Builds Rockcod’s final ride, Morty the Forty

[rockcod]

If I had to make a living doing electrical, I’d starve and be homeless. What a hateful exercise in futility!!! I would lay it out the way (I thought) I wanted it, only to do it over again because something did not flow or work the way I thought it would.

But I have made progress, the dash panel has been installed for the last (as of now anyway), wires pulled to their correct locations, momentary switch mounted, and a harness made, for a small siren I had in my last 40.

Finally received the new fuel sending unit, had to open up the holes to the outside a little, then the maddening process of getting the float set correctly.

Waiting on a new headlight dimmer switch, it was suppose to be here yesterday.

Still need to finish wiring the switches, and running power to the power points.
Feels good to be crossing things off the
to-do list.

 

[rockcod]

More parts rolling in, FJ40 LS specific radiator, SPAL fan and control harness. I can’t justify placing a shiny new radiator in this tired looking core support, going to get blasted and powder coated.

 

[rockcod]

Got the core support back from powder coat, it turned out great. Mated the radiator and shroud to the core support without issue. I go to bolt it in and I realize I forgot to buy the new hardware to mount it

Once again, 1 step forward, 2 steps back.

Meanwhile, I’m still doing wiring

 

[rockcod]

Another lesson learned, don’t believe everything you read. I normally research the crap out of everything, but not this time and it bit me. I was looking for the nut size of the mounting bolts welded on the bottom of the radiator core support or as everyone refers to as the “u-shaped frame”.
In the FAQ section under the “nuts and bolts” section, it lists those nuts as m8x1.25, mine happens to be m10x1.25.

Anyway, once I bought the correct nuts and washers I was able to mount the new radiator. I had read a build thread and they had to use a different fan. I was a bit concerned if I was going to have the same issue with the fan and motor clearance. After setting it in place I had plenty of room.

With my ADD kicking in, I’m finding any excuse to not do wiring. Next up is to mount my ruff stuff battery tray and figure out where to mount my under hood sub panel and relays so I can continue on with the wiring.

So, stand by to stand by.

 

[rockcod]

I’ve been looking into how to remove VATS, the rear O2 sensors and delete the EGR from the ECU. I could take to a shop and pay to have them do it or do it myself. There are several videos on how to make a bench harness and what free download programs that are out there to do the job. Throwing caution to the wind, I figured why not give it it shot and do it myself. My youngest son is a tuner kid and said he would help me

Since I had the butchered up harness from the donor vehicle, I scavenged the blue ECU connector and OBD2 port. A quick trip to the local electronic shop I picked up a project box, 2 lighted toggle switches, a power supply and wire adaptor.

Following the YouTube videos and a simple wiring diagram, I was able to duplicate the bench harness and then tested it to make sure it works correctly.

I then downloaded PCM Hammer and universal patch programs to my laptop. I am still waiting for the missing piece of the puzzle to arrive to complete the delete system, the OBDX Pro dongle.

 

[rockcod]

I’m not a computer guy, so this is a major accomplishment for me. I finally received the OBDX Pro VX dongle to reflash the computer. I don’t know what I would do without YT!! The harness I made worked great. Took me a good while but I was able to delete the VATS and the rear O2 sensors. Getting closer to firing this thing off.

Still waiting on fuel delivery items to show up, they are on back order

 

[rockcod]

Still waiting for my relays to show up, so no wiring updates. In the name of progress I moved on to mounting the rear caliper brackets and calipers. I purchased these brackets a long while back from Poser (Thanks Steve!). At the time, he did not have any spacers so I just put them on the shelf and kind of forgot about them.

Fast forward to today, I had tubing that happened to be 7/16” ID for the 7/16” by 2” bolts I picked up. The search button is my friend and I found the length of the spacers I needed to make were 3/4”.
(Side note, a sales person from a company that shall remain nameless told me to use 3/8” by 1 1/2” bolts to secure the brackets to the axle flange. When I told them the bolts are too small and too short, I was informed they have been selling them that way for 20 years.) When in doubt, look about and do your research, the search button and internet are your friends!!!

