Ive been looking for an old Landcruiser for a long time. My college roomate got me hooked and since then i've been casaully looking for an old FJ40 or FJ55. Well in January I found one in the classifieds here on MUD and about a week later it was mine.
The PO had rebuilt the engine and then had kinda run out of time and money and stuff to get it all put back together. The engine was completely reassembled but was just sitting loose in the engine bay when i got it and the tranny was hanging in a ratchet strap sling.
It took me and my dad dang near a whole afternoon to get the engine mounted and the tranny stabbed in. The 3-speed clutch setup with the 3 arms fought us the entire time. But we at last had success. But not before breaking the chain on the engine hoist. The motor fell about 8 or 10 inches into the engine bay. SCARY. But it didnt hurt anything except putting a dent in the oil filter.
The next time I worked on it the objectve was to make it make noise. The timing was all jacked up. It came with a high-dollar Mallory distributor which looks nothing like the toyota one so there was no way to know if you were stabbing at the right angle. So we just put it in and lined up the timing mark on the flywheel and then from there figured out which contact the rotor button was aimed at and then made that terminal #1 cylinder. Then we dribbled a little gas into the intake and turned the key. After a couple tries we got it to rumble to life for a couple seconds. Hooray it runs! There is hope.
Then we tackled the carb. It is a big holley 2bbl that came with this messy sandwich of adapter plates, gaskets, and silicone to make it mate up to the intake. Took about 10 tries to get all the layers in the right order and orientation to make it fit. But once we did and hooked up the fuel line to it it fired right up and even idled. Checked oil pressure and made sure the valve train was getting oil and stuff and it was. I think its getting a Rochester Monojet in the not-so-distant future.
Now its little stuff. Water jacket and radiator and doors and dust covers. The windows still had the original felts and the cranks were completely stripped. So i got new cranks and felts from SOR. They were pretty easy to install. But the windows are so hard to move now. Is that typical for new felts or is there something I dont know?
stay tuned.
The PO had rebuilt the engine and then had kinda run out of time and money and stuff to get it all put back together. The engine was completely reassembled but was just sitting loose in the engine bay when i got it and the tranny was hanging in a ratchet strap sling.
It took me and my dad dang near a whole afternoon to get the engine mounted and the tranny stabbed in. The 3-speed clutch setup with the 3 arms fought us the entire time. But we at last had success. But not before breaking the chain on the engine hoist. The motor fell about 8 or 10 inches into the engine bay. SCARY. But it didnt hurt anything except putting a dent in the oil filter.
The next time I worked on it the objectve was to make it make noise. The timing was all jacked up. It came with a high-dollar Mallory distributor which looks nothing like the toyota one so there was no way to know if you were stabbing at the right angle. So we just put it in and lined up the timing mark on the flywheel and then from there figured out which contact the rotor button was aimed at and then made that terminal #1 cylinder. Then we dribbled a little gas into the intake and turned the key. After a couple tries we got it to rumble to life for a couple seconds. Hooray it runs! There is hope.
Then we tackled the carb. It is a big holley 2bbl that came with this messy sandwich of adapter plates, gaskets, and silicone to make it mate up to the intake. Took about 10 tries to get all the layers in the right order and orientation to make it fit. But once we did and hooked up the fuel line to it it fired right up and even idled. Checked oil pressure and made sure the valve train was getting oil and stuff and it was. I think its getting a Rochester Monojet in the not-so-distant future.
Now its little stuff. Water jacket and radiator and doors and dust covers. The windows still had the original felts and the cranks were completely stripped. So i got new cranks and felts from SOR. They were pretty easy to install. But the windows are so hard to move now. Is that typical for new felts or is there something I dont know?
stay tuned.
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