Godwin's FJ60

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Godwin

Resident Herpetologist
SILVER Star
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
Threads
374
Messages
7,466
Location
Alabama
I'm starting this off by copying a post I made back in November in the What Did You Do with Your 60 thread.

Washed it. Just over 20 years ago I bought this FJ60 to be used as a field vehicle and that's been its life for the past two decades. I don't think it's actually been washed in the last 5 years, maybe more, mud and dirt hosed off, yes, but not scrubbed with soap. In preparation to reseal the gutters of the roof I washed it taking off a light growth of black mold and the mud-dirt-sand-dust-pollen patina from travels in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri.

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I purchased this 1986 FJ60 from a catfish farmer near Yazoo City, MS in 2003. It was a package deal that included a wrecked 1981 FJ60. Both for $5000. Both 60s were almost bone stock, the '81 was the '86 had a Holley carb and header that were the only non-stock items. I wanted a FJ60 to have more carrying capacity as I had been using this 1977 FJ40 as my field vehicle.

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For the past 21 years I've been using the 60 in my biological work, towing boats, hauling canoes, turtle trapping, cave inventory, salamander research, snake project, thus having a need for a vehicle that can get me in and out of rough roads, logging trails, negotiate mud, sand, rock. I also use in for camping and occasional trail riding with other Cruiser folks.

I'll be adding to this thread with current condition of the FJ60 and going back over the years showing how and where it's been used.
 
The stock red FJ60 next to our tan '85 FJ60, which was the family vehicle at the time. The '86 rode great on clapped out stock suspension but would hit the bump stops hard. I threw on a set of 31x10.5x15 Wild Country mud tires and started putting the 60 to work. The Holley carb and header held up for some months, maybe a year, before the #6 tube on the header blew out. Header leak on the master cylinder leads to boiling brake fluid and very poor braking. I pulled the stock carb from the '81 and sent it off to JimC. Once the carb was back I installed the stock carb, manifolds, and exhaust from the '81 onto the '86.

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The Red Hills of south Alabama can be treacherous. One of the rare species I've worked with over the years has been the Red Hills Salamander, a federally threatened species. Most of the lands where we work with this animal are on timber company properties with poorly maintained roads. This was a situation where I could not climb a steep hill, then while backing down and crossing the creek I ran upon a log crunching the rocker panel. 21 years later the panel is still crunched.

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Using the FJ40 in this same area a few year prior resulted in a fun time.

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Great Stuff ✌️ :beer:
 
The Red Hills of south Alabama can be treacherous. One of the rare species I've worked with over the years has been the Red Hills Salamander, a federally threatened species. Most of the lands where we work with this animal are on timber company properties with poorly maintained roads. This was a situation where I could not climb a steep hill, then while backing down and crossing the creek I ran upon a log crunching the rocker panel. 21 years later the panel is still crunched.

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Using the FJ40 in this same area a few year prior resulted in a fun time.

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To free the FJ60 we used a Hi-Lift to raise the front some from the log and a More Power Puller to pull the log from beneath the Cruiser. Took some time and muscle but we freed the Cruiser.

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This is the amount of gear we had in cargo area for 3 field biologists to do what we do.

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Godwin, are you running lockers in your FJ60?
 
Godwin, are you running lockers in your FJ60?

First few years, no. Later installed an Aussie Locker and ran it a few years before pulling it out. Ran open diff a few years until I installed an e-locked 80 series rear.
 
First few years, no. Later installed an Aussie Locker and ran it a few years before pulling it out. Ran open diff a few years until I installed an e-locked 80 series rear.

Wow. With all of that muddy water I’d think you’d have one for sure in the front and rear.
 
The early years the FJ60 was still stockish. I had a leftover Man-A-Fre suspension that had been used on the tan FJ60. Front springs were ok but rears sagged badly so I added an add-a-leaf to the rears from the stock '81 rear leaves. I think I used a leaf from one of the rears but could have been from a front spring, whatever, at the time, looked like it would aid with lift. The shocks were Heckethorns. This suspension set up was good enough at the time. 70 series mirrors were an upgrade.

The 2F had >175k miles, H42, 3.70 gears, open diffs, cheap Wild Country tires.

At the time the Land Cruiser Mailing List (LCML) was still very active and it was through a post on this list that I learned of the FJ60s for sale in Mississippi. The owner of the list was Gary Bjork and he had a FJ62 with a trailer that he removed and put up for sale. I bought that hitch to add to my FJ60. FJ40 in the background has a 4" lift, 35" Goodyear Wrangler tires, rebuilt 2F with header, 4.11s with Lockright in the rear, and H41 transmission. The 8247 winch came with the FJ40 when I bought. Bought the 40 back in the late 1990s for $2000.

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I drove the FJ60 for about 3 years before making any major improvements. Lack of funds at the time. The 2F had some miles on it with an unknown history and it began burning a significant amount of oil. In the months preceding the pulling of the 2F the oil consumption was so bad that I quit changing the oil and instead topped off the oil level from oil I had drained from other vehicles.

The major upgrades with the 60 were having the '81 2F rebuilt, a rebuilt H55F, rebuilding the t-case, OME heavy suspension, ARB bullbar, Warn 12k winch, and swapping in 4.11 diffs from a FJ62. All of this was accomplished for about $6000, today that would buy a suspension bullbar and winch, maybe.

For tires I went with Hankook 33x12.5x15 mud tires on steel white spoke wheels repainted with Rustoleum Hammered silver. I had the wheels lying around and at the time the Hankooks were getting some good press and affordable. They were ok, not great, not that good in the mud but had weak sidewalls that became evident once the tires were a couple of years old. Hankook in on my "never to buy again" tire list.

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60 doing its job this week as a fieldwork support vehicle. I spent a couple of days floating tributaries of the Locust Fork River in north Alabama collecting water samples from a canoe. The lower water bridge in the first photo was a put-in and take-out spot. This bridge is unusable when water covers the roadway. The power of water is evident with this submerged car that is a few hundred meters downstream of the bridge. An out-of-state woman drove onto the bridge at night during a high water event and the car was swept downstream. She died and her body was not recovered for several days, maybe weeks, until kayakers happened to notice the car and reported it.

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Picked up a stablemate yesterday. I have a heavy field season that's going to require a lot of traveling, pulling boats, driving backwoods and logging roads and the FJ60 will be going down soon for an engine swap. Found a '97 LX450 with <270xxx miles on it that has a lot of good additions and @cruiserinsanity made the drive yesterday to get it. TJM front bumper with Superwinch X9 winch, rear Slee bumper, Wagoneer tail gate storage, ARB compressor, dual batteries and about 12 miles of extraneous wire I'll be pulling out.

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300+ mile 2F in the FJ60 fires right up, runs smooth, just keeps going and going, but is down on power and fuel mileage is suffering. That's going to be changing in the very near future as a COP motor is coming together to replace the old 2F.

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Short drive today on timber company land in south Alabama. The region is called the Red Hills and the roads were damp, but when wet turn to a red snot. Some of the area was an old clearcut and clearcuts seldom have good winch anchors when needed. No winch anchor needed today.

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