FJ40SS
By Jim Van de Ven
as found in Toyota Trails
Drop me an e-mail: jim_vandeven@hotmail.com
The
Cruiser bug bit me at the age of 16 when I test-drove a brown FJ60 at a Toyota
dealer used car lot. I was amazed
at the simplicity and ruggedness of the truck, a stark comparison to other
vehicles that I had examined. After
six months of searching for the “right one” I bought a stock ’84 FJ60.
At the same time I subscribed to the Land Cruiser Mailing List, and it
was all downhill from there. Within
a year I bought an FJ40 from the proprietor of LCR 4WD, Steve Cramer, who has
become a good friend and an endless source of information, parts, Cruiser
enthusiasm, and entertainment. This
FJ40, later named “Noc Noc” by the participants of BHCC ’99 after some
engine troubles, opened my eyes to the Cruiser world, from wrenching and
modifications to wheeling and meeting other aficionados.
This rig also provided a father-son project and simultaneously
transmitted the disease to my father, who now owns a pair of Cruisers.
After a few years of wheeling and modifications Noc Noc was sprung-over,
locked, geared, and performing very well on the rock trails I enjoy.
However, I found myself wanting to push the envelope with some more
extreme modifications, yet I did not want to tear apart a well working rig,
hence the prelude to the story of a new project.
During
spring break of 1999, while I was home from school, I stumbled across a ’67
right hand drive FJ40 in the classifieds of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
The truck, which had not been started in 15 years, was basically complete
and original, down to the three-speed transmission shifting on the left side of
the column. The price was right, I
couldn’t pass it up, and the next thing I knew, I owned another Cruiser.
At the time I had no idea exactly what I was going to do with the rig.
Leaving
a mechanical engineer in a dorm, surrounded by other engineers can lead to some
perilous plans and ideas. I knew I
wanted to build something unique and creative while maintaining that which drew
me to Land Cruisers in the first place, overall simplicity.
After considering many options, I narrowed my decision between the two
alternatives of an adjustable wheelbase vehicle or four-wheel steering.
The adjustable wheelbase idea (approximately 90”-105”) included a
telescoping frame that would allow the maneuverability of an FJ40 with the
ability to stretch and do the “mini-truck only obstacles” as well as have
their larger cargo carrying capability when necessary.
I decided to go with the four-wheel steering because the majority of my
wheeling is in the Black Hills of South Dakota where tight narrow trails, moving
rocks, and a constant battle to keep the rear tires on the right line are the
norm.
Cease
at four-wheel steering, I could not. I
wanted to use this truck as a chance to do all the things I wish I had done to
Noc Noc, while mimicking the things I had found to work well.
As a result of the compilation of approximately a year of daydreaming,
sketches, drawings, and number crunching I started building a truck.
To
allow for four-wheel steering I needed to have a frame which was the same width
in the rear as in the front to allow clearance for the rear tires to turn.
Instead of modifying an existing frame, I decided it would be easier and
cleaner to start from scratch. Progress
started by buying 634 lbs of steel tubing, angle, and plate at a steel yard to
be used for the frame, body/roll cage, and skid plate.
The frame is constructed of 2”x4” and 2”x5” rectangular tubing.
Each frame rail consists of five sections welded together with doubler
patches at each joint. The reason
for the oversized frame is that I wanted to greatly increase stiffness in
comparison to stock frame in order to minimize frame twisting and deflection,
which leads to fatigue.
Construction
of the frame was accomplished on the garage floor with merely a protractor,
square, tape measurer, and many clamps. About
half a week of work yielded a painted frame complete with motor, body, and
suspension mounts. The most
difficult part of building the frame was positioning the motor mounts. The left and right motor mounts on the 2F are neither at the
same height, nor at the same placement fore-aft on both the front of the engine
and on the bellhousing; this trait of Toyota engineering lead to some difficult
three-dimensional measurements.
The
frame was constructed for a wheelbase of 99” using leaf springs front and rear
with the rear shackle mounts being flush with the rear of the frame.
Performance gains from a wheelbase increased by moving the rear axle back
can be found in improved traction when climbing due to a closer to equal weight
distribution on the front and rear axles. In
addition, on-road stability is improved due a larger understeer gradient
resulting from an increase proportion of the weight on the front axle in
comparison to the rear when on level ground. In addition to the performance gains of the longer wheelbase
it also allowed room for my very long drivetrain, which consists of a fuel
injected 2F, SM465 transmission, NP203 gear reduction box, and a 3spd Cruiser
transfercase.
Engine
installation in this vehicle was easier than any other I have ever encountered;
a cherry picker wasn’t even required. By
lifting up the bare frame, the freshly built 2F, still on the engine stand, was
rolled under the frame and bolted in place. All the gearboxes were installed
individually into the frame from the top with no obstructions in the way.
