Builds It was the Prospector's Idea (1 Viewer)

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Matt, if you aren't too far try some spray copper gasket sealer on your gasket. Another trick is to double up. gaskets its a bit hoakie but it works.
 
More stupid grins...

Finally got some free time to check my work. It's 5 degrees and full on winter Sunday. Mrs 90WT gets the garage for her car, so the 40 is chillin' outside for a while 'till this snow and cold go away.

Plugged in the coolant heater for about an hour while I shoveled snow and helped the kiddos build snow forts. Replaced the distributor rotor, which I broke last week. Pulled the choke, hit the key, and it started right up! After setting timing, idle mix and speed adjustment, I was super happy to see 14 inches of vacuum! I'll take it.

I had to dig out the rig, since the street plow went by Saturday. But it was worth it. Cruised the hood for a bit with a big ol' stupid grin. I love this 40.

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After waiting 5 weeks for my appointment with the vehicle registration office, I was able to transfer the title and more importantly, register some sweet old 1971 license plates under Montana's Original License Plate program. I'd post pics, but I'm gonna wait to put them on for a few days, until temps climb above 0 again. 🥶
 
Pins, pushers and plates.

The Prospector and I got a little garage time this weekend. And for once, no engine work.

Replaced the grade 5 bolt hinge pins with proper hinge pins donated by @Purpleaction (Super cool! Thanks again!) Only got to the Driver's door side and it solved the rattle issues. Now you can really tell the passenger side is rattling at both hinges and the strike plate. Just used the plastic bushings for now. Got some bronze onces too, but will most likely wait until summer to dig into cleaning the hinges, repainting, and re-aligning the doors.

Installed some used bumperettes we picked up from @3_puppies a few weeks ago. We were hoping to pick up some vintage looking ones since our rig really has no shiny parts. I'm diggin' em. Required tapping the old holes since they were all rusty inside. I find cleaning rusty bolt holes oddly satisfying.

And the original plates got slapped on. I lucked out and found a matching pair from Cascade County. Pretty cool since the rig was sitting in Cascade County when we found it.

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Looking good Matt!

One trick on tapping is to use a cordless drill with the clutch set about 1/2 of its power and a good tapping fluid on the tap. I agree it is oddly satisfying, right up there with using a steel tubing bender.
 
How to create a valve knock...

Back in the garage this weekend to adjust the valves. A little bit of a pain to get the cover off since the threaded studs from the head are long, and I've got a coolant line above the valve cover which restricts how much room I have to work. 9 of 12 valves needed adjustment. Several exhaust valves had no lash. Easy enough to adjust.

It was the install that took me on an adventure. In addition to the coolant line making it a pain to reinstall the valve cover, I had a engine lifting hook that was bent over the valve cover edge, just enough to pinch the valve cover between the lifting eye and valve rocker above the No 1 cylinder. I put some aircraft gasket sealer on the valve cover side of the cork gasket. And for the life of me, that stuff would not hold the gasket to the cover, and as I would try to thread the cover into place, the gasket would drop off. It was frustrating.

During this frustration, I decide the lifting hook needs to be straightened out of my way with a BFH. Easy enough. After a couple of whacks, from the corner of my eye I saw something go shooting off into space. I looked at my hammer. It looked at me. Back to work we went. (I should've paid a bit more attention).

With the lifting eye out of the way, and waiting overnight for the aircraft gasket seal to get more tacky (garage temp was 40), the valve cover went back on in minutes. While connecting the battery terminal, I noticed the retaining clip for the end of the valve rocker assembly. :doh: . Everything apart. Clip installed, Everything back together.

Now for the startup. Engine sounded smooth, except for a new knock. Definitely a new knock. At the No 1 cylinder valves. A long crowbar for sound transmission confirmed a tink valve sound above the No 1 cylinder. As I stared dumbfounded at the block, I noticed another valve spring hiding out on the water pump. It was the round one to go between the valve rocker arm and the retaining clip. :doh:.

20 minutes later (I'm getting faster, like nascar pit crew faster). Engine is purring again. No valve knock. Adjusting the valves gained 1 inch of merc, for a total of 15 inches vacuum. Hell yeah! (Beofre we started the tuneup in January we had only 7-8 inches vacuum!)



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April catchup.

