Build Julian's 1989 FJ62 Build

[julianramirez1005]

My biggest fear was realized when I got up to highway speeds for the first time. Lots of not so good noises. I'm thinking its driveshaft related or maybe bad pinion bearings and also torque converter issues (I did drop the torque converter about 4ft onto concrete when i had engine out) Driveshaft is probably completely out of balance, haven't got it balanced yet.
Symptoms:

1. Metal Howling noise under load at speeds greater than 45mph. Seems to come from trans tunnel When I let off gas it subsides.
2. When I touch the gas at 30-40mph+ I can hear a clunk/click grinding noise that engages every time I tap the gas while cruising.
3. I slight vibration when coming to a stop. A kind of consistent low vibration that shakes the steering wheel when coming to a stop even if i let off brakes it stays consistent until I come a stop.
4. clunky shifts, but i think this is just a bad cable adjustment ive been fiddling with it trying to find the sweet spot.

So, I have a DS that came with my rig that is a sixteen-spline double cardan, but it didn't come with a slip yoke. I'm hoping this will solve some of these issues but i need to find a yoke that will fit it and i have no knowledge of where it came from. Any recommendations on this?

 

[julianramirez1005]

Making big changes:
I have decided to go back to stock fj62 axles for a couple of reasons.

1. I have a pair on my donor with 150k miles
2. They will be more than sufficient for what I will be doing with my cruiser for the foreseeable future (Camping and some off-roading here and there)
3. I am going to sell the soa setup right now and buy all the stuff for an h42 swap and a h55f swap in the future.
4. Gas prices are at $6.29!!! at Costco!!! No better time to have the cruiser on the back burner.

I am perfectly fine with losing several inches of lift and rear disc brakes for a more reliable and tried and true set of axles I know inside and out. Personally, I am of the opinion that Toyota knew what they were doing when they designed these rigs minus that a440f trans haha.

Sourced the full swap kit from an 87 with only 140k miles for a great price I can't say no to. I am so excited for this next phase of the project and can't wait to have a third pedal. Overall, having a manual trans is the biggest goal I have had for my land cruiser and to be able to see that coming to fruition is incredible. Even if it will only have four gears for now

Taking the axles off my rusty donor 89 FJ62 with minimal busted knuckles. Thank God for electric impact guns

lots of wire wheeling and por15 in my future
Cheers

 

[toy_tek]

Wow that’s a lot of work - sounds like you’re on the right path and determined though! Kudos to you. Cool to see the progress.

 

[julianramirez1005]

Wow that’s a lot of work - sounds like you’re on the right path and determined though! Kudos to you. Cool to see the progress.

You can say that again. By the time I’m done I don’t think there will be a piece on this cruiser I haven’t touched. Thank you

 

[julianramirez1005]

Starting point:

Started with a few hours of scraping grease and wire wheeling until I got tired of wires and rust flying into my skin at Mach 2. Enlisted the help of my gf somehow, very tough sell. After we got done yesterday they looked like this.

Started up again today with some more scraping and then some very underwhelming purple degreaser. Switched to some commercial oven cleaner I scored from a sizzler going out of business years ago. Works very well I strongly recommend.

After a couple cycles of that I pulled out some copper scrub pads I had and that took care of most the tight spots. Probably should’ve spent some more time getting the nooks and crannies but I was happy enough with it.

I am going to do a knuckle rebuild and sandblast everything I can so I didn’t worry about anything not on the housing.

Then I moved to the por15 cleaner degreaser. Applied with a brush and let it soak in for 15 min while I kept scrubbing. Pressure washed and repeated once more. Then I took a leaf blower to blow out the water, followed by a blow torch to dry the surface.

Now it’s time for the por15 metal prep. Nothing new just spray and keep wet for 20 minutes. Fun stuff

Not even close to perfect but I was satisfied enough

I decide to spray instead of brush. You have to dilute with 10% reducer and your good to go. Paint job looks great but this poor VEVOR paint sprayer will never be the same.

Boom! Now the rear as well as all the goodies.

Touched up the thin spots with a brush. I believe it’s self leveling so shouldn’t make a difference on the final product.

