Builds Big Red Toy (14 Viewers)

[The Phoenician]

7 years ago today I was wounded by an IED inside a house during a raid gone bad. The end result was me losing parts of my fingers and some hand motion and strength, loss of hearing and shrapnel everywhere on my right side. In years past I spent the day wondering what I should have done different and so on. Today is not one of those days, I got home from the gym to find this at my door step. It arrived much sooner than I expected which means I'll be able to install it on wednesday when I can use the community college's garage an tools. Granted I wasn't thrilled to pay the $340 plus shipping for it, but the old one needed to get replaced.







This week has been great, I got my vw's timing belt and water pump replaced for free and now this, let's hope the good news keeps coming.

 

[robustbambi]

7 years ago today I was wounded by an IED inside a house during a raid gone bad. The end result was me losing parts of my fingers and some hand motion and strength, loss of hearing and shrapnel everywhere on my right side. In years past I spent the day wondering what I should have done different and so on. Today is not one of those days, I got home from the gym to find this at my door step. It arrived much sooner than I expected which means I'll be able to install it on wednesday when I can use the community college's garage an tools. Granted I wasn't thrilled to pay the $340 plus shipping for it, but the old one needed to get replaced.

This week has been great, I got my vw's timing belt and water pump replaced for free and now this, let's hope the good news keeps coming.

Thank you so much for your service. Your attitude is fantastic! Keep up the good vibes and carry on with cruiser progress. And as always, MORE PICS!!!!!!!!!!

 

[bluehawk]

Been awhile since I've checked in on your build. Looking very good sir. I'll have to go back a couple of pages and catch up.

 

[The Phoenician]

I guess it's radiator update time. I went to community college yesterday to use their shop for the radiator swap. What looked like could be a two hours tops job ended up being 4.5 hours and it's technically still not done since I haven't hooked up the battery back up. The campus police was locking up so they asked us to stop what we're doing and head out. I started with tons of pictures, but as I got dirtier and the time started flying I stopped taking them. I plan on going back tomorrow morning and finishing up.

so here we go, a buddy of mine wanted to help out with the swap and since we never used the coolant vacuum machine before we thought we'd give it a try.

15 minutes of us trying to get the coolant sucked out didn't work. The vacuum machine operates on vacuum, and since there's a major leak in the radiator there's no vacuum. We knew that going in but still wanted the opportunity to test it out.
So I tried the old fashioned way of unplugging it from the bottom. It worked well until it started hitting the leaf springs and axle.

The shop foreman was not too happy about the mess, but retired sailors never are. Next we took off the shroud and thought we could unbolt the radiator and pull it out from there.

We soon learned that to get to the radiator bolts we'd have to pull the AC condenser forward. and to do that I need to get the grill off, which meant unbolting the signal lights.

Once we got the grill off, we realized the inter cooler was in the way. We had to get that off now. It wasn't easy getting the inter cooler off, mostly cause I have uncoordinated large hands and the space is tight. I also decided I need a much larger one, though one of the technicians says it should be fine since it's a small turbo.


Once we got to the bolts from the condenser side, we were able to unbolt the old radiator and pull it out, or so we thought

 

[The Phoenician]

We realized we needed to get to the bottom bolt and the only way to reach it comfortably was to take the battery tray out. So i took a picture of the battery connections to remember what goes where.


Now we were finally able to get the old radiator pulled out. here's a side by side.



Can you tell which is which?


Here's what the engine bay looks like without a radiator in it.



Right around here we only had 20 minutes till closing. So we rushed to put the new one in and button everything back up. I mixed the coolant and began adding it when the campus police asked us to stop. Though I didn't get to finish it, I did learn a lot about what not to do. In 25 years when this needs to be changed again I hope I remember these lessons.
Tomorrow I hope to add the rest of the coolant, put the battery back in and the wires correctly connected, burp the system and check for leaks. Will post more pictures of the finished product then.

 

[klinetime574]

Looking good! I also thank you for your service!

Gotta get that diesel rolling coal again

 

[davegonz]

Man, that sounds like my radiator adventure with my 80 series. I had to pull both battery trays to get to the damn bolts.

 

[The Phoenician]

Looking good! I also thank you for your service!

Gotta get that diesel rolling coal again

Thanks, I can't wait to get it back on the road. I still need to get the clutch slave cylinder looked at, it's leaking some oil and I might possibly need to replace the master cylinder for the brakes as well. It's never ending with these things.

Man, that sounds like my radiator adventure with my 80 series. I had to pull both battery trays to get to the **** bolts.

