Pretty quiet in here... what are you working on? (4 Viewers)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

That is ready for another 5 years, simple 16 lb sledge hammer could straighten that right out!!
I will keep it and try to put it back into shape if i can... keep it in the shed as a reminder... who knows
 
Just a reminder that you’re always 1 broken bolt away from a 2 hour job turning into a week long ordeal. I broke one of the aluminum stretch bolts on the caliper for the LS430. After some research in the LS430 groups it didn’t seem like drilling it out was worth the effort or potential complications, so I went the recommended route and ordered a used knuckle for $125 shipped. That took a week to be delivered and while I waited I used the torch and PB blaster on the other problematic bolt on the other side of the car. Heat, a turn or two until it would seize again, and then PB blaster sitting over night. There was no rush considering I was waiting on the knuckle shipment and I eventually got the other bolt out. View attachment 3327540View attachment 3327541
View attachment 3327542
View attachment 3327543

Man I hope I don't have that issue when I do brakes. Mine is a NYC car...

Well hat my Timing Belt and water pump done last week and when my mechanic went to take the Front skid plate off he had to torch it because the bolts were all smashed flat.
Also when he got them burned off the plate had seen so much abuse that it was torqued and out of shape it sprung back and he said he almost got knocked out by it!!
It did its job though and no damage to anything under it so yay!

Got the skid used 4 years ago for $120... It has seen hard hits at the Cove x3, Rauch Creek x5, Uwharie x2 and other trails. It is from ASFIR 4x4 in Israel and is 1/4" Aluminium. I wanted to keep the weight down and these are 1/3 to 1/2 of most steel ones and save as much mileage as possible since it is still my daily.

New skids have been ordered.... same one... I figure that if it last this long with my abuse and that of the other owner and that I am not trying to go crazy it should last me another 5 years on this set if not more.

Here is the dead solider .....
View attachment 3328617
View attachment 3328620
View attachment 3328621

TBH my steel are bad too. Once you take them off you basically always need to bash or bend them in some way to get everything back on
 
Man I hope I don't have that issue when I do brakes. Mine is a NYC car...



TBH my steel are bad too. Once you take them off you basically always need to bash or bend them in some way to get everything back on
It seems like a pretty common issue, and I wouldn’t say there’s a lot of corrosion on this car. If the bottom rear bolts give you any trouble at all I would get one of those bolt induction heaters and make those things glow before you try and removal. It could save some headache and $ later.

I like the ASFR skids. The last time I looked at them I thought they were cheap enough to justify just replacing them when needed.

I recently sent Dissent a review/constructive criticism email for my aluminum skids (I’m very happy with them). I’m at at least 50 days of fairly hard wheeling on them and I think they’ve done a great job, and I can still get them in the truck so they are beat up but still serving their purpose. Dissent was appreciative of the email and offered me a big discount on the next set whenever I feel like they need to be replaced.

I look at all of these skids, steel or aluminum, as a maintenance/wearable item.
 
Well i know there is always talk of supply chain issues and places can not fill orders fast enough or shipping is delayed....

I placed my order with ASFIR 4x4 for new skids on Sunday evening..... This arrived TODAY!!... They are in Israel! Air freight NO CHARGE!

ASFIR 1.jpg


ASFIR 2.jpg



ASFIR 3.jpg
 
I've only had my 80 off road a few times for the year that I've owned it, but each time I get a PS growl after being on the trail for a while. My fluid didn't look bad, but I decided to go with the Witt's End PS cooler setup and do a fluid change. At the time, Witts End didn't stock the "kit", so I pieced it together myself for about half of his listed price and got it installed yesterday. Fluid was a lot nastier than I expected once it was all flushed out, so hoping the combo of fresh fluid and the cooler will do the trick. With the Derale cooler, I think it holds about a half quart + more fluid, so that'll help with heat too. Now to get it out on the trail for a test!



In place of the paperclip cooler line and nicely protected with the winch plate...





Now the next project is to measure up my driveshafts for some new units...from the day that I bought it, I get a little clunk when accelerating from a stop. Hard to tell if it's a bushing somewhere or in the driveline, but I do know when I greased the u-joints and splines that it went away for a few hundred miles of around town driving. Thinking it's in the splines as the u-joints seem solid and all of my bushings are in good shape or have been replaced not too long ago. Most likely going with the Tom Woods double cardan units front & rear...probably not "necessary" with my amount of lift, but sounds like a decent upgrade if I'm going to do them anyway.
 
Last edited:
Had some free time so installed the Under-hood LED Lighting kit from YotaNation. Got it fro them a few weeks... err month or more ... ago and just got a chance to install it today. I was a simple install made even easier with the BueSeas power block that was installed when I added the ARB onboard air system.



The kit is pretty basic but that isn't a bad thing. All it is is just a very nice and bright 42" long LED light strip with some good 3M adhesive tape.... well loomed wire with an inline fuse as well as a switch. There is also a hood switch that I didn't choose to use along with some zip ties.

