Aussie BJ73 (1 Viewer)

[dare]

Hey guys, my name is Hayden, I'm 22 and here is my BJ73.

I'd been actively looking for a neat LX spec MWB for around a year, what seemed like almost the perfect one came up on the other side of the country and that coincided with a need to head over that way so I took the dive. Upon landing in Melbourne and going to look at it it wasn't really as described mechanically but the body is rust free and that's certainly rare for an aussie MWB so I bought it after some negotiating.

It's a 1984 model, 339'755kms, H55f, 12V, LX spec complete with factory suspension seats (worth their weight in gold!). It has a 2" Terrain Tamer lift, 33x12.5 MTZs, eBay snorkel, far too many spot lights and some rear draws. The previous owner only owned it for around 6 months and they did the mods, before that it had one owner and was totally stock, down to the original stereo.

Being from the south west corner of W.A I had quite a trip ahead of me, 3555kms according to google, though it ended up being a little over 1000kms more than that. I had around 2 weeks and my mum was along for the ride. We set off for the Great Ocean road, built as a war memorial it winds along the cliffs on the ocean and is very scenic. It's a very popular tourist destination and is amusingly littered with signs stating "we drive on the left in Australia".











The real surprise for us was heading inland through the Otways. We thought we would head inland to save some strain on my diff which had become very loud (more on that later), little did we know there was mountains and rainforest! A very beautiful part of the country which I probably should have taken more photos of!



This was Christmas day. We had bought 2 $34 tents back in Melbourne, these were brilliant aside from having no mesh/airflow, ultra quick setup and about the size of a double swag but 1/10th the size when packed.



Continuing on there's some very pretty coastline, though W.A still has the beast beaches. I can't believe there's no beach driving in Victoria. What do Victorians do on Australia day?



A rather ballsy boat ramp.



It was about here the trip got a lot more difficult, it started to overheat quite badly. Odd considering the temp gauge hardly moved before. Anyway, bubbles in the coolant so it's likely the head is cracked, bugger. Any sort of incline or going at 90+km/h would see the temp gauge soar, through the stock temp guage is slow to react and it's boiling by about 2/3rds. From here on we drove with the heater on, not pleasant in 30c+ temps, much less so for mum whos window didn't go down. Just to give me the occasional heart attack, the temp and fuel gauges randomly shoot to the top for a few seconds from time to time, despite the car not actually being hot.

So we slowly rolled into Mount Gambier, we lived here when I was little and it was good to see the place again. Mount Gambier is unusual in that it has several inactive volcanoes around it, mostly filled with water. The most famous one is blue lake, for obvious reasons. I forgot to take a photo so here's one I nabbed of the internet.

Umpherston sinkhole is not only home to lovely gardens, but also some incerdibly fat Possums. I fed one a whole banana then someone else fed it half an apple!



I bought a new radiator cap, thermostat, an aftermarket temperature gauge and a s***load of coolant. and set off. There's not a lot north of Mount Gambier, this little rock (Christmas rock) being the tallest thing for as far as you can see!



Although it's closed over summer due to fire risk, Jakem 4WD park let us in just to camp the night. There's great campsites, serious 4WD tracks and the people that run it are lovely. In SW W.A we don't have any 4WD parks so this was quite a novelty to me. Here I attempted to replace the thermostat but it was the wrong one (thanks Repco!) so I left it out, this marginally improved the overheating issue but keeping the gauge off the bottom around town was impossible!



Then we hit Adelaide, this was the actual aim of the trip. My Dad lives there and he's been diagnosed with terminal cancer so Mum said we have to fly over and see him whilst we had time off. Here we pulled the radiator out, flushed it, fitted new hoses, did the belts and put a new clutch slave in. The fluid in the clutch slave came out like toothpaste.

Aside from the overheating, the main mechanical issue was the rear diff. It had about 5mm of side to side/in and out play in the pinion. It was also pretty noisy and had coated everything from the pinion back in gear oil. Of course the previous owner "had no idea" about this issue. My plan was to simply tighten up the pinion nut to torque again and fit a new seal. Whilst I was certain this would make it louder it'd be much more likely to get me home. Much to my surprise it was almost dead quiet and stayed that way for the rest of the trip. 3000kms later it still has no play!