Dave this was a real pain since we couldn't reach most of the stuff. We either had to stand on the tires or on the front bumper. To top it off there was a retired senior chief with an opinion on everything standing right over my shoulder. I can't really complain though since I did get to use their tools and facility for free.

 

[The Phoenician]

Dave do you remember how much coolant your 80 took? I poured nearly 3 gallons 50/50 mix in mine before I had to leave. I'm not sure how much more it needs.

 

[davegonz]

3 or 4 gallons sounds right.

 

[boots4]

3 or 4 gallons sounds right.

Yup, that's about what my system takes too.

 

[The Phoenician]

Soo here is where I left off Wednesday night. Had the radiator in, but not the battery or tray.


I have to go back and change out the battery tray, this one is too corroded, as were the wires and fusible links.

Here it is with the engine and heater running while we're burping the system.


It took forever to get it to operating temperature. I'm getting disheartened with this rig, every time I take a step forward seems like I manage to fall two steps behind. I found a clutch fluid leak in both the slave and master cylinders.
Nothing bad yet, but enough to make me not want to go too far until it's fixed.


it's hard to tell from this picture because you can't actually see the clutch slave cylinder, but you can see the oil on the hose leading to it.

I also found out that it won't be a bad idea to get new brake calipers either.

You can see the rubber boots are shot.

and to top it off, there's a small puddle under my fuel reservoir from this little guy.


I tightened it up and hopefully that will fix it. I don't want a repeat of a few months ago when the fuel return line got loose and dumped all over the highway.

When I put the cables back together I accidentally disconnect the ac ground wire, so it wasn't working. At first I thought I had a freon leak since it was blowing air, but when i pressure tested the AC lines, they were showing 90 PSI. After going through the trouble of doing that, someone tells me that it was easier to check if the ac clutch was engaging. Needless to say I had to find the ground and reconnect it. The AC is fine now.

Back on a brighter note, Big Red is enjoying his new radiator, seems like he's running about 10 degrees cooler than usual. Now I just need to prioritize the next problems. I think the most pressing one would be the clutch cylinders.

 

[The Phoenician]

I'm looking to order a clutch master and slave cylinder. Since the 89 did not come with a factory manual, will this work for my application?
I typed in 87 land cruiser to get it

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=1946754&cc=1276589

I also need a hose, what do you guys recommend?

 

[davegonz]

I've gotten Aisin cylinders from Rock Auto in the past and they worked great. Rock Auto usually had good prices on them as well.

 

[The Phoenician]

I've gotten Aisin cylinders from Rock Auto in the past and they worked great. Rock Auto usually had good prices on them as well.

Thanks for the reply Dave. How hard and how long was it to change it out and what hose do you recommend? I'm also looking for a remote filter set up, what are you using for yours. I might need to reseal the oil pan as well, beginning to get major leaks everywhere.

 

[davegonz]

It's straight forward and shouldn't take you long. The hose I got from Rock Auto.

 

[klinetime574]

Which clutch slave will yours require? There is a difference between early and late (spacer / non-spacer transmission) slave cylinders.

I'm not meaning to confuse you. Just want you to get the right part. Early uses external return spring. Late uses internal spring. The TOB always spins with the internal spring set-up. The return spring set-up pulls the TOB away from the pressure plate.

 

[The Phoenician]

Which clutch slave will yours require? There is a difference between early and late (spacer / non-spacer transmission) slave cylinders.

I'm not meaning to confuse you. Just want you to get the right part. Early uses external return spring. Late uses internal spring. The TOB always spins with the internal spring set-up. The return spring set-up pulls the TOB away from the pressure plate.

I have no clue buddy, that's why I post a million stupid questions on here. I ended up ordering the 87 parts off rock auto, hopefully that will work. Are the master cylinders the same? Because that's the part that really needs to be replaced.

 

[klinetime574]

Master cylinders are the same as far as I know.

There are no stupid questions! I do the same thing all the time

 

[davegonz]

Thanks for the reply Dave. How hard and how long was it to change it out and what hose do you recommend? I'm also looking for a remote filter set up, what are you using for yours. I might need to reseal the oil pan as well, beginning to get major leaks everywhere.

I'm running the Amsoil dual bypass remote oil setup. If I had to do it again, I'd run the remote setup from Pacbrake. It's clean and simple (but not cheap).

http://www.dkdiesel.com/Pac_Brake_HP10007_REMOTE_OIL_FILTER_KIT_p/PACHP10007.htm