1994 HDJ81 - Call Her Bertha

[SteelHunterFJ80]

Pod is done!

Approximate angle as will be seen from driver's seat.

From passenger seat.

And back side that will never be seen once it's installed in the truck.

Definitely happy with how this is turning out. Unfortunately, it will probably take me a while to get it wired up.

Like great!!! Nice job I love it

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Special delivery from @NLXTACY

No massive rush to get to this since I have a part time kit on my truck, but I plan to get to this in the Spring as long as I can get the Aristo back up and running again.

Minor progress on the gauges as well. I test wired up the PIVOT water and oil temp gauges and confirm they work. I also confirmed they were with the temperature sensors I currently have installed. One odd thing is that I found they are reading temperature even with the truck off. I'm guessing on the current wiring set up the 12V source must be on constant power rather than switched. I'll have to check into that more though.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

No progress on wiring up the gauges yet, but good timing on some extra cash coming in with Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. I have a HID projector kit ordered. I already have the Depo headlights, so I'll just need to complete the retrofit. Then I also ordered the Eclipse exhaust manifold to replace the factory two piece one. I've noticed for a while that it looks like it's leaking at the joint, so hopefully the one piece Eclipse one works out!

 

[SteelHunterFJ80]

No progress on wiring up the gauges yet, but good timing on some extra cash coming in with Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. I have a HID projector kit ordered. I already have the Depo headlights, so I'll just need to complete the retrofit. Then I also ordered the Eclipse exhaust manifold to replace the factory two piece one. I've noticed for a while that it looks like it's leaking at the joint, so hopefully the one piece Eclipse one works out!

Where did you order the HID kit if you don't mind sharing? Been looking to do the same to my depos.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

I ordered it from The Retrofit Source. A number of good threads on mud where people have ordered the kit through them. I'll be generally following this one:

Bi-Xenon Retro-Fit Simplified!

First I have to mention everyone who has done a retro-fit into Depos and posted up images and tips. I'm not even going to name names as I don't want to miss anyone, Thank you for you innovation and knowledge. Next, I have to thank Matt at theretrofitsource.com, great guy to work with, I can...

forum.ih8mud.com

I think there are a few changes from the earlier posts. Eg. the newest models, the projector is a bit bigger, so the reflector needs to be removed and shifted back a bit to clear the lens. Doesn't seem too daunting, but haven't started the work myself yet

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Finally made some progress on the wiring for the gauges. Yesterday I connected the two harnesses to the temperature probes and daisy chained the power harnesses. I haven't done a lot of soldering and every time I've done it, it hasn't come out well, but with the amount I did yesterday, I improved a lot. Picture below is of the daisy chained power harnesses.

The harnesses between each gauge are a bit long, but I would prefer to have them long rather than too short! Also, the single hole in the back of the gauge pod I built wasn't going to work. Just too much space needed to fit all the wires and connectors through, so I drilled one hole for each gauge location. Wires and holes won't be seen on the back side of the pod anyway. All that's really left to do is solder the four wires seen above to the source wires in the truck, connect the wires to the gauges and then drop the pod in place. Hoping I can get time to do it this weekend. Been wanting to get this done for a long time and now that I'm this close to having it done, I'm pretty excited about it!

Otherwise, the Eclipse manifold arrived. It came during the Christmas craziness, so I haven't even actually had it out of the box yet. The HID projector retro fit has turned into a bit of a saga....Shipping was delayed from the order and split into two orders. That delayed things arriving to my mailbox in Blaine, WA. Then the US/CAN border crossing requirements changed, so I had to get it returned to The Retrofit Source. Still waiting for it to get back there and then arrange for it to get shipped directly to Canada. Maybe I'll have it by March after ordering it at the end of November....We'll see.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Gauges are in! Installed and tested and seems to be all good.

View looking down at the gauges.

View looking forward.

