Harry Wagner’s love for off-roading was passed down to him from his father, who was an early pioneer in the sport. Rusty Wagner bought this 1967 FJ-40 Land Cruiser new off the showroom floor, but it didn’t stay stock for long. The manual steering, low revving six cylinder, and drum brakes didn’t work for Rusty, so he upgraded them before you could order axles from Dynatrac or search the internet for power steering options. Rusty grew up drag racing hot rods and muscle cars in Sacramento, California and always loved horsepower.
The Land Cruiser has been home to a variety of Chevy V8 engines over the years, from a high revving 327 for the sand to a standard 350 to the current 468 ci Big Block. “I added it to pull our bumper-pull trailer on camping trips,” Rusty explains, rather unconvincingly. This was before the days of Atlas II transfer cases with super low gearing, so more torque was the way to have more control when rockcrawling. For years the transmission was a TH400, backed by the factory transfer case with one of the first adapters that Advance Adapters every made in the 70s. The transfer case lived due to the 5.38 gears in the Dana 44 front and Dana 60 rear axles that provide as much torque multiplication as possible. The eight lug axles were narrowed to Land Cruiser width; the front from a K20 and the rear from an E350 van, with one side cut down to match the offset output of the transfer case.
In the 80s, Rusty had an off-road shop in Marysville, California called Hi-Country 4x4. When not at work, he would be on the trails in the Sierra Nevada Range with his wife and son. The Rubicon, Fordyce, sand drags at the river bottoms, and snow wheeling at White Rock were all regular occurrences. People talk about 33s being big “back in the day”, but Rusty was running 36-inch Dick Cepek Fun Countrys in the 80s with Detroit Lockers front and rear. He was familiar with the lockers from his drag racing days, and although the talking heads (before internet forums and social media) said that you couldn’t run a full locker in the front axle, he did it without a problem.
In the late 90s, the TH400 and Toyota transfer case were replaced with a 700R4 and Dana 300, with a centered, high pinion Dana 60 to match. The lower first gear of the 700R4 was useful on the trail, and the overdrive brought down the RPMs on the freeway, but the TV cable was always problematic. The original TH00 was swapped back in, but mated to the Dana 300 and high pinion rear axle.
After sitting for years, the Land Cruiser was recently resurrected by B-Radd Customs. Bradd Davidson added a new aluminum radiator and routed the intake to the louver in the hood to ensure cool air enters the Edelbrock carburetor. The entire vehicle was rewired with a Ron Francis wiring kit that Rusty had lying around, and Garrett Davidson built a new exhaust with Flowmaster mufflers flanged to the original headers that Rusty built decades ago. The Cruiser is now more reliable than ever and ready to make another 40 years of memories.
Quick Specs:
468 ci Big Block engine
TH400 built by Valley Transmission
Dana 300 mated w/ plate by Advance Adapters
Drivelines by Axleline
Dana 44 front axle
High pinion Dana 60 rear axle
Leaf springs front and rear
Custom roll cage
36-inch Dick Cepek Fun Country tires
Warn 8274 winch
Негізгі бет One Owner Land Cruiser- This FJ40 Is No Barn Find, It Is A Family Heirloom
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