Ohio Red 1978 FJ40 (2 Viewers)

[Chestcutter]

1978 FJ40 arrived in Cleveland just before New Years on a trailer from Michigan after frame off restoration by the PO - "running" but needing some mechanical work.

Truck is now actually running 2 months later and taking me to work every day, all thanks to the generosity with time and advice of many MUD members, so time for a little recap before the next phase.

Specs:
1978 FJ 40 LV-KCJA
Frame 259991 10/77
Engine number - blank. Likely factory replacement block per Jim C.
Block casting date code 71006 ? Oct 6 1987
Head casting date code 7 61031 0922 ? Sept 22 1977 or 87.
Carb 1978 Federal spec Date 7J5 Dec 5, 1977
Distributor 1978 Federal with vac advance and retard

Suspension: some kind of heavy springs with 6" front and rear shackles
Wheels: stock 15 in steelies with Yokohama Geolandar P235/ 75 R 15s - looks too small especially with the lift

Goals were to get her running without the choke on, figure out what needs fixing, and enjoy as a daily driver in the warmer months.

Truck on arrival in December

First order of business - fix the idle problem and figure out a proper desmog configuration.

Thanks to the sages at IH8MUD, I had a starting point here: 1978 FJ40 desmog

 

[Pura Vida]

1978 FJ40 arrived in Cleveland just before New Years on a trailer from Michigan after frame off restoration by the PO - "running" but needing some mechanical work.

Truck is now actually running 2 months later and taking me to work every day, all thanks to the generosity with time and advice of many MUD members, so time for a little recap before the next phase.

Specs:
1978 FJ 40 LV-KCJA
Frame 259991 10/77
Engine number - blank. Likely factory replacement block per Jim C.
Block casting date code 71006 ? Oct 6 1987
Head casting date code 7 61031 0922 ? Sept 22 1977 or 87.
Carb 1978 Federal spec Date 7J5 Dec 5, 1977
Distributor 1978 Federal with vac advance and retard

Suspension: some kind of heavy springs with 6" front and rear shackles
Wheels: stock 15 in steelies with Yokohama Geolandar P235/ 75 R 15s - looks too small especially with the lift

Goals were to get her running without the choke on, figure out what needs fixing, and enjoy as a daily driver in the warmer months.

Truck on arrival in December

View attachment 2610867

First order of business - fix the idle problem and figure out a proper desmog configuration.

Thanks to the sages at IH8MUD, I had a starting point here: 1978 FJ40 desmog

Have fun! Excited to see what you do with it

 

[Chestcutter]

Initial attempts at tuning / troubleshooting:

Compression test > 150 on all 6

Timing - need to find that BB

Carb tuning -

Continued to stall at idle and clearly had a substantial vacuum leak

Best about 12 but would eventually sputter and stall, so...
pulled all the non-essential vacuum lines and plugged an open vac port on the carb insulator that was missed by our local recommended FJ40 mechanic

 

[Chestcutter]

So thanks to a lot of good advice here - pulled the "rebuilt" carb which turned out to have old cracked gaskets and be full of junk.

Idle solenoid was working intermittently to battery test, so did an amateur rebuild with a Keyster kit following the excellent youtube video guidance from @Pin_Head

Berryman's carb dip to the rescue.

Phone is in the background with the videos cued up.

The only difficult part of the disassembly was removing the secondary diaphragm housing. Screw heads were stripped and needed to be drilled out.

Blew out all the passages with air and carb cleaner, new parts in and voila - except I managed to break the retaining clip for the accelerator pump check valve -

Fortunately still available from Toyotapartsdeal.com # 21538-31010 for @2.26

 

[Chestcutter]

Meanwhile, pulled the "reconditioned" distributor to check vacuum advance and found this inside. Cap and rotor looked OK

Vac advance moves a little, but the breaker plate is rotating in the clips.

Vac advance moves a little, but diaphragm has a leak. Retard, oddly, works fine.

Completely frozen breaker plate

After multiple rounds of Blaster and liberal use of the hammer - completely rusted bearings and the races look reasonable after cleaning, no flat spots.

Given the multiple issues including VAC advance I elected to go with a rebuilt 1978 Dissy from @4Cruisers which arrived looking like new and put this one to shame

In the meantime pulled the flywheel cover and plugs and found and cleaned off the timing mark and BB which were invisible before

Much better with a paint pen

 

[Chestcutter]

Chasing vacuum leaks

While waiting for carb parts took the handheld vacuum pump to the brake booster and it would not hold vac, though the brakes seemed to be functioning OK.

