HJ47 welcome here?

[Henry James the 47th]

another set

 

[Henry James the 47th]

and some more

 

[Henry James the 47th]

The custom made rear glass piece (the center window is no longer available from Toyota) arrived today and was a perfect fit. Since i had the roof bolted down, i needed help from a friend on the outside


...jeez, .."help from a friend on the outside.." - sounds like a prison break or something similar eh? I tell, ya, I'm feeling a bit like i just escaped from something today, when that last panel went on. I'm so stoked to see it all together.

Tomorrow is d-day as far as seeing about getting it running. I've picked out some pieces of mandrel bent 2.5" steel exhaust tube and early next week the guys at Radd Cruisers are going to weld it together from me, and give the truck a once-over before I take it for inspection. It looks like I could be within 10 days of having this truck on the road.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

This morning demanded another trip to a wrecking yard to scavenge Toyota bolts, hose clamps, and little bits like that.

I was surprised to find, while gutting a mid 1990's Toyota Previa van (the one that looks a bit egg-like, er, 'oviform' if that is the right word), that the rubber plugs used in the floor pan were exactly the same size as the ones needed on my 47's floor pan. then I discoved a little plastic cover plate on the drivers side footwell, which was a perfect replacement for the type of plugs used along the inside rocker panels, three each side. I was missing one, and as usual these little plastic dealies aren't available from Toyota any longer, it seems, so it was a delight to find one in a Previa van.

 

[DanS HJ-45]

It's official: I hate you now.

Looks FANTASTIC.

Dan

 

[Radd Cruisers]

How do we get this into Stickies, needs to be up thier with the best and even more indepth documentation.

 

[belizesol]

I just got an hj 47. does anyone know how to get brake and suspension parts. Are the parts compatible withthe fj40 or fj45 models? Can i get a lift kit? any help at all would be great. I'm running these vehicles down in Belize
my website is belizebamboo.com
thanks for any assistance
sol

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I just got an hj 47. does anyone know how to get brake and suspension parts. Are the parts compatible withthe fj40 or fj45 models? Can i get a lift kit? any help at all would be great. I'm running these vehicles down in Belize
my website is belizebamboo.com
thanks for any assistance
sol

let's see some pictures of your trucks!

 

[NTFJ45]

Looking Good HJ

What are your plans for mud / stone guards under the rear tray ?
Are you staying with the Aluminium theme ?

I have seen some pretty savage stone dent / chips in the back of some pick up cabs where no guards were fitted.

I have some steel diamond plate bent into shape on my 45, rubber flaps added with chain to keep them off the tyres.
I dont have a close up but here is a shot after retriving my boat at the local harbour ramp. It sort of shows the chain flap arrangement. It is secured to the rear of the cabin on the c channel with stainless bolts.

I just noticed your cab does not have the c channel bolted to the rear of the cab, it must of been dropped on the 47 because of the fuels lines running through there ?

Once agin awesom work HJ, I can not wait to see it outside in the daylight
NT

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Funny you should mention those mud guards - I just bolted them into place last night. I have a pair of mud flaps to attach to the rear guards, and should have those on today. I worked until 10:30 last night, and it was too dark at the end to take any more pictures.

I managed to start the truck yesterday. There seems to be some issue with the VSV - it should remain on except when the signal from the low oil pressure cut of switch tells the TM3 unit to shut the engine down. For some reason, just as the truck is about to start, the vsv loses it's power (which means the valve returns to normally open, the vacuum goes through and pulls the intake shutter closed). I attached a temporary connection to the vsv and hooked it directly to the battery so that it stays on full time, and voila the truck started right away! Yay!

Of course, to stop the engine running once it's fired up means I have to go back to the engine bay and pull the vsv connection off the battery - turning the key off does not shut it down, so that problem will need to be solved soon.

