Builds Grey Gardens FJ62LG-PNEA: An idiots guide to resurrecting a high mileage FJ62 (1 Viewer)

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HemiAlex said:
I’m trying to figure out this lock. At some point someone pulled the ignition switch and cylinder, they didn’t put it back in. seems like they pulled it to trouble shoot the ignition switch itself.

I think the trick to this thing is spinning the drivers side of the lock cylinder that is behind the electrical switch more precisely.

I need to find something to more precisely index the two parts of this. I almost need a small surgeons clamp to twist it while not chewing up any of the surfaces.

Any ideas? @cwwfj60 @4Cruisers @orangefj45 @ToyotaMatt

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“Toyota master tech” pulled it because he thought it was the source of the nonexistent no spark problem. Couldn’t get it back in. I couldn’t either, got new one, it wouldn’t go in. Now we’re here
 
Good news. The ignition switch is in!

The cam that passes from the ignition plastic switch to the key cylinder was 180* out. It only goes one way, so against what I thought it as right I rotated it all til it popped past and my buddy was able to slip the switch in. Such a huge weight off of my mind. It’s good to have it run with the key instead of a flat head.

Also, the tune up is getting better every time. My TPS wasn’t bad but it was gunky. It was not returning smoothly, but a quick cleaning and adjustment had it working correctly. Weirdly enough, this truck has the earlier (pre 3/89) throttle body and sensor. I would have expected the later one. More surprises.

I need to get the right vacuum lines. The 5/32 is fitting kinda loose and it moves sometimes. I think I have a ton of small vacuum leaks that are temperature dependent. The truck was running like a top, holding a smooth idle after my 3fe expert buddy messed with it. He fixed a ton of my loose ends. I changed the oil and it had a surging and rough idle. Everything is really gunky and likely needs a deep clean.

The EGR on these engines doesn’t do any favors. My desmogged 2F with more miles is spotless.


On to the possibly bad. The transmission may be bad. Not that I didn’t fully expect this, but I expected to see burnt or old fluid. I got strawberry milkshake instead. Looks like the old radiator had a much worse leak than we thought. ATF and coolant mixed. Quite messy. I’ve got a lot of valve body clean up to do, but thankfully the metallic shavings were minimal and there was no clutch friction material in the pan. Someone has been in there before, which doesn’t bother me. I saw a non oem pan gasket and filter. Once I saw the paper gasket came apart on the filter; I was done for the night. I couldn’t push past that.

I don’t like automatics. I never have. But I want to have this live til at least the summer. I’m not holding my breath. I don’t want to do an h55f swap so soon, but I guess I’m ready.

I’m going to proceed with the Rodney flush after @orangefj45 gave me some encouragement. Waiting on a filter to get here tomorrow and I’ll regroup.

A huge thanks to @js0k At Doublewrench for offering the most comprehensive used car warranty and support ever!

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The parts store 5/32" vacuum line isn't working. I have run this same silicone hose from McMaster Carr on my 60 with great success. It may not be the same quality as the OEM stuff, but I haven't had an issue with the 60. I think the 3FE is much more sensitive to unmetered air leaks, so the best I can do is use this and see if it makes things more consistent.



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Skniper said:
The EGR is definitely the spawn of satan on a 3FE.
Ugh on that fluid…how’d it get full of coolant, the radiator cooler line cracked??
How did you get the beans above the frank?
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I'm considering getting a "keychain" from @NLXTACY to stop the gunky stuff, but the truck is at almost 300k miles. it would take quite a long time to get back to that point.

The truck had a known coolant leak. It was leaking both internally and externally. The visible leak is what caused me to pull the radiator out, shelve it and have my old CSF2708 Rebuilt locally by Downtown Radiator.

The transmission cooler had the coolant from the cooling system pushed through the transmission cooler lines, and into the pan.

Now the coolant is still murky and rusty, but it isn't contaminated. Several flushes will fix that.
 
Some small projects to keep me happy in the mean time:

2x 90385-16008 for the shifter bushings, its way loose.
2x 85247-90A01 for the wiper covers.
90480-15012 for the hood prop grommet
53422-090351 Hood prop holder
12204-35040 for the PCV valve. (I spent an hour cleaning it, not worth it)
90541-06008 for the brake light switch rubber bumper

I need to gather small bits and pieces before I tackle it again.
 
