What have you done to your Land Cruiser this week?

[POPO AGIE]

I am about to get yelled at because I just ordered a 800 CCA Optima marine battery and battery box that is a step up from this one.

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Well I did not get yelled at at all. Today She asked my the battery weighs 41 lbs. I responded with because it is a real battery and told her to try to lift the battery out of Her truck.

 

[Ackcruisers]

Finished restoring an 85110-90303 wiper motor. The hardest part of this is sanding down the brushes to the specs of the brush holder. The brushes were never sold separately by NipponDenso or Toyota. You have to buy some close to the size and sand to fit. Then, make sure the ends are contoured to fit the commutator flush.

 

[FJ40|RUNNER]

Thanks.
The suspension I chose to do something quite different. Fronts are based on taller jdm take off 70 series springs. Rear I did a low soa with 60/70 based rear springs. Tires are 33s (285/75/16 on gm wheels). Flex is reasonably balanced front and rear. I’m almost happy with it. Need different rear shocks and might add one more leaf to the rear pack

nice, how much playing around with the spring packs did you end up doing and what led you to that as a solution? my first ‘40 had minitruck springs circa early 90s up front to stretch the wheelbase ~10”, I think my 17yo self was just looking at spring dimensions at the time to figure out a stretch without a bunch of rework outside of driveshafts.

worked out pretty well with some additional leaves, I am sure I would’ve killed the main leaf quickly had I not had to sell for $$ in school.

better pics somewhere, but looked like this…SUA. was a cool rig, prob would buy it back if I found it:

 

[Ackcruisers]

This is worth a watch in case you all missed it. It continues to amaze me at how many parts can be restored. The engineers really did try to design our 40’s to last forever.

 

[nabbasi]

This is worth a watch in case you all missed it. It continues to amaze me at how many parts can be restored. The engineers really did try to design our 40’s to last forever.

While I agree 100% with your sentiment, that video is full of AI slop and lacks much of the real history and doesn’t actually focus on the longevity engineering.

 

[equals340]

Some fresh red paint for added HPs!

 

[Ackcruisers]

While I agree 100% with your sentiment, that video is full of AI slop and lacks much of the real history and doesn’t actually focus on the longevity engineering.

It would be great if Toyota would create an accurate documentary on the FJ40. A focus on the engineering philosophy behind it would be good content. My hands on experience in taking apart many serviceable and non serviceable parts underscore the ability for the average mechanic to fix and get back on the road. This quote comes to mind:

“If you want to go into the Outback take a Land Rover. If you want to come back, take a LandCruiser”

 

[JohnnyC]

Working on coating the inside really well on the new to me windshield frame … needs to dry and then chase all the holes as the plugs I had in there just sat back and allowed all the paint to seep in lol lazy plugs of rubber

I am able to work on kids Kia Rondo … have to replace the rear brakes and found that it needs a bit more attention then originally anticipated… rear parking shoes hopefully will be here Tuesday

 

[BC40]

nice, how much playing around with the spring packs did you end up doing and what led you to that as a solution? my first ‘40 had minitruck springs circa early 90s up front to stretch the wheelbase ~10”, I think my 17yo self was just looking at spring dimensions at the time to figure out a stretch without a bunch of rework outside of driveshafts.

worked out pretty well with some additional leaves, I am sure I would’ve killed the main leaf quickly had I not had to sell for $$ in school.

better pics somewhere, but looked like this…SUA. was a cool rig, prob would buy it back if I found it:
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That looks like a fun 40.

My previous setup in my 40 involved mini truck based springs in the rear sua. I liked that setup but it was too low the way I had it

Ok some thoughts that went into this current configuration

I ran pretty close to this sua/soa spring set fr/rr on my old bj60 and it worked well there.

I didn’t want the extra complexity doing a low front soa at this time. I had to get it done by a deadline so I stayed sua.

I already had the springs in my parts pile so I could measure and decide what I wanted from different packs that I had.

The front 40 specific belton 2” I ran before were too short as they were and any more arch would be even worse. Poor shackle angle and limited droop for sua

The 70 frt springs had length I wanted and military wrap. They were unknown manufacturer jdm lift springs and had plenty of arch. Just had to adjust for center pin location.
I did combine leafs from a couple different packs for front.

Rear I have an aux gas tank and couldn’t go back much further. As is it could be a bit better centered.
To keep u-joint clearance from binding on full droop and to keep driveshaft up a bit I used a double cardan rear. Set pinion angle up while doing rear soa.

The long 60/70 stock rears started flat under load. This worked well for the height I needed. I made my best guess on the rest of the pack but I do still need to add one more rear leaf and different shocks. Didn’t quite get that right and rubicon trip ended up being my shakedown to see how it all worked.

