Builds Mail Order Ride - My HDJ81 (3 Viewers)

[Dork]

Just so's ya knows, these posts aren't in real time yet but the timelines are starting to converge.

After cleaning the headliner, I moved onto the carpet.

The foam s*** on the back of it was still waterlogged after 5 days, so I ripped it off. I figure if it ever gets wet (like during our 7 months of winter here) it must take forever to dry and is probably a massive source of odor. Since I'm sound deadening with the foam, I hope it'll feel and sound fine.

To clean it I finally bought myself a set of those brushes you toss in the drill. Sprayed it down with foamy carpet cleaner, went to town with the drill, pressure washed it until the water ran out clean, and finally went over it with the little Bissel thing to get the water out. Hung it to dry outside for a couple days while doing other things. It feels awesome now.

While that dried I removed a bunch of old crappy aftermarket wiring that was still hanging around. In the passenger footwell under the carpet was a bodged together crossover for the component speakers in the front. Took out some long since forgotten remote starter/ remote door lock thing that was strapped under the passenger seat, ran all over to tap onto wires inside the driver's door at the auto lock controller, behind the glove box and under the steering wheel. The Viper system is still installed/working and runs into the driver's door as well. A GPS antenna was still run behind the dash so that got yanked.

Then, I started fixing up the crappy but staying wiring. Apparently the fella that installed the Japanese gear was afraid to cut kit wires because everything had like 25ft of extra wire bundled up and stuffed around. Those that I was keeping got shortened up appropriately by the old cut/solder/shrink method. Cleaned up the head unit and backup camera connections while at it.

For fun stuff, I ran some new speaker wires around to each of the doors, and brought a couple of extra wires into the two rear doors. Those wires got connected to my usb outlet feed at the center console, and will be supplying power to outlets that will be installed in those 3D printed ashtray filler plates that DeltaVS makes so now the kiddos can charge their things on the go. The speaker wires went to under the passenger seat location, along with a power line to the battery, and rca and amp remote lead to the head unit.

 

[MrMikeyG]

Man, the "box" that the sunroof retracts into looks huge.

 

[Dork]

Life got busy. This thread is still not real time.

After cleaning and wiring stuff, I took care of a couple things. Some of the fastener holes at the back of the truck had some surface rust forming, so I wheeled that off and hit em with some paint.

I broke 3 of the tie down hook bolts when taking them out, so drilled out what needed to be drilled, and then chased all the holes with (I think) a 6mmx1 tap.

I also broke one of the rear seat bolts while they were coming out, so dug that out and chased them with a (surprisingly hard to find) 10mmx1.25 tap. Replaced the one way bolts with normal bolts.

While it was all emptied, I took a gander at the tank and fuel pickup. Tank looks nice and clean to me, and the screen is crystal clear. Neat.

 

[Dork]

Next step was a doozy.

Sound deadening the interior was a job I totally underestimated, it easily took more than 25 hours made up of late nights resulting in cranky mornings over the course of a week.

The joints in my hand ache just thinking about the pushing and rolling and cutting and wedging of the stuff into every groove and nook and cranny.

So, there's now Noico 80mil stuff all over, then a bunch of the 150mil foam layer on pretty much the whole floor. Should hopefully make a difference while driving. I was doing the old "tap-tap/listen" before and after I put pretty much every piece on and can confirm it's doing something.

 

[Dork]

With the floor done, I wanted the carpet put somewhere it would stay clean, so tossed that into the truck.

Moved onto the doors. Opened up the hole in the rear doors for the new larger speakers with some tin snips. Then I got them deadened up pretty well, they already sound more reassuring when being closed. That took a day each.

While not chronologically accurate, I also replaced the window runs and cleaned the s*** out of the windows. Amayams got those to me in pretty good time, for like $56cad each, so I'm happy. Still need to get some white lithium grease for the regulator tracks. Regardless, they run much, much faster now.

Cut a piece of flat bar to size with some threaded holes in it for the amp, put a couple rivnuts in the floor under the passenger seat to hold it down and sprayed it with some paint. Tied in the amp and tested all the speakers successfully. The controls are on a s*** side of this amp, but if I ever need to adjust levels, I can remove it in a minute with a 10mm wrench.

Dash pieces that were reinstalled were cleaned up really good, like toothbrush to the buttons good.

Rear seats were cleaned with some upholstery shampoo and the Bissel before being put back in the truck. Front seats are still out, but that will be discussed in next post.

 

[Dork]

Now for the front seats.

The foam in the front seats was pretty beat to s***. Based on the av stuff that was in her, I figure the Japanese owner must have spent a lot more time sitting in it and smoking and watching tv than actually putting on miles. The deteriorating foam would crumble out and leave s***ty yellow dust flakes under the seat and under the headrest.

