Builds '97 VZJ95W to Canada - Ontario - Misc Blathering on (1 Viewer)

[billblyca]

Spent the day puttering

First was the removal of all of the undercarriage lighting and the odd supplemental grounding cables .

Bracket on the battery ground lug was tagged to the left and right fender, the firewall, the intake manifold and the Alternator. Once all of that was removed it was back to stock look.

Then to the Fog lights - There was some signs of water damage.

An IPA wash seemed to clean it up a bit - Cleaned left, as received right.

I may have to replace the pair eventually but will run with it for now.

Both cleaned up.

Now off to the headliner to remove all of the TV antennas, Japan toll antennas, VICs antennas and the registration stickering.

I use Tim the Toolman's 4runner liner removal youtube video as a guide - The Prado does not have its handles Thread locked like the 4Runner does. Removal of the headliner was easy but time-consuming. About 3.4 hrs but I was being extra careful as a new headliner is simply not available here.

 

[billblyca]

Part of the exercise was 10 check the sunroof drain tubes (they were fine) install 3 Antennas (2 NMO and one Wilson 1000) and a dashcam right at the rearview mirror.

When mounting the antennas it was discovered that the bonding glue from the ceiling cross member broke loose.

I had some PL 2000 and gooped it back up.

I was going to remove the curtains, but the missus wants them to stay, so stay the will.

 

[billblyca]

The Geolanders arrived.

My Mechanic is still taking odd jobs so they will be dropped off this aft for mounting on the rims

 

[billblyca]

And here she is with the Geolanders mounted.

 

[JDM Journeys]

Great progress Cap'n Bly! Headliner is such a PITA eh? I'll be watching to see what com's get hooked to the other ends of those antennas!

Pulling the ashtray makes space for a small unit...

 

[billblyca]

So it turned out to be a nice Sunday so I tore into the dash to remove the Panasonic Strada stereo, the digital TV receiver (Sanyo), the Japan electronic toll collector and the interior foot lighting. The Stereo looked nice but is all in Kanji

There was a sea of cables. But all is set for the new JVC that should be here Monday - I was going to go with one of those dual DIN android heads but chose instead to go with a single DIN stereo and one of my police scanners in the space below A GRE 600

Everything torn to bits

This is all that came out

And everything back together - For now.

Oh one note - I did swap out the gear indicator light on the console from incandescent to LED and swapped the Drive and Low indicator lamps in the dash as the drive had blown. I did order some T series bulbs just for that but darn it all if I can find them .

 

[D21FJ60]

Hey, I don't want to be a " Debbie Downer " here or " Negative Nancy ", but is there anything really compelling here to share? The wheels, routine ball joint fix and the like seem like common jobs between Toyota, Ford, Hyundai, riding lawnmower, or anything else.

Tell us how you scrambled under an old broken RAV4 at a local pick and pull to grab that one expensive and rare part that cross referenced to yours.

More meat and potatoes, please.

No rules regulating what people can post in their thread, as long as it is tech related which this is. No one is forcing you to read it.

Op you've done a daring job with the wiring, keep on with the udpates.

 

[billblyca]

So the stereo and harness arrived from Crutchfield in Canada - Harness $12 and Stereo $138 (Mighty Hudson's Bay pessos)

The police scanner will be a bit of a squeeze as the Nibs on the lower half of the DIN cage is not allowing insertion. I will need to dremel them off.

Next plates.

 

[billblyca]

So then it was time for plates.

As I may have mentioned previously the federal government uses a quasi-public/private entity (or so I am told) to offer VIN validation services to all provinces and territories.

An input error caused my VIN to be flagged as suspicious - To make it better the truck needed a safety, to get a safety it had to get to a garage, and as I am a law-abiding schmuck, I had to have it towed.

The tow driver was actually much happier than he looks as the Zombie Apocalypse has really put a bite on his business.

