Bringing home a 60, untested...

[Elbert]

be great as long as you don't have any failures. I would make sure the tires are good as an obvious check, plus take reasonable precautions for simple spare parts, realizing that you generally can't find some parts in the local NAPA/autozone.

I drove my 60 from Houston TX to north AL when I bought mine.... it shut down in a heavy rain storm due to bad plug wires (eventually started back after the rain quit) and the a/c idler bearing sheared off right when I rolled into town (home). It was a real roll of the dice on my part but it made it.

I had a friend with a trailer on standby in case I got stranded. I just took some simple hand tools and looked over all the obvious stuff before I hit the highway. I would want to verify that the tuck has been driven around some on a regular basis before you just show up and attempt to drive it over the long haul. I would not worry about to many spare parts.....

 

[84pickup]

When my dad bought my cruiser, he had it shipped from California to Texas because he didn't have the time to fly out and drive it back and I wasn't there at the time, then when he gave it to me a few months later I drove it from Texas to Idaho, back to Texas, to Minnesota and back and then back to Idaho. All in about a years time. Mine was VERY well taken care of though and had been a DD in california.

 

[on2it]

I would take on the adventure.
I would get new wheels, get it serviced, make sure youve got heating, music and emergency supplies and hit the road. Take your time and enjoy the adventure.

theres a nice tale of the same in the 40s section

 

[Honest Don]

Thanks guys!


Btw, tires are under two years old and in great shape from what I understand.

 

[JohninFla]

Don,
Did you settle on a plan to get her home yet?

Good luck in either case, and happy new year!

John

 

[banieldowen]

Drive it.

I flew from Dallas to Boise ID in November and drove my 62 back 1700 miles solo. It was a fun trip (whiteout snowstorm in Moab and through Southern CO), I learned a lot about my rig, and I've got a story to tell!

Stop kidding yourself...you NEED an adventure.

 

[stonepa]

Plenty of emergency road supplies. Those are some lonely roads you're talking about driving in a 27 year old rig.
Maybe you could borrow some stuff from your friend up there and mail it back (Sleeping bag, blankets, tools, etc)

Definitely drive it but take a few 5 gallon cans of extra fuel. The gas stations along I-90 can be few and far between and, as I have experienced several times, are often mom and pop shops and are closed at night, weekends, etc.

Funny story. One day I was driving from Minneapolis to Seattle in my 4Runner. My comfort range on fuel is 250 miles on a great day and this wasn't one of those. As I was passing the 220 mile mark I saw a sign for gas, next exit. I took the exit and when the only direction available - north. After 5 miles I saw the kind of sign that makes your heart sink - 'Gas 35 miles'. I turned around and got back on the interstate, running on fumes. 4 exits later I see a gas station and exit. It's closed and the pumps are shut off, but the sign says it reopens 7 hours later. I pull out the sleeping bag and crash right at the gas pump. A couple of minutes later a bunch of kids in pickups show up and 'break into' the station to grab beer. Turns out that one of the kids was the son of the station owner. He turned on the pump for me, let me fill up, and pocketed the cash. And I drove on to Rapid City.

 

[on2it]

What's the plan?

 

[Honest Don]

Well, its home. I ended up shipping it. I got a good quote from the trucking company and it got here quicker than I could've gone and got the thing.

Yeah, kinda lame, but the trucker had some horror stories for me and I can save my vacation time for warmer weather....

 

[gregnash]

Thats awesome.. looks good!

 

[indianporfavor]

Did the truck driver get his rig stuck and need to use your land cruiser to get him out?

 

[on2it]

Well atleast its home congrats!

 

[Spudman]

Good to see you got it mate, either way was a good choice, so now let the mods begin

 

[Honest Don]

Well, I'm glad I shipped it. On day three of getting to know the thing, I popped the high-pressure ps hose. That was kinda messy and I had to get one fedexed in.


I also fixed some confusion between the distributor vent and the HAI, judging by pics on here, that seems to be a common thing. Thanks MUD!

Got the valves set, replaced the valvecover gasket, new pcv valve, fixed the horn, put in new door speakers, cleaned and made the rear seatbelts functional again, it goes on....

It runs much better now, but not quite there. I have a carb kit and I also have a new secondary diaphragm sitting on my desk at work.




Now, I imagine there may be a few of you cursing me for bringing such a nice example into rust country, but I'm gonna try to keep it from deteriorating too much:

Pulled the interior out to try and do some rust prevention

First a liberal amount of Ospho (phosphoric acid) to neutralize any existing rust

then a whole lot of LPS3 to try and keep anything new from forming. This stuff is pretty slick. We use it as protection when shipping out machines at work. It's kinda sorta like cosmoline, but easier to work with, and it creeps better before it dries

As an added bonus, I also received a whole stack of receipts going back to 2008 or so. The PO spent thousands on this thing. brakes, waterpump, hoses, smog pump, etc. One of the highlights was $2200 for installing new springs (2" lift) and corresponding shocks, bushings, and such in december of 2010.

 

[huntsonora]

Score! Great looking 60! Congrats!

 

[Major Nelson]

Don, can you do me a huge favor. Can you look through the cargo area and let me know where the wiring harness originates from for the drivers side tail light. I'm putting mine back together and I can't find the $)(#&$#)$$ large connector for the tail light now.

Thanks,

Kevin

 

[Honest Don]

Don, can you do me a huge favor. Can you look through the cargo area and let me know where the wiring harness originates from for the drivers side tail light. I'm putting mine back together and I can't find the $)(#&$#)$$ large connector for the tail light now.

Thanks,

Kevin

No problem. I'll look around for it later this week when I can get it back in the shop.

 

[Honest Don]

Well, this thing was more of a dog on the interstate than it should be, and after some fancy testing with a paperclip, I found out the secondary wasn't opening on the carb.


So I did a quick and dirty rebuild on the carb and replaced the secondary diaphragm. I also downloaded a factory emissions manual and verified/straightened out the vacuum routing.

It runs much better now...

ordered a new choke cable and a gently-used fuse panel cover from cruiserparts. I also used some foam tape and silenced a number of cold weather dash rattles. Fixed the horn contact too.

As a bonus, I found the gear pattern emblem under the seat and super-glued it back on

scored a non-broken "Toyota" emblem on ebay for cheap and removed the bumper sticker.

Oh, and it got a new fuel pump yesterday.....





Yeah, its a bunch of piddly s***, but minor annoyances add up over time so I might as well.....

 

[Trapper50cal]

Nothing to see? Hogwash. Best country anywhere says me, native of Sheridan, Wy. (Midway between Billings and Rapid City) Gods country, Drive with confidence I know I would!

That's just crazy talk...Wyoming is just Colorado's crazy, old uncle...yeah THAT uncle.

 

[NLXTACY]

That's just crazy talk...Wyoming is just Colorado's crazy, old uncle...yeah THAT uncle.

Uncle Touchy?