Builds Owyhee J.A. BJ75 Troopy Journal

[Owyhee Jackass]

There was enough corrosion going on between the spare tire bracket and the frame to dent the frame...

'new' cross member installation.

And the front support brackets cut off the donor cross member.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Once I had the rear cross member in, I used the tank mounts to locate the front brackets onto the backside of my existing crossmember and tacked them in place.

Then I thought that I was ready to put the tank in...and figured out why the tank straps that were on this tank had been cut and what those 'L' brackets were for that I'd cut off the rear cross member. Without a skid plate, the factory straps are too long. I needed to find a skid plate for this all to work.

Put out a wanted ad and found a skid plate in Bozeman. Thanks to @87BJ74 , he dropped it off at a friend of mine's in Bozeman and he delivered it to me in a few weeks time.

Not sure if you can tell or not, but if you look at that last picture, the tank is a bit misshapen. I did fill it w/ water and check for leaks, but when I recieved the skid plate, I found out just how misshapen the tank was...I took a BFH to it until I got the skid plate to fit.

In waiting for the Japan 4x4 parts, I'd inadvertently ordered some duplicate parts. So I've got a set of tank straps as well as a fuel door if anyone needs them.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Next was plumbing. I thought that I could go to NAPA and get some fuel hose for the transfer pump as well as a fitting or two and be done, nope.

NAPA had fuel hose, no metric, but 1/4" was close enough for the vents. 5/16 would work for the fuel pump that i bought and 1/2" reamed a bit with a 9/16 drill managed to fit on the big vent. I should have ordered two lengths of the big vent hose from Partsouq, but didn't and didn't want to pay shipping and wait for another piece of hose, so the reamed 1/2" will do.

This is the large vent fuel line. I used it to tie into the existing tank. The left-over piece was about an inch too short to use on the vent of the sub-tank. Tee pictured is where the pump will transfer fuel into the main tank.

Didn't think that I could reach that to get it installed w/out cutting out my exhaust, but I managed to one-hand install it, miraculously.

Made a bracket for the pump, mounted it above the frame rail.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Filler neck had to have a bracket welded to the inner fender. Of course I was premature in welding it in place and had to cut it off, modify it, and re-weld. I thought the hose that attached to the tank and the hard line was about an inch too short. But once I cut the bracket, got the hose on, figured out that I had the filler too far out of the filler box, the hose ended up being 'just right'.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Took my fuel door locks to the locksmith to get re-keyed to match the ignition key. Once I get them back, I'll get the fuel door installed.

I have yet to wire up the pump or the sending unit. I need to figure out if I want an independent gage (need to find a spot to mount one) or tie into the stock gage and use a switch to change which sending unit it's reading. The sending unit is the same between 12v and 24v trucks, so I think I'm okay using it with my 24v truck.

I put 5-gallons in it, no leaks initially, then noticed a drip. Crawled under and found a hole most likely caused by my 'beat to fit' efforts with the skid plate.

JB-Weld fuel tank repair to the rescue.

I started this mod in April, it's now almost December...my rust repair last summer went quicker than this project. And I'm still not done.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Another concern, it's not vented, except through the pump to the main tank...not sure if I should add a check valve to one of the vent lines and run it up to a charcoal canister somewhere or not. Or just run it up and not into a canister.

I don't know what the red arrowed item is, the blue arrowed item is a check valve. On my stock Main Tank, there's a vent line that looks like its plugged into the front tank strap bracket. I wonder if its just a fitting, that's open and vapors don't go into a canister. There is a 'w/o canister' schematic.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Ended up pulling the tank today, fuel pick-up line was plugged by mud daubers...can't believe that I didn't check that.

While it was out, I put a check valve in the far side fuel vents, so the tank is now vented. Not to a charcoal canister, if the fumes are bad, I'll add one.

 

[coldtaco]

There is a vent line that fits into the frame, that might be what you were asking about, on my two tank Ute. Can’t remember if the rear filler had a vent to went up the filler with a check valve like the front one. I won’t be home for a while still to double check if there is the same check valve (vent) in the rear as in the front. This is for a diesel Ute.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Got the transfer pump wired up today. Routed the power wire through a body grommet up into the rocker panel behind the passenger seat,

through the wire tray that runs along the passenger side scuff plate,

behind the glove box to one of the switch blanks that's below the heater controls.

Just used a random switch that I had, it lights up when powered on, I drilled a hole in the switch blank and mounted it up. I might get a rectangular Toyota rocker switch to replace it. So far, the ones that I've found are just a tad too wide to fit without shaving some width (height) out of the hole.

I also installed a starter solenoid in the engine bay and made the 12v panel that I have my boost, egt, tach and radio wired to a 'switched' panel. I used the power box located on the side of the air box for my ACC power. Not having my solar panel hooked up for half the summer, I think those small loads drained my house battery and now it's done. Got 5-years out of it, but I think it should have lasted longer.

