Builds Just bought my first 60 Series...my 1986 FJ60 Build

[yotadude520]

Now that she's running I've ordered the 10 million heater & radiator hoses so I can replace them as they are original. As I'm waiting for parts I'm starting to fix some of the smaller things - first being the window regulator. For some reason I have a feeling I'm going to be replacing all of them on this thing.

While I had the door panel off I noticed why my door handle would only work sometimes, it was completely cracked. Installed a new OEM one and it's been great.

Once I got the regulator out I could see it was fubar'd pretty good. The gear checked itself out after almost 40 years of dutiful service. Pour one out for the fallen regulator fellas.

My parts should hopefully be in on Friday from the stealership, so until then I'm taking a break from the 60 and regressing back to working on mini trucks - going to be installing A/C in this 85 for a friend of mine. These FJ60's are money pits, so need to rack up the dough where I can.

 

[yotadude520]

Made a trek up to the fiery hellhole we call Phoenix this weekend to meet up with @Cruddz, who was nice enough to sell me the axles out of his FJ62. Tucsonans & Phoenicians grow up being told that one city is better than the other, and while I have held that belief for most of my life I have to say Phoenix has grown on me quite a bit, and Phoenicians aren't as rude as I was led to believe, as evidenced later in this post.

I got up to Phoenix a little bit after 1 thinking pulling the axles would be a two hour job at max. We were going to cut the brake lines, undo the leaf springs and roll them out - easy peasy right? The drivetrain had already been removed out of this 62 along with the steering linkages which would make it even easier.

We started by getting some tires under the frame to support the body using a primo Toyota forklift to jack up the 62. I have to say, my desires to own a forklift and get forklift certified have definitely increased after this weekend. I also have heard being forklift certified helps with the ladies some.

With the truck jacked up safely it was time to start disconnecting the shocks, shackles, and the emergency brake cables. We were able to get the shocks & shackles disconnected easily, but it was the passenger side rear pin holding the e-brake cable to the backing plate of the drum that gave us trouble. That mother ****ing piece of s*** stupid ass pin had somehow welded itself. With no tools to cut the e-brake cable, we headed off to Ace Hardware in Cruddz' sick 60's FJ40 to get a cutting wheel.

At the first red light in this thing, a very nice older red Chevy Suburban with blacked out tint rolled up alongside us. As he rolled down the window we were hit with the strong skunky smell of marijuana. The gentleman behind the wheel commented on how nice it was to see a classic driving and then was kind enough to offer us the blunt he was smoking, which he described as "moon rock". We both politely declined his generous offer and he went on his merry way but the act was a nice reminder that not all Phoenicians are bad people. No stranger in Tucson has ever offered me a hit of their moon rock.

With the cutoff wheel in hand we were able to get the rear axle removed without much fuss and we moved on the front which was even easier, but it had taken us a solid 5 hours to get them out. Thank you for your sacrifice, FJ62.

These axles were covered in so much gunk that the nuts on the top of the knuckles looked like round rivets. Luckily for me, Cruddz has got a hot water pressure washer so I took advantage of this opportunity and used it to get these things cleaned up.

By the time we got the axles cleaned and loaded up the sun was just dipping below the horizon.

The fruits of our labor:

Unfortunately for me, my night was far from over. I hit the road again and headed up to Scottsdale to meet a gentleman on Facebook who had stock wheels for me. He's got a badass 1985 Fj60 with a LS swap he is in the middle of completing, we shot the s*** for a few minutes and then I headed home.

While it was a full day's journey full of ups and downs, I have no complaints about my time in Phoenix. I can't thank Cruddz enough for giving me a hand with the axles, and I'm getting closer to a point where I can drive this thing daily. I've already ordered a knuckle rebuild kit, new calipers & pads, brake hoses, Man-A-Fre heavy duty tie rod kit, and new OME lift kit from @cruiseroutfit. I'm going to rebuild the knuckles during the week after work and hope to install the axles this weekend with some nice 33x10.50's on the stock wheels. Stay tuned.

 

[RodrigzCrzr]

 

[yotadude520]

I've done plenty of front end work over the course of my life but never had the luxury of rebuilding the knuckles on an old Toyota. What an experience it is.

Isn't there supposed to be a s*** ton of grease in here??

It was nice being able to look up and remind myself why I'm covered head to toe in dirt and grime

After hammering the cone washers with a brass punch I was able to get the knuckle caps off. I'd honestly say this job isn't too bad but cleanup is extremely time consuming, especially with as much gunk I found on my axle. I had good luck using Gunk spray, a wire brush, some elbow grease and brake cleaner.

