The White Dragon (91 FJ80)

Went some places. Did some stuff. Who says FJ80's are slow?

 

Holy FJ! Damn, downhill??

 

Speedo broke. Then it made all kinds of racket for a few hundred miles, and is now working again.

 

That's what they all say

 

Good times. Well not really.

 

I feel for ya. I did my front axle a couple weeks ago.

 

The bearings are fine. The inner seals are leaking and there wasn't a drop of grease left in the knuckle, but there was plenty of gear oil! I ordered new seals from Low Range along with a set of part time hubs and new rotors and pads. Full time 4wd is pretty cool in February. The rest of the year it's just a waste of gas.

 

The cool thing is I can keep a drive plate as a spare, so if I do grenade a hub in a tight spot I can just slap a drive plate on and go. I do think I caught it in time. I put about 400 miles on after I noticed the first wetness, and the gear oil level is still good.

 

I'll trade you problems...

 

What's going on there? Oil pan? Also your alignment is seriously fucked. I can tell by the cam.

 

I laughed out loud for real. Bwaha. Tar. I'm easily amused.

 

My cam tabs are all a little fucked... I have the gussets just haven't got them on. The tires have been bad for a long time. I have 2 new ones sitting in the garage but I want my moneys worth out of these ones first. Anymore I just set my toe and go after every wheeling trip.

As for the leak my first thought was my diff punched a hole in the engine... I dropped the skids and it appears to be my front main seal, so I actually won't trade you problems. Haha. But it was a little nerve racking at first. I lost 2 qts of oil in about 90 minutes of driving...

 

Get your alignment done on a rack, then tack weld the cams in place. No need for gussets. To find the exact oil leak use some foot powder. Throw handfuls of it at the leaky area, and you will see exactly where the oil is coming from.

 

I want to do the gussets for a couple reasons. One being I already bought them and 2 I should pull my LCA bushings apart and clean and grease them. May as well do the gussets while I'm at it. And they will brace up the LCA pivots a little too.

 

I'm sure you probably know this already but even with the part time hubs you'll be putting on, you really aren't going to fully part time 4wd. You'll disconnect the drive to the wheels at the hubs but you'll still be turning the driveshaft, the diff and the axles so you unfortunately aren't going to notice much in terms of improved power or mpg. If you do the part-time conversion in the transfer case then it's different.

The other option is to pull the front driveshaft and lock the center diff to be able to drive around in 2wd instead of full-time 4wd all the time.

 

http://www.sleeoffroad.com/technical/tz_2wdconversion.htm

I think at some point I will end up with a different motor under the hood, and probably trans and T-case as well. I've been watching CL for a Cummins with a 5 speed for a while. one will pop up eventually. Also the Marlin 'moly shafts ate into the drive plate splines a bit, there was slop in there. The 'moly is fine of course, but why put new soft drive plates on if I can just install hubs and remove a lot of the interference?

 

I understand the logic but the splines in the hubs won't hold up any better than the splines on the stock drive flanges so you'd fix your slop at the flanges with either approach. I had similar slop when I did all my seals and bearings a couple weeks ago and I replaced the flanges with new OEM ones. Sounds like you've already ordered the hubs so it's a moot point but the flanges are cheaper which would be one reason to stick with the flanges. But if you are planning to go to a part time t-case in the future then having the hubs probably isn't a bad idea.

Diesel conversion could be fun in that truck. If you go with a Cummins you're pretty limited to the 4BT from what I've found. Having the diesel would be cool but you won't be making any real jump in power with the 4BT so it'll still be a slow cruiser.....not that there's anything wrong with that.

When/if I need to do a motor swap, my first choice will be either the 4.7 or the 5.7 Toyota V8. I personally don't care so much about diesel and prefer the gas motors and the bump in power (especially with the 5.7) would be sweet.

 

My buddy has a 4BT in a 60. It does ok, but not much better than stock really. The mileage is much better however. The 5.7 would be an interesting swap...but $$$ compared to LS1 or any chevy V-8 really. My theory on the hubs is that they won't wear as much because they aren't engaged as often, and when they do wear I'll upgrade to 300M internals.

 

Like I said, nothing wrong with your approach, just might be a bit different result than expected. Which hubs did you get?

Yes a Chevy V8 would be a much less expensive swap. I'm not opposed to that but if I could keep mine all Toyota I'd be pumped.

Carry on.

 

I got factory new Aisin hubs for an '85 mini truck. They are supposed to bolt right on the 1990-1991 trucks with the shorter drive plates. We'll see if the internet lore is true. I thought about a 4.0L 1GR-FE swap too, but it's difficult to find any for a reasonable price. My local wrecking yard was asking $10K for the motor, trans, wiring harness and ecu's out of a wrecked FJC. To me, that's too much. Who knows where this project will end up. I swore I'd keep my Tacoma stock too!