I need advice from those wiser then me!!

[dfnngsilence]

Hey fellers,
I’m new to this forum, and a relatively new Cruiser owner, I’ve had my 62 for a year now. I figured I’d post this and get some advice from some wiser then I.
My 62’s transmission was slipping quite badly this past winter, with 170K miles.
I didn’t have the 3k required to fix it so it just sat at the mechanics for several months.
I got it back and the tranny is shifting fine. I’d really like to put a H55F manual in it.
I’m a senior in college and plan on moving to Peru, South America next summer and want to have the cruiser shipped down there. Would it be better to just purchase something down there and modify and upgrade it as needed or fix and upgrade my 62 and ship it down? I’ve got a buddy down there who said I’d end up spending at least $6K on something down there. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[lovetoski]

A couple of thoughts:

• An H55 is an awesome tranny for the 62. Everybody who's done it loves it. Not a cheap mod, but in the ballpark of what rebuilding your auto tranny would cost.
• A cheaper alternative is to swap in a used lower milage tranny.
• The cheapest of all is to do the Rodney flush (search) and make sure the tranny fluid is all new.
• If you are going to put a bunch of money into your existing 62, make sure it's low rust, and that the engine is in good shape.

I have no clue what cars cost in Peru, so no advice on that score.

 

[cruiserloco]

Buy a user Cruiser in South America is very pricey so I recommend you to bring yours.

They have the same automatic transmission down there so you can buy parts if it need it.
Good luck.

 

[orangefj45]

ditto on the above posts.

the h55f would be a nice upgrade. i have done the conversion for a customer and was very pleased with the result; so was he.

 

[cruiser88]

4 speeds are cheap

 

[mp_cude]

you dont need a 5 speed in peru, no highways....get a four speed, save your money and when you get home put a 5 in.......also get very good insurance specific to what you are doing, it will pay off

 

[dfnngsilence]

That's a good point... I'm completely clueless on this, what's a good 4 speed manual transmission?

How about CNG conversions? Is this something that's possible?

 

[marting]

That's a good point... I'm completely clueless on this, what's a good 4 speed manual transmission?

How about CNG conversions? Is this something that's possible?

The 4 speed that came with all 60's before 84 or 85.. works fine on everything but highways..works best with cruising-speeds of 65-80km/h. (Oh.. my car is a HJ..don't know how it feels with an F)

You should be able to get one for practicly nothing since people seem to like 5 speeds better..

CNG? Compressed natural gas? Don't know.. just make sure it's widely available in Peru before thinking to much about it..

 

[orangefj45]

every fj60 sold in the usa and canada came with a 4spd from the factory. they're a direct bolt-in for a 62. if you won't be able to travel at highway speeds much then there's no reason to go with the much more expensive 5spd swap.

you should be able to pick up a good used 4spd and split case for roughly $400 for the pair. make sure you get the bell housing, flywheel and clutch hydraulics with it as well. getting the drivelines along with the geartrain would be a plus as well. the early 60s had a smaller bolt pattern at the t-case and the t-case uses the smaller 34mm idler gear. so try to find a 5/85 or newer 4spd if you can.

if you need more info on the swap, i can post a link to the conversion i did. i posted a write-up about it on here in the 60 section.

you should be able to do the entire 4spd conversion for $1k or less if you do all the work yourself.