ARCHIVE FZJ40 (1 Viewer)

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Here are a couple pics of the rear of the truck that show the second Yellow top Optima battery and rear mounted Warn 9.0RC winch. I put the second battery back here because it will primarily be used for the rear winch. I wanted it to be close to the winch to reduce the voltage drop that normally occurs when you run a rear winch from a front mounted battery. My cabling now only needs to support the 450 amp load for 2' rather than 10'. The winch is mounted on a skid plate.

The rear bumper is the standard IPOR 40 bumper, with a different tire carrier, 2" receiver hitch, winch mount and tail light guards. I did a different tire carrier because I needed it to be short so that I would still have access to the rear winch with the carrier closed.

Lance
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These are just plain cool so I wanted to show a pic of them here. I'm running OME stock height heavy duty coils and L series shocks so the coils can fall out at full droop. To prevent this Kenny fabbed up these trick coil retainers. They follow the contour of the mount and spring perfectly which minimizes spring bind.
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On to the interior... The first order of business was gauges and steering column. I initially planned to use the 80 gauge cluster but there were several problems with this idea. It's much larger and I would have had to sacrifice the factory dash pads, both upper and lower, in order to make room for it. The extra width would have also prevented me from having an HVAC vent to the left of the gauges (more on that later) and because it's so much larger it would have killed the balanced feel of the dash.

We've used Haneline gauges, dolphin, autometer, etc. over the years but they're never quite as clean as a factory dash unit. The 40 dash in particular has a lot of character, and a row of autometers simply didn't appeal to me. I thought about doing one for the FZJ40 that matched this one I did for my friend Scott several years ago:
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I like that it keeps the factory speedo - the speedo in a 40 is very unique and really adds to the character of the truck. My donor 80 had an electronic speedo, but it appears to use a mechanical drive gear on the tcase so i could probably have run a cable driven speedo like a factory 40 unit. I started looking for a late model that has turn signal indicators in the speedo but kept coming back to the 80 gauges. They work well and are designed specifically for the 80 drivetrain. In fact, with this drivetrain I have a need for some lights that are not present in a 40 - CEL, CDL, Cruise, low oil, AT/TMP and hadn't yet figured out where to put them. The 80 has them in the cluster.

I did some drawings and came up with a way to do it. Here's how it turned out: first pic is the 80 cluster during disassembly, next pic is the finished FZJ40 cluster (before paint) next to a factory 40 cluster.

Lance
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I haven't yet reassembled the FZJ40 gauge cluster after having the components painted in factory pewter - I'll post pics when I do. There is a lip that holds a piece of plexi between the outter and inner bezels so it will be sealed up like the factory unit. The picture above seems to show a crooked slot at the bottom of the cluster - it's actually rectangular but in this pic the bezel is overlapping some of the slot and you can't tell because it's all in primer.

Anyway, the slot holds 6 factory indicator lights from the 80: seat belt warning lamp, trans temp overheat, low oil, center diff lock, check engine and high beam indicator.

Another pic -
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Some pics of the process that got me there...

Here's the gauge cluster after cutting it down and removing the Tachometer. I also re-centered one row of idiot lights. The new gauge surround is 18 gauge sheet metal. The last picture is the ring I fabricated to hold the new surround in place. (still unfinished)
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Initially I had wanted to use the 80 column, but there were problems. The orientation between driver, steering wheel and gauges is completely different between 40 and 80. The column is squite bulky and shape of the steering wheel made it difficult to see the gauges. This was disappointing because the 80 column has many of the controls integrated that I wanted to remove from the dash - headlamp, wiper, cruise.

Not to be denied I cut down the 80 column and 40 column and integrated the controls from the 80 coulmn while keeping the 40 steering wheel. I do like the giant 40 steering wheel, and I got to keep the controls that I like from the 80. This was a lot of work, i don't recommend doing it this way - there are easier ways to do it.
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Now you are right into the most difficult part of getting J4 and J8 together...:D:wrench:

your gauges look alright, but you could go with plain J4 look too ..( maybe later :hillbilly: ? ) ....

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we used the stock mechanic speedo, no problem at the gear box but with the power stearing ! Our unit was speed modulated operating, with no speed signal it was not drivable at all.:eek:......we had to change it to the third world specification wich doesn´t need a electronic speed signal...
We kept the J8 stearing column, your J4 is a lot more modest.

The J4 gauges do work with the J8 input. We changed the oil pressure to a second fuel gauge though. All the other "nice to know" gauges are VDO and out of the way under the roof..

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(it´s still underconstruction...)
 
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...and I got to keep the controls that I like from the 80. This was a lot of work, i don't recommend doing it this way - there are easier ways to do it.

there will be the next problem with the windscreenwiper motor of the J4. The "interval" from the J8 will not work, you have to change polarity of the wipermotor or use a potentiometer instead of the J8 control...
 
Lance! This is an awesome build, my friend! I'm not surprised at the fabrication/perfectionism, but I am in awe at the speed of the build. Can't wait to see what this beast ends up looking like!
 
Oh my Soenke, that J4 looks anything but plain! Awesome. I'm curious about the modulated power steering. Can you not just remove the modulator valve and run it wide open?

I haven't yet finalized the wiper motor wiring. I know the intermittant will not function, I was planning to use an aftermarket rheostat. Initially I had planned to fit the 80 motor but ran out of time and wasn't able to verify that park position and arc would be compatible. For the time being I'll have on/off.

Lance
 
Exiled said:
Lance! This is an awesome build, my friend! I'm not surprised at the fabrication/perfectionism, but I am in awe at the speed of the build. Can't wait to see what this beast ends up looking like!
Click to expand...

Thanks! Remember you're getting the condensed version of the project. I started about 4 years ago... working on it one day every few months... Then about 6 weeks ago I realized I was going to be in CO delivering a 55 this spring and wanted to do Moab at the same time so the project got fast tracked. I can always dust off the IPOR 55 buggy for the trip, but it's a unique opportunity and I wanted it to be in a unique rig.

You should come. March 22-27, Slickrock Campground

Lance
 
IPOR said:
I haven't yet reassembled the FZJ40 gauge cluster after having the components painted in factory pewter - I'll post pics when I do. There is a lip that holds a piece of plexi between the outter and inner bezels so it will be sealed up like the factory unit. The picture above seems to show a crooked slot at the bottom of the cluster - it's actually rectangular but in this pic the bezel is overlapping some of the slot and you can't tell because it's all in primer.

Anyway, the slot holds 6 factory indicator lights from the 80: seat belt warning lamp, trans temp overheat, low oil, center diff lock, check engine and high beam indicator.

Another pic -
Click to expand...

Way cool, that cluster was stroke of genius and I like the look alot.


Rob
 
Nice work. Must be great to be able to work on something like this full time. I guess I should leave the computer and go work on 40 resto...
 
I don't often venture into the hardcore section... This is simply amazing!!
 
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