Builds 1996 Land Cruiser Build - "Kronk"

[Atomic City]

Nice, you do good work and I look forward to your updates. I too looked at the aux tank option and I’m with you, $2200 seems awfully steep. I don’t like that cheap looking indicator that comes with it. But the extended range is enticing.

Btw, I have no first-hand experience with 100 series pads on my 80 but I’ll contend it’s overrated and does not provide increased performance gains for the compromise to use them. I personally feel the 80 pads and braking system overall are fine. Of course that’s comparing apples to apples, but that’s just me.

I think the braking system is fine, also. I hear a lot of complaints about 80 series braking, but mine are fine. I think just make sure everything is in good working order, and it is a solid system.

 

[Atomic City]

After waffling on what to do next, I decided to go ahead and pull the trigger on new gears, front and rear lockers, and new RCV front axles. However, I am having issues with all of my orders. The RCV axles have an estimated 8 week ship time because they are waiting on production of certain parts. At least RCV responded to my status requests. The rest of the stuff I ordered from Justdifferentials, and I can't get an order update at all from them. No response to emails and they don't pick up the phone. Frustrating world we live in these days.

 

[FMC80]

It is definitely frustrating these days. In some cases, it seems like people use the COVID as an excuse for substandard work or service. Just curious, what is the overall intent of your build? Are you a big off-roader?

 

[Atomic City]

Mild off roader. Not too radical, mainly just like to get places most people can't. Just like this last Thursday:

 

[FMC80]

Looks like a sweet and serene place!

 

[Atomic City]

Oh, and justdiff got back to me. Gears are backordered. Looks like I will be waiting for a bit.

 

[Atomic City]

Lockers showed up....

 

[Atomic City]

When I replaced the engine, I thought about getting new O2 sensors, but decided to wait. Well, a few weeks ago, Kronk threw an O2 sensor code. So I ordered some new sensors. Finally getting around to putting them on today.

 

[Atomic City]

Well, crap on a cracker! I started with the front O2 sensor because it is a little harder to get to. Surprisingly, it came off fairly easily. Then, I started on the rear and ended up breaking a stud on the rear O2 flange. This just turned into a bit longer of a project.

 

[Atomic City]

Other family projects have taken time lately. Finally got out to do some work on Kronk. I got the rear O2 sensor mounted. Also have new exhaust gaskets and new hardware down the line.

 

[Atomic City]

Front axles finally arrived. Still waiting on gears. Nitro has gone silent again and isn't responding to email.

 

[Atomic City]

After waiting on Nitro gears for 3 months, they contacted me and said it would be another 2 to 3 months. So, I canceled the order and contacted the folks at Yukon. A week later and they are here. I ran Yukons in my old Bronco with no issues. I won't be able to start for a while, as I am hip deep in replacing upper and lower control arms in my daughter's Xterra. Still stoked, though.

 

[Atomic City]

When I replaced the engine, I noticed that one side of the mounting flange for the crank sensor had a small crack in it. I went ahead and installed it, to see if a leak would develop. While it is more of a "weep", it did start leaking. So I went ahead and sprung for a new crank sensor. I also replaced my oil filler cap, as the old one was not sealing well and was also slightly weeping. I've got about 8,000 miles on the engine now and it has been running great. No leaks other than these two issues which should be fixed now.

Hoping to tear into the gears tomorrow. Stoke level elevated.

 

[Atomic City]

And so it begins. Made a diff mount for the engine stand out of some scrap angle.

 

[Atomic City]

Slow going, but got to sneak out this morning for a bit.

 

[Atomic City]

Well, I get to wait a bit longer. I started working a bit more this morning and quickly realized that I have the wrong install kit for the rear. I need to order some new carrier bearings. Plus, the pinion nut that came with the kit doesn't seem to thread on to the new Yukon pinion shaft. Appears to be the right size, but, it won't spin on at all. Going down to the hardware store to see if I can get a metric thread pitch measurement tool and see what the difference is.

Probably a good thing, too. When I started looking up carrier bearing part numbers, I was reading a bit more on Zuk's site and he has this bit of information posted regarding carrier bearings and Eaton lockers:


CARRIER BEARING for ring gear side when installing Eaton or Harrop elocker. Use 90366-50177 (stamped 570064-1/32010J) due to the the larger radius on the journal
of the elocker. Using other bearings will result in an air gap of about .020" (not fully seated 100%). 11-21-21

 

[Atomic City]

Thread pitch is the same on both the pinion shaft and nut. Not sure why it isn't threading. The thread start on the shaft looks a little strange. I don't have a tap this big, and there wasn't one down at the store.

 

[Atomic City]

I finally got the right M20x1.5 pinion nut. Carrier bearings are supposed to arrive today. I am working on electrical wiring. A little dremel work and the switches are mounted.

 

[FMC80]

Oh, I like those switches much more than the blue rocker switches. Much cleaner and less gaudy.

 

[Atomic City]

So the threads are a bit wonky on the yukon pinion shaft. I'm going to see if I can get a die large enough to clean them up a bit - they keep screwing up the pinion nut threads. Luckily, I ordered more than one pinion nut. But, I can't find one big enough here in town and none of my friends have one. Going to have to order one and wait some more.