Install was a breeze and the results.... well they are easy to see!


lexus hood light off.jpg


lexus hood light on.jpg



guess I will not have any issues trying to see anything in the engine bay if I have to pop the hood at night!
 
I've only had my 80 off road a few times for the year that I've owned it, but each time I get a PS growl after being on the trail for a while. My fluid didn't look bad, but I decided to go with the Witt's End PS cooler setup and do a fluid change. At the time, Witts End didn't stock the "kit", so I pieced it together myself for about half of his listed price and got it installed yesterday. Fluid was a lot nastier than I expected once it was all flushed out, so hoping the combo of fresh fluid and the cooler will do the trick. With the Derale cooler, I think it holds about a half quart + more fluid, so that'll help with heat too. Now to get it out on the trail for a test!



In place of the paperclip cooler line and nicely protected with the winch plate...





Now the next project is to measure up my driveshafts for some new units...from the day that I bought it, I get a little clunk when accelerating from a stop. Hard to tell if it's a bushing somewhere or in the driveline, but I do know when I greased the u-joints and splines that it went away for a few hundred miles of around town driving. Thinking it's in the splines as the u-joints seem solid and all of my bushings are in good shape or have been replaced not too long ago. Most likely going with the Tom Woods double cardan units front & rear...probably not "necessary" with my amount of lift, but sounds like a decent upgrade if I'm going to do them anyway.

Just get a couple new OEM drive shafts. No need at all to go DC shafts unless you have a symptom that might require it. I would bet OEM shafts will be less and they'll come with better u joints.
 
Just get a couple new OEM drive shafts. No need at all to go DC shafts unless you have a symptom that might require it. I would bet OEM shafts will be less and they'll come with better u joints.
Thanks for the thoughts...unfortunately OEM shafts are not available anymore and would be my preference. Tom Woods can do a stock style u-joint as well rather than the double cardan, so I may call and discuss my needs. Also, they seem to be the best price and have tons of excellent reviews from 80 owners on both quality and customer service.

I'll go out again today and re-grease the shafts independently to see if I can identify one over the other with a specific issue. Fortunately the problem is pretty consistent, so I'll know if it is better with the grease with a quick test drive. Just hoping that it's in the prop shafts rather than birfs since it's a much easier project to install them...
 
Who told you they weren't available? I just bought both within the past year.


 
Who told you they weren't available? I just bought both within the past year.


Excellent....I guess my search skills aren't so hot after all.

That said, I did some more fooling around today and installed my Land Cruiser Phil Beefcake rear sway bar links. Mine never had the drop brackets done with the lift, and the angle was pretty steep on the rear sway to the link, so I decided to go for the upgrade. People gripe about Phil's price on this, but by the time you buy the irons for each side (mine attach to the side of the frame), get new bushings, and new end link joints, his kit was pretty close in price. I recently did his front sway quick disconnect, and he had a pre-order discount of 10% on the rear kit (he had about a month to collect parts). Since he always ships free, this made it about $140 for the whole setup. I did have to step drill out the 2 existing holes on each side in the frame to take the nut-serts which took all of 5 minutes, no measuring as the kit was designed to line right up with these. Really happy so far, and we'll see if the leveled out rear sway helps with some articulation and better handling. With a 2" ish lift, I set these at the minimum extension which is already about 2" longer than the OEM setup.



Now when I did this, I realized how crusty my rear sway end link bushings were (Phil's kit came with new OEM rubber)...you could wiggle the bar and have a noticeable clunk, so definitely due to be replaced. I'm also trying to diagnose the driveline clunk when taking off from a stop, but with further testing today, I realize that it's probably in my rear link bushings. The PO did the adjustable uppers, so those are certainly not OEM old, but not sure if the lowers were ever done. They "look" fine, but after seeing how sloppy just the sway bar bushes were, I'm thinking these may be my culprit. With a little extra testing on taking off, braking, etc., I've come to realize that there is also a slight clunk when you come to a full stop that is similar to the takeoff clunk. I also tried to hold my foot on the brake while shifting from forward to reverse and back while giving a little gas surge each time...no clunk, so that should rule out drive shaft splines, u-joints, or birfs in my mind.

Any thoughts are appreciated as always! I'm going to get the bushings on order now for the rear end and see where that gets me. The fronts are brand new OEM in my Delta radius arms, so I know the front is fresh.

Hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day, rain or not...🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲
 
I've only had my 80 off road a few times for the year that I've owned it, but each time I get a PS growl after being on the trail for a while. My fluid didn't look bad, but I decided to go with the Witt's End PS cooler setup and do a fluid change. At the time, Witts End didn't stock the "kit", so I pieced it together myself for about half of his listed price and got it installed yesterday. Fluid was a lot nastier than I expected once it was all flushed out, so hoping the combo of fresh fluid and the cooler will do the trick. With the Derale cooler, I think it holds about a half quart + more fluid, so that'll help with heat too. Now to get it out on the trail for a test!



