FJ40 Nut: March 2014

Hi everyone. My apologies for a very long blog as I have neglected keeping up and much has been accomplished... Get a six pack!

The small mystery cable rears is dark side!

Many of you may recall a mystery cable that sat at the bottom of a crate from the beginning of this project. It was an e-brake cable that the seller of the vehicle included in the sale, and which was thought to be needed to pass inspection (I presume). I called it my "first rebuild part". Though I really didn't need it to pass inspection, it surely was a great part to include in the restoration. Or, so I thought.

I blogged that I had reached that point where installing "my first part" was to happen. All seemed to go well and the fit appeared to be okay but tight... a little too tight. But I reasoned that the cable was not one where slack was desirable and, heck, it ought to stretch like a good pair of leather shoes. Right? Well, I jammed that little sucker in and walked away, assured that in the end everything was going to be okay.

Well, sonofabitch didn't that cable get so jammed in place that I couldn't get it to budge when I tried to adjust or remove it. It was the right part number. Did I install it incorrectly? I pleaded with the Resto Gods to make this problem disappear. The prospect of replacing it was more than I could bare. But it didn't go away and I decided that I was right and the cable was WRONG. So, I sent off for an OEM cable (ouch!) and did the dirty deed. Sure enough, that aftermarket cable was too short. Take a look.

Notice the longer OEM version

That's a freaking 2" too short! They were so similar, too.

I had to fashion a bar to bolt onto the e-brake drum for removing and installing the retaining nut which is torqued to 115 ft. lbs.

More piece- part restoration

Much of this project is the boring stuff that makes for tedium. I tend to the side of obsession (no?) but cannot buy every part that rusted out, so naturally I restore these parts best I can. Here is just a selection of some these parts:

Cadmium paint on cooling lines

Eastwood "Cadmium Plating" lookalike paint. Not bad.

Another pricey replacement NOT in the budget

Ignition system

I bought a complete replacement ignition on Ebay. It was a steal actually, as some aftermarket suppliers were twice the price for alternatives. My seller actually cleaned up the parts pretty well, but I decided it wasn't good enough. Here is a few of my detailing the igniter assembly.

Dash, wiring

Last time we met, I was installing the wiring harness. I continued assembling the dash components, including all the controls and cables, naturally finding several connectors with nothing to connect to. Why it is that there are un-mated connectors that I did NOT tag is a mystery. As I move forward I am hoping that the mystery unfolds, as it has on a few occasions, as it did when I found a small heater illumination light I had forgotten about. One plug down, four to go. Here are a couple of pix of the dash and firewall showing my newly restored ash tray.

Cooling system

This was a very large part of the past two months of work. The cooling system needed a complete once-over.

This truck has both a front a optional rear heater. The front heater uses a blower mounted on the firewall (fairly typical) and the rear has it's own fan. The rear heater is connected by umbilicals that are tee'd to the heater lines running up front and these lines are pre-bent and run precariously along the contours of the front passenger floor and then right over the deck. These lines are copper (yes!) and have a glove fit foam insulation. Unfortunately, the foam cover gets torn up from all the exposure. And there really is no replacement (within MY financial means), but I came up with a perfect solution.

Since the foam was mostly there, but torn, I bought some 1" braided cable sleeve and slipped it right over the foam. Looks great! Here are the heaters, and the blower up front. Notice the gold colored resister.. which was a replacement for the OEM 50 ohm ceramic resister that was shattered. A used OEM was available from the sharks for nearly $100 but I wasn't biting.

50 ohm resister isn't the correct part, but saved me $80

Optional rear heater (OEM), restored.

Front heater box (no ducts yet)

Wiring harness for heater, e-brake light and seat belt switch

Radiator

Dug out the radiator and its associated parts, which include a bracket and fan guard. I had bought this aftermarket radiator back about 2006 and figured it wouldn't need any restoration, but I hadn't anticipated this new paradigm in which NOTHING that WAS good enough would BE good enough. And I had forgotten about a leak in the neck that I conveniently suppressed into the recesses of my devious mind. The leak never amounted to a problem, unless little red spots on the firewall is considered a problem. I just topped off the overfill once in a while! Anyway, it needed attention, so off to Brad at Central Auto Radiator it went. I asked him to let me do the paint. I took the bracket and fan guard down to my pal Orlando's shop and sandblasted them both. Here are a few:

Brad found the leak!!!

No leak but add some strength where leaks tend to form.

Bracket

Fan guard.

Will be installing them very soon!

Washer pump and reservoir

Both the radiator overflow and washer fluid tank hang off a bracket on the right front fender and take a fair amount of abuse. Not many survive, and so, there are more sharks prowling about the resto waters with brand-new replacements for a cool $250. Very tempting, especially when I know that my washer pump is toast (or at least it sure looks like toast). But really, this is a steel bracket (sand blast and paint), two undamaged white jugs (Clorox and patience), some bolts (got 'em), and a little insignificant motor/pump assembly. I can live without a washer. It didn't take long to get the whole thing except that little pump/motor restored and perfect. What about that rusty mess?

Oh what the heck: Nothing ventured, nothing gained! I separated the motor housing and pump and, sure enough, the motor housing was basically filled with fossilized oxidation. I could see the shaft emerging from the mess, but it didn't look too promising. There surely would be some fine motor windings on that rotor and I couldn't risk man-handling it. The copper, ferrite and steel all bathed for 35 years in moisture had created a science project of corrosion. I forgot to take a picture, but use your imagination!

Clearly there wasn't much I could do, but then I glanced over on the bench at my jug of "C-L-R". I threw the entire thing into a bath of the stuff for three days (actually, I forgot about it). No kidding, when I returned, the rotor was free! After hours of tedious digging and scraping and the layers of POR-15 products, I have a WORKING pump! Here is the evidence: