2 Diesels, 4 Continents

[24vRHD]

Yeah the STT up high are from an 18-wheeler. Since our rig is 24V we thought it would be easy to find 24V LED ovals. Turns out not SO! It was a headache. If someone rear-ends me now they will have no excuse... unless they are driving a mini

The little white boxes on the inside are some high spec LEDs we were thinking of using as fog lights. They turned out to not be so bright but as work lights they will be great. Look good too!

 

[deebee]

If someone rear-ends me now they will have no excuse... unless they are driving a mini

Hey! I resemble that remark! We Mini drivers are VERY careful - gotta be - never know when you'll get T-boned by one of these:

 

[24vRHD]

Anklbtr, great license plate! Best part of getting T-boned by that is you can floss your teeth with the Winch cable I better make sure my lower stop/turn/tails are working as well. Gotta keep the Minis safe!

So the Blue truck has been put in the 20' container in Houston and should be heading to the high seas soon. In the meantime I've cooked up something interesting to keep you guys entertained. Watch this space, need to edit a bit of video... It will be worth the wait

 

[24vRHD]

You've never seen this before

I have to admit, IH8MUD is an amazing resource but over the past few months I've been working on something new. Something I bet nobody has ever seen or done before.



Its a video, 100% Land Cruiser related. At best you will be proud and at worst you will shake your head.

I don't want to give it away, so without further delay:

» Never a Dull Moment! » 4by4

Here is a pic to attract your interest:

 

[mailking]

I know what salt does to your car :-(

 

[24vRHD]

HELP!

Yeah I gave her a good bath to get the salt off but get this. Next morning she was dead in the driveway.

I was ok with this because she didn't leave me stranded.

The truck is new to me and despite being owned by a mechanic there are a lot of things that aren't right. The battery isn't secured and it had shifted and some of the cabling came loose. Got that sorted out and she started up.

Now the clutch is out, or rather engaged.

Now this problem has been brewing for some time. Sometimes hard to get into first or reverse. Sometimes hard to get out of gear (Say rolling in stop go in first).

I climbed around the truck. Sure enough, every time you put in the clutch I can see the slave extending and exactly 1 drop of fluid drops out. checked the reservoir and it was low but not empty. The slave still travels a good 1-1.5 inches but not enough to get into gear.

Filled up the reservoir on the master cylinder. Will bleed it once I get the right size spanner (Not with my tools at the moment, I found a 3/8" spanner and it was just about perfect but didn't fit. Am almost positive its a 10mm)

A few questions as this HJ-47 is quite a bit fancier than my BJ-41.

1. This appears to have some sort of clutch booster/assist on it The master cylinder is substantially more complicated than the one on my BJ-41. Does the engine need to be running to bleed the clutch?

2. If I bleed through and it is ok, any guesses on what else the problem could be?

3. I need to load this truck into a 20' container in 3 days. The only thing between here and there is a 2 hr drive on a highway with little traffic. What can I do to limp it home. Clearly it is time for a new Master and Slave and plumbing which I will do later. Right now I need to get it to the dock on time. Aside from starting in gear and shifting without a clutch, any good ideas? I know its cruiser abuse but its that or leave it behind, and that would be even more wrong. There are literally only 3 stoplights between where the truck is now and where it needs to be.

Thanks for your Help!

 

[24vRHD]

Help-Update

Hey guys,

So here is how it played out, sorry if its a bit long...

Got the 10mm spanner, bled clutch line (One full reservoir worth) and problem still persisted.

Bit the bullet at 3pm Saturday afternoon and decided to take it to the shop. Got the truck started and warmed up. Put it in 4-low (to save my poor starter). Shut down the truck and then started her in 1st gear. Drove about 2 kilometers through town without the clutch (Did make it into 4th but still in 4-lo )

Because that wasn't exciting enough the fuel pedal started to stick a bit too. We took it slow and enjoyed ourselves. Transmission felt great... even without the benefit of a clutch

Mechanic went to work right away on the truck. Started by bleeding the clutch again, no luck. Then replaced the slave cylinder (it was leaking a touch), same problem.

Then he rebuilt the Master cylinder, nada
Then he re-plumbed the tubing coming out of the master in hopes of getting more compression from it. This is when I realized (I'm pretty sure) that my fancy HJ-47 Master Cylinder is actually a adapted break Master Cylinder I'm pop a picture up for this, but regardless it didn't improve anything.

At this point it was noon Sunday and it was decided that the problem was deeper than the leaky slave cylinder (Now replaced)

The decision was made to drop the clutch.

By 3pm Monday the Clutch was out and the problem was found, the clutch plates were stuck together. The Mechanic told me he solved this problem by dropping them on the ground a few times until they popper apart.

The plates were in good shape and the mechanic reckoned salt water had gotten in there and allowed them (over the week) to become stuck together.

OOPS!

Now I knew driving in the sea was a bad idea, and I only did it once (Which was the plan) But I would never have guessed the salt water would have found its way into my clutch. I though the clutch was sealed. A colleague of mine says he has a drain in the bottom of his clutch and fills it with water a couple of times after wheeling to clean anything out. Never heard of that before...

We cleaned the plates and put it back together.

All in, 2 days of work (including 1 which was supposed to be his day off), A new slave cylinder and a rebuilt master break/clutch cylinder the total came to about $200.

the clutch feels great now but the transmition doesn't move as freely in neutral as it used to. Before I could move right-left on the shifter while in Neutral and not feel anything other than the spring that keeps you out of reverse. Now as I move across in Neutral it kind of feels like I am bumping somehting. Almost like a gate. Frankly its fine because the 500,000kms on the transmission have made it a bit finicky to get in gear. Now its easy. Other than that all is well...

