Stock 1974 FJ40 for an African roadtrip to Morocco? (5 Viewers)

[flx]

When I did the initial (partial) restoration of my family FJ40 in 2020, the main goal was always to regain the confidence to take it in any distance trip and be ready for any adventure.

Since then, in 2021 I took it in a trip across the Pyrenees along the French-Spanish border.

In 2022 I took it in a trip across the Alps along the old military tracks and forts in France and Italy.

Earlier this year in 2023 I did a big loop in France up north to Paris and back to the south.

So now it is time for a new adventure, to go further and really put to the test the roadtrip capability of my FJ40.
It is time to change continent... This how I started drafting a rough map to explore Morocco, from the most eastern settlement, to the high Atlas mountain, passing by the Sahara desert. The loop isn't complete because the route and timing will change so the end will have to be reworked by the time I'm there...

This how I ended up in Sète, France, lining up to board a ship that will bring me to Nador, Morocco 40h later.

I guess we will soon know if it was a good idea and how many technical issues I'll encounter...

 

[mattressking]

Well done! This is how it’s done

 

[RevISK]

This will be fun to follow along.

My time in Morocco was, shall we say, adventurous to say the least. Keep your wits about you.

 

[flx]

Oh and BTW, did I forgot to mention that I'm going solo for this trip. No other car with me, no co-pilot.
Off course I plan to meet people other travelers on the road and I already planned to participate to at least one event.

Here is my simple setup for this trip:
(I often wanted to build a more "structured" one but as between the trips I install back the jump seats and it gets used for a more "general" usage I never bothered.)

On the small MaxTrax it's very hard to get a real opinion if they are any useful or too short for that... But just in case I also took the linking kit allowing to connect them together, so I have the choice between 4 shorts or 2 longs.... I hope it will be enough for when I get stuck in soft sand in a far south remote track with no one around...
Anyway the long ones would mean I need to install the roofrack to transport them... not very appealing as much as I can avoid it.

Time to board the ship... look at that turn radius of the 40

I'm well surrounded...

This is my nice Jr suite cabine with front view to spend the next 40h....

I was afraid to get very bored in the middle of the sea for 40h... But soon after getting on the boat I receive a message with this picture

Some friends of a friend that I met a few times are on the same boat and saw me while queuing for customs...
And guess what? They are in the cabine next door!

So those 40h ended up passing quite quickly between the 2 nights, time spent chatting, eating, drinking.... and the queues to pre-do the customs entry and vehicle temporary import (long queues but very nice to be able to do it on the boat and not lose time on arrival).

Finally Morocco is in sight

But we have to wait before to be allowed to enter the port, Moroccan authority want to check the boat for bedbugs (as it has been a big topic in Europe lately)... Not sure what could they do if they found some on a boat with >1000 people on board...

After waiting 2h we quickly enter Morocco and go get some local sim and cash.
We go for a lunch together in Nador, but then our path separate, our plans are different.

Now I'm on my own and my adventure really starts.

 

[flx]

This first day objective is to get as much south as possible, if possible to Tendrara where I plan to start the pistes.

It's a lot of road to cover and in the afternoon it's scorching hot. It's supposed to be the in-between season not hell hot in the desert and before the high Atlas passes are blocked by snow but Morocco suffers the same heat wave than Europe.

Hot like summer but there is no doubt winter is coming, the sun is disappearing early and quickly. I arrived in Tendrara as the night start, time to fuel up for everything I have (62L stock tank + 2 Jerrycan), in prevision of my first crossing of a deserting area tomorrow, and I go toward an abandoned train station I had spotted before to camp.
It's already pitch black and wind seriously got up, not really the ideal situation for a first camp and first try of my swag but I succeed to install it and quickly go to shelter in the swag after a few bites of whatever I had under hand.


Wind will stay high for a long part of the night, shaking the swag, but it holds good and provides a good feeling of safety.


In the morning the wind completely disappeared and I can finally discover my environment with the rising sun...

 

[RevISK]

So. Very. Rad.

