Builds Cayman Islands FZJ80 DIY build-up (1 Viewer)

[mmajsw]

To have the fenders all look the same, I also sprayed bed liner on the back passenger side fenders. When replacing the splash guards, they looked a little dull so they also got the bed liner treatment. And I decided to jazz them up a bit.

And installed.

That piece of the bumper is really looking dull now. Hmmmm......

 

[2fpower]

Great work... always love following this thread.

 

[mmajsw]

Thanks 2fpower.

 

[cjmoon]

Good Friday was good to me. Took the Cruiser out of storage and decided to install two items. The first was the lower control arms above.
And I have to admit, it took about 15 mins for the driver's side and 10 minutes for the passenger side. Simply loosen the two bolts with an impact wrench and slide the bolts out. I had to loosen the lower shock bolt to pry the shock a bit forward to allow the bolt to retract enough to allow the control arm to slide off. Thankfully, there was absolutely no corrosion on either bolt where it inserts into the bushing.
Dropped the old arms out and slid the new ones in. The measurement precautions taken above worked. Did the driver's side first then the passengers. I wish all upgrades were this easy.

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The second item was a Hudd Expo GIS skidplate. I had bought the weld it together kit , welded it up and painted it but never got around to installing it. Well, today I did.
It is a well thought out piece of equipment and everything fits together well. You cannot make any mistakes once you know what side the parts fit on. I can now confirm that it fits a 97 4.5L with the A442F trans and the H1FA part time transfer case. There are enough details in ih8mud so I do not need to repeat anything here.

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Well, it's Easter and we have been in lock down since March 24th. Spent the first two weeks organizing the garage and fixing outstanding projects. This long weekend and next week is work on the truck. Perhaps the Wit's end power steering cooler is next!
Also have a factory auto trans cooler sitting on the garage floor to install.

just saw this post, awesome. glad it worked out for you. the H1FA has a shorter case with the drain horizontal. I made shorter one with a cut out on the back to make draining easier but haven't had anyone to try it out with. in theory it will be tighter fit for the shorter case.

 

[mmajsw]

Stripped the plastic bumper pieces off and bedlined both sides. Looking much better overall.

I also ended up changing the auxiliary park /brake lights that I previously installed in back in post #71. I was informed that when a left hand drive car is behind me, they cannot see the right hand turn signal due to the tire blocking their view. I have always maintained safety first, hence the need for an upgrade.
These were additional units purchased from Amazon for my trailer build. 75 LEDs and pretty bright. Easy to swap out if there are any issues because I used 5 pin automotive electrical connectors at the back

The supportive and protective light frame was made from old bed frame. It is deep enough to protect the lights from any damage. A couple cross pieces to bolt the light to, a dash of paint and they are done. The mounting had to be unique on my project as it had to fit into the space left by the previous light. They are bolted in.

Electrical connection was made to the 7 pin trailer connector in the rear bumper. Now, once I do not have a trailer behind me, you can see what I am doing.

 

[mmajsw]

Noticed over the past little while (more like a couple years) that the parking brake was really not working like it should. It would barely hold the truck on a medium incline and when I tried to stop the truck on a flat with only the parking brake, it was a little shorter than coasting to a stop. The parking brake lever would get to almost vertical before you felt the brakes starting to do their job.
Well, time to dig into the factory manual and here on mud.
Turn it it is not a difficult job, assuming that all the parts are working correctly.
I started out on the driver's side, stripping the rear assembly down to just the parking brake shoes. There was a lot of brake material on the pads. The parking braking surface was clean of oil, rust and dirt. I took the parking brake adjuster apart and while the outside had some surface rust, the male and female rotating surfaces were still greased and moved freely. I reassembled everything back together and noted what I had to do to adjust the shoes. Then did the adjustment. I adjusted the shoes until they were affecting the rotation of the disc, then backed off a few notches until it rotated smoothly.
But the wheel back on and off to the passenger side. There I did not disassemble the unit, but repeated the shoe adjustment until I felt resistance, and backed off a couple notches until the assembly rotated freely.
Put the wheels back on and go for a test drive.The road in front of my house has about a 2.5% slope. Using 10mph as the test speed, I went down the road in both forward and reverse and in all cases, the parking brakes were able to stop the vehicle in a reasonable distance - about 25-30'.
I consider that a successful adjustment. The only change/upgrade needed is that I have to replace the parking brake cable as mine is stretched to its maximum.

