fj40?

[crapyota]

my brother in law has a 69 fj40. we have it tore down right now doing some minor makeover stuff and adressing small stuff that should have been done along time ago. its sitting on jackstand,and looks like it was stripped on the side of the road in seattle.

now that it is tore apart he wants to pull the locker out of the rear and put it up front,and weld the rear(once you start one project,why not do them all). hes running stock stuff with 33's,and rancho lift springs. hasnt gone soa. the rig does good now ,but not good enough..
i dont know about these rigs,but can he just swap thirds around?
does the rear axles come apart like toy trucks? just un bolt brakes,and backing plate. slide out axles?

has anyone put the mini truck disc brake set up on the front/ was it worth doing? how about the birfs? did you go mini truck knuckles?

thanks for any info!!

 

[Alan]

Hi All:

Yep, no worries, all stuff that has been done before. Have your bro head on over to www.ih8mud.com. This is big Land Cruiser forum site and you'll find detailed info about lots of stuff.

Yes, the third members will swap front to rear, or rear to front no issues. The rearend is not like the mini-truck's. Yep, remove the drum brakes, then remove the diff cover. Push the axle shafts inwards 1/4 of an inch or so then pull-out the "c" clip retaining the 'shaft.

The mini-truck front disc brake swap has been done on drum front brake FJ40s many times. A big improvement in braking ability and ease of service. You'll be swapping everything, knuckles-out from the mini to the stripped drum brake front axle tube. Yes, you will be using the Birfields and lock-outs from the mini with the inner axle shafts and third member from the Land Cruiser.

While having the rearend apart consider doing the "Monte Carlo" rear disc brake conversion. It is easy and cheap to do and a big improvement over the 1950s-era drum brakes. Again, lots of info on this swap on www.ih8mud.com.

Good luck.

Alan

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my brother in law has a 69 fj40. we have it tore down right now doing some minor makeover stuff and adressing small stuff that should have been done along time ago. its sitting on jackstand,and looks like it was stripped on the side of the road in seattle.

now that it is tore apart he wants to pull the locker out of the rear and put it up front,and weld the rear(once you start one project,why not do them all). hes running stock stuff with 33's,and rancho lift springs. hasnt gone soa. the rig does good now ,but not good enough..
i dont know about these rigs,but can he just swap thirds around?
does the rear axles come apart like toy trucks? just un bolt brakes,and backing plate. slide out axles?

has anyone put the mini truck disc brake set up on the front/ was it worth doing? how about the birfs? did you go mini truck knuckles?

thanks for any info!!

 

[64FJ40]

i dont know about these rigs,but can he just swap thirds around?

Yes.

does the rear axles come apart like toy trucks? just un bolt brakes,and backing plate. slide out axles?

Not quite. It's a c-clip rear. Drain oil, pull the inspection cover. (I'm assuming it has a lunchbox locker) Pull the center pin retainer bolt, slide the center pin out. Disassemble locker carefully to avoid losing springs. Bump the axle shafts inward to release the c-clips, then pull them back out a bit so the 3rd member can be removed (or swap the spider gears from the front in and weld it up in place).

IMO, you should definitely replace the outer axle seals at this point. they're cheap, you're already there, and they take about 3 minutes total. Bearings are a judgement call.

has anyone put the mini truck disc brake set up on the front/ was it worth doing? how about the birfs? did you go mini truck knuckles?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I martacked the inner axles, swapped on some '83-ish minitruck birfs, knuckles, brakes, steering arms. You have to do some grinding on the knuckle ball to fit the bigger birfs in, but no big deal. You'll probably have to shorten the tie-rod a little bit as well, and get some bushings to fit the stock TREs into the steering arms.

I have no complaints. The only potential issue is that it's a solid non-vented rotor. A much better swap is to use all the stuff from a '78 - '89 Land Cruiser to get vented disks and bigger calipers but that's not as easy to come by on the cheap. Depending on which brake master cylinder he has, it may require some modification (removing residual valve) or the installation of a proportioning valve to keep the front/rear bias under control.

I also did rear disks at the same time. Let me know if he wants more info on that.

 

[crapyota]

thank you!!! im gonna try to talk him into front conversion on brakes got most of this stuff sitting around!!

 

[Lamar]

Dear crapyota;
AFAIK, all 3rd members for the J series Land Cruisers are swappable between the front and read differentials.
Your friend;
LAMAR

 

[64FJ40]

Dear crapyota;
AFAIK, all 3rd members for the J series Land Cruisers are swappable between the front and read differentials.
Your friend;
LAMAR

What's a "J Series Land Cruiser"?

If that includes 20, 40, 50, 60 series, then that would be true as long as you're only meaning to imply swapping on the same vehicle.

I don't think it applies to all 70 series, and definitely not to any 80, 100, 120, or 200 series.

They ALL have a "J" in their model designations.

 

[WHITE TRASH1]

A much better swap is to use all the stuff from a '78 - '89 Land Cruiser to get vented disks and bigger calipers but that's not as easy to come by on the cheap.

The rotors from 78-97ish are the same dimensions. The only real difference is the older stuff (pre 86 if memory serves) have 2 bolts holding the rotor to the hub and later has 6 bolts. I used newer IFS hubs and early rotors and I just drilled the rotor to 6 bolt to make it simple.

Also the calipers are everywhere, they are just generic IFS calipers to go with the vented rotors. You can upgrade the calipers to V6 as well to get 4 big pistons rather than 2 small and 2 large. But that will require a larger master cylinder to fill them.

 

[crapyota]

great info guys. :awesomework:

if we dont upgrade rear brakes right now what should we do about e-brake? is this stock set up ok? it is a drive line brake thing but its a drum(oldskool) wtf?

do any of you still have stock drivetrain(motor,trans,etc)? any tips?

 

[64FJ40]

98% chance that his stock e-brake doesn't work anyway.

The output shaft of the t-case gets a groove worn in one spot by the output shaft seal. So gear oil leaks past, fouls the brake shoes, and it never holds again. There's a Speedi-sleeve for the shaft, and he'll need a new seal, a new gasket for the rear output housing, and some new brake shoes.

Then it will work just fine for a long time. To date, there is no functional rear axle e-brake setup that people are unanimously happy with that I know of. A well-adjusted factory e-brake should be just fine for any build level that still uses the factory transfer case.

 

[Lamar]

Dear 60FJ40;
I meant that the diff 3rd members are swappable FRONT TO REAR and VICE VERSA in the same vehicle's numerical family, however this does not always apply to vehicles outside of their respective build family.

As an aside, the 70 family utilized the same running gear as the 40 series, therefore all components between the two families are completely interchangeable, and I should know as I cannibalized the complete running gear from a totalled 1989 FJ70 and used it in my FJ40, including engine, tranny/xfer case front and rear d/s etc. I left my original FJ40 diffs alone because they are still GTG but I kept the ones from the FJ70 donor just in case I have need of them in the future.

The only difference between the 40 series and 70 series, other than the body styling, is the steering box setup. On the *J40 series the G/B is mounted behind the front axles on a pedestal mount, whereas the G/B on the *J seires is mounted in front of the axles and is bolted directly to the frame rails.

Of course, this later setup makes converting an FJ40 from manual steering to P/S VERY simple. In order to convert an *J40 from manual to P/S all one needs to do is to locate a later model frame mounted Toyota *J70 series hydraulic G/B w/pitman arm and the associated pump, hoses and rods and lower steering shaft (the part from the rag joint going forward).

Locate the G/B to the frame rail, drill the holes, mount the G/B, mount the pump to the engine, locate the remote resovior, route the hoses, install the belt and you're in business!

On vehicles with IFS, all bets are off as I am not familiar with IFS therefore I am not qualified to answer any questions regarding these vehicles.

Also, I recently installed factory LSDs in a friend's FJ60 and AFAIK the front and rear 3rd members were identical, in fact I didn't even bother marking them, therefore I may have inadvertently swapped them around.
Your friend;
LAMAR

 

[64FJ40]

Dear 60FJ40;
I meant that the diff 3rd members are swappable FRONT TO REAR and VICE VERSA in the same vehicle's numerical family, however this does not always apply to vehicles outside of their respective build family.

Not necessarily. I already detailed the ones that are, and the ones that aren't above.