Yeah replacing those rubber ones made the biggest difference in my shifter feel.
 
Another piece of the puzzle. The right angle pcv hose from the pcv to manifold. I tried getting a generic hose to work.

It's amazing how rubber will turn to plastic after 32 years. The other one broke with a completely clean shear lip.

I'm also going to go over the truck one vacuum hose at a time on Friday. The McMaster Silicone hose will work well.

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HemiAlex said:
I did a thing. A friend was incredibly patient and enabled the heck out of me. Together, we will do many dumb things together right now and in the future. I've been pretty quiet about it, but it's time for the build to begin.

As it was found by @js0k

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@js0k aka Mr. Doublewrench, AKA Jorts McSmileyface helped me out more than you can imagine with this truck and we haven't even turned a wrench yet together.

I had the world's best tacoma. A 2.7 Prerunner that had never given me an issue. Ever. 180k and going strong. But we have too many cars. I was at 6 a while back. 60 series, 40 series, 68 Roadrunner, TDI wagon, a W210 E320 Mercedes and the Tacoma. First to go was the 210 to a good friend. Next, was the tacoma. I was asked many times "why are you getting rid of the best car you have for a 62?" Simple. Because we love driving Sh!tB0Xes. I want as much time as I can in old cars before I can no longer afford gas.

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The tacoma was worth a ton right now and it was a single cab. Great for commuting, but not great for anything with 3 dogs and a wife. Maybe kids soon, who knows. It was sold last week to a dear friend who already cherishes it and is already getting thumbs up. I'm so happy it will be with someone who respects it and is happy to be part of the Toyota family. If it wasn't for how good the tacoma treated me, I never would have bought my 60.

So I turned the tacoma into cash and met up with @js0k. We did a deal. I didn't negotiate. His price was very fair in this current market and he already did a ton of work to ensure that it was a good truck to build off of. This is his Build thread. I'll be stealing pictures from his thread as we go.

He named it "Touch of Grey". Very fitting. My wife and I only improved upon that, and named it "Grey Gardens" after one of her favorite movies.

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I find that resurrecting these trucks takes a bit of derangement. And we're all living with illusions of Grandeur driving these legendary dinosaurs around. Let's get this derelict abandoned project working. Where both Edith Beales failed to resurrect their derelict mansion, we will fix Grey Gardens up to an accurate representation of its former glory.

This truck is going to be for my lovely wife. She has earned her dues daily driving (and learning manual) on my 60 for years now. She drives it around with confidence and she knows about all of its quirks. She loves it, aside from when she has to pick up friends, or get into the back through the tire carrier or deal with the carb when its not feeling like its in tune. She tried to negotiate with me. She said "you can do whatever you want with the 40, but we need to put the 60 back to kinda stock to make it more functional" So with me being the great negotiator, I'm keeping the 40 project and we bought her this 62. I can't put my rust bucket 60 back to stock. It's too good as is, and it's reaching the point of diminishing returns while keeping things in factory locations. I can't downgrade a completed project.

The goal is to keep it completely stock with a few small exceptions. It will likely get an H55F by her request. I've already got a spare 38mm split case, flywheel, bell housing, crossmember and pedals. Thats a battle for a later day.

The 62 in concept for her is perfect. It will start like a normal car, have a few key amenities and have overdrive. Plus, this one is REALLY rust free. A few week ends of small rust repair and we will be ready for pebble beach. She knows I love the 60 series platform and I can work on it in my sleep. The 3FE is a learning curve for me, but a few hours in front of the computer and I'm starting to get the hang of it. I'm sticking by my motto of "one system at a time, no short cuts". This ideology has worked without exception on my 60.

The idea is a head to toe refresh without upgrading anything unless it really needs a "fix". No springs, stock location bilstein shocks, factory parts wherever I can. We don't have any grand ideas aside from being able to hop in and drive anywhere. It's gone 291k without being on a trail, and it's going to go quite a bit further with highway tires.

The short story is this: the truck was parked in 2009 for unknown reasons. The motor had zero compression. The Toyota "master tech" gave up on it. It jumped an owner or two and ended up in Johhny's care. Johnny tore into it and figured the engine issues out really quick. It looked like the engine had never had the oil changed. I'm sure that's not the case, but it was nasty. He literally beat the rockers and lifters out of the engine and made it come to life.