I dropped into Terrain Tamer and picked up the correct thermostat (a genuine Toyota one) and a few other bits. The terrain tamer stores, especially the Melbourne one are worth visiting just for the displays. They have a very impressive range of really broken Toyota bits, their bare metal FJ45v, cross sectioned gearboxes and motors, and displays showing the difference between their drivetrain parts and the factory ones.

I also fitted my temp gauge, yes I know it looks hack but it's not permanent and I did it in a car park with basic tools. I'd like to install an auberins gauge with an alarm at a later date. This and the thermostat made the issue much more manageable and although you had to keep eagle eyes on the gauge and generally drive with the heater on, the car didn't overheat for the rest of the trip. 90* is vertical because that's where it boils over.



For new years we camped at Pildappa rock which is kind of like a mini Wave rock. I must say I never would have guessed I would spend new years camping with my mum!



About now it was 39 degrees (102F) and we had the heater blasting to stop it overheating. This wasn't very pleasant and actually killed both of our phones. I did some DIY heat proofing with some foil bubble wrap we got in Adelaide to wrap our esky in. I didn't really think it would do anything but this made a massive difference. You can see I've also done the heater pipe, mostly to block off the little vent that was burning a hole in my leg.



Mum got her McGyver on to direct the air from the heater somewhere else. For my side I cut the bottom out of a water bottle and lined its edge with tape so it'd sit snug in the vent.



I got a little desperate and removed one of the horns and relocated the other to improve flow into the radiator. I also removed 2 of the 6 spotlights (and it came with another new pair to put on too!). This of course made no measurable difference.



The amusing jetty of the inland town of Wirrulla, the joke being the only difference between them and the coastal towns (that attract tourists) is the jetty. It was accompanied by a "no diving" sign.

 

[dare]

By now the weather was cooling down and we had quite a lucky run for the rest of the trip, being in the low 20s. This meant we could do some heaterless driving!

The mining town of Iron Knob was very interesting to me as everyone had many old cars in their yards, I guess there's no scrap metal out there. Most of it was 1970s and before, things you rarely see elsewhere. Including a few LJ Suzukis, a have a few of these myself so it's cool to see them. They also have a big digger thing, so there you go.



S.A has some pretty amusing roadsigns



Then we were off across the Nullabor. We crossed a few times when I was little (5&8 I think) and as far as I was concerned it was the most boring thing ever however this time I found it really interesting. Having said that, there's pretty much nothing out there. Oh an sorry for the quality of pictures, I had a $50 phone.



We found Koonalda homestead on the Wikicamps app. This app is worth its weight in gold and I'd recommend it very highly to anyone who travels. Koonalda homestead is an abandoned roadhouse on the the old Eyre highway. This place is awesome with many abandoned cars from 1920s-1960s, mostly with 50's Holdens. Amusingly, there wasn't a single holden that still had its front hubs (in Australia most trailers use Holden front hubs/bearings) and a scrappy must have come and taken every single radiator. Some older fellows turned up who used to drive trucks and were here when it was a fully functioning roadhouse, they said there used to be several times more cars. Aside from one Datsun 1200 (the only Japanese car there, and the only complete one), there's not really anything there worth restoring. Sadly everything is very rough.



Of course the Only 4wd there is a Land Rover, stripped of all mechanicals.





The toilet at Koonalda was a bit basic!



Driving at night a saw another cars headlights from 16kms away (assuming they were driving the same speed as me) and the reflection off a very large road sign a staggering 4.6kms away!

Of course, a trip across the Nullabor isn't complete without at least one trip slightly south to see the great Australian Bite. Further west you actually drive at the base of these cliffs for a few hundred kms.





Onwards to the town of Eucla near the border and we finally found a computer that we could use to put music on a USB stick so we could have music for the first time of the whole trip!

This is the old telegraph station near Eucla that has been eaten by sand dunes!



Somewhere near Norseman I found a clay pan. This the most bizzare surface I've ever driven on. I could hold slides for hundreds on metres, certainly the only time I've done a powerslide with a 3B!



Onwards to Esperance and it basically feels like we're home even though we have another 700kms to go. Even on rainy days, Esperance has lovely turquoise beaches. Given this car lived in Victoria all its life, this is probably the first time it's been driven on a beach.



