Builds First LC, HZJ77 Build "Kengo"

[Blomdala]

Swapped out the seal in the axle, looks like the previous one was an NOK, no label in my replacement but it’s from cruiser outfitters so I ain’t skerd.

After knocking out the bearing races, I cleaned the hub and then realized that I don’t have a race driver. After rummaging through my boxes I found a snap on 2 9/16th socket. The hex side fits right on the edge of the large race, and the round side fits PERFECTLY on the race of the small side. Winner! That will now be an SST for me lol.

 

[Blomdala]

Races were in, then it was time to refill the hub cavity. I thought it would take too long by hand so I snagged the worst looking spatula from the kitchen and put it to work lol. Much less messy and easy to fill. I’ll have to grab a replacement for the kitchen tomorrow

 

[Blomdala]

I also got a bearing packer, works pretty well and cuts down a LITTLE on the mess.

Got the hub on and hand tight, need to grab the socket from work tomorrow to get her dialed in. But one hubs messy work is done so I’m feeling good! I also got my first rolling stool/creeper and it’s been so nice for this work. Well that and the space to make a mess. Sorry for the basic maintenance post, but it’s nice to document if nothing else!

 

[Blomdala]

Two big things occurred today:
1. I passed my final inspection and now the city will never come back and see what kind of hillbilly things are going on in my building(woo!). I will say however, looking at dodge forums, it makes the worst ideas on a Toyota page look like and event at a country club. It is actually concerning what people do with old dodge trucks lol. But I digress. This photo is just after the inspector left. I felt like I was ready for an 80s Toyota commercial my son and I don’t have good jumping timing lol.
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And 2. I christened the shop by finally working on the cruiser again (still woo!). I’ve made a short list of the things I want to get done before cruise Moab, and I’m starting with wheel bearings and related seals. I don’t know the history of them and while I don’t have any issues, I’d like to start with a clean slate.

I got my older two to come out and help me, but jacking up the rig, pulling a wheel, and removing the axle, they were done ha. They continued to hang out with me and play “school” with various objects around the shop. It’s also a little nippy in there so they probably liked moving around rather than sitting.

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The studs are a little crusty, it was starting to show its life in f***uoka a little bit getting those cones out. I’m sure to the east coast guys I’m just sounding soft over here . But I am toying with the idea of new studs, then I’d have some spares too.

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This is my first time working on a full Toyota full float rear. Replacing a shaft is so much easier than a mini truck. But the bearings are a lot more messy and such.

Ok that is funny, it thinks a prefecture in Japan is a curse word I swear my posts are clean!!!

 

[FJ73Texas]

You even used the Toyota font for your photo ad!

Nice barn! Someday for me…..someday

 

[Blomdala]

After going back and forth about it, I put in an order for all new rear axle studs/nuts and new knuckle studs/nuts. It might be a little over kill, but paint/corrosion on the threads didn’t leave the treads looking that great. It’s not that expensive and I figure this should be the only time I ever need to do it. I’ve also had a knuckle stud break and it was a bad time so I want those fresh and tightened correctly. Plus now I’ll have some back ups to keep in the travel bag. The parts should be here this Wednesday, so we set the preload and secured the rear hub today, then moved on to the front.

I also cleaned up the threads in the axle shaft as one bolt stopped helping push the axle out. Now they both function as designed. I’ll have to put a dab of sticky grease in there and see how long it will last.

 

[Blomdala]

Does anyone else feel that their parking brake cable is a little short? Mine seems like it’s almost always fully taught. Not that these rigs flex a ton, but I’d be worried something will give with any kind of axle movement. At rest without the parking brake on, it’s not even sitting fully

The front is more familiar to me some it’s almost the same as my 1st gen 4Runner was. Pretty straight forward, and I was happy to see my e hub brushes are looking ok still.

One thing that I do NOT like about this axle vs mini truck: the brake lines. What the heck man, I have to remove a hardline to remove the caliper. Not cool. Every hub job is also a brake bleed. And to get the backing plate off I had to take off another line. I’m seriously considering replacing them all with one long braided line…

Parts are adding up so it was time to break out the BIN

 

[Blomdala]

Hub and backing plate off, then carefully got it down to the knuckle ball. Messy stuff, but easy to do ha. I have been a fan of the marlin HD eco inner axle seals so I went with those again for this axle. Thankfully my seal wasn’t toast so I didn’t have much soup to deal with.

 

[Blomdala]

after wiping out most the grease, I soaked the housing in purple power for awhile and then got to scrubbing. I didn’t want to peel the paint off so I did more manual labor to clean it up.

 

[Blomdala]

In between soaking and scrubbing I polished the knuckle balls a bit. There is some pitting on them, so I just tried to smooth the surface again and help the new seals last longer. I didn’t want to go crazy with it but hopefully it’s enough.

Got the old trunion races out (they had some wear and pitting) and the new ones in! Great complete kit from @cruiseroutfit, both in part quality and completeness!
And with that, we wait for studs to get things back together!

 

[Blomdala]

Since I’m waiting on some studs for my hubs, I figured I should work on the 6th seat in the back. I left it with a hole in the floor lol.

After cleaning it a bit, I did some weld thru primer, sealer, and then plug welded. It was ugly and honestly embarrassing how that went so I didn’t take pictures. I also suck at caulking anything, no matter what it’s never nice and clean. It makes me very frustrated, but whatever it’s all sealed now. One of these days I’ll get a paint matched spray paint for my color and make it look prettier. For now it’s not going to rust and will be the function that I need.

