Builds Daily Driver 95 HZJ-73

[solomrus]

a prosaic thread based on the experience of driving a 25 year old truck every day.

to keep a potentially long first post below the Too Long Didn't Read threshold, i shall begin with a short introduction to the vehicle in question.

this here is what i drove home from @joekatana 's place. (hi jeori!) like the title states, it's a 1995 HZJ-73. sourced in the netherlands, imported by @joekatana. driven home from his place in TX to my place in NE.

nothing too fancy, just your basic work truck. in typical fashion there is no back seat, no a/c, no lockers... nothing that makes this guy stand out or particularly desireable. pretty much exactly what i wanted.

the above photo was taken literally moments after arriving home. literally moments after that, it looked like this:

i've been enjoying the truck for a couple months now, and other than the miscellaneous little tinkering i've done, i pretty much hop in and just drive it as much as possible.

now that the getting to know each other phase is wrapping up, it's getting to be time to start working out the little things that pop up between a couple once they start co-habitating.

i've been adding blurbs to the what have you done to your 70 series today thread, so there is a little info there. i'll add that stuff as well, but some of what i'm doing is too big for a couple photos and some text.

i'll try to document what i do here in the hopes that i can give back some of the goodness that i have gotten from 'mud over the years... i know i'll never get rid of the rash i got the first time i logged in here. but, i know the rest of you share the same affliction and i believe that i am in good company.

--r

 

[solomrus]

old truck, old lights.

something we noticed while driving through OK on the way back, was how bad the head lamps were. stopped and bought a screwdriver at walmart to try and aim them a little better. to no avail.

only had a couple hours of night driving left, so i abandoned that to futility and forged onwards. will deal with that when i get home.

found some crust.

pulled the old koito's out. found one to use the h4 globe bulbs, and the other was standard h4. good thing i had just bought a new set of koito's and a relay loom from toyota for the 40.

i had some hew hella 24v h4's on the shelf. lucked out and had replacements ready to go. cleaned up the mounting trims and fasteners and installed everything back on the truck.

LIGHT AZIZ!

much improved. nice little addition for less than 50$ and an hour or two in the garage. haven't run the relay harness yet, as i don't do a lot of night driving. the nights are getting longer tho, so i expect that will be changing soon.

ordered another set for the 40. i'd pay double the price just for the relay loom. nothing is as nice as factory stuff. i was planning on converting the lights on the 40 to use the relay setup when these popped up in a thread around here. the time that i would have had into building that harness alone more than pays for these kits.

and, yes, i'm going to try out the 12v relays in that harness first. they ought to work. then i'll get back to the 40 and finish that up as well. converted that over to a gm 12si 94a alternator which helped a lot. the relays and new housings will be the fancy icing on that cupcake.

--r

 

[solomrus]

much like a lot of my fellow crusieriste's, i enjoy tinkering.

plugged in the clock to see if it works.

called my local toyota parts counter and ordered a pair of belts. these are the old ones. new ones are same part number, green labels. one part number is a pair.

spiffed some corroded fasteners up on the ole wire wheel. the radiator braces, h2o pump pulley, and the alternator pulley were painted red at some point. timing and h2o pump are going in soon. red is going away.

cooter pins for rear door limiters. just the right size.

relay mount i made for a customer's truck.

tunes that connected to the wiring already in the truck.

mystery box under the floor mat behind passenger seat. under the floor there is a 6 pin female connector that looks suspiciously like an axle lock actuator plug that leads back to this box. and a little light on the dash with a tag that says "diff lock". of which there is none. open carrier in the axle.

metal grille.

more to come.

--r

 

[solomrus]

haven't forgotten about the thread. in between doing things, i'm working on the 73 here and there. i'll substitute photos in lieu of words for an update. ;^)

pulled rear spring packs to remove heavy leaves. cleaned them up and coated them. greased everything up, and replaced shock bushes in the OME shocks with some from an 80 series. rides better. leans more. working on this issue.

 

[solomrus]

front springs were super crusty and missing all of the sliders and guides. i punted and bought new dakars.

 

[solomrus]

sold some fancy subaru wheels that i'm no longer in need of. that let me splurge on a bull bar.

4wheelparts had the 3412130 in stock. shipping was "free", so i pulled the trigger. the freight driver was a day early. these really should take longer to install than they do. 8^)

working out that wicked lean. my RH rear shackle *always* stands at about 90 degrees and is throwing everything off. after i finish posting this, i'm taking the shocks out to see what happens.

yes, i know A and B sides... i've got no way to tell. the markings were long fone before i started this fiasco. i have swapped sides with the rear packs. it doesn't ride or drive poorly, just leans like a drunken sailor. this is me gritting my teeth and figuring it out. 8^€

--r

 

[solomrus]

last ones tonight.

had some KC highlights on the shelf. found a couple 24v 70w bulbs for them in my stash. plonked them in then slapped them on the bumper. the truck was already wired with a switch, harness, and relay... termed some male ends to the lights et voila!

need to order some 24v bulbs for the bumper lights, then i'll take care of those as well.