 

[cbmontgo]

Fantastic. Looking forward to following this.

 

[franklin40]

you are a brave soul passing that loaded truck while videoing it!! your steering must be so much tighter than mine . guess that’s something i’ll have to look at now.

i’ll be watching this thread and your progress with great interest. safe travels!

 

[Green Bean]

Very much following your amazing journey.

 

[newmexicokid]

Dude. I would love to see the restoration of that thing. So cool.

 

[PA80]

Looks like a cool trip! I did Mozambique/South Africa in a 2003 Tacoma, and Israel/Jordan in a 1995 T-100 and they both were a blast.

 

[kash]

any more Youtube

 

[flx]

Thanks for the support, I'll try to keep the pace!

Dude. I would love to see the restoration of that thing. So cool.

I never really did a dedicated thread for my truck but I have technical threads I did during the restoration for the issues/question I had when I was still a newbie in the FJ40 world x)

Discussing my engines issues and what we did to it, many pictures of the engine and on the end of the topic there are some pictures of the body/chassis restoration process as a bonus:

1974 F.5 engine redemption

Hello, I'm on the way of a renovation of my 1974 FJ40 (Euro spec). The target is to make my family Cruiser ready for another 30 years of good services but not to do a museum perfect piece. While the body is being sanded my mechanic took the compressions on the engine and they are not as good...

forum.ih8mud.com

Trying to figure out my water pump and how I can replace it (spoiler alert I'm still running a weird euro-spec WP from 1977 ), I also give the history of my family truck and some old picture:

Water pump for 74' euro-spec

Hello, Long time reader of ih8mud but this is my very first public post :) I own a 1974 FJ40, originally sold in France and in my family since 76, that I begin to restore. I was thinking that being there it could be a good idea to preventively replace the water pump but here start the question...

forum.ih8mud.com

Main restoration we only did the body, the chassis, new suspension, and the valves on the engine.
Everything else is still original, gearbox and diffs have never been opened of the life of the truck, I'm still running a waterpump installed in 1977 with a weird non-thermal fan clutch, all u-joints are still factory original....

Since this main restoration during the covid lockdown I kept doing thing (everytime I do one thing I find 2 mores to add to the to-do list...).
I changed the seats from the dealer installed Bostrom suspension seats to an original 3-seater front bench (after having restored the Bostrom...) and geeked on the variations between the drivers seats on 1973, 1974, and 1975...

Front bench or not?

Hi, As the resto of my truck is progressing I have to take care of the seats if I want something nice to enjoy driving it soon. I'm hesitating in which configuration to put back my truck as of front seating. I'll talk after of the originality and specificity of my truck but first a generic...

forum.ih8mud.com

For this trip I hesitated to reinstall a Bostrom for the driver but haven't by laziness and to keep the easy access behind the driver seat.... My back is regretting a little bit at this point....

Last year I finally found the courage to tackle the carburetor restoration by myself (and what a difference it did!)::

Carburetor rebuild: ball bearing check valve missing

Hi, I finally decided to try to rebuild my carb myself. Original carb 1974 FJ40, carb build date 3J2, PN 21100-60300 Carb was working ok but not able to get down to idle speed (minimum 800rpm and idle mixture screw doing nothing) so probably some junk blocking the circuit. Maybe an...

forum.ih8mud.com

I had parking brake issues also at some point, I ended up completely rebuilding it with new internal parts (but I see that I did not updated the thread):

Parking brake won't let me back off

Hi, Background : My 1974 FJ40 saw some good offroad actions in a 40 series meetup, then came back home normally, was parked (parking brake on) and sat for a month without being used (not planned but that's life...). So after 1 month I start back my FJ40 and drive directly forward, I actually...

forum.ih8mud.com

Last things I've done just before going for this trip are changing my leaking front drums by 1981 FJ45 drums:

FJ40 brake drum compatibility across years

Which wheel bearing hubs and spindles and birfields did you use? I was assuming those had to change but it sounds like not? Stock for 10/1973 build date. I took a maximum of measurements before to commission my garage to do the work, so I was like 80% convinced it should work. All pictures...

forum.ih8mud.com

And changing my original exhaust that was starting to fall to pieces...

