HJ45 (2H motor) complete vehicle rebuild thread

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Also, something most people don't consider related to final drive ratios is the prevailing maximum speed limit for the target market when the vehicle was new. That vintage in the USA would have been geared to be most efficient at 55 MPH. The Australian market would have been the equivalent of 60-ish MPH. Things are different now.
 
Rufus,

That is a excellent point! So bottom line don't regear (as long as the ring/pinion looks good), stick with the 4.11 gear ratio, and put ARB lockers front and rear? I think 4.11 gear ratio for the application I am using it in, should be solid.

I am almost tempted since I have to put ARB lockers in to regear it anyways, but I always thought that ring/pinions are a lifetime part that rarely if ever has to be replaced. I don't want to waste money, but on the flip side you do not go into the axles that often and I want to make sure it is solid for the life of the vehicle.
 
Vincent,
I think Rufus makes a lot of valid points. I just drove my 45 with a NA 2H for a distance of more than just around the block on Wednesday. I still have the 4.11's in place and it ran out very smoothly. I did not need first gear to pull away from a standing stop, even with a slope. The 5 speed with split T case in the HJ60 my drive train was salvaged from was designed to be used with 3.70 gears. Remember I'm on 31's.

Also I posted pictures of my air box on my thread for you. I didn't post pictures of the plumbing yet because I will be re-plumbing it tomorrow with some silicon 90's to get the hoses down away from the hood. I'll post those up when I'm done.

You really need to post up some pictures man. BTW since you are not too far away from me, when I get my 3.70's installed you are welcome to stop by and drive it to see what you think about the combo.
 
76 FJ40 said:
Vincent,
I think Rufus makes a lot of valid points. I just drove my 45 with a NA 2H for a distance of more than just around the block on Wednesday. I still have the 4.11's in place and it ran out very smoothly. I did not need first gear to pull away from a standing stop, even with a slope. The 5 speed with split T case in the HJ60 my drive train was salvaged from was designed to be used with 3.70 gears. Remember I'm on 31's.

Also I posted pictures of my air box on my thread for you. I didn't post pictures of the plumbing yet because I will be re-plumbing it tomorrow with some silicon 90's to get the hoses down away from the hood. I'll post those up when I'm done.

You really need to post up some pictures man. BTW since you are not too far away from me, when I get my 3.70's installed you are welcome to stop by and drive it to see what you think about the combo.
Click to expand...

I will post pictures soon I promise. I am waiting on my last axle/suspension parts, because the manufacture sent me the wrong parts last week. Cross my fingers the last of the parts should be coming in Tuesday. I should of had this frame rolling by now and the engine back on the frame. I hope by next week to have a rolling chassis with the engine back on. I will post pictures with my updates from there. In the mean time I have been sand blasting small parts, priming, and painting. I am also picking up all my body pieces and doors next week which were sand blasted and primered with epoxy. At that point I will start doing any body repair work and start working on getting the tub back on the frame so I can start fitting pieces back on. I also decided that I am going to line-x the inside of the interior.

I will definitely link up with you when I get to Florida. I will be flying down to Melbourne, FL and taking a break from the build/treatment in Virginia from 16 February through 4 March. We can link up and I would love to check out your vehicle! I will make the lockers the last thing I do when I come back, giving me time to check yours own and making a decision.

I think Rufus is right as well, my stock is good. I think it will give me a good blend of low end torque/top end speed that I want for the application to which I am using it in.
 
Hey guys doing a update, I have been really busy. I have had to do a slight detour during my restoration of the Land Cruiser. My Jeep which is my daily driver needed to have allot of work done to get it up to speed. I put about 20 hours into the past 4 days redoing the dual battery setup, regearing the rear axle, and allot of misc stuff (Pics below in the thread).

As far as the cruiser I sent all the body parts off to be sand blasted/epoxy primered. I will be picking those up in the next coming week and finishing the body work where the rust was blasted out and top coating it myself. I have also decided to line-x the inside. I have taken allot of the parts and sand blasted and paint them myself that were taken out of the cab. I have been going back and forth with cruiserparts.net to finish my power steering setup and high steer kit. I also finally finished painting my frame and I have the Old Man Emu heavy duty lift kit installed. I have the axles about 95% complete and on the frame. I just have a few pieces I am missing that are coming in. I also am doing a full disc brake conversion front/rear.

My goal before I have to fly home for Florida in February for a weeks to take care of some personal matters is to have the entire body work complete, tub line-x, body painted, power train back on the frame, and order the remainder of the parts I need to get this thing running when I fly back to Virginia in early March.

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Frame completed after we reinforced it. We went and welded where there was any stress points like where the body mounts go, etc. We also had to cut out and replace some steel in the front cross member. I primered and painted the entire frame and then we put on the new Old Man Emu suspension.

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While I am waiting for the body to come back for the Land Cruiser and preparing to order the remainder of the parts for the Land Cruiser this month, I needed to fix the Jeep. Like I said I had to regear the axle, fix the dual battery setup, and a whole bunch of miscellaneous stuff.

I am budgeting to order the remainder of the parts for the Land Cruiser in January or early February. I will order the auxiliary second gas tank, drive shafts, lockers, gears, weather stripping, new front windshield, and a whole bunch of miscellaneous parts.

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You mentioned you are doing a high steer conversion but I see your front springs are below the axle. I thought high steer kits were for spring over axle conversions. Is this kit something you're buying from an aftermarket supplier? I'm curious how it installs.
 
RufusTheDufus said:
You mentioned you are doing a high steer conversion but I see your front springs are below the axle. I thought high steer kits were for spring over axle conversions. Is this kit something you're buying from an aftermarket supplier? I'm curious how it installs.
Click to expand...

You know that is a interesting question and I will have to double check on that. The kit itself is the tie rod, drag link, tie rod ends, and the steering arms for the knuckles. The kit itself when I purchased it from cruiserparts.net (which it ended up coming from Iron Pig off-road) was labeled as a high steer kit. Initially I asked them to supply a new tie rod/drag link and I ended up purchasing this kit. Especially, because the hardware seems to be more robust, such as the steering arms which are much larger than stock. I am assuming you can use this for a spring over setup in a true high steer setup, but I was going to set it up in a normal configuration I am not sure if this will cause a complication or not. I have not gotten that far into the installation yet. I was going to configure the steering componentry and find out once I dive into installing the power steering setup.
 
RufusTheDufus said:
You mentioned you are doing a high steer conversion but I see your front springs are below the axle. I thought high steer kits were for spring over axle conversions. Is this kit something you're buying from an aftermarket supplier? I'm curious how it installs.
Click to expand...

You know that is a interesting question and I will have to double check on that. The kit itself is the tie rod, drag link, tie rod ends, and the steering arms for the knuckles. The kit itself when I purchased it from cruiserparts.net (which it ended up coming from Iron Pig off-road) was labeled as a high steer kit. Initially I asked them to supply a new tie rod/drag link and I ended up purchasing this kit. Especially, because the hardware seems to be more robust, such as the steering arms which are much larger than stock. I am assuming you can use this for a spring over setup in a true high steer setup, but I was going to set it up in a normal configuration I am not sure if this will cause a complication or not. I have not gotten that far into the installation yet. I was going to configure the steering componentry and find out once I dive into installing the power steering setup.
 
Looking good man!
 
This high steer kit?

From that page:
Our High Steer Kits put the steering rods in front of the axle and up out of harm's way. Our FJ40 Toyota Land Cruiser High Steer kit is built specifically for the FJ40 (or FJ55), not a hacked together kit designed to fit a minitruck. Our Spring Over Axle (SOA) High Steer Kit can also be used for Spring Under Axle (SUA) applications with at least 3.5" of lift.

I don't know if your OME heavy springs will give you 3.5" of lift. You also have to think about how much they may sag over time.
 
I wonder what my options are at this point, could I put the springs over the axles? Would this require modification of anything else beyond just moving the springs over the axles?
 
A SOA (Spring Over Axle) conversion is a LOT more involved than just flipping the springs to the top of the axles. There are tons of threads about it in the 40 series section here. There are good ways to do it and not-so-good too. I'd advise against it for an expedition rig. It places a lot more stress on the springs among many other things you don't want to deal with.

I think you were sold a kit you can't use without introducing a ton of other grief. But you may want to contact Georg (orangefj45) here on Mud. he has an SOA Troopy and might have some insight for you. I have no personal experience with an SOA conversion on a 40 series Troopy.
 
Yeah due to my lack of knowledge of the spring over conversion when I was sold this high steer kit I was unaware that this was what I was buying. I only wanted to purchase a new tie rod/drag link/tie rod ends and they sold me this whole kit. I thought I was just getting new steering linkage with a more robust steering arm setup. At this point I have no interest in doing that conversion. I wonder if I could just use the tie rod/drag link in the kit and use my stock steering arm knuckles. I will have to call Iron Pig off-road tomorrow to discuss with them the details and figure out what to do.

Thanks for the advise and information Rufus.
 
Saginaw boxes are rarely used for power steering conversions on RHD vehicles in the USA. They are just as hard to find as the stock stuff.
 
The power steering setup I got uses a steering RHD box from a 100 series, a newly rebuilt 2H power steering pump, and I think 80 series columns I will have to double check I have not started the setup yet.
 
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