Onwards through to Ravensthorpe which is the only mining town I've ever been to that was actually "nice", also the only shopping centre I've been to that had a view! They had this in the park, the pistons (there was 8) are about 12" diameter and geez I hope that bit of flywheel didn't come off whilst it was running!



We went inland instead of following the coast so we could go through the Stirling Ranges. They're quite spectacular but there's no 4WDing and the people who manage it must own shares in a gate manufacturing company!



Then back home to Northcliffe.



I've done quite a bit of work to it since I got home in an effort to get it roadworthy. I'll post about that later. Looking into the immediate future I want to turbo it and build a bullbar. Right now its realistic cruising speed is 90-95 and it's far to underpowered for dune driving, it desperately needs more power. On from that, I want to build it up as touring vehicle and I hope to see quite a bit of Australia in it.

Thanks for reading,
Hayden

 

[wardharris]

Excellent write up, quite the adventure!

 

[ozcrusier]

Great read thanks for sharing.

 

[cruiserpilot]

I read that, and now more than ever its time to jump on a plane and go to Australia! Well written, beautiful.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

Very entertaining. Well done Hayden! I live here and now I can't wait to see more.

 

[Leeroytroopy]

Great Write up. The overheating issues will just make you remember the trip even more.
My uncle swears by 3b turbos. Hes even got one in his hj75 ute.
Cant wait to see the mods mate.

 

[Clint79]

Great write up and pics mate and what a trip.
Ive also just done that same trip across and up Aus in my 79 series over dec jan and feb they have a good over night camp at iron know and also checked out the station on the way back.

 

[dare]

Thanks guys.

Yes, issues certainly make it more memorable and are part of the adventure. I've had a few very long trips home in overheating Suzukis, those were both relatively easy fixes though. A cracked head is something I could do without! Though it hasn't used a drop of water since I got home.

Clint, it sounds like we might have crossed paths!

The first issue I tackled when I got home was the windows. The original drivers side switch had been bypassed and only 1 added so you could only control the drivers side.



The passengers side switch was broken. I ordered a 1st gen 4runner switch from switchdoctor. This slipped/plugged right in and the window was working again! Problem was it was very slow and was making a horrible squealing noise so I pulled the regulator.



Here's a pic of the regulator, it might help someone in finding a replacement. I read somewhere 1st gen 4runner ones are the same. I had a 4runner manual regulator kicking about and it was different (both are 1/4 window models) but the gear profile was the same so you could weld that on to fix a LC one.



I pulled the regulator apart and it was all surprisingly high quality. I greased everything, amusingly using the grease that came with a Tamiya 1/32 MWB on the plastic gear. Back together and it was better but still a little noisy, I think there's a bolt or something rubbing somewhere. I've ordered some new bailey channel and weather strips so that's a job for another day.



The drivers side actually still had the remains of the original electric window switch wrapped up in tape rattling around in the door. I got really lucky (or so I thought) and found a second hand one on eBay from an LJ70, with the auto down. At this stage I thought mine had auto down originally as it was in the manual but that wasn't the case. Upon receiving the switch it had a different plug and an extra wire.



So I thought I might be able to swap plastics from the new switch onto the old one. Nope, they work completely differently. Bugger.



As you can see, the original is a mess of tape, cut wires and crimps. Also note that the original has much larger wires.



Luckily the wire colours were the same, aside from the extra one for the auto down. I repinned the new switch into the old plug and rejoined the cut up mess in the door.



And all soldered/heatshrunk/taped in. This kind of worked. I could control the passengers window but not the drivers. I hooked up the aftermarket switch again and then the drivers worked too. I'll sort it out properly another time, I'd love to sort out the auto down. Maybe utilize the aftermarket switch as an auto up/down.





If I did it again I'd get a new 4Runner master switch. They have an extra spot for central locking but otherwise are probably closer mechanically to the early landcruiser switch. It's worth noting that AE86 electric window switches is at least externally identical to the landcruiser switch but were available with auto up and down in Japan. I believe some Celicas also had the same switch.

Here's the electric window wiring digram, thanks to Oldtoy74.

We went over to Walpole and I was ecstatic to find the Fishermans track reopened. They made a real kurfuffle of burning this off and marked it "closed for the foreseeable future" so I was surprised to see it open. This is one of my favourite tracks, it heads to the mouth of Broke Inlet. I didn't drive the whole track as I was running out of time. I didn't take much in the way of photos either.

This is Mottrams hut, an old cattlemans hut. Although it isn't long there's quite a few huts along this track. You are free to stay at them, this is the biggest and by far flashest. It even has a hotwater system!



At the southern edge of Broke inlet on a side track, as far as I got.

 

[dare]

My gearbox was leaking quite a bit of oil from the shifter boot so I replaced that and put a hose clamp around it so it can't work loose again. It can still breathe through the stick. A few years back I had a Sierra(Samurai) transfer fill with mud from a lifted boot and I'm not keen to replicate that with a very expensive gearbox!

I replaced the shifter sheet and bushing. I had a hell of a time getting the little bushing out as there's a little lip at the top of the cup. I filed it a little with a grease loaded file and pulled the bushing out with some circlip pliers. The sheet had totally disintegrated leaving just the rubber base. It shifts much nicer now and has no rattle.





It was developing a slight death wobble which I thought was the slightly loose front wheel bearings. One day I threw a chock under the front wheel and the diff moved forwards a few cms! As it turned out the U bolts where very loose with one missing the nut. The diff was floating 3-4mm above the leafs!



Suzuki U bolt nut vs Landcruiser!



You can see how much the diff has been moving by the witness marks on my caster wedges.



Whilst I was there I tightened up the rod ends, Landcruisers have a fantastic system for this. Pull out the split pin, turn the slot, reinstall split pin, done! Obviously with these and the U bolts tightened it drove much better. I can actually drive in a straight line now!



The steering wheel was about 1/3rd of a turn out when going straight due to the lift so I adjusted the drag link. I put the securing bolt rewards so it would stop eating my steering dampener boot.....



The previous owner had made the.... Questionable..... Move of cutting the rear bumpstops in half and removing the front ones all together with the aim of increasing the flex. Amusingly, it doesn't reach the bumpstops when it flexes anyway.



I know this likely means my (almost new!) shocks are buggered, but luckily the front diff hasn't hit the sump or chassis.

I bought some new bump stops and wacked them in my press to see how far the compress for shock sizing. As it turns out, they compress much more than I thought!



The fronts compressed down to 40mm and the rears to 55mm. My press is 20t but I didn't use anywhere near all of that, it doesn't have a gauge so I can't tell you how hard I squished them. Even if you really cranked down on them they wouldn't compress much more than the figures I've given. An original front one only compressed to 50mm.



One of them went pop with very little pressure. I'd say it's best to stay away from "good rubber" brand bumpstops. I cranked down on an original one as hard as the press would go and it survived fine.



It's interesting to see the inside of it. It split of the side with more bubbles. Luckily the only complete original bumpstop I had in one piece was this one!



I replaced the rear brake shoes. The previous owner claimed to have just replaced the rear shoes and cylinders but only the shoes on the passengers side had been done.... This was an absolute arse of a job and I have less than no desire to keep drums brakes. The whole point of this was to get my handbrake working for my roadworthy inspection. The arm on the passengers side was seized and the drivers side adjuster has stopped working so it was way out. It now works quite well for a Landcruiser handbrake.



I also tightened up the rear wheel bearings. I sure a few people on this forum have been here, where both holes to back the axle out have a bolt broken off in them!



The drivers side didn't look to great! I'll be swapping out for a 60 diff soon so I just regreased it.

 

[dare]

A friend of mine had this s***box troopy. It had suffered the most spectacular radiator failure I've seen. Something (they think a fence post) got caught between the diff and the radiator and totally stoved the radiator in from the back. It also smashed half the fan and bent the steering dampener almost 90 degrees. Best part is they didn't notice and kept on driving until the motor (1HZ) called it quits! They were driving bog holes so it's kind of understandable they wouldn't see the steam ect.





It had and ARB dual battery tray so I nicked that, I really should have taken the bullbar but it was very bent. I'm looking to make my own anyway.



After about 9000 hours and sanding and painting It came up pretty well.



Unfortunately it was quite some way off fitting. None of the bolt holes really lined up, the rear mounting pad sat slightly to high and the front to low. Simple filing of the holes wasn't going to make it work, it needed cutting and welding. Another issue was the clutch hard line had to be relocated and there was really no where for it to go without new lines.

