Builds 1996 HZJ75 Land Cruiser Pickup (1 Viewer)

[Will Van]

I finished up some CAD work this evening (cardboard aided design).

I am super-lucky that Walker Pro Motorsports is just down the road from me. Russell is an amazing fabricator and does outstanding work.

The bracket he made turned out great. It utilizes the factory Toyota clamp design. I still have some details to iron out, but overall it’s beefy as hell.

As several people were concerned about, even clamped down the tire wants to “walk” toward the center of the bed and camber out.

I’ll probably add a cleat to the bed floor on either side of the tire to prevent the assembly from moving camber/caster.

Thanks again to Galen/ @bottombracket for letting me borrow a 33” tire for mock-up!

 

[coldtaco]

I wonder if one could come up with a spacer the right size that would keep the tire straight when the holding nut is tight?

 

[Will Van]

I wonder if one could come up with a spacer the right size that would keep the tire straight when the holding nut is tight?

View attachment 3084594

Yessir, that might work.

I realized that on the Toyota Gibraltar mount, the tire is fixed against the face of the mount hub. This prevents the tire from walking/cambering (or moving at all, really). But the mount is not adjustable for tire size.

There are a lot of ways to skin this cat. But I’m probably going to mount a stop for both sides of the tire sidewall, anchored to the bed floor. It will be adjustable for various tire sizes.

 

[Will Van]

After more Cardboard Aided Design, my fabricator made this saddle for my spare tire. This prevents the tire from “walking” or cambering toward the center of the bed.

This thing is built like a brick sh*thouse now. You can’t move the tire. I tried shoving it around and it just shakes the whole truck.

 

[Will Van]

Today was a good day. Charged the A/C system with R134A and let it do it’s thing. Very pleased that my hardline brazing and compressor wiring all works.

Ambient temp was around 95°. Vent temp was around 50°. This was just idling in the garage.

Charge lines removed and compressor ports capped.

I still have some troubleshooting to do. My Spal auxiliary condenser fan is not kicking on. It’s supposed to trigger at 254 psi on the high-side line (and obviously the other portion of the switch is working for the compressor). While charging, I got the high side well over 275 psi, so it should have kicked on the fan.

But I’m done for today.

Edit: I spoke with my buddy who is an A/C guy. He thinks my pressures were a little high at idle (35/250 psi) and I may have slightly overcharged the system. I’ll probably monkey around with it more later this weekend.

 

[bottombracket]

Superb, Will. So sanitary. So clean.

 

[Will Van]

I diagnosed the auxiliary Spal fan for the condenser this morning. It was a fairly simple wiring mistake.

I did not realize that the trinary pressure switch was a “ground trigger” rather than a conventional 12-volt trigger. Most relays operate when they receive a 12-volt signal to the “trigger” terminal.

Conventional relay w/ 12-volt trigger diagram:

But the trinary switch operates differently. It does not provide power when the pressure switch closes for the fan. It just completes the ground circuit.

“Ground Trigger” relay diagram:

A couple of wire splices and we are back in business.

 

[Will Van]

I realized that it had been since March (at Katemcy) since the Pickup had left the garage. In other words, way too long.

I got up early this morning and went for a quick shakedown run around the neighborhood. My only hiccup was a loose A/C compressor belt.

I am really pleased with how the spare tire mount turned out. If you didn’t know any better, you might think it was factory.

 

[reddog90]

Damn that's a beautiful engine bay.

 

[Will Van]

Damn that's a beautiful engine bay.

Thank you! I would like to clean up some wiring, but it’s pretty close.

 

[Will Van]

I finally got the donor front axle I picked up from Georg out of the bed of the truck. I used an engine hoist over the bedside, which was sketchy AF. But it's safely on the ground now and I have my bed back.

Bed could use a good cleaning (and maybe a Line-X coating).

 

[Will Van]

I can’t remember who told me this trick, but I was so tired of hearing the tailgate chains make a racket every time I went over a speed bump.

$10 fix.

 

[Gun Runner 5]

I can’t remember who told me this trick, but I was so tired of hearing the tailgate chains make a racket every time I went over a speed bump.

$10 fix.

The newer chains come with a plastic cover but are not in anyway better than the tried and true inner tube.

 

[Will Van]

My truck did not come with the OEM skid plate that protects the t-case. Member @2fpower gave me his factory skid plate after he upgraded to a Cruisin Off Road setup (thank you Mr. Holloway!).

Several week ago I went to install the OEM plate and realized one of the M8 mounting bolts was broken in the weld-nut inside the frame.

Today I took the time to drill it out and install a new riv-nut. Skid plate mounted.

 

[coldtaco]

My truck did not come with the OEM skid plate that protects the t-case. Member @2fpower gave me his factory skid plate after he upgraded to a Cruisin Off Road setup (thank you Mr. Holloway!).

Several week ago I went to install the OEM plate and realized one of the M8 mounting bolts was broken in the weld-nut inside the frame.

Today I took the time to drill it out and install a new riv-nut. Skid plate mounted.

I wonder if any Utes came with this skid plate Mine didn’t either, of course mine being as old as it is probably easy to get lost at some point

 

[Will Van]

I wonder if any Utes came with this skid plate Mine didn’t either, of course mine being as old as it is probably easy to get lost at some point

I’m pretty sure mine came with one originally. You can see the markings on the frame where it mounted. But once one of the mounting bolts got broken, I’m sure the plate got “lost”.

I wish Cruisin’ Off Road still made the heavy duty skid plates.

Maybe I’ll get @lcwizard at 4Plus Products to make me a combination trans crossover mount and skid plate. The one he made for my 40 series was badass.

 

[Will Van]

While I wait on my OEM snorkel kit to arrive from Australia, I have been tinkering on the frame.

I had about five different bolts that had all been broken off into the frame by the PO. They were in various degrees of half-ass repair. Today I finished drilling them out and installing riv-nuts on everything. Three different shields - left and right taillights and my fuel filler shield.

Glad that’s over with. I find these types of repairs very tedious for some reason.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Yes, tedious, but rewarding when done.

Are those new oem bolts? if so, got a part # to share?

 

[Will Van]

Yes, tedious, but rewarding when done.

Are those new oem bolts? if so, got a part # to share?

Yes, very rewarding once done.

No sir, not OEM bolts. Stainless bolts from Overland Metric. I bought their full kit. I believe the ones I used for the shields were M6 x 25mm. Kinda long for the application, but I had a bunch in inventory.

 

[coldtaco]

Mine doesn’t have the rear tank filler shield. Might have to look and see if it originally had one or not, time to peruse the parts book