I have to follow Cdan 
well 
thats a hard act to follow 
It all started on 5/4/02 when I found a 94fzj80 with 207788mi for $8900. At the time, that was a great price even with the high mileage.
I had to make a choice, either buy a newer or less mileage 80 or buy a project 80 and use it as a learning tool. I did the later.
I learned a lot with this 80 and had to do some of the work without help from the 80 Mud forum as it was up yet. The only board was the LCML, and that was not very 80 helpful. The SOR board came and went. Then came I8MUD.
I don't have very many mod's to speak of other than the ARB bumper and Slee running board slidders, as I spent most of my time maintaining and fixing what "I" brake on the 80
Here are some of the big screw ups/learning tool:
1)drop tranny twice to fix rear main seal when the rear main wasn't the part that was leaking, we now know its the oil pan to rear main seal retainer that leaks
2) when I was finished, the second time, with dropping the tranny to fix the leaking rear main retainer. I had the front of the vehicle on ramps, the rear was on jack stands. I was in a hurry to get the vehicle finished and I had to go to work, yes you guessed it, I drove off the ramps with the rear still on jack stands. CRUNCH!!!!!! I broke the rear diff lock actuator
No big deal, until I found its BIG $$$$ to replace the actuator. I made a plate to cover the hole where the actuator went. I had to use a LARGE bolt and nut to hold the part that locks the diff from moving into the locked position. I drove that way until Downey came out with the Cable Locker kit for the rear diff.
3) this is the BIG and $$$$ one the T-CASE or CENTER DIFF.
In works at fixing the rear mail leak (this rear main leak seams to be the hart of all my problems) I had to drop the drive shafts a couple times. When I reinstalled the rear drive shaft, I had to remove the grease to get the yoke to slide into the drive shaft. Having no clue how the drive shafts work, I didn't think it was a problem, WRONG! I would put grease in the zirk, that put pressure on the t-case and rear diff. The t-case with the extra pressure on it, would get hot and lock up the viscous coupler (VC).
I drove without the front drive shaft and the VC still locked up. So I replace the t-case with a new one $2000. That one lasted less than a year and the started leaking. Toyota gave me a new one NO CHARGE
4) my fight with u-joints. I had the good idea to replace all the u-joints. As my luck would have it, none of the joints were bad and I had a hell of a time replacing them. I had to cut the old u-joints out as the cups wouldn't pop out.
I damaged one joint trying to get it in and had to order a new on. That was on the yoke for the rear drive shaft. I ended up buying a used yoke.
getting the nuts that hold the drive shaft off was a rear pain. My cheap impact wrench didn't move it. Had to get a big impact. I spent several minutes on each nut to get them to turn and you could see the metal from the nuts fly off as the impact did its job. I had to get new nuts and bolts as the old ones were trashed.
5) my first repair to the 80 was the parking brake. I fixed the rusted bells of the parking brake but broke one doing so. From there I replace the rear pads and rotors. Then moved to front, replaced the pads and rotors. Pulled the birfields and they were worn. I got a set of Newfileds. This is another big mistake. It wore out. CVunlimited gave me the NEWNEWERNEWFIELD.
My next problem was the EGR thing, you know, the VSV and modulator thingy, but we don't need to get into that
The list of all the things that I replace due to preventive maintenance or repairs is toooo long to post on this post but all in all, I have started a ground up restoration of the 94FZJ80
well thats a hard act to follow It all started on 5/4/02 when I found a 94fzj80 with 207788mi for $8900. At the time, that was a great price even with the high mileage.
I had to make a choice, either buy a newer or less mileage 80 or buy a project 80 and use it as a learning tool. I did the later.
I learned a lot with this 80 and had to do some of the work without help from the 80 Mud forum as it was up yet. The only board was the LCML, and that was not very 80 helpful. The SOR board came and went. Then came I8MUD.
I don't have very many mod's to speak of other than the ARB bumper and Slee running board slidders, as I spent most of my time maintaining and fixing what "I" brake on the 80
Here are some of the big screw ups/learning tool:
1)drop tranny twice to fix rear main seal when the rear main wasn't the part that was leaking, we now know its the oil pan to rear main seal retainer that leaks
2) when I was finished, the second time, with dropping the tranny to fix the leaking rear main retainer. I had the front of the vehicle on ramps, the rear was on jack stands. I was in a hurry to get the vehicle finished and I had to go to work, yes you guessed it, I drove off the ramps with the rear still on jack stands. CRUNCH!!!!!! I broke the rear diff lock actuator
No big deal, until I found its BIG $$$$ to replace the actuator. I made a plate to cover the hole where the actuator went. I had to use a LARGE bolt and nut to hold the part that locks the diff from moving into the locked position. I drove that way until Downey came out with the Cable Locker kit for the rear diff.3) this is the BIG and $$$$ one
the T-CASE or CENTER DIFF.In works at fixing the rear mail leak (this rear main leak seams to be the hart of all my problems) I had to drop the drive shafts a couple times. When I reinstalled the rear drive shaft, I had to remove the grease to get the yoke to slide into the drive shaft. Having no clue how the drive shafts work, I didn't think it was a problem, WRONG! I would put grease in the zirk, that put pressure on the t-case and rear diff. The t-case with the extra pressure on it, would get hot and lock up the viscous coupler (VC).
I drove without the front drive shaft and the VC still locked up. So I replace the t-case with a new one $2000. That one lasted less than a year and the started leaking. Toyota gave me a new one NO CHARGE
4) my fight with u-joints. I had the good idea to replace all the u-joints. As my luck would have it, none of the joints were bad and I had a hell of a time replacing them. I had to cut the old u-joints out as the cups wouldn't pop out.
I damaged one joint trying to get it in and had to order a new on. That was on the yoke for the rear drive shaft. I ended up buying a used yoke.
getting the nuts that hold the drive shaft off was a rear pain. My cheap impact wrench didn't move it. Had to get a big impact. I spent several minutes on each nut to get them to turn and you could see the metal from the nuts fly off as the impact did its job. I had to get new nuts and bolts as the old ones were trashed.
5) my first repair to the 80 was the parking brake. I fixed the rusted bells of the parking brake but broke one doing so. From there I replace the rear pads and rotors. Then moved to front, replaced the pads and rotors. Pulled the birfields and they were worn. I got a set of Newfileds. This is another big mistake. It wore out. CVunlimited gave me the NEWNEWERNEWFIELD.
My next problem was the EGR thing, you know, the VSV and modulator thingy, but we don't need to get into that
The list of all the things that I replace due to preventive maintenance or repairs is toooo long to post on this post but all in all, I have started a ground up restoration of the 94FZJ80
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