My biggest gripe was the wiring loom has to be moved and the glow/starter relays had to be relocated from their spot in the inner guard to the side of the battery tray where they would cop all sorts of mud and dirt. It also has a sharp edge pushing into the loom where it comes out of the firewall. Basically, I cracked the s***s with all the stupid compromises this tray has. I haven't decided if I'll make my own tray or get a Piranha one. I'd like to mount both batteries as far forward as possible so I can put a compressor at the back.

My fuel primer was leaking and using it resulted in a fountain.



I know you can rebuild them but I didn't fancy having a 32 year old piece of plastic in the range of sticks and so on that was critical to the running of my car.



Fitted and no more leaks! I've since seen there is a bosch one that you don't have to screw down.



Whilst I was there I advanced the injector pump timing. It was actually retarded 2mm from the mark, I brought it to about 0.5mm above the mark. I don't think this really made any difference. It might help fuel economy a little.

In the longest line of letters and numbers the A"70" means this pump has 7.0mm elements.


I got a flat tyre, there was the end of a freakin file stuck in it!



Whilst it had a snorkel fitted, the original intake was still fitted and open. I removed the piping back in Adelaide and taped it up. The red tape and lump of cardboard was to stop it making a wub wub sound.



I got this 70mm pipe plug to blank it. It wasn't as snug of a fit as I hoped.



I fitted it with some silicone and sealed a few pin holes in the airfiler housing. The motor sounds much quieter now, especially under load. I didn't think the tape made that much noise!



We went and climbed mount Frankland. It almost killed me, nice view though!



There's so many nice little tracks and river crossings around Walpole.



One of the best things about this car is the rear drawers. The previous owner made these. It's amazing how much stuff you can safely fit in and how neat and organized it can all be. You can see it has little hatches of either side of the drawers, on the passengers side I have a hand winch, belts, tarp and tow hitch. The drivers side has camping stuff (lantern, first aid kit, untensils, spare food ect). The passengers drawer has heap of tools and spare fluids. The drivers side drawer has my aircompressor, a trolley jack, tyre repair kit and spare parts. When I pull the back seats out a lot of that stuff will go into a box there and the drawers will get used for camping stuff.



As you can see, a pair of maxtrax are a perfect fit above the roll bar. Not the most convenient place to get them from but it's not like you use them often.

The previous owner also installed an LED strip light the whole way around the roof. This throws fantastic light inside and even lights up outside the car a bit. Great for camping! It's just jumped out of the original interior light.

 

[BJ60WA]

Lots of interesting info.
I have a Jan 85 BJ73 bought it off a Uni student here in WA
It was set up s a soft top, but he also had all the original bits and the FRP top.
When doing the front brakes I found the drivers side brake had the outside brake disc worn down to about 1mm.
Did the rear brakes with new shoes and new slave cylinders
I am now getting the engine rebuilt, it had done 440,000kms, getting the pistons replaced that are for Turbo configuration.
I also have a BJ70 with 260,000kms on it and goes fantastic, shows you that and extra 200,000kms makes a big difference in performance.
I had the air con regassed and that works fine,
Love the suspension seats.
I installed a stereo out of the latest 2016 patrol, thanks to my son
Putting new Heavy duty clutch in it while the engine is being done
Put all new Ironman suspension underneath
I am still trying to work out the Glow plug system
I have removed the passenger seat and installed Full length Ute drawers from the 4WD Super Centre
The front window frame is just say nt water proof, I have a new fibre glass frame from Qld to replace it
The rear window demisters were shot and I was able to find brand new windows to replace them ( not Cheap)
I have the Heater and fuel gauge problem you mentioned with the 73 and 70, it is intermittent, scared the crap out of me the 1st time it happened

 

[dare]

Sounds like our cars have some similar issues. My windscreen frame leaks and the rear demisters don't work. I found your oil pressure sender thread the other day, mine's reading very low and I had problems with the EDIC shutting the motor off for half a second when I went over bumps. Pressure washing the sender seems to have fixed it, go figure. It continues to surprise me how many aussies there are on the forum with MWBs given you see them so rarely.