So, I watched some YouTube videos, bought an electric knife and a set of hog ring pliers.

Took them apart, starting with drivers side. Figured that if I **** it up, I'm the one who has to live with it and not the princess. The side bolsters of that seat were crumbling badly. Got some 4" thick med-firm upholstery foam from a place and got to cutting and gluing with spray glue. Made me new bolsters, then wrapped the whole seat in a layer of 1/2" firm. Threw a wrap of the 1/2" on the headrests too just to help hold the old crumbly stuff together inside.

While the covers were off, washed them up with laundry soap in the bathtub until water squeezed out fairly clean, then tossed in the dryer. They were pretty nasty so the washing is some lovely piece of mind. Then, rewrapped them up, pulling and stretching and grunting and swearing and adjusting so they all sit nice and mostly wrinkle free.

The lumbar support thing in the back tended to push on one side more than the other, so I tweaked it a bit and secured one part with some tyewraps to make it more even.

Cleaned the seat hardware when reassembling, and put back in the truck.

It felt ****ing great, so I did the passenger one after that. What a difference. Can't wait for next road trip. Feel like I'm sitting higher in it too, even just that tiny bit.

Life and work have conspired to make this project take forever, so it's a good thing it ain't a daily driver. The light at the end is getting brighter though.

Doors get more love next.

 

[Dork]

The door cards were ****ed, thanks to the mud, water and years of softening with age. Got the files sent to me from Obrokoff, and they checked out so I got new cards cut from 1/8" abs at a plastic shop here in town.

Spray glued on a layer of flooring underlay material which is waterproof, sound and heat insulating to replace the deteriorating old s***. Took the skins off the old, which was a bit stressful trying not to rip anything. I found that a plastic wedge tool for removing interior panels worked well to separate the glued sections. Cleaned them, moved them to the new with some more spray glue on the face, and some super glue to hold the ends on the back. Cut the speaker holes and reattached the handle, door pockets, etc and threw in new fasteners where needed.

The first one took some time, maybe 4hrs, but by the end it was about 1.5hrs to do the last one, and that ended up tightest and best looking one as well. As the spray glue dries, they seem to tighten up and look better over time. They will work though.

With those in place, I was going to lower the rear windows and make sure I had clearance for the speaker install, but the windows wouldn't work. I had some fuses pulled, but those nice Odyssey batteries apparently didn't like sitting for 3 months connected to the vehicle. Hindsight is 20/20 and if I knew this was going to take me so long, I guess I should have disconnected them much earlier. My charger didn't want to charge them up, but it's an old non-agm unit so I got a new Noco Genius and see if that can fix them.

Once I get the battery situation sorted, I can continue with speaker mounting and then the finish line is getting close.

 

[Dork]

The batteries were at like 7v, so they were real done dead. I ended up getting the Genius10 from Noco and threw it on one battery. Took the whole night, but it got charged, did the other one the next night. Put them together and was sitting at 12.77, so I was able to with the windows. This was so I could measure up for speaker spacers and figure out what i gotta do to mount them properly.

Couple days later, and I'm at 12.54v. Two more after that and 12.39v. The clamp meter says like 0.1a draw, but I don't trust that so I'll need to check with the multi in series to see what kinda parasitic load I'm really looking at.

So, the plan now is to charge both the batteries up to 100% again, then I'll run each battery individually through the repair mode of the charger to bring them back to life. Then I'll properly check if there's any drains in the system that are maybe an issue.

That also leads me into thinking i need a new alternator anyway since the one I put in way back was already a used unit from a junkyard that was supposed to be a temporary thing just for fitment purposes, so add that to the list.

 

[Dork]

So after some charging cycles and the repair cycles, they look good but still drop down to like 12.55v after one night. The decrease stabilizes, but they still slowly drop. And that's without the truck connected, so I may have ****ed these. I think it's livable for now, and maybe they'll still have a bunch in reserve, just sit lower than the voltage charts say, but I gotta keep monitoring them and see what happens. Gonna look into warranty as well.

Anyways that got me moving windows and measuring things up. I vapor barrier'd the doors, and remembered to fluid film the s*** out of the inside of last door. I will need to open up the other 3 again someday soon and get them as well, at least just pulling the speaker will give me access. I didn't have that s***ty black goopy crap to seal the barrier, so I used some handy dandy tuck tape. Will be cleaner to cut open if I need to replace the window motors in the future. If it's good enough for house, should be fine, and if not, do it different when you do your truck. Added some window stripping around the speaker holes to make a smooth seal.

Put the cards on, all the trim and the new usb outlets in the rear doors ashtray spots thanks to the 3d printed insert that I got from someone on here whom i forgot.

