Minnesota 40

[MDH33]

Thanks Mike, wow still available!

I realized the reason my mirror is wack is that its a passenger side mirror mounted to drivers side.

Terry is going to look through his parts to see if he has a set to compare.

 

[Romer]

That's a great story and a nice find Martin.

My first 40 was a 74 Capri Blue. Sold it in 83. Damn I miss that 40

Enjoy

 

[cbmontgo]

Looking forward to seeing this 40 come to life. Beautiful rig.

 

[LARGEONE]

You will be surprised what you can do to that "H" knob with some epoxy putty. Check out my heater rebuilt in the OG2 thread.

Here is your white diamond vinyl...

2 x 3 All Purpose Pyramid Grip Vinyl Mat | eBay

This matting is great for use in hallways, corridors, entrances and lobbies. Protects all flooring surfaces including carpeting. Also perfect for lining tool boxes, trailer beds, running boards, cars, boats, RV's, dog kennels and virtually anywhere you need heavy duty protection, traction and...

www.ebay.com

I haven't bought any yet, but there should be enough to do it several times over. If you lived closer we could share some!

 

[treerootCO]

Pretty sure I have an H knob for you.

 

[LARGEONE]

You inspired me to order some white diamond vinyl

 

[MDH33]

Had some time to get some work done on the 40. First order of business was to replace the weird 3/69-9/69 carb. Some research on Mud explained that this oddball carb was a stop gap after the single barrel to meet EPA DOT compliance prior to Toyota releasing the late 69-73 2 barrel, which wasn't ready. The 3/69-9/69 was originally from a the Crown or Cressida I think.

At some point the PO had added an early Toyota vacuum advance distributor. Great distributor, but it needs ported vacuum, which the 3/69-9/69 doesn't have. They homebrewed a port, but it was connected to the idle circuit, and getting full time manifold vacuum. They also had an aftermarket fuel pressure regulator plumbed in, not sure why. The 40 ran with this setup, but not well, no surprise! Here's the old carb:

The cool thing about this carb is that the linkage is set up for throttle pedal cable, choke cable and hand throttle. You can see in the pic below where they had the hard vacuum line plumbed in (wrong).

While the weather was cold, I hunted down a bunch of parts and spent some time rebuilding a late 69 carb. I sent the throttle body to JimC and he added the ported vacuum. I used a Keyster Kit from Kurt at Cruiser Outfitters and also got a Napa kit that includes the leather accelerator pump plunger. The keyster kits have some new jets and the napa kit also includes carb insulator gaskets, if needed.

Here's the rebuilt late 69 carb with correct throttle cable linkage and ported vacuum.

 

[MDH33]

The carb swap requires a bunch of parts other than the carb. Needed new throttle cable, later carb insulator, shorter carb to manifold studs, air cleaner cover with clamp instead of wingnut/stud, different fuel line, throttle cable return spring, etc. took awhile to track it all down, but got everything and started the install.

Only things I'm missing are the correct pedal and under dash bracket to connect hand throttle again.

Since I'm closer to sea level here, I decided to try a different set of jets than what I used to run in CO. Using what I had available, I'm going with:

120 primary
180 secondary
60/80 slow jets
80 power jet

 

[MDH33]

Lots of original parts on this 40. Pretty sure this glass fuel filter hasn't been touched in a loooong time.

Looks like a science experiment gone wrong!

All cleaned up and new filter. Think I'm going to pull the tank and flush it for good measure though.

 

[LARGEONE]

So sweet that you still have a glass bowl filter!!! I had to get the metal bowl version that is still sold by Toyota. Very cool!

That odd ball carb is truly odd. Glad you were able to track down the parts to convert to later version.

Edit: I believe the old glass bowl fits on the new filter housing in case you ever want it to look new but keep the glass?

 

[MDH33]

Another nice day in the Midwest so I got a lot of wrenching and re-wiring done. I'm not trying to resto this thing, just hoping to baseline it to see what's what and drive it a bunch this summer before doing much more.

