The monkey is back (6 Viewers)

[Living in the Past]

@Living in the Past
When I put the H55 in my 83 FJ40 back in the 90s, I used the original H42 shift cane. I simply flattened the knob on the end enough to put the neoprene cap on and it worked perfectly.
I believe any '81-'84 H41/42 cane can be made to work.
Yes, all the RHD 40 series shift canes have that bend in them to clear the transfer case shifter.
Of course, if your 40 is an '80 or older then you'll need the cross member and the transfer case-mounted hand brake from a 45 with split case.

I'm aware of the crossmember and other items needed. Twenty five years ago got heavy into the early Land Cruisers. 2013 for reasons for not worth going into I moved on. Last ten years I started collecting 8/80 plus items most which are from Australia. Still have pallets there needed to figure how to get them shipped. For the crossmember 10/82 the design changed because of the longer H55F which the front driveshaft was now lower at the crossmember. It's groove got deeper. Interesting a member pointed out to me that the 8/80+ FJ45 and HJ47 did have a hand brake on the rear axle in a general market incomplete built vehicle. But it still only had a four speed like other long wheel base which was because of the torque tube behind the transfer case. The five speed also changed the PTO, shift lever moved to the front side to clear the torque tube with a five speed installed. 8/80+ four speed skid plate you can just cut the front section off earlier ones where the crossmember is. All the mounting bolt holes line up. Five speed is a different story. Those and the transfer case shift levers are harder to find than the 40 series H55F top cover.

 

[Chamba]

I'm aware of the crossmember and other items needed. Twenty five years ago got heavy into the early Land Cruisers. 2013 for reasons for not worth going into I moved on. Last ten years I started collecting 8/80 plus items most which are from Australia. Still have pallets there needed to figure how to get them shipped. For the crossmember 10/82 the design changed because of the longer H55F which the front driveshaft was now lower at the crossmember. It's groove got deeper. Interesting a member pointed out to me that the 8/80+ FJ45 and HJ47 did have a hand brake on the rear axle in a general market incomplete built vehicle. But it still only had a four speed like other long wheel base which was because of the torque tube behind the transfer case. The five speed also changed the PTO, shift lever moved to the front side to clear the torque tube with a five speed installed. 8/80+ four speed skid plate you can just cut the front section off earlier ones where the crossmember is. All the mounting bolt holes line up. Five speed is a different story. Those and the transfer case shift levers are harder to find than the 40 series H55F top cover.
View attachment 3985592

Beautiful stash!! I love those 82-84 shift covers too with the raised centre so you can clear the H55: great score! Mine at least has that, though the hole is moved aft of course.

If you're keen to sell an H55 40 series transfer case linkage and shifter mechanism that's complete, I would really like to buy it from you. You can PM me. Mine has the 60 series transfer case shifter of course.....with a crazy series of bends in it, which is why it is so short in the cab.

I would also love a 40 series shift cane, but unless I find a 40 series top loader when I'm back in Australia this northern summer, I'm afraid it'll be too awkward being 4" further aft.

Yes, at least in Australia, the 45/47 H41 always had the hand brake on the split case. The H55 in the 40/42s had it on the axle. I never saw a 45/47 in the wild in Australia with the H55 which came stock that way, so I'm not sure whether they had the hand brake on the axle or not in that configuration from Arakawa; I would imagine they did on UEA 45s.

Several of my mates put the H55 in their 47s, but they also got a 40/42 rear handbrake axle at the same time; none of theirs came with the H55.

 

[Living in the Past]

Beautiful stash!! I love those 82-84 shift covers too with the raised centre so you can clear the H55: great score! Mine at least has that, though the hole is moved aft of course.

If you're keen to sell an H55 40 series transfer case linkage and shifter mechanism that's complete, I would really like to buy it from you. You can PM me. Mine has the 60 series transfer case shifter of course.....with a crazy series of bends in it, which is why it is so short in the cab.

I would also love a 40 series shift cane, but unless I find a 40 series top loader when I'm back in Australia this northern summer, I'm afraid it'll be too awkward being 4" further aft.

Yes, at least in Australia, the 45/47 H41 always had the hand brake on the split case. The H55 in the 40/42s had it on the axle. I never saw a 45/47 in the wild in Australia with the H55 which came stock that way, so I'm not sure whether they had the hand brake on the axle or not in that configuration from Arakawa; I would imagine they did on UEA 45s.

Several of my mates put the H55 in their 47s, but they also got a 40/42 rear handbrake axle at the same time; none of theirs came with the H55.