Anyway back to today, I cut the tubing down to 3/4” pieces to form the spacers, then proceeded to fumble fudge around trying to figure out what holes in the bracket I am suppose to use. Finally got it figured out and everything lined up great, then bam! the top hole of the caliper would not line up with the bracket. After putting my glasses on I found the caliper has a bump in the casting and it was hitting the bracket preventing it from lining up properly.

I took the caliper to my bench grinder and removed enough material to allow the caliper to move into position to bolt it on. The learning curve on the first side was pretty high, the second side went on with no problems.

Now for a little paint and I will be able to move on to more wiring, I hope!

 

[rockcod]

Finally received the back ordered fuel system parts, other parts items that have come in recently, weld in O2 sensor bungs and a sub panel for accessory lights, siren and anything else I might need to power up. Lastly, I found my little siren I had stashed away years ago when I sold my last 40

Waiting for the rain to stop so I can plumb the fuel system, at that point I will be able to fire the motor for the first time.

 

[rockcod]

I have taken a hiatus from this project for various personal reasons, but now getting back on it once again. Today I swapped out the original, dented up hood, bent front bib and bezel with parts removed from “Snotz”. Trying to see how many factory color parts I can put on Morty

Got everything aligned and gapped, took measurements multiple times, tightened down the hood and front bib in preparation to start building the MT tube fenders.

 

[rockcod]

Trying to make heads or tails of MT’s “so called” instructions on their website. They are clear as mud, so I’m going to wing it at this point. The only thing that made any sense was the straight edge and spacer blocks.

Since the front fenders had been removed a while ago, I needed to square everything up the best I could. Sometime in the past the passenger front fender was whacked and bent, wrinkling the passenger side apron behind the fender.

I made a straight edge out of 1 1/2” square tube and tacked on 2 1/2” spacer blocks for a parallel hood and fender line. From this point forward I will be spit balling to figure out where to go next.

 

[rockcod]

I can not find any info or photos on the orientation of this bracket, does the fish mouth go toward the inside or outside of the apron?

 

[rockcod]

Got the passenger side fender tacked together, it still needs a little tweaking and I am going to add another cross piece. Hopefully the other side goes much smoother!

 

[clrussell]

How high are you setting the fenders? Higher then factory I assume.

 

[rockcod]

1 1/2” higher

 

[rockcod]

Progress has been slow, I haven’t touched the wiring in quite a while. Passenger side tube fender is tacked, still need to make some adjustments to make it right. I haven’t tackled the driver side until I am happy with the passenger side.

This morning I was feeling industrious and made a cold air intake work for my application. Cut down the piping, fabbed a brace to support the weight of the filter and prevent it from bouncing down on to the fan belt, and installed the new MAF sensor. Plenty of clearance from the hood and alternator and radiator hoses have clear runs from port to port, now to measure for them and see what I can find.

 

[rockcod]

Spent some time in the garage today, got the battery mounted. Bolted a mounting plate to the factory holes in the firewall where the fan used to mount and welded the battery mount to it. The battery is mounted very solid and not going anywhere. Now I can figure out where my auxiliary relay/fuse box will mount and plan my next move for the wiring.

 

[rlong]

I’m intrigued, and like the battery mount (2nd time seeing one of those about there), and curious to see where you end up with auxiliary relay/fuse box as I will be doing the same thing “soon”. (Soon in Landcruiser project time means “hopefully within a year”!)

 

[rockcod]

After trying several different locations to put the relay/fuse box, I determined the glove box worked the best for my application. The glove box offers the best protection from the elements and keeps the foot well uncluttered. Since the battery is mounted on the other side of the firewall, it allowed for easy access and a short run for power while using a factory opening and n the firewall.

For the engine harness relay/fuse box, I mounted it high on the firewall near the ECU that mounted to the underside the glove box.

The goal was to keep the footwell clear and mount everything as high as possible while maintaining access to the fuses and relays and still have room in the glove box.

 

[rockcod]

I forgot to mount the OBD-II port, I opted to mount it under the glovebox near the ECU.

 

[rockcod]

Today I was taking care of little things, rerouting chassis wires, routing the speedometer cable (had to get the new stock cable modified to work with my auto meter speedo), re-installing the instrument cluster and installed the plug wires and heat shield boots.