So after about 15 years and many miles I am finally in a good enough place physically and financially to give my wonderful workhorse 1/95 FJZ80 some love. The plan is to give her a nice refresh- but not a rebuild- and replace parts that are getting old like the engine wiring harness and coolant hoses while hopefully not having to crack open the engine/transmission for any heavy work. Starting with the brakes, steering, and suspension, and working up into the engine wiring and fuel injectors, then finishing up with taking care of some corrosion in the body and bumpers and finally a nice heavy coat of Raptorliner to keep everything rust-free as long as possible. That plan, like all plans, is most definitely subject to change if (more likely when) it becomes necessary. Not interested in doing the head gasket until it becomes necessary as the truck is a northern rig and has never been overheated. Hopefully I'll be one of the lucky ones that never needs it done, and if not then this refresh will make the job worth doing on the rig.
So far she has all new/reman Toyota brake calipers installed with all new brake hoses ordered. Master cylinder is only a couple years old. She has a new water pump and a new exhaust from the headers down and a modified tailpipe to clear the 4x4 Labs rear bumper. The new engine wiring harness is here and hopefully it is the right one. I even found the correct oil sensor harness for this model and ordered that, along with rebuilt Denso fuel injectors and bushings for the f+r panhard bars. The front control arm bushings were replaced last year, as were all the tie rod ends. I'm planning to rebuild the steering box and replace all the power steering hoses as well since it'll all be out anyway. I am fixing all the engine oil leaks while I have the front end apart.
I'm also looking at springs and trying to decide what might work best but first I have to fully commit to either getting around to finally installing this Ramsey RE12000 brute or just dropping the idea completely. Either way it's getting a dual battery setup to ensure it always starts on cold winter mornings, and it also has a snowplow frame and big 8' Fisher plow that go on it in the winter. That complicates trying to figure out what springs to use since I can't have too much lift or the plow angles will be too far off to work. And I also have air bags in all the springs to help with the seasonal load, further complicating the entire setup. (Yeah, I'm gonna have to just take my best guess at that one and hope for the best.) Also getting the driver's side seatbelt redone as that's the only one with any wear. May even finally install the sub tank conversion I've been piling parts up for! So quite an extensive job planned this summer for my beloved daily driver!
So anyway my burning question(one of 'em anyways) is this- as this particular rig is a 1/95 it is not fully OBD2 compliant, it has only some OBD2 functions but not the full set of functions like the 1996/97 models. It already has a 1996 model ECU swapped into it and I'm installing an all new engine wiring harness, so what else would I need to change out to make it fully OBD2? I would really like to run a scanguage type setup to keep an eye on my truck but apparently I can't with my existing configuration, as some sensors just don't appear. Hopefully some of the gurus here might be familiar with the particularities of the transitional 1/1995 model and can help me figure out what to do here. If I can't make the scanguage rig work out then it's getting a gage cluster in the A-pillar to help keep an eye on things, so I'm trying to figure out which way to go here while the truck's getting worked over.
Oh, and since the roof rack is getting coated too as long as the truck's all apart, can anyone recommend a good waterproof bulkhead wiring connector system to handle the wiring for the lights and accessories on the roof? It'll need roughly ten independent circuits up there for all that those light bars, chase bars, side lights, plow lights, and red FD beacons. Looking for something waterproof that can connect and disconnect without having to disassemble half the truck to do it. Maybe the military type screw-together connectors? Just looking for ideas there.
And I think I understand that there is also a wiring sub-harness for the knock sensors that is no longer available from Toyota, is there any other source for that? And are there any other sub-harnesses I would need to replace everything under the hood?
Any help is always appreciated!
So far she has all new/reman Toyota brake calipers installed with all new brake hoses ordered. Master cylinder is only a couple years old. She has a new water pump and a new exhaust from the headers down and a modified tailpipe to clear the 4x4 Labs rear bumper. The new engine wiring harness is here and hopefully it is the right one. I even found the correct oil sensor harness for this model and ordered that, along with rebuilt Denso fuel injectors and bushings for the f+r panhard bars. The front control arm bushings were replaced last year, as were all the tie rod ends. I'm planning to rebuild the steering box and replace all the power steering hoses as well since it'll all be out anyway. I am fixing all the engine oil leaks while I have the front end apart.
I'm also looking at springs and trying to decide what might work best but first I have to fully commit to either getting around to finally installing this Ramsey RE12000 brute or just dropping the idea completely. Either way it's getting a dual battery setup to ensure it always starts on cold winter mornings, and it also has a snowplow frame and big 8' Fisher plow that go on it in the winter. That complicates trying to figure out what springs to use since I can't have too much lift or the plow angles will be too far off to work. And I also have air bags in all the springs to help with the seasonal load, further complicating the entire setup. (Yeah, I'm gonna have to just take my best guess at that one and hope for the best.) Also getting the driver's side seatbelt redone as that's the only one with any wear. May even finally install the sub tank conversion I've been piling parts up for! So quite an extensive job planned this summer for my beloved daily driver!
So anyway my burning question(one of 'em anyways) is this- as this particular rig is a 1/95 it is not fully OBD2 compliant, it has only some OBD2 functions but not the full set of functions like the 1996/97 models. It already has a 1996 model ECU swapped into it and I'm installing an all new engine wiring harness, so what else would I need to change out to make it fully OBD2? I would really like to run a scanguage type setup to keep an eye on my truck but apparently I can't with my existing configuration, as some sensors just don't appear. Hopefully some of the gurus here might be familiar with the particularities of the transitional 1/1995 model and can help me figure out what to do here. If I can't make the scanguage rig work out then it's getting a gage cluster in the A-pillar to help keep an eye on things, so I'm trying to figure out which way to go here while the truck's getting worked over.
Oh, and since the roof rack is getting coated too as long as the truck's all apart, can anyone recommend a good waterproof bulkhead wiring connector system to handle the wiring for the lights and accessories on the roof? It'll need roughly ten independent circuits up there for all that those light bars, chase bars, side lights, plow lights, and red FD beacons. Looking for something waterproof that can connect and disconnect without having to disassemble half the truck to do it. Maybe the military type screw-together connectors? Just looking for ideas there.
And I think I understand that there is also a wiring sub-harness for the knock sensors that is no longer available from Toyota, is there any other source for that? And are there any other sub-harnesses I would need to replace everything under the hood?
Any help is always appreciated!
