ok well i finally got my old landcruiser home!!! its gonna be my first CAR!!! YAA :D ok well to get to my main point of this post is LIFT KITS im looking along the lines of lifting it by extending my shackles by 3 inchs will this lift it? Also i am curious what body lifts are out there i had seen only a 2 inch lift by 4 plus listed on man-a-fre.com but im not sure if there are any bigger ones thanks for your help guys just wondering what my options are out there :D :?: also list what lift kits you guys are running or what you did to lift yours :?: thanks everyone :D
Skip the shackle lift and get a new set of springs. You can combine springs and modest shackles to get 3-4" of lift, but you really need new springs anyway. They are widely available, or any spring shop can make them. Keep in mind that you have pretty short drive shafts, and only a limited amount of lift will work. Longer shackles will tilt the axle so the shaft is not so angled, but long shackles are unstable and also wear very fast.
Suggest you do a lot of reading before you do anything. Get it right the first time. If you only want to allow larger tires, lift is not really needed, just a cut-out on the rear fender.
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Yes.....about 1.5 inches. One thing about old landcruisers is that the springs settle down and actually drop the vehicle an inch or more. Before I worried too much about lifts, I would replace the springs with some good aftermarket springs, new gromments and perhaps go for about a
2 inch lift (4" shackles). My FJ40 got a set of aftermarket springs from Canada and new shackles with about one inch of lift. I am running
32 X 11.50 tires that have a higher rolling diameter than most of the
33s one sees on other cruisers. I live in Arizona and have no problem getting pretty much anywhere I really wanted to go.
You must be thinking Jeep - you have to build the hell out of them to go rock crawling. We must disabuse you of this notion... ;-P
With an FJ40 you have a very capable off road car even bone stock right out of the box. So no matter how tempting it is to build the hell out of it and jack it up to the sky, you really don't have to do too much more than make sure everything works right. Good tires, a bit of lift for clearance, maybe limited-slips in the axles, and you are good to go.
Try that before you go mod crazy - it drives the Jeep guyz totally nuts when they spend $30K on parts and mods only to get stuck halfway up the hill, and you show them up by effortlessly motoring right by them in a box stock Toyota. Been there, Done that... :-P
"It's a Jeep Thing"? Bull. Shit.
In other words, think it through before you do any lift kits, body mods, engine swaps, etc. - don't fsck it up by chopping up the body to the point it falls apart.
And learn what you can do GRADUALLY - don't let your mind write checks the car can't cash, that way lies fatal rollovers. And I hate to see people waste perfectly good FJ-40's like that.
Properly installed body lifts are okay, Properly engineered taller springs are okay, fender flares are okay - but get rubber ones if you can, fiberglass flares attract rocks and tree trunks. ;-)
Extended shackle lifts and lift blocks are BAD. They change the lever points and put a LOT of stress on the U-bolts and other suspension pieces, and if they're going to snap on you it won't be two blocks from home - they'll do it at the worst possible place and time.
And either way, any time you do any lifting you raise the center of gravity and increase the rollover hazard. At a bare minimum make sure you have a solid roll bar in there, and if you plan to get even a little crazy go for a full cage. (Get it installed by a pro, safety gear is NOT welded up at home.) And beef up the seats and seatbelts.
A Smallblock Chevy 302/350 can be swapped in, but the F motor is rather capable already - and depending on where you live you don't have to hassle with the 'Smog Police' at the DMV. Don't be in a rush to make more problems for yourself.
I'm running a box-stock FJ-62 with the 3F-E motor that effortlessly goes just about anywhere I want to, including some I shouldn't have... (You know, the kind of places where you get to the top of the hill, stop and look back, and THEN you get scared.) But if I ever decide to go vertical my first call is Specter Offroad -
Poly-graphite bushing on the springs is a must-have if you're replacing springs anyway. Will make for a much more responsive set-up. My only real gripe about long shackles is that they introduce a lot of un-needed play and twist into the axle. (bump-steering and such)
I heartily second the notion that the FJ40 does not need mods to perform well off-road, less is definitely better for suspension.
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