasket/stainless plate between the manifolds must throw things off enough. . . no matter how I tried to manipulate the intake I could not pull it back enough to even up with the exhaust. The outside exhaust ports lined up fine but there was just too much gap for my liking (mildly warped exhaust manifold?) so I dropped the unit off at the machine shop to surface everything even (as well as spot facing the mounting holes per FJ40Jim's recommendation). They called today as I was on my way home from my continuing education obligations to say the work was done so I picked the manifold unit up on my way by. Looks good.

Of course I had to give it a test fit on the engine. . . no gaps visible with the bolts hand tight.

For good measure I took a feeler gauge around the openings. No gaps detected which will hopefully translate into no leaks.

If time allows this weekend I will torque everything down and if I am real productive the carburetor rebuilt by FJ40Jim may make an appearance. Yes, there are a few wires making their way thru the firewall. Nothing permanently installed yet but I wanted to give the harness a test fit because it needs to go in before the pedal hanger, steering column, etc. More school tomorrow at the conference. . . will try to get one of the drug reps at the trade show to buy lunch. . . make the day a little more interesting at least!

 

[thebigredrocker]

Magnificent!

 

[White Stripe]

U may want to consider 33x10.50 swamper radials. Not a bad looking tire n handle better than bias plys. If u do get a mud type tire, consider having them siped.

 

[MScruiser]

Looking good!

 

[TractorDoc]

Magnificent!

Thank You for thinking so! Hope to catch up to you and have a test drive in the not so distant future. . .

Looking good!

Appreciated. . . especially considering the detail and effort you are putting into your build. I will not have as nice a finished product as you will, but I hope to be close!

Have you considered the TSL Swamper 34x9.50? Well stop, they are vicious, the feral hogs of cruiser tires, lumpy, terrible in wet or snow, impossible to balance, heavy... My wife hates them, ergo, I love them.

U may want to consider 33x10.50 swamper radials. Not a bad looking tire n handle better than bias plys. If u do get a mud type tire, consider having them siped.

I appreciate the suggestions. I did give the Swampers a look and they do look fitting for a FJ40. I am not a complete cream puff and wanted something a little more aggressive but I also wanted to avoid having my fillings rattled out. When finished I would like to take the 40 for some mild off road adventures (Still working on the name. . . "New Blue" has not really stuck but I am giving "Al" some consideration due to the aluminum tub) but I think the majority of time will be spent on the road.
Even though I was stuck in school yesterday and most of today my brother was nice enough to take one of the rims up to the tire shop and give the BFG 33 KO2s a test fit. Nephew Joe cast the deciding vote (he likes 'em) so I ordered four more and hope to have them on the truck by the end of next week.

Not crazy about the balancing weights mounted on the front but I guess there are quite a few more on the back. I know the bigger tires are a pain to balance on a rim they are not designed to fit on; maybe I can give them a touch of gray paint to blend in.

Hope to get some wrenches turning in the shop tomorrow but we are in full planting mode in the greenhouse so I may spend part of the day there as well. Always something to do on the farm. . . never be an excuse for boredom around here.

 

[brian]

Love the pic. No toothed lock washers to scratch up that nice new paint? I've always wondered if OEM was raw fasteners or painted. I always thought they were painted, but I like the look of exposed fasteners.

Depends on the year.
I know 75s had a lot of unpainted fasteners.
Later years more was assembled on the body before the paint shop.

 

[gator25]

Good looking young man you have there, bet he's good help too.

 

[White Stripe]

Those will be great tires.

 

[Varty Yo]

Is there a better way to balance then beside the lip weights?

Side note:

When i had my last set of 37's mounted and balanced on my duramax they used all lip weights on the inside like alot of them i didnt notice and hit the highway right after i got 5 mins into my drive and they started flying off on the highway... I was pissed off big time let the manager have it when i went back. Needless to say they were redone with sticky weights and the whole thing was free haha

 

[carreta]

Earlier in the week I had been doing some test fitting of the intake/exhaust manifolds to the engine. I have read about the need for proper re-alignment of the two manifolds once they have been separated from each other; I figured if I placed the port sides on a flat surface I should be able to get everything to line up evenly. After all, they just came off a running engine -- I should be able to get them mounted back up the same way, right? As usual I was wrong. My dual exhaust ports had at least 030/inch gap at the "unbolted" corner when the intake was touching the gasket with a test fit on the engine.
View attachment 1408347

Checking the manifold on the bench with a square there is actually a gap between both dual exhaust ports and the intake.
View attachment 1408348
The spacing of the new gasket/stainless plate between the manifolds must throw things off enough. . . no matter how I tried to manipulate the intake I could not pull it back enough to even up with the exhaust. The outside exhaust ports lined up fine but there was just too much gap for my liking (mildly warped exhaust manifold?) so I dropped the unit off at the machine shop to surface everything even (as well as spot facing the mounting holes per FJ40Jim's recommendation). They called today as I was on my way home from my continuing education obligations to say the work was done so I picked the manifold unit up on my way by. Looks good.
View attachment 1408349

Of course I had to give it a test fit on the engine. . . no gaps visible with the bolts hand tight.
View attachment 1408350

For good measure I took a feeler gauge around the openings. No gaps detected which will hopefully translate into no leaks.
View attachment 1408351

If time allows this weekend I will torque everything down and if I am real productive the carburetor rebuilt by FJ40Jim may make an appearance. Yes, there are a few wires making their way thru the firewall. Nothing permanently installed yet but I wanted to give the harness a test fit because it needs to go in before the pedal hanger, steering column, etc. More school tomorrow at the conference. . . will try to get one of the drug reps at the trade show to buy lunch. . . make the day a little more interesting at least!

Nice exhaust gasket. Is that the original?