Builds 1991 FJ75 moving to America (3 Viewers)

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The Troopy has become the family camping truck of choice. We took a 4-day, 3-night trip to southeast Arizona for remote camping in the Coronado National Forest (near Chiricahua National Monument). Some friends had found a nice spot near a babbling spring-fed creek and already knew of some good hiking/exploring in the area. They wanted to go there again for a longer stay. It was about a 4-hour drive from our place and the weather was great camping up above 6000'.

I'm still battling little issues here and there... on this particular trip my alternator was failing and barely charging which complicated the operation of my fridge and camp lighting. Jumper cables came in handy. I've since resolved that with an upgrade to an 80 Amp unit.

Also, on the drive home I had an issue with my gas tank over-pressurizing. My fault... after removing the emissions equipment I should have vented the gas caps. After stopping and carefully letting the tank vent we had to finish the balance of our drive home with an open gas cap. I've got some more work to do on this issue.

Anyway... it was a great trip! The truck is earning my trust. So far we are only taking trips with others or with our 4Runner tagging along... just in case.

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The kids took full advantage of the creek right next to our campsite.

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On one day we just drove the various forest roads to tour the area... gorgeous scenery.

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We hiked several trails. The upper-left peak with the remnants of a burned-out fire tower was our destination in this photo. My 5-year-old girl even made the full 500 foot ascent without assistance.

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The view...

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And a bizarre swarm of ladybugs that were all over the top of the peak. It was surreal... they were flying everywhere.

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On our driving tour we did stop at one creek and hiked up a ways... only to find waterfall upon waterfall upon waterfall you could hike up and play in. Not sure what I was doing in this photo...

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And I need to get a bit more efficient at packing...

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Fusible Link
OK here is what I built for your truck.
Top is the fusible link itself. This has two links: A 18ga link and a 14ga link
Center is the connection to the battery + post. The ring terminal is 3/8" to fit your new battery post clamps.
Bottom is the harness side connector with the two male terminals.

email me your mailing address to fj40coolerman at gmail dot com and I will get it on its way

.View attachment 2351267

@Coolerman delivered in spades folks!

His kit, as shown in his pic, was the perfect plug-in-play solution for my two-wire harness. I told him the existing harness wire sizes, a 10-gauge and 14-gauge, and he built a fusible link to suit.

For his kit you'll need a proper, ratcheting crimping tool with open barrel jaws. That is for putting the male blade ends on the harness wires. He even label which side of the connector plugs into the 18 and 14-gauge fusible links so you can't accidentally cross your harness in the plug.

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Here is my harness with the blades crimped and inserted into the plug end.

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And the pre-made battery pigtail.

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And with the link plugged in.

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What's nice with this setup is that if you accidentally fuse the link somehow you can just plug the harness to the battery pigtail as a temporary solution. In my case I'm planning on ordering a spare fusible link and keeping it in my bag of spares (similar to my 40).

If you've got an old 70-series with a two-wire harness (@MES @edmond4822 @c2dfj45) coming off the battery odds are a PO blew the fusible link a long time ago. This is a great solution.

Thanks a bunch @Coolerman... this makes two of my Cruiser's you've contributed to!
 
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If you've got an old 70-series with a two-wire harness (@MES @edmond4822 @c2dfj45) coming off the battery odds are a PO blew the fusible link a long time ago. This is a great solution.

Thanks a bunch @Coolerman... this makes two of my Cruiser's you've contributed to!



So that's what those 2 wires are!!! lol
Will be putting in an order soon. Thanks @Honger !!
 
We made a second camping trip with the Troopy back in June... and this time with the new alternator in place, a new Odyssey battery, and the solar panel/charge controller, I knew I'd be fine in terms of power. I wasn't wrong. The fridge kept food cold and beverages frosty without a hitch... solar panel quickly brought the battery back up each morning. Even ran our LED camp lights off the battery each night. Perfect.

It was a great trip up on the Mogollon Rim of the Colorado Plateau... 2 hour drive from home to our campsite, a dispersed location in the Coconino National Forest. A nice secluded spot. My wife's 4 Runner accompanied us as we went with friends in from out of town.

