Slow 71 Build

[Mseitz20]

Figure its about time to make a thread for this. I bought my first Land Cruiser out of New York back in June of 2014 it was manufactured 4/71. When I bought it I was told it had a 454 with a th350 to a 3 speed case, with stock open diffs with 4.11s and discs from a chevy 1/2 ton, it is stock height with brand new 285/70r17 km2s on american racing wheels. It was a really really clean cruiser especially for being from New England for at least the past 15 years. The wiring was seriously hacked together, so I ripped it out and put an American Auto Wire harness in it(I really like it). A few months went along with my daily driving it without any hiccups, but then in September, I blew the transmission in it driving normally on the road. At that point I pushed it into the garage and decided I would swap out the tranny and all fluids. That was when I found out it was actually a turbo 400, had a limited slip rear, and a detroit front, and the discs on it were in fact from a 76. Then I decided to pull off the tub because lots of small things were done wrong or missing so I figured ill do it right so I don't have to do it again. I have a rebuilt turbo 475 out of an rv (same as 400 just has straight cut gears) and will soon have an orion case once taxes come it. Right now the tub is off the frame and I'm in the process of replacing suspension bushings, undercoating it, and redoing body mounts. I plan on repainting it next year and hopefully then do an soa with maybe 37's.

 

[Mseitz20]

I also added a Metaltech roll bar that I plan to complete with their front portion kit soon, and a redline front bumper. Heres what happened to the original turbo 400.

 

[JohnnyC]

I remember seeing that one for sale... You can't miss the flames

Looks like the cruiser is in good hands... Post up more of the build... We'd love to see

 

[Mseitz20]

Today I finally got my new Advance Adapters crossmember to replace my old propeller type crossmember which is the reason my th400 broke. Also picked up an Advance adapters land cruiser power steering drag link, a cj7 flat pitman arm, and a cj7 drag link end, not sure why the pitman arm is $92.40 through them, but I paid $10 at my local jeep shop. Also not sure why the po of this cruiser used a 4 inch drop pitman arm and sleeved it to fit a 40 series end, but time to fix that.

 

[Mseitz20]

Just mailed all the donor parts for an Orion case to Georg at Valley Hybrids. I can't wait to get my Orion.

 

[cseitz]

Seitz? As in last name Seitz? We must be related somehow....Good lookin rig you got there.

 

[Mseitz20]

Yeah my last name is Seitz, we could be related, who knows!

 

[Mseitz20]

just got this picture from Georg, he finished building my case so it should be in the mail soon, so this build should start to make actual progress in a week or so.

 

[Mseitz20]

I pulled the tub off of my frame today so I could clean up my frame and redo all of my bad body mounts. Also started to pull all of the dynamat extreme out, that's a pain in the butt, truly an awful thing to take off. My hunch was also right in that the dynamat was put on wrong so it trapped moisture underneath and theres some rust under all of the dynamat. The frame really surprised me with how clean it was, considering according to the po the last 10 years its been in New York as a winter driver.

 

[Downey]

A crack from high torque twist would normally run fore and aft, starting at a bolt hole. The rear propeller mount was designed to prevent torque twist on your side-thruster transfer-case, thus eliminating cracked bell housings. Your crack runs around the circumference, which would be caused by a long non-supported span. You could blame the propeller mount, but if you look into the crack and see any old grease/oil in the crack, you'll see that the tranny case already had a crack started many moons ago. Normally Chevotas do not get a crack from a long non-supported span when all of the pieces in the span are bolted tightly together because each piece supports the other, i.e. each piece is stronger than itself since it also has the strength of it's neighbor holding it in place- - - just saying.

 

[orangefj45]

That's a pretty uncommon failure for a TH400/475.
These transmission cases are very strong even though the break passed right thru the speedo and governor bores.
You'd be more likely to see that kind if breakage on a th350 or th700.
Makes me wonder if the issue was caused by an internal failure ( rear planet?! ) which then caused the case to crack open.
I'd the crack was there for a long time, you would have had a leak. The cooler return line dumps back into the case at the governor ...... so there's a lot of fluid passing thru that area.
Either way, I don't like having that much "span" between the mounts and prefer to run a single rear mount under the transmission or adapter. Pretty much the same way most 4wd vehicles are set up including cruisers after mid 1980......
Georg @ Valley Hybrids

 

[Downey]

I agree with Georg regarding the long span (I don't like it either), but because the Landcruiser transfer-case is a side thruster (always trying to spin around in a circle behind the tranny), Chevota guys were cracking GM bell housings right and left without the propeller mount, that's why it was invented.

 

[orangefj45]

I think a lot of the bell housing cracking issues were due to people running 2wd transmission cases with the stamped tin torque converter inspection covers instead of the 4wd cases with the cast aluminum inspection covers.
I've seen the same issues in other vehicles including 2 of my own that weren't cruisers......

 

[Mseitz20]

What seems to be the consensus here? I have my propeller crossmember still, but have one that supports from the adapter I was going to use.

 

[orangefj45]

Use the one that goes under the adapter and get rid of the propellor mount.

Georg @ Valley Hybrids

 

[Mseitz20]

That's what I figured, just wanted to be sure considering I have a nice chunk of money invested in building the turbo 475 and the Orion. Thanks again Georg for building my Orion.

 

[orangefj45]

Anytime! I appreciate your willingness to ship the tcase to all the way to the right coast to have me build it for you!!!!!

Georg @ Valley Hybrids

 

[Mseitz20]

Got my Orion today, quite a heavy box. Going to spend the next few days setting up my drive line, got twin sticks, can't wait to try out this case!

 

[Mseitz20]

Got a new flex plate, torque converter, and transmission mounted up today. Should hopefully have the case and driveshafts in tomorrow.

 

[orangefj45]

You're making good progress!!!