I bought a lightbar, I went for a 20" size as it will fit between bullbar posts. It's a 210w osram 4D eBay spec jobbie. I've kind of been against lightbars for a while as my friends ones have always had very blue light which IMO makes it much harder to differentiate objects and so on. The mounts are really great, they slide along the length of the lightbar and haven't rattled loose.



The beam pattern is actually quite narrow, maybe around 25 degrees max. It illuminates normal roads quite well but I'd like more spread for the windier roads and general bush driving. It has quite a long throw for a light bar, it puts useful light 400m away and is a league ahead of the 6 Narvas it had previously. The colou is whiter than I expected but still a bit blue for my liking.

I whacked the watt tester on it. I never expected it to make 210w but less than half that is a bit of a dick move by the seller!

It came with some 18w spread lights, these are great, I plan to stick them above my spare wheel. They only use around 10.5w though.

The watt meter is a handy little doodad, obviously you can do much the same with a multimeter but it has its place. They're cheap on eBay. 100A 60V DC RC Helicopter Airplane Battery Power Analyzer Watt Meter Balancer OG

Here's the totally bull**** reply from the seller.

Picked up a turbo. After mapping 11ty bajillion turbos I of course picked up one I can't find a map for! It's a T25 off an RD28 from a GQ Patrol. It has the same wheel sizes, housing ect as a CA18DET T25 (like Dougals) but interestingly the wheels have different part numbers. I'd be interested to know if they're a more modern design than the CA18 ones as it's a lot newer than those. We'll see when the turbine housing gives up and releases its death grip from the core. It's not the greatest turbo around but it will spool quick and $free suits my very small budget. Most of the turbos I've been looking at use this flange anyway.

The RD28 has the same odd non-crossflow port setup as the Datsun L series. This RD28 suffered a fairly spectacular failure, it spun a bigend bearing which caused the nuts to loosen and the entire bigend to come off! Before the engine made its sudden stop, it had a faint ticking sound.

This turbo swallowed a lot of oil, that engine was in very poor health. It has little shaft play but I will rebuild it.

I haven't decided if I will make my own manifold. I'll be calling AXT and Turboglide to see if they will sell theirs, it seems a few Aussies have had luck with that. From what I've read the 13B-t manifold puts it way to close to the clutch booster. I have a double thermocouple temperature thingo so it will be interesting to measure the turbos in/out temps / efficiency. I'm also keen to try it on my radiator to compare the alloy and copper.

Thanks,
Hayden

 

[dare]

Yesterday I replaced the radio antenna, anyone who has pondered how on earth you actually get anywhere near the bloody thing will understand why this is worth posting about.

The culprit. Undo the nut and it falls into the inner guard. I found the remains of an older base in there too.



Remove the antenna from the base and slip the cord end in first Get your contortionist skills on so it comes into the engine bay. Bunch the cord up so the base doesn't fall into the inner and screw the fittings onto the top. This might take you a few hundred goes. Note the paint fade!



Viola! It gets better reception than any antenna I've used before and if I break it I only need to undo 1 screw instead of going through the whole ridiculous process. It's an Aerpro AP46.



Also I has a box.



After a lot of research I decided to go for an alloy radiator over a copper/brass one. I mostly based this on a few people saying they had improved cooling after going from a 4 core brass to an alloy. It's a HDJ7x radiator which is about 4" taller than the BJ7x one, to fit this I'll have to route the bottom hose to the other side and extend the fan shroud. Lots of people go for the copper for perceived "bush proofness" but I don't carry solder and a blow torch, I do carry epoxy which will fix both. From my reading the alloy tubes are tougher but my worry is the tanks/welds cracking.



I have a dual input thermocouple so I will be measuring the in/out temps of the current 4 core (66mm thick) copper and the new 2 core 52mm alloy one to see which cools best. Even though the alloy one is taller they both have roughly the same core volume.

 

[dare]

YYYEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now the fun stuff can start. Going up north in 5 weeks, aiming for the Kimberlys. Much to do before then!

 

[dare]

The bearings in both my tensioner pulleys were noisy, especially when wet. From my research a lot of people had trouble finding a replacement air con tensioner pulley for a 3B. I pulled mine, measured it up and found a perfect match. Turns out about 11ty bajillion cars use the same pulley, including 4runner, Hilux and Pajero. You use the little spacer that goes behind the original pulley. Bonus is the new pulley has a replaceable bearing!



