Build FJ40 buggy re-fresh

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Impressive work you have going on there.

Thanks for conversation, and I hope the 3Fe cooperates with you!

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Thats it, selling the house/shop and moving out there!!! Best 45 min Ive had at work in a long time!!! Congrats to your son!!! Great driving!!! That looks like an absolute blast!! Any info on that 1st gen pickup that won the award for the hard roll??
 
I got the 5th mount finished and installed for mockup. The second picture shows all 3 front to back mount locations. I've heard in the past of people experiencing broken bell housings/mounts or other cracking because of 3 mount locations but I feel it will help with the entire transmission and T-case hanging off of the bell housing. Never been a big fan of it all hanging off the bell housing mounts. Hoping it being in the centre and mostly tubing as far a the chassis goes then the flex will be minimized and hopefully help rather than hinder as far as strength goes.

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cruzinfj1 said:
Thats it, selling the house/shop and moving out there!!! Best 45 min Ive had at work in a long time!!! Congrats to your son!!! Great driving!!! That looks like an absolute blast!! Any info on that 1st gen pickup that won the award for the hard roll??
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I think it's pretty straightforward Ls , 60 in the front 14 bolt in the rear . That guy was from the mainland (vancouver area) Colby Jenn is his name. Really good guy and good driver as well. They were pretty stoked to make it this year for sure. Camping in the pouring rain in November and beating the crap out of your car all weekend is an experience to be had.
 
too tall said:
I think it's pretty straightforward Ls , 60 in the front 14 bolt in the rear . That guy was from the mainland (vancouver area) Colby Jenn is his name. Really good guy and good driver as well. They were pretty stoked to make it this year for sure. Camping in the pouring rain in November and beating the crap out of your car all weekend is an experience to be had.
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Sounds like a pretty healthy LS. Thats what I was gonna skin mine with until I came across my 40 tub. I watched the other vid that came up after where they were on the obstacle course. That looks like a blast too!!!
 
So I built the front 4 link mounts and didn't take many pictures. Then I decided to build the links and set the wheelbase. I ended up at 114" after seeing how for I could potentially steer the new front axle. At its current position and height I'm getting 22" of travel where the air shocks will mount. I am going to run 16's so there is more than enough room for everything so far. I mocked it without the wheels and tires on but I've measured and I don't think I'll have any rubbing issues. The last shot kinda shows the symmetry that the front and rear share as far as link geometry goes.

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Got a little bracing finished and then painted the bottom in prep for installing the engine. I used "steel it" as I like the finish after repairs or mods. Easy to touch up and fairly tough overall. Started re-sealing the engine and modifying a few things for the install. I'll post some pics of the details later.

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Hope everyone had a good Christmas. Was busy taking care of a few things through the holidays so I haven't had a lot of time to work on my rig. I did modify the oil pan so the bottom is flat in the chassis the new way its mounted, had to modify the oil pickup tube as well. Sorry no pictures of this process.
After that was finished I reinstalled the transmission/t-case onto the new motor. Then I removed the t-case to re-gasket it and go over it a bit to make sure all is well.
I found that the low speed gear had started to come apart (two piece design) The rivet holes seemed to be oblonged slightly and there was rotational play between the gear and the hub. I noticed the last couple of wheelin' trips there was something going on (drivetrain slop). Glad I found the problem.
My fix was to make sure the gear was seated properly on the hub rotate the rivets to tighten them in their holes and weld it all together. I've had this issue before, interested to see how it holds up or what the next weak point is? I was going to replace the the entire case but I decided to try this as the rest of the case seems to be in very good condition. After I rebuilt the case with the "new gear" I reinstalled the engine/tranny/transfer in the chassis so I can re-seal the rest of the engine. I did a compression test and it all seems ok so I'm pushing forward.

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too tall said:
Hope everyone had a good Christmas. Was busy taking care of a few things through the holidays so I haven't had a lot of time to work on my rig. I did modify the oil pan so the bottom is flat in the chassis the new way its mounted, had to modify the oil pickup tube as well. Sorry no pictures of this process.
After that was finished I reinstalled the transmission/t-case onto the new motor. Then I removed the t-case to re-gasket it and go over it a bit to make sure all is well.
I found that the low speed gear had started to come apart (two piece design) The rivet holes seemed to be oblonged slightly and there was rotational play between the gear and the hub. I noticed the last couple of wheelin' trips there was something going on (drivetrain slop). Glad I found the problem.
My fix was to make sure the gear was seated properly on the hub rotate the rivets to tighten them in their holes and weld it all together. I've had this issue before, interested to see how it holds up or what the next weak point is? I was going to replace the the entire case but I decided to try this as the rest of the case seems to be in very good condition. After I rebuilt the case with the "new gear" I reinstalled the engine/tranny/transfer in the chassis so I can re-seal the rest of the engine. I did a compression test and it all seems ok so I'm pushing forward.

