Builds 2001 LX470 build LEGUSY (3 Viewers)

[Odyseuss]

We went out exploring around the great salt lake to retrieve a wandering geocache.

It had been raining a lot here and we were fortunate to find a break in the storm and were rewarded with some really nice weather. We Also came across some pretty muddy areas along the way. The truck got way filthy and it took way too much time and effort to clean the film of mud off.

Fortunately, I have found that this Melnor 8 position extended watering wand does a great job at reaching the underside of the truck and helping to wash the hard to reach areas.

 

[Odyseuss]

We made a quick trip out to explore the Bingham Canyon area and the mine that can be seen from across the valley and even space. We wanted to visit the newly reopened view area that had been redeveloped since the aftermath of a large landslide years ago.

A shuttle ride took us into the mine property to the edge of the open pit where equipment was on display and mine operations could be supervised from a distance.

To give you a bit of the scale of this operation, a bed from the truck seen in this photograph just left of the drill is used in a display pictured below. More of the same trucks can barely be seen all about the mine.

 

[duvinclunk]

I need to bring my son over to that, he'd have a blast.

 

[Odyseuss]

My kids really liked it. They are fascinated with digging rocks. After touring the mine, We drove through the Oquirrh mountains up Butterfield and out Middle canyons. We had a nice picnic in the nice lush green growth.

By now, the snorkel and the pre filter have taken quite a few good hits from brush and branches at speed, and they seem to be holding up solid with a few slight scratches to show for it. I realize that by saying this, its like tempting the forces of nature to bring trouble.

 

[Odyseuss]

On another trip, we had made arrangements for a tour of the Crystal Ball caves and visited the Bates Family ranch. We were accompanied by another family from the local cruiser club. We all enjoyed a nice picnic and some visiting with the friendly family of the ranch as we explored the area and some cool improvements and accommodations.

Then we drove the trail up near the cave entrance and enjoyed the view, a short hike, and a tour of this unique and amazing cave of crystal.

After touring through the cave, we went for a dip in some nearby warm springs which also led into another small cave.
Then we cruised home on the historic Pony express route. A good pace that kept us moving along through the expansive landscape left dusty miles behind and while making good time.

 

[OEMGUY0720]

I did another oil change, and took a tip from @SmoothLC and a few others and installed a Fumoto drain valve. The access with the Dissent skids is minimal and it seems easy to stick a hose on the drain valve to keep oil changes cleaner and simpler. I also used a boot to keep debris out of the drain valve. IIRC these boots come with the Toyota fuel filters and work well for a lot of 3/8 caps.

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I was able to bend a license plate just right and direct oil from the filter out past the front skid too. I've used this trick for several different truck over the years and it works pretty well.

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I like the Fumoto Drain valve and the idea it can be hooked up on a hose for that no mess oil change. If I may ask what’s the thread size of the drain valve? Thanks!

 

[Odyseuss]

I like the Fumoto Drain valve and the idea it can be hooked up on a hose for that no mess oil change. If I may ask what’s the thread size of the drain valve? Thanks!

I think it is the 12x1.25 thread. It is the F103N valve.

 

[OEMGUY0720]

I think it is the 12x1.25 thread. It is the F103N valve.

Thanks! Found one in Amazon for $25

 

[Odyseuss]

We have been a busy getting around this summer in a variety of vehicles and I haven't had the need to work on this 100 much. As such, I haven't followed up much on this build though it has been seeing some good use. I'll repost a report from another trip earlier this month to try and keep some fresh content in this thread, as I continue to delve into so many variations of times past this summer.

We left town Thursday morning after I got off of work and Claire drove most of the way as I got some sleep. Once we reached the dirt in Wyoming, the landscape captivated my attention and I was excited to drive into camp. We arrived and greeted friends from Wasatch Cruisers, Roy and Susan as we setup camp and Jay and Kyle rolled in. The clouds passed by as the sun set and our group grew as stars filled the sky.

The next day, we followed Roy up the canyon to the top of Steamboat mountain. We enjoyed the views of the vast and diverse Wyoming red desert landscape in search of more abundant wildlife. Herds of Elk and Antelope passed around us as birds of prey flew above and critters of all sizes crawled around and raced away from our moving vehicles.

Our group traveled out to the Tri-territory monument where the continental divide crosses the 42nd parallel. At around 1820, the 3 territories Northwest (Great Britain), Mexico (from Spain) and the Louisiana Purchase (from France) converged here. A geocache was located nearby and a collapsible Frisbee may have been obtained for further analysis and testing.

After exploring several more trails and spotting much life in the wilds, our wandering returned to the site of more camping. Shortly after we settled in, Bryan joined us for another great evening. We made plans for the next days travel past the Oregon Buttes. We found a nice scenic route out to South Pass, the lowest pass of the continental divide along the route of the Mormon, Oregon, and California trails.