Overall, I think I'm about 7/10 happy with the result at this point. I think I would be about 8.5/10 happy if I painted the center console and fixed up the wiring. As I mentioned in my previous post the wires are too long. I thought I would just be able to tuck the wires behind, but I actually didn't have space to do that, so it was a bit of a PITA to get it in. Making the wires shorter would make it easier to place and look cleaner. The main reason I'm not totally happy with it is that it still looking like a stick-on pod. I was hoping it would look a bit more integrated. Painting the console would help, but I might make another one directly mounted to the console. Then I can feather out the edges so it would look better. Likely won't end up doing that though. Too many other things I want to get done and not enough time! If this setup is working, I'll likely end up leaving it, but I will eventually adjust the wires and paint the console.

A few things I'm definitely happy with are the location of the gauges, alignment and the finish on the pod. Considering I have never done a project like this before, I think it came out pretty good.

Next similar project is to build a pod for the EGT gauge to hold it from the A pillar rather than being dash mounted.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Belts have been squeaking a bit lately, so I checked them and they seemed a bit loose, so I thought I'd tighten them just a bit. Looking at the adjuster for the idler pulley I noticed it was a bit proud of the bracket and thought it was odd. Long story short...

Broken bolt. Pulley seems like it has a bit of wobble, so it's probably a good time for a new pulley anyway, and maybe that's what was making a bit of noise.

Otherwise, recently I finished putting sound deadening and insulation on the outer skin of the two rear doors. I also put coil spacers on the right side to get rid of the lean to the right. That lean was really annoying me, so it's nice to have it gone.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Delivery from Partsouq!

New pulley ready to go in.

I'll probably change the alternator belts at the same time as well.

And, replacement seat belt for the drivers seat waiting to go in. Pulled this from a '95 Camry as per a thread on Mud. My current drivers' belt is pretty frayed, so it really needs to be replaced.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Seatbelt replaced today with one from a '95 Camry as noted in this thread:

Seat Belt Replacement - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/seat-belt-replacement.725487/

I posted in the thread a few differences between the Camry belt and the one from my HDJ81, but nothing that makes it so it doesn't work.

Trashed belt that was removed.

Definitely happy I came across that thread. Only cost me $20 from the wrecker and a bit of time to do the swap. Probably saved my about $200 CAD vs going through Safety Restore or something, plus no down time!

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Just a few minor things lately. Rear brake pads were replaced and fixed an annoying rattle. First rattle was from the front right fender flare. I didn't want to over tighten it since the one bracket is starting to brake. Had to make it a bit tighter to get rid of the rattle/vibrating. Then a new sound started and I figured out that it was the running board on the right side.

There are rivets that attach the bracket to the aluminum running board. They looked fine from underneath, but they had actually all failed.

Drilled them out

Then had to find the right size. From one of the old pieces that were removed I was able to measure to see that they are 4mm (5/32"). I couldn't find the part number for these, so had to find at a hardware store. I found that 5/32 x 1/4" works. Only issue was that I can't get to the inner locations without removing the bracket, so just the two outers are done right now since I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of those bracket bolts put up a fight and potentially break.

No space for rivet gun on the inner locations. A little bit hard to tell in the photo, but there is a flange on that bracket that is in the way.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Started removal of the old tint this weekend. Worked with a head gun and it started out ok at the top where it gets a little bit of UV protection from the rain visors.

Wasn't long before I had to resort to just the razor blade (sorry, fat finger got in the pic).

Obviously, this made it take WAY longer, but it wasn't terrible to get the residue cleaned off the window. I kept the glass warm with the heat gun then applied glass cleaner with ammonia in it (Windex) and it cleaned off without too much effort.

Worst part was the old tint that came off. It was extremely brittle, but the adhesive was still strong, so it was all over my hands and not really easy to clean off.

Passed a milestone this week too! (km, not miles)

 

[John Young]

Have you thought of doing a RHD to LHD conversion? I ended up with one accidentally and then had to do a frame swap because the converter did not bother to reinforce the frame where the steering box is bolted on, but all that said It really did not seem to be all that super difficult with a donor truck on hand.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Only briefly. The only way I'd take it on is if this truck got wrecked, and rather than a RHD/LHD swap, I'd swap this 1HD-T into the LHD. I've been following your threads and the amount of work that's going into those trucks is crazy. Labour costs for that kind of work over here would make me broke in a very short amount of time!