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Nice TIG work. Did you preheat that stinker or no? I’ve never seen one get loose but good to know!
 
Nice work !
 
too tall said:
We did pre-heat and post heat as much as we could. We'll see...
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Ok, good to know. Looks like it welded pretty good for a gear that’s been in oil for what? 40 years at least 😂
 
Ok well I'm a bit tired of doing gaskets and s*** like that. I've re-sealed most of the leaky parts I hope, pretty hard dry gaskets so I'm thinking they were mostly original. I could list off all of the things I had open but I'd rather not re-live it.
I spent more time than I should have on something that's just gonna get abused and be covered in oil and dirt before you know it, but I hope it all stays dry on the outside. I'm running a Delco 1 wire alternator from an eagle premier or something iirc? also running a saginaw p-pump. Going to modify the cap mount to a -10 fitting so I can also have another reservoir above it in the engine bay. My son says it's been the most trouble free setup so far in his car.
Going to start on the cowl tomorrow and try to eliminate some holes in the dash.

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Well I got the holes in the dash filled and sprayed some paint on it as a test piece to see if it is close to the original color. I put the cowl on and welded the side tubes in place and painted the weld area before I set the cowl in its final position. I also welded in the two tubes on either side of the engine . Hopefully won't have to pull the engine again for a while. We have a couple of upcoming projects coming into the shop that require the floor jig so I moved the buggy to the other side of the shop. Gonna start on the front axle this week.

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So I decided yesterday that I will be building a new front housing. The one I have already is setup the same as my old one I had on leaf springs. I used an axle tube extension from LCWizard on the short side and ran a trail gear short side +5 axle on that side and a 60 series stock length long side so that I could run 40" tires on leaf springs. I have already few spare shafts for each so I was thinking I'd just stay with the same idea. I have a chromoly 80 series 24 spline at the birf super set I was going to rebuild with 30 spline rcv birf rebuild kits that would allow me to use them with my 30 spline inners. Unfortunately they are not the same and the rebuild kits do not fit. It seems the 24 spline ones use a different size birf as well as smaller ball bearings.
That being the case, I decided to try to see if I could make an 80 series stock length set work in a 60 series housing using the same axle tube extension on the long side. I know the long side fits pretty close as it is the one my son uses in his rig. The short side is roughly 1/2" longer than a stock short side. I've determined that as the 80 series birfs are bigger than the smaller ones and that the inners have roughly 1/4" less engagement when using the 80 series balls. I used gear marking compound to see how far the axles go into the side gears. So given that I need to shorten the housing on both sides by 1/4" to have the same engagement, then I am pretty close to being able to use a stock 80 series set of axles. I will have 1/4" surplus length on the short side to deal with but I think I can trim the axle or the add length to the housing to deal with it.
This is my new plan. It will push the pumkin to the passenger side by a little over 2.5" which will push it closer to the tire for a little better clearance as well as make a bit more room for the front d-shaft when it is all finished. Couple of pics of where it currently sits and the new housing I'm going to use.

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This much done so far. I blasted it in the cabinet then started with the upper link truss. The other one for the ram goes from bump to bump. Also will be adding ball gussets and a few other little bits. I got the housing setup for stock 80 series axle lengths which will make ordering or replacing broken ones easier. I thought about using a fabricated housing but I would have had to add most of the stuff I'm doing to this one anyway. My last housing had a similar style brace on the front and it is still straight after years of abuse including a few good jumps.

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too tall said:
This much done so far. I blasted it in the cabinet then started with the upper link truss. The other one for the ram goes from bump to bump. Also will be adding ball gussets and a few other little bits. I got the housing setup for stock 80 series axle lengths which will make ordering or replacing broken ones easier. I thought about using a fabricated housing but I would have had to add most of the stuff I'm doing to this one anyway. My last housing had a similar style brace on the front and it is still straight after years of abuse including a few good jumps.

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Nice work looks beefy !
 
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