One change I did make from the stock location of the engine and gear
boxes was lowering the entire drivetrain an inch in the frame to lower my center
of gravity. From experience with my other FJ40, a spring-over can be
quite tippy at times, a characteristic I wanted to minimize on this vehicle.
Off-camber
stability of this vehicle was also improved by using FJ60 width axles front and
rear. The front axle housing was
stock from an FJ60 while the rear axle housing was a custom hybrid. In order to position the differential on the right side of
the vehicle (notice I did not say passenger side), I used an FJ40 rear axle
housing, cut it to length, with knuckles from a front housing pressed into the
tube. This yielded a hybrid
steerable rear axle with an inspection cover.
Installed in both front and rear housings were 4.88 gears, ARBs, Birfield
Eliminator kits, and mini-truck knuckles and brakes.
Mounting
the front axle housing under the frame only required setting the caster and
adding spring perches to the top of the housing for the spring-over axle
configuration. Setting up the rear
axle was a bit more complicated. Because
a CV-joint is in use at the transfercase end of the rear driveshaft, the rear
pinion needed to be pointed up at the transfercase.
Once this angle was established and the rear spring perches welded into
place, the rear caster was set by rotating the knuckles.
In
order to minimize the problems I had encountered with axle wrap on my other
FJ40, a traction bar was constructed for this truck.
The traction bar mounted to the top and bottom of the rear axle housing
and mounted to the frame near the transfercase through a shackle.
This shackle allowed fore and aft movement of the axle. The final addition to the suspension consisted of adding
shock towers to the frame and shock mounts to the axles
The
next order of business was constructing the steering system.
The front steering is controlled by a Scout II power steering box which
mounts conveniently on the inside of the right frame rail.
I also used the Scout steering box on my other FJ40 and have been very
happy with the road feel and the 4.5 turn lock-to-lock ratio.
Custom tie-rods connect the steering box to hysteer arms, which keep all
the steering linkage above the frame.
A
great deal of debate surrounded how to control the rear steering.
I wanted a system that was simple, very durable, and had a back up in the
event of a failure. I decided on a
fully hydraulic system that uses a power steering pump for a supply pressure, an
orbital motor for control, and a double-ended hydraulic actuator mounted on the
rear axle to connect to the rear steering arms.
An orbital motor uses flow meters to deliver a specified volume of fluid
per degree of rotation of the shaft. These
units are commonly used for steering control on tractors. The source of the orbital motor I am using was the used parts
bin at a local tractor dealer. The
reason I used a double-ended cylinder was to ensure that the rear tires turned
at the same velocity to the left as to the right because the piston area of both
sides of the cylinder are the same. I
constructed the double-ended cylinder by combining parts from two single ended
cylinders into one unit. For on the
road travel a manual valve is used to lock the rear steering in the straight
position. In the event of a
failure, a manual link can be placed on the rear steering to lock it in
position, and the belt from the power steering pump serving the rear can be
removed.
Once
the rolling chassis was completed, it was time to start construction on the
body. Being a fairly tall person
with size 15 feet I always hated rollcages that infringed on interior space.
In addition, I knew that because this vehicle’s primary purpose was
playing in the rocks, major confrontations between rocks and the vehicle body
would occur. For these reasons I
decided this vehicle would have minimal sheetmetal and that the rollcage would
be the body. Along this same train
of thought I decided that the vehicle would be coated with Durabak, a roll-on
bed liner, on all surfaces. Another
unique feature I desired for this vehicle was to see the drivetrain and rocks
through the floor, hence Plexiglas floors.
The
body/rollcage was constructed primarily of 2” square tubing, both because I
did not have access to a tubing bender to use round tubing, and because it is
easier to get doors and other panels to seal with square tubing.
An interior body structure to support the floor, gas tank, and seats was
constructed from 1” square tubing. The
floor consists of 3/8” and ½” thick Plexiglas which proved to be more
difficult than expected to cut to fit, primarily due to most cutting blades
heating the plastic such that it melted itself back together where a cut had
just been made. My dad proved to be
a big help with this, cutting nearly all of the Plexiglas on the truck,
eventually finding that a rotozip seemed to cut the Plexiglas best.
Once
the rolling frame and body were constructed, wiring the truck and attending to
details was tackled, which proved to be the most time consuming part of the
project. From experience with
chasing wiring gremlins in many other 30+-year-old FJ40s, I knew I definitely
needed to build my own wiring harness. This
also allowed me to “do it right the first time” by completing all the wiring
at once and not making a mess of an existing wiring harness by adding wires and
switches for all the miscellaneous aftermarket things a Cruiser needs.
Included
in the wiring was the fuel injection for the 2F engine.
For the injection I am using a throttle body from a Chevy 4.3L V6 and a
custom-built adapter plate between the intake and the throttle body.
