Broken down in Andalusia

[Godwin]

I don't recommend it.

Wednesday I traveled to Andalusia for turtle research on the Conecuh River. The boat launch was off Hart's Bridge Road and following a bit of rain I encountered a few small mud patches requiring 4WD. After completing my work in the afternoon I pointed the Cruiser to Andalusia but at the end of the dirt road I lost all brakes. For a couple of weeks I've had a leaky rear wheel cylinder and attributed the brake loss to this.

I was to meet a friend from GA in town so I slowly crept toward Andalusia and drove within a couple of miles of town before leaving the FJ60 in a church parking lot. Dirk met me at the church and we went on to town stopping at Advance Autoparts to order a wheel cylinder; had it the next morning.

Thursday I returned to the Cruiser and swapped out the cylinder then began the brake bleed but after a few brake pump-and-squirts pressure at the pedal was not building. A look under the Cruiser revealed a big puddle near the front. The front soft line had been rubbing on the driveshaft and had ruptured. Fine, I'll just go back into town and pick up a replacement.

Short summary:

Went to Autozone and no brake lines were in stock, could order one with expedited shipping and maybe have it by Friday afternoon but more likely Monday.

Went to Advance Autoparts - same story.

Was directed to the heavy equipment shop since they make hoses. Could not make a hose, did not have new fiittings, M10 x 1. Could not and would not splice the rupture. Was directed to Carquest.

Carquest - same story regarding parts. Skipped O'Reilly's.

Now what? On Friday Dirk drove me back to Tallassee where I had a replacement hose in 5 minutes after pulling it from a spare axle housing. Drove back to Andalusia with my wife and had the line swapped in and brakes bled in 20 minutes, then returned home.

This was not a stock line but one longer than stock and I had not suspected that it had been rubbing on the driveshaft.

 

[Blackdog]

Sorry to hear about your bad run of luck. I grew up boating an skiing around that area.You should have had no problem finding turtles to study on that river. Most folks down there have never heard of a land cruiser,much less seen parts for one. I should know. That's my home town. If I knew you were stranded I probably could have hooked you up with some home cooking.

 

[bhmmapping]

Jim sorry to hear that. Too late now but my experience has been that most of the cruiser hoses(brake and clutch) will work in a pinch, the length is really the only thing that is different. I blew one of the front caliper lines on trail 6 at Tellico at GSMTR, clamped it off with a vice grip to get back to camp and borrowed a random line from clutchee. His was supposed to be an axle to hard line hose, but the threaded end screwed right into the caliper where the banjo bolt? usually goes. It got me home and worked fine for a couple of weeks while I waited for ordered parts to arrive.

 

[Godwin]

Too late now but my experience has been that most of the cruiser hoses(brake and clutch) will work in a pinch, the length is really the only thing that is different.

Right. The issue was that no parts store had any hoses with the correct metric fitting. At a couple of the stores I asked for them to use other Toyota models such as early '80s 4WD truck or 4runner. I knew that I could cobble something together if I could just get a hose or two.

I guess I could have swapped in the clutch line and just start the Cruiser in gear to get going then shift by matching engine and tranny speeds. Twice I've had clutch problems with the FJ40 and had to do that.

I once had the right rear hard line on my FJ40 flex and break. For a field repair I bent and crimped the line, bled the system with water, and drove it like that for about 3 days until I could properly replace the line and refill with brake fluid.

 

[Land Speeder]

Wish I had known. We have a good friend down that way who wheels with us up here and everywhere and I know he coulda helped you out!
His uncle owns Boggs and Boulders down there too.
But anyway, holla next time!