Project Land Cruzah

[Dooner]

Yeah man they are good wheels, they are the elusive 9" wide 15 inchers. They really stay on the bead alot better than 10 inchers, but let the sidewalls spread out a little wider than the 8 inchers. I bought these at a rummage sale at a church back in '89! I had them on my '72 FJ55 with 33" BFG MTs to replace the rusted chromies with Armstrong Norseman tires after the center section busted out of the right front while I was driving.. The 55 flopped down onto the dismembered tire, farking up the front fender and then spitting it out in front of me, sending it over a curb, and bouncing through a parking lot full of cars. It never hit a thing. Being a Toyota, I was able to drive it on three wheels through the parking lot to retrieve the tire and install the factory spare. I took cracks and rust a little more seriously after that!

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Not much to report as Ive been spending allot of time fishing and camping lately. I did finally make a decision on the battery set up. I went with a Ballistic Fabrication box and a red top Optima after much searching and hunting around for alternatives. I can get a replacement battery anywhere if I have a problem with the Optima which is important as the battery boxes are made to fit this specific battery. I didn't want to risk a competitors battery not fitting the box as cash is scarce and I can only afford to buy things once. I got the Ballistic Fab box based on price, reviews, and heavy duty construction (Ok it looks really cool too!) .

[Cruiserhiggs]

I love the battery hold down. That's sick!

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Thanks bro! Man I gotta get around to updating this thread!
Finished up some of the side projects that ive been dragging my feet on

Here's the parking brake bracket that I made to hook up the 3rd gen 4Runner P Brakes


Bracket installed under tranny hump

And the 4Runner Brake handle

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Had an issue with the wiring in my early '60's Caddy / GM steering column with the 4 way flasher switch getting fubarred. It turned out that I could get another column from the junk yard cheaper than rebuilding the old one so thats the route I went. I got a tilt column out of an '88 Firebird with all the switches, wiring and a steering wheel with a sweet burning bird on the horn button for under $35! Heres some side by side pics for comparison sake, the one with the cool steering wheel is from the F-Bird

Found that the F-Bird bracket lets the column hang down too low, so I used the Caddy bracket on the new column, bringing it up high and tight. Here's the under dash brackets, Caddy on left side

Some installed And the Fabulous F-Bird wheel!
Knocked out a bracket for the firewall too
Welded the bracket to the column and bolted it down for the last time

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Figured it was time to get some seat belts in the rig too so I opted to transplant some belts from a newer 4Runner into the '40

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Built a little redwood rack over the fuel cell to protect the tank and tubing, so I can toss some sleeping bags and a tent back there

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Well...
They say the Devil is in the Details..
More issues..
Had to ditch my beloved aluminum wheels cuz one had jacked up holes and wouldnt stay tight.  Anyways, had a set of chrome modular's sitting in the side yard that were given to me a while back.
Aluminum
Chromies

After rebuilding my Quadrajet (myself), I was getting dismal mileage, but it ran and idled good, just ran rich. I think with some tuning, it will lean out and do a little better on gas..

In the mean time I put an Edelbrock 1411 on that a buddy gave me. I read that they flood at the first sight of any rough going or angles so I put a set of off road spring loaded float seat needles. Ill play with both carbs to see which one will work out better. The 1411 is designed for big blocks, so my little 327 is a little over carbed, but we'll see if it will work out.   

Power steering is acting up too. Gonna throw a new box and pump at it and should be done.

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Wow, havent posted since August! Resurecting my own thread here, anyways where was I? Oh yeah, Carburetion and Power Steering gremlins. Well after playing with the edelbrock carb for awhile I found that it ran ok, but that it would indeed flood on me just like everyone said it would. I ended up putting the off road spring loaded float needle seat kit in it, which was supposed to everything seated while going through the whoops to try to cure the flooding. It did seem to help some, but it seemed like gas was just being pored down the venturis, causing a stumble and hard start. Well a quick post on CL sent the ol edelbrock to a local dude with a big block Buick or something or other. He called and said that it worked awesome for him. Im glad. I ended up watching some videos on Youtube for tuning the old Quadrajet that I had rebuilt originally. With a few tweeks, I got the idle down and leaned the mixture out some. The 327 still felt flat, so I looked at the timing. Everything looked fine but I found that when I gassed it, the distributor wasnt advancing. The vac advance pod wasnt pulling the rod, so I picked up a new one which ended up being the wrong one. I went back to the parts store, said screw it and ponied up for a new Hi Zoot Accel HEI distributor. Done and done.

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The next chore I faced was to fix the Power Steering system. I say "system" because that's about what was wrong with it. Problem 1. The steering would get "notchy" every once in a while. When turned it felt like something in the steering was hitting something else, every quarter turn. Then, moments later, it was buttery smooth again, one finger kind of stuff. I figured that id throw a new box, pump and what ever else I had to do to find the problem. I had suspected that when I cut and modded the steering shaft for the Firebird column, that I somehow got it crooked, resulting in a wobble that the u joints couldnt handle. After jacking the front wheels off of the ground and turning the shaft by hand, I found that it was jerking around a bit, but the shaft looked straight and true. In the mean time, I figured Id get another power steering box to replace the old leaky one I pulled out of a wrecking yard back in 1993 or something. I did some research and decided to go with another Jeep J20 box which has the bigger bore 3 1/2" I think for a little more power. I picked one up at A.Z. for like $113 plus tax and core. They came on '75 and '76 Jeep J20's and a bunch of full size GM cars - part #6529 if your interested. Other cool thing is that they mount with 4 bolts rather than the usual 3. When I boxed the frame horns, I sorta covered up the holes to access the front tow hook mounting nuts. The driver side tow hook had to be removed to pull the upper forward steering box mounting bolt. The inner side of the frame horn with the mounting plate is almost 3/4" thick, so I had to bore a 1 1/2" hole on the outside of the frome to get the tow hook nuts off.