I was trucking along until I noticed that my knuckle balls have seen better days and had a little bit of rust pitting on them.

I sanded them down with 100 grit and went over with a wire wheel a few times. The pitting is still there to some extent but it's completely smooth to the touch so the seals won't get caught up on it.

I re-used the original shims on the arm & cap and the spring scale readings were acceptable. I re-installed the axle, packed it full of moly grease and called it a night since I didn't want to piss off my neighbors any more than I already have. I'm going to cut the rivets that hold the hard brake line off of my dust shield as I'm going to be running a hose straight to the caliper and I'm sure they wouldn't be pleased hearing an angle grinder at midnight.

In my exhausted stupor on Saturday after buying the axles I bought a Yukon rebuild kit on Amazon vs the Sumo brand - comparing pictures of the two I thought everything was there and the Yukon kit could be here quicker.

All in all it's been a good kit, minus two things - it doesn't include a new metal split ring that goes on the back of the knuckle or the backing plates. I cleaned mine up with a wire wheel and am forced to run it, but was something I was not pleased with. Bummed I can't be like everyone else and have shiny metal on the back of my knuckles. Oh well, the price I pay for being impatient.

I dropped the wheels off at Discount Tire earlier this morning to get new rubber, and am going to get the dust shield installed and then will disassemble & reassemble the other side up to the same point as the next step will be knocking out studs to replace my rotors and wheel bearing races.

 

[yotadude520]

My knuckle journey continued into the weekend and I was able to get the rotors and new lugs installed on Saturday morning, with the last remaining items being installing the tie rods & plumbing the brake lines. I decided to wait on that as my donor axle was missing a hardline that I would need to salvage off of my SOA axles and conveniently @Garrissey rolled over to help get the rear axle installed.

Pulling the rear axle was largely uneventful and we made very good time. Aside from a small snafu on the emergency brake line we were able to get everything disconnected and removed pretty easily. We unbolted it at the spring hangers and dropped it down with two jacks onto some wooden harbor freight dollies. We then installed the new rear leaf springs, put the new axle onto the dolly, rolled it under and before we knew it that bad boy was installed.

One thing I worried about was being able to get the truck high enough with the new suspension to get it off the jack stands. While we were able to get it done, I can't deny it was definitely a little sketchy.

Rocking that reverse stinkbug look

At this point we had indulged quite a few garage beers and were feeling extremely ambitious. We took advantage of this to remove the front axle, which was done in record time.

But like all good things, this momentum and ambition eventually came to an end. With it getting dark, and a drunken mishap on my part while installing the shims we decided it was time to call it a night, although I went to bed incredibly pleased with our progress.

Feeling refreshed and with new determination the next day I got right back to work on the Land Cruiser first thing in the morning. I was greeted by my mess of a garage. Seriously, looks like a warzone in there.

I was able to get the tie rod drag link on the axles as well as the calipers, hard lines & new soft OEM soft lines. The Man-A-Fre heavy duty steering kit is really well made and came with new 555 tie rod ends. This thing should feel pretty sturdy going down the road.

With one axle swap already under my belt, the front one went in much easier.

Jacked it up and installed the shackles & u-bolts and BAM! Ultimate Makeover LandCruiser edition was over. It looks like a 60 series should IMO.

I've still got to install the front shocks, tighten & torque everything, grease it all and bleed the brakes but she's on four wheels and looking great. I'm taking a break from working on it for the next few days while I chase turkeys around but hope to have it driving by the end of next week.

In other news, I have also just found a brand new H55F locally, so that will be the next big install. I'm going to allow myself to enjoy the cruiser for a few weeks before I put that in but am excited to see how it does with the 4.11's & 33's.

 

[yotadude520]

Just got back from turkey hunting and am ready to get back onto the 60. While the SOA to SUA conversion was a big step, I had my friend get off all the old oxidation and this was the conversion I was most excited about. She cleaned up great!

I've got to torque all the suspension components and then am going to start working under the hood. Have quite a laundry list of things to do there but am getting closer and closer to driving this ol gal daily.

 

[hiss]

Hey this is James with the LS Swap. Good to read through the build - and thanks for the motivation on mine. Inching closer every day!

 

[yotadude520]

Hey this is James with the LS Swap. Good to read through the build - and thanks for the motivation on mine. Inching closer every day!

Post up a thread and keep us updated!

When both our rigs are done we should take em out for a camping trip sometime, be great to have two tan 60's together.