The only down side to having no power to the radio when off, is the clock loses memory and it comes on to some random radio station each time I turn it on...seems like that's how I had it wired before

Next is to decide if I want to buy a fancy OEM gage pod sub-tank gauge or go with some generic gauge for fuel level.

 

[prwillard2]

Got the transfer pump wired up today. Routed the power wire throw a body grommet up into the rocker panel behind the passenger seat, View attachment 3785389

through the wire tray that runs along the passenger side scuff plate,
View attachment 3785386
behind the glove box to one of the switch blanks that's below the heater controls.View attachment 3785391

Just used a random switch that I had, it lights up when powered on, I drilled a hole in the switch blank and mounted it up. I might get a rectangular Toyota rocker switch to replace it. So far, the ones that I've found are just a tad too wide to fit without shaving some width (height) out of the hole.

I also installed a starter solenoid in the engine bay and made the 12v panel that I have my boost, egt, tach and radio wired to a 'switched' panel. I used the power box located on the side of the air box for my ACC power. Not having my solar panel hooked up for half the summer, I think those small loads drained my house battery and now it's done. Got 5-years out of it, but I think it should have lasted longer.

The only down side to having no power to the radio when off, is the clock loses memory and it comes on to some random radio station each time I turn it on...seems like that's how I had it wired before

Next is to decide if I want to buy a fancy OEM gage pod sub-tank gauge or go with some generic gauge for fuel level.

I am going with a B pillar 2nd tank gauge. Our trucks don't have the holes for the sub tank or nav gauge. I have the inclinometer from Europe and can't figure out how to to mount it.

Appreciate seeing how you're running your wiring. Looks great!

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Is it just as simple as drilling holes to mount the gauge pod? Or is there more to it than that?

 

[prwillard2]

Is it just as simple as drilling holes to mount the gauge pod? Or is there more to it than that?

I'm not totally sure, that and you need a new dash pad. Not that I'm running a dash pad anyway, but still.

 

[SNLC]

You can fit the on top pod without the right pad, we have done it. It fits a little funky though compared to the correct pad.

The correct pad does have a recess for the pod.

These parts are ALL NLA, I went deep down that rabbit hole trying to find them. That was for RHD though and I guess I never did check Canada for LHD.

Cheers

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Finally got my locks back from the locksmith. They re-did the fuel door locks to match my ignition key. I had a separate fuel door key before, that didn't match the ignition or my door. Now I've got one key that operates all the doors, both fuel doors and the ignition.

Also pictured is my homemade snowboard rack attached to the side of the truck. I used a piece of 1" aluminum angle and an old 1/2" thick cutting board. Some Voile Straps secure it in the slots.

 

[prwillard2]

Lookin good! With how narrow the troopy is, I'm sure you are not even taking up extra road width (from modern trucks) with that snowboard rack!

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Not at all, I am a bit leery of driving through some of our narrow North End Streets (old part of Boise near my house and on the way to/from the ski hill) with cars parked on either side, sometimes it's tight when two cars meet. It just barely sticks out farther than my mirror.

I finally got a reply from Cassiem on purchasing some more slotted rail for the driver's side. He said he had it in stock, but haven't heard from him again...hope I can get another matching set. If/when I do, I'll mount it on the driver's side and re-cut another cutting board with it closer than the mirror. I had to space it out far enough to clear the side table on the passenger side.

 

[prwillard2]

Not at all, I am a bit leery of driving through some of our narrow North End Streets (old part of Boise near my house and on the way to/from the ski hill) with cars parked on either side, sometimes it's tight when two cars meet. It just barely sticks out farther than my mirror.

I finally got a reply from Cassiem on purchasing some more slotted rail for the driver's side. He said he had it in stock, but haven't heard from him again...hope I can get another matching set. If/when I do, I'll mount it on the driver's side and re-cut another cutting board with it closer than the mirror. I had to space it out far enough to clear the side table on the passenger side.

Not sure how to ship it, but you can have mine from my side table. I don't think I'm going to end up installing my side table, and if I do, I think I'll come up with another way to mount it, potentially on some 80/20.

I feel so terrible that Cassiem has been terrible at getting back to people. I think he has a great product, but his customer service has been terrible after the fact.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

View attachment 3785391

Just used a random switch that I had, it lights up when powered on, I drilled a hole in the switch blank and mounted it up. I might get a rectangular Toyota rocker switch to replace it. So far, the ones that I've found are just a tad too wide to fit without shaving some width (height) out of the hole.

Got that switch linked above, just took it to the grinder, it's about 1mm too wide, there's .5mm of material to sand off either side and it fits perfect.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Poser shot coming down from boarding yesterday.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Working on interior boxes.