H55F was never a factory option on the 40 series long wheel base. Even the incomplete long wheel base that had the hand brake on the rear axle five speed was not used. Have an interesting story about trying to trade a Land Cruiser stamped bezel for a 40 series H55F top cover. Person was in Australia and part was coming from rural Queensland by barge. Took at least a month. During that time searching on the net couldn't find a any 45/47 with a factory install H55F so obviously never made the trade.

In my parts in Australia I have this. Came out of an 83 HJ47. Inspection cover is for a four speed.

Not sure if I'll use on an 82 tub I have or use it a pattern to form the hump in front of the inspection cover. I have taken a lot of pictures over the years about ways to use later Land Cruiser parts to install a H55F into a 40 series. Not sure the current cost for the 40 series top covers since I have a couple already. There is a different cover coming out of Pakistan made from a four speed cast iron cover. Those kept the tower the same lever and still use the four speed inspection cover. Only thing is 5th gear is above reverse and to the left of 1st gear.


Only complete transfer shifter setup I have came with this.

A few years ago was a discussion on Mud about using parts off another Land Cruisers to move the transfer shifter forward. This piece of the shifter did most of it. Unfortunately would have search to find out which vehicle is was used on. Believe it came off 70 series.

.

I also have two different style of 70 transfer case shift levers. One was a better fit.

 

[Chamba]

I wish I could recall how I did the transfer case shifter on my 83..... but I can't recall. It looked very good though. I think I cut and welded the cane, but I'm not certain. I did have a 40 series top loader which I'd gotten in Australia.

Just took the 43 for a spin with my son.
The list continues to grow..... the good part is the H55 shifts beautifully through all 5 gears and reverse. The transfer case shifts nicely as well. So the internals feel very good.

The bad part is that going over about 45 mph is frightening. It tracks terribly and the wheels have to be turned straight after turning rather than pulling straight. I tightened the bell crank and the drag link at a bit, but no noticeable improvement. The Chinese tie rod ends have tons of slop, so I'll get a new set from @cruisermatt. I've also got a set of shims from Spector I've had for probably 20 years. I'll put those in to tilt the axle down a bit: the tracking feels like it does when you put longer shackles on the front with no shims. Hopefully that will help that. The steering damper looks to be original but was cleaned and painted. My hope is that the damper is really sticky and causing the issue of the wheels not returning to centre.

I'm feeling quite disappointed with this 43 to be honest. My hope of enjoying a Cruiser again that I didn't need to be restore are gone. This is definitely a project car; I just paid finished prices for it. I'll get her there, but it's not really what I wanted to do at 55 years old.

The one motivator for me to keep going rather than selling it on BaT and cutting my losses came from my son today while we were driving it and he was getting nervous with how it jumps from lane to lane: he said "this is not a good truck right now dad. But I like the length of it. It's like Lexie (our old '84 LX) and the Scrambler had a baby. We'll make it cool."

Let this be a lesson to anyone silly enough to buy sight unseen: caveat emptor. I saw the warning signs, but I ignored them; blinded by the vision I wanted to see rather than seeing what was so obvious. And perhaps even more to the point: third world 'restoration' standards are no where near first world standards.

 

[Chamba]

Small, rewarding project: leather steering wheel cover. I've had one on every 40 I've owned.

And the wipers are no longer silver.....

 

[knuckle47]

Hey @Chamba. Not happy to hear your lament but knowing your vast knowledge on these 43’s clearly tells me you’re going to defeat all of the negatives. The only sting here may be the initial cost and feeling a bit deceived. That will change as the vehicle approaches your nirvana. And it will.

I had an experience with some vehicles over the last 35 years in a similar light but what discouraged me was not the vehicle but my demands for its quality. Amazing what some people call “rebuilt or restored” but as you said… you don’t need this at 55 yrs old..I just added 17 to those numbers. @cruisermatt has skills and talent so I don’t see too many real obstacles. He was slated to do a few things on my 45 but logistics play a role in that cost also. It was smarter for me to change direction with that truck.

I did the blackout wipers and hinges back in 1976…even tossed the painted parts in the GE toaster oven to “bake” on the finish…damn, it actually worked as that black paint was near perfect 5 yrs later when I sold my 40. Today those “blackout” options from the dealers set you back thousands??

Looking forward to seeing your changes and how much you love them..keep it up

 

[Chamba]

So this just turned up... ordered it when I thought this would be one of the big projects for me. Will still be a fun project, but it'll be like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic if I don't get it drivable.

