Builds Sandy the Tan FJ60 (3 Viewers)

[NWxDrew]

This is the first thread I’ve read all the way through in my short time here on MUD. Great work and thanks for supplying all the part numbers/sources. Definitely subscribed.

I am going to adjust my valve clearance for the first time myself soon. What’s the 4th gear bump trick?

I also want to desmog my truck. Is the desmog pdf available on the forum somewhere?

Thanks again for the great content

 

[4runner2FJ60]

Thanks for the info. I am thinking this is what I need. I made it as close to the old booster as possible which is all I could find as far as directions go. No one really talks about starting from scratch with a new booster and no adjustment point from old one? Maybe someone knows a trick here. My rig came with no brakes but the ebrake, so it sure stops great now! Thanks again

@NWxDrew The 4th bump trick is what it sounds. put it in 4th, no brake ebrake, engine off, and bump/push the truck and watch the flywheel move looking for your marks.

The PDF is still on here, look up "My Desmog Thread"
Read it about 5 times before you start.

 

[NWxDrew]

Thanks for the info. I am thinking this is what I need. I made it as close to the old booster as possible which is all I could find as far as directions go. No one really talks about starting from scratch with a new booster and no adjustment point from old one? Maybe someone knows a trick here. My rig came with no brakes but the ebrake, so it sure stops great now! Thanks again

@NWxDrew The 4th bump trick is what it sounds. put it in 4th, no brake ebrake, engine off, and bump/push the truck and watch the flywheel move looking for your marks.

The PDF is still on here, look up "My Desmog Thread"
Read it about 5 times before you start.

Found the pdf and JimC has restocked the plug set for the 2F. There’s a Desmog in my future! Thanks!

 

[atlshaun]

Just got back to re-reading through your thread (couldn’t remember why I had it saved) and didn’t even realize it was you who got the bumpers

 

[Gretsch]

Just got back to re-reading through your thread (couldn’t remember why I had it saved) and didn’t even realize it was you who got the bumpers

If you have any more Kaymars laying around, I'm your huckleberry.

 

[Hokie LX]

Well I forgot to update this after Logan’s Run. I opted to go ride the trails instead of drive and that turned out to be a good decision. Let the truck idle for 5-10 mins before heading home and finished saying goodbye and turn around to see Sandy spilling all of her coolant on the ground. Rushed over and shut it off without it getting hot luckily.

Turns out the lower water pump hose had popped off. I think the clamp must’ve been slowly working itself off and finally popped. Glad that didn’t happen on the trails! It was a quick fix and refilled and burped the system and I was on my way home. Otherwise it was an awesome event.

Also sporting my new OEM 70 series mirrors that I added right before the trip. They are so much better than the little oem ones and I’m really happy with them.

 

[Hokie LX]

Refilled the cooling system today after the water pump hose fiasco where I just refilled it with water. While I had the system drained, I decided to put in my upgraded Cock Assy. which has a little nipple on it to put a hose on to drain which is nifty.

Slowly getting ready for Fall Crawl next weekend!

If anyone else wants to upgrade their Cock Assy. here's the PN

Old vs. new

Installed:

Refilling and burping the system

 

[Hokie LX]

Since I've had the truck it's had virtually no FM reception. I thought the new headunit would fix it but it seemed to be the antenna. Grabbed a replacement and got it in today and it works perfectly! Upon removing the old one there were several cut areas of the coax cable so I'm chalking it up to that.

This is a manual one and I can unscrew the mast if I'm wheeling so I don't have to worry about ripping it off on a tree.

 

[Hokie LX]

Took the truck to Fall Crawl in Gore, VA hosted by CLCC this past weekend which was a blast!

Earlier in the week I was chasing a stutter/hesitation when I went full throttle. Did a lean drop test, rechecked valves, timing and fuel filter and it seemed to get better.

The old 2F pulled 20" Hg at idle which I was happy with and I gave it a touch more timing. Drove the truck there and back without issues and got to wheel it for a couple of days. The truck even averaged 15-16mpg loaded down on the highway up and back from NC to the VA mountains.

