Engine swap in some little village in Sierra Leone! (1 Viewer)

[canucksafari]

Charles, I still don't have a reply back from Steve. If you still need a steering box and a pitman arm, it might be a good idea to post it up on the Coastal Cruiser's section. I am willing to pick it up from any member and ship it to you.

BTW, are you going to rebuild the old 3b or use it as filler for a building foundation?

 

[Kief]

Make sure you get the correct year/bolt pattern. There are differences!!

 

[cruiser_guy]

Ahh!!

After all the sitting around for the engine the brake calipers were seized and wore the pads to the point of taking out a rotor.

I found a rotor and the calipers were freed in Freetown. I don't know what exactly they might have done with the calipers but they seem to work. I also found other calipers, allegedly from a Prado, that look like they would bolt up after a little trimming of the backing plate. I decided to keep the Prado calipers as spares just in case.

After mounting up and bleeding the old calipers it seems like maybe the master has gone south. I can stop although rather poorly. I've gone all around and can't find any more air in the lines.

I don't see any significant drop in fluid level but I DO see some frothing in the reservoir after pumping the brake pedal a few times. The fluid seems to go down maybe 1/8" or so and get frothy and then slowly come up again. I know others have talked about bleeding the master but I've never needed to do that before in over 20 years of owning and driving this truck. Is this a possible symptom of an airlocked master cylinder? How would I bleed it out?

Have a look at these pictures and see if they look like any caliper you folks have seen before. Mounting points, line location and width all work so they will mount and be useable if the backing plate is cut away about 1/2" on either end.

 

[bj40man]

Hey Charles,

Im so sorry I have missed this amazing post! I have gone through pretty much the same process of installing a 3BII, only difference, it was in a 40 series, so no AC issues or so I had the exact same prob with the clutch hitting the housing and the metal ring where the front bearing sits not being long enough. There are several versions of it around.

If there's anything I can do to help out, please let me know!

BTW, I like what you did with your oil pan. I had the same oil pan on mine and ended up just knocking the side off where it interfered with the front shaft. One reason why I considered doing this instead of going your way was because the depth of the oil pan, in my case the original oil pan on the 3BII was shallower and therefore if, I installed the other oil pan like you did, I was concerned there may be at one point oil starvation due to the pick up not going deep enough. (I hope Im making sense)

Take care and keep us posted, very interesting adventures there!

 

[canucksafari]

Charles, does the 60 have a load sensing valve at the back? If so, I found that I had to bleed that one first and then I bleed the two rear calipers starting with the one furthest from the master cylinder. I found the little bit of air that it trapped made the brakes feel spongy but it still stopped. The calipers can hold air as well. I found that lightly wacking the side of the caliper bores with a hammer encouraged the small air bubbles to let go of the sides of the bore. You may find that you will go through a couple liters of brake fluid to get all the air out, especially if the system was allowed to drain dry.

It is possible that your master is leaking brake fluid past the seals. All it takes is one push too far when you are bleeding or a spec of dirt to mess up a seal. When my clutch slave went out, my daughter was helping me bleed the brakes and next thing the master went just as I was getting the air out enough to build pressure. Not sure of what caused it but it is not uncommon to have the master go after doing wheel cylinders or calipers. Rebuilding is pretty easy if you got a rebuild kit on hand. Just put the little bits in order as they come out when you pull the plunger out of the master cylinder bore.

If the bore needs a bit of honing, then a bit of extra fine sand paper pushed into a hacksaw cut on the end of a bolt makes a nice hone for small bores. Cut off the bolt head and put it into your electric had drill. Make sure you wash it all out good with lacquer thinner. Then lube the bore and new seals well with brake fluid when putting it back together.


Bleeding a new or rebuilt master is best done off the truck. I took a small piece of steel brake line with a flare nut. Alex brazed one end for me and the other end I flared. I then bleed it on the vice, topped up the brake fluid, and then mounted it on the truck and quickly re-attached the brake line.

