My '64 FJ40 Build - Cave Cricket

[Ramination]

Yea I definitely wish I could've gotten the winch centered, but it wasn't going to happen with the steering box in the way and I'd long ago cut the fairlead hole. The offset fairlead does concern me a bit, we'll have to see how it plays out.

In regards to the 8274, there is no doubt it is a good winch with a cult like following. I'll admit that my comment regarding pull rating was unfair as it is a strong design and seemingly underrated pull capacity. I still feel that the price is outrageous for it and for that money I'd go with an equally priced low profile planetary style - oh yea that's the other thing, I don't actually like how the 8274 looks.

Please lets not turn this into an 8274 vs the world debate.

 

[franklin40]

this build it awesome. such great fab skills. makes mine look like child’s play and it’s still taken me 6 years to just mock stuff up!! keep the pics coming

 

[White Stripe]

I'm not trying to start a debate, just throwing out info from what I've read and my use of the 8274. My 8274 is a used one that's about 40 years old. Even with the old motor, it pulls really fast. I think a fair amount of people run winches offset on the frame, never heard of it causing too much issue. I've never seen a fairlead mounted offset like that though, but it's easy to move it if u need to if it causes a problem. I've seen some mount winches on top of the frame horns which gives more room for mounting.

 

[Ramination]

Planning on the first run next weekend. At the moment the plan is Bundy Hill on Saturday! I haven't been there in a while, but what I remember is that it isn't the biggest or best place, but it's only about an hour from the house which is good in case we have some immediate day-ending malfunctions. If any of you are local and interested in coming out please send me a PM.

I used to wheel a bit here in MI back about 8-9 years ago, but then moved to VA after graduating college and didn't wheel much as I was heavy into racing quads. Since I moved back to MI about three years ago (and given up racing) I've pretty much been building this thing the whole time so I haven't spent much time on the trails in almost a decade. Likewise, all of the people I wheeled with before have either moved away or moved on to new hobbies so I'm stuck trying to find a new group. I've rekindled the ol' Facebook in hopes of finding some new wheeling buddies, joined a couple of groups so we'll see how that goes. So far no interest in actually wheeling yet...

My plan as I see it over the next couple of years is to spend 2019 wheeling all of the MI trails, getting down to the Badlands, over the Rausch Creek, etc. Then start heading West, maybe go play at JV for KOH in 2020 and hit Rubicon, Moab, etc in the following years. Man I can't wait, been dreaming of this for a long long while.

 

[jim land]

Pics of the beast in action

 

[Ramination]

Look here!

Managed to get out and do some wheeling!

Kept it pretty mild on the maiden voyage, but sure did have a lot of fun. Ran around with some Jeeps for a while. No action shots, only a few posers!

Alright @White Stripe , here is the real world flex test for clearance! This is the coilover maxed, although not maxing the bumpstop due to flex and the tire just barely getting into the fender. Worked out perfect for these tires, will have to figure out something for fitting 40s though!

And the carnage:

Couple scratches on the skid plate and beadlock rings, made for a PERFECT first trip in my eyes!

Rig performed great, felt super stable and far more capable than anything I've ever been in before. Will need to swap the 100/150 springs out back for 150/150 ASAP though. I'm not sure if the springs broke in a little or something, but pretty quick after getting there I was riding 1" from getting into the bumpstops. Didn't bother to mess with preload anymore because I've already got it cranked pretty good, enough that I know these springs got to go to get where I want to be. Definitely got used to hearing the stops hit the pads today. :laughing:

I loved how stable it felt, although even with the swaybar in the softest position I feel like the front suspension does more work than the rear. I'm not sure that is bad though? Definitely makes it feel predictable, but I'm concerned that going up a spring rate out back is going to make this more exaggerated. Maybe it wont be so bad once the rear is sitting at the right height?

Going into the weekend we had 6+" of snow on the ground so I was not super pumped on taking this thing out because I'm not a big fan of snow wheeling but it rained A LOT Saturday and today it was about 50 degrees so the snow was basically all gone...which was great! Lots of water holes, thankfully the Michigan sand kept it from being too sloppy and muddy though.