[Dooner]

Anyhow, after getting the box unbuttoned, I pulled the steering shaft and found that a frozen U joint in the Spicer steering column shaft had been the culprit all along, causing the "notchiness" that had been haunting me all along. After an hour at a local parts place, we were unable to find a replacement for the u joint, so I got a can of blaster and worked the joint until it freed up. I still need to replace it, but it works fine for now.
Got it all back together and drove it for awhile until the old rebuilt Power Steering pump bit the big one. I'm kinda glad really, I never really liked the old Chevelle pump that I was running. The reservoir was too small, allowing the fluid to puke out when it got hot. The Chevy pumps are also mounted very low, near the motor mount and driver side exhaust manifold, making it very susceptible to heat. It would be lovely to purchase a full on PSC, Howell etc system with a remote reservoir, but finances what they are these days, kinda precludes that. Soo, I hit the wrecking yard again to look for a solution. I found what I believe will be a very suitable pump in a full size 80's Chevy Van. The criteria that I was looking for was a pump mounted in the same location as mine, running a V belt pulley, larger reservoir can on pump with a remotely mounted fill reservoir with bracket . It looked right, but not knowing for sure about the mounting, I grabbed everything. Hoses, brackets, pump and reservoir. Pump mounting bracket bolted right up, using the same holes as my '67 327 block. Problem was, the bracket allowed the pump to sit about 2" lower, right in the middle of my steering shaft . After jacking with it for awhile, I said screw it and used the original Chevelle bracket.
Shame really, it's a nice bracket, and it fit great with my alternator  bracket and exhaust manifold. Could make it work by sectioning  and relocation the mounting area 2" higher, but I dont think it would be worth the effort.

[Dooner]

Here's an old pic of the steering column shaft with the bad u joint, along with the little Chevelle pump

This is the sleeved but joint that I made on the column shaft to adapt the Firebird column to the old spicer shaft

Here's one showing how close the high pressure line is to the exhaust manifold

[Dooner]

Here's a shot showing the old Chevelle power steering pump on the left and the Octopus looking thing on the right is out of a Chevy Van. The Van power steering pump has a larger reservoir can than the Chevelle pump in addition to the remote reservoir. 8)


This one shows the reservoir mounted up onto the Master cyl. Van hose is molded into just the right shape for the FJ40 install! Must have been alot of Chevy/Toyota collaboration going on back in the day

[Dooner]

Here's the gizzards from both pumps, Chevelle on the left, very similar, but not the same. Was hoping to reuse the Chevelle piston as I had a high pressure line made with a female fitting and the Van uses a male fitting on the hp hose.

Its hard to tell, but the Van fitting has a slightly larger bore, giving more low speed fluid flow.. Im going to go ahead and use the Van fitting, piston with the longer Chevelle spring, and just get a double male to hook up the Parker high pressure hose that I had made up

Pump bolted up in place using the old Chevy brackets

[COToy91]

http://westtexasoffroad.homestead.com/powersteering.html

Pressure and flow mods

[Dooner]

http://westtexasoffroad.homestead.com/powersteering.html

Pressure and flow mods

Great tech! Thanks for the link CO

[Dooner]

Had a great summer, The Cruiser did better than I imagined it would. Here are some random pics in no particular order of the Cruiser over the last few months.

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[fj-rankenstein]

great work!  i love all the wheeling pics..

[Wainiha]

 

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Thanks guys! The first 3 pics are from a quick little day trip that we made early in the summer. Lots of fire roads and some cool sections of granite along with some deeply rutted dirt climbs which were pretty hairy lifting a wheel here and there. The rest are from Swamp Lake. We made two trips into Swamp about a week apart. The first run we came in the Tamerack side off of Hwy168 between Shaver and Huntington Lakes. We Camped at Swamp, did some fishing and just had a great time. In the morning as we were wheeling out, the Beige Jeep busted a rear u joint climbing out of the lower camping area. Bad thing was we had no spare parts. We tried to winch and tow but it was no good. We ended up leaving it in a safe spot, unloaded it into my Cruiser and headed out past Grouse Lake and on through the Dinkey Creek Road route. Shaver was already shut down, so we headed home only to come back up a week later. We found the rig safe and sound, replaced the Drive shaft and headed home. Even though the 2nd trip was a rescue mission we still had a great time! All the Swamp pics are from the second trip up, not sure where my pics are from the first run..

[Dooner]

Going through some pics on my phone and thought I'd post some up!

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[81 shortbed]

Sweet fj!

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[Dwill817]

Man! That thing is so sweet! You pretty much built my dream rig!

[252chad]