Surprisingly the Ontario version of a DMV (Service Ontario) was open after the safety was done ($99 - Canadian Tire - no issues found) so off I ran for plates in the social distancing queue - Like an old soviet era bread line.


The poor lady at the desk had never done a JDM title before and was really flustered but a co-worker helped out and we were all set.

The insurance company is insisting an appraisal as well so I have to knock that off next week as well.

And here she is plated.

I was looking at how to best mount the plates because the jdm spacing of fasteners is wider than NA Plates - But Amazon came to the rescue - They will be here is a few days. More than I wanted to pay ($40) but it will be fastened right.

 

[billblyca]

So after the other 2 posts - Today

Harry does work for me when it is too cold or I am too lazy to do a task. In this case, I do not feel qualified (at the moment) to swap out the LBJ and what I thought was the right outer tie rod (of course I would do the pair)

He put 'er up on the lift and threw the steering hitherto and fro and speculated the tie rods are fine and it just needs LBJ's. So I will order the parts and he will pencil me in early May to swap them out. The slop on the right is very small - Safety mechanic had to be asked if he noticed anything on the right a few days ago and he said that there was something a tiny bit loose but he was not even going to mention it.

I also snooped over to the #2 O2 sensor as there is a whistly behind the dash above 70km/h - 4runner forums seem to indicate it might be a bad gasket for the O2 sensor so I will order one up and replace the nuts with stainless and some copper-based anti seize.

Look how clean the undercarriage is...

 

[billblyca]

Got the Bluetooth mic snaked in on the 3rd

Wife said it has pretty good fidelity so we will leave it here for now

One of the things that was always an issue with the Pajero was how the plate was only held in by one bolt. Japan plates have a wider spacing between bolt holes and I never drilled a hole for the second bolt. It had a really distinctive "twang" when the back door was closed. The Prado had the same with the one bolt.

I was going to fabricate a bracket but on a whim I checked Amazon and there it was a $39 solution.

Plate held nice and tight.


Ran a tank and a half and found about 13.7l/100km Which is 20 mi /imp gal 17mi/us gal

Changed Tranny and Engine oil on Thursday - Will see if that helps the milage - Fluids were not neglected, but they were also over due.

Picked up a 2000 3rd gen 4 runner hitch Wed and next post will be cleaning it up and mounting it on the Prado

 

[billblyca]

Running into a road block for hardware for the trailer hitch so I dove into the Outband/CB radio.

Anytone 6666

A bunch of us still on after almost 30 yrs - and many of them back to the 60's

We chin wag on the way to work and back as well from my set up at the house (9TC7001 / 9DR7001 is my call if you freeband)

The Wilson

I get a good 1.9 from Mid 26mhz up to the top of 27Mhz. Flat in the lower 1/2 of the 40

Used one of those fuse tap harnesses rather than chopping wires.

Managed to mount the mic holder with minor blemishing the console - Of course, the radio needed two holes unfortunatly

Kinda threw my self a loop thinking seat heater would be a good tap, but it only runs when the engine is running - So I switched to the turn signal tap off.

One more radio to mount - A cheap Chinese dual band for GMRS / FRS and eventually I will get my ham ticket - Only been planning to do so for 35 years

 

[billblyca]

Changed the Trans (well some of the trans) fluid and oil change and dumped in a bottle of STP injector cleaner. Milage of first top to bottom tank was 71L and 468km for 15.1L/100

The

trans fluid looks like it needed a change. Will do the same next week and another 2 weeks after to give close to a full swap out..

 

[billblyca]

Finally got the hitch in I think I will need 2 posts for that as I think each post is limited to 5 pix..

Got this one from a junker for $75 - They said "Excellent" Yea Right......

 

[billblyca]

Got Toyota original hitch bolts (4) for a '97 4runner and used the original two hook bolts for the last 4 - I spiffed up the toe hook as well.

The LED is just roughly placed for now - Waiting for cabin switches before I place it for good - HAve enough hardware for two - WIll probably do two.