--r

 

[roscoFJ73]

yes, i know A and B sides... i've got no way to tell. the markings were long fone before i started this fiasco

With the leaf springs off, turn them upside down on a flat surface. "A" side should be about 10-12mm higher than B side. On mine, A and B sides were stamped, not painted

 

[solomrus]

With the leaf springs off, turn them upside down on a flat surface. "A" side should be about 10-12mm higher than B side. On mine, A and B sides were stamped, not painted

hard copy on 10-12mm difference.

any chance you (or anyone) might know an approximate eye to eye dimension? i would be curious to know so that i can check against what i am observing.

right rear shackle is pointing slightly past vertical at rest, towards the front of the truck. makes me think spring a little on the short side or too much arc. it compresses and all of the bushings are free.

ill check back in with what i find.

--r

 

[roscoFJ73]

Its on this page somewhere, but tis not a very accurate way of measuring it on the vehicle.
There is nothing next to the 73 series , so I think you use the 70 series dimensions as they are the same.
The 73 series fronts are the same as a 75 series and the rears are the same (or very close) as a 60 series. Aftermarket suspension rears are identical to a 60 series but OEM is 4mm in length different.
With some landcruiser suspension, the leaf packs on the front are the same and only the rears differ from L and R

TLC FAQ - 4.2 Specifications

 

[solomrus]

thank you for the link. these numbers ought to at least get me in the ballpark.

i may get a rough measurement of these on the truck, probably not going to tell me much tho. ill wait until i have both packs out to get an accurate unladen length.

with both packs out, ill be able to make some observations. there is one major difference ive observed with them in the truck. the spring on the RR has a wider gap between the active leaves and the long overload. thats the only other telltale besides the shackle angle discrepancy.

i may go so far as to take them both back apart and compare leaf to leaf. see if anything obvious is apparent.

front springs are new dakars. i have a + and a 0. initially installed with the + on the LH side of the truck and the 0 on the RH side. noted dissimilar shackle angles on the front and swapped sides. same angles, 65^ LH and 78^ RH. i pulled the right rear tire, and used my floor jack to lower the RR corner until the front shackles' angles matched. that effected change to the RF angle moreso than the LF. by dropping the RR corner it took the weight imbalance off of the LF and appears to balance it out.

so, tomorrow night looks like this: i bust out the corner weight scales and see what the 4 corners look like as the suspension sits. ill get some #'s before i pull the rear packs and go thru them.

see what turns up.

--r

 

[coldtaco]

Don’t know if you did this first or not, but you probably should drive it around a little bit before determining that stuff is out of wak.

 

[solomrus]

Don’t know if you did this first or not, but you probably should drive it around a little bit before determining that stuff is out of wak.

i haven't thrown thousands of K's at it. we live in the land of speed bumps, pot holes, and generally awful roads. it was a leaner when i drove it home from TX.

rear packs are old OME built. pre-dakar stuff. all i have done so far is pull them, clean everything up, paint, reassemble, and install. well, and i pulled the heavy leafs out to make it more comfortable.

all of the shackle pins were pulled, polished, cleaned out. checked for binding.

 

[FJ73Texas]

Looks great. Love those 73/74 series.

 

[solomrus]

Looks great. Love those 73/74 series.

thank you!

 

[solomrus]

spent a few hours working on the springs last night. put it on the scale to see if i could spot any issues. these weights are from the start, before changing anything.

interesting to note that the RR corner (high one) has the least amount of weight on it.

found that the lower holes in the spring plates were interfering with the pins with the ubolts tightened up. slight enlargement of the holes with a die grinder took care of that.

noted that the RR shock shock is extended further than the LR shock with the weight of the truck on it. also of note, the RR also extends further than the LR with the weight off the suspension.

this might lead you to conclude that the spring installed on the RR of the truck has more arch than the LR. but, with both springs on the table standing on the eyes, they have the identical height. to the MM. spring length eye to eye are also identical to the MM. i probably have a matched pair of a's or b's. from what i've read here, that pretty much ensures that your truck will lean with OME springs.

so, to prove to myself that it won't matter which side the packs are on, i swapped sides and put it all back together. with the lower plates torqued down and the weight off the suspension, i observed right away that the shocks were going to be off. the left eye being closer to the pin than the right eye. this was proven by putting the wheels back on and putting the weight back on the suspension. i bounced the suspension a few times with my 220# on the bumper and the shocks disconnected. good movment, didn't feel any binding.

