Well, if you ever get this way you are welcome to stay here, as long as the rooms have not been reserved first
Aussie BJ73
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Well, if you ever get this way you are welcome to stay here, as long as the rooms have not been reserved first
I don't think a month is enough? What an amazing vista and sights. Thanks for all the pics, Since I'm not a
big fan of heat stroke, what is the average high temp there at this time of the year? Did you just complete this trip?
If you ever get to Vancouver Island, let me know. Sure we can arrange a different set of gorges here for you.
Nothing quite as impressive as you have.
big fan of heat stroke, what is the average high temp there at this time of the year? Did you just complete this trip?
If you ever get to Vancouver Island, let me know. Sure we can arrange a different set of gorges here for you.
Nothing quite as impressive as you have.
WA is over 3000klms long from top to bottom ,it can go from sub zero to mid 50s Celsius .Marble Bar is about 1/10 of a degree cooler than Death Valley. But the dry season in the north is about 30c and the far south in the summer is about the same.
36c today in Perth and 37c tomorrow.
Dare's area in the summer is great for beach and camping
So is it ever not above 30C for extended periods of time?
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- #46
Cheers.
Yeah, even the 4WD and caravan magazines hardly ever mention anything but the Kimberlys. Most people on the east coast wouldn't know Karijini exists and most people in W.A seem to think the Pilbara is flat desert packed with mining.I also think self drive with a 4WD is the way to go here. All the best bits of Australia are offroad. We get lots of backpackers through work which are mainly just interested in seeing cities and culture which is fair enough, that's what they know. Personally I think you don't come to Aus to see those things because they aren't that special here, you come here to see country.
I'd love to get to Tasmania one day!
A month spent traveling is better than a month spent working! We ended up being away for about 2.5 weeks. This trip was in July, the middle of winter for us. The absolute max would have 30°c ish for 1 or 2 days but it was usually high teens, low 20s.
Yeah summer is pretty good down here, it's hot but not to bad and we have lots of nice beaches with shady campsites.
Thanks ozcruiser, will do.
Yes, pick your times though. The top end is always hot but the south coast of Australia is well under 30°c for 2/3rds of the year. I wouldn't worry about the heat to much anyway.
A bit more on the trip... What went wrong with the car? First off it appeared my back diff was leaking copious amounts of oil, turns out it was my transfer case! Like many cruisers mine has the balance tube between the gearbox and transfer, it was pushing oil from the gearbox, into the transfer then out the breather. The gearbox never lost much oil, the most was 800ml but the transfer certainly doesn't like being over filled! I bought a new hose and re routed the breather balance pipe which has completely fixed the leak.
I had a tyre balance issue that started 300kms from home. Some days it had quite a shake, others it was fine. I had them all balanced which made next to no difference. Because I mixed up the tyres when I did the roadworthy test I don't know which one was the spare. I figure the previous owner popped one off the bead and got some mud in it or something. I'm not really worried about it, I'll be replacing all the tyres soon anyway.
I broke an exhaust mount in Exmouth, cracked it off the pipe. I didn't hit it on anything, it'd been cracked for a while but it finally gave way. I removed the bracket from the chassis to stop it rattling and I'll sort it when I turbo it.
About 250kms from home my alternator died. I'm thankful it didn't happen earlier in the trip! We stayed the night in Bunbury again and drove home without it charging. I carry a small solar panel just for things like this.
I hope you pull the alternator down and replace whats worn instead off replacing. I'm just getting into solar with my old 88 caravan got 420 watts now with roof and and free standing panels but still trying to get my head around wiring the van for everything that I want/need.
I built my landcruiser and now building the van to do a lap round OZ but want to spend a few years traveling around this country off ours before my numbers up.
I built my landcruiser and now building the van to do a lap round OZ but want to spend a few years traveling around this country off ours before my numbers up.
Yes ,but even when it is over 30c ,its only for a portion of the day. 1pm till 4pm usually. Everything is airconditioned. Every town has a modern swimming pool. Night time is great in summer,no shirt, cold beer ,bbq steak etc.
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- #49
I hope you pull the alternator down and replace whats worn instead off replacing. I'm just getting into solar with my old 88 caravan got 420 watts now with roof and and free standing panels but still trying to get my head around wiring the van for everything that I want/need.
I built my landcruiser and now building the van to do a lap round OZ but want to spend a few years traveling around this country off ours before my numbers up.
Good luck on your travels and please do document it. The big lap is certainly the dream for many of us!