The drop hitch is for our little 4x7 trailed which we mostly haul firewood and soil.

Will look for a harness that can plug into the OEM harness rather than hacking wires.

Oddly 77ft/lbs seems to feel heavier @ 54 than it did at 25

 

[The Lake Hero]

The fellow from Ottawa just doddled along so I canceled the transaction and don't have rims yet.

One slight twist on the rear calipers though - They are not 4runner specific, but 80 series LC type, '93 to '97. And Rock auto still carries them so no biggie.

Are you able to send out the parts links? I'm in the same boat as you my friend and I'm a stones throw away in the peg.

 

[billblyca]

Are you able to send out the parts links? I'm in the same boat as you my friend and I'm a stones throw away in the peg.

Here is the top level 90 series parts repository Toyota EPC

The rear Rotor, Caliper, and pads are here. Caliper/Pads and Rotor

Click on the part you want - it will bring up the Toyota XXXXX-YYYYY Toyota part number.

Plug that number into rock auto, Napa, your local Toyota dealer, or one of the online dealers for Toyota parts and you should be set.

 

[billblyca]

The rims I got with the truck just drove off into the sunset with the owner of a 2010 Taco. 380some thousand KM on that one.

This weekend - The trailer wiring and back utility lighting get wired in.

 

[billblyca]

So we just passed tank #4 and I am averaging 14.4l/100, the best being 13.4 and the worst being 15

Kinda what I expected while wanting closer to 13 - Will see what transpires after MAF sensor cleaning

Note : From the station gas pump shutoff to ignition of the low fuel light is pretty well exactly 70L - One was 69.8, one 70.1 and the last was 70 on the button.

Anyways - the hitch

A bit of reading lead me to the thread that the 80 series LC harness would work - So I googled here and googled there and came up with the Hopkins 43405. Amazon Canada had it for $17.99 which I thought was cheap so I hit buy and it was here in 4 days.

Unfortunately it did not fit (at the tail lights) , but it did have the same form factor as the generic lamp controllers so I chose to keep it for the job.

The cool thing is that the day after I purchased it it popped up to $58 - It must have been a pricing glitch that let me have it for $18. For example our version of Harbour Freight up here , Princess Auto, has their generic controller @ $25 before taxes.

I dove into the service manual a bit and found that there is an auxiliary connector on the left , behind the jack. The service manual does not call out the wires specifically so I hauled out the probe and this what I found.

I'll snip into things here with insulated spade connectors and heat shrink it up.

I have yet dug into the drivers side, right signal - Service manual does not show a tag out connector for the right , and there was no right tag out on this connector above. Just for safety sake, I do not cut signal harnesses unless absolutely necessary, so if there is no tag out I will probably use one of those crimp splicers - Don't like them, but that will be the method.

Also since the 43405 is meant for mounting on the Right side I sill have to swap the long travel wire from left to right. The pix should show that.

I did not get to wiring this weekend as my Dad has a greenhouse and was short drivers so I jumped in a shift. He has 12 Jamaicans that come up every year (Some are in their 17th year) and they were just floored by the truck - Apparently it (A Prado) is one of the most desired vehicles on the island.

 

[billblyca]

As a side note the Ball Joints will arrive Monday (Delayed because of the Zombie Apocalypse) . My Hyundai is still on the road to go back and forth to work and get parts so I will probably do the ball joints myself in the driveway.

There is an intermittent, low-level grind some times when I turn left. Lifting and hanging on the wheel there is no play top to bottom and the same play left to right mentioned earlier in the thread. When spun it has ever so slightly different feel than the left front. So Humming and Hawing it over I am going to replace the front right bearing at the same time I do the LBJ's. A place around the corner that has been around for at least the 30 years I have been in town does bearing pressing. Right now I am just looking for the best option for price and time. Will check what the stealer charges Monday and from there see if I wait the extra 5 days and get a FAG or SKF from Rock Auto.