CA to VA in my 1st 60 (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Dec 19, 2007
Threads
59
Messages
538
Location
Harrisonburg, VA
I'm a newby here, lots of good info. I've always used the Landcruiser mailing list. I was searching the archives and i came accross my post from when i got my 1st 60 and thought it might enetertain some of you also. its a little broken up b/c its a few different posts, hope you enjoy. I was trying to find out why it wasn't running warm enough

YYes I've replaced the seal, even used cylicone, still won't run above 175, >sometimes it runs 160. Starting to think since it has always been a CA truck >and I brought it to VA its just in "culture shock". Went from living in a >garage in Hollywood and never getting driven, to 3000 miles in 4 days, and now >its always full of dogs, deer jerky and blaze orange...don't know

When i got back from CA I installed mech temp and oil pres guages. The temp gauge is in the stock location, I really think i'm ok, because the stock dummy gauge doesn't give an actual temp so i don't know what the water temp is in that part of the head ( behind the carb). Its a 195 stat I think. As I posted earlier this purchase was one of my greatest brain farts. I was in Los Angeles for work for about a month last summer and had the great idea of driving back to the east coast b/c i've never driven across the US. Started looking in the auto trader for a small newer, fuel efficient vehicle...then i saw it, 84 60, new clutch, new radiator, ec, 150 k miles. Well that's perfect I've been tinkering with 40's for years, I know my way around these motors so "if" there is a problem on the road i can probably fix it. I've never been across the Hoover dam, or out through the desert so I'll go that way. Test drove it around the block, drove fine. I'll just sell it when i get home b/c you can't find them like this in Va, No rust etc. Didn't even have any oil leaks. PO took me to the CAdmv, registered it in CA etc. PO followed me to the airport so i could return my rental gave me the 60 and I was on my way. 10 min later the temp starts going up, if i keep it at 55 it stays just out of the red. Figure I'll get outside LA on to 15 towards Vegas and look for a place to get a stat. Find a NAPA borrow tools 180 stat. Back on the road, same thing, go for a while, pull over, nothing around, wait to cool so i can make sure i got it full of water, open radiator too soon loose most of my water. Refill with all the gatoraid, bottles of water, Dr. pepper I've got. Back on the road, same thing go for a while, getting out in the desert, nothing around, finally come to an exit, little gas station, 1 old guy and son neither have teeth, baths etc., explain my problem ask to barrow a 12 mm so i can check my stat installation, they haven't seen a 12mm in 10 yrs but wish they had one b/c something out back needed a 12mm. They told me i needed to head back the way I cam b/c i was getting ready to cross the 4th largest grade in the world. Yeah right, what could these guys know. Headed for the "hill", they weren't kidding, I could see it from like 40 miles away. I saw a wide load in the rear-view, pulled over and tucked in behind, 45 mins later at 25 mph I get to the top, catch a few more gears and down the hill, but that was only the little hill before the big hill, waited for the same truck did it all over. Out through the desert, shortcut to Vegas, nothing around, I'm from Va, never seen anything like this. Get to boulder city late afternoon, but i want to go across the dam before dark, find an auto-zone, borrow tools, buy fan clutch, install in the parking lot, very hot. New fan clutch, off to the dam, still running hot, cross the dam, fly into viewing area cause i want a picture, pull e brake, run out in the middle of all the families, I'm covered in grease, no shirt, blisters and cuts all over my arms from the fan clutch install, snap a picture of myself back in the 60, headed to AZ. Sleep at Walmart in kingman, AZ, wake up drive to Flagstaff, stop for fuel, fan belt starts squeeling, go to walmart buy $10 tool set. fix belt problem ( or so I think) off to NM, in NM buy 2 belts just in case. Nexblue][t 2 days drove 55 mph watching temp peg the red. aquired milk jugs along the way and would stop about every third rest area and pour water over motor, refill jugs. Installed a water pump somewhere along the way. Going through OK city, get passed by tractor-trailer doing 85, screw it if it blows i'll just rent a uhaul, 85 mph to TX. Still holding together, needle is burried in the red, but the motor really doesn't seem hot when i touch the valve cover, start trying to convince myself its the guage. Make it to Arkansas about midnight on the 3rd day, stop for fuel, start truck back up belts squeel, smoke pours out from under the hood, pull into the Walmart parking lot, its closed, nothing in the town. Belt is completely burnt up, put on new belt, same thing. Start investigating and the [COLOR=FONT=Arial Unicode MS]smog pump is locked up, i've never seen a smog pump before, think they're a pain to get out in your shop, try it in the dark with a $10 tool set. get it out but i need the pulley to tension the belt, take it apart, the inerds had detinated, but with some grease i could put the shell back together and use the pulley, start walking, once again, no shirt, 3 days worth of grease, a state trooper passes me turns around, makes me stand in the headlights while he checks my VA lisence, comes back and says there is no record of me in VA only in CA, I explane my situation, he drives me to a truck-stop where I ask a mechanic for a finger full of grease for my bearing. Cop gives me a ride back to my truck, i'm riding shot-gun no shirt covered in grease and literaly have stuck my finger in a tube of grease. when we arive its surrounded by other cops, apparently they thought someone had stolen the vehicle and was stripping parts, anyway i was back on the road by daylight. While driving through TN, i decided to take some of the inerds out of the old stat so it had continuous flow, that's what we do on our race cars, a few more stat changes nothing ever works. get back to va rest a few days, buy a new gauge and find out it doesn't seem to be running warm enough. Pulled off all the smog stuff, got a non usa carb, and now i love it. Oh yeah somewhere along the way the drivers side seat reclining mechanism broke so I had to stuff things behind the seat to keep it upright, it was cheaper to buy a donor 60 then the part for the seat. found an 86 with a knocking motor for $650, turns out the motor is fine, the smog pump was making the noise, truck is in great shape, i still need a seat reclining mech. the 84 from CA had probably never even been in 4 wheel drive, it does leak oil everywhere now, the 3000 miles in 4 days was a little rough for it

