Build "The Milk Truck" FJ45 Preservation Sorta

[Tank5]

ok cool. I'm personally sticking with the a650e that came in my LS400 and making an adapter for the tcase. keeps the wiring simpler. is the 100 series a750 going to talk nicely with the harness you have? I find the wiring is some of the most tedious, time consuming and frustrating aspects of any build so I try and keep it as simple as possible.

The 100 series land cruiser came with the A750F from 2003 to 2006 I believe. The harness and ECU I am using has been modified but is out of a 2003 4runner that came with a 2uz and A750F transmission it was 2wd drive though. I will have to wire the center diff lock and tcase signals separately which I hope is not difficult. I have not got to that part yet.

 

[DangerNoodle]

The 100 series land cruiser came with the A750F from 2003 to 2006 I believe. The harness and ECU I am using has been modified but is out of a 2003 4runner that came with a 2uz and A750F transmission it was 2wd drive though. I will have to wire the center diff lock and tcase signals separately which I hope is not difficult. I have not got to that part yet.

I'd bet that it will be better that way, wired separately. I'd prefer to not let the computer have control over that stuff anyway.

 

[Vossie]

The 100 series land cruiser came with the A750F from 2003 to 2006 I believe. The harness and ECU I am using has been modified but is out of a 2003 4runner that came with a 2uz and A750F transmission it was 2wd drive though. I will have to wire the center diff lock and tcase signals separately which I hope is not difficult. I have not got to that part yet.

Oh ja, that should work. I keep forgetting you guys get 4runners with uz's in them. The biggest and latest 4runners we get down our way is the 4th gen with the v6.

 

[Tank5]

I'd bet that it will be better that way, wired separately. I'd prefer to not let the computer have control over that stuff anyway.

Agreed, I went with Harrop lockers front and back, so plan will be to have three switches on the dash front, center, and rear to lock everything individually.

Oh ja, that should work. I keep forgetting you guys get 4runners with uz's in them. The biggest and latest 4runners we get down our way is the 4th gen with the v6.

Normally you guys get all the good stuff, I suppose the V8 4runner was good while it lasted.

 

[Vossie]

Normally you guys get all the good stuff, I suppose the V8 4runner was good while it lasted.

Haha, we got some some good stuff, but I've always been jealous of the access you guys have to aftermarket and parts in general. If I want to put a dakota gauge set in my 45 it's the usual list price of a $1k, add about $600 for shipping and then the duties will double that. Almost cheaper for me to fly there and put it in my suitcase! And don't even get me started on heavier parts and kits!!

 

[Zjohnsonua]

I will have to wire the center diff lock and tcase signals separately which I hope is not difficult. I have not got to that part yet.

Get a CDL module and mating pigtail from any 80 or 100 from '91-'07 and the job is a breeze. The part numbers change through the years, but all Toyota did was use smaller relays and resistors. The design and pinouts are functionally identical.

 

[Tank5]

Get a CDL module and mating pigtail from any 80 or 100 from '91-'07 and the job is a breeze. The part numbers change through the years, but all Toyota did was use smaller relays and resistors. The design and pinouts are functionally identical.

I have all of that already. Good to hear it is not difficult when I get to it.

 

[2fpower]

I have all of that already. Good to hear it is not difficult when I get to it.

get it figured out and I will gladly copy you...

Hey, as you know, I bought the 4 speed from you, been really thinking hard that if I wanted to change, now was the time. How much work are we talking to swap to the A750f? Are the benefits enough to change now?

 

[Tank5]

get it figured out and I will gladly copy you...

Hey, as you know, I bought the 4 speed from you, been really thinking hard that if I wanted to change, now was the time. How much work are we talking to swap to the A750f? Are the benefits enough to change now?

"Are the benefits enough to change now?" I don't know, I have not driven a 2uz with an a750f yet. I am hoping all of my own efforts are worth it. I had looked up the gearing options before and seem to recall the first gear was a little lower than the first gear on the 4 speed. I felt for trail use coupled with my 3.1 gear set in the tcase it might be noticeable.

All of the non-vvti 2uz engines that I am aware of that came with the a750f have an electronic throttle body and are drive by wire. If you kept your engine you would need to swap out the cable throttle body for the electronic version, swap out the hard coolant line between the throttle body and oil cooler, get a drive by wire pedal, new engine harness, ecu, with matching immobilizer unit and programmed key with transponder. The pigtails to connect it as well.

My expo rig is a 2001 tundra with pretty much the same set up that have in it. My tundra setup weighs around 7k lbs and that 4speed set up handles it just fine. I don't think I would ditch this setup unless you found a good deal a complete donor vehicle for the slight upgrade.

If you decide you really want to upgrade to the a750f I would probably consider looking for a donor that has the vvti with the a750f. this add about 100 extra horse power if you like that kinda of thing.

 

[Bripars40]

get it figured out and I will gladly copy you...

Hey, as you know, I bought the 4 speed from you, been really thinking hard that if I wanted to change, now was the time. How much work are we talking to swap to the A750f? Are the benefits enough to change now?

I’m here as well with my 2uz swap. Going to copy @UZJ40

 

[Tank5]

@Bripars40 I have read though his build thread many times and used some of the nuggets of information he shared. I saw how he went about wiring his cdl and I am hoping to use the factory controller, so I don’t have to take the cdl apart to learn the limits.

I will be learning as I go when I get to the wiring portion of the project and sharing as I stumble through it hoping the more experience members here will give me pointers when I get lost.

I may get to start working on the wiring soon. I have a some clean up to finish on the cab floor and then will set the cab back on the chassis. Then I will be bouncing between seats, radiator, heater/AC as those parts start to show up. I expect that stuff should be arriving any day now. Every vendor for the parts mentioned above has already surpassed the quoted ship time frame, so who knows.