Some of the trails were a bit tight and, as a result, I christened the typical FJ60 rear quarter. Should be able to push most of it out and at least the taillight survived.

Otherwise, it was a good weekend. Got to wheel probably the most difficult trails to date in this truck and it handled it well.

Then Saturday I rode shotgun with @GLTHFJ60 and got to do some red trails with the ONSC crew.

 

[onemanarmy]

The next trip for Sandy is at the end of this month for Logan's Run which is a private event that our local club puts on. I have a laundry list of things to do on the truck before then so I worked on crossing a few of them off this week.

I did a valve adjustment before GSMTR earlier this year but, being my first time doing valves, I think I overcompensated with the screwdriver while I tightened the nut on a few of them and made them loosen up as I just checked them again and 4 valves needed to be tightened up. I also used the trick of bumping the truck back and forth in 4th gear to rotate the engine and that made it extremely easy to turn over.

As you can see, my shiny engine bay is still showing signs of mud from GSMTR.

View attachment 3105132

Next up was finally replacing my brake booster. I did the entire braking system minus hard lines from front to back when I redid my axles but the initial booster I purchased was defective and I just now got around to installing the warranty replacement. I'm shocked at how good the brakes are now with a functioning booster. It'll lock up the tires and the pedal feel is much softer now. I did some fine tuning of the booster rod and I think it needs a smidge more adjustment then it'll be good to go and it'll get locked down with all 4 nuts.
View attachment 3105141

And what came out. Old and nasty
View attachment 3105142


Next up was to repair some of the damage from GSMTR. I ran out of time before the event and didn't get a chance to trim my ubolts after replacing them. As predicted, I caught them on a rock and bent one all to hell and it stretched the bolt a good bit. Had to cut it out and put two new ones in.
View attachment 3105139

Lastly I finally replaced my "break-in" H55 trans fluid. I lubed it up initially with some store fluid for the 500 mile break in. After 1500 miles I finally got around to replacing it with some Mobil Delvac SAE50 goodness
View attachment 3105140



The rest of the to-do list is mainly comfort items like lowering the GMRS radio mount, maybe making a 2nd row extension for my drawer setup, and the stretch goal is to strip and re-paint the Kaymar bumper and mount it.

How does your H55 behave with this fluid?
What made you choose this over all the other 80-90w such as Redline?

Great looking truck too...hope to see it around!

 

[Hokie LX]

How does your H55 behave with this fluid?
What made you choose this over all the other 80-90w such as Redline?

Great looking truck too...hope to see it around!

Seems to be happy with it. A couple gears are still a bit notchy but I've only got ~2k miles on the trans so far.

I chose it just due to some good reviews on Mud and Bobistheoilguy. I'd also read that the Mobil 50 is on the heavier end of the scale relative to the other 80-90w Gl4 options.

 

[Hokie LX]

Fall Crawl was the last event of the year so the truck has been sitting in the garage. Well, boredom combined with hanging out in the garage with a flat blade screwdriver one day led me to poke at the roof rust on the truck to see the true state of it. When I bought the truck, I knew it had some roof rust and the bubbles could be seen through the paint. Things got a little out of hand and I opened a can of worms that I knew I wanted to address properly at some point. That point is now. I had picked up a 100% rust free tan roof earlier in 2022 in anticipation of this job and it's been hanging in the ceiling of my garage waiting.

For background...the PO told me that his buddy was a body man and addressed the roof rust a decade ago or so. Come to find out that they never neutralized the rust and basically just bondo'd the rust holes and resprayed the roof. Predictably, the rust returned.

Some pics after poking with the screwdriver and grinding down some of the paint/bondo. The two bad areas are above the passenger rear door where the gutter seam is and along the back above the hatch. I cut out the headliner which will be replaced with a SOR replacement I ordered yesterday and started checking out the interior structure which was in great shape. The inner area above the passenger rear door will need a small patch but otherwise it's in great shape and easily savable. Given this, I consulted with @GLTHFJ60 and we decided that a roof skin swap from my donor roof and some light rust repair on the existing inner structure was the way to go and would address all of the rust.