Still the sticky fuel pedal but I'll save that for anotehr day

 

[mailking]

I though the clutch was sealed.

When crossing rivers and water in general, I make it a habit of choosing my gear beforehand and never touch the clutch while in the water. I set my hand gas open a little so it won't stall.

Lessons have to be learned. Good that you found out this way!

Adventurous greetings,
Coen

 

[24vRHD]

Thats good advice Coen, thanks! I can also still proudly say that my cruiser has never left me stranded

 

[Gusta]

Hello Zach,

Sorry for the delay in responding, but recently I see your question.
Many motorhomes of others countrys parked in this parking ( see attachment for the address).
There's safety because is close to a military base.
In that parking you can work in your truck and you can sleep well if you wish.
It is a parking near the downtown.
Unfortunately I do not know if I will be in Buenos Aires at this date, but I leave my mail and my cellphone number for me to write.
Anything you need, write or call me.

Gustavo

gcherro@gmail.com
+54 911 4971 3903

 

[24vRHD]

Buenos Aires

Greeting guys,

Sorry to be so out of touch. I've been busy with travelling and logistics.

Long story short I have been in Buenos Aires for a week now and got the truck out of customs Yesterday. It arrived in great shape (asside from being filthy).

It only took 6 days and $2,000 to get the truck off the boat, off the dock and through customs, and we did it without paying any greese money, 0, not one sentavo.

If that seems like a long time and a lot of money it sure beats my acquaintances in the Dakar that waited a month only to have their bikes released 18 hours before the start, or some South Africans who after a month decided it would be easier to just ship their trucks back home.

Kudos goes to Sandra from Dakar Motos. If you are shipping to Buenos Aires there really isn't anyone else quite like her and you should use no other agent!

Details and pictures soon.

Gusta,

Thank you for your help with the parking. I found a good parking spot 2 blocks from my apartment in San Telmo. It has a guard 24 hours and is actually an old car show-room. I parked the rig in the 2nd floor to avoid too much attention. For those that come after me, Finding secure parking in Buenos Aires is easy but a bit expensive, I am paying 80 pesos/day which is about $20USD.

ok, some quick pictures...

NB: the mm clearance between the CVT RTT and the container door (We removed the ladder before loading)

All the road grime was from the car carrier trip from CO to TX where it was then containerized. Fortunately the Customs didn't say anything about that.

Last picture is on the streets of the old port town (San Telmo) in Buenos Aires. Not where we kept it, just taking out some stuff...

 

[mailking]

Great! Have fun!

 

[Franz]

Man I wish I had a cousin like yours! Great thread, hope you have a whale of a time!
Franz from Oz

 

[24vRHD]

A Mysterious Problem

Hey guys, so the prodigal son returns.

I'm sorry for the radio silence, been driving and having too much fun. We are now 4,999kms (exactly) into our trip and have just reached the city of Ushuaia in Argentina, famous for being the southernmost city in the world, more than 54deg South!

So here is a puzzle for you (followed by my 3 favorite pictures from our trip so far)

I took a chance to check the fluid levels in the truck and found a mystery.

The T-case was way low (500ml of gear oil to get it to the correct level)

That was strange but it has always weaped a bit of oil, but never anything like that.

Next I open the fill plug for the transmission and...

Over-full, It was a mess but I would guess about 500 ml of gear oil poured out of the FILL plug on the transmission.

What is particularly strange about this is that the transmission is higher than the T-case...

Somehow gear oil is migrating up, from the T-case to the Tranny.

One caveat, is I had jsut driven 300 km before pulling into the mechanics bay. I was with two diesel mechanics who were not at all familiar with Toyotas, they were puzzled, thoughts?

and now, the pics

 

[mailking]

Nice images!

On the oils... All I can think off is that the seal between the cases must be leaking:

https://forum.ih8mud.com/60-series-wagons/451210-transmission-transfercaes-seals.html

Coen

 

[Gusta]

Hello Zach,

I think, is the seal between the cases must be leaking...... too.

If you need anything, do not forget I'm in Buenos Aires.

Nice Pic´s.

 

[crushers]

run a equalizer tube between the fill plugs of the tranny and t/case.
i have seen more than one t/case burnt from lack of fluid.
i have seen more than one tranny ruined for the same reason

there is no fast rule as to which way the fluid will go.

 

[24vRHD]

Thanks Crushers, I was thinking about doing just that. Drilling a small hole in each fill plug and putting some fittings and a bit of tubing. Have other people done this? Do other people have this problem?

And here are a few more pics!

 

[mailking]

And here are a few more pics!

Great desat photo! And... eh.. what happened to you doors? Ventilation?

Coen

 

[24vRHD]

Yeah the roof and doors have always been a rust spot on my rig.

In fact the roof is leaking quite badly. It appears that water is entering between the two sheets of metal that make up the roof. That is to say between the top/outer sheet and the lower/inner sheet.

This then allows water to rain down in interesting spots inside the truck which is not so fun.

Hopefully this stems the problem so I don't develop more rust in new places.

Fortunately (for us) there hasn't been much rain here in Patagonia and Tierra Del Fuego. Saddly Argentina and Chile are in a pretty bad drought but for the cruiser its been good news.