What have you done to your Land Cruiser this week?

[tlaporte]

Every automotive commenter tries to make the point that the overseas spec Land Cruisers are too austere for American tastes.

Meanwhile, Ford Broncos and Jeep Wranglers and derivatives have been flying out of car dealer lots for the last few decades the marketing geniuses at Toyota have surrendered that market.

Toyota marketers need to be spanked.

Doesn’t the fact that Jeep and Ford are domestic makes give them some advantages?

Not trolling, it’s a genuine question. I thought that there were some import restrictions or regulations as it relates to fleet-wide mileage averages and they disadvantage Toyota if they are bringing in more vehicles with lower MPGs.

 

[JKIII FJ40]

How and what are those shoulder mount points attached? Closer pics please. Is that a secure enough mount? Im going to weld a tab in the corner of the roll bar. How is the lower seat belt holder mounted?

I made the brackets, you can see them in a later post #33,872. At the bottom you can see the flange that mounts inside the rear part of the tub. Its quite solid and holds my fat ass as I pull my self in to the truck. The latch side of the seat belt is bolted to the seat frame and then to the body. I dont know if this would work on standard sheet metal as mine is a Tub made by Wally up in VT. Most of it is 1/8" steel and will outlast everything else on the truck.

 

[cruiserkev]

New hubcaps! I’ve never had a set in 43 years of ownership, but it’s way past time for new tires, so the rims are getting powder coated, a set of Kenda Klever 33x9.50-15 and s

Hey I like those tires, what brand/model are those?

Those are 35" ProComp X Terrains that are about 15 years old. Got them from 4 wheel parts when they did a buy 3 get 1 free sale. Excellent tire in the mud, snow or sand plus they ride nice on dry pavement. Liked them so much that I put 33s on my old Tacoma as well.

 

[Roastchestnuts]

I started tearing down the hard top and rain gutter. Interestingly I found some evidence of a hood flying up and breaking the rain gutter. At some point the front thin part of the rain gutter was riveted back together at the same place on each side. Some real redneck engineering. Was done so well it looked factory. Yesterday I welded it all back. Its not the best welding job but its better than these little metal brackets holding it together with riviets. I still need to plug the little holes drilled for the non factory riviets. and cut out rust and started the sanding process on the fiber glass part.

 

[Living in the Past]

Doesn’t the fact that Jeep and Ford are domestic makes give them some advantages?

How is jeep a domestic anymore than Toyota. Both are foreign owned and both build vehicles in the US. Jeep is a Fiat company. Land Rover is no longer a British vehicle. It's owned from India . Just love asking Ram and Jeep owner how do they like their Fiat.

 

[120mm]

Doesn’t the fact that Jeep and Ford are domestic makes give them some advantages?

Not trolling, it’s a genuine question. I thought that there were some import restrictions or regulations as it relates to fleet-wide mileage averages and they disadvantage Toyota if they are bringing in more vehicles with lower MPGs.

Toyota can produce their 70 series in an American plant to American DOT and EPA standards exactly like Jeep and Ford do without additional restriction if that is a serious issue.

 

[Living in the Past]

Toyota can produce their 70 series in an American plant to American DOT and EPA standards exactly like Jeep and Ford do without additional restriction if that is a serious issue.

Toyota imported the FJ Cruiser and 4Runners from Japan. If they didn't feel the need to manufacturer those here they could do the same the 70. Toyota must consider the US market for soft and lazy people. Toyota has a large SUV line already. How many have a stick shift option? In 1993 I was shopping for a FJ62. A dealer had an 87 FJ60 I looked at. Was a nice cruiser but because it was going to be a second DD it had to have an automatic for my wife. Talking to the salesman I told him I would buy a now 80 series if they could order a stripped model with lockers. At that time lockers were a $500 option while list on the leather package was $5,000. I could have lived with no power locks and power windows. Steel wheels would have been preferred. Took everything off the $50,000 plus cruiser was down to $32,000. Salesman got all excited and went to talk to the sales manager. Manager came out and first thing he said was how do like this 87. When I asked about the 80 series he said Toyota wouldn't allow a stripped one ordered. Think in some states vehicle registration tax is based on a base model. So by breaking down all the options versus just including would make registration cheaper. Leather and lockers were really the only options on the 80 series. The percentage with leather far exceeded the percentage with lockers. I'm sure there was greater profit in leather.

