Build Ed’s Un-Did FJ40

[Rock40]

Likely removed hundreds of MIG weld splatters from all over the axles, hosed them down in brake cleaner and shot them with Steel-It. New pinion seals will happen later. And yes, the balls got blasted as they were so corroded and pitted it was likely the right move. Plan to sand them with 2000 grit or so and they should be plenty smooth

Oddly enough here, Toyota didn’t quite get this weld sealed up. It’s on the front axle differential flange. Put some silicone bronze in it, good to go

Also had the big CFM compressor fired up today and took care of all the front axle knuckle components and the AA motor/transfer case mounts

 

[Chamba]

That axle could have been rebuilt in Pakistan from the looks of it: they wouldn't know what to do with a paper or cork gasket either in my experience. My entire 43 was rebuilt with nothing more than silicon and gasket maker. Awful.

 

[Rock40]

How does this take all day? This is nearly almost the entire front knuckle assembly, engine mounts, AA NV4500 adapter and junkyard serpentine belt conversion parts

 

[Rock40]

NV4500 is all buttoned up. Added loctite to the retaining collar bolts on the mainshaft

Don’t overdo it…

Fortunately found this while getting ready to install the top cover. There are only two rear extension housing bolts that pass through the back of the cast transmission housing into the case; the two right up on top. And based on AA’s machining, they were going to contact the reverse gear BAD. Not covered in the AA instructions anywhere which frankly is a “please do better” sort of moment.

Removed the bolts, shortened them about .25 and reinstalled. Should be fine now

Hopefully this is ready to go now

 

[Rock40]

Cracked the rear axle open again to replace the pinion seal and wheel seals. Checked the backlash while we were in there, WAY out of spec at .017” Got that back to settle right at .006”, should be much better now.

Also tore the junkyard PS pump down to put new seals in it. Not bad for the amount of water that poured out

 

[Rock40]

Still just endlessly prepping parts. Not the fun part… and necessary

Junkyard not-so-fresh AC and PS pump bracket for the serpentine conversion

Washed, blasted and painted. Good as new for $10

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Do you have a vapor hone cabinet or is that just sandblasting?

 

[Rock40]

Do you have a vapor hone cabinet or is that just sandblasting?

Thats just sandblasting in a cabinet with fairly fine media, then paint

 

[Rock40]

Drilled and tapped a 3/8-16 hole in the passenger head and added the OEM stud here. These are older GM heads so they lack some of the accessory bolt holes since this was originally a V belt system. Put in in at exactly .5” deep as I was hoping to avoid getting into a water jacket.

Getting there with the serpentine drive. Waiting on a reverse rotation water pump and new tensioner

 

[Rock40]

FleaBay block hugger headers arrived. Yes, super cheap. I run a set on my 6.0 LS and have had great luck with them, after chucking the gaskets and hardware

 

[Rock40]

Time to blow a hole in the rear bumper rail

Same hole for the inner boxing plate

Cleaned it up, filled the factory bumper/hitch holes (which were terribly wallowed out) with silicone bronze

Added some chain attachments to the $30 Curt hitch. Chain attachments are actually PSC hydraulic ram mounts, gotta use up all those loose bits!

Will eventually do this. Pass through the inner and outer plates and be fully welded. Plenty strong

 

[Rock40]

Clamps, clamps, clamps. Factory frame leaves a lot of gaps. Figured the computer driven and laser cut pieces from RuffStuff were probably more accurate

You can see the gaps here

Just ran the clamps slowly down the frame while tacking it. Just squeezed the tweedle out of it basically. And these are all old USA made clamps found at garage sales for a few $. Many were rusted totally solid. Work great now tho

Sometimes you need an extra hand to hold something in place

 

[Rock40]

Welded on it for a few hours. Pretty good overall, not done

This weld, ran right over some black Steel-It paint I put on the inner frame rails this morning. They say it’s weldable but I figured that was a bit gimmicky or maybe it worked OK with MIG which is far more forgiving with weld contamination than TIG. So this was surprising to say the least because it welded pretty darn ok

 

[Chamba]

Love that receiver hitch idea....
I may shamelessly copy that.

 

[Rock40]

Love that receiver hitch idea....
I may shamelessly copy that.

Thx, it’s simple, out of the way and darn stout I think

 

[pb4ugo]

I set mine up like that decades ago. I removed the gussets and used a length of 3/8" thick angle iron going frame rail to frame rail behind the rear crossmember. I use it for recovery or skidding logs. It ain't going anywhere.

 

[Rock40]

Bingo. We got the serpentine conversion all set now, for under $300 including the accessories

Hitch and boxing plates are done after several more hours of going at it

Definitely good enough for an old 40, all the TIG makes it look “race”

 

[Rock40]

Picking away out it. Cut the centers out of the OEM dust shields

Got going on wrapping the rear axle up after machining the rotors

 

[Rock40]

Bottom of the rear frame bumper rail, too ugly to let it be.

I wonder if it did the pulling or was getting pulled on? My guess is “pulled on”, with tow chains, VIOLENTLY. Drivers side is much worse than the passenger

Cut the destroyed stuff out

Zapped two replacement frame bits out of 3/16” plate which is nearly identical to the factory frame in terms of thickness

 

[Rock40]

Time to put it back together

There was no saving this poor rivet. Things were so badly twisted I couldn’t get it to lay flat again no matter how hard I clamped it. Cut it out, flattened it and welded everything solid again

DA sanded it, ran another weld (silicone bronze) over the top to fill any little low spots and hit it with the DA again

About as good as the poor old thing is going to get