I put the Dakota Digital in the IROC and was really impressed with it. When I saw these for the 40 I had to have it.... just had to find a 40 series to put it in.

 

[mdsims]

Matt is a legend. He's been talking with me in private about what else we are going to do; very knowledgeable.

I didn't realise that about the 3F bell housing, but it makes sense looking at the isolator. Yet another thing I'll correct... the list is growing.

BaT has become a bit of a hot bed for these third world sellers. I always told myself I'd never buy anything on there, just sell on it. But I thought this one ticked so many boxes that I got carried away. If it was what I thought it was, I'd feel I got a decent deal, but given the issues I'm finding, not so much. There were enough red flags that I should have known better. But here I am.

But she's mine now and I'll get her up to speed. Had it looked like this in LHD it probably would have gotten closer to $50,000: and that would have been truly insane.

It’s tough, knowing full well what the 3rd world rigs come with, but still wanting that extra length of the 43. Just has some odd appeal to it that’s hard to avoid. I remember looking at 43s on Tucarro maybe a decade ago. Bit the bullet about 18 months ago, 43 from Colombia. Similar minor problems as you have but I’ll say, there is a lot of good in some of these and it appears you got a decent one as well.

 

[Jdc1]

So this just turned up... ordered it when I thought this would be one of the big projects for me. Will still be a fun project, but it'll be like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic if I don't get it drivable.

I put the Dakota Digital in the IROC and was really impressed with it. When I saw these for the 40 I had to have it.... just had to find a 40 series to put it in.

View attachment 3986948

View attachment 3986981

Having actual gauges is great. I like having a tach.

 

[Chamba]

All the wiring in this critter is twisted with electrical tape. No soldering, not even crimps.

Cheap Chinese cluster next to original they pulled at resto.

This Dakota will make things much easier here. A mate mine may have found a harness for me from an 83 Hj47. He's going to look it over and let me know. That truly would make an the difference here for me.
@Jdc1 beautiful....72 looks like? Hunter Green is the best. The 72 my folks got new is hunter green with that same cluster.
Any tips as I start on it?

 

[Jdc1]

All the wiring in this critter is twisted with electrical tape. No soldering, not even crimps.

Cheap Chinese cluster next to original they pulled at resto.

This Dakota will make things much easier here. A mate mine may have found a harness for me from an 83 Hj47. He's going to look it over and let me know. That truly would make an the difference here for me.
@Jdc1 beautiful....72 looks like? Hunter Green is the best. The 72 my folks got new is hunter green with that same cluster.
Any tips as I start on it?

View attachment 3987203

View attachment 3987210

Yes- 12/71 in 621 Rustic Green. Take your time laying out the wiring, you can shorten anything coming from the Dakota senders to keep things neat. I like to use either open barrel or uninsulated butt connectors w/ adhesive shrink tubing to keep any splices or connections as thin as possible. Depending on the truck, i’ll use the braided wire loom or wrap with OE looking harness tape. I’ll lay out with zip ties and then go back to organize, trim and loom once it’s final.

The SA 43 that I helped with was a wiring nightmare. So much that the FiTech was throwing fits. Some elbow grease and patience will get yours looking/performing like it should.

 

[Chamba]

Rustic green. Sorry, that's what I was thinking but said hunter. 72 is my favourite year 40.

Here is me at 3 or 4 years old on front of our 72 with the Wind River mountains behind us. 1973 this would be.

I'm about half way done installing this Dakota. Very similar to the Camaro. I find it very cathartic doing this really. Cruiser work is soothing work. I'd probably have it done by now but I spend half my time figuring out which wire is which and then soldering their connections before finally running the wire to the module. I'm then soldering and shrink wrapping every one of their connections as I come to them, which is also slowing me down.

Interestingly, they ran a completely separate set of 18 ga wires to the headlights.....yes, 18 guage. So I'm going to re-wire those with much thicker wire; unless my harness comes through.

The fuse box has mostly 25 amp fuses..... I'm scared to try putting the correct ones in. But the box is from a Hilux I think, and none of the fuses correspond to their labels: I pulled the headlight fuse and the radio stopped, but the headlights work (they have a separate fuse block on the fender.....). I pulled the radio fuse and the brake lights stop working. Bloody hell. Baby steps.

Tomorrow to finish this and install the shims in the front axle. Then I've got a 4 day trip Tuesday, so nothing for a bit. Hoping to get this sorted before work though.