The engine runs really well - big relief! When i last saw it run, in the HJ60 at the wreckers, it was low on oil, quite noisy and clattery, and put out a good amount of black smoke when the accel. pedal was pressed. With new injectors fitted, new glow system, and oil topped up, the tailpipe is no longer a source of grief and the motor purrs like a kitten. Well, maybe not quite so quietly as a kitten, but you get the idea.

Bad news: it seems like there is a leak from between the transmission and engine, which is likely the main seal on the back end of the crank. It dripped a little a few days back then stopped, so I hoped it had gone away, but no such luck. it looks like the transmission will have to be yanked back, the oil pan removed and the seal changed out again. I must have installed it imperfectly the first time.

When the engine was running yesterday, I developed a jolly nice leak from my power steering hard line and lost about half the p/s fluid. Simply fixed, and refilled. The power steering works perfectly!!!

I couldn't resist putting the truck into gear and backing it out of it's space. The transmission shifted perfectly, the clutch was smooth (hopefully it isn't too oily now with the main end seal leak), and the parking brake worked fine. I then tooled around the yard slowly, popping into second gear for a little stretch, and after 100 meters or so, realized that I hadn't put any oil yet into the transmission or transfer

Yet another rookie maneuver. I'm glad i remembered when i did. Sure enough, someone came along yesterday to check the truck out and they related a story to me of how they forgot to refill the oil into a transfer case and drove their truck down the road for a few kilometers, about 50~60 km/h, and the transfer blew up. I'm hopeful (not entirely confident) that my slow mosey around the yard didn't do any damage to the bearings.

I filled the transfer up, so now it is done along with the front and rear axles. The transmission fill plug is pretty hard to get at with my bottle of gear oil, so I will need to find a filler that uses a long hose with a crook on the end. The FSM shows something like that for getting oil into the transmission. The pto gear box is also quite difficult to fill and will need the same long bent filler tube technology.

Clutch works, and brakes seem pretty mushy still. I need to bleed them again. There were a lot of minor leaks out of the brake system yesterday, and it took a while to get everything tightened down sufficiently. I'm sure that here is too much air in there. Once the air is bled, i will be looking forward to figuring out how to set up the proportioning valve for the rear discs.

I spent a few hours working on the electrical of the wiper motor. To my surprise, when i dumped out a box of spare electrical parts, what should I find in the bottom but the missing hard line for the fuel line, along with a factory 40 series intermittent relay and the intermittent type of relay switch. I had them the entire time! After all that research and digging, it turns out that my truck actually came with the intermittent wiper set up! It's hard to tell with the factory switch, as it has three barely distinct stops as it is pulled out. Anyway, i wanted to go with the 60 series column mounted switch, but it is good to have the factory one so as to compare wiring schemes, since i can find no factory wiring info on these intermittent wipers, rare as they were. Some bloke in Australia will I'm sure have a Toyota wiring Electrical Diagram book for 1982 or later that may show it. I had a USA/Canada version of that manual in my hands a few weeks ago, but it make no mention of the intermittent system, hardly surprising since it was not an option ever in this market.

So, i still haven't solved that wiper motor problem yet, but it looks very solvable. So far i have determined that the wire going from the switch to the relay, namely the blue-yellow stripe, somehow is also grounding out. So, my first task this morning will be to trace that wire, inch by inch, to see what I can find. and if i can't solve the problem, i am confident that an electrical specialist will be able to, especially as i have the original 40 relay, motor and switch. The spare relay i have also included the last few inches of wiring, so i was able to check the arrangement of wires going into the relay, and my set up is wired exactly the same. This problem will be licked yet!

There are a few other minor electrical issues to deal with, but other than the wiper motor issue, all critical electrical functions, lights & signals, starting, charging, etc, are all working fine.

While trying to get water through my piping to the windshield, i accidentally blew the connection off at the base of the windshield, so a bit of water leaked out into the inside of the windshield frame. I now have to unbolt the roof so I can tilt the windshield frame down and reattach the hose. I won't make that mistake again.