 

[Blomdala]

The parts finally arrived so Saturday morning was full speed ahead. The rear hub studs were not in terrible condition, but a few had gnarly threads for the nuts. For the price, it was worth it to change them. The girls helped with a a few but then decided the trampoline was more exciting lol. I need to get a rethread tool, but for now I just used a tap to clean a bit of the crud out of the hub body.

 

[Blomdala]

Moving back to the front axle, I was happy to see some fresh new studs and nuts for the steering arm and trunion cap. I’ve had a stud break before that was loose, and it was not enjoyable to remove. Plus the same situation was going on here, crusty threads on removal left some gnarly threads.

I ended up pulling the tie rod end off to check preload, I had the same shim on the trunion cap but the arm had none. After searching everywhere for a shim, I figured it must have not had one. Testing steering preload confirmed that. Toyota quality baby! I also got to break out the grease spatula to fill up this knuckle.

The took me awhile to find a pin that would work for the brushes but finally tracked something down. I like the “don’t for get to out something here, stupid” label.

 

[Blomdala]

I had bought rebuilt calipers a couple years ago so I broke them out since my pins were super corroded. The original are S12w and the new ones are s13w from a 92-95 4Runner. A little bigger pistons on it. That wasn’t intentional but I’m rolling with it. Not uncommon over on the 60s.

I snagged a set of pads from the local dealer that look identical to what was in there. Cool to see the little original Toyota logo on there.

 

[Blomdala]

The pads sit away from the rotor a few MM. I’ll do a little searching about other rotors that may fit better, but I’m good with this setup for now! The rotors are great so no need to replace yet.

One front knuckle done! On to the LH side now.

 

[coldtaco]

what grease did you use on the axles?

 

[Blomdala]

what grease did you use on the axles?

Since pretty much every wheel bearing grease meet the minimum ratings from the repair manual, I just looked at extra content in them. At my parts stores the only name brand (besides house brand) I could easily get was Valvonline. Within valvoline they had 2 that I bought, the blue can of multi vehicle that is conventional moly fortified and the grey can of synthetic moly fortified. The grey synthetic moly fortified was the only one that listed “constant velocity joints” in its applications so I used that on the birf and housing, and the regular blue wheel bearing grease on all the tapered roller bearings.

I read a few threads, and came upon a thread from onur stating he runs whatever decent priced stuff he can find and changes it more often. I’m hoping to be in the little better grease and a little less often, but like I said every grease meets the minimum specs from Toyota so I felt safe lol.

 

[Rigster]

Since pretty much every wheel bearing grease meet the minimum ratings from the repair manual, I just looked at extra content in them. At my parts stores the only name brand (besides house brand) I could easily get was Valvonline. Within valvoline they had 2 that I bought, the blue can of multi vehicle that is conventional moly fortified and the grey can of synthetic moly fortified. The grey synthetic moly fortified was the only one that listed “constant velocity joints” in its applications so I used that on the birf and housing, and the regular blue wheel bearing grease on all the tapered roller bearings.

I read a few threads, and came upon a thread from onur stating he runs whatever decent priced stuff he can find and changes it more often. I’m hoping to be in the little better grease and a little less often, but like I said every grease meets the minimum specs from Toyota so I felt safe lol.

I think you will be fine @Blomdala. FSM just simply states a molybdenum disulphide lithium base grease.

Another thing that struck me as odd is how many land cruiser owners I had come across in the past that did not know to occasionally top up the birf's with grease once in a while through the square filler nut on the top/front side. I typically just put some in whenever the outside of the birf starts to look a little dry in normal weather. It is best if someone can turn the wheel back and forth to spread it around. Watch how far into the birf you stick the tip of the grease gun through the hole if you use this method or you can bite off the tip of your grease gun and you will be doing a refresh again... errr... so I've HEARD.

Put a bunch of squirts in, turn the wheel back and forth, spin the wheel with the hub locked and repeat. The housing only needs to be about 3/4 full, but more importantly, you want to spread the grease around.

Looking good!!

 

[Blomdala]

Got back today from a work trip, and the fedex man delivered a beautiful box I’ve always wanted an ARB locker, I’ve only owned factory electric lockers in the past. This will be for the rear, I’ve never had a front but maybe that will be in my future one day. The 24v compressors won’t be back in stock till may so for now this will sit as I’m focused on being ready for Cruise Moab in April.

I finished up my oil change (went with 15w-40 delo 400 this time) and got to tearing down the other front knuckle. Went a lot smoother and honestly it seems like this side has been addressed more recently. Even the caliper looks almost new on the inside. However, the inner seal was weeping a bit so it was more soupy. Again, glad I’m doing this.

I’m the rebuild kit from cruiser outfitters, the replacement trunion bearing is different than what I pulled out. Basically it’s a less steep angle on the new one which seems correct to me. Need to track down the other side races because I don’t remember seeing a difference there. Interesting.

Unfortunately my brush on this side was damaged(this is the one I repaired). So I’ll need to get that back to working again. I know I need to just get to collecting for a manual conversion, but I do love the push button in such an old car! I have new hubs for the conversion, it’s all the rest that adds up.

 

[Blomdala]

The axle side is ready to roll for install. I’ll get to the hub tomorrow. I also got an ultrasonic cleaner so I’ve been soaking small parts and bolts in there to get them shiny for re assembly! I tested on the old studs and it did a pretty dang good job.