Just bought an 1974 FJ40 in Bolivia

[DJBHM]

I've seen a few people with them so maybe not. I really can't leave the rig unattended much because it seems like would be super easy to steal. I bought a 2in receiver for the back. Maybe I could put one on the front too. Or make the winch difficult to unbolt.
They have 80-90 and 85-140 here. I'll look for them by the pail and maybe the price will be better.
So I guess what everyone is saying is that it is better to have the front diff open than to have an Aussie up there for my purposes. Is it worth putting in a LSD of some kind?

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

lockers are good for straight line work, but on a greasy, side-sloping corner not so much. Here's my opinion of the best updates in the order of importance: hi lift jack (and really, get a true hi lift not chinese knockoff), 50' of logging chain, the best mud-terrain tires you can buy, chains, winch, land anchor, snatch block, snatch strap (like a Bubba rope), and are far more useful. Also get a good locking box to bolt to the floor to hold the stuff.

as for winches, I've welded two bolts to the mounting plate, along with welding the mounting plate bolts to the frame. It's a pain to get off because you have to cut the bolt heads, but the winch isn't going anywhere. With that said, it's like the locker - it's a law of diminishing returns - you can make it impossible to steal thus they'll steal the entire vehicle so they have enough time to steal the winch.

Something that's come up on mine and bears pointing out. Good attachment points. My '40's shock mount is bent from where it got towed by that bar - getting a good, solid pulling point on both ends is beneficial. I also believe in having side jacking points - I went a long time without them, and someone convinced me to put rock rails on my H3... I use those silly things for lifting more times than I care to count (and anchoring, and winching...)

80-90 would be the best of that list... close really does count.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

a primer in hi lift jacks

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I use these as well (air jack - arb)

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

What I've found air jack v. hi lift is the air jack is excellent in sand but can really be problematic on non-level ground because you're inflating a ball under your vehicle - thus, the ball and the vehicle can roll away. A hi lift is easier to control on non-flat surfaces. That said, an air jack is way faster at getting you up and out of the hole...

 

[DJBHM]

Does anyone have a picture of a stock pax side rear motor mount for a 1F. I've found someone who say he can weld but he wants a good physical example to fabricate a new mount from but maybe I can convince him to try if I have some pictures. I don't see what's so complex about it, but I'm not the one welding it.

Hope to have the rig driving soon, should have a license by the end of the week[emoji4] Today it was drum brakes, close to half of the sixteen Pistons were sticky and 4 or 5 were stuck completely. No wonder the brakes were stiff [emoji15] Ignorant newbie here thought it was just because the weren't vac boosted. I hope I can find or clean up enough to get her rolling again.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

funny, I had to look back to see what was broken. I took all of those off my FJ40 when I put the 350 in... I know I have them, so I'll dig them up and send them to you. I'll also fabricate a new inner frame liner.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Here's one picture of the mounts before I removed them


I'd also not worry as much because the motor has a second motor mount that rests on top of the frame on the driver's side, rear of the motor... at this point the motor is held in place by 3 mounts.... though I also wouldn't pull any big trucks out in low range until it's fixed either.

anyway, I'll find the mounts and get them on their way to you....

 

[Chungas Revenge]

Shackles are on the way!! Give me a heads up and let me know when the package arrives.

 

[DJBHM]

Thought you guys might like this. An FJ Dumptruck, sorry for the poor quality picture. I had to run through the crowd like a silly gringo to get it

Chungas Revenge: Thanks a bunch, the shackles make it to TN and should be here in Bolivia in a week

New car blues update: Is this radiator leak something I should be real concerned about? It's actually a seep, doesn't drip....yet. The locals here might be able to solder it up. If so do you think it might give a few more months of service. What are my chances of getting stranded?

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

pinch it and solder it. but start looking for a new radiator because that one is on its way out. With that said, new, aluminum ones are just over $100 here in the States, or I could re-core my old one and send it to you.... hmmmm... solder it for now, and carry a can of pepper to plug leaks if they develop again (pour it - 2 or 3 tablespoons in the radiator, it will end the leak for awhile... works on head gaskets too). With that said, run away from anything that claims to be a stop leak - that will plug the entire system up. If you do need to do the pepper route, and you can do it without freezing to death, loop the heater hose to bypass the radiator until we get you a new one.

 

[Chungas Revenge]

the shackles make it to TN and should be here in Bolivia in a week

Good Copy!!! Best of luck, stay safe and keep us posted on your progress....

 

[DJBHM]

I'll try to keep you updated CR. I still feel like a caveman trying to figure out this app.
SuperBuickGuy you are talking about black pepper right? The seep is happening at a previous repair location. Hmmm I'm finding aluminum two or three row rads for $250 you must know of a much better deal!
The locals set me up with 18 BTDC timing they say it is necessary to run GNV. It doesn't seem to knock but I got scared and turned the octane selector back a full turn. Which should be 12-15 degrees. The book for the F engine seems to have an error and says the octane selector is 5.2 deg per graduation in one place and in another place says 10.4 deg per grad. Which is it? I would love to have 7 deg at the most retarded grad. 12 deg at the middle grad and 17 at the advance grad. Is that possible?

 

[DJBHM]

I posted pics of the maiden voyage on the "what did you do to your Land Cruiser this week" oops thought it was "do with"

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

okay, I lied... $135
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aluminum-Ra...-MT-/201336685909?hash=item2ee09a0555&vxp=mtr

exactly the radiator I have...

as for the rest of the questions... I don't have an answer, sorry. There are general rules about timing. The hotter the engine, the leaner it is. The leaner the engine is, the more prone to knocking. Watch your temp gauge, if it starts moving up back off the timing advance.

 

[DJBHM]

Okay so I'm a couple weeks behind but here is what we've been up to.

Put on the manual hubs from SuperBuickGuy...they are awesome! Turn like butter and awesome quality.

Installed new door locks and adapted an ignition barrel from Cruiserparts.net. Unfortunately they only sent me half of a driveshaft so that didn't work out, especially since the splines were all rusty. I'm hoping the almost non-existent splines in the front half of the slip joint will survive all 70 hp that I'm making up here until they send me the other half.

Installed a new Weber 38/38 manual choke...still working on the tune but it ran right away. It got a little interesting when we realized the manifold was stripped out. Maybe I'm in the throttle too much but I'm getting a consistent 9.6 mpg except when my wife drove...then 14.6. Actually I haven't even touched the main jets yet and I think it is running rich on the mains. The old carb got 9 mpg and this one has a lot more power so its a win.

Got the frame welded...finally! While the machinist took his good sweet time Jason and I took advantage of the pit he was working in and got a bunch done. We installed two of these beefy straps inside the frame behind the welded portion. I'm hoping it will do the trick.

Changed the gear oil in everything. The front axle had basically sludge. Also installed breather hoses on all the vents so we are ready for river crossings.

Had a local radiator shop "fix" the radiator for $7. Didn't help a thing, they must have soldered in the wrong places.

Did some wiring and put in a "cigarette" plug for charging phones on the road...very handy.

Jason did a killer adjustment on the drum brakes and they are really good now. He says they are better than he ever had on his 1970 Bronco.

Installed a rear hitch receiver, new battery, tires and a quick alignment. The tires balance out well and the rig runs along great at 55 mph which is where it seems happy.

Sorry CR, your shackles are still sitting in my parts pile to be installed. We just didn't have time to figure out what bushings we would need and shop for them here since they use a bigger bolt. We later found out that they would have been a big help on our first big trip.

 

[DJBHM]

So we rolled out of the tire place (actually very high tech) with a disturbing knowledge that our rims were extremely rusty inside...more on that later and headed up to the airport to pick up my wife. 10 min from the airport we started hearing a horrible gear grinding noise and had to pull over. A quick check revealed that the tranny drain plug never got torqued and was leaking some oil. With no other probable cause we had to assume the tranny was empty so I jumped a taxi for the 2 plus hour round trip home to grab our left over 90 weight. Jason stayed and guarded the truck. When I got back with the gear oil the tranny only took a cup or two and we were back to scratching our heads. Our visions of traveling before Jason left in a week were evaporating into visions of the transmission apart in hundreds of pieces. I crawled underneath and found gas leaking. The fuel line was rubbing on the hand brake drum and making the horrible noise. Problem solved and we headed home with huge relief. If that hadn't happened we wouldn't have found the loose tranny plug until the next day, far from home.

So what is the most logical thing to do with and FJ40 in Bolivia as soon as it is roadworthy? Jason's number one bucket list item...DEATH ROAD!


Incidentally this is the best road sign I've ever seen in Bolivia

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I broke down, once, in a V8 S10 blazer I owned. It was the best breakdown ever. I bought the rig from someone who had no business owning it - and it had very hookie fixes. One of which, the builder had used a nice double strand wire to wire the electric fuel pump. Bubba couldn't be bothered with such a citified rig, so he cut that wire on both ends, direct wired to the ignition switch with 5 pieces of red wire. He MAY have used electrical tape at some point to cover the wires. That failed (fell apart without shorting, thankfully). That wasn't the praise-worthy thing - it was this, apparently Bubba doesn't trust that newfangled fuel line, so he took the rubber hose off the windshield washer pump and used that... of course, like all good Bubbas, he didn't feel his guardian angel was working hard enough so he had put a cut on the side of the hose aiming at the exhaust. Someday I'd like to meet Bubba - preferably where his cries for help will be ignored.

 

[DJBHM]

So the reputation for this road seems a little overblown. There is a new paved road so the traffic on the old dirt one is very light which probably makes it a LOT safer than before. Yes the consequences of messing up are death to be sure but later in the week we discovered that goes for almost any road here in the mountains. Still a very cool road. I would do it again for the scenery. Jason couldn't resist posing the truck in one of the creeks. This was a day we probably won't beat for a while as far as elevation change. Started from 12,000 feet, climbed to the pass at 15,200 feet, hit a low at the end of the death road at 3600 feet and had to climb the pass again to get home. Carb did fine with almost 12,000 feet of altitude change. 2nd gear is your friend

 

[DJBHM]

After the Death Road trip we got up bright and early Sunday morning and headed on our first work trip with the truck. As we kept adding people and stuff I started to have a sinking feeling....so did the leaf springs. Once we hit the road a quick tally came to around 1500 lbs. Way too much, no this was not the most brilliant thing I've done in a while. There are 20 gals of gas under all those bags on the roof and there were six of us.

Sure enough we weren't long before the fun began...
Apparently I got cheated on the rubber liners that protect the tubes. That combined with our super rusted rims that the tire shop had beat up and put sharp edges on were to blame. We had used the air compressor to air down on the Death Road and it worked great. This time it was a life saver. In fact it was by far the best piece of equipment we had on this trip.

And another one bites the dust...in less than 10 miles. This time we threw on the spare.

The blessing of choosing these 7.50 x31 tires is that everyone has them and we found two tubes and a tube protector at this roadside hole-in-the-wall. I had a hard time fending of the pick ax wielding shop owner. He finally let me use his bead breaker instead of pick axing my brand new tire!

From here we turned off the main road and left gasoline, tire shops and security behind. We had four spare tubes, a spare tire, an air compressor and a knot in the pit of the stomach knowing that the other three tube protectors were probably junk too. Praise the Lord we didn't have another flat until we were safe home in the driveway two days and many kilometers later!