Builds 94 FZJ80 - Let the Adventure Ensue (5 Viewers)

[FMC80]

Update. You’re not going to believe this, but I think I effed up during my bleeding process.

You may try to guess how much brake fluid I went through but I guarantee you’d be wrong.

My epic bleeding journey began when I was a 16y/o girl….oh wait wrong forum.

My epic brake bleeding journey began three days ago and completed in approximately 18 hours of bleeds.

You read that right. I used 8 Toyota DOT 3 bottles because that’s what I had. Quickly laughed at myself because that was scratching the surface. Ran out to the ‘zone and picked up 8 each, 32oz bottles of DOT 3, made in the USA Lucas and zone brand. Whatever. That’s eight 32oz bottles, 256 oz, 8 quarts, 2 gallons. Bought and bled and flushed. Money down the drain. Did it stop there? Nope. Still tons of bubbles.

Frustrated, I hit up baldilocks and bilt4me but continued bleeding until they replied.

I went back to the ‘zone bought 12 more 32oz bottles of DOT 3 and continued my journey.

Well it took another 9 bottles to finally get all bubbles to stop and get good peddle feel.

Some thoughts: I’m sure I messed up the process but in total I used 5 gallons of brake fluid or approximately $170 worth. Bought and flushed through my system.

Motive Brake bleeder: I’m not enthralled with this thing. I know most people swear by it so I bought one. The problem is, if you don’t get the MC gasket to seat exactly right you’ll end up pissing brake fluid everywhere and having to wash your bay in the garage like I did. The other problem is, in order to seat it tightly, you have to CRANK down on the MC to the point I was not confident the MC reservoir wouldn’t crack. I’m not a fan but maybe it’s better than the 2-person method.

I bedded my brakes late at night because I live on base and I love our defenders but they’d go from 6 to midnight if they caught me bedding my brakes on base. So I went onto H1W and heated my brakes by dragging them at low speeds until I got to the hwy.

Then it was accelerate to 45 and stop without activating ABS Down to 5 and repeat 5-6 times. Then accelerate to 60 and hard press w/o ABS down to 5 repeat 6-9 times until I can smell the cancer from my wheels.

Drive around for cool down period for 15-20 minutes and let it rest overnight in the garage. Never holding the brakes against the rotors is the key. No transfer of materials and no warped rotors.
Everything Ops checked good. Happy.
Now it’s time to dump all this brake fluid into the ocean. JUST KIDDING!

Here’s a quick pic of the carnage.

 

[MrMikeyG]

Man, I thought running through 2 full bottles was a pain.
I did new oem rear calipers, and front oem reman calipers. one front was doa, so I have a mis-matched pair up front now. I also went silly and bought all of the crap to rebuild my old stuff. (like that will ever happen, sigh.)

 

[FMC80]

Man, I thought running through 2 full bottles was a pain.
I did new oem rear calipers, and front oem reman calipers. one front was doa, so I have a mis-matched pair up front now. I also went silly and bought all of the crap to rebuild my old stuff. (like that will ever happen, sigh.)

I’m sure I screwed up somewhere. It isn’t normal to have that much air in the system especially since I just replaced all my soft brake lines not too long ago. It took a lot of fluid then too…

I plan to rebuild my old ones in the future too, for now, I’m taking everything apart and cleaning. Rebuild will happen sometime in the future.

 

[PNWTreeOctopus]

I’m sure I screwed up somewhere. It isn’t normal to have that much air in the system especially since I just replaced all my soft brake lines not too long ago. It took a lot of fluid then too…

I plan to rebuild my old ones in the future too, for now, I’m taking everything apart and cleaning. Rebuild will happen sometime in the future.

I deeply regret trading in my calipers for the core charge at NAPA, but I couldn't be sure they were original. I made such a half hearted attempt to start the rebuild, but I really didn't have the knowledge or time to get after it--I was impatient and wanted to actually drive the Land Cruiser. I'm glad you are hanging on to yours. I don't have many regrets about my process, but this one does give me pause. I can't remember who said it, but rebuilding brake calipers is (or should be a rite of passage) I try not to avoid those, but I was ignorant!

 

[BILT4ME]

I’m sure I screwed up somewhere. It isn’t normal to have that much air in the system especially since I just replaced all my soft brake lines not too long ago. It took a lot of fluid then too…

I plan to rebuild my old ones in the future too, for now, I’m taking everything apart and cleaning. Rebuild will happen sometime in the future.

So, did you ever figure out what was causing the huge amount of bubbles in the system?

 

[shocktower]

The following is an update from my other troubleshooting thread. I wanted to update my thread with the same info with some additional photos and part number info.

Update: Today I got @shocktower VAF he sold to me. He's a great dude and I'm thankful.
Here are some pics. Let’s see if you can spot a difference. The one off my cruiser is on the right.

The one off my cruiser is cleaner and looks to have been painted. Which got me thinking. Here is the bottom of mine. You can zoom in and see where it has been painted if it isn’t obvious already. I suspect this VAF has been opened and tampered with by an eBay dude who sells refurbished VAFs. I also bought and returned a VAF he sold me. I don’t want to say anything publicly so if you want my experience, PM me and I’ll share
Thanks again to @shocktower for helping me out.

