FJ40 Restoration with a 2UZ / R150 Manual Transmisson

[Vossie]

very nice build, doing something similar, but different from you. how was your rear drive shaft angle looking before you put in the new axle? I assume you mounted the axle with the diff pointing up a bit at the tcase? with my build also using the same tcase Ive ended up with there being quite the angle for the rear drive shaft

 

[JAR3289]

very nice build, doing something similar, but different from you. how was your rear drive shaft angle looking before you put in the new axle? I assume you mounted the axle with the diff pointing up a bit at the tcase? with my build also using the same tcase Ive ended up with there being quite the angle for the rear drive shaft

The axle is pointed towards tcase, but I did not weld the spring seats on the axle yet so I can still change the angle. With the old axle I had a large angle. My next step is getting the engine and trans back in there so I can work on making drive shafts. The plan is to use a double cardian (CV) at the t case side, and a single u-joint at the axle. Pointing the axle so the single u-joint is almost straight should reduce the angle a little, hopefully enough... Not only is the angle bad but the rear shaft it very short..

What engine are you using?

 

[Vossie]

The axle is pointed towards tcase, but I did not weld the spring seats on the axle yet so I can still change the angle. With the old axle I had a large angle. My next step is getting the engine and trans back in there so I can work on making drive shafts. The plan is to use a double cardian (CV) at the t case side, and a single u-joint at the axle. Pointing the axle so the single u-joint is almost straight should reduce the angle a little, hopefully enough... Not only is the angle bad but the rear shaft it very short..

What engine are you using?

Yup, pretty much my plan as well then. Gonna have to cut up and turn my axle.

I'm using a 1uz vvti out of a LS400

 

[JAR3289]

Yup, pretty much my plan as well then. Gonna have to cut up and turn my axle.

I'm using a 1uz vvti out of a LS400

That is a nice engine choice as well.

Is your current axle factor straight forward? Were you able to get a drive shaft to work in there at all?

 

[Vossie]

That is a nice engine choice as well.

Is your current axle factor straight forward? Were you able to get a drive shaft to work in there at all?

I haven't even started on my drive shafts yet to be honest. I'm gonna build it all out first as every bit of weight I add and get the car to normal rise height helps my drive angles.

I'm using a hilux surf 2nd gen chassis, complete with IFS and coil rear. So the tcase is matched to the axles which is nice. But because of the IFS my engine has to sit pretty high, coupled to my very long engine trans tcase arrangement and that's why I have a fairly steep angle. Worst case scenario I'm cutting and turning the diff, so, not like there's no plan at all

 

[EWheeler]

You want as much of the weight on the springs as they will see at the end of the build in order to set your pinion angles. I definitely would not do it without all the sheetmetal and top if you plan to run one.

 

[JAR3289]

You want as much of the weight on the springs as they will see at the end of the build in order to set your pinion angles. I definitely would not do it without all the sheetmetal and top if you plan to run one.

I thought you would want to jack the frame up to get full the drop for worse case angle. Otherwise it could be fine under it's weight, but not if you are in an extreme articulation situation?

 

[JAR3289]

Another question as I see many are looking at the moment. When using the 80 series rear with the suspension sprung under it appears the parking brake will interfere with the leafs, I'll be digging into that this afternoon to confirm, but was curious if anyone has ran into this situation?

 

[EWheeler]

I thought you would want to jack the frame up to get full the drop for worse case angle. Otherwise it could be fine under it's weight, but not if you are in an extreme articulation situation?

Negative. If you set it up properly at ride height, with leaf springs you are not going to have anywhere close to enough travel to exceed the limits of the Toyota joints. Think about it this way, at what condition will those joints see the highest velocity and stress? At ride heigh +/- an inch or two running down the highway at speed. How fast will they be spinning at full angle? Very, very slow if you are crawling offroad. Don't get me wrong, you can't have any binding, but you want to set your pinion angles up with all the weight on the springs, and even possibly account for spring break in over time. Or, set it up dead on now, and then a year or two down the road add a small shim if you start to get some vibes. With DC joints at the t-case, you want to point the pinion at the t-case, and then mabye down 1 or two degrees on the rear axle only. Driveline torque on the rear will twist the pinion up to zero degrees under load. Your front will likely see torque 0.05% of the time you are driving the truck so I would just point it to the t-case, cut & turn your knuckles to get proper caster, and run it.

 

[EWheeler]

Another question as I see many are looking at the moment. When using the 80 series rear with the suspension sprung under it appears the parking brake will interfere with the leafs, I'll be digging into that this afternoon to confirm, but was curious if anyone has ran into this situation?

I have not dealt with this. Can you clock the backing plate?

 

[JAR3289]

Negative. If you set it up properly at ride height, with leaf springs you are not going to have anywhere close to enough travel to exceed the limits of the Toyota joints. Think about it this way, at what condition will those joints see the highest velocity and stress? At ride heigh +/- an inch or two running down the highway at speed. How fast will they be spinning at full angle? Very, very slow if you are crawling offroad. Don't get me wrong, you can't have any binding, but you want to set your pinion angles up with all the weight on the springs, and even possibly account for spring break in over time. Or, set it up dead on now, and then a year or two down the road add a small shim if you start to get some vibes. With DC joints at the t-case, you want to point the pinion at the t-case, and then mabye down 1 or two degrees. Driveline torque will twist the pinion up to zero degrees under load.