shocks still off, RR extended more than LR.

can't say it was time wasted as i found the observations to be useful. the only solid conclusions that i can make are these: my springs are the same. same arch, same length, same lean installed on either side. with the support of my observations along side all the other anecdotal evidence here to support it, i would need either an A spring or a B spring to make it correct.

i don't know which springs i have in my possession, nor do i think that i'll find an older set of OME springs to try. i can either purchase a new pair of dakars for the rear, or, bail on OME entirely and get a new lift later on and part out the packs i do have. anyways, not much of an option right now.

i decided to try the old plate on top of the spring trick. had a piece of 10mm steel so i made a plate this afternoon and installed that between the top of the RR pack betwen the spring and the axle. loosened up all of the u bolts , slid that in, then gradually torqued all 4 bolts in. wheels on, back on the ground.

lo and behold... the shocks are still off side to side, even worse now on RR, which i expected, but, the truck is, well, pretty damn level. shackle angle is also still off, also as expected.

after the work scale result:

the scale results aren't giving me any real useful info. nothing to draw conclusions from. they do give me the theory that the other 3 corners are supporting the truck causing that corner to have less load on it.

has to be it's nature, right? 8^)

going to run it like this until i have the funds for a new suspension. time to sell the rest of the subaru parts i've been sitting on.

--r

 

[solomrus]

found a new little issue that needed attention. pulled the 73 out the other day to exercise the 4wd button a little bit.

much to my surprise, there was no joy. dash light for 4wd didn't turn on. confirmed that i'd locked the hubs in, tried it a couple more times. neeeerrrp. not working. drove back to the garage and parked it. no time to explore right now.

fast forward a bit, had a few minutes to check things out. first things first. had a buddy press the dash button with the KOEO while i held a finger to the solenoids. scientific, i know, but if they are functioning you can usually feel them click. got a real faint buzz from the engage solenoid, and a nice click from the disengage valve. so, probably a bad valve. thats all i had time for that day.

next chance i got was today. figuring i probably have a bad switching valve on the pull up side, i proceeded to go thru the whole system to make sure that was the ONLY issue.
disconnected the two large vacuum hoses to the diaphragm housing.

this shot is from after reinstall. i always forget the before shots...

then i pulled the whole housing off of the xfer case.

hooked up a mighty vac to check actuation. bottom line is the engage side, top line is the disengage line. both sides functioning well. cleaned up most of the oxidization with a wire wheel, the. got into the nooks and crannies with a hand brush, pocket pry bar, and some scotchbrite. removed all the fasteners from the diaphragm housing, wire wheeled the corrosion off, and re installed them with a healthy dab of anti-sleaze. lubed the pivot points for install.

i then engaged the transfer by hand to make sure it engaged well. snick-snick went right in. spun the driveshaft to make sure both sides spun smoothly and we're money. found a nice surprise while doing this. looks like i have some sort of limited slip differential up front. both sides spin the same direction when you spin one side. hold the other side to prevent it from spinning, and it has a good bit of resistance before it breaks loose. i'm going to guess some sort of clutch type LSD. we'll see how that feels. 8^)

next i went ahead and checked all of the vacuum lines to make sure i did't have any leaks. great success here. no holes, no leaks. held vacuum solid everywhere. won't have to chase any other issues if i can get the switching valve working.

so next i pulled out the low side battery to get some working room. removed the valves as a pair, and set about testing them on the bench.

image limit reached. not much more to show.

so, with the valves out, i grabbed my power probe and a jump box. hooked the jump box up in series with the low side battery on the bench to get 24v. hooked up the power probe and used it to energize the valves. ground to one side, then power the other terminal with the tip of the probe. hit the grey valve first which is the pull down switch. nothing, just a slight pull down in voltage with no click. still dud. move to the white valve which is the pull up switch, and got a nice solid click. grey valve is the naughty one, as suspected.

ok, lets see if we can save it. 8^)

sprayed a little free all into one of the bottom nipples and let it sit for a while. read that as FreeAll. think pb blaster without the foul stench and it works better. after a little while i blew the excess penetrant out with the compressor and tested it again. still no movement. i grabbed a hunk of aluminum filler rod and gently pushed it into the bottom hole and felt it move a little bit. blew it out again and tested it again.

bingo! it's moving. kind of weak at first but getting more positive as i continue cycling it. sprayed a little wd 40 into the bottom hole and continued cycling it some more.

put them back in, hooked up the vac lines and terminal connector to give it a try. with the truck on the hoist, wheels off the ground, i started the truck and tried it. let it idle in 1st with the clutch out. pressed the button, and we have dash light and 4 wheels spinning.

not a bad little repair for a sunday afternoon. ill road test tomorrow and see how it goes.