I could have fixed the alternator but I wanted to upgrade. The standard alternator is only 40amps, your solar panels almost make more power! I looked quite extensively and couldn't find an alternator the same as mine (with higher amperage) so I bought this one, I believe it suits a 3B-II. It's 85amp, over double the output of the standard one.
The bottom mounts are 10mm further apart, the oil feed hose is on the other side, the oil return is straight and the pulley is a little smaller. It took a bit of work to fit but I got it on there, it seems to work well. Since fitting it someone has listed on eBay upgraded alternators the same as my old one, oh well!
NM Frontier
SILVER Star
Great write up! Read the whole thing, sorry I missed the beginning in March. Keep it up, love the trips.
Where did you buy the alternator from? Is it OEX brand?
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- #52
It was from auto8 on eBay, I don't recall there being a brand on it and there wasn't one on the paperwork.
Rosco (or anyone else) if you're ever down this way and want to someone to wheel with let me know. I know a few places that very few people get to see.
I swapped out the mirrors. I hated the standard ones, they always get knocked out of position, they're tiny and the passengers side would move at highway speed.
I bought a set of FJ62 style mirrors off eBay. I'd tried fitting actual FJ62 mirrors to it (I have a set on my 60 series 4 runner) but they sit at a funky angle. I got the mirrors from these guys. I'm not that pleased with the quality for the price, there's big grinder marks in the base and there's no hole drilled for the plastic cap on the bottom. They function perfectly, the finish could just be better. NEW Toyota Landcruiser 70 75 78 Series Ute Replacement Chrome Mirror PAIR LH RH | eBay
The beauty of these in the mirror moving inside the housing so you can knock the housing on branches and not lose your position. They're also decently sized.
They also have a detent so you can fold them in and not lose your setting. They just pop back into place. They also fold backwards so it doesn't matter if you collect a branch whilst reversing.
Those mirrors look ok. Do they move at high speed. I don't get out wheeling much these days ,but I should do a trip south.
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- #54
They don't move at all, I live on a rough gravel road and they still don't shake out of position. It takes a very solid knock to make them fold in. 99% of branches won't make them fold.
For Kellie's birthday we went over to Margeret River for a few days. Nice place with plenty to do.
Whilst over there we went to Quinninup Falls. This is a little known place with quite a technical 4wd track to get in. This is the bottom of a series of waterfalls near the beach.
Later on I went in search of Landslide road. It's a track I've been looking for for some time, it leads to another set of dunes out here. I did find but the track is super narrow, the Landcruiser wouldn't fit between the trees! I'll come back another day in a Suzuki.
From there we went though Yaegarup dunes. The Landcruiser got all the way to the beach in 2WD which I thought was quite impressive.
I wanted to see how impossible it was to cross the Warren River. The river was pumping and I've never felt quicksand like that before, I was up to my knees before I knew it!
Big beach!
We spotted this baby long neck turtle being washed out to sea, we rescued it and put it back in the river further upstream.
A few weeks later we went over to Denmark. Nice place.
Waterfall beach near Denmark, unsurprisingly it has a little waterfall!
I wanted to re do my bottom radiator hose. I didn't like the idea of having the extra join to another piece of stainless pipe, it's just another potential failure point and I had a 38mm pipe stretched to fit the 42mm radiator. I found an early HJ75 Lower radiator hose is a perfect fit for what I want, 38mm pipe with a 90° bend and 42mm on the end.
You could just use a normal 90° bend with this hose if you're doing the HDJ79 radiator upgrade, there's enough length. Becuase there's no bead on the pipe I'm using I used double hose clamps and a little bit of sealant. My cooling system wasn't holding pressure due to a notch in the surface the cap seals on, I sealed that up and I'm now using the cap on my radiator.
Whilst I was there I fitted another new fan hub. Searching through dimensions on eBay listings I found the 2H/12H-T fan (HJ60, HJ61, HJ75) is the same as the BJ7x one. A 3F viscous hub from a 60 or 70 is almost the same, it just puts the fan 2mm closer to the radiator and the 1HZ 70series hub puts the fan 8mm closer to the radiator but is otherwise identical.
I think the hub I had was actually for a coaster/dyna (left). Either way it had almost no lock up and it would freewheel for ages when you switched the motor off. The new hub (middle) works great and was only $65 on eBay. The old hub whilst it felt stiff would randomly freewheel when the motor was switch off even if it was overheating.
Yesterday we went down to Fish Creek. Mum had never driven offroad and wanted to have a go, she loved it and she drove stuff in the Jimny I didn't think it would do. A friend just happened to turn up as we were about to leave so he tagged along too. I wanted to drive to the far eastern end of Fish Creek and walk down to the mouth of Broke Inlet as I had never seen it running out to sea before, we climbed down the cliff and walked over a kilometer down the beach only to find the last 50m was impassable! Oh well, another day.
