ROTW ROTW-Cruiserdrew

[Cruiserdrew]

I was wondering yesterday who was the dumbass who forgot they were rig of the week this week. Well, Poser let me know that I was the dumbass, so here it is.

The excuses:
I am not a welder
I have worked every day (literally) since Rubithon, excuse the dirt and grime.
When I started, my goal was to learn to weld, and do a spring over
This is my trail truck, not a restoration show piece. I never wash it.
I did most of the work myself, but somethings I had to farm out.

The thanks:
Many cruiserheads have contributed to my project in many ways. I was given axles, parts and pieces by people I didn't know. I always had help with heavy lifts from my Norcal Wagon brothers. There was no way I could have done this alone, and I want to publically thank all involved.



First my story:

I bought my 1997 80 series in Jan 1999 knowing little about Land Cruisers. I had been driven around in an FJ40 in about 1974 by my neighbor who was a park ranger but that was it. After a year of 80 ownership and a couple of light duty off road trips, I knew I wanted an FJ40. A nice 1976 was soon in the paper, and after looking, I bought it. It was basically all original and not rusty, but the sheet metal was cut off in the rocker area. I had Warden's put in power steering right away and signed up for Rubithon 2000.

Holy Sh%t that was an eye opener. No lockers, no gearing, no winch. I bounced and lurched all over the Rubicon, but my new friends Ross Kuzma, Dave West and Neil Wilkendorf got me through in one piece. What a blast. The next year I was back with ARBs that gave up on Walker Hill, so I did it a second time with no lockers and no gears. A trial by fire.

The next year I was back with working lockers, an SM420, and 35 inch tires. From 2003-2006 I went through Rubicon 12-15 times, Dusy Ershim several times and generally learned how to wrench on old school cruisers. During that time(2003) I bought a 60 with plans to make a trail wagon, but that turned out to be such a nice truck, it's still my daily driver. I didn't mention the engine fire but here is a picture, along with the "before pictures" of my rig of the week.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Story continued:

So fast forward to Summer 2006. I got a notice from the DMV that I had been "selected" to participate in a "yearly" smog program for high risk trucks. Since the every two year ritual was more than I could stand, the yearly thing was not going to fly. I was at a crossroads-sell the 40 and build my FJ60 into the second coming of knuckles or wheel my 80 or.....

Fate intervened in the form of Orang45 (Georg). He and I had talked about a clean frame he had, and when he came up with the title, I knew my 40 would rise from the ashes of smog on a new frame that was smog exempt. So the plan was that the 76 would get a frame swap, but that's when the "while you're there" thing got me.

The next thing you knew, I had a Millermatic 210, a pile of Ruffstuff parts and big plans. So when the 2006 wheeling season ended in September, the 40 went under the knife. Plans: Spring over, Shackle reversal, FJ60 axles, 4x4 labs high steer, and a longer wheelbase. I don't have many pictures of the frame stage-but for months I cut off old parts and welded on my pile of Ruffstuff hangers.

To show you the power of IH8MUD I put out an APB for 60 series axle housings and was given three of them by Otterav, Bald Redhead, and Asief007(edit-left out 2badfjs so 4 axle housings!). I spent a whole Saturday driving the 60 through the South Bay collecting axle housings and headed home.

Here is where I was by November 2006.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Story Continued:

The exciting stuff started to come fast. First there was the motor swap into the new frame, and then two weeks later the body followed. I could not have done this part without the invaluable help of the Norcal Wagon crew.

So after the holidays I had a Land Cruiser that didn't run, I had a back yard full of parts off the old truck and a lot of work to do before my first planned run in May.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Which brings me to now. I'm going to show a picture or two of the truck and then go back and discuss the systems.

 

[petescoffee]

I. I bounced and lurched all over the Rubicon, but my new friends Ross Kuzma, Dave West and Neil Wilkendorf got me through in one piece. What a blast. .

Andrew- The same guys got me through on my first trip through the Rubicon, in One piece...

