4spd is whats in it now. 2-4th are very close to what is in it. I currently use pretty much only 2-4th unless on a really steep hill or towing. Going from a 4.9 to 1 first to a 6.5 and from a 1.9 low to a 2.6 will be very nice. ill go from around 38 to 1 crawl ratio to around 70. With the 35's and stock 4:10s its max comfortable cruising speed is about 65. Thats about as fast as you want to go in that thing anyway. It will do a little over 80 flat out but it is a little scary.
fj40 build plans.
- Thread starter jimbo92
- Start date
Haha,no joke. I think a big issue of the mini truck four speed is the crappy first gear and the sloppy shifting since it is a side shift with linkage, not a true top shift. it also only had a 3.9 first gear. The low gears combined with the fj's making 210ft. Lb of torque at 1800 rpm. A 5.3 doesnt make that till after 3000 rpm. I think it ought to make for a good torquey setup. Ive been reading and I think a vortect 5.7 would make a good reliable slow mover engine. They make 300 ftlbs at 1800 rpm. Yeah 5.3s are awesome and rev like crazy its just a matter of which end you want the power to come at.
well more changes to the fj. After finding out the sm465 dana 300 combo wouldnt work I had to go a different route. The 32 spline sm465 had a crazy long 10.5 inch adapter making the combo over a foot longer than the factory setup. In such a short vehicle this was no bueno. So after cutting my losses on that setup I found a guy in birmingham (or he found me rather) with a 10 spline sm465, advance adapters cruiser case adapter, a cruiser case stiffener, and a factory cruiser case with the lower low range (2.4 to 1). I traded my dana 300 and some cash towards this stuff. Now im still going to get about the same low range as the other setup, a shorter powertrain, and my cruiser wont be getting jeep-aids. I also wont have as much drive shaft headache and wont have to build a centered rear diff axle. This works well because with the size of the cruiser diffs (9.5 inches) it drags enough as it is and being offset helps greatly.
Heres a pic of all my crap piled in the back of the jetta. 40 mpg makes going to get stuff far away much more attainable. Filling it up and driving to birmingham and not seeing the gas light again till greenville city limits was nice. May even get a couple days of commuting from that tank.
Heres a pic of all my crap piled in the back of the jetta. 40 mpg makes going to get stuff far away much more attainable. Filling it up and driving to birmingham and not seeing the gas light again till greenville city limits was nice. May even get a couple days of commuting from that tank.
Well....now that I'm back in greenwood the fj is going to finally see some love again. I got a set of fj60 axles, they are 3 inches wider (60wms), have strong knuckles, and bigger birds than my stock 78 ones. I also have an fj60 steering box to run crossover and keep it yota. Tonight I committed to a tbi350/sm420/3speed case combo. Yeehaw 300ft lbs of torque with a 7:1 first gear!
Didn't say it was better? Or did I miss it? Main advantage of this tbi is how simple it is. Whole setup is coming out of another running cruiser that has been a daily driver for 5 years. It will basically be a matter f burning in some mounts, and dropping it in. Then doing driveshafts and all that whatnot.