Installed JL Audio C1-650s, the component set up front and coaxial in the rear. The front just fit with the door card spacing it out, so that went right on the door. In the rear I added a 1/2" abs spacer ordered from Amazon to help it clear the window when down. It's pretty cheapy, so might change those one day. I hummed and hawed for so long about how to mount them, but I settled on good old metal screws just fired through the door card and into the door. Seems good enough for now. The rears also have a grille bracket installed, but the tweeter of the coaxial sticks out too far so i can't put the grille on. Will need to either cut a hole in them or get different deeper grilles as I don't trust children not to kick the s*** out of them. The fronts are kinda protected by the dash.

Made tweeter brackets and decided to just 3m mounting tape them to the dash. They stick up a bit too far for my liking, so maybe I'll adjust them one day, but for now it'll work. I lost one tweeter cup in the messy garage because this has taken so damn long so i had to make an order that still hasn't arrived, so only one tweeter in place for now.

First test impressions are.... sounds way way way better than before.

Good productive day.

 

[TYetti]

Omg this is the exact project I need to do to my hdj81, I was wondering if anyone had ever made replacement door cards out of abs and now I know it's possible, also the usb in the door ashtrays

 

[Dork]

Buttoned a bunch of small things up, tossed some cardboard and the old floormats in to keep things clean and got ready to go for a drive.

Turn the key and "thuck".

Start checking things out. I know the batteries ain't doing the greatest, as they seem to drop voltage pretty steadily, but even with fresh charge, just thuck. Dig out the meter and the wiring diagrams in the fsm.

There 24v at the main starter terminal and the Term50, which is the solenoid trigger from the starter relay. Series/Parallel relay is working, as evidenced by the 24v present, but the main wire was pulling no amperage, and the trigger circuit only 2a. Thuck noise definitely is coming from starter.

Since I've been so flustered with batteries, I point that blame that way and decide to just get some cheapos from Cambodian Tire to work with. Group 34R is basically only made in AGM, and those are pricey, so I got two of the normal right side 34, and just put it in backwards on the left side so that the + terminal is still away from the fender. My wires are made long enough to reach like that.

Turn the key and still thuck. Cue depressive state. Give up for evening.

Next day after work I do a couple quick tests, and then fight to get the starter out so I can bench test it. Getting it out was a horrible bitch.

On the bench with the suspicious Odyssey batteries connected in series and a couple sets of jumper cables, the gear was pushed out by the solenoid, but not much, and still no spin. Open it up and it was wet, corroded in places, especially one terminal and the solenoid shaft was coated with some old hard sickly grease. It was so sticky it was stopping the shaft from pulling in far enough for the copper disc to touch the terminals and engage the motor. Emery cloth to polish up the copper disc and the terminals, clean the springs, get it all moving smoothly and reassemble. Bench test says it spins like it should!

I smartened up when putting it back in and and just opened the fender skirt. Had the thing reinstalled in 15 minutes. This is definitely the solution.

Truck started up immediately. Alternator wire was feeding 110A at 800rpm to the batteries (90 of which was going to the intake heater), at 14.29v. Could be a bit higher, but it's not terrible, and it's supplying good current.

I'm going to live with the starter for now, but I think I'm going to put some effort into thinking about the 12v conversion so I can manage the batteries better, and not have two connected in parallel and failing together when the truck is off. Those Odysseys are $450 EACH right now so if I killed them that sucks. I'm out only $350 total for two cheapos, and they'll work fine for a while, but I really wanted those cats-ass things to live longer than this. They might still be usable on a pinch, but I think parking it for even a week would end up with dangerously low voltage. Got to bring them in to a shop for testing and hopefully warranty will help me out.

Going for my drive, there aren't ain't interior rattles, which is awesome. Stereo sounds way ****ing better, but it's got me hankering for a subwoofer. Less wind noise on the highway, but the exhaust is still pretty loud. The deadening feels better, even if a lot of the effect is due to my mind not willing to understate how much effort I put into it.

Feels damn good to drive it though, as it hasn't moved in almost 4 months.

 

[IanB]

It's a shame you didn't have the parts on hand to just replace the contacts and plunger while you had the starter out, you were 90% of the way there!

It must feel like a vault with all the sound deadening! I bet tire noise is way down, and that roof would be like a cone of silence compared to before!

 

[Dork]

Well, I'm kinda leaning toward the 12v starter anyway, since my wallet hates this idea that these batteries always have to be changed in pairs. Knowing I could safely draw one down during the night and still start the truck the next day would benefit my peace of mind. This just moves that up in the priority list a bit.

