Builds Another Prado in Montana (1 Viewer)

[AirheadNut]

Next up I swapped the low range detection switch with the 4wd indicator switch. I had inadvertently installed them backwards when I reassembled the transfer case a few years back and just hadn't gotten around to installing them correctly. My dash indicator lights finally work properly! Shown here is the incorrect installation, the single wire switch is for low range detection and the two wire switch is for 4wd detection. When swapping the switches I noticed that my transfer case fluid is looking pretty dark; what is the recommended interval for doing driveline fluids? This stuff has been in there for about 25k miles or 40k km.

I reinstalled the 30mm front spring spacers I got from @GTSSportCoupe. With the OME springs in the rear and stock springs with spacers in front, the Prado had a bit of a stinkbug stance. When I swapped to the OME front springs from @coldtaco I left the spacers out, but those springs were pretty much the same height as stock springs +30mm. OME lift springs front and rear with 30mm spacers in the front is just about level.

Last item on the docket was to reinstall the front LH mudflap. Last fall the Prado was pressed into service to access a trail clearing accident several miles up a long abandoned logging road, being the narrowest vehicle available. While pushing through the overgrown road and over downed trees the mudflap was torn off, but I didn't notice until later. A couple weeks after the incident I hiked back up the road and found the mudflap; the screws holding it on had torn through it. With a couple of fender washers it is nice and solid again.

 

[AirheadNut]

This morning's air bubble:

Not much, but with the engine running I can see a string of tiny little bubbles traveling up the hose, which makes me inclined to think there must be a slow air leak somewhere.

 

[Rigster]

This morning's air bubble:
View attachment 3294784

Not much, but with the engine running I can see a string of tiny little bubbles traveling up the hose, which makes me inclined to think there must be a slow air leak somewhere.

AHA!! Nice work, now to find that nefarious gremlin. At least now you have a confirmation that you DO have a leak and it explains the hard starts and smoke. Good luck on your search and hopefully it does not take long to find.

 

[AirheadNut]

A box arrived from @Japan4X4, so last weekend it was winch rebuild time. Getting the winch out of the vehicle was not easy, as the main positive stud going into the control box was so rusted that I had to sneak a die grinder with a cutoff wheel in to slice the nut and knock it off. Once the positive cable was off the winch came right out.

It was quickly apparent why the winch had lost its fluid after the cable got wrapped up between the drum and the motor housing:

The drum had been pushed so far over that it was no longer riding on the seal.

Teardown was pretty quick, despite appearances there was no frozen hardware apart from the positive cable stud.

Both end housings on the motor were pretty corroded, so I decided that while it was all apart I should clean it up some. A quick blast of walnut shell in the media blast cabinet and several coats of paint made a big improvement. Overall the internal condition of the winch is consistent with very low use, which reinforces my belief that it had never been used until I bought the Prado.

 

[AirheadNut]

With everything taken apart, cleaned and/or painted, it was time for reassembly. Apart from seals, gaskets and o-rings, the only parts that needed replacement were the positive cable stud and its associated insulating bushings, lock washers and nuts.

I also replaced the 12 small socket head cap screws that hold the end cover on the gearbox. The threads were fine but the heads were pretty badly corroded. I didn't take any photos of reassembly due to the abundance of grease and ATF on my hands, but here is a parts list of what I used (plus a couple of extra parts that I missed but was able to reuse) for anyone who may need to refresh their Aisin A1-1000 winch:

Part number	Description	Quantity
90093-00811	Washer, Flat	2
94120-40800	Nut	2
38121-60170	Gasket	1
38187-60170	X-ring	2
38186-60170	Oil seal	2
38627-60011	Bushing	1
38626-60010	Bushing	1
38625-60010	Stud	1
38178-60170	Cover screw	12
94511-00800	Washer, Spring	2
90301-59044	O-ring	1
90099-14023	O-ring (for motor cover)	1
38311-60170	Snap ring	1

While the bumper was off it was a good time to weld up the bottom of the frame channel. This had been cut and bent down to fit on a custom BJ74 before I got it. The bumper fits more snugly with all four sides of the frame channels in place, but I still need to add a second piece of tubing to replace the factory front winch mounting point that was removed with the original bumper/fairlead.

 

[AirheadNut]

Further digging into the fuel system leak leads me to believe that the leak is not in the filter/primer assembly. I disconnected both fuel lines from the filter housing, capped off the nipple that pulls from the tank and pulled a vacuum on the feed line to the injection pump. Vacuum only dropped 1 inHg over the course of half an hour, so it would appear there is no significant leak there. As time allows I plan to isolate and test the lines leading back to the tank in a similar fashion. I have a sneaking suspicion that my tank pickup tube assembly is leaking, similar to @Rigster, @Mr Rockwell, and @JDM Journeys.

 

[Felde]

A winch is a cool thing on a 4x4.
After I rebuilt mine, I only used it once, basically for testing.
The 3 times in 3 years I would have needed it to unstuck myself, I actually couldn't use it as there were no points around to anchor to.
I seriously consider to remove it, to actually safe it from the elements and safe on carrying the weight around for no good reason.
But a winch is that dang .
Probably I just need to just play with it more often
Cheers Ralf

 

[AirheadNut]

A winch is a cool thing on a 4x4.
After I rebuilt mine, I only used it once, basically for testing.
The 3 times in 3 years I would have needed it to unstuck myself, I actually couldn't use it as there were no points around to anchor to.
I seriously consider to remove it, to actually safe it from the elements and safe on carrying the weight around for no good reason.
But a winch is that dang .
Probably I just need to just play with it more often
Cheers Ralf

Agreed. That said, over the past couple years I've begun to think of my winch as a piece of safety equipment. The majority of my wheeling is solo, and for at least half the year that includes dealing with snow. In addition, most of the places I go have no cell service, so I have to be able to get myself unstuck if necessary. This was last spring, would have taken hours with a shovel:

 

[Rigster]

A winch is a cool thing on a 4x4.
After I rebuilt mine, I only used it once, basically for testing.
The 3 times in 3 years I would have needed it to unstuck myself, I actually couldn't use it as there were no points around to anchor to.
I seriously consider to remove it, to actually safe it from the elements and safe on carrying the weight around for no good reason.
But a winch is that dang .
Probably I just need to just play with it more often
Cheers Ralf

Guaranteed if you remove it, you will need it next time out. (Murphy's Law)

If you trek alone often or far from home, maybe make yourself up a deadhead. Basically it's just a short tamping bar with a loop on the end, pointed on the other. I find 3-4 ft seems sufficient in mountainous terrain. Drive it into the ground at a 45 degree angle away from your vehicle, then hook the winch to it to get yourself the help you need, then once you are out, drive to the deadhead and use the land cruiser to pull it out.

It's a bit of work finding the best spot, and to drive it into the ground, but when it's that or walking, suddenly the work seems minimal.

 

[AirheadNut]

So, summer has been pretty busy and I have neglected keeping this thread updated.

In early May, shortly after the winch rebuild, my brother @SnowVersion and his family came for a visit. We all piled into the Prado and headed about 3 hours SE of Bozeman to a secluded spot right on the MT/WY border. We set up camp and spent the next couple of days exploring the canyons, wandering amongst sandstone hoodoos and looking for petroglyphs.

 

[AirheadNut]

On the way back to Bozeman we took some backroads and stopped at a canyon known for its pictographs. Being a little pressed for time we weren't able to explore the bulk of the area, but did get to see a couple of pieces of rock art.

 

[AirheadNut]

Next up was a quick day trip to an abandoned mine site in an area of central Montana I hadn't visited before. The mine itself was a bust, but the road in got pretty exciting in a couple of places and there was a lot of cool old machinery to check out.

 

[AirheadNut]

A couple of little electrical upgrades:
Pigtails to connect the turn signals in the ARB front bumper.

Waterproof plugs for the IPF Super Rally lights to replace the butt connectors that were on there previously. This should make it much easier to remove the bumper or service the lights in the future.

 

[misterclean]

Love the updates! For my own OCD reference, can you share a source for those electrical connectors? I'd like to make some t-harnesses in the future and do more custom wiring work, those plugs would be a great help!

 

[AirheadNut]

These are the connectors I used for the turn signal pigtails, it’s the same as the factory turn signal plug:

250 Series Motorsport Connectors - Corsa Technic

Motorsport electrical products: OEM and hard to find terminals and connector kits, wiring, harness supplies, tooling, and sensors for modern and vintage motorcycle, automotive applications. Easy online shopping, low cost shipping options, to expedited around the world. We accept Paypal and...

www.corsa-technic.com

250 Series Motorsport Connectors - Corsa Technic

Motorsport electrical products: OEM and hard to find terminals and connector kits, wiring, harness supplies, tooling, and sensors for modern and vintage motorcycle, automotive applications. Easy online shopping, low cost shipping options, to expedited around the world. We accept Paypal and...

www.corsa-technic.com

These are the plugs I used for the IPF lights. I chose them because they’re waterproof and are pretty much exactly the same as some of the connectors used elsewhere in the vehicle.

