My brother's FJ40 - a possible build

[cruiserkev]

This is a great thread and a good inspiration for me to get to work on my brother's FJ40. He passed away a few years ago and the family decided his 40 would go to my son who just started his Senior year in high school. Sadly my brother never got to drive the 40 and only had it a couple of months before he passed. We have a long way to go to get "ol Blue" back on the road but it will eventually get there. Thanks for posting.

 

[dasgeek]

This is a great thread and a good inspiration for me to get to work on my brother's FJ40. He passed away a few years ago and the family decided his 40 would go to my son who just started his Senior year in high school. Sadly my brother never got to drive the 40 and only had it a couple of months before he passed. We have a long way to go to get "ol Blue" back on the road but it will eventually get there. Thanks for posting.

Looks like a great project vehicle for you and your son. I was lucky that the motor in my brother's truck was sound and had been rebuilt with few miles put on it.

 

[DSRTRDR]

why take the stripes off ? they give the truck a unique character

 

[dasgeek]

why take the stripes off ? they give the truck a unique character

I just think they kind of look "80's" and they are not my preference. Seem to me to give it a jeep look.

 

[dasgeek]

Catch up post - July 2014

In July I decided to focus on the steering which was very sloppy and had a lot of play. I ordered a center pivot kit and a new Ironman steering damper from Cruisercorps. I used this proceedure for some basic guidance and various info on IH8MUD. Install was straight forward and the results really improved the steering. I know re-doing the tie rods in the future will also help.

Getting everything ready:

I used a pickle fork to create some space between the bottom of the streeing pivot housing and the pivot arm. Then I used a pitman arm puller to pull it off the splines.

Once the pivot arm was off. I removed the old center pivot components and cleaned out the grease.

The old parts. Biggest problem was the bad felt seal from the bottom. It just was not holding the grease.

The trick to removing the outer metal sleeve is to use a screw driver to bend the tab that is bent into the recess for the zero fitting. It is just out of view in this photo.

The only tricky part of this job is reassembly. When you are replacing the cap, there is a spring that you have to compress enough to get the cap to begin to thread into the housing. Until you put pressure on the spring, the cap is at an angle and will not thread. The trick I used was to push the top bolt with a pry bar leveraged from the winch. I did not take a picture of this, but I will try and make one and add it. I also think you could use a large c-clamp and clamp from the bottom of the spline to the top of the bolt. Just something to compress the spring and allow the cap to level out to start to thread.

The end result after some grease in the zerk.

 

[kbahus]

Sweet cruiser, love the stripes too.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I'd remove the stripes too - I did that very thing on a 1989 SR5 4x4... problem was the non-faded blue under the stripes made the truck look pretty odd.

 

[dasgeek]

Okay. So I know it's controversial but the day is come. The stripes have to come off. Even if I were planning on keeping the stripes there and really bad shape and have to come off. I used an eraser wheel for removing vinyl graphics. And it took me about two hours. Some of the paint under the stripes was a pretty bad shape, but I will touch that up eventually until I can repaint the vehicle someday.

Here is a shot of the Smart Eraser Pad from Astro Pneumatic Tool Company. It had a threaded shank so I ground down a flat edge so I could just use a drill. I did not want to break out the compressor.

And without further ado, here's the results:

Luke, I am your father....

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I could make some rhetorical comment about how the son shouldn't even be in the shadow of the father...

 

[ginmtb]

Still looks great gotta go with what you like the best.


...via IH8MUD app

 

[DSRTRDR]

 

[dasgeek]

I have had a number of mudders ask me about how I wired the EL wire in my gauge cluster from post #38 of this thread. I finally got some time to pull the guage and take a few shots.

There is not enough room for the power inverter for the EL wire to be mounted inside the cluster. So I ran the power cable for the EL wire out the side of the cluster between the housing and the board and then back into the cluster. This allows for the inverter to be outside the cluster. The wire is thin so it does not leave much of a gap between the board and the housing. With the bare end of the EL power cable inside the cluster, I connected to power by removing one of the bulbs that lights the cluster and folding the bare wire ends over the bulb's contacts and plugging the bulb back into the socket. I believe the contacts are sensitive to polarity, so test it before reconnecting speedo and screwing down the cluster. It makes for a solid connection and does not modify anything permanently. It also allows for the EL wire brightness to adjust when turning the light switch.

I do have to be a little careful when putting the cluster back in the dash as the wires rub the dash just a bit as I tilt the cluster back into place.

 

[dasgeek]

SO I did a small restore on my doors this morning. Did not take any pictures. My passenger side door lock lever was broken and the inside door handle did not work. I pulled the panels off and vacuumed about 2 inches of dirt out of the bottoms of the doors. I fixed replaced the door levers with remanufactured ones from CruiserCorp. I also cleaned the panels up with some Simple Green. While I had them opened up I greased the window channels and all the linkages for the locks and handles. I also repaired the plastic barrier. Took me about two hours and now I can unlock and open the passenger door from inside the truck. Helps when picking up the kids from school.

After that, two of my boys and I went north of town to drive around on a friend's property. He owns an entire hill top just outside of Chester, AR west of I-49. There are a number of nice logging roads in the area. Great day.

 

[dasgeek]

I have been collecting parts lately and got a package in the mail from a FleaBay purchase. I paid more than I wanted but am ready to rebuild my fan blower now.

I am sure I am on a government watch list (look at the shipping label).

 

[dasgeek]

I finally got around to replacing the old washer/coolant overflow bottles. The hose for the washer hade broken off the motor. I got a set from Racer65 (great guy to work with) and I got a motor from Summit.

Per Racer's instruction, I found somewhat appropriate stainless screws at HomeDepot. You can see them in the picture.

I seperated the bottles to make it easy to insert the screws in to the motor through the water bottle. Here is a picture of the motor in place before I inserted the screws:

Here is a picture of the screws. I did not notice until I removed them that they used a square headed screwdriver. Not a big problem.

The screws were a little long so I clipped them down so there would not be a sharp point sticking out of the other side.

Happy with the results. I ran water through the hoses to clear them out until I got a few cups of water free of any debris.

And the "money shot"