Dave Thomas
Walnut Creek, CA

 

[Cruiserdrew]

The Motor:

Stock '76 2F! It does have a few improvements. It was completely desmogged. THe air pump and rail are gone, the carb was rebuilt and desmogged by Jim C, and the ignition was changed to FJ60 components, with the distributor recurved by Jim C. The egr and it's associated plumbing were removed, and an 80 series osygen sensor was used to plug the EGR port in the header. Weirdly it's a perfect fit. See pic

The air-rail ports were plugged with Toyota air rail plugs (used on FJ62s), and it was all hooked back up and fired on the first try.!!!

Currently I have a 3FE waiting in the wings, but the current 2F is working so well, that project is on the back burner.



Transmission/t-case:

Rebuilt SM420 with Warden's short plate adapter. This has worked perfectly since install, and I saw no reason to change it. The 3 speed t-case was rebuilt about 5000 miles ago and it has a Poser t-case saver. Future plans include an H41 and an Orion. I have the H41 components now, the Orion is not yet in the picture.

I learned with everything out, that the transmission is a 1959, and the t-case is a 73 from an FJ55.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Steering:

I got basically the entire kit from 4x4 Labs. Their plate adapter is about the nicest I have seen so with that and my old 4 turn box, it joined the mix on what my frieds call the "Franken 40" The frame stiffener plates and box were all welded in by me-literally this was my welding school. Turned out just great.

 

[REZARF]

Great write up, glad you posted up and didn't slack!

Rezarf <><

 

[flippin sweet cruiser]

I gotta say that is some nice work!! Ya gotta love mud and all of the people willing to help others out. The Loving Cruiser Karma family.

 

[1973Guppie]

welds look great, better than mine! awesome truck, rubicon 15 times in 3 years, now that is impressive. I wish I was that close. Can't wait to go back.

Noah

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Front axle:

The front axle is an FJ60 Axle. The springs were outboarded and I farmed out the cut and turn to 4x4Labs. Funny-They did a cut and turn on an FJ62 axle I had but with my spring angle from the SR my caster was 14 degrees! So a second cut and turn on another axle I had (from Otterav) was turned with the spring angle taken into acount.\

The spring plates and shock mounts are from Ruffstuff.

The diff cover was on my "old" 40 and made by Michael Dremmen. I cut it off the old housing and welded it on this one.

You can't see inside the axle, but there are new 30 spline Longfields and the associated chrome moly axle shafts.


edit-the darkness in my garage and the dirt on everything make things look worse than they are. It cleans up pretty nice, but you'll have to trust me.

 

[FirstToy]

Awesome buildup from an awesome Cruiserhead! nice documentation and story!

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Rear axle:

FJ62 housing

Again a gift from Bald Red Head. Funny aside: I drove all the way to the Bay Area to Pick up the axle housings offered up and they were all with a 50 mile radius. Anyway, at Bald Red Head's house-I got to meet and chat with his mom. A real nice lady who could not figure out why anyone would want "this old junk". Bald Red Head gave me a FJ62 differential as well, still in my spares pile.

Anyway-the housing got a complete rebuild, new bearings, new brakes etc. I got all the brake stuff from 3 Puppies for little more than the cost of shipping. A bit of clean up, and good as new.

Inside the housing are Polyperformance Chrome Moly shafts. Schweet stuff. Gearing is 4.56 with ARB airlockers. I had the front and rear air lockers gone through while they were out and re-installed with solid spacers instead of a crush sleeve.

To hook up the brakes, I relocated the "T" fitting to the top of the differential and made new lines. The spring perches were from Mudrak and integrate the lower shock mout into the perch. A nice solution. I redrilled the cross member to run 5/8 bolts as an upper mount.

I did not hook up the e-brake, since I still have the t-case e-brake, but I do use the bellcranks as my brake adjusters. Works sweet!

 

[Cruiserdrew]

More rear axle-during the build and before install.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Suspension:

When I first got the frame and was still thinking about options, Alex (ibewebman) offered me a clean set of springs off his 74(?) for free. I took them (I'm a hoarder). Originally, I was going to use them front and rear, but then I read about FJ55 springs (unobtainium). Anyway I decided to use wagon springs out back--more on that later.