The 60/70 series springs have the bigger bushings and pins so I sourced late 40 series hangers to work with that. At least fixed end. Shackle side I still have mismatched with small bushings on frame side.

It’s trial and error to find what works the way I want with the dimensions/attributes I’m after. And I tend to do things the hard way not just getting off the shelf stuff. Trying to keep this truck a mild build with close to stockish appearance

 

[JohnnyC]

I don’t think I posted my rim change from this week… I noticed a large chunk delaminating from the steel rim … making the section that separated quite thin by the valve stem… good thing I have a few spare rims that were from 94’ so in much better shape then the 80’s Canadian rims

New rim is on the rear

 

[POPO AGIE]

Good catch.

 

[Pitter Patter]

That’s awesome, enjoy!

Thanks. Got’er in. Riveted on some vin plates, those who know will see the issue with the firewall plate…

 

[Ackcruisers]

Thanks. Got’er in. Riveted on some vin plates, those who know will see the issue with the firewall plate…
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That’s the greenest 857 medium blue I’ve ever seen.

 

[Pitter Patter]

That’s the greenest 857 medium blue I’ve ever seen.

Winner

 

[Oregon FJ40]

Spent the last two weekends getting the new roof gutter welded up and a new roof cap from Classic Cruisers fitted to it. Should you plan on buying one, know it is oversized and you will have to trim it down, they don’t have that info on their website. A jigsaw with a blade for metal works great for the rough cut, and a handheld belt sander finishes it off quickly. The roof is excellent, no complaints on that part. Fortunately have about 1.5” of space to spare pilot it into the garage. I also cleaned up the old windshield visor and got it prepped for install. Next weekend I’ll first glue the cap down, then get all the rivets put in. A lot more hours went into this than I expected.

 

[Pitter Patter]

Spent the last two weekends getting the new roof gutter welded up and a new roof cap from Classic Cruisers fitted to it. Should you plan on buying one, know it is oversized and you will have to trim it down, they don’t have that info on their website. A jigsaw with a blade for metal works great for the rough cut, and a handheld belt sander finishes it off quickly. The roof is excellent, no complaints on that part. Fortunately have about 1.5” of space to spare pilot it into the garage. I also cleaned up the old windshield visor and got it prepped for install. Next weekend I’ll first glue the cap down, then get all the rivets put in. A lot more hours went into this than I expected.

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Great work. I agree building a new drip rail with proper alignment and bolt connections is one of the most technically difficult things you can do on a 40.

 

[REZARF]

Four years ago my FJ40 let out some serious smoke under the dash and under the hood. By the time I was able to disconnect the battery I had melted a lot of the wiring harness. When I was a young man and had some battery issues a "mechanic" pulled the fusible link and added a butt connector, I didn't know any better. That was the fatal flaw. I am the second owner of my 1976 FJ40 and want to stay close-ish to original in the wiring department so I pulled every single wire in the 40, laid it out and replaced, cleaned up, recrimped, heat shrinked, and wraped everything as close to original as I could. Big thanks to @Coolerman for the high quality parts and supplies.

Got it all back in and was chasing some issues. My good friend and best mechanic I know (farmers are the best!) brought his son over while we chased the last few issues. Long story short, my 40 fired up for the first time in nearly 4 years. In that time I have bought and sold two 60's, one 62, a 100 series, and have been working on a few 55's. It is sooooooo, nice to hear that old 2F fire and run. Smooth as silk... or burlap... one or the other! haha

Gotta' rewire my CCOT rear taillights that came with a different plug than my 76 has, other than that I should be on the road this week. Long live 40's.

Thanks again David (and Caleb)!

 

[John in Utah]

Trying to avoid scope creep on this engine re-swap. Next up is cleaning up the firewall: properly plumbing fuel and vacuum lines, re wiring everything, stuff that wasn’t done during the original swap

 

[JohnnyC]

Welded up two holes that were rando po stuff on the new to me windshield frame … thought it was possibly the makings of a windshield bracket like the con-ferr that I used to have three windshield frames ago … but… didn’t want to go that direction again lol

Did the nail in a hole trick

 

[fj40fillet]

Dealership. I’ve heard it’s been discontinued since something like 2012 or older. How the guy I order parts from tracked this down is totally a mystery. He said it was discontinued but he was able to track one down for me. I asked if there are any more and he said it’s the last one he could find. Box was unopened when I showed up and the packing looks new so it’s not like it’s been on the shelf for decades; I made them unbox it so I could verify it wasn’t broken. Will unwrap and install this weekend to see if it really fits. Crazy find


Edit, got it home and in the gasket

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A local glass shop cut mine out of a bus window.