New FJ55 owner

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T

TuffMudder

Still working on my FJ55!
10 Year
Joined
Oct 2, 2013
Threads
42
Messages
758
Location
Fort Smith, AR
Finally received my "new" 1969 FJ55 last week! She's beautiful, and I want to give a big thanks to CarmMontana for selling her to me. Now the fun begins.

I've got a solid body to start with, and Carmon has already taken care of alot of the things I wanted done





Already on the vehicle:
  • Custom Front bumper with winch mount and recovery points
  • Custom Rear bumper with Spare tire and Jerry can holder
  • Roof rack
  • Rock sliders
  • Power steering conversion
  • Front disk brake conversion
In addition, I'm planning the following mods:
  • Diesel Swap to 4bt
  • SOA with cut and turn, extend out rear sway links and add quick disconnect, widen stance (probably spacers or custom backspacing), traction bars, probably add thicker leaf springs to avoid sag?(i've read a number of soa threads that stuck with stock springs, but then again, they werent considering a 6bt)
  • Hi steer
  • Extended break lines
  • Warn 8274 winch
  • Snorkel
  • Extend undercarriage breathers
  • Clutch style fan
  • Dual batteries
  • Custom long range tank
  • Auxillary tank with WVO conversion
  • Custom rear storage drawers
Some additional potential mods that may have to wait for down the road:
  • Aussie lockers unless I find a great deal on ARB air lockers
  • 35" tires
  • Longfield chromoly front axles/birfs
  • Poly Perf rear axles
I'm not going to be able to use the transfer case currently on the vehicle, so i'm in the process of deciding on transmission and transfer case to mate with the 4bt.

Well that's it for now. I'm sure most of you have seen this rig before, but still wanted to post a few pics now that she's mine!





 
just throwin it out there....an fzj80 has axle WMS measurements of 63.5 in front, and 63 in the rears. The rears have full floating shafts, disk brakes, integrated ebrake, and Elockers. with Taco rims, they will have a track 3.5" wider than stock(1.75 out on each side) The front axles are a bit of a conundrum in that they only have 8" diffs but they have burly birfs and shafts- again about 3.5" wider than stock when used with Taco rims; 4" wider with 80 series rims(16's with 4.5" BS) with a torch, grinder and welder, the coil and link brax could be removed and leaf perches installed. you'd need to upgrade to 60 series birfs and knuckles in order to run a hi steer set-up anyway. I dunno, I really like the 80 series axles at least for the rear(too many factory upgrades done at once to discount consideration IMHO):popcorn:
 
Wow Lambcrusher, I thought I already had a pretty ambitious build going. I think finding a swapping in new axles may be a bit much for now. As for the birfs, Carmon swapped in the bigger knuckles already as well as front disk brakes so I should be good to go.


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:p hey, you said something about wider, aftermarket axleshaft upgrades and lockers- it ain't a whole lot more work to swap out a whole housing;) nevermind, as I said, just tossin it out thar:cheers:
 
Yeah, I was thinking custom offset rims to widen the stance.

As for complexity, I suppose it's not that much more complicated to swap axles, but finding the axles from an 80 or a 60 around here would likely be difficult.


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TuffMudder said:
Yeah, I was thinking custom offset rims to widen the stance.

As for complexity, I suppose it's not that much more complicated to swap axles, but finding the axles from an 80 or a 60 around here would likely be difficult.
Click to expand...

For simplicity sake, 60s are a better swap. 80 axles pose new challenges and afford little benefit, (edited: y'all know what I mean) plus they're too wide for the Pig, in my opinion.

Betting they could be had in Tulsa fairly easily, but don't rule out the AR contingency as there's a lot of guys in your area.
 
I know you can get them in St. Louis, I have a contact there, if need be. I've got 60's on mine and all I can say is, they look good in the shop! Someday they will see daylight.

Seems to be alot of aftermarket support for the FJ60 axles, tried and true.
 
So with the fj60 axles I get a wider stance and rear disk brakes. I already have front disc and larger knuckles.

Are there any other advantages to going with the 60 axles?


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TuffMudder said:
So with the fj60 axles I get a wider stance and rear disk brakes. I already have front disc and larger knuckles.

Are there any other advantages to going with the 60 axles?

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Click to expand...

You don't get rear disc with 60 axles, at least not OE, but you do get an emergency brake, which you're going to lose when pulling the transfer case since it has the drum attached.

Other advantages are parts are still to be had for 60 axles, and probably will be for the foreseeable future, which may not hold true for the earlier axles.
 
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