Drained the fuel tank and flushed it with fresh fuel. Actually looked really good, so guessing the fuel filter might have been original. Spent some time undoing strange po wiring stuff and now have the ignition, horn, turn signals, cigarette lighter, and front heater blower working. (rear heater blower feels stuck). There was a cheap after market coil installed, so I added a toyota coil and proper starter. New plugs and wires. Checked points, and distributor, looked good.

Good news: It fired right up with choke and idled nicely. I got it warm and set low idle. Perfect, running smooth, sounds good.

Bad news: blowing some smoke at start up... heated up a bit after a 15 minute drive and was losing some coolant. I knew the cooling system looked in need of a rehab, but I think I have an engine needing a rebuild. Seems like oil smoke, and a couple of the new plugs looked pretty bad after a 15 minute drive. Overheating could be head gasket. bummer.

I haven't driven this since bringing it home mid January. I parked it and pulled the carb. When I went to look at it, it was below zero and snow. Perfect weather to hide overheating and smoke i guess. And I definitely was not as thorough as I would have been in better weather.

I did a cold compression test a couple of weeks ago and it was ok, consistent. Will try again with engine warm and see what I get. Best case scenario is top end rebuild I think, maybe bad valve and head gasket. Could be rings or scored cylinder walls too.

Oh well, definitely overpaid and learned a lesson. Onward!

 

[LARGEONE]

We are all in the same boat. It is hard to find an original engine that has not been rebuilt that is not begging for a rebuild. You, me, Simpson...we all have the same basic 40 and they all are tired.

Are you sure the coolant is leaking into engine? Wouldn't you have white smoke, not black?

I was loosing coolant too, but I think mine was leaking from the bottom of the radiator and then sitting in the little pan. When I drove it, it would blow out of the pan so I really wouldn't get much on the driveway, but I was definitely loosing it.

You'll get it squared away!

 

[rover67]

Dont worry too much about it Martin. Try a leak down test see what happens. I almost shit my pants when the 80 was loosing coolant and had like 15 panic texts and calls into Robbie.. turns out it was a loose hose clamp.

Anyhow i'm not saying it's no bad but just chip away at it and see what's up before worrying too much about it. I doubt the dude sold you something he knew had a problem.

that fuel filter was nasty.

 

[MDH33]

Not sure if coolant is leaking into engine, but as it heated up it puked some out the overflow and there was some around the waterpump (which looks newish). Smoke smells like oil, and is worse at startup. Oil and coolant both looked good when I bought it, but he could have just changed them. PO had it warmed up when I arrived for the test drive, but made sense since it was 10 below zero. I didn't notice oil smoke then. Probably didn't drive it long enough to overheat it.

I`ll start with a leak down test and and get some warm compression numbers, then decide where to go from here. Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Maybe the HG couldn't take the change in elevation from MN to IA. It's never as bad as it seems. Even if the walls are scored the alternative is you never found it in the first place. It's already got a good story.

 

[MDH33]

Maybe the HG couldn't take the change in elevation from MN to IA.

That made me laugh. Thank you.

Yeah, i'm not going to sweat it too much. If it needs a rebuild, maybe i'll build a 2F while i keep driving the F.

 

[MDH33]

Locking gas cap. Key matches ignition and doors. Missing cover, but still kinda cool.

 

[MDH33]

I ordered a leak down tester off Amazon, waiting for that to arrive. In the meantime I've been going through more of the wiring. There were a weird set of Sears Roebuck fog lamps mounted in place of the front turn signals, and the bib lights were connected as turn signals. Pulled those suckers off and put on some OEM round indicators.

Before:

This looks a little better. Got my new plates mounted so I'm legal to drive now too :

 

[Hulk]

You managed to score FJ40 as your license plates?

 

[MDH33]

You managed to score FJ40 as your license plates?

I know, I couldn't believe it was available. Not many 40's in Iowa.