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Got some more time to work on the 80 tonight. Got the old axle pulled out and pulled apart and its absolutely unbelievable how bad it is. There's at least four or five chipped teeth on the ring gear not to mention every single tooth is rounded off on the edge of the tooth. Everything is cleaned up and ready for the other axle to be put in place...At least now I know I need new shocks to.
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Wheelingnoob said:
Man those gears look BAD! Good thing you have a new one!
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Yeah...they're in pretty awesome shape. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with everything yet but it more then likely is going to get sold off for dirt cheap, I need the room/money.

Sorry for the lack of updates to everyone following. I've been in Florida for the past week on "vacation" I ordered everything I needed for the axle rebuild before I left except for my brakes which will be coming in later this week. Also ordered a few suprises as well to make it look and hopefully run a little better. Going to have to wait to see what those are. :poof: Only other developments on the project would be I got the powersteering cooler hung securly with the universal cooler kit from advanced auto and I wire wheeled and painted the new front axle and got my ABS wiring out of the way temporarily. Going to have a lot of updates coming up real soon so stay tuned. :cheers:
 
Finally, Update time. Most of the supplies for my toyota have come in over the past week and I finally got around to rebuilding and putting the new donor axle under the 80. It sucked to do by myself and to do it on the ground but I got it under the truck and bolted up completely minus the brakes. After putting on my new powerstop rotors I bolted on the calipers and went to take out the old pads...only one slider came out on each side. The other two were rusted solid into the calipers. I was able to free one out of the passenger side but I had to heat, cut, vice grip and finally drill the one out of the drivers side. It was a massive pain in the ass and took much longer then It should have. So I thought I'd have to wait to get it even back together because now I'd have to order slides and clips for the calipers. I was so pissed off I got changed and drove to the parts store. I thought It'd be worth a shot to see if they may or may not even have them just because it was a caliper hard ware kit and I'd imagine that there would be something else with similar calipers. Got there before they closed and....They had them! I lucked out beyond belief. So now that I had them I could get the calipers on throw on the coils and put some gear oil in it and drive her for the first time in a month! I was pumped. Drove home, got the calipers situated and mounted and went to compress the pistons in the calipers. I got almost all four on the passenger side and decided to switch to the drivers side to get it ready and....nothing. I was able to compress the outside pistons on both side but the drivers side inner pistons are completely seized. They refuse to move in or out and I couldn't get them to budge even with a breaker bar. There passenger side has a seized inner piston as well. So I am now going nowhere fast again. I'll upload pictures shortly but I didn't take much time to take them, I was extremely busy over the past day and a half doing all this. It'd be putting it lightly If I said I wasn't disappointed.....so close. Anyway, here's some pictures.
 
Got all the parts set up and ready to go. Time to get it done.


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Other than some sludge on the inside of the housing the Ring and pinion barely looked warn, no chipped or worn teeth, almost no metal shaving or flakes in the remaining gear oil and it still had all of its factory markings on the ring gear and carrier. Got very lucky for something that was sitting in a junkyard for 10 years. :hillbilly:

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And this is what I looked like head to toe. Literally. Everything that wasn't covered by cloths (that were ruined) was at least five shades darker, It's never a good days work unless you get dirty. That's about it right now...If anyone needs/wants a whole axle with spindles, hubs and all the assciated parts they should let me know. They can take the whole old one with all the parts (except the busted axle/birf thats gone) for $175. Just need the space in the garage and housing is still mostly decent. Just need money for calipers now....
 
Another update! Got the coils in tonight, filled the differential up with some Lucas 75w-90 and for the first time in what seems like forever she moved under her own power. The power steering fix/upgrade I made is holding perfect lock to lock with the tires on and isn't leaking a drop. No more clunking and binding in the drive line and she runs smooth when cold....still hates to be warm. I'm starting to think there's something wrong with the EGR. Might explain the code for the upstream 02 sensor and the white smoke. Still no front brakes or shocks....but I was able to net a good bonus lift since the coils haven't settled yet. :cool:

