FJ 45 Breaks and Power steering (1 Viewer)

[Ben Africa]

Hi I am a new Cruiser owner living in South Africa 8) I have 2 FJ 45's and am building up the one. I would like to change it to power steering. Any Ideas on what will fit? I have also been told to change the breaks to disks, al 4 are still drum. What would be the advantage as it seems to be an expencive exersize? Is it worth the while? ???
Ben

 

[Rice]

Search the archives and the Tech section. There is MUCH reading on both topics.
Rice

 

[Ben Africa]

I have tried a number of searches but they always come up blank don't know what I am doing wrong. ??? Do you have a different spelling or name for them? :-\

 

[tucker74]

Hit the link to the tech section at the very top of the page - the write-ups will most likely be on FJ40's, but it's all the same mechanically. The front disk's will make a huge difference - and you can probably find a later model (post '76 here in the states) to swap bits with...or the whole axle for pretty cheap. You can also swap the brake parts from a '78-'83 4WD pickup fairly easily as well. As far as power steering you have a couple of options as well (later model/PU conversion or aftermarket) - with write-ups on both throughout this forum.

Good luck -

Tucker

 

[Landpimp]

what years are the 45's?

I know the late model 45's have HUGE front drums and they do work very well.

 

[Ben Africa]

I have one that is +- 78 not 100% sure that I am rebuilding and a 80ith model that is waiting for better days as it is missing a lot of spares.

 

[bad_religion_au]

my 1980 hj45 has huge front drums (and backs) and if you learn the fine (not black) art of adjusting drums, they give good feel and stopping power (esp considering fully loaded it's 3500kg.) just don't stop too many times hard in a row (not that you would need to) as they heat up and fade quick. oh and they don't like water/ mud.

but in good working order my 45 pulls up better than my 40 with good front disks.

 

[Jonathan_Ferguson]

My front Drums are 295mm and the rear are 282mm, Also the front Drums are much wider than the rears.

The Brakes on my BJ40 have much more feel than the front 295mm Rotors with four Piston Calipers and rear 295mm Rotors with single Piston Calipers in Dad's FZJ80 When adjusted.

 

[Radd Cruisers]

I love the change over to discs, no more adjusting and way better braking all around. We are changing the rears to cruiser four pistons next, gotta like the E-brake on the drive shaft.

We upgrade from the mini truck non vented rotors to the cruiser units and calipers. If I had thought about it before the swap last week I should have went with the later model four runner calipers which are a tad bigger.

Next upgrade is to build the rear brackets, powder coat and add the 80 series or older toyota supra master cylinder.

Power steering was pretty simple I built a bracket and attached the mini truck steering pump. The difficult part of this installation is routing the lines from the pump to the remote reservoir.

My camera is out at the moment when it comes back I will take some photos of our setup.

Rob
www.raddcruisers.ca