Hi all!
Picked up this HJ61 with H55 trans and factory winch bumper back in February. Posted on here before purchase and all your guidance for my first JDM diesel cruiser helped a lot. Changed the fluids off the bat and so far been upstate New York a few times and out to Indiana and back to Brooklyn’s handled beautifully. Had a few issues when I purchased it but slowly attending to each of them getting to know the car and enjoying every bit of it. This forum has been a big help and I thank you all for it.
Past few updates have included:
-installing a dc to dc converter(12to24v)
- this came with its own interesting finds. LOTS of excess wire sitting under the passenger seat. Massive birds eat of speakerwire being used as electrical for something somewhere at some point. Also lots of electrical leads to nowhere.
- many a severed wire throughout the truck. I figure it’s one of two things:
- either there was an overload of electrical and some kind of fire ensued which put the owner into quick thinking mode and their answer was to snip the source under the hood before the whole care burst into flames.
OR
- they found himself in a dire situation where the truck was either taken from them or they needed to sell for cheap fast so decided to sabotage all of their very badly done electrical hacks so that the next person would need to figure it all out for themselves. Twisted sense for right of passage type thing.
suppose we’ll find out if the car fries once everything’s working hah
<back to updates>
- original Koito. headlights were rusted through and had me driving to Indiana with high beams as my lows. Recently changed out for Hellas for the win thanks to a thread on ‘semiscientific headlight test’
And a great deal on eBay.
-drivers window didn’t roll down when I got it. Opened up the door and found a short in the original harness with the multimeter. Opened up the oem relay box to find the arc in the box had split. Tried to bridge the gap with dialectic grease to see what happened; blew a fuse in the ‘power box under the hood:no dice. Had me scratching my head until I traced some aftermarket electrical to a 12v motor switch under the dash. Rewired that And cleaned up some of the previous connections. Still want to trace that short but at least I have natural ac on the drivers side now...
.....Oh yeah, coming up soon is finding an ac belt
And likely changing all the belts while I’m at it
currently building a drawer set to go out and utilize my 4x4 fishing permit in montauk. Striper season is soon to be here!
decided to clean the carpets before laying wood on top. Pulled the carpets, underlay was filthy. Tossed that and found myself down to bare floors. Installed new insulation and cleaned old carpets sound proofed the rear wheel wells and inside the vinyl panels in in the back.
drawers are finished but have to figure out a system for extending the sleeping platform over the rear passenger seat. First time doing something like this so I’m taking and making the plan as I go along.
looking good so far!
See pictures below
Picked up this HJ61 with H55 trans and factory winch bumper back in February. Posted on here before purchase and all your guidance for my first JDM diesel cruiser helped a lot. Changed the fluids off the bat and so far been upstate New York a few times and out to Indiana and back to Brooklyn’s handled beautifully. Had a few issues when I purchased it but slowly attending to each of them getting to know the car and enjoying every bit of it. This forum has been a big help and I thank you all for it.
Past few updates have included:
-installing a dc to dc converter(12to24v)
- this came with its own interesting finds. LOTS of excess wire sitting under the passenger seat. Massive birds eat of speakerwire being used as electrical for something somewhere at some point. Also lots of electrical leads to nowhere.
- many a severed wire throughout the truck. I figure it’s one of two things:
- either there was an overload of electrical and some kind of fire ensued which put the owner into quick thinking mode and their answer was to snip the source under the hood before the whole care burst into flames.
OR
- they found himself in a dire situation where the truck was either taken from them or they needed to sell for cheap fast so decided to sabotage all of their very badly done electrical hacks so that the next person would need to figure it all out for themselves. Twisted sense for right of passage type thing.
suppose we’ll find out if the car fries once everything’s working hah
<back to updates>
- original Koito. headlights were rusted through and had me driving to Indiana with high beams as my lows. Recently changed out for Hellas for the win thanks to a thread on ‘semiscientific headlight test’
And a great deal on eBay.
-drivers window didn’t roll down when I got it. Opened up the door and found a short in the original harness with the multimeter. Opened up the oem relay box to find the arc in the box had split. Tried to bridge the gap with dialectic grease to see what happened; blew a fuse in the ‘power box under the hood:no dice. Had me scratching my head until I traced some aftermarket electrical to a 12v motor switch under the dash. Rewired that And cleaned up some of the previous connections. Still want to trace that short but at least I have natural ac on the drivers side now...
.....Oh yeah, coming up soon is finding an ac belt
And likely changing all the belts while I’m at it
currently building a drawer set to go out and utilize my 4x4 fishing permit in montauk. Striper season is soon to be here!
decided to clean the carpets before laying wood on top. Pulled the carpets, underlay was filthy. Tossed that and found myself down to bare floors. Installed new insulation and cleaned old carpets sound proofed the rear wheel wells and inside the vinyl panels in in the back.
drawers are finished but have to figure out a system for extending the sleeping platform over the rear passenger seat. First time doing something like this so I’m taking and making the plan as I go along.
looking good so far!
See pictures below