In 1979 when Toyota introduced the four cylinder 4X4 mini truck it signaled the end of the 40 series. Few hundred made it here in 83 and none in 84. Was no surprise when the 70 series started with the 85 model none made it to the US. Not sure if and how many jeeps and Broncos are sold with a manual transmission but obvious Toyota has no interest in competing for a share of that market. Think most would have rather seen the PX10 (built on a 70 seriee chassis) made and imported versus the FJ Cruiser which I heard engineers from California helped design. Had a salesman at a dealer in Phoenix call me when the first FJ Cruiser arrived. Believe it was March of 06. Went down looked at it I didn't even bother to test drive. Did not see anything worth trading our V8 4X4 4Runner with four full doors for the little suicide doors.

 

[RodrigzCrzr]

Been slowly working on the F engine to 2F engine motor swap on my 40.
Been doing some cleaning, adding some new bits to it and painting oil cooler and engine.

 

[h82crash]

I finally got the engine harness wrapped up. My junkyard alternator tested good, but was ugly with oxidation on the case. I had to disassemble it to clean and refinish it. Well, the slip rings where the brushes ride were heavily worn. So I rebuilt it with new slip rings, brushes, and bearings. All pretty now.

 

[Vossie]

Went to visit a friend. The 79 in the back round was there getting some work done.

 

[fyton2v]

Americans when they see a 70 series.

 

[red66toy]

Time to get cracking on refurbishing this 4 speed for my 4 on the tree conversion. Impressed with how fossilized this old gear oil and dirt is.

 

[Vossie]

Americans when they see a 70 series.

They should be able to import them now though. 25 year rule means they cab start getting early 75s and stuff. Still have to wait a while for the 79

 

[Steamer]

Got tired of trying to figure out why my clutch pushrod was short, so I gave up and just made a longer one. I had extra, extra-long bolts on hand that I got to go with a puller, so it was a quick fix once I thought of it. Got the bolts “HERE”.

 

[Engineer8000]

Replaced the fuel pump for the 3FE. I documented the job for information for others. I started with a Jaguar XJ6 fuel pump, bosch 0 580 464 029.

The check valve that comes with this pump I believe is bosch pn 1587010539, with what I think is a DIN 2353 8mm bite style fitting. It may not be that exactly but it works.

I bought a piece of 5/16 brake line with an inverted flare on each end and cut it in half. I installed a M14x1.5 inverted flare nut on the tube, bent it to fit and installed the nut and cutting ring.

 

[Engineer8000]

Cleaned out the prefilter then reinstalled

 

[Engineer8000]

I used a fuel pump mount for a kawasaki KZ1000 and a bit of rubber to cut down the noise

 

[ryanwk628]

Time to get cracking on refurbishing this 4 speed for my 4 on the tree conversion. Impressed with how fossilized this old gear oil and dirt is.
View attachment 3326611

Is there a build thread for this? I was planning to go floor shift with a 4 speed swap, but now that this exists I am really considering it

 

[red66toy]

Is there a build thread for this? I was planning to go floor shift with a 4 speed swap, but now that this exists I am really considering it

For me personally it will be logged in my 40's build thread: Builds - Clifford is home again- a 1965 FJ40 FST - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/clifford-is-home-again-a-1965-fj40-fst.1094984/
There is info on this particular type of swap in this thread: tranny tech 403-thats 4 on the tree! - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/tranny-tech-403-thats-4-on-the-tree.134392/page-7#post-14550328
It follows the general 4 speed swap instructions that have been laid out by many mud members over time. Then deviates when it comes to the shifter setup and requires a modification of the transmission hump... or swapping in a fiberglass hump if I can get that to fruition.

 

[120mm]

I gave two adult humans a ride in the front bench seat Tuesday and can attest to the goodness of column manual shifters.