That makes sense, then just jack it up and make sure I don't have binding. Although even at full weight ride height the DC is going to be at a pretty aggressive angle because of my t-case choice. Of course by Sunday hopefully I will be able to see just how bad the angle will be.

 

[JAR3289]

I have not dealt with this. Can you clock the backing plate?

Hmmm, will look at that, that would mean some crazy fab work, trying to separate the back plate from the caliper mount and drilling new holes in the back plate, but might be possible. I have a good amount of work to make them usable anyways (rusted pretty bad). Thanks for that idea

 

[EWheeler]

That makes sense, then just jack it up and make sure I don't have binding. Although even at full weight ride height the DC is going to be at a pretty aggressive angle because of my t-case choice. Of course by Sunday hopefully I will be able to see just how bad the angle will be.

Just don't get ahead of yourself and burn in those spring perches without all the weight on the springs, that's my advice. Also read up on cut & turn on front axle balls to correct caster. When you rotate the pinion up on the front axle to point at the t-case output, it is going to screw up your caster.

 

[JAR3289]

Just don't get ahead of yourself and burn in those spring perches without all the weight on the springs, that's my advice. Also read up on cut & turn on front axle balls to correct caster. When you rotate the pinion up on the front axle to point at the t-case output, it is going to screw up your caster.

For sure, I can set the tub on the frame along with the rest of the sheet metal before I burn in the spring seats. Might even add some weight for a person.

As for the front I have looked at that, but the front shaft is so long I think I can get away with not rotating the front pig. That way I don't have to get into cutting and rotating the front balls. The front flange is pretty close to zero, and I think the t-case angle is only 4 degrees or so. Not sure if I would go with normal u-joints, or a DC at the t-case? The front only spins at low speeds while on the trail so shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Zjohnsonua]

I'll second ewheeler's comments on differential angle setting - do this very near the end. As this build progresses you'll move mass around, change ideas and parts which affect mass, the suspension will settle, and so on. No sense in making anything permanent right now.

When it comes time to build driveshafts, remember that Toyota used stout CVs in many models, and lots of these are interchangeable. 4runner / tacoma / minitruck / and 60 fronts all were available with CVs that mix and match. You'll need retube them but that looks like small potatoes compared to what you've already assembled.

Glad to have found this build!

 

[Zjohnsonua]

I'm sorry to be this guy, but why do all you guys in the US put the R150 in cruisers?

We all want the H151F, but we never got it, so the R-series has been adapted. If anyone in oz ever got the idea to collect a bunch of H151Fs and ship them up here they'd likely make some $.

 

[JAR3289]

I'll second ewheeler's comments on differential angle setting - do this very near the end. As this build progresses you'll move mass around, change ideas and parts which affect mass, the suspension will settle, and so on. No sense in making anything permanent right now.

When it comes time to build driveshafts, remember that Toyota used stout CVs in many models, and lots of these are interchangeable. 4runner / tacoma / minitruck / and 60 fronts all were available with CVs that mix and match. You'll need retube them but that looks like small potatoes compared to what you've already assembled.

Glad to have found this build!

Thanks for the comments, I do have a DC from a pickup front and from a tundra rear so I'll be looking at those, the tundra one might be larger, in that case I'll use that one for the rear.

Only reason to make it permanent is to be able to paint all the drive line. But I see your point, it could be 6 months to a year before I have it all figured out...

 

[AussieHJCruza]

We all want the H151F, but we never got it, so the R-series has been adapted. If anyone in oz ever got the idea to collect a bunch of H151Fs and ship them up here they'd likely make some $.

We send H152s across quite frequently

 

[JAR3289]

Hmmm, will look at that, that would mean some crazy fab work, trying to separate the back plate from the caliper mount and drilling new holes in the back plate, but might be possible. I have a good amount of work to make them usable anyways (rusted pretty bad). Thanks for that idea

So more on the parking brake, looks like I have three choices,
1. I can swap right for left and left for right on the backing plates, this puts the calipers on the back side, and the parking brake up front, the problem with that is making the cables work because of the differential and drive shaft being in the way.

2. I could cut the brake flanges off the axle and re-weld them on to a position that works. This would be a good amount of work. But probably the closest thing to the correct way.

3. Say screw this parking brake setup. I suppose I could use a hydraulic line lock? I don't know much about them.

Any thoughts guys?

 

[JAR3289]

Well I came up with a way to make it all work. I ended up flipping right for left and left for right. I used the top two standard bolt locations and drilled new holes for the bottom two holes. This put the parking brake mechanism in the front and above the leaf spring. The next modification was to make the calipers fit into the 15" rims. Had to machine the od of the rotor about 1/8" smaller and had to move the caliper mounting position inward an 1/8" or so, also put a small champer on the calipers for a little extra clearance. The pictures should tell the rest.