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Builds Early Fj40 Rock Crawler Gets a Refresh (6 Viewers)
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- #62
Yep thats me
We will have to see if we can get a group pic with all the 40s this year
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- #64
So I meant to keep this updated during the days leading to Rubithon but that obviously didn't happen. I had a lot more planned prep but decided the truck works well and I did not want to stress out and thrash to get a bunch of things done that aren't totally necessary. So I kept it simple, did a few key things, and packed up.
I had a few issues to address before leaving. For the past few months when the rig gets really twisted up my power steering pulley was contacting the steering shaft going into the box.
Clearance is tight to begin with and I figured it was just a combination of all my mounts being 25+ years old, rotten, and destroyed. I finally installed a poly body mount kit that I have had in a box since 2020. My fear was broken hardware on disassembly but everything went smooth.
I probably should have washed the thing beforehand to limit the dirt in my eyes but I survived and the install took only a few hours. I also took the time to check the trans crossmember mounts and the motor mounts. To gain any clearance I could I used a prybar to push the engine over a hair before cranking down the motor mounts. I don't know how much it actually moved but I did it anyway.
The next bit of prep was setting up my storage for tools and camping gear for the rubicon. I pulled the rear sit to put my toolbox in. I told my friends they will need to hustle and get their rigs finished because I'm not going to remove all this lockable storage for a backseat again so no more free rides.
I had a few issues to address before leaving. For the past few months when the rig gets really twisted up my power steering pulley was contacting the steering shaft going into the box.
Clearance is tight to begin with and I figured it was just a combination of all my mounts being 25+ years old, rotten, and destroyed. I finally installed a poly body mount kit that I have had in a box since 2020. My fear was broken hardware on disassembly but everything went smooth.
I probably should have washed the thing beforehand to limit the dirt in my eyes but I survived and the install took only a few hours. I also took the time to check the trans crossmember mounts and the motor mounts. To gain any clearance I could I used a prybar to push the engine over a hair before cranking down the motor mounts. I don't know how much it actually moved but I did it anyway.
The next bit of prep was setting up my storage for tools and camping gear for the rubicon. I pulled the rear sit to put my toolbox in. I told my friends they will need to hustle and get their rigs finished because I'm not going to remove all this lockable storage for a backseat again so no more free rides.
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- #65
Now a quick Rubithon Recap. This was my first trip to the Rubicon and my dad had not been in 20 or more years so we were both basically going in blind. We were registered as a "Renegade Run" because we weren't sure if we would be too slow for a fast group or too fast for a slow one... We had planned to leave home and get to Loon Lake before dark on Wednesday but that turned into us not leaving the house until after 8pm.
We made it to Loon Lake Dam just before 2am, dumped the cots on the side of the road, and got a few hours of rest before unloading and hitting the trail around 7/730 am.
Came into gate keeper and followed behind a 200 series and a few 80's. I was trying my best to keep pace with them but any part that was a non obstacle I had no chance of keeping up but then would catch up to them at various ledges or rock gardens where the big vehicles were a little bit slower being that they seemed to get hung up or diffed on more rocks that the swb 40. This only lasted until the top of walker hill though because they were just so much faster through the sections loaded with the small nuisance rock.
After an early lunch watching people play at soup bowl we ran into a group of three jeeps and an f-toy stopped on the side of the trail. The f-toy had sheared the knuckle studs on the driver side and totally wiped out the trunion bearing. I decided to unload and dig out what I could to help. I had some random knuckle hardware and trunion bearings as well as a magnet to fish out all of the exploded bearing out of the birfield/knuckle ball.
After hanging out for an hour or two and helping out we loaded up and continued on. While watching some hummers run little sluice, the Breakfast run caught us. We hopped into the back of the line and I got my first taste of a rubicon traffic jam.
Followed this group into Buck which was going to be our original camp spot, but not wanting to wake up early to get ahead of them, we decided to push on to the springs.
We made it to Loon Lake Dam just before 2am, dumped the cots on the side of the road, and got a few hours of rest before unloading and hitting the trail around 7/730 am.
Came into gate keeper and followed behind a 200 series and a few 80's. I was trying my best to keep pace with them but any part that was a non obstacle I had no chance of keeping up but then would catch up to them at various ledges or rock gardens where the big vehicles were a little bit slower being that they seemed to get hung up or diffed on more rocks that the swb 40. This only lasted until the top of walker hill though because they were just so much faster through the sections loaded with the small nuisance rock.
