Early FJ40 Rock Crawler Gets a Refresh (1 Viewer)

[559Fj40]

Quarantine and being away from where i work on my rig has me posting on forums now. I've been meaning to make a thread to document progress since I had my first gen pickup in High School. Missed that so now I am getting a start on a thread for the 40.

Background:
This 40 has been in my family since it left Stevens Creek Toyota in 1975. I am the 3rd owner and when it was dropped in my lap by my uncle it already had quite the history.

The cruiser on the right is mine currently, not sure when this picture was taken. Early on in the build....

Good Wheelie in Hollister

My dads pickup on the right
Fun Fact: If you have ever been in the market for or done some research for these older pickups, you will see that pickup and my dad in an old Peterson's article

After a solid run of wheeling Californias Sierras, the Cruiser Found itself parked under a tree in the foothills of California for years. Its final drive before being passed to me was to get some fresh Iroks put on. After that it sat for about 9 years.

 

[559Fj40]

About a week after I took ownership. Quick tune up, oil change, pulled the top off, and hit the rocks.
Specs when I started:
1975 FJ40
Chevy 350 originally out of a 1978 g20 van
Old school Holley Projection TBI
Sm420
Earlier 3 Speed t-case
4:10 front and rear with lunchbox rear locker
4 wheel disk brakes
btb 4 inch springs
rear revolver shackles
Non Functioning premier power welder
+ plenty of other little goodies

I was in pretty good shape at the start of this. I had a great platform that just needed a bit of love to bring back to its former glory.

 

[559Fj40]

PART 1: Summer '19 Prep

This originally started back in Fall of 2016. First issue i came across with this rig was leaking. With my 1983 Pickup down to get my dual cases finished up, this new to me rig became my daily driver. This quickly wore out every old dried seal on the thing. The other issue was how much of a hassle it was to drive on the road. Before being parked this cruiser went on short drives around the neighborhood to test the quick fix before being put on a trailer, and then wheeled. It was very roadworthy. The old projection tbi was junk, the thing pissed oil everywhere, and I was a poor college student. This led to me parking my new to me cruiser to focus on one project at a time. I finished my 83 pickup and sold it for rock bottom price, and then finally got to work on the 40.

First Step was to get a running rig so I could spin it around town. The projection tbi ran so rich that it would foul plugs. Swapped plugs & wires, optima red top, fresh valve cover gaskets, and a front to back bolt check was good enough to start.

Good wash to clean it up. Its been wheeled hard, but wheeled smart. The original paint still cleans up great

Top and doors had to come off of course.

My quick tune up quickly turned into me going full send straight into Summer and hitting the rocks. This didn't last too long though as after about 3 weeks of driving my 45 year old hacked, spliced, and cut wiring harness was giving me new issues every day. Then to cap it off, my transfer case gears decided to loose a few teeth. My original plan of wheeling all summer turned into wrenching all summer.

 

[559Fj40]

Drove down to Marlin and picked up a rebuild kit and tore into the transfer case. Went in blind for the most part because I could not find any guidance on the forums. Ended up being a bit more difficult that my mini truck cases but pretty straight forward.
The hardest part was sourcing gears and parts for these cruiser cases. SOR helped with that and I got to work. I spent most of the months of June and July rebuilding the case. Taking my time mixed with procrastination.
Ended up with a fresh rebuilt t-case as well as a new flywheel and a centerforce clutch.

First drive out and my front driver axle seal decided it did not want to hold fluid anymore. Luckily i had spares from my pickup days and was able to swap it out quickly.

Around this time in August 2019, my time with the Cruiser would become fairly limited. The cruiser is parked at my parents house, but I am now living 3 hours away in Sacramento. This keeps me from easily going outside to work on the rig.

 

[559Fj40]

More random early photos.
SIDE NOTE:
While digging into this thing I have found a few things that stood out. This cruiser was built before companies really made anything for the land cruisers, especially gm swap parts. The adapter for the sm420 to the toy case is stamped "M&M Engineering 0002" . Its a special unit. Does not have any similar measurements to the advance adapters adapter. Its shorter, which should cause clearance issued with the hump on the passenger side of the 420, but my uncle has shaved down the hump as well as running a smaller yoke on the driveshaft with the ears shaved down. I have not talked to my uncle about it yet but my dad assumes M&M engineering might be someone BTB products used back in the day before advance adapters started making adapters. A lot of the swap parts on this are from early BTB prototypes.