 

[cruiser_guy]

I decided to do a little more bleeding of the brakes today. I got some air out of the back but I'm also seeing air bubbles, some decent sized ones too, coming up in the fluid reservoir. I never noticed that before with bleeding brakes. Is that normal or something I should be concerned about? The bubbles keep coming but the fluid level doesn't go down much?!? This is with all bleeders closed.

A quick recap of what I had to do. The front calipers would not return to mount new pads so I pulled them and took them to town. That is a several day trip (I live out in the middle of nowhere in Sierra Leone remember, there is NO NAPA in town). Of course during the time I was away the lines were open and dribbling fluid. I took the calipers to the local Toyota garage and they did something to them that freed the pistons but said they were not good. I also found two pairs of used calipers that I was told are from a Prado. They match the old calipers in every way except that they are longer. To mount them requires cutting away 1/2" of dust cover on both ends of the caliper.
On my return from town I decided that since the old calipers now seem to move freely I would simply mount them and use them and keep the others as spares in case the original calipers leak fluid or get jammed again.
I got them mounted and the air sort of bled out. The truck slows down when applying the brakes but the brakes are definitely NOT normal at all. Some more bleeding and now I am seeing large bubbles in the brake reservoir. I took a video but I can't post mp4 files.

Normal and keep bleeding or the master or original calipers are causing this and need to be replaced? This isn't my first brake work on this truck nor is it the first time I've done it with the system basically drained. I've never had such a problem!

 

[handcannon]

Charles, I don't have much experience with bad masters. But what I have seems that it is possible to get air sucked back into the reservoir each time the MC piston retracts. This happened several years ago when I upgraded to four wheel discs on my 40. I went to a larger rebuilt master and couldn't get all the air to bleed out. Come to find out air was getting into the MC with each stroke of the pedal when trying to bleed the brakes.

Don

 

[canucksafari]

I have never had bubbles come up in the reservoir. If there is a leak on the rear seal in the master, it is possible the air could be coming from there. I don't know how air would be sucked in without brake fluid also leaking somewhere. Pull the master (without disconnecting the brake line) and see if it is leaking into the booster. If that is not the source of the air and leaking, maybe try a gravity bleed? Some people swear this is the only way to bleed difficult systems.

 

[cruiser_guy]

Charles, I don't have much experience with bad masters. But what I have seems that it is possible to get air sucked back into the reservoir each time the MC piston retracts. This happened several years ago when I upgraded to four wheel discs on my 40. I went to a larger rebuilt master and couldn't get all the air to bleed out. Come to find out air was getting into the MC with each stroke of the pedal when trying to bleed the brakes.

Don

If the reservoir is full of fluid how can air be sucked in, especially when the fluid level is not going down!

I might go and limp into Freetown and have the Toyota garage give it a good going over if I can't get the air out enough to have the brakes work like they should. We'll see if I can get rid of the rest of the gremlins. I think it is only left with the throttle linkage and I think I have a solution for that in stiffening the pushrod.

The only scary part is the entry to the Toyota garage is a steep downgrade, probably in the order of 30% or more! I'll need to go in 4 low and have the guard open the gate first!

 

[crushers]

a misaligned push rod can do this ...
did you install a new master recently?

 

[cruiser_guy]

No new master recently. Another round of bleeding seems to have done the trick. I can now lock up the wheels!

Today must be my lucky day. In addition to getting the brakes working I fixed the throttle pushrod so it doesn't bend and I can actually get a little acceleration going. Yesterday the A/C blower decided it was time to quit. Sub-Saharan Africa is not a good place to be driving without A/C. I took it apart today and found the brushes were gone but the armature still in 1/2 decent condition! I have exactly one 12v dashtop mount fan that was brand new in my house. Now remember, I am in the middle of nowhere. I decided that I can't really loose too much by seeing what this dash mount fan uses for brushes. I got it all apart and the brushes are almost a perfect fit! Now the A/C is also working again.