From Howell I bought a Prom chip cut for my application and a wiring
harness, which made the job much easier. The
reason I wanted fuel injection for this rig was to avoid carb flooding problems
I have had with my other FJ40 at extreme angles. No
more need for a third foot when cleaning out the carb on difficult obstacles.
Because
I have been so impressed with the off-road capabilities of the 2F, the decision
of what engine to use for this Cruiser was not a difficult one.
The only other option that I seriously considered was a Chevy 292 I6,
especially since I have heard rumors that it had EFI in the last year of
production. The 2F in this Cruiser
is from an ’84 FJ60 and is bored .030” over and the head is milled .030”
to boost compression. The exhaust
runs through a header and a turbo muffler.
One issue I did encounter with the fuel injection is that the computer
was not happy with the signal from the non-US points style distributor I was
originally using. To provide a
cleaner tach signal I used a GM HEI distributor, which I recurved for the 2F.
Accessories for the engine include a high output alternator and York
compressor on the left side, and two power steering pumps on the right side.
The
final construction “details” for the truck included building a gas tank to
sit under the passenger seat, a front bumper to mount a Warn 8274 winch, a swing
away spare tire carrier, a tailgate, and Plexiglas doors.
In building the tire carrier I attached a drum brake spindle to the rear
bumper of the cruiser with an axle stub inside of it.
On this spindle I mounted a hub, with the wheel flange removed, complete
with wheel bearings and a lockout. Welded
to the side of the hub is the swing-away tire carrier.
This setup allowed me to set a preload on the pivot to remove backlash
while the lockout hub allows the carrier to be locked in the open position so it
does not swing closed when off-camber.
The
truck first moved under its own power at 3:00 a.m. three days before the Black
Hills Cruiser Classic ’00.
Overall the truck worked very well right out of the box.
The maneuverability of the four wheel steering was incredible, the
low-low range of the dual transfercases was very impressive, and the fuel
injection seemed to be working decently. However,
as with any major project, a few bugs needed to be worked out and I was not able
to take the truck to the event. After
a few more weeks of finishing work, it was time to go back at school (South
Dakota School of Mines in Rapid City, SD) and trail time began adding up
quickly.
I
have been truly impressed with the performance of the rig on the rock trails of
the Black Hills. The stability of
the truck on off-camber areas didn’t yield the usual “pucker factor” but
inspired confidence, the four wheel steering opened all sorts of new options and
lines never considered before, and the low gears made driving the truck simple.
To show proof of this, my 12-year-old brother John has traversed entire
4+ trails in the drivers seat.
Many
people have asked me if it is difficult to get used to driving from the right
side of the truck. The switch really has not been difficult, the only real
change is now all the important rocks on the right side of the trail.
The most difficult part of driving the truck to get used to was the rear
steering. Learning how to use it
effectively took quite a bit of time. Initially
I caused more trouble with the rear steering than good.
After a while though it became second nature and as I was spotting people
I would catch myself telling them to steer their rear end this way or that.
The only problems come when I get back in a left hand drive vehicle and
turn on the windshield wipers when I am trying to signal or search for the
transmission stick somewhere in the door. J
Overall
the project was a great deal of fun to design and build.
It was such an enormous project that it really needed to be taken one
step at a time. Numerous times a
full days labor yielded results that seemed extremely minute in the grand
scheme. When it was all said and
done, the design of the vehicle took a little over a year and the construction
took about another year and a half.
The
truck has not changed significantly from the way I initially designed it.
The only major modification was the addition of a 35-spline high pinion
Dana 60 to replace the Cruiser rear axle. This
new axle is narrowed 8” on the long side and houses a Detroit locker and 4.88
gears. Destroying four short
side Birfield Eliminator axles in about 9 months necessitated this change.
The gear reduction, weight transfer to the rear axle, and 38” SXs were
just too much for the Eliminator to handle.
Ah
yes, I almost forgot to mention the special tire modifications.
After wheeling one Saturday in the Black Hills with DTC members we had a
mini-tire grooving party. After
cutting a groove through the center of the middle two tread blocks of the SX’s
we thought it appropriate that the tires be renamed.
Thus, the S’s were removed from Super Swamper and hence a new brand of
tires, “Up[p]er Wampers.” A
pair of the S’s was then glued to the hood to signify that the Cruiser is an
FJ40SS model, SS standing for super sport of course.
Future plans for the truck include a Dana 60 front end in the not too distant future. In addition, this summer I am planning on attending Cruise Moab for the first time. I have wanted to attend for quite some time, however the event has always been the weekend before final exams. Since I have graduated and am taking a semester off before going to grad school, I can finally make it this year. I look forward to seeing many of you at Cruise Moab or the BHCC this year.