Sumitomo 250 Waterproof Connector - Corsa Technic

Motorsport electrical products: OEM and hard to find terminals and connector kits, wiring, harness supplies, tooling, and sensors for modern and vintage motorcycle, automotive applications. Easy online shopping, low cost shipping options, to expedited around the world. We accept Paypal and...

www.corsa-technic.com

Sumitomo 250 Waterproof Connector - Corsa Technic

Motorsport electrical products: OEM and hard to find terminals and connector kits, wiring, harness supplies, tooling, and sensors for modern and vintage motorcycle, automotive applications. Easy online shopping, low cost shipping options, to expedited around the world. We accept Paypal and...

www.corsa-technic.com

 

[misterclean]

thank you!

 

[AirheadNut]

The last Friday in May I packed up the Prado after work and hit the road, traveling west from Bozeman along some lonely secondary highways toward Idaho. At around 10 pm I turned off the highway outside the tiny community of Dewey, MT to find a spot to camp. The next morning I woke early to the sound of a large group of Nighthawks flying around in the tree tops. I spent quite a bit of time trying to clean all the mud off the tent ladder and my boots before hitting the road again.

About 45 minutes into the day's drive the engine suddenly died and I coasted to the shoulder. When I tried restarting there was no power to anything. Since my fusible link failure last winter I carry a DC amp clamp multimeter with me, so I broke it out and started poking around in the engine bay looking for loose connections. It didn't take long to figure out that the positive battery terminal was quite loose, so I tightened it up and was back on the road. Despite this setback I was only a couple of minutes late meeting up with @SnowVersion at Lost Trail Pass on the MT/ID border. We loaded his gear in and headed for the mountains in search of mines.

By late afternoon we were crawling up a steep, narrow mining road high in the mountains. After pushing through a couple of snow drifts we came to a small wide spot in the road next to a mine adit and decided to set up camp. Perched high on an old tailings pile at nearly 9000 feet, the views stretching out across the Sawtooth Mountains were amazing.

 

[AirheadNut]

After building a fire and cooking dinner there was still plenty of evening light left, so we hiked 10 minutes up the road to the upper terminus of an abandoned aerial tramway.

There was a bunkhouse next to the tram building, complete with a giant wood cookstove. The tram cables still wrapped around the giant bull wheel in the tram building, stretching over 1500 feet to the old mill building on the valley floor below.

The mine itself was a bit of a disappointment, as the tunnel had collapsed only a short distance inside. The view from the adit wasn't half bad, though.

By the time we got back to camp it was nearly dark, but before turning in we stoked up the fire and soaked in the quiet of an alpine evening.

 

[AirheadNut]

To continue:
The next morning after packing up camp we headed back down the mountain, exploring some of the lower levels of the mine on our way.

This mine had a tram station halfway between the top and bottom of the line. I am still not sure how the tram worked, as there were only small holes in the roof for the cables, not large enough to let an entire tram bucket through.

 

[AirheadNut]

We hit the highway, heading deeper into the mountains of Idaho. While cruising along at about 80km/h I started to hear a strange whistling noise under acceleration: a boost leak. Upon investigation the hose coming off the turbo had come loose; a quick fix with a 10mm wrench on the t-band clamp and we were back on the road.

Arriving at the mining ghost town of Mackay, ID, we found it to be too developed and "touristy" for our tastes, so we started exploring some of the lesser traveled tracks that led out of town. While grinding up a steep hill in 1st gear low range white smoke suddenly poured from the engine bay. I immediately stopped and shut the engine off. It took a minute to figure out what had gone wrong: the whole RH inner fender and exhaust downpipe was drenched in oil. Looking under the turbo intake pipe I noticed that the oil drain line from the turbo had been leaking, spraying oil on the exhaust. When I pulled on it, the crimped hydraulic fitting slid right off!

We gently rolled the Prado backwards down the hill to a switchback where the ground was a little flatter, then made lunch while we waited for things to cool off enough to attempt a repair. Not a half bad spot to break down, at least the views were nice!

The first task was to remove the whole drain line so we could work on it. I dug through my toolbox trying to find the adjustable wrench I knew was in there, but was unsuccessful. Luckily some nice folks in side-by-side ATV's happened along and lent us theirs. We got the hose out and were able to slice the crimp fitting lengthwise with a hacksaw and peel it off the hose. Using one of the hose clamps from the PCV catch can, we slid the hose back on the drain pipe on the turbo and clamped it firmly in place. After cleaning the area with a rag as best we could, I started the engine and watched anxiously for leaks, but none appeared. The engine had lost about half a liter of oil, so we topped it up and started back down the mountain, stopping to check the hose every few minutes to make sure it would hold. After half a dozen checks with no evidence of more leaking my confidence started to grow, so we got back on the highway and headed for a more remote area we had picked out for our overnight stop.

Had to stop to enjoy the scenery along the way.

After a couple of hours on the highway we turned off onto a very rough, bumpy track that took us several miles up into the mountains to a little, abandoned mine settlement. We found a flat spot and made camp.