In and Out

UPDATED 7/28/09
Rear Driveline - out
New u-joints - in
Interior - out
Herculiner - in
Top, doors, etc - out
Wind and sun - in
Front cage hoop - out
Roll-bar - back in
Stereo - out
4 seats - back in

Looking better, driving better, running better...
Next up, exhaust pipe redo, muffler, tuning, quarter-panel guards, stereo, speakers.

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4/09/09
LIFT KIT DONE! Looks a million times better. Drives so much nicer. Less bumpy, less painful, less vibration, less road-noise, less steering effort, less braking ability, but who cares, she only gets up to about 45mph.

I did get a wicked driveline vibration, so I pulled the rear driveline and drove her home.
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Rolling, rolling, rolling....

I've been driving her around plenty... all around town, out to Bootjack and down to Midpines. Unfortunately, every weekend for the past month has been jam-packed with adventure but no spare time to go installing the lift. So my springs and shocks and shackles and brake lines are languishing at Brand Auto... waiting for a chance to be installed.

That chance will come Saturday. My wife has given me the go-ahead, nobody is going to be visiting, I have money for beer, and all the time that I need. Even though it's going to be a full day of work, it just feels like looking forward to a vacation or a trip to the beach. What a great feeling. If I get done early enough, I might be doing some testing Saturday night.

I also got the manifold gasket, so I can pull the manifolds, repair the header, weld the flanges, replace my tubing, install a muffler, and adjust the valves so I can tune the carb.

I'm so excited!!!!

35" tires. Stock suspension.

Due to a scheduling conflict with the wheels/tires I had been using... I needed to urgently order some cheap wheels and mount any tires I had - which happened to be 35x12.50R15 BFG All-Terrains. They are about 50% worn all around, but that still equals a 33.8" actual height (aired to 35psi and sitting with weight on the ground).

FYI... 35" tires will fit on an FJ40 Toyota Landcruiser with stock suspension, stock shackles and stock fenders...etc.

I also got a pair of 1" bolt-on wheel spacers from Trail Gear... for $80. What a deal! BUT I thought it was important to note that the 15x8 Soft 8 wheels from Summit Racing with a 4" backspacing fit on my drum brakes without rubbing on the tie-rod end, without spacers. Any wheel weights may be within a millimeter, but contact does not happen without the spacer. I only got the spacer because it is a cheap way to get tiny bits more articulation and better tracking and it does get me about 1" farther away from the tie-rod end. For those who would say that spacers will cause more wear and breakage... I just have to say that a co-worker of mine runs 2" spacers on his Toyota Pickup mini-truck axles running 38" Swampers on 12" of lift - he rock-crawls almost daily - dual t-case, and he beats her badly - but he has yet to wear out a bearing or break a shaft.

I ordered the 4.5" Safari Deluxe Suspension lift from Man-A-Fre... originally I was going to get the 4" kit from Downey, but at first they were blocking me because the Bilsteins were 2 weeks away. Then when I called back to say that I would wait 2 weeks, they told me the springs were 3 months out. WOW. They really don't want to sell me a lift. If they had maybe been more communicative I might have actually waited, but then again, if I wanted to wait 3 months, I could easily call up ALCAN and get some custom springs made. But, what the hell... I wanted to get her in the air. I know, I should have waited, etc., etc., but whatever the hell... I've got a decent lift coming, we'll play around with it, do some trails and feel them out. If I don't like them in 6 months, I will go ALCAN and sell my 4.5" lift.

Next up, waiting for the 4.5" lift...

Nothing getting done...

It's too damn cold and too damn rainy to do anything. I'm watching TV. The top doesn't leak too much, and the whole interior is stripped anyway, so I'll just wait for good weather to sand it and put down some bedliner.

Meh.

Snow, hail and rain...

Since the gods have chosen this past weekend as a good day to start the downpour, I decided to start waterproofing the FJ40, new weatherstripping (bulk crap from NAPA)... and some tightening of bits... etc.

I spent about 2 hours going through the whole heater system and repair a dozen connections, cleaned the switch, knocked mud out of the blower and got the whole damn thing working.

Next up, replacement radiator fan, more cleaning, more water proofing, rust-removal, stripping and bedliner....

Went and took a look at a friend's 71 FJ40...

He's got a Downey 4" lift on stock everything else, etc...
Apparently he got regular 15" black wagon wheels from Summit. They fit. With 35" on a minor rear fender trim. I'll have to get some pictures up here...
I've got some coil springs that came from a Grand Cherokee, I'd like to do some 4-links and coils... maybe I'll do that. I guess it might be poor-handling on-road, but I think it should be fine.

More stuff later on.