 

[zidaro]

bitchin rig, cool history. I grew up near coarsegold in the 70s (that was considered the big city), went to SpringValley thru 7th grade. My sis and brother in law still live in Coarsegold. Great area. Sometimes not

 

[White Stripe]

View attachment 2282705
View attachment 2282706

View attachment 2282709
More random early photos.
SIDE NOTE:
While digging into this thing I have found a few things that stood out. This cruiser was built before companies really made anything for the land cruisers, especially gm swap parts. The adapter for the sm420 to the toy case is stamped "M&M Engineering 0002" . Its a special unit. Does not have any similar measurements to the advance adapters adapter. Its shorter, which should cause clearance issued with the hump on the passenger side of the 420, but my uncle has shaved down the hump as well as running a smaller yoke on the driveshaft with the ears shaved down. I have not talked to my uncle about it yet but my dad assumes M&M engineering might be someone BTB products used back in the day before advance adapters started making adapters. A lot of the swap parts on this are from early BTB prototypes.

That might be Maurice and Maurice engineering in Hesperia. Would be cool if they still have the cnc program.

 

[559Fj40]

bitchin rig, cool history. I grew up near coarsegold in the 70s (that was considered the big city), went to SpringValley thru 7th grade. My sis and brother in law still live in Coarsegold. Great area. Sometimes not

Small world haha. I go down to my family and the cruiser in Coarsegold almost every weekend.

 

[559Fj40]

That might be Maurice and Maurice engineering in Hesperia. Would be cool if they still have the cnc program.

Interesting. I will have to look into that a bit more. Obviously Advance Adapters is the go to but this M&M piece is much shorter than the AA unit and its held up for 20+ years.

 

[559Fj40]

After moving and living in Sacramento full time I only came down to wrench or wheel every other weekend or so. Lost some more seals and after my Projection System decided it didn't want to work even close to correctly anymore, I decided I was done driving the cruiser until I gave it a proper refresh. The wiring was shot, it leaked everywhere, and I could not drive more than a few months before fouling plugs.
Around this same time I ended up getting involved with some Ultra 4 Racing through a friend whose step dad was a co-driver. (Check out Co-Drivers Unlimited on Facebook. Thats his page) After Ridgecrest and the Nationals in Reno I decided I needed to get my cruiser ready to be out in Hammers in February. This started part 2 of my work.

PART 2 Plans:
Ditch the Projection. I wanted to try goEFI or some other tbi system but i could not justify spending that much money when I would like to swap in a more modern gm v8 in the future. I did have a never ran edelbrock q-jet carb at the house so that will do. Anything will do better than the projection.
Rewire: This was an ambitious plan. By the time the kit would arrive I would have 5 days to strip, clean, and rewire before Hammers. Rewiring a vehicle is big even without a time crunch, even bigger when my previous wiring experience is an amp and two 6x9s in my pickup.

Stripped the inside down and did a coat of some rattle can bediner

Went with EZ Wiring 21 kit. Figured the extra circuits would come in hand when expanding in the future.

I do not have many pictures of the initial thrash on the wiring. We did not meet the hammers deadline which bummed me out but it was a solid push. My friend Frankie and I, with no previous electrical experience, successfully had every circuit functioning properly in 3 days. Motor cranked, lights worked, gauges lit up, etc., but we could not clean up and install everything. I had to get back to Sacramento for School on Monday and Tuesday before heading to hammers so we wrapped it up.
If you like go fast stuff, follow my friend Frankie on Instagram @blue_collar_ranger. It's his first big build. Ford ranger with all the long travel goodies, sweet fab work, and an Ls. It should be a fun truck when he wraps it up, hopefully this year.

 

[559Fj40]

The cruiser sat for a bit after hammers. I was burnt out from the thrash, then burnt from Hammers Week, and then I decided snowboarding every weekend was more important. Now that the corona virus has made it so I can't go to Tahoe, it's time to get the cruiser ready for summer.

PART 3 Summer 2020 Prep (Spring 2020)
Wrap Up Wiring: This weekend or next I should have my wiring project mostly wrapped up. I will snag pictures when I work on it next, but my plan for rock-lights and other auxiliary lighting is to wire black pull style switches into the factory locations on the dash to keep a factory look. Im lucky enough to have a complete, uncut dash and I plan to keep it that way.
Finish Carb and Fuel System: The carb is bolted on and installed but I need to work on the fuel system. The mechanical pump I bought is a returnless pump. Did the straight six in these originally have a return line? Or is the feed on the side of the tank some type of breather that my uncle just used as a return port for the efi. I need to do some searching for that unless someone reading this knows the answer and posts it up.
Seats: Currently Waiting on some PRP Daily Driver suspension seats. My factory seats were so beyond blown that quotes from upholstery shops were close in price to new suspension seats. That made my decision pretty easy.
Front Knuckle Rebuild: Bought a kit during Marlins Spring Sale to freshen these up. I feel like I have done these toyota knuckles so many times it should be pretty simple now.
Steering Refresh: New TRE's etc...
York OBA: Going to have my friend Frankie build a bracket for me to finally mount my york compressor so I don't have to limp to the gas station in Bass Lake to air up before driving home.
Premier Power Welder: The first year I had the cruiser the alternator for the welder stopped working. Since then I have been running a gm 1 wire. I need to call some shops to see about getting the Premier Unit rebuilt. I have seen mixed reviews on if shops will touch it or not. Hopefully in the coming weeks I can find a shop. If anybody knows anybody in Fresno or Sacramento that can do it send me their contact.