Was a great outing, already ready to get back out there. Probably going to have to head south once or twice this winter...I'm not going to be able to wait until April-May to do this again.

 

[White Stripe]

Sounds like it did awesome. U think you'll put a soft top on it and a windshield?

 

[Ramination]

Yes, windshield is in process, just don't have it yet.

Absolutely going to put a bikini top on at a minimum by summer. Eventually I would like to do a soft top, doors and heater too. Most likely going to have to have one custom made though, not sure where to start on that yet.

 

[Ramination]

So after that run I spent the next nice weekend cleaning it up real good to inspect everything. All looked good which made me happy. It was about 45 degrees so I decided to take it out for a short cruise on the open road where we identified our first issue. I noticed it first about 50 mph, then a little later at 30 mph too - some driveline vibration. I pulled it back into the barn and first thing grabbed the front driveshaft and gave it a shake...the pinion was wobbling. I later figured out that I must not have tightened down the pinion nut enough when swapping the yoke for new driveshaft, however at the time I thought one or both of the bearings must be going bad.

If you recall from way back in the thread when I introduced the axles, the front only had a limited slip and it was my intention to swap it for a real locker during the build however it became an item that wasn't a must to get it going. I was fine with wheeling it with the limited slip a few more times but since I was going to have to tear it down to replace bearings I figure this would be the right time to swap the differential too. I decided to go with a Grizzly for the front, and at the last minute made what I hope was a wise decision and upgraded to 35 spline. I felt fine on the 30 spline with the limited slip, but with a real locker the potential for front shaft breakage increased a lot. I also eliminated the Central Axle Disconnect (CAD) two-piece passenger side shaft with the new one being a normal long one piece. Also put in the "Seals-It" EAS25875 seal on each end, these look pretty sweet! Lastly new non-greasable Spicer SPL55-3X U-joints for each side, plus one as a spare.

Definitely more beef, glad I decided to do it now and worry less about breaking shafts. I did the entire disassembly with my trail tools to make sure I had everything I need to do the job trail side should it ever be required - all good.

The gear setup wasn't too bad. I read Billavista's guide twice before tackling and was less pumped on doing it after each read however once I got going it wasn't that bad, just tedious going round and round with the pinion depth, preload, backlash and pattern. Once I started to figure out how one variable impacted the others and could anticipate the change required I got sloppy with my notes but I bet it still took about 18 setups to get it all where I was comfortable. It was a rare 50 degree weekend, so I didn't mind spending the better part of the day outside under the rig learning!

I also finally threw the new brake rotors for the front axle on, probably ordered these a year ago just never got to pressing the studs out of the hub and mounting these new ones up until now.

Got the Racelines cleaned up and lookin good again

And lastly, finally got the windshield installed. Went with a generic one piece window gasket and oh my, I wanted to hurl it out the window. It undoubtedly did not help that it was 20 degrees today, but even when heated with the heat gun it SUCKED. My thumbs are so sore...but it is done.

And then...once I got the tires back on and windshield secured I took it out for a quick rip in the backyard. I also strapped the GoPro on the front to get a visual on the shocks and bumpstops going through their stroke. About 7 minutes in to playing around I got a whiff of coolant - looks like the o-ring for the heater core line let go somehow as it was pumping coolant out around the hose barb that sticks into the water pump housing. Brand new, 50 miles on the sucker.

So that ended the day for today!

 

[JohnnyC]

Impressive about of work you put into this truck ... looks to be going

Are you going to put the original bumper/brush guard back on and the winch?

As for your winch ... I have seen quite a few off center and there is no issue with pulling ... and if you use a snatch block it’s more centered then

I call that a nonissue

Again great build!

 

[Ramination]

Thanks JohnnyC!

I was hoping that my multi-panel rear view mirror would be sufficient enough to not have to run side mirrors, and it does OK at giving a view of what is behind but not well enough to back up because you lose things on the sides way before you get to them. On top of that, when strapped into the harnesses it is nearly impossible to turn enough to see.