In place of the paperclip cooler line and nicely protected with the winch plate...





Now the next project is to measure up my driveshafts for some new units...from the day that I bought it, I get a little clunk when accelerating from a stop. Hard to tell if it's a bushing somewhere or in the driveline, but I do know when I greased the u-joints and splines that it went away for a few hundred miles of around town driving. Thinking it's in the splines as the u-joints seem solid and all of my bushings are in good shape or have been replaced not too long ago. Most likely going with the Tom Woods double cardan units front & rear...probably not "necessary" with my amount of lift, but sounds like a decent upgrade if I'm going to do them anyway.
Looks great Eric.
 
Just finished road testing my elocker repair and it appears to be OK. All is buttoned back up. I had to wait for the replacement axle with toyota spline profile (oddly enough, the short side RCV had the correct profile) and the weather to stop raining, and to warm up enough to work outside. The actuator was stuck, but repeated jolts to lock/unlock after removing it from the housing freed it up and is now working. Man that diff is HEAVY. I had to use a floor jack this time to install. When I first installed it back in the early aughts, I was able to pick it up and put it in. Can’t do that now with these old man arms.

RCV had initially sent me the wrong spline profile on the drivers side inner axle. That is what caused the locking collar to not be able to slide into the long splines. The crazy violent DS wheel wobble that I had to endure on the trip home was the DS inner axle moving deep into the birf – I had separated the birf from the axle to easier determine how much to grind the bell for the larger birf. I had never used a snap ring to hold the axle in the birf on the stock FJ70 elocker axle as it had a circlip that was outside of the birf area and stopped the inner axle from moving into the birf – the RCV doesn’t have that extra slot for a circlip and I underestimated the problem it presented.

I also added Fourrunner's HD battery cables along with a gear reduction starter.

Now I need to wheel.
 
Last edited:
Looks great Eric.
Much appreciated!

Finally got a chance to have the new-to-me Falken Wildpeak M/T's mounted up...the BFG's did surprisingly well last time out, but these should really to the trick for that bit of extra grab when needed. Had an extra set of the LX 450 wheels that came with my truck, so I was able to mount these up as a second set and keep the BFG's ready to roll too.

Big difference in profile!



And ready to roll...honestly, I'm shocked at how quiet they are for M/T's, roll smooth, and balanced out well. You never know with a set of FB Marketplace deals, but I'm certainly happy with them, at least on the road so far! Same size as the BFG's...315 x 75 x 16 and I love the meaty look...🥩



 
Got the 40 on the road again this weekend after having a bunch of rusty parts blasted/refinished and having to rebuild the rear brakes. Also had to replace broken ARB compressor dash switches.

Lessons learned:

- GM D154 Seville\Eldorado\Coronado\Toronado park brake calipers are dumb
- Blasting and powder coating costs have gone way up in two years
First time rebuild on one of the rears didn't take; did fine on the bench and bleeding in the garage but started leaking badly from the inboard seal behind the park brake thrust washer (leak area circled) after driving a few miles and braking hard. Had to rebuild and time the park brake again, which is not fun at all on these

IMG_2291.jpg



Things not yet figured out:

- What is the best method to use a vacuum bleeder (compressed air driven)? Not having much luck with this thing. Great for pulling fluid out of reservoirs but does little to bleed brakes or clutch from the bleeders. Works OK as a two person job like a power assisted manual bleed, but not otherwise. The reservoir filling attachment works great, at least.

IMG_2401.JPG
 
Last edited:
@mgrs Motive Bleeders are the best break blenders I’ve found for the money!
I was looking at the Eldorado breakers but the e-brake pull is weird.
 
@mgrs Motive Bleeders are the best break blenders I’ve found for the money!
I was looking at the Eldorado breakers but the e-brake pull is weird.

Thanks for the tip... I might have this one sorted... have to get a "preload" vacuum, then crack the bleeder, pump the pedal to get fluid into the line, then hit the air.

On the eldorado brakes... might make sense if a PO deleted your park drum or you have other problems needing a simple solution. There are a few variants out there with metric vs standard parts and different piston sizes in the same model year so parts are a crap shoot. Also have to buy D154 type brake pads and not go on year compatibility.

The "pull" is still weird as you are working against pretty heavy springs. Mine is set up with the OE corkscrew handle and parts in the cab.

For me they work because they were what came with the truck from the PO, and they're probably not a bad thing since I've had a lot of transfer case leak that probably would have fouled a drum sitting the on the output shaft.


Oh yeah, now my headlights and dash gauges aren't working unless the high beams are on.... another thing to run down...
 
I’d suggest marlins eco seals. These for inside the “ball” for the inner axle.
 
Last edited:
Inner or outer? I may have an outer seal if you want to get it fixed this weekend.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom