FJ 40 electronic ignition upgrade (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
May 5, 2007
Threads
25
Messages
185
Location
Eagle Point, OR
Hi, I would like to upgrade the stock distributor/ coil on my 78 FJ.
I dont really want to do the HEI thing. Was thinking of getting a points type distributor and converting it with a Pertonics type
ignitor and aftermarket coil. Anybody do this swap before? Any help would be appreciated..............
 
I went with the Crane Cams FireBall ignition system on my Cruiser years ago. It was the simplest mod I have done and it works great. I have never had a problem with it......... ever. (Of course I just fawked myself saying that)

Easy to install and works great...... I give it :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:


Chris
 
Why don't you stay in the Land Cruiser world and use an FJ60 ignition? You get a nice hot spark, vacuum advance and it's all Toyota.

I thought 78 had an electronic ignition???
 
Last edited:
Denso

Best ignition for your 2F would be a waterproof, ball bearing, vac & cent advance, fully electronic distributor, and an electronic spark box piggybacked onto a big coil.

That setup can be found on a 78-80 USA spec 2F.

There is a slightly better dissy on 81-87 trucks, but installing it into an earlier engine requires changing the lifter cover as well, which is a PITA w/ engine in the truck.
 
Best ignition for your 2F would be a waterproof, ball bearing, vac & cent advance, fully electronic distributor, and an electronic spark box piggybacked onto a big coil.

That setup can be found on a 78-80 USA spec 2F.

There is a slightly better dissy on 81-87 trucks, but installing it into an earlier engine requires changing the lifter cover as well, which is a PITA w/ engine in the truck.


Just to expand on this...Jim did my distributor re-curve and rebuilt an FJ60 distributor. Fired on the first try! It is true you need to change or dent the side cover. I thought it would be a pain, but I bout a new FJ60 cover and gasket and had it changed out in a few hours. The trick, is to remove everything, the distributor(obviously), the oil filter, the alternator and it's bracket, all the heater hoses, and the fender. Once you do that, it's pretty easy. The truck runs extremely well with a desmogged carb and the rebuilt and recurved distributor.

One word of warning about the 78-80 distributors. I sent a 79 distributor to Jim originally. The vacuum advance diaphragm was bad. They are not available anywhere at any price. You can't get it from SOR, Marks, dealer, John Pardi, and all the usual suspects for old school parts.

My recommendation is to use an FJ60 distributor and just deal with the side cover. The parts for these are still available from Toyota USA.
 
Hi, I would like to upgrade the stock distributor/ coil on my 78 FJ.
I dont really want to do the HEI thing. Was thinking of getting a points type distributor and converting it with a Pertonics type
ignitor and aftermarket coil. Anybody do this swap before? Any help would be appreciated..............


Just did this swap for kellyo on the board a couple of weeks ago. Might want to PM him to post up his driving impressions on the new setup.;)
 
Thanks!

Thanks for all the info people. My cruiser has an electronic distributor
but my engine builder friend recommended recurving with a pertonics
kit. Im in AK now working on the slope. I'll have to study it a little more when I get back to Orygun next week...........thanks again, Im
glad I found this place............
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom