new brown 60 - the Cwooser

[sd60]

Replaced the driver's side seatbelt today w/the Seatbeltplanet.com fj60 kit. Thought I'd share a few tips to help the next guy/girl that does it.

1) The retractor on this kit fits perfectly into the OEM mounting bracket - no need to cut off the little tab, or bend the angle on the bracket like some of the other aftermarket kits. You do need to re-use the OEM mountain bracket. The torx head bolts that held the OEM retractor to that bracket were impossible to get off. I had to drill them out and pull w/an easy-out. First pic is original, second pic is new.

2) Seatbeltplanet.com sells two different style receivers - one with the plastic covering that looks like OEM (except it's black, instead of brown in my case) and one that's just a memory cable. I went with the stockish looking one in keeping with the stock theme for this truck, but it looks like the memory cable one is an easier install. It looks like with the cable you could use one of their brackets, but with the stockish one you need to re-use the OEM mounting bracket to get enough height on the receiver. You'll have to cut/grind/drill out the pin, and bore out the hole if you want to use the bolt supplied w/the kit. Third pic shows the new receiver bolted to the original bracket.

On the whole I'm happy with the kit. I held off on ordering the passenger side to see how the quality was on the kit, but I'll be ordering that one shortly.

 

[Ian Crawford]

Whoa! Not sure how I missed this thread, I have serious paint envy! Great looking truck!

Good advice on the seat belt kit, I'll likely be doing that, soon.

 

[D21FJ60]

it's...so...clean....that truck is beautiful. X2 on tastefully replacing suspension and putting 31s on factory wheels...it can be made to look stock doing that...

 

[AbsolutGT]

Thanks for the tips! I ordered new seat belts from them as well 2 months ago and just haven't taken the time to install, I chose the memory cable over sleeve, so that helps me haha

 

[sd60]

So the new charcoal canister elbow helped a lot, but didn't entirely get rid of the gas smell. Did some sniffing around and found a leaky aftermarket gas cap - replaced w/an OEM and my garage smells remarkably less like the beginnings of a fiery explosion.

Did the fuel filter, oil (after sorting through a mountain of helpful Mud posts, I settled on Valvoline VR1 20w50...something about zinc) and filter.

Air intake hose was falling apart so I picked up a piece of the thick rubber stuff from @BTUMAN - thanks man. I'm not sure how most people use them, but I ended up cutting the front piece off the old intake hose, fixed a crack in that piece with some silicon tape, clamped it the new hose, and used the old clamp bracket as a hanger. pics below: 1) original falling apart; 2) mockup of new; 3) new installed.

Next up is a Manafre cat-back exhaust - should be here any day now.

 

[Chocolyle]

Wow, beautiful truck. The paint is perfect. My favorite part is the Eclipse CD head unit!

Silly side note, Fujitsu Ten was (is?) Toyota's radio manufacture for years, they came out with Eclipse is an aftermarket higher end brand. They had some of the best sounding head units out there. So it is kinda a stock radio . . .

 

[sd60]

Wow, beautiful truck. The paint is perfect. My favorite part is the Eclipse CD head unit!

Silly side note, Fujitsu Ten was (is?) Toyota's radio manufacture for years, they came out with Eclipse is an aftermarket higher end brand. They had some of the best sounding head units out there. So it is kinda a stock radio . . .

Hah, did not know that. From now on I'll pretend as if it was intentional.

 

[sd60]

I've had a couple of inquiries on part numbers for the charcoal canister elbow - the elbow is 77759-14011 and the clips are 96132-51300.

 

[umpqua]

Every once in a great while one like this comes along. You are a lucky dog. Enjoy.....

 

[sd60]

Did the transmission and transfer case oil this weekend. Thought I'd post helpful info I collected off a few different threads here.

I put Redline MT90 in both. The opening on the Redline gallon jug is a little different size than some others, so most of the pumps won't fit right. This one from Sta-Lube (SL4344) fits and works well.

Fill plugs were 17mm, drain plugs were 24mm. A 6pt socket is helpful to avoid rounding the drain plugs. They'll be on tight. I didn't have and couldn't find a 6pt at either the local hardware or auto parts store, so I sprayed them with pb blaster and was careful with the 12pt.

The washers for both fill and drain plugs (4 total) are part # 90430-A0003.

It looked like a little oil was leaking out of the rear of the transfer case, at a small bolt with an electrical connection. I don't know what it is, but I tightened the bolt down a little and it seemed to solve the problem. It will probably turn out to be something purposefully left loose and will send my truck in catastrophic failure now that it's tight.

Quick trip around the neighborhood to confirm I didn't break anything, and shifts seem smoother. May be wishful thinking, since that Redline is $60 a gallon.

 

[mochosla]

Wow. That thing is immaculate!! Congratulations.

 

[88Retired62]

You know...it's just pleasing to the eye when viewing the lines of an unmolested Root Beer 60'. I might be over the top, but it brings to mind the term "Estate Wagon". Treat it right and the rewards of a vintage Cruiser will return the favor 10 fold. It's a beauty!

 

[sd60]

Thanks guys - I definitely got lucky with this one. I've been waiting on my chance to buy it ever since I first saw it ten years ago, and when the cousin got ready to sell I jumped on it.

 

[sd60]

Some updates:

Still chasing the ghosts of gas smell. Removed and checked the charcoal canister - seemed like the check valve on the tank port was stuck. I spent a few days filling the tank port w/pb blaster and pumping it full of compressed air - alternating some good old fashioned jamming with a coat hanger. Not sure the coat hanger helped, but it felt a lot more satisfying than blowing air in it. It finally started letting air through so I put it back in. It certainly doesn't flow as freely through the tank port as the other ports, but i assume that's because of the valve and routing restricting flow. Hopefully that fixes it for a while at least. Next I'll start digging around the filler area and vapor lines and see if anything is wrong back there - that's where the smell is strongest.

Changed the fluid in both differentials - Redline 75W90. Had SD Truck Shop do a coolant/clutch/brake fluid flush and fill. There were 2 other FJ60s and an 80 there...always a good sign.

Most satisfying fix was replacing the rear liftgate supports. $35 and 10 minutes and I have a fully-functioning liftgate that I don't hit my head on. I used TuffSupport #613393, per @Rustic76's suggestion. The boy approves:

 

[bwesty]

Did the transmission and transfer case oil this weekend. Thought I'd post helpful info I collected off a few different threads here.

I put Redline MT90 in both. The opening on the Redline gallon jug is a little different size than some others, so most of the pumps won't fit right. This one from Sta-Lube (SL4344) fits and works well.

Quick trip around the neighborhood to confirm I didn't break anything, and shifts seem smoother. May be wishful thinking, since that Redline is $60 a gallon.

Redline MT90 works wonders on Toyota manual transmissions. I had an old '86 Toyota truck / crawler with a W56 5 speed I had swapped in that was used but good and after a couple fluid changes using MT90 it shifted noticeably better than before. Keep using it.

 

[sd60]

Time for some updates:

First, and most importantly, my daughter officially named it the “Cwooser.” So that’s that.

A fellow mudder from down the street came over and we had some beers and changed out the plugs, wires, cap, and rotor. The Cwooser was purring like a kitten.

Few weeks later we had our first major issue – the lower thermostat housing gave up the ghost and dumped all the coolant out on the freeway about a mile from home while my wife was driving. Wife limped it home while it was overheating; then I had it towed to the local cruiser guru shop (the Truck Shop).

Thankfully the overheating didn’t seem to damage anything else and cruiser guru was able to source a used housing – they are NLA.

While at the shop I took the opportunity to fix/update some stuff:

1) Replaced housing, thermostat, thermostat gaskets, vsv, and all radiator hoses

2) Adjusted valves

3) Replaced side cover gasket, valve cover gasket, oil pan gasket

4) Replaced tie rod ends

5) Rebuilt the knuckles

6) Added 31x10.50 BFG KO2s (from 235x75s)

The Cwooser is back running like a champ. The larger tires really help smooth out the ride, and steering is a lot sharper.

Waiting for the last few pieces of an OME light/medium kit to arrive, then that is going on. Don’t want too much lift if I can help it – so may pull a leaf out of the rear pack. Then hopefully I’ll just be enjoying it for a while. Pics to come.

Thanks to Jason and Bryce at Cruiser Outfitters for setting me up with the knuckle kit, TREs, and OME kit and answering all my dumb questions.

 

[sd60]

alright, got the OME kit installed - here's some pics w/the new 31x10.50 KO2s. W/the light/medium set up and (+) springs up front and (B) springs in the back, it's sitting perfectly level at 21 7/8" from center of hub to lip of the wheel well on each wheel. That's a little more height than I was expecting - about 2 1/2" lift up front and 3 1/2" in the back over the old stock saggy suspension. Suppose it might drop down a little as everything settles. So far I like it. It has definitely smoothed out a lot of chop, but I do feel like it's wandering at times on the freeway. And alignment is way off...will have to fix that.

Thanks to @srogers for inspiration on the tire/suspension set up. His truck is one of my favorite on Mud.

View attachment 1567514

 

[sd60]

and another.

 

[sd60]

and a gratuitous shot of a clean knuckle and new 555 TRE. full disclaimer - i paid someone to rebuild the knuckles. i have accepted the fact that this makes me roughly 1/2 a Mud member. the real test will come at galley plug time.

 

[mongoose2231]

super jealous, damn it...