Hope to be heading to Freetown soon to finish up what we need to do here in Sierra Leone and I believe the BJ60 will be ready for the trip. It'll be the first trip of more than 10 miles or faster than 2nd or 3rd since July when the engine crapped.

 

[handcannon]

Good to hear you got the problem fixed.

It's been several years now since the master swap, so I could be dealing with a bad memory also. All I can say for sure is that with the rebuilt MC I was dealing with air in the rear circuit that I couldn't get rid of, and was not getting enough fluid volume. I don't remember any leaks from the rear of the rebuilt MC.

I re-did the bench bleeding of the MC, but in the vehicle this time, and still couldn't get rid of the air, or enough volume, in the rear circuit. I then returned the rebuilt MC for a brand new MC and had no more problems bleeding the brakes.

Don

 

[Kief]

I think it is possible to suck air in when there is restrictions on the "out" part of the circuit due to the sealing under pressure design of the master- this would be possible on a worn out part that didn't leak but would suck air in... just a thought. Most of the time it is due to a large volume of air that doesn't want to leave its spot or the bleed isn't being done properly..

 

[cruiser_guy]

Almost all the gremlins are worked out. I fixed a throttle issue yesterday. It was hardly noticeable with the bad roads here. Throttle response if you're running at idling speed in 2nd or 3rd is hardly important. When they began fixing the road now that the rains ended it became noticeable. Fixed that by increasing the arc the bellcrank subscribes thereby increasing the pushrod throw.

Now the truck comes alive when stepping on the throttle. I'm also able, for the first time since the engine died in July, to hit 10 psi on the turbo boost when I tromp on it! In "love" with the truck again.

The only remaining issues are engine mounts lost in the mail, loosing prime overnight https://forum.ih8mud.com/diesel-tech-24-volts-systems/669723-rotary-3b-loosing-prime-over-night.html and the steering pitman arm which is waiting to ship to where I need it.

 

[cruiser_guy]

Truck ran like a dream on the highway yesterday. First time on pavement in six months.

I just need to sort out the last few issues.

 

[Zack1978]

Where did your frame swap thread go? It seems to gone.


Zack

 

[cruiser_guy]

Where did your frame swap thread go? It seems to gone.


Zack

https://forum.ih8mud.com/60-series-wagons/76509-rusty-frame-fix-your-60-series.html

 

[cruiser_guy]

Getting some of the bells and whistles now that the truck is probably running as well as it will till I get to somewhere with quality parts. All it needs to get going in the AM is a quick priming session and it usually fires right up within 3-4 seconds. Looking for ideas on where the air might be getting in. Feel free to post up suggestions.

Hooked up the idle-up solenoid for the A/C and it did not work. This is a 24v Dyna engine and the solenoid is one of the electrical bits that I did not have on the old 3B. I have been told the 24v solenoid should work with 12v. Anyone know what the minimum voltage is? I have not been able to do a nice tidy splice on the A/C clutch wire as I can't find piggy back spade connectors here in Freetown. I measured about 9-10vDC at the solenoid due to the crappy connection at the A/C spade connection. There is strong vacuum coming to the solenoid but it didn't switch over to give vacuum to the idle up diaphragm at the injection pump.

 

[Kief]

I would run a jumper from the battery to the solenoid and if it engages then you have a lot of voltage drop through all of the connections and wire, you might be able to run a separate feed from the battery (fused properly of course) and then have the existing wiring jump a relay which would keep the voltage higher-

 

[cruiser_guy]

Well most all important things are now working fine. The only problem is the glow system. One of the wires was pinched and I did not pick up on it. Now it's free but no glow through the key. We start with me putting a wire from the plugs to the battery positive and my wife cranking. It starts up quick but is a two person job to do it that way. It is also risky as these are 6v plugs for the Superglow system and I'm driving them with 12v even if only for a few seconds.