We moved along to explore South Pass City and the restored buildings that house a museum of displays. After a nice lunch, we moved on past Atlantic city and on towards the Wind River range. While winding our way into the Winds we encountered the Relic runners and the Retro ramblers from Expedition Utah at Louis Lake. Visiting and reliving some past times inspired by good friends with remembered accessories was a nice relief. Eventually we past on in search of another adventure trail towards the ruins of a forest service lookout high in the mountains.

 

[Odyseuss]

Roaming on in Wyoming the group navigated its way back to camp thought a series of lesser known and fortunately dry tracks that had been washed out in places before. After keeping up a good pace, the crew cruised into base camp after a long day of travel and with a thirsty fuel tank. Some of us took it easy while others counted out 600 jumping jacks just to stay up another 10 minutes. We had such a great time and it had gone by so fast.

 

[Odyseuss]

After several hours of stereo operation on long days of driving the amp has occasionally shut down. This isn't very common, but it seems to be consistent with high temperatures generated by the 900W unit under the passenger seat and under the floor area. This Alpine amp does have a thermal protection that is as I understand designed to do this. I decided to install a cooling fan to help circulate some more air in the area and hopefully alleviate this somewhat rare condition. There isn't a lot of room under the seat for airflow, so I put a few holes in the cover and the carpet to allow circulation. This cooling fan seems to generate a good amount of airflow that can be felt around the under seat area when the fan is running. The fan draws very little power and is run off the antenna circuit which, with this pioneer unit has power whenever the stereo is on and is so quiet that I cant hear it with the volume muted. Only time will tell if the issue is completely avoided for the future, but so far so good and it will definitely continue to be put to the test.

 

[Odyseuss]

We made it out on a few other outings and got real busy with some other projects. I hadn't done much to this rig for a while except drive it. The DRL bulbs went out on a club night run and I replaced them with the Phillips 9005XV bulbs cause I want a quality bulb that wont hinder the OE operation of both the DRL and High beams. We made a move to another home with some more space for vehicles and room to work on them. I used the 100 for some of that work, but I relied heavily on my Silverado 2500HD. There is a lot to be said for the useful utility of a pick up truck. Hauling big and odd items or pulling big trailers left Legusy resting for another day out on the trail.

A TON of work went into building up the shop space to facilitate more other projects. Fellows from Wasatch Cruisers helped me a lot with the move and setting up the shop. Then it was time to dial in the organization of the tools by doing some maintenance. Its really nice to have these resources to make some serious progress.

I replaced the valve cover gaskets and checked the valve adjustment. It was nice to see that the engine was very clean and all the valves were in spec. Its impressive to see an engine maintain a tolerance of .004 over ~180,000 miles. With new gaskets and tube seals installed, I moved on to the front of the engine to replace the timing belt.

At belt #2, I replaced the water pump, cam and crank seals, tensioner and idler assemblies. I used a stack of bearing races on the crank to install the seal by turning the pulley bolt by hand for a smooth install.

I use a chain wrench and an old belt to hold my pulleys for R&I.

The charging output voltage had been a bit low, so I went ahead and swapped in a new alternator as well. The fan bracket bearing had a bit of play in it, so I went ahead and replaced it and the fan clutch with new OE parts too. I also replaced several of the oil cooler hoses since I had easy access and save the others as spares. On the way back together, I cleaned the throttle body before placing it back in service.

 

[Odyseuss]

My Old Man Emu shocks have been put though some rigorous use. I have already replaced the lower bushings in them some time ago. If you remember form earlier in this thread, I used the OME stone guards on them and ended up cutting off the lower portions cause they got bent around the shock bolts and kept making noise. I also replaced the original shock bots with some that I welded tube rings on to. Well this is a bit of an update on that stuff.

There has been a lot of dirt and rocks getting kicked up and hitting these rear shocks. In some places the stone guards were dented into the shock body. I would expect worse damage if the guards hadn't been there, but they held together like that for quite some time before leaking and cooking a nice seasoned patina of shock oil down the rear shocks. The fellas @cruiseroutfit hooked me up yet again, with a great deal on another set and I'm building more brand loyalty sticking with these OME shocks and another set of guards that got the lower portion cut off from the get go this time. The washers held up well and didn't bend into the bushings though they did fill up with mud and dirt, the paint is long gone, and even dented the rings so a socket wouldn't fit. That's been a pretty easy fix. A screw driver cleans out the mud easily enough. A chisel straightens out the ring enough for a socket. I still like this idea, cause its cheap, easy, small, light, and works well enough.

Another tire had some bad sidewall damage, and the set was really getting beat and worn, so I had a new set swapped in. I probably should put some more paint on those lower links and all the armor where its been scraped off.

