[Never Ending] The MOPArTROL

[MOPArTROL]

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Lets start with a little history...

The old KL-60 Patrol has been sitting at that house since I was able to ride my bike that far( it was across town). I had eyeballed it several times, but never knew quite what it was. I kind of figured it was an old Land Rover.






Finally, one day when headed home from school, I decided to ask about it. He said it was not a Land Rover, it was a Nissan Patrol. I had never heard of them, so I took a look. After much inspection I decided I really liked the Patrol. It was what I had always wanted; A simple old truck with 4WD, a removable top, a simple old gasoline engine, and best of all, A LOW PRICE! I asked him how much he wanted for it. He said he would take $300. I went home from there and done a little bit of research. They were extremely rare, and almost impossible to find OEM parts for.
I went back the next day, and explained to him all that I would have to do to get it in running shape. He asked if I was backing out on him. I said no, but I asked if he would take $100 for it. He agreed, and allowed me to work on it. A shot of B-12 in the carburetor, a fresh battery, a little bit of fresh gasoline, and a turn of the key started it up! It didnt smoke or anything! I looked at the odometer, and almost ruined my skippies! It had 79,000 original miles. I asked the guy if it was true, and he said most likely.
The truck had been used as a Colorado hunting vehichle. A couple of times a year, it would be hitched up behind an RV, and flat towed from Waurika, OK to somewhere in Colorado. The guy had given it to his son to drive, and the rear-axle started to whine. They took the rear axle to a shop, and the shop apparently closed down and junked the axle.
I happily paid the guy for the truck. I called up my friend, who owns Sellers Salvage in Duncan, OK, and he towed it home for me. We sat the rear of the truck up on cinder blocks and I began my search for an axle. I found the NISSAN PATROL CLUB OF AMERICA on MSN Groups. A member there told me an axle off of a 77 and earlier Toyota FJ-40 Landcruiser would swap right in. He had done the conversion himself. I posted a want ad on IH8MUD.com. I was pointed to the Green Country Cruisers classifieds. There I found an ad for somebody selling FJ-40 Parts. I e-mailed him, and he wanted $100. While planning a trip to get the axle, I get an e-mail from another guy on the Green Country Cruisers website. He was even closer than the first guy and wanted $50 for his axle!
I made a trip up to Cashion, Ok where the axle was. My mother and I arrived 2 hours early and had to waste a lil bit of time. It was pretty hard when Cashion had one convenience store, and a total of about 10 streets going east and west, and about 10 going north and south.
We finally wasted enough time, and called the guy. He gave us directions and we met him out on his brother's farm. To save time, he just use an Oxy-Acet. torch. The rig we took the axle off of also had a decent set of 31" Uniroyal Laredo's and a BFG MT. We took the axle and all (4) tires home for a mere $65!


I got it all home, and pulled the axle apart. I could tell it needed new bearings and seals. When I took the diff cover off, to my horror I found rust on the ring and pinion gears! They were chewed up pretty bad. I continued to take it apart to assess all the damage. It wasnt as bad as it looked...


Judging by where the rust was, the previous owner had obviously went through some deep water. FJ-40 axles have breathers on the axle tubes, and nothing to keep water from getting in. There was rust on the middle of one of the drive axles, and some on 1/6 of the ring gear, but it wasnt all that bad. I cleaned most of it up with sand paper and degreaser.
I ordered a new oil slinger, pinion bearings, carrier bearings, pinion seal, and brake lines. The brake lines had some 10mm fittings that were meant for the 1971 and newer FJ-40's. I needed the 9mm fittings. Unfortunately, they were unavailable. I managed to recycle (2) 9mm fittings from the old lines. It WAS NOT easy, though!


Luckily, my Patrol used SAE fittings found on most domestic vehicles in the 60's and 70's. I should never have trouble finding fittings for my Patrol... I made some custom lines with the funky FJ40 9mm fittings on one end, and the SAE fittings on the other.

The driveshaft and pinion bolt patterns were slightly different, but was able to be fixed by drilling the holes on both of them out to 1/2". I havent yet tried different sized bolts to figure out what size I will have to use... that is to come...


