The Life & Times of Shasta (86 FJ60 conversion to HJ60)

[mtweller]

Sooooo, where's our update / mileage report / impressions after driving for a while??? C'mon Tim, losing your touch

 

[ontherxs]

Well all I can say is this.

"Daddy hold on - Shasta is making a shrieking sound"
"A shrieking sound?" "Ok, where in the front or back?"
"In the front. When you mash on the..." "What do you call it?"
"The gas pedal, the throttle?"
"Yes, that!"
"Ok, thanks sweetheart, its really cold out - it's probably just the belt thats loose"
"We'll let it warm up and see if its still making that sound"
15 minutes later in carpool
"Still doing it?"
"YESSS!"
I thought everyone was staring cause it's such a sweet rig.


Well.. just a bit more than that on closer inspection.

The bracket I modified sheared off causing the alt to turn in and the belt to rub. Funny thing it was still working fine. Going to fix it this weekend.

Otherwise, we're about 60 miles past the injector rebuild and Shasta is running great. No more pinging sound and the alternator is working now too.

Still need to put the good exhaust on and patch the rear quarters. After that, looks like I'm way overdue on a knuckle rebuild.

 

[NCFJ]

Tim, I am bringing two front doors up to the X-mas party for Johnny, do you still want that tail gate?

 

[ontherxs]

Tim, I am bringing two front doors up to the X-mas party for Johnny, do you still want that tail gate?

Remind me what you have. I need an the upper preferably in white. PM me with a price. Did your wife get those 60 twede seat covers sorted out? Excited to hear more on that.

 

[NCFJ]

I have the upper lift hatch and the lower tail gate, both in silver (white paint is easy). Heather has not been spending much time with seat covers lately as business has been booming on the restaurant side and she has not had the time. On the back burner for now but still simmering.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

The alternator is fixed now!! Where are the pics?

 

[ontherxs]

Johnny to the rescue.
Mission of the day: Repair the sheared alternator bracket.

Here is a look at the broken bracket. When I modified it to fit the non-toyota alternator, I cut out a corner that tuned out to be pretty important to the structural integrity of the bracket.

After a good cleaning, edges were beveled to add some surface area to for the welds.

 

[ontherxs]

Next step, weld the pieces back together.

To add some strength Johnny boxed in the bracket.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

The work pieces were not pre-heated, but they were wrapped and allowed to cool for a couple of hours after each weld process (first was filling the crack from both sides, second was adding the square reinforcement).

 

[ontherxs]

And finally a bit of paint and it was done. This process took a very long time because we had to let the forged bracket cool gradually to it wouldn't crack. Turned out very well and went back in fairly easily all things considered.

I'll take some more pictures of the Alt in place later today.

Johnny. As always, thank you. It was nice to work on that new welding table

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Anytime brother!!

 

[ontherxs]

Shasta's first trip wheeling - ONSC XMAS Party December 2015 Fun times, good friends, carnage

Loading up

Arrival at the barn

Sleeping accommodations set up.

Pre-trail pit meetup

Half way up Dickey Bell

 

[ontherxs]

Time to break $h*#t

 

[lt1fire]

Hopefully you will have the truck good as new soon.

Good talking to you a bit and great to meet another beer lover. I'll try to find something good for the meet and great

 

[ontherxs]

Update time. While waiting to finally make a decision to move forward with a new suspension for Shasta I have completed a few small projects.

Over the holiday break I installed the Wired Wagon Ultimate harness and it is ultimate from @slcfj62 Here is more detail -> https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/headlight-wire-harness-fj60-and-fj62.354712/

The primary issue was a low output light on the DS and almost no light on the PS. I also had the common issue of the high beams switch killing all light when engaged. I originally attempted this The Life & Times of Shasta (86 FJ60 conversion to HJ60) proedure which fixed the high beam issue but only for a short period. I figured I'd maybe skipped a step and add it to my list to repeat. Turns out I didn't need to.

The harness works great and looks great. Turns out the harness also solved my high beam problem. The original wiring harness connector to the driver side light was original and pretty beat up. My guess is that is was corroded to the point it was not passing voltage to the passenger side to engage the high beam. Note that the DS headlight provides voltage to the PS to engage the high beams

Now that the original harness is only used to provide switch and I replaced connector, both lights are getting clean glorious power.

Pics..

 

[ontherxs]

Light glorious light

 

[lowtops]

I want to say Thank You for the beer you left me at the HAMOM. (Event Horizon) It was tasty and put a little more hair on my chest. Now if you can find one that will put hair on my head...

 

[ontherxs]

thats a mother of beer. Glad you enjoyed it. I also learned how to do a knuckle rebuild so now I'm confident I will pass the time honored LC right of passage.

 

[ontherxs]

Also got some time to put it a Christmas present I got from a good friend. The Tiny Tach. Looks like the unit I got may be defective but the folks at Tiny Tach were very responsive so a new one is on the way. Good news is I've installed it and wired it then rewired, then checked all my connection and re-wired a third time, so I have plenty of practice now when the replacement lands.

Pics...

Upside down but this is just measuring, cutting, sanding

removed the guts of the old tach

 

[ontherxs]

A little wiring and painting and its not so bad.

Thanks JC!