 

[Zjohnsonua]

get it figured out and I will gladly copy you...

Hey, as you know, I bought the 4 speed from you, been really thinking hard that if I wanted to change, now was the time. How much work are we talking to swap to the A750f? Are the benefits enough to change now?

My 2 cents: the 750's first gear is definitely deeper than the 343, but it's not worth all that Tank described. Pop some 3:1 gears in the transfer and roll on with the 343.

 

[Tank5]

@2fpower I looked this up and copied it from another thread on Mud. Comparison of the gear ratios between the two transmissions.

A343F "4-sp Auto" (Effective Ratio=Gear X Diff gear)
- 1st Gear 2.804 (12.06)
- 2nd Gear 1.531 (6.58)
- 3rd Gear 1.000 (4.3)
- 4th Gear 0.753 (3.24)
- Reverse 2.393 (10.29)
Diff Ratio 4.3

A750F "5-sp Auto" (Effective Ratio)
- 1st Gear 3.520 (14.43)
- 2nd Gear 2.042 (8.372)
- 3rd Gear 1.40 (5.74)
- 4th Gear 1.00 (4.1)
- 5th Gear 0.716 (2.936)
- Reverse Gear 3.244 (13.3)
Diff Ratio 4.1

 

[2fpower]

Thanks for the info... will press on when I get this 73' out of the garage.

 

[Tank5]

I finished with the floor for now and moved on to the firewall support. I figured since I welded the newer panel into the firewall the support should be replaced to add some strength. I had removed the support pictured some time ago with this in mind.

The plan was to weld up all the spot weld holes drilled when removing it and use the spot welder to reinstall it cleanly with as much a factory look as I could get.

I am sure there are different ways to weld these holes up and I considered stitching around the edges until they were filled but thought that would get messy. Instead I bought some stainless steel flat head screws with heads slightly smaller than the holes. I welded the heads into the wholes cut off the rest of the screw and cleaned it up. It worked out pretty well.

I sprayed some weld through primer on the mounting surfaces and spot welded the support to the firewall. It turned out pretty good.

 

[Tank5]

Can anyone recommend a good in cab fuse panel, I am looking? I dumped the interior harness section from the 4runner out on a table to try to find a place to start. You can’t see it in the photo but I listed out the dash and body electrical systems I need to build in the harness on the carb pad at the end of the table to try to make sure I don’t miss anything.

I feel like this will take forever but hopful it moves faster after I get into it. I spread it on the table generally the way it was installed in the 4runner and then stared at it trying to come up with a plan.

I think I will pull what is needed out of the 4runner harness but use an 80 series body harness and engine bay fuse box as the base for the chassis. I need to find a good fuse panel if anyone knows of one let me know.

My head already hurts.

 

[whitey45]

A carb and points are looking really nice, looking at that nest

 

[Vossie]

Can anyone recommend a good in cab fuse panel, I am looking? I dumped the interior harness section from the 4runner out on a table to try to find a place to start. You can’t see it in the photo but I listed out the dash and body electrical systems I need to build in the harness on the carb pad at the end of the table to try to make sure I don’t miss anything.

I feel like this will take forever but hopful it moves faster after I get into it. I spread it on the table generally the way it was installed in the 4runner and then stared at it trying to come up with a plan.

I think I will pull what is needed out of the 4runner harness but use an 80 series body harness and engine bay fuse box as the base for the chassis. I need to find a good fuse panel if anyone knows of one let me know.

My head already hurts.

View attachment 2892981

View attachment 2892983

Is it an option for you to use the 4runner fuse box? My thinking would be to try and keep everything as untouched as possible

 

[Scheefdog]

Can anyone recommend a good in cab fuse panel, I am looking? I dumped the interior harness section from the 4runner out on a table to try to find a place to start. You can’t see it in the photo but I listed out the dash and body electrical systems I need to build in the harness on the carb pad at the end of the table to try to make sure I don’t miss anything.

I feel like this will take forever but hopful it moves faster after I get into it. I spread it on the table generally the way it was installed in the 4runner and then stared at it trying to come up with a plan.

I think I will pull what is needed out of the 4runner harness but use an 80 series body harness and engine bay fuse box as the base for the chassis. I need to find a good fuse panel if anyone knows of one let me know.

My head already hurts.

What about using the FJ45/40 harness and rebuilding it? Seems like that would be way simpler and give you everything you need. That is assuming your engine harness is built as a standalone setup?

For my build with the 3uz, I am going to rebuild my FJ40 harness. My engine harness is built as a standalone with only a couple wires needing to tie into the main body harness along with the wires for the gauges. I am planning to run aftermarket AC and heat so that is its own wiring as well. No need to make it overly complicated in my mind since the 40 harness is simple and can be modified easily as needed.

 

[Tank5]

@Vossie The 4 runner fuse box is really big and would be hard to locate in the truck. I am also eliminating a bunch of systems that came in the 4runner I won’t use, so I am not looking at the 4runner fuse box as an option, sane thought applies to the under hood relay/fuse box.

@Scheefdog The 45 harness had been heavily modified and patched from the prior conversion and build efforts. It is a bit of a mess and I feel I can make it better by starting over. I did keep it in the event I want to reuse a section of it. I am also changing a lot compared to the original 45 different cluster, steering column, heater / AC, front and rear lights, electric lockers instead of the ARB set up. It will be a different animal when it is done.

I am hoping to wire the lights, wipers, hazards, cruise control and turn signals all through the 4runner switches on the column rather than the dash.

The engine is stand alone, I have to tie it back into some things but at least it should run.