The weatherstripping on the doors seems to be compressing down a bit day by day and the door fits are improving, to my relief. The drivers door however needs more adjustment, as it is tight at the rear jamb and unfortunately I have s-c-r-a-p-e-d a small amount of paint off the inside of the rear door jamb by closing the door. I gotta work more carefully around the paint, which is still a bit soft. I plan to put the truck out into the sun today for a spell to help back that paint harder and soften the weatherstrip around the doors a little.

I'll take lots of pictures today if I get the truck into the sun. It looks pretty sharp so far, I'll try to avoid doing any further damage as reassembly proceeds.

Still to do:

-exhaust. I have bought some pieces of 2.5" mandrel bent galvanized steel exhaust, and Radd Cruisers is going to weld it up for me sometime early this coming week. I'd tackle it myself, however they have the advantage of a abrasive wheel chop saw, and more fabrication experience, so I'll have them do it. The current exhaust pipe i have in place, which was original to the truck, is a poorly welded affair only 2" in size, so the 2.5" ought to be an improvement. I believe the original factory size was 2.25".
-solve wiper motor problem
-fix minor leak in vacuum line
-fill transmission and pto gearbox with gear oil
-locate a decent steering wheel. It will probably be a Grant aftermarket type for the time being. I'd prefer something with real leather, but time and money are short.
-solve vsv switching and TM3 Engine Watchdog set ups
-tape off around window weatherstripping and apply sealer under lip of weatherstrip
-set up rear brake proportioning valve
-locate a set of windshield wiper arms (mine have gone missing, though I have a new set of Bosch wiper blades on hand)
-get windshield washer up and running
-align headlamps and front end steering
-double and triple check for loose bolts and connections (anything with fluid going through it seems to display the leaks really fast )
-install heater. I'm missing the piping that goes into the cab. I did have it, but it has gone awol. I think I will have to fabricate something custom, as I want to eventually be set up to run a spare fuel tank for waste veggie oil, and I will need to split off hot water lines to run through the tank to do the pre-heating.
-my windshield visors are in cruddy shape, but they will have to do for now. I could use some new ones.
-I need to install the seats and Tuffy box, and the Tuffy box will require a custom bracket to hold it down at the front. Once the Tuffy box is in, I could consider putting in a stereo system.
-the door switches for the courtesy light need to be wired up.

A bunch of minor tasks await, and I hope to be able to wade through a good number of them today. tomorrow the truck will be tower over to Radd Cruisers so the exhaust work can get done. Like I said, I'll post up some fresh pictures tonight.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I drove the truck today for about 5km (3 miles). It's now over at Radd Cruisers where they will put in an exhaust system and hopefully work out some of the electrical bugs. I've scheduled inspection for Friday at 10:00am.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

next set

 

[Henry James the 47th]

next three

 

[Henry James the 47th]

another set of three

 

[Henry James the 47th]

here's what the mudflaps look like

 

[Henry James the 47th]

here's some more pictures of the tray and mud guards

 

[Henry James the 47th]

and now here it is out into the daylight at last!!

 

[Henry James the 47th]

doesn't look like my 47 will be lonely for company, as there are plenty of cruisers in the vicinity

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Considering that none of the steering components are more than marginally st up or aligned, the truck drove pretty well. The steering felt light and the truck didn't wander appreciably.

It was an interesting mix of delight and dread that went on in my mind as i did that little drive this morning. Excited to be driving the truck at long last, and waiting nervously for some unpleasant noises or other problems to develop - which didn't thank goodness. It went well, other than the fact that the brakes are only barely working, and there was a drip coming forth here and there. The accelerator pedal position is all wrong (too high) and very tiring on my right shin muscles to drive for any length of time, so I will need to adjust that next.

 

[lostmarbles]

Hi HJ.

I had been thinking of fitting stainless pads on my hood for my "hood cushions" - but I never imagined that the factory had already done so with later models till looking at your b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l HJ47 just now.

I think I'm going to try to copy that ! And the bit of stainless for the hood strut too.