The Sancha Rebuild Project (1 Viewer)

[mikeob1]

...I was able to get the axle housing, knuckles and hubs painted. I think that they came out pretty well.

They look great! Nice work!

 

[cruiseroutfit]

...I had completely forgotten to get all the gaskets I would need as well as new pinion seals, but a call to Kurt at Cruiser Outfitters this morning took care of all of that. Thanks again Kurt and it was great chatting with you a little.

On the way, you should see them Wednesday, thanks again for the order and keep up the good work on the build!

 

[Scott68FJ40]

Not much to report. Had a box from Kurt waiting for me when I got home from Michigan on Friday evening. Was feeling a bit under the weather on Saturday so did nothing.

I did head out this morning and got the 3rd member installed back in the axle housing. I also started laying all of the knuckle parts out and in order.

I have decided to use backing plate eliminators and still have to get those on order and also need to find a couple tubes of grease that I know is somewhere in my garage.

If things go as planned, I will spend some time each night this week and have the knuckles back in place.

 

[Scott68FJ40]

It is amazing how much time can pass by without even noticing it. Since my last update I have put a few more items together and managed to get a really bad case of the flu.

One thing that did happen was that when I started putting my knuckles back together I discovered that 4 of the knuckle nuts had pretty messed up threads. I really didn't want to damage the studs so I started the task of tracking down some new ones. Since this is a pre-79 axle it takes the apparently rare 11mm nuts. Thanks to a little searching around here on Mud I found out that they are still stocked by Toyota and was able to order them from a local dealers parts department. According to the parts people, there were only 31 of them currently in the system and I snagged 16 of them.

Even though I am slipping further and further behind on my goal of being back on the road by the end of the year, I am enjoying learning new stuff.

 

[Scott68FJ40]

Feels good to finally have something to report. I got one of my knuckles put back together. I would have had both but I am still waiting on 6 of the 11mm nuts to arrive from Toyota.

Everything went together fairly well. I did struggle getting the axle to drop into the 3rd member all by myself but it eventually found it's way home. As you can see from the picture, I am going with the backing plate emininators and I also installed the Longfield lifetime wiper seals instead of the felts on the backside.

Using the shims I removed the pre-load came out spot on but things did tighten up quite a bit when I installed the lifetime wiper, but I would expect this and hope it isn't a big deal.

Hopefully Toyota will have the rest of the 11mm nuts in this week and I can get the other side done. After that it is just a matter of putting the rotor/hubs together and bolting everything together.

 

[Scott68FJ40]

Here we are at the end of January and I haven't updated this thread in a really long time. The holidays really derailed any progress I had hoped for, but things are starting to roll again. The long awaited hardware from Toyota did arrive, but I haven't finished the axle yet, possibly this coming weekend.

I have been tracking down a few more parts that are needed for the project, and even went out of order and picked up a rust free drop down tailgate. I have always wanted one but until now never found one for a price I was willing to pay. Another big part of the project over the last few weeks has been putting some money together to order parts with.

Tim Hill in Marana is going to do the fab work for me, and the rolling chassis should be heading down to him this week, next at the latest. He will start by doing all the suspension work, shackle reversal and 4 inch lift. Phase 2 will be the motor and transmission mounting. The final stage will be the power steering fab. After that, everything will be moved back to my garage for final assembly.

 

[DrivingMissRosey]

Since it was so nice out tonight, our first cool night in many months, I decided to throw open the garage doors and get to work on my axle.

A little back story on this axle. I bought it 6 or 7 years ago. It came out of a 1978 FJ40 that was being parted out. It sat in my open carport for a couple years before I moved to a house that had a garage and then sat in the garage for a few more years after that. I bought it with the intention of rebuilding it and installing it in my 68.

I got started tonight with taking the calipers off, both the calipers and rotors will need replaced, and got one of the Warn hubs pulled off. I had read that this is a messy job, and I can say that it is indeed messy. I will get the other hub pulled off tomorrow night after work and will then get them cleaned up.

The only thing that seemed odd to me is that the large nut, you can see it in the attached picture, is actually loose, is this normal?

