TekTEQ

[65swb45]

As this thread progresses, the title will become apparent

I did a remote inspection on this 1964 frame-off ‘restoration’ about a month ago, a referral that badly needed brake work. Really shiny ten footer as the saying goes. As soon as I opened the hood, I knew that it was far from a restoration.

Weber carb with a wooden insulator, generic four blade metal fan in a dented up shroud, aluminum radiator with the typical corrosion where the hoses connect, cheesy wiring insulation yada yada. But what really caught my eye was that the early aprons with the perpendicular braces were attached to much newer fenders…with teks screws! :barf:

As the inspection continued, I discovered that wherever the ‘builder’ ran into an issue in what had to be a quick and dirty reassembly, their solution of choice was more tek screws. :sad:

I will be documenting the repairs here mostly for the client (since I don’t do emails) but y’all are welcome to be the voyeurs in this object lesson that not all 40s with nightmarish builds are SA. Once I fully document the nightmare, I’d venture a guess that it probably gives @dmaddox a ‘ run for the money’ with what he started with.

 

[65swb45]

Just before the inspection ended, I reached into the engine bay for a perfunctory wiggle of the fan blade. I was not expecting it to rotate! I looked down and sure enough, the harmonic balancer was loose. So I reached in and down to it, only to discover that it was a replacement HB from a newer LC that requires a locknut; the 1964 engine uses a press-on HB. So, the brake job got immediately pushed down the list, as this pulley is literally in imminent danger of falling off the engine!

The plan is to pull the bib and radiator, and drill the crankshaft to accept a bolt and install a press on pulley that has had the claw machined off of it. I basically had to do the same job on Ruftoys about 35 years ago at the beginning of my adventures in deferred/poor maintenance.

 

[65swb45]

The newer fenders of course did not have the threaded holes for the wiring blocks that Toyota used to facilitate the removal of the bib. So our would-be restorer, rather than drilling holes for them, cut all the terminal leads, twisted the wires together and covered them with electrical tape

 

[65swb45]

The ten footer

 

[65swb45]

Got the front bib, radiator and core support out. A few choice words for the assembler’s choices of materials, and I got the HB off. Thankfully, the brunt of the damage was as to the key. Murphy must have been on vacation.

 

[65swb45]

It’s been a long time since I had to drill and tap a crank. Long enough that I had forgotten how nerve wracking it was, turning the tap an eighth of a turn and backing it out again, over and over, to hopefully ensure not breaking the tap off inside the crank.

 

[65swb45]

Over an hour later, the deed was done.

 

[65swb45]

Three of the timing cover bolts had no washers. And one of the bolts had 4 washers! Yup, you guessed it. Knuckledragger tried to put one of the ‘long’ bolts that threads through into the block into a short hole, so he had to borrow three washers to get it to fit.

 

[65swb45]

Well, the engine bay is all tidied up now, with a 4 core OEM radiator and Vintage TEQ overflow bottle, factory radiator support rod, proper cushions under the core support and OE wiring blocks for the front lights. Time to move on to the axles.

Factory rims are on order, and should be here by the end of the week. That is a very good thing, because the alloy rims that are on the truck now are SO thick that the lug nuts only have about five threads of purchase on the studs! Because the nuts are open, you can literally look right down the hole and see all the empty threads.

She literally had no idea until I made her look at them. I have a saying that applies here:

Once you know, you can’t not know.

 

[65swb45]

When I pulled the rear tires off, I saw that, rather than no-expense spared, it was another case of no-time spared. They literally spray painted over the lip of dirt on the drum that would have taken 10 seconds to knock off before the cheesy spray You can see the 1/2” of brown dirt that I knocked of with a flathead screwdriver to show her.

 

[65swb45]

Snowball. Pulled the drums, and it was pretty obvious that the axle seals were leaking. Pulled the differential cover so I could remove the axleshafts and found a rusty rear 3rd.

 

[65swb45]

I have to wonder how many users on this forum fire up a truck that has been sitting for a decade or more, sort out the carb, dizzy and valvetrain without checking out the trans, transfer and rear end.

 

[65swb45]

New 3rd is installed, and brakes are done, including having to replace the left rear brake tube, which had two kinks in it

I will be taking a couple of weeks off from working on this truck to try and push through the rewiring of my office, along with evaluating the next project 40.

 

[65swb45]

I did do something noteworthy before sealing the rear diff cover back up.

The 1964 and older Landcruisers (and probably early '65 too) utilized 8mm mounting studs for the 3rd member and 8mm bolts for the diff cover. All the 1965 and newer use 10mm studs on both sides. The 8mm bolts had rubberized washers underneath the bolt heads, very similar (if not identical to the washers on the side cover of the early steering boxes). The washers were of course shot after 60 years, and new ones are NLA.

I have lived with a persistent leak in the rear of my '64 lwb45 since the first time I had to open it up and had to abandon the rubberized washers. So I have often pondered alternatives.

The clutch driven water pump fans utilize 8mm studs to hold the clutch to the water pump. Hmmm. So I ordered a set of water pump studs, covered the threads that would go into the axle housing with fipg, and installed them with a stud socket. I'm pretty pleased with the result, and hoping to recommend it as a long term solution for all early LC owners once we've got some miles on the rig.