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Update.....so I've got brand new brakes all the way around. The only thing I didn't replace would be the rear calipers, Brand new front calipers and hoses with my power stop pads and rotors. Bled the brakes and took it for a ride....still No front shocks. Funny story actually, I called Land Cruiser Parts about my missing shock and bushings. They didn't ship it with the rest of my parts, no big deal they'd get it to me. I also asked about the missing bushing's for my shocks. Turns out they were SEPERATE from the shocks and I needed to spend an extra $21 on just the bushings. I thought it was ridiculous but I ordered them anyway. A week later today I got my shock today with my "extra" bushings, And the shock and bushing packages didn't even come with the metal bushing isolaters!! Needless to say I'm beyond pissed off. I'm $82 in a front sent of shocks and I can't even put them in the truck. /end rant. :bang: Anyway on a side note the engine is Healthy! For a heavy fulltime 4WD beast she's still got some power left in her. That being said...the brakes need bled again and the engine is choking itself out only at idle now. It's hard for me to tell if its down on power since this is the first real time that I've driven it on the road. Either way thought the VC isn't locked up like I thought it was, the front axle feels amazing, no binding or clunking and 4lo works fantastic. Only draw back I've found is the speedo isn't working since I removed the front ABS sensors. :doh: Going to have to figure that out. Also had smoke billowing out from the hood, over by the front of the engine where the PAIR and EGR system is. I think the EGR is stuck open and the cats are clogged. Not sure but I'm going to figure it out as I get the time....Figured I should keep my thread as up to speed as I could. Time for a beer. :beer:
 
Good write up so far. For $600 you really can't complain about the condition either, you knew what you were getting into ;) Your going to be pretty pleased with yourself the first time you get to take it on a road trip. Also, I foresee a very exciting head gasket job in your near future.
 
half k cruiser said:
Good write up so far. For $600 you really can't complain about the condition either, you knew what you were getting into ;) Your going to be pretty pleased with yourself the first time you get to take it on a road trip. Also, I foresee a very exciting head gasket job in your near future.
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Yeah I don't have any complaints so far. I knew it'd be a project but I love resurrecting vehicles I know deserve a second Chance at life. I don't see the head gasket being a problem with the testing I've done so far (or at least I hope so) but I'm really leaning on the exhaust. It has 02 sensor codes and I bet they've been bad for a very long time. Wouldn't be surprised if they were plugged almost solid. I can't really take exhaust work lightly though due to my medical issues so I'll be trying to take care of that as soon as I can.
 
Alright guys, now that I finally have been able to get onto a computer to update my thread I have a lot I need to get everyone caught up with that's still following me here. Firstly I'd like to get the bad news out of the way first. The land cruiser is gone. I posted it on craigslist a few weeks back and got an offer on a very nicely built Jeep Cherokee that I could not turn down. The reason I took the trade is because my medical health had gotten so bad I was struggling to get out of bed in the morning and was taking multiple pills a day just to get through the day, I simply could no longer work on the land cruiser. On top of not being physically able to do any more work I got more surprise medical bills from a hospital I had settled with months ago so my I was also out of money and not able to invest anything else back into the my 80, even though I was so desperately close to finishing it. I set of an appointment with a GI specialist doctor that set up a bunch of tests that needed to be done over the course of the last three weeks. After nine months of being mis-diagnosed by a hack job doctor and her crazy assistant with anxiety we found my gall bladder to be the problem. I just got out of surgery yesterday and am still recovering as I'm typing this. I can't say how much I would've liked to keep the cruiser but the reality is I need something I need something I can get in and go with right now, I'll be selling off more of my things (more then likely my only other form of transportation) to help pay my bills. I now have something I can drive and be extremely capable and I don't need to put anymore labor into it. I'm not typing this as a goodbye to this forum or to the LC Community, more or less just a set back. When im finally recovered and back on my feet working you can better believe I'll be having another build thread and it will feature another 80 (Hopefully a X3 locked 40th). Just wanted to update this thread now that I have some time to do it. I wanted to thank everyone who helped me throughout my build and gave me important tips and pointers, its been a great learning experience and I can confidently say despite my health its been one of the more enjoyable projects I've ever had. So thank you all again for all the help, hopefully I'll be throwing up another thread here in the next few months and will still be around n the mean time. Until then :cheers: its great to have a second chance at things and be on the road to recovery.
 
Here's a quick update for anyone that was wondering what was happening with my old 80. Just got an OME 3" lift and 37's. Here she is...new owner seems to be taking care of her. Needless to say I miss it but it's in a good home. Also Here's a pic of my new DD until I'm back on my feet again. If I get the chance I'll be heading out to see what they can both do when I'm recovered.

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