After an early lunch watching people play at soup bowl we ran into a group of three jeeps and an f-toy stopped on the side of the trail. The f-toy had sheared the knuckle studs on the driver side and totally wiped out the trunion bearing. I decided to unload and dig out what I could to help. I had some random knuckle hardware and trunion bearings as well as a magnet to fish out all of the exploded bearing out of the birfield/knuckle ball.
After hanging out for an hour or two and helping out we loaded up and continued on. While watching some hummers run little sluice, the Breakfast run caught us. We hopped into the back of the line and I got my first taste of a rubicon traffic jam.
Followed this group into Buck which was going to be our original camp spot, but not wanting to wake up early to get ahead of them, we decided to push on to the springs.
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- #66
Going through the Buck Island area was fun wheeling but in hindsight, I should have stopped more to appreciate the lake because I can barely paint a picture in my head of what it looks like. Eyes were down trail and I just kept motoring along.
Started Big Sluice hoping to get to the springs by dark....
Crossed the bridge before full darkness so I'm counting that as a success.
We setup camp out past the slabs but before the creek crossing for dirty dozen. Spent the next few days hanging out, talking to people at the marauder bar, and catching up on sleep from the previous days of prep, work, and travel. I should have taken pictures of the aftermath, but Friday night our camp was hit by a bear while were away. Losing some bread and snacks is a bummer but the real issue is while he was ripping the action packer apart, he knocked my fuel can over which dumped all of my spare fuel out through the vent.....
This made the decision of wheel back to loon or Cadillac and highway an easy one. The 350 and edelbrock 4 barrel were very thirsty and there was no shot I was going to make it back to loon via the trail without that extra fuel.
Dinner on Saturday was great and my dad and I struck out at the raffle. The Marlin Hood auction was fun to watch and it was funny to hear my old neighbor is the one who painted it.
Sunday morning was an early wakeup to try to beat any traffic. Cadillac was a cake walk but we did catch up to a group of 80s hung up in a random rock garden on the road out sometime after observation.
Tax Dollars at Work
After this it was a pretty casual drive out following a group from the Central Coast. Well it was casual until I ran out of fuel less than a half mile from the staging area. Was stopped for less than 5 minutes before a group came by and I snagged a couple gallons from Lee from the Cruisin2Camp podcast.
After that it was a nice and easy drive to Tahoe City for fuel and a gas station breakfast. Then we had an uneventful but long trip back to the trailer.
I am looking forward to next year to hopefully get a few rubicon trips in. With this being the first big trip for myself and first trip for the cruiser in over 20 years, I didn't push it too much and skipped little sluice and old sluice. Both of those would be a fun challenge I'm sure and I will be looking forward to attempting them next year.
The only bad part of the trip is that I really forgot to take pictures. I guess that is a sign of a good time? I also feel bad for my friends now because they are going to have to deal with me bothering them non stop until they join me on a trip to the Rubicon.
It's Thursday now and the rig is still loaded... debating on if I should head up to Moonlight Madness in Shaver lake this weekend...
Started Big Sluice hoping to get to the springs by dark....
Crossed the bridge before full darkness so I'm counting that as a success.
We setup camp out past the slabs but before the creek crossing for dirty dozen. Spent the next few days hanging out, talking to people at the marauder bar, and catching up on sleep from the previous days of prep, work, and travel. I should have taken pictures of the aftermath, but Friday night our camp was hit by a bear while were away. Losing some bread and snacks is a bummer but the real issue is while he was ripping the action packer apart, he knocked my fuel can over which dumped all of my spare fuel out through the vent.....
This made the decision of wheel back to loon or Cadillac and highway an easy one. The 350 and edelbrock 4 barrel were very thirsty and there was no shot I was going to make it back to loon via the trail without that extra fuel.
Dinner on Saturday was great and my dad and I struck out at the raffle. The Marlin Hood auction was fun to watch and it was funny to hear my old neighbor is the one who painted it.
Sunday morning was an early wakeup to try to beat any traffic. Cadillac was a cake walk but we did catch up to a group of 80s hung up in a random rock garden on the road out sometime after observation.
Tax Dollars at Work
After this it was a pretty casual drive out following a group from the Central Coast. Well it was casual until I ran out of fuel less than a half mile from the staging area. Was stopped for less than 5 minutes before a group came by and I snagged a couple gallons from Lee from the Cruisin2Camp podcast.
After that it was a nice and easy drive to Tahoe City for fuel and a gas station breakfast. Then we had an uneventful but long trip back to the trailer.
I am looking forward to next year to hopefully get a few rubicon trips in. With this being the first big trip for myself and first trip for the cruiser in over 20 years, I didn't push it too much and skipped little sluice and old sluice. Both of those would be a fun challenge I'm sure and I will be looking forward to attempting them next year.