I ordered the disk booster from @Racer65 and followed the excellent directions from the website. The old booster turned out to be stuck to the firewall with a LOT of RTV or similar, and eventually came out with the help of a crowbar and 2x4.

The new booster is a lot smaller. Installation with the help of this tool
brake booster tool | eBay - https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1311&_nkw=brake+booster+tool&_sacat=0
which appears not to be available on Amazon any more but lots on ebay.

 

[Chestcutter]

Found this mystery connector attached to the same part of the harness as the brake master cylinder connectors. Any thoughts? I think I stumped @ToyotaMatt which is almost impossible

 

[Chestcutter]

With many thanks to the deep expertise on MUD, and a especially to my fellow Northeast Ohio mudders @Jdc1 , @MJM and @OhioFJ for help and advice.

- Replaced the idle solenoid with a new 2 wire solenoid and a subharness with the right connector from @ToyotaMatt, grounded to the fender to address any carb ground issues.

- Finished the carb rebuild, adjusting the float to FSM. New FJ60 carb insulator cut to fit around the manifold vac fitting
- Reattached the carb with insulator and plenum gaskets (I know there is some debate on this)
- Installed the shiny rebuilt dissy from 4cruisers which is an exercise in trial and error with the oil pump angle

All good except when I went to torque the manifold nuts / bolts (which were all fairly loose to start), the bolt to the right of the carb spins. So much for thinking I fixed all the potential vacuum leaks.

So if it ran before it has to run better now while I figure out the manifold, right? Play with the timing a little and - she starts!

With the lean drop method from the FSM and watching the OTRAMM video (thanks @OhioFJ), now idling at 650 when warm, no choke with timing at about 10 BTDC (BB at the bottom end of the window) Starts immediately with full choke when cold. No stalling at lights anymore!

So time to dress it up a little.

16" Steel wheels in grey from Cityracer arrived in 3 days from Japan

And here with 235/85 16 BFG ATs in atypical Cleveland winter sun

 

[cbmontgo]

Great looking 40.

 

[Catching Neutral]

That’s a really nice 40. You will not regret those City Racer wheels. Miles of smiles.

 

[Chestcutter]

Thanks @cbmontgo and @Purpleaction . I am learning a lot from "Project Pikachu" and the Iron Yak. Appreciate all the groundwork you guys have laid for us newbies.

 

[pb4ugo]

That's a great loooking 40. Congrats on the deep dive on your repair projects. Keep in mind, Ohio winters can be devastating on FJ40 bodies.

 

[Chestcutter]

Great advice on the Ohio winters. I may well pack it away next year to avoid the salt.

 

[Andrew S]

For what it's worth, my 10/1977 model also has that blue wire/green plug unused. Wiring diagram says that color is part of the windshield wiper/washer system, but I've never dug any further to see if that's accurate.

 

[Chestcutter]

Wondering if it is number 60 on this great harness pic by @Coolerman. 1978 Wire harness photo

Anyone know where there is a key to the numbers?

 

[Jdc1]

Wondering if it is number 60 on this great harness pic by @Coolerman. 1978 Wire harness photo

Anyone know where there is a key to the numbers?

I don’t have my Haynes manual here, but between Coolerman’s website and the Haynes manual have been able to figure a lot of the wiring out.

 

[numby]

Found this mystery connector attached to the same part of the harness as the brake master cylinder connectors. Any thoughts? I think I stumped @ToyotaMatt which is almost impossible
View attachment 2611464

View attachment 2611465

If blue (looks blue in pic) then it might be your Exhaust Manifold Temp Sender wire to turn on the carb cooling fan but with a funny connector. Might be a PO upgrade or maybe they ran out of the correct ones the day they made your harness. Do you have one installed already?

If it's green the I'd say Carb Flange Temp Sensor.

My 2/78 doesn't have an extra wire there.

 

[numby]

#60 is the Exhaust Manifold Temp Sender wire.

#59 is the Brake Warning Light/pressure switch wire.

#58 is the Carb Flange Temp Sensor (or whatever it's called) wire.

#57 is the Idle Cut Solenoid.

 

[Chestcutter]

Thanks @numby Carb flange temp sensor makes sense. In talking with @ToyotaMatt it sounds like these wires fade and the colors change a bit. Carb flange temp sensor is there and has an appropriate connector so I bet this is exhaust manifold and they didn't have the right connector when they overhauled the harness.

Appreciate the help

 

[Chestcutter]

Sometimes you just have to pretty things up. Stock front bumper bar on deep discount from the local dealer. Apparently there are a lot of these still around.

Before

After:

Shiny hardware makes a difference as well