The power steering one is simpler, just swap out the bearing. They're only a few dollars. I also swapped out the power steering belt, I'd already done the others but Terrain Tamer in Adelaide gave me an alternator belt instead of P/S!



My little jig to get that bastard circlip back on the CV, Suzukis save the day yet again!

 

[dare]

I put a Piranha BT75R second/dual battery tray in. I wanted to make my own and mount the batteries as far forward as possible so I could squeeze my compressor in but I just wasn't going to get to it before we went away.

The tray itself is pretty bling with it's yellow zinc plating. It all seems quite well made and I was very impressed to see it came with some very high quality Japanese Industry Standard bolts (so 12mm head on M8 thread). Impressive given the relatively low price ($195 delivered). I'm not sure where they get their Toyota model codes from though. "1JZK and 2JD"



Here's the gap. The main loom needs to be moved to run along the edge of the engine bay. It picks up the bolt that the aftermarket diff breathers are mounted on. This is where I ran into minor issues. That thread is recessed and the arm of the battery tray hits the body furtther down long before it touches the panel around the captive nut. Even if it didn't, it would have been crushing the loom. I needed to space the mount out about 10mm. Living in the middle of nowhere I can't just go to the hardware store and grab some washers so I knocked some up from flat bar, not pretty but they achieve the purpose.



And done, well almost. I have a Voltage Sensitive Relay from the 4runner I need to put in and I haven't found a good spot for a fuse box yet.



For the roadworthy inspection I swapped the tyres from the 4Runner onto it, I've gotten used to it now but at first it looked hilarious with the 31s (which measure 29"). It doesn't really feel any faster. As you can see I also put the 2 little 18w light bars on and I'm really impressed with them, they've filled in some of the spread the 20" light bar lacked.



With the transfer bash plate back on (it's been off for 5 months) I can now hear a heck of a whine from 90km/h+. Ugh, the list continues to grow. Hopefully it's somehow the diff, but it's likely the transfer or gearbox [EDIT it was the diff]. I hope it's not the gearbox. I've been chasing some auto 60 series transfer gears (2.29, 15% lower) but haven't had any luck. I really like a lower low range but the Marks adapters gears are miles out of my budget.

Dads been given 2-3 months to live so the Kimberly trip might get put off which sucks, been planning it for a year.

 

[PATHnz]

Be interested to see how different your mileage is with the 31s? They do look hilariously small which is why I want to trade up to 33s (and more clearance).

Cheers for putting up those pulley bearing part #s, I need to change mine too. Might just delete aircon all together though

 

[cruiserpilot]

Best wishes to Dad. Kimberly will still be there. Thanks for the pics and postings, sure makes it
more enticing to come down there for a trip.

 

[dare]

Be interested to see how different your mileage is with the 31s? They do look hilariously small which is why I want to trade up to 33s (and more clearance).

Cheers for putting up those pulley bearing part #s, I need to change mine too. Might just delete aircon all together though

The mileage seems pretty much the same so far, this thing is pretty inconsistent though. It normally gets between 11 and 14l/100 and funnily enough, my 2 fills with the 31s have been (roughly, I haven't been calculating it or compensating for the odo being out) 14 and 11l/100. Both of those were doing the same trip on the same road (winding, hilly max 90km/h).

My best so far with the 33s (which measure 32") is 10.4l/100 on of all places, The Great Ocean Road. The odo is almost dead on with them, it reads 98km when you've done 100.

Best wishes to Dad. Kimberly will still be there. Thanks for the pics and postings, sure makes it more enticing to come down there for a trip.

Cheers cruiserpilot. If you're hitting up the southwest then I'll be happy to show you around.

Kind of off topic but trolling through eBay I found this, it's a gov loc in a landcruiser 3rd member (no affiliation, just thought it was interesting).
TOYOTA LANDCRUISER DIFF LOCKER 4.1 RATIO
A bit of searching shows the GM 12 bolt centre will fit into a landcruiser 3rd member with very little machining. More searching shows a 12 bolt minispool (which is super cheap) fits the landcruiser centre with virtually no work. I'm not looking to run a minispool and certainly not looking to run a gov lock but I thought it was interesting anyway. Might be common knowledge to some but hey, you learn something every day.