As it sits, there are a few issues and some unknowns. The biggest one is the A440F. I know very little about Toyota automatics. I've got a spare working transmission that a friend wanted out of his garage. So that's a plus. I don't want to start a manual swap at the moment, I would like to let my wife enjoy it as is for a while.

The list:

1. Rodney flush. Synthetic ATF, an external cooler and some ATF friction modifier. That's all I've got for that. Fingers Crossed.
2. Fix a broken ignition switch.
3. Complete cooling system refresh. Rebuilt factory radiator, OEM Thermostat, a smattering of gaskets, Aisin water pump, Aisin 3F3 80 series fan clutch and all new coolant and oil cooler hoses. This is what I did with my 60 and it worked pretty well. Easily the most work needed in one area. I just bought every hose I could find from Toyota.
4. OEM tune up with plugs, wires, accessory belts rebuilt/cleaned and flow checked injectors, a fuel pressure damper, lots of gaskets and maybe a reversible desmog. This truck will keep the cats, I don't want her to smell like fuel. She did enough of that in my 60 over the years.
5. All fluids, synthetic where possible and a break refresh and checkup.
6. A new set of small tires. 235 of maybe a 31x10.5 Michelin Highway tire. Nothing aggressive.
7. An OEM Toyota True Start battery.
8. A carpet kit from @dnp
9. Some roof rail rust from a roof rack in the past

I'm sure other stuff is going to come up, but that's the plan for now.
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Apologies, I didn’t read all of that. To respond to the title of your thread though, yes I would!

I did just that in 2012. Traded actually, a 2004 DC Taco built out with a TRD super charger and a lot more for a nice V8 FJ60 on 35’s with ARBs and a lot more.

Both trucks long gone and miss driving both. 😣

Cheers
 
I can’t wait to have the “built” 60 and stock 62 side by side.

I’m at the point of being willing to let our jetta tdi go once the 62 is trust worthy.

I’m serious about driving old cars as much as I can. Thankfully, so is my wife.
 


I’m going to pull the throttle body, idle air solenoid, egr and cold start injector tomorrow. I’ve got a case of carb cleaner and a case of brake clean and some brushes and picks.


I’ll also put a fresh pcv on and all new hoses, and then let it idle then do a sea foam treatment. I’ll do both a vacuum line hot soak and a pressurized intake aerosol

I want to get it back to its 650 idle so we can move past and get it driving normally.
 
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Small victory.

I pulled the idle air control and it was pretty clean (pics are after a light scrub). Didn't made the huge difference that I hoped it would. I also replaced the vacuum hoses with 5mm hoses and even though they do fit better, it didn't help.

PCV valve and hose seemed to stabilize the idle, but didn't fix my issues. Hose needed to be fixed anyway. Almost dropped the old grommet into the valve cover. Close call.

I pulled the egr for a light cleaning and it wasn't bad. I quickly realized that I did not have the means or the patience to remove it all.

The truck idles perfectly a first and settles to about 700. As soon as you touch the throttle it shoots up to 1100 or so and hangs. It will come down eventually, but when it idle slow it can start surging. I think that even though I cleaned the TPS, I should replace it.

It's also got a nasty exhaust leak. the pipes look terrifying. I'm looking at the Davico replacement headpipes and Denso oxygen sensors. I've read about the exhaust leaks causing vacuum to pull the outside air back in and messing with the oxygen sensor readings. It can cause an eratic and hunting idle.

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Ordered a throttle position sensor: I have a 89452-28030 on the truck which has been superseded by 89452-20050.

I think that at some point the throttle body has been swapped to an "early" 62 unit. This build shouldn't use this part, but that's what's there.

I want to get all the all parts for a tune up done soon, I'm ready to order an upper and lower thermostat housing, bolt kit, sensors and connector kit for all of the thermostat from @ToyotaMatt. When I go to to the last flush on this disgusting cooling system, I'll do my belts/thermostat work and desmog at the same time.

I said I wanted to leave this completely stock, the air pump isn't knocking or anything but I'd rather just have it all be reversible later and clear up the tune issues now.
 
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