I Give Up!

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Chriscanoe

Chriscanoe

20 Year 15 Year 10 Year
Joined
Oct 30, 2004
Threads
29
Messages
137
Location
Gainesvegas, Ga.
Doing a frame off on a 71 fj40. I have about 90 % of the body put back together. I cant get it to crank, I cant get any of the Painless wireing system to work, and my seats wil not fit back on th new alluminum tub. Its half painted, half wired, and .seems to be getting more halfed a$$ed as I go.Every time I do something now I have to re-do it. I am at a very frusterating place now, any advice? :doh:
 
Take a break. Write down what needs to be done. Think. Revise the list. Walk away until you are excited to work on it again. Take your time. Remember why you are doing it.

HTH

Kirk
 
ok well I cant help on the seats, but tell me about what happens when you try to crank it. Do you have spark? Does gas appear in the carb window? Can you see gas pulled into the carb when the engine is turning over? Do you have power to the idle solenoid while you are trying to crank it? (I AM assuming you have the stock F engine) Did you have the engine rebuilt while it was out? More information is very good here. Including what type of seats you have.

Dave
 
One thing that I overlooked when I was putting mine together was that you have to have the amp meter connected before any of the wireing will work. otherwise there is no power. It is on the back of the guage panel. I don't remember,but you might have to have the rest of the cluster connected before other things will start to work. I feel your pain. I put mine together and in the process I have been re/undoing all the bastardization from the PO. things like a chevy tilt wheel, he put the thing in and just butchered the wireing, eliminated all of the wiring except the tail marker lights to the rear, no turn signals ect. So I would just take it easy, and I like to make it a point to do a little every day even if it's just to sit in it and think so things eventualy get done. HTH and good luck.. in the end when your friends and people on the trail are drooling it will all be worth it!
 
Yeah, ok more info. On the seats. they are the stock bench and driver seat. The holes in the aquala tub dont match the seat holes. It is off by about an inch It seems as if the gas tank neck is pushing every thing to the drivers side. I can drill new holes, but iIm not sure if that will mess up something on the other side, and then Ill have to fill the other holes.
 
On the cranking , I think it may be the timing, I am getting fire to the distributor and fuel in the carb window. I'm not sure about fuel in the carb though. No the engine was not rebuilt but was in good shape before the frame off. I just dont know enough about engins to know what to look for.
Thanks for the advice though.
 
Hey Chris not tryin to be a smart ass, but is the seat frame in backwards(if that is possible)? I can't picture the frame in my head but is it possible you could have it turned around. The only reason I ask is cause I know we've all done it. Worked our asses off on somethin over and over then all of a sudden your buddy comes over to help you with it and says, oh well it's supposed to go in this way. And you proceed to slap yourself up side the head. Hope it's somthin as easy as that. Also you might take some measurements from your old tub and match them to your new one, that would answer your question also. Good luck and take Kirk's advice, take a break from it for a while.
 
on timing the engine move the engine to TDC (line up the BB on the flywheel with the pointer in the window next to the starter) Use a white crayon(or something) to put a mark on the dizzy just under cap where the wire goes to the number 1 cylinder. Pull the dizzy cap, and make sure the rotor is pointed at that mark. It's ok if its pointed 180 degrees away from that mark. If you find that this is the way its already set up, I'd look more into your fuel system. This is a rough way to time it, and if you find you are close to the mark, I wouldnt turn it.

Dave
 
Are all the holes in the passenger seat off, or just one of the two front ones. There were several 'variations' over the years in the front passenger seat, and some of them ran a long leg next to the tranny hump, while others were short. On some the tab for the bolt faced in from the leg, on others out. If it is only this one that is off, drill and don't worry about it.

The other guys have good suggestions on where to start with the cranking thing. Let us know how it goes.

:)
 
I feel your pain. I've been there many times. As someone else said, if you don't need the truck right now, take a break. Have you contacted your local club? I believe there are some pretty knowledgable guys in the club in the Atlanta area. Maybe someone can come over with their truck for you to take a look at and give you a hand on your truck. I'd volunteer but my '78 would never make the 6 hour drive and it wouldn't help you at all anyway. My PO did just as much damage that I'm trying to undo. And I'm also going back and redoing things that I did wrong over the past fews years. I guess it's part of the learning process.
 
Many of us have done just what you are doing now and have felt the same frustrations. I did a similar restoration on a 74 FJ40 and now am working on an 82 FJ60. I have learned to not get excited about completing the entire project and just concentrate on a single system at a time (ie: brakes, engine, axle seals, electrical, etc). Pick a problem, do the research, accumulate the parts then install. You'll never be finished with it. You'll get to the point where everything works and then you'll be looking for the next project. Take your time and enjoy the process. It's been my experience that solving the problems is more fun than driving the thing....well almost.

Good Luck,

James H.
 
If you drill, you are going to need an extra long bit. The seat predrills go through two sections of the AL tub. A reg size will not do it.

As said before, relax and take your time. I found that there are just going to be some issues when you put a new part on an old part. But I also know that those tubs are very very accurate in terms of the predrills so check the seat frames again. My tub matched up to almost the mm.
 
BTDT...that's why 4 years later, my 45 still isn't running and i never did hook up the turn signals, or fix oddities on the 40 i built 6 years ago. i was so burnt out building the 40 that i didn't feel like touching it for years. i'm just now mounting the radiator properly. hang in there and just walk away when you get upset before you screw something up (i know that from much personal experience).
 
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