We came across another guy in a Land Rover, my friend Mitch's Land Rover is a 120 (aus special, they cut and extended 110s) tray back with a an Isuzu 4BD1 (3.9L 4cyl DI, factory fitted motor for early Australian built 110s) which is a very rare car. It's twin locked on 33s and is quite well setup. The other guys Rover was an ex Aus army, interestingly with a TD5 and roof, almost all Aus army ones were 4BD1 powered soft tops.
With a 30°c day and plenty of soft sand the coolant temps never got above 80°c which I'm very happy about. I'm keen to hit the big dunes on a hot day and see what it gets up to, I'm confident it will do well. It didn't overheat before but it could get up to 90°c on the really long dunes.
That brings it more or less up to date. I've got an LSD to go in and I should update you on my ongoing turbo debacle but I might just cut my losses with the T25 and buy a TD04. The T25 is fighting me every step of the way, I've spent way to much on it and it still doesn't fit together.
My favourite part of Australia is between there and Esperance.
With those viscous couplers, the OEM type had a spot of paint on them in varying colours which was supposed to be for different engines.
We had a thread about it years ago
Maybe it was like t/stats where you can choose the opening temp.
With those viscous couplers, the OEM type had a spot of paint on them in varying colours which was supposed to be for different engines.
We had a thread about it years ago
Maybe it was like t/stats where you can choose the opening temp.
Gus
SILVER Star
Excellent write up and pics Dare. That looks like beautiful country out there, Australia is at the top of my short term bucket list of places to explore.
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- #57
Cheers Rosco. I couldn't find any concrete threads on hub colours, just a few odd posts. For what it's worth, the Aisin viscous hub off my 3B was blue. The 2H hub I have has quite aggressive lockup.
I've still got a lot of Australia to see but I agree, the south coast of W.A is my favorite. I haven't seen much of Esperance. I'm thinking of taking a week off and going over that way for my birthday (middle of January).
I have no experience of other countries but I'd still highly recommend Australia, Gus!
Also aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh now my cooling system is holding pressure my water pump has started leaking! Thankfully only when the motor isn't running and it's under pressure so it doesn't leak much. It seems there's at least 5 different types of 3B water pump and of course almost no one lists the dimensions. I know there's a powersteer and manual steer type (different heights to clear the P/S belt) and I think one that suits no fan cluch? 3B-II seems to also have 2 different ones?
I found some dimensions for the ones (gates/tru-flow 3068) listed for a BJ73 and they don't match mine!
I've still got a lot of Australia to see but I agree, the south coast of W.A is my favorite. I haven't seen much of Esperance. I'm thinking of taking a week off and going over that way for my birthday (middle of January).
I have no experience of other countries but I'd still highly recommend Australia, Gus!
Also aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh now my cooling system is holding pressure my water pump has started leaking! Thankfully only when the motor isn't running and it's under pressure so it doesn't leak much. It seems there's at least 5 different types of 3B water pump and of course almost no one lists the dimensions. I know there's a powersteer and manual steer type (different heights to clear the P/S belt) and I think one that suits no fan cluch? 3B-II seems to also have 2 different ones?
I found some dimensions for the ones (gates/tru-flow 3068) listed for a BJ73 and they don't match mine!
Do you have the original 3B in your 73 series? Should be able to match the correct pump with your VIN number. Do you have T/DIY access?
Esperance is fantastic in January. If you go,make sure you visit The Duke of New Orleans Bay and surrounding beaches .Its about 40 mins past Esperance on the road to Israelite Bay from memory which is another beach worth visiting. It has a nice caravan park and a pub not too far away.
Duke of New Orleans Bay
Esperance is fantastic in January. If you go,make sure you visit The Duke of New Orleans Bay and surrounding beaches .Its about 40 mins past Esperance on the road to Israelite Bay from memory which is another beach worth visiting. It has a nice caravan park and a pub not too far away.
Duke of New Orleans Bay
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I think on the hub colours there was a Black and an Orange type as well, but what ever draws the air in is good.
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- #60
Cheers Rosco.
Yes I have stuck the vin into toyodiy and got a part number but again a page lists different dimensions to what I have!
The Duke of New Orleans Bay sure looks nice, the aim is certainly to get east of Esperance.
Yes the HZJ75 on the farm looks like it was once black, it's locked solid though. None of my after market hubs had a colour but The 2H one could lock up less and the smaller one hardly locked at all.