Our 40 was still a little stinky and needed a bath on the inside. I don't mind dirty, but there were still some mouse turds in hard to reach spots that needed to go. A little light detergent in a spray bottle, brush, hose, and wet vac helped out big time. Car kinda smells fresh. Not like the Old Spice guy but close. Fido even approved.

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Apply lube generously.

Our transmission is a lush and insists on stealing from the transfer case.
Super trick hose from @shipmag should help even things up.
If we can keep the 85-90 wt in the cases, might even clean down here too.

Got a used tire carrier hook we're trying to get on.
3 rusted bolts busted by someone long before us, and one body nut that we could thread tap.
The sheet metal behind behind the area is pretty wasted. We'll end up with 3 bolts, two will be through bolted with washers on the back.
Gotta hit up ACE for some longer M8s.

Trying to keep ticking away at the to-do list so we get out camping in it this summer.

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@pigmony Springhill Pavillion / Ross Peak Ranch. I took Walker Rd out there. The washer boards were so bad, and our rig rattles so much, when I got back my ears were ringing almost as bad as seeing Van Halen at the Fieldhouse. :hillbilly:
 
Speaking of rough roads, I took one of the dogs out to Copper City yesterday to go mountain biking. After the cattle guard the road gets rough. On the way out, I got the speed just exactly wrong and the wheelbase lined up perfectly with the ruts, so we got airborne on the way up the hill. Not fun.
 
Apply lube generously.

Our transmission is a lush and insists on stealing from the transfer case.
Super trick hose from @shipmag should help even things up.
If we can keep the 85-90 wt in the cases, might even clean down here too.

Got a used tire carrier hook we're trying to get on.
3 rusted bolts busted by someone long before us, and one body nut that we could thread tap.
The sheet metal behind behind the area is pretty wasted. We'll end up with 3 bolts, two will be through bolted with washers on the back.
Gotta hit up ACE for some longer M8s.

Trying to keep ticking away at the to-do list so we get out camping in it this summer.

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Thanks for the plug still have both sizes in stock. Looks like a excellent install on the hose.
 
2-40 air conditioning.

Now that it's blazing hot in MT (like in the 70s this weekend), seemed like a good time to figure out why the driver's door window only goes down halfway. I didn't realize the top half of the door comes off to get the glass out and service the window guides. Pretty slick Toyota. Window and crank were intact, but the window felt worked itself down and then hardened in the channel down low. We scraped that nasty stuff out which left fuzz all over us. Guess we'll order up some new window felt for both doors.

Now that the window goes down, I've got a new place to rest my arm to look good when cruising. :cool:

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Can you hear me now?

In preparation for the our local club's 40s only run, we needed to figure out the comms situation. Focused on the HAM first. The CB install might come later in the summer. After much looking, went with a trunk/hatch lip mount to the rear hatch. Diamond K400SNMO mount with Diamond NR770HRNMO 40 inch antenna. Mount came with 13.5 ft RG316 that runs inside the cab in the ceiling to the front dash pad where the Yaesu handheld will live. We've had really good luck with handheld radio and an external antenna.


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I got really tired of hearing my antenna bouncing off my gutter lip, so I glued a neodymium magnet to a piece of kydex with a hole drilled through it. The magnet attaches to the gutter lip and the antenna goes through the hole. It keeps the antenna from swinging around too much, but can easily pull alway if the antenna gets caught on something.
 
I got really tired of hearing my antenna bouncing off my gutter lip, so I glued a neodymium magnet to a piece of kydex with a hole drilled through it. The magnet attaches to the gutter lip and the antenna goes through the hole. It keeps the antenna from swinging around too much, but can easily pull alway if the antenna gets caught on something.
That’s brilliant.
 
Dirt tested.

We've been chipping away at our to-do list the last several weeks, mostly chasing rattles. Time for some fun. The local cruiser club, 406 Cruisers, scheduled a 40s only run into the Tobacco Root mountains. What a great time! We did about 150 miles, with maybe 25 off pavement. The Prospector and I had fun learning our rig and learning from other drivers. It's pretty cool to have everyone stare and wave when you take the 40 to the store, but it's a whole 'nuther level of awesome when you turn the hubs and go wheelin' with other 40s!

Still in the works:
-Mounting FJ60 seats in the front.
-Dizzy upgrade
-new u-joints
-new window seals



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Still in the works:
-Mounting FJ60 seats in the front.
-Dizzy upgrade
-new u-joints
-new window seals


and some different rims
 

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