Made it to Tok, the customs folks were very complimentary about the truck.
After I stopped at Tok decided to check out a local mechanic, nice guy but he didn’t have much new information for me except perhaps the coil was old and tired. Truck running very rough and terrible to start. On the way back from the mechanic noticed the voltage was 12.5, anytime driving should be at 14.5.
That’s it! I called it at Tok. No further abuse of an FJ40.
Now to get it back to Texas. Tok is about 190 miles from Fairbanks, so looked around and found a truck and car carrier in the North Pole, a suburb of Fairbanks. To get from Tok to Fairbanks I looked at a bus, uber,
View attachment 3927105and hiring a local to drive me there. Turned out the best way to pick up a U-Haul truck in Tok and one way to the U-Haul in North Pole. Around a three hour drive or so, mostly excellent roads the whole way. Got to the dealer, and the U-Haul website was down, AND my credit card was declined. Made some phone calls, and after 3 hours had a truck and car carrier on my way back to Tok for the night. The land of the midnight sun is true, made it back by 9:30 still daylight.
Next morning used an old school trick of using the starter in first gear to get the truck loaded on the car carrier. Probably killed my battery and perhaps the starter, but it worked a charm.
Tied everything down with some extra ratchet straps in addition to the normal tie downs, and headed back to Haines Junction for the first night. The road is very rough so took it slow with the loaded trailer and stopped every hour or so to check the tie downs.
Had some freezing rain , snow on my windshield, on the way after Beaver Creek. Felt sorry for the motorcycle riders, and perhaps half a dozen bike riders.
The strange feeling with the U-Haul truck is I can see the outside edge of the trailer, but not the FJ40 itself.
Stopped at Haines Junction again for the night and came across a guy going to Alaska with an old GMC he wants to restore
View attachment 3927106
I’ve started thinking about what needs to be done.
Clean everything first, including the K&N air filter and reoil it.
Check/ replace alternator, it is a reman from Wilson. There is a local alternator shop that should be able to test it, but a suitable alternator is not that expensive.
Check tappet/valve clearances.
Compression test, and perhaps a leak down test.
Verify timing with timing light.
Replace fuel filter
At the risk of throwing the parts canon at it, new plugs, wires, dist cap, rotor, coil. Even if something else is wrong, I never replaced the plug leads or coil when I got the truck.
Reset the sniper by running the wizard.
Thoughts and suggestions welcomed from the experts