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We hiked!
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Found alpine meadows.
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Drove the forest roads including right along the rim.
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A drone shot of camp... most things kept in the shade except the Troopy, gotta feed the solar!
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Obligatory Michael Bay shot...
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So awesome @Honger. Memories with each mile is where it’s at.
 
Gas Mileage
So I've appreciated the analytical information that @FJBen and @AndrewHadji shared in the "pricing a Troopy" thread. Good stuff. So I thought I'd post up a bit of what I've done. First thing was to straighten out a correction value for my odometer. I've got a kilometer gauge. So I drove around with GPS Tracks running on my phone and kept four fixed speeds long enough to see a constant on the app. I noted the speedometer reading and the corresponding GPS speed.

SpeedoGPSPercent Delta
70 kph62.7 kph11.6%
80 kph72.9 kph9.7%
90 kph82.1 kph9.6%
110 kph101.7 kph8.2%
Average Percent Delta9.8%
Correction Factor90.2% (0.902)

Based on gearing/tire diameter differences it's normal for the the Speedo vs. GPS difference to be non-linear... a fixed percentage-based different. However, I didn't expect the percentage to be non-linear. The percent difference actually decreases as speed increases.

Anyway, I averaged the percent values anyway assuming my speeds average out anyway. Not the most scientific way of going about it. But close enough for my purposes.

From there I use a spreadsheet to record the tank I used, the fuel consumed (based on refilling it until the auto-shutoff), and record the kilometers driven for each tank. Whenever I switch tanks I note the odometer reading, so it's a matter of subtraction to determine the kilometers. Here's a screen grab of the Excel sheet I use:
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I've hidden the kilometer-based columns I keep. I apply the correction factor to the Distance(km) value...
(odometer reading - previous odometer reading) x correction factor = actual kilometers traveled
From there it's converted to miles and the rest is pretty standard.

You can see the fluctuation in my gas mileage. I had thought the "desmog" had really hurt my mileage but it appears that it's actually more likely related to a change in my driving pattern based on working from home instead of commuting.
 
Nice data! That is a little rough on the MPG, but thats real world.

Is a sniper EFI system on the upgrade list?

I'm working on "restoring" the minimal smog equipment this thing had. I think that will help a bit. But yeah, she drinks gas in huge gulps. Glad I have a sub tank.

No chance I'm touching a Sniper. I've watched numerous Sniper install threads over the last year or so... and every single one has been beset with significant amounts of troubleshooting and tinkering to get anywhere near consistent, reliable performance. And no one has seen any kind of meaningful gas mileage gains that I've seen. The benefits I hear are "no fussing with tuning a carb" and "cold starts are great!" and "acceleration is greatly improved".

I WANT to tinker with and upgrade to a Sniper. I just DON'T WANT to lose the reliable, consistent performance I have now. I am toying with putting a Pertronix kit in the distributor though.
 
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I'm working on "restoring" the minimal smog equipment this thing had. I think that will help a bit. But yeah, she drinks gas in huge gulps. Glad I have a sub tank.

No chance I'm touching a Sniper. I've watched numerous Sniper install threads over the last year or so... and every single one has been beset with significant amounts of troubleshooting and tinkering to get anywhere near consistent, reliable performance. And no one has seen any kind of meaningful gas mileage gains that I've seen. The benefits I hear are "no fussing with tuning a cab" and "cold starts are great!" and "acceleration is greatly improved".

I WANT to tinker with and upgrade to a Sniper. I just DON'T WANT to lose the reliable, consistent performance I have now. I am toying with putting a Pertronix kit in the distributor though.


Makes sense, some people love messing with fuel injection/tinkering.

I had excellent results with a Marks Off-Road rebuilt carb on my FJ55. Always started, ran great. I've gathered the same about JIMC rebuilds.
Simple, they work. Upgrade ignition as well and she will run good....and thristy!
 
A friend of mine installed a Sniper system in his 22R and it kept blowing O2 sensors. He found this out wayyyyyyy south in the Baja Peninsula. Not a fun time for him and his lady.
 
