New Guy - 70 J-4000

[lwperry]

Good Evening!
I'm about to dive into a more or less stock resto on a 70 J-4000, Buick 350, TH400, 4wd. It's pretty much complete but would appreciate being pointed in the direction of any gurus, links, posts, etc. Tough to find info on this truck so far!

Thanks and have a good night

[twisted frame]

Welcome aboard! One of the bigger differences between early and later J trucks are the suspension and axle choices available when stock. Pre-74 uses "post-mount" leaf springs in the front which are mounted to the frame on those big posts you'll see riveted to the outboard side of the frame. 74 and later uses a different design and spring width and mounts the front springs below the frame.

70 will have a single-wall bed with round, Kaiser-era 60's style tail lights whereas 73 and up gets the double-wall bed with the vertically-oriented, rectangular tail lights.

Does your truck still have its stock axles? 5 or 8 lug? 6 lug was not used for half tons until 74. Depending on your GVWR, you could have either a Dana 53 rear end, which is much less common than the Dana 60 semi or full-floating rear end.

Some early 70s J-truck build threads on this board:
http://www.fsjnetwork.com/forum/viewtop ... 12&t=14612
http://www.fsjnetwork.com/forum/viewtop ... 12&t=13795

[will e]

Hey welcome aboard! There are lots of folks on here with an amazing depth of information. Some of them are even right!

[fulsizjeep]

Welcome to the madness!

Some of them are even right!

I am that guy sometimes.

[tgreese]

Welcome!

There is a factory parts book for the '62-73 vehicles on www.oljeep.com It's a little hard to use, since the index, illustrations and listings are in separate sections, but it's the official book. I'd suggest downloadign the whole thing to your local computer, since it's a single big PDF file. This will make searching through the book much easier. If you want, you can take the PDF somewhere like Kinko's and have it printed and bound for a nominal charge. If you have trouble finding what you need in there, post up and someone here will help.

There's also the factory service manual that you should get. Most of these are available on CD-ROM at RockAuto.com - get the FACTORY MANUAL, not the Haynes/Chiltons book. They are also available as printed copies from BJ's. This book will help you a lot.

TA Performance has a lot of the parts you may need for the Buick.

Production numbers of these trucks was not high. Parts availability is much much better for the big 3 trucks than for the Jeep trucks. Most of the running gear parts should be easily source, but there are some exceptions. If you have difficulty, post up.