The only bad part of the trip is that I really forgot to take pictures. I guess that is a sign of a good time? I also feel bad for my friends now because they are going to have to deal with me bothering them non stop until they join me on a trip to the Rubicon.
It's Thursday now and the rig is still loaded... debating on if I should head up to Moonlight Madness in Shaver lake this weekend...
How was your carb in the steep stuff ? and did you make it all the way on 1 tank ( till you ran out of coarse ). I put 5 in at Buck just because i had it but think i could have made it ?
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- #68
I’ve had the regular ol’ edelbrock 1406 on there since I ditched the Holley efi from the 90s that was failing on me. It’s great driving around town but leaves a lot to be desired offroad. A lot of decents were done via the starter and the climbs required decent amount of throttle and careful line choice because if I stopped halfway up, starting would be a chore. Cadillac Hill I’d say is the steepest the carb was “reliable” in that I could turn the vehicle off while waiting for others and restart without lots of black smoke.
I have a quadrajet that I was going to throw gaskets at before the trip but I was nervous about doing a fuel system change up hours before leaving. While not the best, my current carb is proven and I know how it behaves.
This trip has me thinking ahead though on what I want to do engine wise. I wrote off the 5.3 because I’m very happy with the driveability of the 350 in it now and I’d like to spend money on other things. Depending how the q-jet behaves I’m either going to leave it alone for awhile or start shopping around for 5.3 swap stuff.
Fuel consumption was a half tank from loon to the springs. My extra 5 would have been enough to get me to Tahoe city I’m sure. I would have made it without the extra 5 if I didn’t spend Friday driving back and forth to the springs and out to Cadillac. I don’t believe I would have been able to wheel back to loon on just that extra 5 gallons. Based on my fuel consumption going up Cadillac, big sluice would have been worse I’m sure.
We get about the same then roughly about 1 mile per gallon on the trail .
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- #70
Yeah that’s it. I’m really considering putting a small fuel cell under the rear cargo area with a transfer pump plumbed to the factory tank so I can get some extra range. I’d like to run dusy one day as that’s much closer to me than the rubicon but the amount of fuel cans I’d have to carry would be ridiculous…
Congrats on the rubithon, I just was there last Tuesday/Wednesday. Loved it and we only road half the trail. Next time…
I had a rebuild on my q-jet and thought it was the cats meow. Good enough economy, great power and parts store availability. It was great wheeling as well. I definitely recommend slapping the gaskets on and using it.
That being said, I stepped over to the dark side around covid lockdown and swapped in a 5.3. Totally different engine. Smooth and reliable. Steady power where ever I need it. Only thing that would send me back to the q-jet days is the simplicity of a carb. But I’m not looking back either…
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- #72
A 5.3 is in my future… just not sure when. The q-jet is my next step for sure though. Quick and easy swap and I can keep dialing in my driver skills and feel of the truck. I want to find the limits of myself and current setup before adding more.
What really holds me back from the 5.3 anytime soon Is this last year has been the first full year where I’ve really just driven it A LOT and I have no desire to tear it down again.
Something I’ve wanted to do for awhile is tear down an engine and rebuild it. My plan is to do that with a 5.3 and just slowly go through it so that eventually it’s ready to go into something. Most likely it would go into the cruiser
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- #75
It was a fun surprise. Was running out with nobody in front and nobody behind but ran into a little traffic there. It was fun to spectate for a bit.
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- #76
No big changes since rubithon but stuff is in the works. I am not sure how much time I have in the Sierras before the snow starts falling so I have just been playing as much as I can before that happens. Two weekends ago a few friends and I went and ran a pretty easy trail near my home town.
Star Lakes has a blue trail rating but in anything with a rear locker and decent tires its a 2wd trail if you keep momentum. The main goal here is getting one of my good friends out in his Jeep more. He's super green to the whole 4x4 thing so any seat time is good seat time.
Star Lakes has a blue trail rating but in anything with a rear locker and decent tires its a 2wd trail if you keep momentum. The main goal here is getting one of my good friends out in his Jeep more. He's super green to the whole 4x4 thing so any seat time is good seat time.
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- #77
Then a few days ago at a friends wedding, I got to talking about my trip on the rubicon and I mentioned how I ran out of fuel.... turns out a friend had a solution to that problem and this came home with me
Rear mounted aux fuel tank. Excited to get this plumbed up. Will be easier than hauling around a bunch of 5 gallon moto cans on longer trips whether it be highway miles or trail miles.
Rear mounted aux fuel tank. Excited to get this plumbed up. Will be easier than hauling around a bunch of 5 gallon moto cans on longer trips whether it be highway miles or trail miles.