Was a total PITA... the new silencer is OEM but I discovered that the soldering inside the in/out ports were not trimmed/cleaned and were blocking the tubes to fit correctly in... I checked my original one and those used to be perfectly trimmed inside.... so much for OEM parts....

any more Youtube

I did more clips but the vast majority are views from the windscreen so can get boring... I try to motivate myself to put the camera on tripod to film externally some passages but that takes soooooo much time

 

[bryce112]

Looks amazing - Godspeed.

 

[sogafarm]

Still rocking the front drum brakes! Your going to blow some minds here! Awsome adventure and will be following your progress with eager anticipation. Great to see someone using these old 40’s for what they were built for. Hope you have a very safe journey my friend.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Great adventure for sure. I've been to Marrakesh and the phosphate mines that are north of there. Would have loved to have seen more of the country but it was a few days business trip with no extra time to explore. We did spend some time in the Maarakesh Souk though. That was interesting to say the least.

I hope your trip goes without issues!

 

[flx]

Still rocking the front drum brakes! Your going to blow some minds here!

Haha with the giant front drums of a 45 and wheel cylinders that don't leak it really brakes good and straight

Great adventure for sure. I've been to Marrakesh and the phosphate mines that are north of there. Would have loved to have seen more of the country but it was a few days business trip with no extra time to explore. We did spend some time in the Maarakesh Souk though. That was interesting to say the least.

I hope your trip goes without issues!

There are loads of 150 Prado rentals used to do short trips in the desert or Atlas, they are a good solution for short trips!

 

[405]

Amazing. This is the kind of trip 40 owners dream of! Thank you for documenting it.

 

[flx]

This day objective is to go toward Ich, the most eastern Moroccan settlement surrounded by Algeria. And depending of time, starting the piste toward Figuig. I have no idea what will be my average speed on the tracks here...
To go to Ich I will cut through the desert for 100km to then join back a road that goes to Ich (and yes I could do all of this on road passing by Bouarfa but where will be the fun?).

This first drive in the desert with no one around, tracks that splits and go who knows where, is really a time to wonder if I'm not doing silly choices. Do I really know where I'm going!? Will I get stuck at the first patch of soft sand? Will I overheat?

Arriving to my first landmark, the famous Chott Tigri.
It's an intermittent body of salted water in a depression in the middle of the desert. There is a pumping station bringing back water to the surface all year long for the local population and their animals (camels, donkeys and goats).

The few local population traveling I encounter all use the same old Ford trucks, this is specific to this area only. I guess all having the same model in a locality must help for the knowledge and having parts available...
I saw those guys stopped in the middle of the piste, broken down. I stopped to check what was the issue and if they needed something... they broke a u-joint on the driveline... The youngest (not on the picture, he was under the truck) was already in the process of dismantling it. They were confident that it was not a problem and needed nothing.

Some parts are very flat, made of compacted sand, and push to drive very quickly but I quickly learn that you always need to be vigilant... In the middle of a big flat area you can have a little wadi cutting the road. You generally notice them quite late and arriving too fast on them with the 40 is definitely not a good experience...

A compilation of few clips for those liking them... 4 are still missing and will be added at some point because I reached my upload limit on Youtube........



After the piste I join back the road that will bring me to Ich, it's a bit of a canyon road, a very different sight from the desert crossing before.
I end up reaching Ich around 14h, earlier that I thought.

There is a village celebration around a giant couscous and the organizer tries to invite me. But between all the driving and the heat I'm not hungry at all and considering the time I'm thinking that I may be able to reach Figuig today.
If I'm in Figuig before the night I could find myself a nice auberge and I would have time in the morning to visit Figuig.

 

[royal cake]

This is fascinating. Once in a lifetime experience not that many people get to see for themselves, myself included. Very interesting to see the local terrain first hand- I wouldn’t even know how to plan for a trip like this.
There is something innate about exploring; thanks for sharing so we can live through you even briefly