 

[Odyseuss]

I ran into an issue removing the skid plates before this recent work. A few of the flat head allen counter sunk bolts had taken some hard hits on rocks and the 2 bolts in the diff drop cross member in particular would not remove from the force of an allen tool. They were bent in the aluminum washers and rusted into the threads. I drilled them out and eventually just cut them off. I removed the diff drop and found it to be completely packed with red dirt. After cleaning it out, and removing the surface rust with a wire wheel, I drilled new holes in the press and added another set of holes in the bent portions. It got coated with a rust converter and a thick coat inside and out of epoxy paint.

While I was in there, I noticed some wear on the front diff support bushing and replaced it with the Super Pro poly bushing. The 20 ton press wouldn't remove the old bushing cold, so I heated it with a rosebud tip on the torch and then removal and install was straight forward.

I replaced all the flat head countersunk allen bolts with new stainless ones. Some of the old bent bolts came out, they all went in with a thick coat of anti seize.

 

[Odyseuss]

I have noticed that the A/C condenser has degraded a bit over time due to its exposure on the lower end.

Fortunately the A/C still works great, and I don't have any leaks. (knock on wood) I figure its only a matter of time until some debris put a small hole in it, so I figured Its worth a measure of prevention. I have noticed that some race vehicles use a heavy duty mesh screen to protect similar coolers (not A/C but you get the idea) I had some gutter guard screen that seemed to be the right size and thickness so I cut a piece and zip tied it in place for testing.

 

[civil offroad]

Always enjoy reading your thread! Keep up the good work!

 

[Odyseuss]

Thanks @civil offroad . Sometimes its hard to find the time and motivation to keep updating this thread.

Anyhow, After getting all that sorted and with the local restrictions lifted, it was time to get out again. We have been playing by the rules and postponed some trips that we had planned earlier so we were all really excited to get out and find some social distance. Miles upon miles of it. So we started to pick up where we left off and a small group got together to drive the Lockhart basin trail that we had scheduled to run for Cruise Moab.

It was really nice to get out and cover some remote distance. I didn't take many photos of the truck, but I did manage to shoot another video.

 

[Odyseuss]

I did manage some damage from the trail and accumulated a couple other necessary repairs by the time we returned home. There were quite a few rocks in the narrow canyon section that took a bite out of my center caps, sidewall and lug nuts. So one new tire made it less that 1000 miles until it was replaced by another road hazard though it held air and still got us home. I'm now down 2 center caps which I was fortunate enough to catch as they fell off so I didn't leave any parts behind. They were mangled beyond repair and though I have found some replacements, for now I'm rolling without center caps. I had some front hub flange caps coated to match back in the day so I put them on and that looks good enough for me for now. I don't mind shedding some non essential items.

Just before we left Moab, I noticed that my radiator had started to leak from the top tank, I topped off the coolant and replaced the radiator with a new OEM unit when I got home.

The old radiator had accumulated a bit of debris but it was still cooling fine, though I bet I get better air flow with the new unit. The trans cooler hoses were soft and floppy so I replaced them all with some new trans cooler hose while I was at it.

I realize that the 3/8 hose is a bit smaller ID than the OE hose that is more like 10mm, so it fit tighter on the lines, but it seems to be holding up well and it was more cost effective and available in this case.

One of the CV boots tore wide open so I swapped that shaft with another good used unit I had lying around and I replaced the boots on the other axle with new OE ones for good measure since there was a slight crack in one of the boots. I installed the McMaster CV boot clamps that PFran used to sell. I had tried to buy some from him earlier and after making an online purchase got no response at all ever. I ended up buying the clamps straight from McMaster Carr PN# 5574K25 & 5574K16 cheaper and WAY faster. Eventually Paypal returned the money I sent to PFran. They are really nice clamps and it helps that they are adjustable and trail repairable, so I carry some spares too.

Now this rig is all back together and ready for some more miles.

 

[Kabanstva]

Was your old radiator the original one or was that already replaced at some point. I kinda wanna do mine soon as a preventative measure but I only have 125k miles on it and it’s not “yellow” looking like on some trucks, maybe because there isn’t that much heat around here.

 

[Odyseuss]

Was your old radiator the original one or was that already replaced at some point. I kinda wanna do mine soon as a preventative measure but I only have 125k miles on it and it’s not “yellow” looking like on some trucks, maybe because there isn’t that much heat around here.

I believe that it was the original. It wasn't yellow, but it was a bit discolored, though there were no significant cracks or any leaks before. I inspected it closely when I did the timing belt and there was a small chip on one of the radiator hose fittings but that was negligible. This has about 180K so not high miles but its aged still the same. I thought that it had some time left and I spent some time and $$$ on a lot of preventative stuff before so I let it go. Sure we can replace all the items that are going to wear out eventually but its a slippery slope. This is not a cheap item, but it is one that can leave you stranded, thankfully it got me home.