A friend of mine installed a Sniper system in his 22R and it kept blowing O2 sensors. He found this out wayyyyyyy south in the Baja Peninsula. Not a fun time for him and his lady.

Whereas any old small town mechanic down there can probably adjust/fix my carb better than I can...
 
So I've got an old military surplus shovel I've always used for camping...
(side story, this shovel came mounted to the roof rack of a T100 I bought when I was 24. The truck was a smoking deal and had a bunch of mods and equipment. I bought the truck, flew to WA, drove it back to Indiana, stripped it off all mods and equipment, and sold it. I promptly outfitted my own T100 and still have and use much of that equipment)

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This shovel actually sat in storage while we were overseas and I wanted to put it back into service. I sanded the handle to a nice smooth surface and did multiple coats of boiled linseed oil. I also cleaned the blade up, sanded it, and then repainted it with John Deere Blitz Black.

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I had some unused awning brackets from the awning I had in the UAE and upon laying them out it was clear they'd be perfect.

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Anytime I'm working on something roof rack related these jokers insist on "helping" which invariably requires them to be up on top.

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Drilled an additional hole in each bracket, put a coat of paint on them, grabbed some stainless hardware, put Quik-Grips on the bracket ends, and got things lined up.

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Final fit looks good. Stays put and is handy for quick use. In the UAE I just took little collapsible spades with me everywhere. It's nice having a longer handled shovel again in camp.

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Sexy Shovel, Honger! I understand about hanging onto things that have meaning. Now during the pandemic I've been going on auction sites and buying lots of little things I've always wanted. Like a Simpson 260 multimeter and a Triplett 630 full sized analog multimeter. I have an ok digital multimeter but those two analog meters are things I could never afford when I was young. I had a lower quality Simpson when I was young and I did a lot with it. I'm thinking about a Tektronics 465 o-scope, even though I have no real need of one. Oh, and I bought a wrecked old Stanley No. 5 corrugated bench plain and fixed that up; my son and I used our little MIG welder to repair the chips in the keeper. Very satisfying even though we don't really need another Stanley plain. .... I think I am getting a bit doddery.
 
Cooling System; Thermostat Housing
Found a leak... knew it was coming...

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Sure enough, the old hose had just been cut through by the hose clamp over the many years of pressurized expansion/contraction. The warm AZ temps and AC use has been working the coolant system hard.

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Fortunately I had the parts "in stock" in my store of parts I purchased before leaving the Middle East. I've got a "project" in the wings to replace all coolant hoses/clamps, the water pump, and thermostat. Just haven't gotten around to it yet. This hose wasn't going to wait.

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I'm going to need to get a new housing it seems...

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But for now I've buttoned it up. It's holding up fine with no more leaking. I expect a new weak point will expose itself soon. 🤣

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Just out of curiosity, what is that red plastic thing in the photos above. I have something laying around that looks the same or very similar and can't figure out what it belongs to. Sorry for the highjack.
 
Just out of curiosity, what is that red plastic thing in the photos above. I have something laying around that looks the same or very similar and can't figure out what it belongs to. Sorry for the highjack.

I'm assuming the "red plastic" plug sticking out of my thermostat housing is what you're referring to. It's a temperature sensor. I believe that is the one that connects to my emission system. The other temp sensor (with the metal body and metal spade connector) is to my dash.
 
Interesting, pretty sure what I have isn't a thermostat housing but can't figure out that "red plastic plug" in the photo is the closest thing I have seen to what I have. Thanks for indulging my curiosity :). Nice build by the way and glad to see you getting out with the family and using the vehicle. Hopefully the vehicle will continue to inspire trust and let you get out more and more.
 
Great times with the family!

I love that area and the Mogollon Rim. Payson/Pine/Strawberry could be my retirement place.
If you guys have never been out to the western end of the Mogollon Rim outside Flagstaff, that's another awesome spot. The rim overlooks Sedonas Red Rocks/ The Verde Valley/ Mingus Mountains. Basically just drive out on Woody Mtn. Road for an hour or two.
 

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