 

[yotadude520]

It's been a busy few weeks and I've been working on the 60 series as time allows. I've never considered myself a master mechanic, just a guy who likes to drink and turn wrenches from time to time, but this 2F continuously humbles me.

With it looking spiffy and the SOA successfully reverted it was time to focus my efforts on some immediate needs in the engine bay. The upper and lower radiator hoses looked pretty crusty so they needed to go.

Considering that this thing sat for at least 8 years I had no idea what kind of a jackpot I'd be hitting on the cooling system. My first gander was not too inspiring

I think (and hope) he was using red coolant, this stuff is nasty.

I had already ordered a new Aisin fan as my old one was about to grenade itself into the radiator

After pulling the shroud it was pretty evident to see why my old fan was so fubar'd - how the hell does this happen?

Figuring this was a great time to hone in my non-existent sheet metal skills I bent it all back carefully and welded it up

Now that I had restored my radiator shroud back to factory specs it was time to do what they should've done from the factory - cut it in half. I made my cuts a little bit lower than some of the writeups on here but it's right at the seam and you only have to take one bolt off of the drier mount to get it out.

I didn't weld any brackets to it or anything fancy like that but I did at least take 30 seconds to hit it with some spray paint (sneak peek at a future mod)

Everything had gone pretty well up until this point, and my troubles began when I had to replace the water pump. Took me quite a few tries to get the oil cooler line and lower radiator hose line mounted up while keeping the gasket on the back of the pump. I've never seen a design that pissed me off as much as that did. I ended up just hooking up the small 5/8 oil cooler line to the pump and hardline, installed the pump and then removed the three bolts holding on the alternator and compressor to get enough room to connect the other hose. Any secrets I should know about now that I've already installed it and gone through the frustration?

I was able to get everything back together last night, going to get some more coolant to get the cooling system wrapped up.

Next mods for the 2F are going to be to install the Saginaw power steering pump kit I got from @orangefj45 and a desmog in the future as the spaghetti monster scares the living s*** out of me.

 

[yotadude520]

One thing I've learned in my journey so far is that these FJ60's love to test your patience.

After the cooling system was done I tried to start it to get air out of the system and it just clicked. Fusible links looked to be okay so deduced it must be the starter as this had never been a problem before and I hadn't touched the battery connections in a while and it had run previously (awful logic)

I ordered all the parts needed to rebuild my solenoid from the stealership and within minutes I had the starter out. The previous owner's cat loved to lay inside the engine bay when the hood was up, and while that definitely kept the pack rats away from the wiring I have a more unique problem with cat hair being literally everywhere.

One of the contacts was absolutely toast, so I slapped my new ones in and had the starter back in pretty quickly. Went to start the key and well, had absolutely nothing this time. No lights, no clicks, absolutely dead silent.

I wiggled the wires going to the battery connections and had power again so I totally misdiagnosed the original issue as the battery terminals and connections were absolutely horrid. Somewhere along the way the main positive cable had been stripped and just clamped into one of these chinsey terminals.

I put a new terminal on along with a lug on the positive cable and of course she started right up. On the bright side, I wasn't too mad at myself for not checking them previously because the starter contacts were on their last legs and it was an easy enough job to get it out and back in. I'm chalking it up to preventative maintenance.

While I had been waiting for the starter rebuild kit to come in I decided it was time for some cosmetic upgrades and slapped the ARB on, man they just look right on these rigs.

Here's the funny thing about my time owning a 60 series - the entire time I've had this truck I've literally driven this thing down my street three times, so I have not yet reaped the benefits of all my labor and heartache. After many hours of wrenching, staring & dreaming it was time for a win. I need to get some wheel time in that seat and feeling that I've baselined it pretty well it was time for a test drive.

2 months to the day since I purchased this cruiser I took it on it's first test drive, and by god it was glorious. Yes it's slow, and even with new knuckles and steering it isn't the best handling vehicle ever invented. But it has it's own charm that just made me smile ear to ear the whole time. I am absolutely, unequivocally in love with this 60 series.

Here's her first photo out in the wild, it's probably the first time she's seen a gas station in 8 years - and yes, I spoiled her with some premium.

There are still a ton of small projects and things that need to be done, but now I can work on them as I drive it. Well, until I get around to installing this...

 

[Paullus]

Man you got a lot of work done fast. You definitely have some experience from working on those pickups. I was wondering what type of new leaf springs you went with?

 

[yotadude520]

Man you got a lot of work done fast. You definitely have some experience from working on those pickups. I was wondering what type of new leaf springs you went with?

