Build Project Patina-November 1968 FJ-40

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I replaced a few on mine with used ones off mud and they are not hard to replace individual gauges. Find a diagram because some are powered off the neighbor guages. If I remember right the temp is powered off the gas so if you have a bad gas gauge it makes it look like both are bad.
 
Hell, who needs a wiring harness anyways.

By the time your done with this project, you'll have everything wrong red individually.
 
I wish they went back to simplicity. I've had my second door lock actuator go out on my 2013. I don't think their part suppliers are what they used to be.
 
Harnesses make sense until all the wires in one section melt together.

So. Today. Got home and decided I'd do something simple like wire up my tag light.

Ran a hot. Replaced the bulb. Nada.

Took it apart. Cleaned it up. Scraped the corrosion out. Put it back together.
Nada.

Test light was showing power over the entire plate.

I screwed with everything and gave up. Figured it was a bad bulb. Then I put my ground tester on the mounting bolts and it fired up. My diagram shows it self grounds but with all the patina it's not. So. A wire. Fixed.

It's clean though. Not 2 buckets clean. But clean.

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Pig likes it.


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Had an awesome occurrence today.

I was cruising the TLCa site and someone was asking about their truck only running with the choke a bit Out. I saw one suggestion was to check the choke solenoid wire. I asked what happens if that's never hooked up. A dude replied and told me it would idle like s***. Backfire and need a bit of choke to run.

I got home. Wired up a switched 12v fuse from the ignition switch (to the old in cab fuse box that is still good) and ran a wire to the dangling wire no one knew what to do with on my Trollhole carb, and boom. Literally perfect idle. No choke starts. No backfire on compression braking.

Literally like a new motor.

PUMPED!!

 
Another issue I've had is the overflow has been spitting up.

I got the OEM bottle (repro) and the OEM cap and hose from @Racer65 snd the bracket from cruiserparts.net

Installed where my 1968 horn was and the system is now working like it is supposed to. No overflowing out of the bottle. It's flowing freely back and forth.

So cool.

It's the little things when you get to this point that make the most difference.

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Damn that bay looks so good.
 
Patina appears to be missing her hood pads along the tops of the side skirts.

I've got my only ones she can have if she wants them.

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Racer65 said:
I'm sure everyone would agree, the patina on this rig is has so much cool factor. It's absolutely beautiful!
Click to expand...

Thank you sir. I'm going to tackle the brake booster job this weekend. It's the last major step to have this thing driving perfectly.

Thanks for all the cool parts you are bringing back to life for these old machines
 
Flowmaster 40 installed. I'm glad the first guy talked me out of doing the exhaust first. It was good getting it all tuned with a glass pack then the satisfaction of the finished product.

Great fun part was Berkley rode with me there (7 miles) and made her first solo drive home following me. Not bad for 2 weeks driving with a permit.

Delta Muffler in Canton. Thanks for the good work. $160

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Oh well. Tinted windows. Can't see her but hey...she's a great driver.

 
Big job today.

I bought a new brake booster from @Racer65 and finally worked up the nerve to install it.

Dual Diaphragm Disc Brake Booster for Land Cruiser FJ40 FJ55 FJ60

My firewall is Swiss cheese from the original master to the 4 bolt non-ABS 80 master I was trying to make work non boosted.

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Well, my brakes sucked. Period. I have all new parts front and rear (disc/drum) with a RAcer65 proportion valve but the brakes were 3 pumps and a prayer at best.

I began by removing the old stuff. Lucky I kept lots of slack in my brake likes just for this reason

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The early firewall comes with a fancy rib that runs vertically right in the thick of things. I already had to notch it to get the brake lines in the single master from the manual setup but this time I had to cut deep. I used a sawzall.

I plugged all the old holes to keep heat out and screwed the old holes full of bolts. You could use anything but I used little plastic plugs

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So the real problem with this swap is not the engine bay and the vertical rib.

The real issue is that the booster studs (if you use the existing center hole) puts them right into the inner tub supports for the brake and clutch assembly.

I had to use a carbide bit, sawzall and a drill to clearance the inner supports to get the booster studs through.


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Look closely at the top left bolt. It enters the firewall right where the main support meets the firewall. This took a lot of grinding with an air tool with a carbide bit.

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The bottom right bolt also came through right where another firewall support joins the tub

I used the carbide tool to make 2 of 4 of my firewall holes oblong to fine tune the rod coming out of the booster to the pedal.
 
As for the rod that comes out of the Racer65 booster, for this application it was too long.

I bottomed out the pedal bracket and hacked the rod off as far as I could.

Once I mocked it all up I realized I needed about 1/32" of clearance for my clutch master to bolt up. I had an old master and I test ground on it to see how deep I could go. It didn't take much and it cleared.
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