fj drivetrain inspiration

 

This FJ has served as the major inspiration for the drivetrain in my current FJ40 stretch project. It has the same engine that I am using and I used the same method of flipping the front differential. The pics of been helpful in identifying how I want this mechanical build to look. The images are from this article. 

fj/hj 47 power steering 2

I cooked lunch for the family after church today. Then I headed down to the shop to work on making the bracket for the steering box. It doesn't show it here (as I haven't been taking a lot of pics as I go because I use my phone for listening to music) but I welded in the tube that goes through the front crossmember. Then I made a plate to mount the box to. I decided to mount the box a little higher than I did on my old FJ40. I tried to tuck up inside the crossmember a bit too. I made some thick walled tube spacers for the box that got welded to the plate. I ended up taking the box off to drill the bottom mounts through the frame and then I inserted long sections of the thick walled tube so I could pass those through the frame. My neighbor came over again and he assisted with the drilling and sharpening of drill bits. After he left I welded this up pretty much all the way. I'll wait and weld the underside when I flip the frame over to do other welding. The front crossmember was pretty rusty inside so I need to give it a detailed inspection before I call the frame finished. The power steering turned out well.

Next on the power steering list to do:

Figure out my steering shaft routing and get some materials for this (firewall plate, firewall bearing, u-joints and shaft material)

Figure out my dropped pitman arm for Saginaw box

Figure out tierod ends and tierod

Power Stering high pres hose

Power steering low pres hose

Column Bearing - Kilian F-350-89 - 19.1 ID / 34.9 OD mm - I purchased this from CruiserOutfitters for $10 Part# PSCB2

This bearing is the same as used on many lawn mowers. Below are the mower part numbers.

Cross reference chart:

Replaces (OEM): ARIENS 05408900

ARIENS 05416200

BUNTON P0209

BUNTON PL0941

CASE C12110

CUB CADET 384881-R93

CUB CADET 384881-R94

CUB CADET IH384891-R94

GRAVELY 011193

GRAVELY 036778

GRAVELY 037823

GRAVELY 05408900

JOHN DEERE AM118315

JOHN DEERE AM127304

JOHN DEERE AM35443

MTD 741-0141

MTD 941-0141

MTD IH-384881-R94

SNAPPER 7028722

TORO 110513

TORO 251-210

Pitman Nut & Washer along with frame tube insert - CruiserOutfitters The nut is Part# PSPAN, Lockwasher Part# PSPAL , Tube Part# PSCMT 

Ujoints and Steering shaft - All parts from SummitRacing - Borgeson 36" collapsing Steering shaft Part# BRG-450036 , Ujoint at the steering box - BRG-014940 , Ujoint at the steering column - FLA-FR2517DD. ***Note - use a Flaming River joint because the only Borgeson joint available that I needed was a strange one with an extended center section. I chose a stainless steel joint since it was only $10 more than the FLA-FR1717DD nickle plated one.

Note to self: Check out https://www.cruiseroutfitters.com/powersteering.html for parts needed.

Other to-do items:

figure out brake line tab location on rear axle

finish rear caliper brackets and spacers

true and weld front driveshaft slip=joint section

make front plate for passenger side frame box section

figure out exhaust and hangers

figure out brake line and threaded inserts for mounting along frame rail

figure out fuel lines

make bottom gas tank straps for mounting gas tank

figure out fuel filler routing to gas tank

Look at clearance on crossmember for rear driveshaft

finish welding frame topside

pull engine and flip frame

finish welding frame bottom side

inspect front crossmember

POR15 frame and axle housings

take rear leaf pack apart and re-arch springs for 2" lift

take front leaf pack apart and re-arch springs for 2" lift

get rebuild parts for both axles and figure out how to set up gears inside since preload will need to be set

demount current tires and start electrolysis on wheels

powder coat wheels

get new tires

 

fj/hj 47 power steering 1

Before calling it quits for the day on Saturday, I worked on my Saginaw steering box install. I did this same conversion on my old FJ40 and it was the single best modification I could do to it. Driving with big tires and no power steering on the twisty mountain roads is no joke. I’m going to try and make this install a little more integrated than the last one. I drilled the front crossmember and then made a thick walled sleeve that I notched on the Bridgeport to make it match the gearbox inlet and outlet connections. I then slid that into place in the front crossmember hole. This setup tucks the box into the frame a bit better than my last install. I’ll proceed with making the mounting plates next. I think this should work nicely. More on this soon...

 

fj/hj 47 front driveshaft

Putting the transfer case from the 4Runner in the FJ40 has caused all sorts of issues. I knew this would be the case since the stock FJ40 is passenger side differential and the 4Runner/Tacoma is driver’s side differential. I solved that issue by cutting the front axle pumpkin off, notching the housing for the 3rd member flipping the drain plug from bottom to top; which became the bottom when I flipped the axle, and cutting and flipping the end knuckles. Again this axle issue was solved a long time ago. But that still doesn’t connect everything to provide 4wd. 

The front driveshaft needed to have a carrier bearing to work with the leaf spring from axle since the driveline would be flexing. Yesterday I decided to tackle this project. I used a two piece rear Tacoma driveshaft and cut it up to make all the pieces I would need. I’ve gotten half way decent at making new custom length driveshafts. Luckily these are smaller sections, so I can true them and set them up for welding on my 13” South Bend lathe. Using the rear driveshaft for my front driveshaft allowed me to have larger u-joints for strength but it then caused an issue with the small bolt pattern on the pinion flange from the stock FJ40 axle. 