Thank you! It's been quite the learning experience, these 60's are a tad different than the mini trucks I've worked on but they're every bit as reliable.

I went with Old Man Emu Heavy + springs front & rear, with the ARB bumper on the front it rides fantastic.

 

[yotadude520]

I've been driving the 60 series for the last few weeks and continued on with some much needed upgrades. One thing that was very high on my list of to-dos was the front speakers. I'm a huge van of vintage hi-fi, but man these things had to go. I don't think I've ever heard any speakers as bad as the stock 60 ones, and I owned a pair of Bose 301's once!

So out with the old and in with the new:

I purchased the speaker adapters from Cruiser Cult and used them to bolt in some Alpine S-S50s. The price was right and I've always been pretty impressed with Alpine's quality.

They are a super tight fit with the window there, literally a RCH away but they work and it doesn't rub against the magnets with the window down.

As I was in there I took the 2 minutes to replace the butyl rope & moisture barrier with some thick painting plastic. It looks like a five year old cut it out but I don't really care, it's better than what I had and looks fine if you get 10 feet away and squint your eyes.

I was able to score a set of door panels up in Phoenix for a great price and boy have they really cleaned up the interior. My old ones were in rough shape.

In an effort to have no unobtanium parts on this rig I also installed a fusible link kit from @CruiserTrash - fit was perfect and a super easy install. Really happy with it.

I'm not sure about where you live, but here in AZ it's getting hot so I needed to address the A/C.

I've always heard that the forbidden fruit labeled R-12 was extremely hard to find and cans were expensive. After a quick search on FB Marketplace I found myself in a Bashas parking lot meeting with an Asian man who spoke literally no English - but he did have the R12 and I got two 12 OZ cans for $40. Not bad IMO.

R12 charging gauges are a little hard to find and somewhat expensive, but considering that R12 runs on such low pressures I really only needed a gauge for the low side. I was able to put together the below setup on Ebay for about $40.

The previous owner did tell me that the A/C compressor was replaced before it stopped driving so I decided to charge it with the R12 and see what happens.

For anyone wanting to charge their A/C in their 60 this is how I went about doing it.

Since my system had no R-12 in it the low pressure switch wasn't going to allow the amplifier to send power to the compressor and let it run. With the compressor off the system took practically no R-12, so I unplugged the compressor and used alligator clips to hot wire it directly to the battery. I then put a testing light into the other end of the plug so that I would know when the low pressure switch sensed there was enough R-12 to run the compressor. It was also a test to see if the amplifier worked at all as they can be finicky.

After I added the first can of R-12 the test lamp came on and I was able to plug in the compressor and have it run on it's own and continue to pull R-12. I'm a happy camper as it is blowing pretty dang cold!

Now anyone who has done A/C work is probably reading this thread, drinking a cold brewski and shaking their head. You definitely should be - to do this right you'd replace all the O-rings and the drier at a minimum, pull a vacuum and then charge. That is 100% the proper way to do it -but I've got plans to address the A/C system in the future among other things, so this is a temporary stop gap until I get there.

 

[onemanarmy]

Great progress (and the best color too!)

and close ups of the slider rear windows? From a distance, they look more 'recessed' than the other ones I've seen

 

[Thechief86]

Good to see another one getting fixed up and put back into service. I much prefer seeing one that has been forgotten and rescued and still being improved over seeing the perfect example that has always been pampered and is now a hipster status symbol for a guy who can't change his own brake pads.

 

[cruiserpilot]

Looking at that fan and shroud. Did you figure out why? My first thought was check motor mounts.
Great to see enthusiasm like this.

 

[yotadude520]

Great progress (and the best color too!)

and close ups of the slider rear windows? From a distance, they look more 'recessed' than the other ones I've seen

Thank you!

I believe they are old SOR windows - I like them a lot since they have screens on the inside. I still have a brand new one for the passenger side I need to install.

 

[zeeklafreek]

Thank you!

I believe they are old SOR windows - I like them a lot since they have screens on the inside. I still have a brand new one for the passenger side I need to install.

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[yotadude520]

Looking at that fan and shroud. Did you figure out why? My first thought was check motor mounts.
Great to see enthusiasm like this.

Yup - driver side motor mount is toast due to the leaking power steering pump. Going to address that in a round about way in the coming months...hint hint.

 

[yotadude520]

I guess I'm not such a sucker for round headlights and slow 6 cylinders. After driving this thing for the past few months the 2F's charm has waned and I've realized that it's just not going to cut it for daily driver duties, so time to jump on the LS bandwagon.