Project Boomerang (5 Viewers)

[badsamaritan]

Added 4Plus sliders, and besttop soft upper doors. I dropped the rig off at the fabricators for a family style cage. Should be picking the truck back up this Friday

 

[badsamaritan]

Progress photos from rollbar fabircation

 

[badsamaritan]

 

[badsamaritan]

Just got it home and tucked away. I'll going to the powder coaters soon. It was awesome to head home at sunset on the freeway with no top.

 

[badsamaritan]

Made a return trip to the fabricator's today to re-do the seatbelt retractor brackets. In the end, we decided to ditch the 90* bracket that was on there and just add a new collar/bung to the rollbar itself. The issue I was having was that the seatbelt didn't have enough play in it and was choking me. Moving the retractor up and mounting it to the bar fixed everything.

 

[badsamaritan]

A huge complaint I have had about the FJ40 is how twitchy the steering is, especially on the freeway. I purcharsed a 4bolt, 4.25 turn steering box off of a firebird and started swapping it in. I was hoping this would be a simple swap, but so far everything has been fighting me. So far, I have the old box out, but am unable to get the pitman arm off. Tried a puller, heat, picklefork, and nothing. Looking to see if I can buy a 3in drop arm now.

 

[badsamaritan]

I put the old box in a vise and let the pitman soak in Kroil for about 6 hrs. I used a screw type puller to get it under as much tension as I could and then hit the exposed end of the pitman arm with a baby sledge hammer. Came right off. Now I can re-use a pitman arm that I know works and has the right drop and TRE taper.

 

[jim land]

More info about the firebird box , is it from late 70's ?

 

[badsamaritan]

More info about the firebird box , is it from late 70's ?

From the eBay listing:

1964-76 GM Standard Duty Saginaw Steering Box #5691676 4.25 turns (67A)

It's a 4bolt box vs. the three bolt I had. Line ports are the same but the firebird box had a different input shaft spline count (.800 diameter). So I had to get a new coupler from Borgeson. Reusing my 3" drop pitman arm as my linkage bars were near parallel.

 

[badsamaritan]

Interesting picture of my original pitman arm and the two I ordered.

Left: My OG Pitman arm, 3" drop unknown origins
Middle: Cruiser Outfitters 2" drop. Pretty beefy, wish they had the 3" drop in stock when I called because I think I would run it. I also can't believe how fast it got here despite the holiday.
Right: RoughCountry 3in drop (slightly longer than the rest). This is the same one BTB sells, I got it off of amazon.

Out of the 3 I am going to start with my original arm, and maybe try the RC one to see if it being slightly longer gives me a better feel. the 2" drop puts the steering rod at a weird angle.

 

[clrussell]

my 40 has a fast box as well. Watching for results

 

[jim land]

The RC look longer , the one on my 40 is only 5.5" , im looking for 6.5" to 7" drop pitman arm but did not find one yet
Can you take a side pic with a rule

 

[badsamaritan]

RC is roughly 8.5" long overall and roughly 6.5" center of hole to center of hole.

 

[badsamaritan]

Been on a few test drives and 1 freeway run. Pretty happy with the firebird box so far, especially on the freeway.

 

[badsamaritan]

Rollbar has been dropped off at the powdercoaters for prep and PC. Was very grateful they able to help forklift it off of there. Getting it back on is going to be interesting. Since it was built in the vehicle it's a bit tricky to get it off/on.