 

[559Fj40]

Pulled the trigger on these PRP seats. Sat in these at the PRP booth in Hammertown this year and I was a big fan. These lower sides will make it easy to get in and out vs other seats with high bolsters. I was shopping around for awhile, checking out mastercraft, corbeau, etc, and after making some calls PRP seemed to be the only company that could get me a tall enough seat. Im 6'4" and most other suspension seats would have had the harness slots coming out around the middle of my back. This was a big factor in my decision along with the fact I had actually spent some time sitting in the seat. I can not wait to wheel with these in. It is going to be much more comfortable than the blown out stock seats I have been running. The driver side literally had metal exposed through the foam. Heated seat upgrade will come in handy as well during winter wheeling.

For the time being I am going to be running lap belts. I am interested in going with harnesses eventually. I know there are not many DOT legal harnesses out there, which to be honest, I don't really care about that. I do not plan on long road trips or cruising around the city with ticket hungry cops. My driving is going to be through my small home town and into the dirt. My hold up with harnesses is them ruining my ability to lean out and look around while wheeling. Does anybody have experience with the harnesses and recreational wheeling? Should I just stick to lap belts or upgrade to a 3 point? I don't plan on getting too crazy wheeling with this cruiser as I don't want to be driving a raisin, but there are some obstacles and lines on local trails where it would be nice to be more secure. At least more secure than my 40 year old lap belts make me feel.

Quarantine boredom has also led me down the rabbit hole of shock research. My local area has solid rock trails but they are short. I do a lot of fire road cruising in between them and I would like to get a bit better of a ride. I know shocks are a get what you pair for deal. Im curious though if upgrading to something like a Fox 2.0, thats rebuildable and can be tuned, is worth it on my leaf sprung 40. The idea of having a shock I can rebuild when worn out vs just replacing them is selling me on higher end shocks like the Fox. I know its possible to dial in a leaf suspension with really good bypass shocks, but that is out of my price range. I guess I am just curious if spending the extra coin on something in the midrange, like the Fox 2.0 adventure series, is worth the ride benefits or if I should stick to the lower end for now. Hopefully someone has some input on that to go along with my searching.

 

[ksemerdjian]

PART 1: Summer '19 Prep

This originally started back in Fall of 2016. First issue i came across with this rig was leaking. With my 1983 Pickup down to get my dual cases finished up, this new to me rig became my daily driver. This quickly wore out every old dried seal on the thing. The other issue was how much of a hassle it was to drive on the road. Before being parked this cruiser went on short drives around the neighborhood to test the quick fix before being put on a trailer, and then wheeled. It was very roadworthy. The old projection tbi was junk, the thing pissed oil everywhere, and I was a poor college student. This led to me parking my new to me cruiser to focus on one project at a time. I finished my 83 pickup and sold it for rock bottom price, and then finally got to work on the 40.

First Step was to get a running rig so I could spin it around town. The projection tbi ran so rich that it would foul plugs. Swapped plugs & wires, optima red top, fresh valve cover gaskets, and a front to back bolt check was good enough to start.
View attachment 2282695
Good wash to clean it up. Its been wheeled hard, but wheeled smart. The original paint still cleans up great

View attachment 2282698
Top and doors had to come off of course.

My quick tune up quickly turned into me going full send straight into Summer and hitting the rocks. This didn't last too long though as after about 3 weeks of driving my 45 year old hacked, spliced, and cut wiring harness was giving me new issues every day. Then to cap it off, my transfer case gears decided to loose a few teeth. My original plan of wheeling all summer turned into wrenching all summer.

That thing looks sweet! I'm planning on running 35's in the future and debating if I should cut the wheel wells or not, are your wheel wells cut or are the fender flares around the original opening? I'm going with a 4" lift.

 

[559Fj40]

That thing looks sweet! I'm planning on running 35's in the future and debating if I should cut the wheel wells or not, are your wheel wells cut or are the fender flares around the original opening? I'm going with a 4" lift.

I believe the rears are trimmed just a bit to match the flares. I think they are the bushwacker fender flares. Also if you want to see more progress on the cruiser I started a thread in the Hardcore section.

 

[BrianSanDiego]

Does anybody have experience with the harnesses and recreational wheeling? Should I just stick to lap belts or upgrade to a 3 point? I don't plan on getting too crazy wheeling with this cruiser as I don't want to be driving a raisin, but there are some obstacles and lines on local trails where it would be nice to be more secure.

I ran a 5pt harness for years on my street/trail rig. Its super easy to slip the shoulder belts off to reach for something or move around. Definitely more work to get strapped in though.
I recently switched to a 4pt with one buckle, similar to this, and its much more convenient than a true 5pt race harness.

UTV 4PT PD-LAP COMB-SHLD L&L BLACK

www.gforce.com