Took it fishing yesterday. An extended drive down the highway to do so tells me that wind noise is definitely down, but the exhaust and engine noise is still up there pretty high. Much easier to talk with a back seat passenger than it was before. I think it is mostly that the little rattles and stuff are more subdued, so it's especially noticeable in town driving. Like, all the little bumps and cracks and holes in the road just thump along instead of thump-rattle-shaking along.

 

[Dork]

Went out the other night when it was -20. After being parked a few hours, the starter froze again. Had to crawl under and give er a bit of tippy tappy with a hammer while an associate turned the key. So, **** this thing.

Ordered up a 12v starter (28100-17010) as @veiloctane had mentioned in a thread, so when that shows up I guess some wiring goes under the knife.

Still haven't looked up battery managers, so I'll just make em parallel for the short term with intent to fix it sooner than later.

 

[duece71]

I just became an HDJ81 1990 vintage owner. The Mickey Thompsons you had on it look exactly like mine. Great thread, need some time to read through it all. Thanks for posting.

 

[Dork]

Starter is in and working. The wiring is still a little ugly, but now that I know what works, I can make a plan to clean it up optimally. I've got a Redarc battery isolator on the way (with two shipping delay notices so far), and no plans to bother with a marine bypass switch.

The 12v unit that came is physically identical to the old one, with the exception of the solenoid wire terminal being rotated 90 degrees. It fit with no issues.

I could only find wiring diagrams for 1990, or 1992, and it looks like there's small differences with the later trucks, like the starter relay wire color.

I removed the 24v combiner relay, and left the high current starter wire as is directly to the lhs battery. It's still attached through the junction block beside the combiner relay, but that full wire is going to get replaced soon. I took the neg lead from the motor and put it together with the neg lead from the battery by just clamping them both down with one of the combiner mounting bolts. I just unplugged the relay coil from the plug nearby, and the other small wire connected with a ring terminal got wrapped in tape for now, because i think it's the one that goes to the timer relay and not needed.

At the starter relay I took the white/ red wire and connected it to ground with a ring terminal at the starter relay mounting. This normally goes to the starter relay timer, and would allow to the start timer to prevent the relay from operating.

The starter solenoid wire is already run from the second battery so I just left it connected there for now. I'll need to run that to whichever ends up being the engine battery.

The positive wiring from the combiner relay just went directly to the other battery.

I've read contradictory threads that suggest the L terminal from the alternator needs to be tied to ground, or to battery positive. I think both of those are wrong. That terminal is connected to the dash warning light to light when the alternator output falls too low. Even with the 24v starter, the alternator would still do its job as a 12v unit, so I think no change is needed. Seems to work perfect as is, measured 110a/12.5v while the intake grid was on, then 24a/14.3v when idling and topping up batteries.

Started up good and quick, no noticeable difference other than the noise. This one makes a really cool fwa-ziing when it disengages the gear and spins to a stop. We'll see how well it starts up in the cold, but I think it'll be fine especially after starter wire is made bigger.

 

[Dork]

Starter has been working good so far. It's been pretty warm lately, but we just got -25c yesterday and I had parked it outside for a few hours. Still fired up almost immediately, I'm sure if it had been overnight it would be more of a struggle, but this is good.

Fed up with my "universal" mats so I ordered a set of Weathertechs, as I think they've done a good job in other vehicles I've owned. They don't make any for the rhd tucks so I hit the fronts real good with the heat gun to soften them up and shape them a bit. Had to cut a small chunk out of the full width rear mat to fit around the console. They're not perfect, but fit decent enough, the dead pedal feels fine, and they do a way better job of coverage than anything else I've put in so far.

 

[FMC80]

Great job on shaping those weathertechs. I bet it hurt a little bit to put the heat gun to them being as how they cost a small fortune.

 

[duece71]

Starter has been working good so far. It's been pretty warm lately, but we just got -25c yesterday and I had parked it outside for a few hours. Still fired up almost immediately, I'm sure if it had been overnight it would be more of a struggle, but this is good.

Fed up with my "universal" mats so I ordered a set of Weathertechs, as I think they've done a good job in other vehicles I've owned. They don't make any for the rhd tucks so I hit the fronts real good with the heat gun to soften them up and shape them a bit. Had to cut a small chunk out of the full width rear mat to fit around the console. They're not perfect, but fit decent enough, the dead pedal feels fine, and they do a way better job of coverage than anything else I've put in so far.

View attachment 3257337
View attachment 3257338

OP,
I bought weather tech floor mats for the exact same vehicle as yours. The WT mats came with a cutting guide to cut and shape to fit.

 

[Dork]

OP,
I bought weather tech floor mats for the exact same vehicle as yours. The WT mats came with a cutting guide to cut and shape to fit.

Really? These had no info of the sort, just here they are folded up in a box.

And yeah @FMC80 , taking the knife and heat to them as soon as i got them was a bit.