Jeff,Glad I could entertain you, yes that is actually what i did, but I left out a lot of details on the whole trip b/c I didn't want to bore anyone with so much babble. Let me give you a little more info on that part of the trip...Somewhere in OK I think it was, I decided maybe the ol girl just needed to get more air. I pulled over and removed the grill, A/C condenser, A/C lines etc. Nothing left on the front but the headlights. Keep in mind, I'm storing quite a collection of parts inside. All along the way I'd performed sever fluid changes, so had lots of anti-freeze containers and at least 10 milk jugs of water. I hadn't showered in 3 days, been living in the cruiser, and had completely replaced the whole cooling system. I had grease from the tips of my fingers to my shoulders. After I got the smog pump off, I took about a 45 min. hike around this little town, visiting every store i could find looking for any kind of grease, I would have used KY jelly if I could find it. Someone finally told me there was a 24 hr mech at the truck stop where I was headed when the Staty stoped me. in the mean time the local cops had found my truck and since it was missing many parts, and looked like a traveling meth lab inside with all the jugs, clothes, trash, sleeping bag etc. The cops were getting pretty excited. I'm pretty sure the Staty already knew about the suspicious vehicle when he stopped me. Remember I mentioned I registered it in CA...well I had to do this to get an instant temp title, which i neede for plates registration etc. In order to do this i had to convince the lady at the CAdmv that i was related to the PO. Anyway in this whole process, somehow my info got zapped from VA, and I was now a resident of CA, No VA DL on record. SO my title, plates, regis all CA, my DL was VA. When the cop was checking me out he kept getting info back that i was a CA resident and no record in VA, but I was holding a VA DL. He couldn't figure out if I was lying and had a fake VA DL or what. The cop really thought I was Up to something. He had me leaned against his hood for at least 20 min before he started to believe me. He took me to the mech, but the mechanic wouldn't give me a tube, he only let me stick my fingure in it, so I stuck it way in it. It was that thick red tractor grease, and yes I rode all the way back to my truck, shot-gun with this big glob of grease on my finger. All the time sitting straight up trying not to touch anything with my body and get grease on any of the trinkets in his car. CA still sends me letters about needing to get my smog system checked, I called them one day and told them I'd leave in the morning and see them in about 4 days...what a bunch of Jacka$$s

Brett>OMG! That was a priceless story, Brett! Literally laughing out reading it and envisioning that adventure! LOL! So were you actually riding in the cop car with that dab of grease on your fingertip, just holding it out there to save it?<
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to save it?<[/COLOR
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I'm from N. Cal, but went to law school in DC. I would drive back and forth each summer.

