Low budget hack

[diogenese]

I'm going to share some pictures of my toy FJ40 that gets bashed about and fixed with leftover stuff
Nothing about it is recommended as it is highly unreliable and usually has to come home broken!
It was picked up as a spares truck that came with a friends purchase of another FJ40 offroader but I stole it and did evil things to it!
It has had a turboed 3B installed, SOA rack and pinion power steering, intake and exhaust snorkels and lots of chequer plate to hide the rust :0
This is the kind of abuse it gets...

I have stuck all the pictures in an album.
'79 FJ40 turbo 3B SOA

 

[Howard705]

Looks better than a few of mine in the pics...

 

[skidplate]

Your bezel is....side ways!

 

[RAYJON]

rack and pinion ???

 

[diogenese]

Sure is, I wanted power steer and as I had gone SOA I had to do something about the steering arms so I made some out of a bit of plate steel.
I had a subaru legacy in pieces so I used the rack and pump from that.
I had to shorten the outer arms so I just cut them and sleeved with a bit of bar drilled out to suit and swapped the tre's for rose joints.
The rack is mounted on brackets welded to the axle casing.
The column now has a nylon bush at the bottom to support it in the outer sleeve so I can run a sliding joint from a cabover DAF truck to allow axle movement.
The rack has a solenoid valve in it for 2 levels of assistance, normal with it off and super light with it on. It is single finger easy to turn with 35's on high power mode

 

[diogenese]

 

[woytovich]

Wow... creative... wow!

 

[diogenese]

I'd like to go full hydraulic but I don't have a scrap forklift to raid for parts
But then again I like the backup with the mechanical link if I run out of engine!

 

[winnie]

sweet ... built to use ...

 

[lostmarbles]

You didn't even mention the twin turbos!

 

[SouthBostonFJ40]

rack and pinion ???

Gotta be a first.

 

[cooney]

This is crazy! Nice work.


Sent from my iPhone

 

[diogenese]

You didn't even mention the twin turbos!

They only stayed on for a day, it's only got one now

 

[lostmarbles]

They only stayed on for a day, it's only got one now

Yeah.. I was thinking with each one working off just 2 cylinders, the "separated exhaust pulses" would have greatly handicapped their performance.. LOL...

 

[JackA]

Gotta be a first.

Nope, I have seen another 40 with a similiar set up at Barret Jackson.

 

[Howard705]

I saw an actual hack 40 built for beating around decades ago with a rack and pinion. The rack was off something with arms behind the axle and the 40 wound up with steering in reverse direction when it was done.

 

[diogenese]

If I had made the manifold share 1 3 and 4 2 the pulsing would have been ok I think but I did the easy build and did 12 and 34 . At idle the turbos would stop and start !
With the rack mounted on the axle and not on the frame it makes for an interesting steering shaft as it has to accommodate axle movement but then there are no side forces acting on the suspension.

 

[yotafj]

Man I woulda never thought of the rack and pinion. How did it work and does it hold up

 

[diogenese]

The rack is great and has taken a beating without complaint, the shaft has had a bit of trauma as it does hit the odd thing when I get a lot of articulation on the axle but it is holding up fine. The only real trouble has been the power steer pump pulley as that is one thing the shaft hits! It has a low mounted pump now it has a turboed 3b in it and I'm limited to where I can fit the pump. I'm on variation 4 of mount and pulley size and I think I have enough clearance now.

 

[diogenese]

I brought the toy home from work. it's a bit taller than the 60!