I have never been happy with spring rates on any truck I own. I always want more spring. So...with Alex's springs, I took the packs apart and added a long leaf from the rear to the front pack. If you notice they have an extra leaf. This makes for a nice stiff spring. I redrilled all the spring pin holes a bit bigger and used the Rockford spring pins sold by Napa. They require a 7/16 hole and need to be drilled with a hardened bit. I uses several carbide tipped masonry bits. The heads are 5/8 which fit perfectly in the Ruffstuff spring perches.


The rear springs went similarly. Mudrak had a pair of practically new looking FJ62 springs-$40. Way better than the $200 people were quoting for FJ55 springs. I had a spare pair of FJ60 springs from my 60, and added the long load leaf from those to the FJ62 pack. Finally, springs that might hold up to the heavy load for the multiday trips I like. There is a bit of challenge to running FJ60 springs on the back of a 40-search if you want the secret receipe.

Shocks-Rancho 9000s. I've been using these for 15 years on various trucks and vehicles and for a mass market spring, they work extremely well. They are not sexy like Bilsteins, but then they arn't $1000 a set either.

I used Ford Towers up front-bolted in, and with the lower 1/3 also welded to decrese the stress on the bolts. In the future, I'll use hoops (Luke Porter made me a set) but I was running out of time and the Ford towers went in in 1 afternoon.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Traction bar:

So I was really out of time. My first trip of the year in May was 2 days away on the Rubicon Trail (Wentworth side) and I had no wrap/traction bar. Luke Porter and the 4x4Labs crew made this happen fast. I drove to Grass Valley, they worked their magic and I drove home that afternoon. There was not time to build a new and stronger cross member, so that will be phase 2 this winter. Luke thought this one would be good for 600hp.

edit-That's a Ruffstuff axle traction bar piece that surved as the basis for the bar itself. It's very heavy duty and priced right if you don't want to build your own.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

MISC:

A few stray bits from the build up.

The front shaft did not have enough slip in the slip joint so the local driveline place added 11 inches of slip! No problem with that.

The rear I set up to use a C/V shaft. The only C/V shaft I had was off an FJ60. So the driveline place retubed with a heavier wall tube and balanced it up-no vibrations. I had a trail spare made at the same time-it is not a C/V shaft so it's good only to get me off the trail.

Last but not least was the electrical--I used the existing 76 harness, but had to graft it to the original style tail lights which do not have an amber turn signal. Cruiserdan thought I could use a trailer adapter to run the tail lights and that turned out to be a brilliant insigt. I used a trailer wiring harness that came with the electronics molded in a water tight case. Grafted into the rear part of the harness it looks almost factory. I added trailer style quick couplings so I could disconnect and remove the rear lights on the trail. They don't get smashed that way. BTW-The factory lights and brackets are still available from TOyota and not expensive either-highly recommended.

I could go on but I'll spare you. If you got this far, thanks, it was a journey for me as well. If desired I can answer questions, get more photos etc. I can post up info about radio and antenna mounting if anyone wants that.

More than anything else, I have been impressed with the Land Cruiser family. People are always willing to help, give you parts, ship you parts in a hurry and generally go out of their way to get your truck up and running. I find it interesting that now I constantly think about the "next" time I do something like this, and the changes I would make, and how I could have done better. All part of the game I guess.

 

[nmostofi]

Nice job Andy, love your 40, keep up the good work

 

[numtel]

welds look great, better than mine! awesome truck, rubicon 15 times in 3 years, now that is impressive. I wish I was that close. Can't wait to go back.

Noah

Yeah it's nice being close. I'm going up for my fourth time this year this weekend.

The picture with the sky in it that looks like its coming down towards little sluice looks really cool

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Yes-This truck was built with the Rubicon in mind since I'm 2 hours from the trail head and usually get there 2-3 times per year. I also don't have a tow rig, so anything I do has to leave it drivable. The longest trip I typically do is to Dusy Ershim which is about 5 hours away at 40 speed. I didn't want a radical truck, and it had to be stuff I could do myself, since the experience was the whole reason to do it in the first place.

Since getting it sort of done, I've been up on the Rubicon trail 3 times. Once through Wentworth Springs, once from Tahoe to Loon, and Once from Loon to Tahoe.

I was hoping for a shot at Fordyce creek, but I understand that is closed this year due to fire risk.