 

[mmajsw]

I drove the Cruiser for the past couple days to work on logging my 200 miles/year !
Came home and parked it in the driveway. Stepping outside a little later, I noticed that the brake lights were on. I initially thought I needed a new brake light switch. But when I was feeling around the top of the brake pedal, a couple bits of plastic dropped on the mat.
The issue was this small plastic pad (highlighted in red below) that it attached to the brake pedal that acts as a contact point for the brake switch.

I have no idea what is it called nor its part number, and I am not going to dismantle the whole brake pedal to fix it. It is about 5/8" diameter and about 1/8" thick. The dealer is closed and would probably have to order it in - maybe a month or two if I am lucky in this current Covid climate?
The first thing was to pull the stop light fuse and check my options.
The solution was a piece of 1/8" thick plastic (to match the thickness of what fell out) about 5/8" diameter (best guess on the diameter). I used Kydex (it was on hand and readily accessible) but any hard plastic should do as long as it can be glued. A test fit showed that when my new piece is in place, the brake light goes off.
A dab of polyurethane caulking on one the side that goes to the brake pedal, center it on the stop light switch and I left it to dry overnight with the pedal/switch pressure holding it in place. No further issues are expected. Due to where the pad fits, a square piece of plastic 3/4" square would have also worked.

 

[baldilocks]

Top notch analysis.

 

[gofast]

Love this thread. Your approach is on issues is always pragmatic - Nice work

 

[mmajsw]

I took the cruiser for a drive and while the driver's window went down, it would not go up. Problem was with the power window motor.
I had the original motor stop working about 6 years ago and swapped it for a Dorman unit. That installation required a bit of rewiring - mainly because the up/down action of the switch was reversed.
I kept the factory motor and rebuilt is according to instructions available on mud and it was standing by, ready to use. But to reinstall it meant reverting the wiring back to the factory setup. I needed a solution. Enter polarized marine connectors.
I had seen 1 pin connectors somewhere but none were available locally. I bought the 2 pin units and, using a box cutter (proved to be the best way after a couple failures) divided them along the purple line. There are some units where the wires come out joined and others, like the units below, where the wires are separated.
The idea is to continue to have both the male and female plugs still insulated by rubber. If your cut is bad, one can use heat shrink to insulate.

After the operation, you now have two single pin, marine grade connectors.

The next step was to modify the window motor to accept the new plugs. All connections were soldered and heat shrink was used to seal the wiring. I used the female connector here and the males on the power source.

Then a similar modification was made to the factory wiring.

Finally, I modified the Dorman motor connector.

The end result is the next time I need to change the window motor, a quick swap of the connectors will allow me to reverse the wiring , if needed, to allow the window switch to operate as it should.

 

[baldilocks]

Do you recall where you found the motor rebuild info? Is there a kit that be ordered?

 

[mmajsw]

The details are

Do you recall where you found the motor rebuild info? Is there a kit that be ordered?

Here on mud. Got Slow Windows? Here's the Fix. - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/got-slow-windows-heres-the-fix.840926/#post-9607389
It usually means a cleaning of old grease/carbon/rust from the motor. New lubrication of the bushing and gears - I used marine grease for brass bushings and lithium grease for the gears. Clean the commutator with electrical cleaner and 600 grit sandpaper, then reassemble. Bench test to make sure it works.
Replacement brushes should be readily available - if needed. Got mine from a local parts store.

 

[mmajsw]

Had a door lock problem where the key could not or was barely able to turn the locks. Worked well for ignition but the 3 door locks were yes/no/maybe. It became more "no" that anything else as time passed. I did silicone spray, brake cleaner and other usual treatments but nothing worked.
Started to look for a replacement lock set online but the only one I could find was about US$450 and may or may not fit.
A bit of research in IH8MUD shows that the brass key wear out faster than the hardened tumbler pins in the lock.
Dealer would not order new keys based o n the VIN (said they never heard of that before) so I called a mobile locksmith to sort out the issue.
He had a device that scanned my old key and determined what the original key shape should look like. The machine cut the new profile in a blank and it worked. Got a spare cut for the wife. Headed to a normal key cutter tomorrow to get spares cut. One will be labelled as the original and kept for future reference 25 years down the road when the next replacement is needed.