Builds Tucker and Roma's 75 FJ40 Restore

[alabamatacomaguy]

Must feel good trading up for a model that is 22 units newer.
I was thinking that metal was in amazing shape for this part of the country and very hard to find then read it spent most of its life out west.
Congrats
Looks like it will be some fun times. Cheers to finding a great new project. I'm sure I'm like many looking forward to reading about the progress as you two fix it up and happy to see some good things happen after the bad.

 

[JohnnyC]

Been awhile since I've read your thread ... Wow alot has happened

So glad nobody got hurt... It does suck however


Welcome to the ROC (roll over club)

My truck (many years ago)

Rolled over 2.5 times... At 65 mph... Ended upside down after dragging on the highway for a spell

Not fun

I recall also @cruiserhead ? had a bad roll

Here's my truck

 

[TheHardWay]

Damn, Johnny, is that the same one you're driving now?

 

[oldschool4wheeling]

WOW.....I feel like I need to invest in a full roll cage or training wheels?

 

[Honger]

A beautiful build... a tragic accident... a sweet redemption. This is on track to be one of the more epic builds on MUD.

 

[roma042987]

Been busy working and have gotten quiet a bit behind on keeping this thread updated. Actually a little overwhelmed with catching it up so i'll try to condense everything to get it up to date. Tucker and I purchased matching full float rear axles for our trucks about a year ago so we started building them up a while back. Mine came from a bj42 and his was from an hj45. The 45s didn't have the parking brake on the axles but did have the correct late model pattern on the axle ends to accept the parking brake backing plates so, we just had to weld a couple of the parking brake provisions onto his housing. I also welded on a diff guard onto the back of the housing to protect the ring gear. The axles got new backing plates (ordered from japan) with the parking brake provisions. new bell crank bits, drums, shoes, cylinders, etc, etc. from Toyota. wheel bearings from cruiser outfitters, hex drain plugs, brake hardware kit. Here are a few photos of the axle going together. The new build is getting a 5 speed upgrade in the form of a shiny new h55f transmission.

Here is the axle stripped down of its backing plates and ready to go to the sand blaster

This is a photo of my axle that shows the two provisions that needed to be reproduced and added to tuckers axle to accommodate the parking brake

this picture shows the piece we replicated from the above photo and welding area cleaned off and ready for it to be welded on

 

[roma042987]

Axles back from sand blasting. On Tucker's axle the spring leaf alignment holes were wallowed out on the spring perches so I welded up the holes and redrilled them to the correct size. Easy 15 min repair that would be impossible without a welder

 

[roma042987]

At this point we stripped the axles down once again and Tucker acid etched them and gave them a couple of coats of por15. Notice the 45 axle albeit didn't have the parking brake brackets it does have provisions for a rear sway bar if we ever want to install one.

On my bj42 axle, the closer one in this photo. i had to relocate the diff breather/brake junction over to the driver side because it was on the incorrect side. So both axles needed a bit of work to go into our rigs.

Out of the way and ready for reassembly

 

[roma042987]

I will have to get a few more photos of the rear axle in its current state this evening. This time around we are going with 60 series power steering since the 40 will see its fair share of trail use and its nice to be able to eliminate some of the steering joints associated with the 40 series set up. Im going to retain the factory shock tower so i clearanced it for the box and welded a 3/16 plate on the inside of the frame. Then using a transfer punch marked the holes for the four steering box holes and drilled them out through and through. I opened the outside of the frame large enough to insert some .25 wall dom tubing to act as anti crush sleeves for when the bolts holding the box are torqued down. I chamfered the edges of the holes so i could weld the tube into the frame and then ground the tube and weld down to flush.

 

[roma042987]

 

[roma042987]

One of the only things that survived the roll was the 4plus tire carrier and swing out. Since we knew it was going to be installed onto the new rig we decided to go ahead and modify the rear cross member before the frame went to powder coating. We mocked it up and drilled 8 half inch holes for the attachment points, on both sides these holes encroach on the old bumperette holes and particularly on the captive nuts for the bumperettes so when you thread a nut onto the 1/2 bolts they don't tighten up so well against the captive nuts. So I welded those up and knocked the captive nuts off from the back side. This was actually easy to do by threading a long 8x1.25 bolt into the captive nut and hitting it with a hammer until the captive nut tack welds broke loose. We also drilled holes for the 4plus tail light guards at this time.

 

[roma042987]

to install the transmission we will need to add a cross member to the frame. I left the drive train in frame just for this so off comes the old trans and transfer case, clutch, flywheel, and pilot bearing using the bread method. The bell housing is clearanced slightly to fit the larger bearing retainer of the new transmission.

it becomes apparent why the cruiser was parked. the clutch disk had come apart.

 

[roma042987]

 

[roma042987]

 

[roma042987]

The brackets almost fit but the holes don't quiet line up plus the cross member as well as the brackets have captive nuts so time to modify the brackets. captive nut plate is removed, holes are welded up and new holes redrilled.

 

[roma042987]

the driver side bracket needs a 3/16 plate on the frame to sit flush which works out well because it gives me a solid spot to drill the holes to bolt the bracket to the frame on that side.

 

[roma042987]

on the passenger side the bracket holes didn't hit a boxed section of frame so I welded a plate in on that side before drilling the holes

rivets are removed the old bell housing mount is removed from the frame

another bell housing mount removed on the driver side by grinding the welds

 

[roma042987]

sorry for the crappy pics. After extracting about ten broken bolts (with the welder) from the rear cross member and frame where the skid plate was attached the frame is ready for sand blasting and powder coat.

now it's back and ready for some attention

 

[Varty Yo]

Wow! just read all 18 pages then boom a kick to the gut! Glad you all were ok thats scary s***!

Look forward to 2.0

 

[Weber Sarge]

Judging by the damage to clutch disk and flywheel - might want to inspect those rear diff gears , just in case my suspicions are correct .
Sarge