 

[John Young]

Only briefly. The only way I'd take it on is if this truck got wrecked, and rather than a RHD/LHD swap, I'd swap this 1HD-T into the LHD. I've been following your threads and the amount of work that's going into those trucks is crazy. Labour costs for that kind of work over here would make me broke in a very short amount of time!

I take your point. A lot of work is going into these trucks and honestly the turbo diesel is not at all my favorite to drive. The gear shift (auto) sticks into my leg and there is a lot of lag both in the turbo and the auto tranny. My plan is to finish the cosmetics here and then ship it back with a manual transmission in the back for CruiserMatt to install for me in Florida. And also for him to sort out the rear brakes which now are drums and not good enough in my view. I learned a lot from doing the frame swap and I wish I had known enough to keep looking for a 2nd generation 80 instead of the 1991 I started with. I've thought about selling it either here or in the US it is the 24 valve engine and if it gets properly sorted with a manual transmission I think it could be very nice. It just is not there yet.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

Poking around the engine bay and just checking on things the other day and I noticed the coolant overflow bottle was a bit low. I noticed the threads on mud about the heater valve a while back and I've been trying to find a generic replacement, but so far no luck. Turns out that's where I've got a small leak. Bit hard to see in this pic:

Here you can see it's been dripping a bit.

Checked around and now I've got a OEM valve and hoses on order. Should be here around the end of next week. Haven't done much other work on the truck lately. I finally mounted the bracket with the adjusting pulley for the A/C and changed the alternator belts at the same time since they started squeaking a bit on start up. Removed the tint from the left rear window. Still more removal to do on the tint and then I will attempt to install new tint myself.

 

[John Young]

I will take your word for it re dripping--I don't see it.

One thing I have done to my 93 is to add a standard lever ball valve to the heater line going to the core inside the cab. I suspect the stock valve is designed ot allow a small amount of coolant to circulate at all times to keep the core from stagnating, but I find the heat annoying. I figure adding a ball valve and opening it up when the season requires would be fine. Really I should have put two ball valves in so that if the core develops a leak you can cut it out of the cooling circuit and keep going.

 

[MonsterCruiser]

I will take your word for it re dripping--I don't see it.

One thing I have done to my 93 is to add a standard lever ball valve to the heater line going to the core inside the cab. I suspect the stock valve is designed ot allow a small amount of coolant to circulate at all times to keep the core from stagnating, but I find the heat annoying. I figure adding a ball valve and opening it up when the season requires would be fine. Really I should have put two ball valves in so that if the core develops a leak you can cut it out of the cooling circuit and keep going.

It's some dried coolant, so not obvious. Thanks for the suggestion

Done removing the tint now except for the rear window. I had to just use the razor blade on pretty much everything because the old tint was so old and brittle.

Crappy old tint

Rear window that still needs to be done.

Not 100% sure how I'm going to do this. Maybe try and scrape off between the defrost lines and then I've found some suggestions that if you use 0000 steel wool with something that has ammonia in it (eg. Windex) it will remove the old tint and not damage the defrost lines.

 

[lp2k]

hey for tint- try a clothing steamer. It will glide off like butter. I had to pull tint off my 1994 which were put on when new. The clothing steamer not only loosened the glue, but acted like a lube. Also, to remove residue, spray windex immediately and wipe away

 

[MonsterCruiser]

hey for tint- try a clothing steamer. It will glide off like butter. I had to pull tint off my 1994 which were put on when new. The clothing steamer not only loosened the glue, but acted like a lube. Also, to remove residue, spray windex immediately and wipe away

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a try, but unless it literally slides right off, it won't work. The tint is so old and brittle that it doesn't hold any tension. As soon as you apply any force to try and pull on it, it just breaks. The tint looked old when I got the truck and that was 12 years ago! Tint replacement is definitely long overdue, but it's also pretty low on the priority list.