My neighbor assisted me on this and made a plate that I could drop the stock flange into and weld. Then I recut the larger profile of the plate and drilled holes to match the new custom driveshaft flange. I could have left the pinion flange alone and used a conversion u-joint but I thought keeping all the same u-joints was a better move. I made a mount for the carrier bearing that comes off of the transmission crossmember. It all turned out well. 

I now know that my front section of driveshaft is the correct length (after my initial guess) and now I can fully weld this. One step closer…

 

fj/hj 47 disc brakes

On Friday I turned the Chevy truck rotors for all four corners on my FJ40 project. The rotors are from a Chevy truck and the centers need opened up a bit to fit the Toyota Hubs. I also turned the front wheel hubs as they require turning a bit of material off of the flange so that they can fit inside the tophat of the Chevy rotor. My neighbor assisted me in installing longer wheel studs on all four corners. For the front caliper's I'm using old brackets that I had on my old FJ40. When I owned it, I had trouble with the caliper on the passenger front sticking, so I ended up ordering a new set of front brackets. I saved the old ones and I found that same bracket to be troublesome as I was mocking things up. I ended up cutting the bracket and re-welding so that the caliper was in the correct orientation. All is well now.  I made mounting brackets for the Monte Carlo calipers and I was able to mock things up. I'm still in the midst of making the brackets for the rear calipers. I'll have some work to do on getting the rear axle housing finished up before I can call it finished and proceed to painting it.

 

scratch built toyota fj47 "troopy"

Sometimes you get excited about a project and your hands can't move fast enough for brain. Your imagination and creativity take over and supercharges your senses and makes you skip steps and make stupid decisions. It's sometime difficult to slow down and do things right. 

During the pandemic I started to visualize and dream about owning a Toyota Troopy or FJ/HJ 47. I was starting to see some of these showing up in the States since they were now legal to import from Australia or South America, but I still couldn't afford what these rusted out hunks were selling for.  I had come across some extra parts when I was restoring an earlier project FJ40 and I happened to have a rusted out frame and another good frame, so my brain started working overtime. I had some time off work due to the pademic and in a few weeks I had a frame cut upand pieced together and I started going to town mocking up rusting sheetmetal. I kept telling myself that I was just trying to see what it might look like and just wanted to see if I had the parts to make it all come together. I stalled out when I was trying to figure out what drivetrain I would put in it.

Once the pademic was over, my neighbor came over and saw it and we were talking about drivetrains and he said that he had a Toyota 4 Runner that was rusted out but that had a good engine and trans that he would give me. The wheels started turning again and In a couple of days I had a Toyota 5VZ 3.4L leveled up and had the transmission and transfer case mounted. I even got the crossmembers welded in and started thinking about a gas tank solution. The front axle on a stock FJ is passenger side diff but the 97 4Runner requires driver's side dif to make the transfer case hookup. My neighbor and I had talked this over originally and he was urging me to use the 4runner frame, but I really wanted the solid axle setup and the measurements would require widening the FJ40 body which I think ruins the proportions. Would you think that this hurdle would have stalled me out, but I I figured I could take the stock from axle, cut the dif housing off, cut the axle knuckle end off and flip it all around and weld it back in place. One might think that it's just a simple flip of the axle, but that would give send you in reverse when trying to drive forward. Anyway, I go through this and I was one step closer.

Now in my mind, I kept hitting a hurdle as the logical side of my brain knew that I had not previously buttoned up all frame issue from the initial stretch and moving forward with the body fitment didn't make sense until I had had a proper rolling chassis. I had gotten parts for a disc brake conversion, but the frame just wasn't a strong foundation to build on. 

That brings me to this week. Now that I was off school, I decided that I needed to strip the body back off and address all of the issues with the frame. I could box the frame while I was at it, figure out my gas tanks mounts, reinforce any of the crossmembers, put in my front carrier bearing for the front driveshaft, paint the frame, run brake lines, run fuel lines, install power steering, and finalize the disc brakes, axle rebuilds, and get this mega long frame into a rolling chassis.

In the past few days: 

I made box sections for the middle of the frame where I added 26" of frame. I cut holes similar to the stock frame in these sections and got them tacked in place. I finalized the position of my chevy blazer gas tank, adapted the 4runner style sending unit and made a crossmember and mounts for the tank. I still need to make lower straps, but I'm close on this.

Welded nuts to the inside of the frame for the bump-stop mounts.

I made plate sections to box in the frame over the axles and got them welded in.

I ordered some POR 15 to paint the frame and I started cleaning up surface rust on the frame.

I finished welding in the motor mounts and fully welding the crossmember for the transmission mount.

After today, I still need to:

Make some more plates to box in the rear section that is added onto the frame ( I have made templates for these).

Finish welding the diagonal braces at the rear of the frame.

Patch any unused holes.

Weld in a plate for the power steering box mount.

Take a stab at re-arching the leaf springs and cleaning each individual leaf in all of the leaf packs.

Machine my Chevy truck brake rotors.

Make rear caliper mounts for the Mote Carlo brake calipers

Rebuild the axles

Check the 3rd member gear lash.

Order a saginaw steering box

Order a set of shocks

Order new leaf spring bushings

Order a new set of tires

Order brake line material

Order axle seal kit and possibly axle bearings.

I know this doesn't look like much but it feels like a big step in the right direction. There's still a lot to do, but I feel like I've at least slowed my brain down a bit and I'm working on getting the foundation right before moving onto the body. However, I'm excited to get to the sheetmetal because I'm planning on making some tooling so I can recreate some of the sheetmetal from scratch so that the final result is better crafted. I'm stocked to get all the welding on the frame finished so I can lift the drivetrain out with my hoist and I can drop the axles and do a full on quality paint job on it. I'm trying to think of the frame like a piece of sculpture, so I'm going to try and smooth everything on it.