I do have one more question about the knuckles. I haven't measured the preload yet, but as I move them through their entire turning travel, there seems to be something of a detent in the middle, or where they would be if the wheels were straight. Is this "detent" normal or is there some wear in there that I need to deal with?

If i'm understanding you correctly, this is damage to the steering knuckle bearings. Basically they hold the weight of the vehicle. Of course then the race gets dented as you go down the road (with the tires going straight) for the past 40 years . Dont worry, they just wear out. I replaced mine in my 60 a couple of months ago. Much better after the rebuild (knuckle bearings, wheel bearings, a TRE, inner axel seals, etc)

 

[Scott68FJ40]

If i'm understanding you correctly, this is damage to the steering knuckle bearings. Basically they hold the weight of the vehicle. Of course then the race gets dented as you go down the road (with the tires going straight) for the past 40 years . Dont worry, they just wear out. I replaced mine in my 60 a couple of months ago. Much better after the rebuild (knuckle bearings, wheel bearings, a TRE, inner axel seals, etc)

That's makes sense. After I put everything back together, that "detent" that I felt was gone. The drivers side was actually in really good shape, but the passenger side was all torn up, and had very little grease in the knuckles.

 

[myKIDStoy]

Hey Scott,

any new progress on your build?

 

[Scott68FJ40]

Not much. The holidays really slowed me down. The rolling chassis is heading down to Tim Hill's on Saturday for him to get started on the fab work. While it is down there, I am going to be sorting out the garage and getting the parts that are being installed ready to go and try to sell a lot of the left over stuff.

 

[Scott68FJ40]

Still not a lot to report on the build but thing should start moving pretty fast again. The rolling chassis is at Tim Hill's in Marana for fab work. Seems a little "right" that a brand new Toyota would haul the 43 year old Toyota down to Tim's.

 

[Cdaniel]

What has Tim got in store for you?
Tell him Cliff says hey!

 

[Scott68FJ40]

He is taking care of all the fab work for me. I can weld, but don't have a decent welder. Since Tim has done a bunch of conversions, it seemed to make sense to have him do mine.

The fab work will be the shackle reversal, engine/transmission swap and the power steering scab plate.

 

[Scott68FJ40]

We all know that a build thread is worthless without pictures and I finally having some pictures of something other than the front axle. All three of these are of the shackle reversal.

 

[Scott68FJ40]

Another.

 

[Cdaniel]

Good progress!
I'm curious to see Tim's take on power steering.

 

[Scott68FJ40]

Good progress!
I'm curious to see Tim's take on power steering.

What did you ever decide on your steering box mount location? I have been reading a lot of threads, and yours is the first I have come across that would lead me to believe that mounting the box forward a little to prevent cutting the crossmember leads to frame cracks.

Not discounting it by any means, just adds to the confusion of what I am doing.

 

[Cdaniel]

I think I'll be cutting it all off and moving it back. At the very least I think it's better that the box isn't protruding beyond the frame.

I'll repair and gusset the corner, reinforce what gets removed to move it, box in the front rails.

What did you ever decide on your steering box mount location? I have been reading a lot of threads, and yours is the first I have come across that would lead me to believe that mounting the box forward a little to prevent cutting the crossmember leads to frame cracks.

Not discounting it by any means, just adds to the confusion of what I am doing.

 

[Scott68FJ40]

Another weekend has come an gone, and while I didn't really get much done directly on the build, it was a pretty Landcruiser oriented weekend.

I finally got my old doors out of the garage and to a new home. I had been borrowing an engine hoist from a fellow Mud user, but finally found a smoking good deal for one on CL. Picked it up on Sunday.

It is time to get the drive train items down to Tucson so that they can get mounted.

I am also thinking that I am adding another project to the build. I have decided that I should box the frame while I have the tub off. Not sure yet how I am going to proceed with this, but I will start looking at kits.

 

[Scott68FJ40]

I got the engine, transmission/transfer case, bell house and cross member parts loaded up this morning and will be taking them to Tucson this afternoon.

I am looking forward to seeing the fab work in person.