 

[Jdc1]

Rustic green. Sorry, that's what I was thinking but said hunter. 72 is my favourite year 40.

Here is me at 3 or 4 years old on front of our 72 with the Wind River mountains behind us. 1973 this would be.

I'm about half way done installing this Dakota. Very similar to the Camaro. I find it very cathartic doing this really. Cruiser work is soothing work. I'd probably have it done by now but I spend half my time figuring out which wire is which and then soldering their connections before finally running the wire to the module. I'm then soldering and shrink wrapping every one of their connections as I come to them, which is also slowing me down.

Interestingly, they ran a completely separate set of 18 ga wires to the headlights.....yes, 18 guage. So I'm going to re-wire those with much thicker wire; unless my harness comes through.

The fuse box has mostly 25 amp fuses..... I'm scared to try putting the correct ones in. But the box is from a Hilux I think, and none of the fuses correspond to their labels: I pulled the headlight fuse and the radio stopped, but the headlights work (they have a separate fuse block on the fender.....). I pulled the radio fuse and the brake lights stop working. Bloody hell. Baby steps.

Tomorrow to finish this and install the shims in the front axle. Then I've got a 4 day trip Tuesday, so nothing for a bit. Hoping to get this sorted before work though.

View attachment 3987509

Great pic. I enjoy organizing and simplifying the wiring as well. Was able to integrate a Dakota into a full 40 rewire with painless harness and was pretty satisfying not bringing in any additional wires.

Will more than likely be making an attempt at using a PDM and teaching myself CAN/BUS for my next build just to learn it. It’s not going to be anywhere close to a stock 40

 

[Chamba]

I would love to do a Painless; I did one on the Scrambler and it was fantastic. But I an missing many of the plugs on this one: the front and rear lights are hard (soft? Twist? 'Hard' seems the wrong word to use for this particular electrician's handy work) wired into the harness. I've got factory light assemblies front and rear coming, but I'm not going to splice them in so I'll hold off until I have the plugs or the wire harness.

Many years ago I put a vortec in my HJ47. I pulled the harness out of the 47 and laid out put on the floor. Then I overlaid the chevy harness on it and I made a toyota/vortec harness that for and looked original; extremely satisfying. Last I spoke to the guy who owns her now she's still running strong.

I hooe we get to see your next build @Jdc1: sounds like a great project.

 

[Jdc1]

I would love to do a Painless; I did one on the Scrambler and it was fantastic. But I an missing many of the plugs on this one: the front and rear lights are hard (soft? Twist? 'Hard' seems the wrong word to use for this particular electrician's handy work) wired into the harness. I've got factory light assemblies front and rear coming, but I'm not going to splice them in so I'll hold off until I have the plugs or the wire harness.

Many years ago I put a vortec in my HJ47. I pulled the harness out of the 47 and laid out put on the floor. Then I overlaid the chevy harness on it and I made a toyota/vortec harness that for and looked original; extremely satisfying. Last I spoke to the guy who owns her now she's still running strong.

I hooe we get to see your next build @Jdc1: sounds like a great project.

Dont forget @Coolerman for the electrical supplies and adaptor harnesses.

 

[Chamba]

Five different wires spliceded off the hot side of the brake pedal actuator. Trying to figure out where each one goes and get then their own source. I used to say t connectors were my biggest pet peeve....I stand corrected.

Future note to self: the brake lights are on the horn/hazrd fuse, though the horn still works with the fuse out....

If the Pakistan Army is wired like this than India has nothing to fear. On the other hand, if their nuclear warheads are wired like this then we all might......

 

[Chamba]

So no surprises really, but this head MAY have been 'rebuilt', but certainly wasn't tanked.....

 

[cruisermatt]

I have or can get just about every electrical connector/terminals for a 70's/80's 40 as well as correct striped wire on hand when you're ready Josh.

 

[Chamba]

I have or can get just about every electrical connector/terminals for a 70's/80's 40 as well as correct striped wire on hand when you're ready Josh.

Thank you Matt. You'll be my first call if my mate Chris can't get this harness for me in Australia.

While you're here: hooking up the fuel sender to my Dakota. Any idea which of the two prongs are better to send to the module? Both show similar ohms, so not sure either are ground, unless that's because the tank is full.

It appears it's the black and red flat prong rather than the vertical. Looking at the harness to the cluster, the only one showing continuity to the guage is that one. This must mean the red with blue vertical prong is the constant ground? Seems counterintuitive. Thoughts?