 

[Hokie LX]

Obviously, next up was to pull the windshield and get the factory roof skin off. I used some rotabroach bits to drill out the spot welds which worked a treat. The skin is spot welded all the way around and then brazed on at the a-pillars. You can see the seam when you remove the windshield. I used a dremel and cutting wheel to address that. I was relieved to see that the windshield channel was relatively clean also.

With the skin off I confirmed that the inner structure was good. There is some surface rust along the area where the roof skin sat on the gutter and a couple other spots which will be easily addressed with a wire wheel.

Next steps are to grind down any surface rust, patch the one spot above the passenger rear door and then neutralize everything. Pic of the hole needing patching below.

Once the rust is neutralized, the donor roof skin will get cut off and welded onto the existing structure. I have ordered some 3M products to reseal the drip rail after all said and done.

I'll keep the thread updated as the project moves along.

 

[dnp]

Obviously, next up was to pull the windshield and get the factory roof skin off. I used some rotabroach bits to drill out the spot welds which worked a treat. The skin is spot welded all the way around and then brazed on at the a-pillars. You can see the seam when you remove the windshield. I used a dremel and cutting wheel to address that. I was relieved to see that the windshield channel was relatively clean also.

View attachment 3210974

View attachment 3210981

With the skin off I confirmed that the inner structure was good. There is some surface rust along the area where the roof skin sat on the gutter and a couple other spots which will be easily addressed with a wire wheel.

Next steps are to grind down any surface rust, patch the one spot above the passenger rear door and then neutralize everything. Pic of the hole needing patching below.
View attachment 3210983

Once the rust is neutralized, the donor roof skin will get cut off and welded onto the existing structure. I have ordered some 3M products to reseal the drip rail after all said and done.

I'll keep the thread updated as the project moves along.

Very impressive work! That's the cleanest roof panel swap I've seen!

 

[Hokierig]

Haircut! Hope you drove around with the roof off for a bit just to feel the wind in your hair.

 

[CenTXFJ60]

The only way to correctly repair a roof. Nothing wrong with patching in place but now you know with confidence there’s no other issues. Very nice work and appreciate you documenting it here for all of us.

 

[Hokie LX]

The only way to correctly repair a roof. Nothing wrong with patching in place but now you know with confidence there’s no other issues. Very nice work and appreciate you documenting it here for all of us.

Agreed. I had briefly considered trying to patch the outer skin but I had a donor roof already and this way I can get eyes on the inner structure to see what the true state of the whole roof is. This way I'll have confidence that the repair is correct and will last a long time going forward.

 

[cruisermatt]

were you able to remove the old roof skin cleanly enough that it would be possible to patch it and re weld back on, if you didn’t have a donor roof? I would imagine it wouldn’t be that hard off the truck.

 

[CenTXFJ60]

Dam…finally read from the beginning of your thread. Great work. You mentioned SAS early on…when are you going to make the trip out west?

 

[Hokie LX]

were you able to remove the old roof skin cleanly enough that it would be possible to patch it and re weld back on, if you didn’t have a donor roof? I would imagine it wouldn’t be that hard off the truck.

Yeah I could have reused the old skin and patched it. My "rust free" donor roof that I bought earlier in 2022 from someone turned out to not be rust free. Looked fine outside but, once I got the skin off, the inside was rusty whereas my factory roof skin looked rusty outside and was good inside. The donor skin is still in better shape than the factory one so I still plan to use it. It would be infinitely easier to patch it off the truck if someone didn't have a donor roof. Plus with the drip rails needing to be refilled on most of these trucks, given relatively low amount of effort it takes to remove the skin, there's no reason not to take it off for any type of roof rust repair. It allows you to check out the inner structure and repair it correctly.

Dam…finally read from the beginning of your thread. Great work. You mentioned SAS early on…when are you going to make the trip out west?

Thanks! I went in 2021 with my brother @Hokierig in his FJ62 and that trip was what convinced me to get a 60 and make the trip back out for SAS with the new truck. I was planning to go last year which is why I got the truck turned around and baselined relatively quickly but life happened so it didn't work out which is unfortunately the same story this year most likely. Maybe 2024 I'll make it out. I really want to take the truck out there since that was the original goal.