Here is the one shocktower sent me:

Now that I have both VAFs side by side, I began comparing values. When shooting for continuity on pins E2 and VS, both VAFs got similar values with the door closed and full open.
Then I compared pin THA on both VAFs and looks as though my THA pin off the cruiser is dead. I shot this the last time and it was functional but it has since failed as I’m shooting open every time.
It never occurred to me that my VAF looked a little too good. I have never seen another VAF so that’s my alibis.
Bottom line, I think this is the culprit but time will tell.
btw, my gasket between the VAF and air filter housing was blown out like a b-hole View attachment 2783981View attachment 2783982View attachment 2783983

I am glad you got it and I try to sell things that are legit, I like sleeping I threw in the gasket because I know it is important did know how good it was

 

[shocktower]

I’m sure I screwed up somewhere. It isn’t normal to have that much air in the system especially since I just replaced all my soft brake lines not too long ago. It took a lot of fluid then too…

I plan to rebuild my old ones in the future too, for now, I’m taking everything apart and cleaning. Rebuild will happen sometime in the future.

Oh you need to ask me, on my cost effective power bleeder, you I can bleed a cruiser in about 45 minutes by myself, the bleeder costs about $25 and worth every penny

 

[baldilocks]

Oh you need to ask me, on my cost effective power bleeder, you I can bleed a cruiser in about 45 minutes by myself, the bleeder costs about $25 and worth every penny

On a 12 valve???

 

[FMC80]

I am glad you got it and I try to sell things that are legit, I like sleeping I threw in the gasket because I know it is important did know how good it was

I'd already bought one, but I was sure surprised you included one! Class act!

Oh you need to ask me, on my cost effective power bleeder, you I can bleed a cruiser in about 45 minutes by myself, the bleeder costs about $25 and worth every penny

Talk to me....like my ex-girlfriend, I've used the motive bleeder twice now and I'm ready to kick it to the curb.

 

[PNWTreeOctopus]

Oh you need to ask me, on my cost effective power bleeder, you I can bleed a cruiser in about 45 minutes by myself, the bleeder costs about $25 and worth every penny

…proceed.

 

[FMC80]

Quick update:

I’m trying to balance cruiser needs and my kids eating 3 squares a day.

It is incredible what @Onur does for our community and that’s apparent in the major builds by those who have him on retainer. I was able to experience this first hand, albeit on a much humbler scale. He was able to source me a right rear door handle from…guess where? Yemen. Yep, YEMEN.
I imagine he went down there and wrestled this new old stock door handle from the Houthi rebels themselves. All in service to the Cruiser community. I’d get him a medal but he only came back with one

Got a nice new set of side markers from @Japan4X4, thanks Dave!

Bought two new front door handles and those arrived in Flagstaff AZ today.

Why Flagstaff? @kelly saad has graciously agreed to store my parts at his facility until I’m ready to ship him my cruiser. Thankfully, he has agreed to take on my project. Open-kimono, I haven’t decided on a color. We talked about Spruce Mica but I’m not a huge fan of metallic. I do like the Lexus color, 6V6 which is Peridot Mica but again, metallic. Kelly has some ideas, I have some ideas, and believe me, my kids all have ideas. They’ll tell you mine are dumb.

In the meantime, I’m hunting down every piece of glass for my rig. The current glass is scratched and it pisses me off looking at it. Don’t use green scrubby pads to remove imperfections. You’ll scratch your glass. Ask me how I know…

I love my cruiser and I love this community, even the idiot who always argues with me about the value of Lexus vs Toyota. My cruiser takes my family on adventures and there’s many more to be had.

 

[PNWTreeOctopus]

I sure do like those shiny Snow Peak fire pans, they beat the hell out of an aluminum drain pan. You're Hawaii adventure pictures are super fun. Who can spot the catch and release angler in picture number 8?

 

[baldilocks]

The kids always made all the effort worth while for me. Mine are not kids anymore but the memories are still fresh. Rock on man!!

 

[FMC80]

I sure do like those shiny Snow Peak fire pans, they beat the hell out of an aluminum drain pan. You're Hawaii adventure pictures are super fun. Who can spot the catch and release angler in picture number 8?

Love all things Snow Peak...Kinda bougie but great quality and Made in Japan., glad you enjoy my pics. I really want to take my cruiser to somewhere a bit more technical/challenging but not sure my fam will enjoy it s much as I would. Guess we will see once we do it. Not sure what you're seeing in pic #8...I see burgers.

 

[FMC80]

The kids always made all the effort worth while for me. Mine are not kids anymore but the memories are still fresh. Rock on man!!

Agreed Steve, if not for them, then who? I have three little ones but the youngest is younger by 16 years younger than my oldest. It'll be cool once we're all together again someday.

 

[baldilocks]

Agreed Steve, if not for them, then who? I have three little ones but the youngest is younger by 16 years younger than my oldest. It'll be cool once we're all together again someday.

Yes, I believe that we will.

 

[PNWTreeOctopus]

Love all things Snow Peak, glad you enjoy my pics. I really want to take my cruiser to somewhere a bit more technical/challenging but not sure my fam will enjoy it s much as I would. Guess we will see once we do it. Kinda bougie but great quality and Made in Japan. Not sure what you're seeing in pic #8...I see burgers.

Well I started counting with your sparkly marker lamp photos…but with your counting system I mean pic #7

 

[FMC80]

Well I started counting with your sparkly marker lamp photos…but with your counting system I mean pic #7

I just reread my post. I should read my words before posting. I tried fixing it but I oftentimes hit Ih8mud when I'm not sober. tonight being no exception. I missed the marker lamp pic!. lol I need to stop

 

[PNWTreeOctopus]

Dram in hand as I fumble with the phone…but I would advise not to start your DIY automotive painting project tonight!

 

[FMC80]

Big news today.