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FJ60 Landcruiser Brat Pack Build

24K views 139 replies 27 participants last post by  kkodet 
#1 · (Edited)
Between my girlfriend and I we have six kids, and for the last couple of months I've been trying to figure out a way to bring them all on the trail with us. I wanted as small as possible, but roomy enough to seat eight with protection from the elements. I'm quite aware this is a lot to ask. Most American third row seat SUV's are just too big. FSJ Cherokees and Waggys are great, but the slight slope of the rear of the roof and angle of the tailgate make a third row very tight. The "right" rig just seemed to be an impossible find, until I was driving back from a buddies place the other day and saw this parked by the road for sale. I immediately knew it was perfect! Narrower than a Grand Wagoneer, but with a tall enough roof for decent third row seating it was perfect!




It is a 1984 FJ60 Land Cruiser. Already fairly rare to see in Michigan, this one is also a factory manual transmission! Some poking around online found it for sale on this site only a few years ago:


1984 Toyota FJ60 Land Cruiser for Sale - Great Lakes 4x4. The largest offroad forum in the Midwest

Since then it has seen few miles, but hard ones, Nearly every panel has a dent, but overall it is fairly solid in the important parts. It sports an Old Man Emu 4 inch lift and a Weber carb conversion with a header on the factory 2F engine.



The interior is near mint, and vintage!



I drove it home for $775, and it was running rough, leaking fuel from somewhere in the front. A quick look proved it to be nothing more than a disconnected fuel return line.
 
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#105 ·
Operation Snowbound was a great sucess. The Cruiser worked perfectly, and the boggers dug in great! I didn't even get to use the winch! I have more in store for this project, mostly fine tuning of the rig.

Here is a shot of the finished front in action.

 
#106 ·
Finally tested the D-ring mounts!

My Excursion is buried in my driveway so I decided to just drive this old girl for a few days. Took the kiddos sledding at a local hill, pulled in the driveway and found a Suburban buried to its handles on the passenger side. I should have snapped some pics, but got it pulled out quickly!
 
#109 ·
My Excursion needs some TLC so I parked it over a month ago and I've been driving the Cruiser daily. With exception to the horrible mileage (about 9 mpg) it has been treating me well.....until yesterday. While going down the road I heard a loud bang from the rear. At first I thought it broke the welded diff again. By the time I got to my shop the passenger tire had walked out about 4 inches.

Much to my surprise it wasn't a busted shaft. Evidently my cross pin gave up the ghost, grenading everything inside, including my 5.29 gears.



So today I pulled the 4.11 diff out of my FJ62 parts rig and swapped it in for the time being. It's street manners are much nicer, and my speedo is accurate again, so I'm contemplating swapping out the front and trying it out.

Sent from my SPH-L300 using Tapatalk
 
#115 ·
Yesterday's 500 mile round trip to Toronto netted some great parts. I was able to snag a rare non-U.S. H55 five speed overdrive trans from a HJ60 (Land Cruiser diesel) that was being parted out. I was able to also grab the corresponding t-case, shifters, driveshafts, and crossmember along with a possibly salvageable passenger rear door.

 
#120 ·
Today's acquisition was two parts FJ60's from the @toyminator family. Both run, but are in rough shape, and one had no axles. Being 200 miles away a plan was hatched to haul up a pair of my spare axles, bolt them in the axleless rig, put that one on my trailer, and have my buddy Jason drive the other one home.

Arriving this morning we got to work right away and with all five of us working on it we had the one rolling and steering in just over an hour. We loaded up, fueled up, and headed for home.

Stopping for a taste of indigestion at the Clare Ponderosa we enjoyed a lunch of chewy cold food before continuing on. Pulling out of the driveway in my Lexus with loaded trailer in tow I all of a sudden heard a screech and a boom and was launched forward. Hopping out I found a grey FJ60 crunched into the back of my trailer. Evidently both a front AND a rear brake line burst at the same time. The screech was my buddy trying to shut it off in gear but it was too late. Fortunately everyone was OK. I decided not to call my insurance about my own vehicle rear ending me.

I called up the seller and asked if they had a trailer by any chance. They did and sent down their son immediately. They are hauling it back home until I can return next week. They are good people!

Here she is:



And the other parts one at home:



To drive the black one off the trailer I needed to hook up a driveshaft. Unfortunately the roller axles I brought came from an FJ62 so the flange was larger. I drilled it out to the smaller FJ60 pattern.

I


Unloading the brakeless rig I was careful, but not careful enough in the dark to slip a tire on the ramp just enough to slash a sidewall. It's been a long day!
 
#125 ·
What a mess!

The H55 came with a vacuum shift T-case and I want mechanical, so I'm splitting apart my stock one. The H55 is a bit longer, because my truck is a pre-oct 84 build. So some shifter modification will be required. I may be able to rob parts from my 86 parts truck too. We'll see!

 
#126 ·
Trans is in, and with a manual t-case. I used the stock 84 case, swapped flanges for the large ones off the vacuum case, and used the t-case shift linkage off the 86 parts truck. Because of my pre-Oct 84 truck with a short trans, the stock shifter wouldn't work. The H55 is basically the same as the stock four speed but has this external overdrive box. You can see the long bolt on top. I needed a few of the longer bolts from the newer t-case.



When I had everything apart I replaced the main seal between the trans and case.



Several online write-ups claim the trans shift tower hole is too far forward on the pre-Oct 84 floor hump. I did not find this to be the case, but I did find the t-case lever was. Using the 86 lever worked out without having to cut the floor. I did notice my trans cover is white, apparently off another truck (possibly newer) but the 86 and H55 parts truck shifter boots were a different shape so I retained my "possibly original" 84 boot.



Stock narrow style trans crossmember bolted right up. Plenty of clearance for the front driveshaft too, which also is not the case on other peoples trucks.

Lastly, I discarded the unneeded tin "braces" for the T-case linkage as they really were just in the way. But for some reason I gained a 2wd low range position. Maybe this is shifter adjustment? Seems to work so I'll probably leave it alone.
 
#128 · (Edited)
Welllll.....

Today's project was to finish putting the rear axle back together. This included new 5.29 gears, and an Aussie locker. I ran into the same crosspin issue that I did the first time I built this axle. The thick ring gear won't allow room to install it. Many people grind the ring gear for clearance but I'm not a fan of how much material needed to be removed. So like I did last time, I ground the pin into a "D" shape.

Problem with my "D" pin in an Aussie locker is it no longer allows the pin to hold in the cap for the C-clip on the left side. So my solution was to cut a slot in the end of the pin. This allowed the insertion of a flat screwdriver to turn the pin 90 degrees counterclockwise. My initial thought was to redrill the pin retainer bolt hole but the hardened pin proved difficult to drill, plus there was not a lot of meat to do this. So some simple tack welds hold it in place.



After I finished the axle I moved on to fabricating some bumpstops, hoping to keep my boggers from mating with my fenders. Fire Marshall Rollbarbob stood fire duty as I finished the welds next to the gas tank.





I didn't take a pic after, but as a final touch I coated them with bedliner.

Last project this eve was swapping out the driveshaft flanges for the late large pattern. I noticed the one on the back of the T-case was tight and I have had bearing noise in the past. After taking the rear housing off a few times I finally figured out there is a shim under the race. After removing it, tolerances were perfect.



Fingers crossed that tomorrow I should have this buckled up!
 
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