One step closer

 

[julianramirez1005]

Just pulled my t case apart for the first time after experiencing loud noises under load mentioned in past posts. Something else to note is that the day before i pulled it apart it was lurching on the highway or what felt like slipping. My main concerns are the huge amount of wear on the idler gear shaft, the race for the rear output shaft was very worn, and the splines on the transmission output shaft are pretty smoked.
Holy crap the housing was stuck to the front t case bad. my poor dead blow hammer was really putting in some work but eventually I had to get a puller on the rear output and shaft and pop it off.
icloud gallery
google drive

 

[julianramirez1005]

First i want to thank @cruisermatt for all of the help, he is a wealth of knowledge and a great help.

Mostly just an update but of things i have done for my own records.

1. Rebuilt transfer - replaced idler gear and upgraded to the long spline gear to fix the dented splines on trans shaft. I was very intimidated by this job but honestly went very smooth after I got the harbor freight press and a 6 pack. Followed fsm and watched Otramm's split case rebuild video a dozen times
2. Por15ed the stock axles from ol'rusty
3. Cleaned up leaf springs quickly. They are 10 years old and they are the dakar stuff. Havnt heard great things.
4. Got a nice set of used spring plates that are specific to fj62 with the offset shock pins from Georg at VH NOTE: There is a bushing that go in the plates around centerbolts on the leaf spring and I ended up using a specter bushing I had laying around that fit just right. part number was obliterated so not sure what it was.
5. Got new u bolts from matt and replaced the front spring plates with some oem equivalents
6. Also got 555 tie rod ends kit and replaced old ones. Painted tie rods too
7. Had to get spacers for my current tire/wheel setup with 16" first gen tundra steelies and 275/75r16 toyos. Is red loctite overkill for holding these spacers to the hub?
8. I also will be doing a knuckle rebuild soon but I am raring to get this thing back on the road so that can what till i need to jack it up again. Axles only have 150k on them and were fine as far as I know so im gonna let that go for now.
9. Sometime ago I did the u-joints on the rear driveshaft as well

Where it sits today:

Tackling brake lines today, pray for me. Even with the nice Vevor double flare tool I was having trouble so hopefully i don't need to get another 25ft roll of nicop.

Did not intend for such a huge overhaul but I am happy as ever knowing I will back on the road soon better than ever.

For future searchers: FJ62 split case rebuild, long spline gear upgrade, rear spring plates, offset shock pin plates, OME Dakar springs, 555 tie rod ends, Tundra steelies, wheel spacers, NiCopp brake lines, knuckle rebuild.

 

[yotadude520]

With these 60's projects tend to kind of just...snowball.

If you had told me when I first bought mine I would end up doing an LS swap I'd think you're crazy.

 

[julianramirez1005]

Just took my rig camping over 4th of July weekend and it almost brought a tear to my eye. Seeing it in the wild after so many months on blocks and running into issues. So glad I ended up replacing the tie rods with 555's. I can do 70mph at 2200 rpms with 285/75r16s completely smooth, no shake or wobble. I'm also very happy with the new stance and ride quality with the old 2.5" lift ome light load kit that came with ol'rusty

I have no idea how I did this but when took it off blocks i realized the rear axle was sitting 3 or four inches too far towards the rear of the vehicle. All of my pride was soon replaced with regret and shame as I realized i had put the rear springs on backwards Luckily that quickly turned to motivation, and I ended up at the shop til midnight fixing that mistake. Don't be like me check your spring orientation three or four times if necessary.

Notes:

1. Since my last post I finished up the brake lines and bled a big bottle or 2 of brake fluid through the system.
2. Another roadblock I hit was getting the pitman arm of my old rusty steering box. I had to replace the pitman on the rig because it had been machined to fit a different size TRE. I ended up disassembling the box up until it is time to remove the sector shaft. After maxing out my 12-ton press and trying to persuade the sector shaft and pitman to separate with a 3 pound it would not budge. I ended up at my mechanic's shop in the same predicament with a 20-ton press. After many whacks and adjusting it in the press it finally came out with an ear ringing bang.
3. I am still having some driveline vibration at 25mph to 40mph but outside of those ranges its very smooth. I will be checking pinion and output shaft angles soon.
4. I must've overfilled the front slip yoke with grease because the plug popped out and all of the grease in the front drive shaft is no longer there.
5. Fixed the overwhelming gas smell in the cabin after sitting. It was a combination of the evap vent lines being restricted and the hoses on the evap separator in the rear passenger 1/4 pnl being old and cracked. I also double-checked vacuum lines that control the evap system were in good condition.
6. edit: Forgot to mention I added a new transmission cooler as well its just zip tied in for now but i will be making some metal brackets to hold it in shortly

Hope Everybody had a good 4th