Did a bunch of little stuff I had been putting off to prepare for the drive from DC to Hyannis then ferry to Nantucket. Oil change, took it to Krown in PA for undercoating, etc.
Made it and spotted two nice 40 series so far. An FJ company restoration and another restoration, was dark and passing by so couldn’t get a close look.
And the pre-work, forgot to mention the new AC compressor and pulling the evaporator out again because I had a leak (I think I forgot to tighten something doh):
Okay so I've been quiet (mostly due to school and work), but I do still own land cruisers and I did a bit of work on my 40 this past week when I was down in Georgia. I posted on my 40 thread, but I'll post here as well. Here is a little eye candy of my friend's shop.
So it turns out the 4.5 turn box did wonders after I replaced the 2.5 turn that was on it. It still had a lot of wandering. In an attempt to remove the leaf springs I broke a u bolt and then one of the lower leafs fell off.... the center pin bolt was unsafe and old. I managed to get a shim in to change the angle in the front axle ( I believe it may be 2 or 4 degrees and was in a box that came with the 40). After using an old ford 9" axle U bolt and some shadetree mechanic'ing I was able to test drive it and it drove wayyyyy better. Most of the wander was gone and it felt "safe".
Question now is do I restack the leafs and get a new set of shims or do I look at new leafs and shims, change the shackles, etc?
Also it looked like someone reused the 40 leaf spring u bolt plate which appeared too narrow for the 60 axle. Does this sound right? Was the 40 narrower? If I get two 60 series u bolt plates I think that will fix that issue. Lastly, front shackles were roughly 3.75" from center bolt to center bolt which I think is what threw off the axle angle. What is stock measurement? 2.5"?
1971 FJ40 with a FJ60 front axle swap. U-bolts on it were bending inward at the bottom where it went into the U-bolt spring plate.
I was trying to figure out why and I was just thinking it had to do with the axle, but now I think the issue (based on above stated info) is that the 60 axle swap must have also included a 60 leaf swap (which are wider than 40 leafs); this caused the u bolt springs to touch the leafs, then have to bend in to the smaller u-bolt spring plate (that I assume was from the 40 leafs).
Show us some pics of your setup.
Did they outboard the spring hangers?
The spring plates are wider on the 60 axle. Which puts the stock passengers side spring location into the diff housing.
Since none of you follow me on IG... @mmurrey89... I've got the sliders, springs, steel brake lines (to replace the soft lines), and extended lines on the way.
My "Do By Fall Crawl" list:
1. Sliders
2. Springs
3. Brake lines
4. Dual battery setup
5. Ditch lights
6. Transfer case oil
7. Get rear swingout welded
8. Matching lug nuts
9. Matching spare tire
10. Fix AC?