So, built some mirrors...may or may not be a coincidence that KOH was going on last week!

I see they're only $35 bucks at Ruffstuff, but I really needed something to do...finishing the build has got me BORED! Was actually supposed to be wheeling at Badlands on Saturday, but got canceled last minute so I built these instead.

Here is one done, and next to it all the parts needed for the second one.

A roughly 3" x 8" rectangle of sheet metal, 1" wide x 8" long piece of 0.120 and ~20" of 1/2" diameter tubing. The mirrors are 5" diameter convex trucker mirrors, the ones on the front passenger corner of nearly every semi on the road.

Took the sheet metal and bent it over a piece of 2" DOM (same as rollcage), used the press to get it started then finished with hammer in vice. Bent the 1" wide piece in the break to 65 degrees on each side, one inch in from the end.

For the tubing, I don't have a die for 1/2" BUT...remember that differential I pulled from the 60 a couple posts ago?

Boom. The differential area is about 6" diameter, giving a 3.25" CLR for the bend. The 1/2" tube was easy enough to bend by hand, bingo!

The three pieces ready to mate

I was skeptical of the convex over a regular flat mirror, but we will see. They were only ~$10 so worth the shot.

 

[Ramination]

Oh yea, I also built a little bash bar for the steering assist ram up front. I'm worried about it taking a hit off a rock/boulder and bending or damaged enough to not work so I thought I better come up with something.

Picked up some 1" x 0.250" wall DOM, in combination with some corner gussets in all four corners as well as vertically at the axle end. I'm more confident about it surviving an accidental bash into a rock, but still a bit concerned about falling off a rock, landing on bash bar and pushing it up into the ram particularly on the tie rod side.

This view below shows how it is open and makes it look weak - I think my solution to prevent it from bending up should I let this fall onto a rock will be to plate it on the bottom, this should add some rigidity and also allow me to add more gussets to the axle.

Thoughts?

 

[Ramination]

Well, here we go again!

So I picked up a trailer. I was looking for a used trailer with 5,000lb axles, wasn't really looking for a whole project but this one popped up at a fair price. That said, as soon as I got to pick it up my head was spinning - it was only a 72" wide deck instead of 82 like normal, plus it was a drop deck. I couldn't tell at the time because of all the snow but the deck was in bad shape and all four tires were in worse shape than they appeared at first glance, again due to the snow. But it met my two criteria, used and a pair of 5,000lb axles. Plus I was planning on building drive over fenders on whatever trailer I picked up so why not dive in to another project, right?

It was a Cronkhite 2400 or something like that. Rather than a car hauler it is designed as an equipment trailer so it has the drop deck - something that was not desired by me. In addition, despite being "16 foot long", the deck was only 15 foot. Oh yea and remember it's narrower than a normal car hauler. Why did I buy this????

Notice how the rear tire in the picture is going flat, yea it had a nail in it.

So, as you do I got to measuring it up and cussing about how stupid this purchase was...at least it was pretty cheap.

I decided that I would extend the trailer deck two feet on the back. I did this so that the rear of the FJ wouldn't be hanging off the back of the trailer (see picture of FJ on it below, it definitely would have otherwise). Generally the trailer axle centerline is about 2/3 of the way back the trailer for a bumper pull, this extension on the back puts my axles more like 1/2 way but I figured this was OK since it wont be holding any weight (in other words, shouldn't hurt me from a tongue weight perspective).

And the drive over fenders. 2" HREW

Test fit the new deck, now 17'. As you can see, I essentially widened the trailer enough to fit an extra 2x10 on each side. This lets the FJ sit on their comfortably without hanging off the edge like on a normal/unwidened trailer

The test

Then on a nice crisp 45 degree afternoon I threw down some paint, Massey Ferguson grey.

And here is the only picture I have of it right now after it was assembled. I've since added a bunch of reflective tape though

Still a few things I want to do to it, some things I found on the trailer thread on here but at the end of the day I am happy with it. I've towed with it a handful of times already and it pulls great, plus the brakes on these 5,000lb axles kick the crap out of the 3500lb axle brakes on my Dads trailer! All in I'm at about $2,500, that includes purchase of trailer, all the metal to raise deck, fenders, widen, new hitch, tax and plate. More work than I wanted, but I think I did ok?

 

[Ramination]

So I've got a little seat time in the FJ, took it out to Silver Lake sand dunes on opening weekend which was fun. Lets be fair, it is underpowered for duning, and we can fix that but dune running wasn't what this was built for anyways. As the day went on I started to get more comfortable bombing around though which helped my ability to go places as well as increasing the fun factor. I wheeled with a couple others, no pictures other than this poser shot though.

As the day wore on there was a common theme, the transmission wanted to run above 200 degrees and I'm not happy with that. The dunes aren't the intended purpose of this rig, but it'll be there a few times per year. So I have a Derale 16 pass with dedicated fan to go in now, this will replace the 8 pass with no fan (set in front of radiator). I knew it was a long shot, and it worked OK for crawling but the 8 pass couldn't keep up in the dunes even though I was moving 30-40 mph most of the time it was running. Then again, I don't blame it...you ever try walking up one of those things???

BUT! In between then and now I did another trip to Moab, went out there on the two wheeler again. We got out there just as EJS was wrapping up.

Had a blast again, and now that the rig is running my desire to get out there with it is EVEN GREATER!!!! But, we need to get the bugs worked out, like the trans cooler...oh yea, and the misfire on two cylinders. :mad3:

I noticed it at the end of the dune trip and then it went away until this past week I took the ol' lady to town to get ice cream in the rig and it started missing on the way home again. Dove in, wires looked good, swapped injectors around but still missing on cylinders 1 and 8. Swapped the plugs into different positions and boom, the misfire followed. My boy and I put new plugs in this evening and all good now. Damn things only had 142 miles on them!!!!

 

[Drake2]

Great pictures and you do great work! Keep the pics coming.

 

[njccmd2002]

amazing

 

[darwink1]

Great build man!

D

 

[Ramination]

Thank you very much!

Planning on getting out in the dirt this weekend, will try to bring back some action shots and video!

 

[Ramination]

The Badlands were GOOD!

Here's a couple quick videos





FJ did amazing! Bummed around the dune area until I found my way into the quarry and spent the rest of the day in there with some Jeeps. We had a blast and I was thankful to meet up with them so they could show me around some!

Safe to say I'm still learning this thing, but I am really impressed so far! I'm so happy it works!

I got the new transmission cooler mounted on Thursday and it worked beautifully. It was 85 degrees with lots of crawling and the trans never once got over 190, and the fan was able to cool it down pretty quick when it did.

 

[Ramination]

I really enjoy the fabrication process, so much that during the build I wondered if I'd enjoy driving this thing as much as building it? No question, hands down...driving it is far better.

Last weekend we had plans to go out but the baby got sick, trip cancelled.

Did use it for some yard work though

Took it out to dinner a couple times as well, creepin' up on 200 miles now.

Then yesterday woke up, weather was OK and ol' lady and baby were leaving for the day so I made a spur of the moment decision to head out to Bundy Hill! It felt like the days before having a kid!!!

My last minute decision plus the fact that it was the Jeep invasion or whatever at Silver Lake meant that I went alone. There were a couple XJs running around out there but I stuck to myself, ran all the trails and then got out of there before a hail storm from hell came in!

Zero issues on the day. This is the same place that I went out on the maiden voyage and it did better this time for sure - in fairness the first trip was a disaster check and break in but the combination of the correct springs on the rear, front locker and me being more used to it did yield better wheeling. Did bash my little hydro assist skid into a rock pretty good (yay spotter-less rock crawling! haha!) and aside from taking the paint it looks great. Also temporarily turtled myself on a large boulder but the flat belly skid allowed me to drag myself off once I got the front end turned. Fabulous when things work the way they were designed isn't it!?!?!