So the next stage was to get ready for the power steering conversion (more on this later). But part of that preparation work was to swap over the pitman arms, once we started we found some of the bearings and seals were pretty warn, so we decided to completely rebuild the front/rear axles with all new bearings/seals. You can see the front axles being rebuilt...








It was now time to swap in the 5 speed H55F gearbox from a FJ60. This is a pretty involved swap, as the gearbox is physically longer and needs new gearbox mounts, new tailshafts and(later) will need the floor pan cut to accommodate the new shifter location. On the 4 speed gearbox there is a handbrake drum mounted to the output shaft, however as these gearboxes have a tendency to leak oil into the drum the handbrake never really worked. When Toyota standard building the FJ60 they went with a 5 speed gearbox and a traditional rear handbrake setup. This means when swapping a H55F into a FJ40 you need to relocate the handbrake, more on this later.

















It’s a tight fit, but the H55F does fit. The other thing to watch for is the rear tailshaft does get pretty short, this means if you have really big lift the angles on the CVs can be pretty extreme and cause issues. As we were sticking with a 2” suspension lift this was ok.



It’s now time to refit the body…. (You can see that we’ve stripped and repainted the firewall/floor with killrust paint)









Fitted up new brake and clutch master cylinders



Next stage was test fit the guards and ensure there is enough clearance. We are also fitting up after market A/C, so had to make sure there was enough clearance around the compressor.