Next, I needed springs. So I went to my friend's salvage yard. Sellers Salvage. I measured the springs on a couple of trucks and found that the springs on a 1976 Chevy K-10 were the perfect length, but just a bit too narrow... oh well... the narrower the springs, the more they flex. I could make up the difference in width at the shackles and hangers with a few washers... The issue is, Chevrolet used 9/16" bolts. My Patrol uses 5/8"! I just reamed the old ones out from the 9/16" to 5/8".


After a test fit, I realized that the Patrol frame was 2" wider than the FJ-40 frame, so the perches had to be cut off and moved. I also took this opportunity to do some "detailing".


When I attempted to bleed the brakes, the rear wheel cylinders gushed out fluid. I just knew they had to be replaced. The master rebuild kits were $17 apiece at O'Reilly's. I needed 4 of those, and it came to about $70! Rebuilding the wheel cylinders was pretty easy...

After installing the wheel cylinders and bleeding the brakes, I was finally able to put the wheels on. I realize now that the Chevy K-10 springs gave me about 2" of lift in the rear.
Also, the FJ-40 axle is a good 2-3" narrower than the stock Patrol axle. This allows me to stuff 31x10.5R15's on FJ-40 wheels with NO RUB!!
When it came time to tag the old beast, I had to get the title from the guy I bought it off of. I didnt get a look at it until I got down to the tag office. The title was signed by the owner before Jerry but it was not notarized. There were no crooked notaries around here, so I had to find the legal owner of the truck, and get him to sign it.
I found his name in the phone book and called. His wife answered, so I asked if I could speak with her husband. She informed me that he passed away July 20, 2003!! CRAP!!
Since I didnt see the title until after I bought the truck, I had the option of filing for the "Good Faith Clause" stating that basically I didnt know the title was screwed up when I bought it. But I didnt know a whole lot about it. For all I knew, that could have meant that he would have to buy it back. Im attatched to "TSUNAMI". I look forward to years and years of enjoyment from that truck, so I decided to just file Title 42 instead!
After filing Title 42, and sending off the certified letter to Wesley(I got it back unclaimed). The Patrol is now mine. I will sell it to my mother temporarily for $1 to make insurance cheaper.

Once all 4 wheels were on, I was able to give it a trial. I drove around the block once, and lost brake fluid all the way... too bad I was out when it came time to pull into the driveway!
I crashed into the carport. Damage: crushed halogen shop light, crushed Chevy K-10 beauty rings, and a 4"x1/2" piece of siding torn off off of the car port. THANK GOD I had been collecting tires for months for my S-10 and Patrol. They stopped me.

[MOPArTROL]

More to come when I have a lil more time...

[VegasBruce]

Sweet, keep it coming.

[4x4 Mecca]

Awesomely detailed and lots of pics.... That's just what we love around here, great info and pics to help out. Thanks for joining!

[cbbr]

Awesome start.

[MrK5]

Those pictures make it look like a daunting task! Good luck. :thubms

[MOPArTROL]

So where was I? Oh yeah...

So, after I got the brakes worked out(had to modify the front wheel cylinders to accept common wheel cylinder cups, and honed them out), it was time to give it a REAL test drive!!

So one of my buddies, Heath, drove down from a local city so I would have someone to go with. Yes, thats an M715.






Took this pic right after I backed off of a pretty good sized rock. I came up over the hill, and my diff skidded up on it, bringing me to a halt. If you look close, you can see the grit still on my diff.


Heath ran over the same one, but since he has a longer wheelbase, and there was a decline right afterward, it bent one of his crossmembers.


Overall, it did well. It went over nearly everything that the M715 did.

[MOPArTROL]

Some random 4-wheelin pics...

A few pics of me playing in the creek by a buddy's house...










Only one pic here, I was the only one with a camera.


Once again, only person who had a camera. Also, this was the only time I got stuck...


Heath drove down again, this time he brought a buddy.














I know Ive got more, but I cant locate them at this moment...