--r

 

[peteinjp]

Nice job- one that I will probably have t tackle someday- so thanks for the write up! I have your trucks older cousin- 1991 hzj73 here in Japan.

Pete

 

[miltownmalby]

found a new little issue that needed attention. pulled the 73 out the other day to exercise the 4wd button a little bit.

much to my surprise, there was no joy. dash light for 4wd didn't turn on. confirmed that i'd locked the hubs in, tried it a couple more times. neeeerrrp. not working. drove back to the garage and parked it. no time to explore right now.

fast forward a bit, had a few minutes to check things out. first things first. had a buddy press the dash button with the KOEO while i held a finger to the solenoids. scientific, i know, but if they are functioning you can usually feel them click. got a real faint buzz from the engage solenoid, and a nice click from the disengage valve. so, probably a bad valve. thats all i had time for that day.

next chance i got was today. figuring i probably have a bad switching valve on the pull up side, i proceeded to go thru the whole system to make sure that was the ONLY issue.
disconnected the two large vacuum hoses to the diaphragm housing.
View attachment 2870089
this shot is from after reinstall. i always forget the before shots...

then i pulled the whole housing off of the xfer case.
View attachment 2870090View attachment 2870091View attachment 2870092View attachment 2870093View attachment 2870094View attachment 2870095View attachment 2870096
hooked up a mighty vac to check actuation. bottom line is the engage side, top line is the disengage line. both sides functioning well. cleaned up most of the oxidization with a wire wheel, the. got into the nooks and crannies with a hand brush, pocket pry bar, and some scotchbrite. removed all the fasteners from the diaphragm housing, wire wheeled the corrosion off, and re installed them with a healthy dab of anti-sleaze. lubed the pivot points for install.

i then engaged the transfer by hand to make sure it engaged well. snick-snick went right in. spun the driveshaft to make sure both sides spun smoothly and we're money. found a nice surprise while doing this. looks like i have some sort of limited slip differential up front. both sides spin the same direction when you spin one side. hold the other side to prevent it from spinning, and it has a good bit of resistance before it breaks loose. i'm going to guess some sort of clutch type LSD. we'll see how that feels. 8^)

next i went ahead and checked all of the vacuum lines to make sure i did't have any leaks. great success here. no holes, no leaks. held vacuum solid everywhere. won't have to chase any other issues if i can get the switching valve working.

so next i pulled out the low side battery to get some working room. removed the valves as a pair, and set about testing them on the bench.
View attachment 2870097View attachment 2870098
image limit reached. not much more to show.

so, with the valves out, i grabbed my power probe and a jump box. hooked the jump box up in series with the low side battery on the bench to get 24v. hooked up the power probe and used it to energize the valves. ground to one side, then power the other terminal with the tip of the probe. hit the grey valve first which is the pull down switch. nothing, just a slight pull down in voltage with no click. still dud. move to the white valve which is the pull up switch, and got a nice solid click. grey valve is the naughty one, as suspected.

ok, lets see if we can save it. 8^)

sprayed a little free all into one of the bottom nipples and let it sit for a while. read that as FreeAll. think pb blaster without the foul stench and it works better. after a little while i blew the excess penetrant out with the compressor and tested it again. still no movement. i grabbed a hunk of aluminum filler rod and gently pushed it into the bottom hole and felt it move a little bit. blew it out again and tested it again.

bingo! it's moving. kind of weak at first but getting more positive as i continue cycling it. sprayed a little wd 40 into the bottom hole and continued cycling it some more.

put them back in, hooked up the vac lines and terminal connector to give it a try. with the truck on the hoist, wheels off the ground, i started the truck and tried it. let it idle in 1st with the clutch out. pressed the button, and we have dash light and 4 wheels spinning.

not a bad little repair for a sunday afternoon. ill road test tomorrow and see how it goes.

--r

this is fierce investigative work, good on you and thanks for sharing. I am having an issue with my right side aisin turning all the way from free to engaged and ended up here! trouble shooting and tinkering become so interchangeable a few hours in.

 

[solomrus]

this is fierce investigative work, good on you and thanks for sharing. I am having an issue with my right side aisin turning all the way from free to engaged and ended up here! trouble shooting and tinkering become so interchangeable a few hours in.

lol! i've been called many things... don't recall fierce ever coming up. 8^)

this is my first toyota with a vacuum actuated xfer case. it was a good opportunity to understand the system as a whole while establishing it's functionality. i was relatively certain it was the VSV, but in the off chance it wasn't just that, i checked it all.

hubs. there's a really good thread on aisin hubs in the mini truck section. i search that guy up when i need a reference for assembly. there are a couple of pieces that can be mixed up (spring and retainer) that the photo's in that thread help to clear up. let me know if you have trouble finding it.

--r

(edit for spelling and grammar)