My first trip out East, myself and two friends decide to make a post college road trip out of it (Yellowstone/Devil's Tower/Canada/ you name it!) Anyway, just outside Worland, Wyoming, my water pump in my S10 Blazer bites it and throws all of the belts. I was shocked - just about every passing driver stopped and asked if we needed help - one even offered to let us crash overnight if needed. (Apparently, Worland, WY has the nicest people in the world because I have never again seen such hospitality). Or maybe I was better looking than I give myself credit for - nah, they were just nice folks.

Anyway, I rig one of the belts to power the important stuff and limp into town covered in grease (but at least I had a shirt!). I find a local gas station, thinking I am going to get taken advantage of because of the situation, but the old guy puts in a new water pump and belts for like $150! Next day were off again on our adventure.

A couple trips later, going East to West, I start losing my tranny in the Rockies. Crappy S10!

It's nice to get out and have an adventure or two. Especially when you find out not all people are pieces of S***.

If I ever win the lottery, I think I'll buy the city of Worland a park. Maybe put a statue of an 85 S10 Blazer in the middle . . .
 
I live in Harrisonburg 9 months of the year and I really like it. How do you like the burg coming from CA and all?
 
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I live in Harrisonburg 9 months of the year and I really like it. How do you like the burg coming from CA and all?

Actually i'm out in Broadway, got a little farm. I love it, I was only in LA for a few weeks. I travel a lot for work. What year are you? JMU is a great school, my girlfriend just graduated from there. I'm not smart enough, I went to Radford...ha ha

If you ever need a place to wrench, let me know. I'm finishing a 5000ft/sq shop at my house.
 
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Welcome to mud. :flipoff2:


Great story! Sounds like every other week of my life. [Murphy's law]

Is that four different 40's that you have, or one "bastard"? :grinpimp: And as we often say here on 'mud, this thread is useless without pictures!



Look me up, if you're ever around C-ville. Scott
 
I'll be a sophomore, and after my grades this semester I wish I had gone to Radford. I actually have a couple of friends that work with Broadway HS kids. It must be awesome to have 5,000 sq feet to work in and with all that space you must have some nice cruisers too :p. If you ever want to wheel around with another cruiser I'll be hitting the gwnf hard in the fall.
Chris
 
Welcome to mud. :flipoff2:


Great story! Sounds like every other week of my life. [Murphy's law]

Is that four different 40's that you have, or one "bastard"? :grinpimp: And as we often say here on 'mud, this thread is useless without pictures!



Look me up, if you're ever around C-ville. Scott

I actually have 5, 2 are complete, 1 bastard, 2 parts. I used to live in C'ville, moved about 3 yrs ago, had a white 40, 33's v-8.

I work in Ivy
 
It must be awesome to have 5,000 sq feet to work in and with all that space you must have some nice cruisers too :p. If you ever want to wheel around with another cruiser I'll be hitting the gwnf hard in the fall.
Chris

It'll be nice when its done. Nothing real nice mostly a bunch of rust-buckets. My girlfriend has a nice 97 80 with 56k on the clock. I've got a 40 with a 350 that i beat around the farm on. Now that I have the space i'll build a nice rig. I bought my 86 60 for parts $650, PO said the motor was knocking, turns out it was the smog pump. My girlfriend wants me to completely redo it for her so that will be this winter. I go to the GWNF often but always take my Tacoma or atv's, Just never had time to get cruiser trail ready.

Brett
 
I actually have 5, 2 are complete, 1 bastard, 2 parts. I used to live in C'ville, moved about 3 yrs ago, had a white 40, 33's v-8.

I work in Ivy


Cool. I go through Ivy almost on a daily basis. My wife works in Crozet.

x2 on getting together.[cruiser or not;)]
 

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