First time HZJ75 Troopy owner - couple of questions. (yes, I've tried the search function! ;o) (1 Viewer)

[likethewheel]

hello!

I have been on the hunt for a Troopy for a few years and the stars finally aligned! I snagged one from a fellow Mud member in Colorado, who imported the truck from Oz about 2 years ago. It's a '93 but there are a few interesting specs that I'm trying to learn more about.

1. From everything I've read, being a '93 it *should* have rear disc brakes and auto front hubs however the truck has rear drums and manual front hubs. It sounds like over the years the axle spec changed, I'm trying to figure out what axles this truck has so I can determine what R&P and lockers I need to get.
EDIT: on second look, it does have rear discs ... oops! Those huge dust shields look like a drum brake at a glance. Zooming in on the pic I see the little 2-piston caliper. But still, what about the front hubs and what size are the F&R R&P gears?

2. What's up with these black plastic tail light inserts? This truck has tail lights in the rear bumper and the stock tail lights are just black plastic, aside from the reverse lights. This is the only truck I've seen like this and I'm wondering if I can get the regular taillights as I plan to make a custom rear bumper and ditch the bumper mounted lights.

3. What is the max diameter tire that can be fitted to the stock door-mounted tire carrier? And I assume the stock tire carrier can be retrofitted as this truck did not come with one.

pics for reference:

 

[FJBen]

Usually the blacked out taillights and bumper with lights in it are a tell tale sign of the European market.

Unless they were changed they should have the 4.10 in it for R&P. Only real way to tell is to jack up a wheel and spin it once around counting the driveshaft revolutions.

The rear door can probably hold a heavy 33"/34" at max. Bigger than that and you won't be able to open the door. Note, the rear doors for factory tire carriers are different and reinforced for the weight of the tire/bracket setup vs the non tire carrier door.

 

[likethewheel]

Usually the blacked out taillights and bumper with lights in it are a tell tale sign of the European market.

Unless they were changed they should have the 4.10 in it for R&P. Only real way to tell is to jack up a wheel and spin it once around counting the driveshaft revolutions.

The rear door can probably hold a heavy 33"/34" at max. Bigger than that and you won't be able to open the door. Note, the rear doors for factory tire carriers are different and reinforced for the weight of the tire/bracket setup vs the non tire carrier door.

Thanks. This truck is RHD and definitely came from Oz, odd that it has euro spec tails. Wondering if anyone has insight as to how hard (or easy) it is to switch back to the regular tail lights?

I know how to tell the gear ratio ... was asking about the ring gear size. Do these trucks use 9.5" diffs front and rear? Same R&P set as FJ60?

I have a set of 35x11.5" tires I plan to install, figured I'll need to use a bumper-mounted swing but if I can get away with door-mounted would be nice. Might have to see if I can make something custom on the door - reinforcing the door quite a bit obviously.

 

[flx]

It's not only euro-spec. Depends of country regulation and what was the fitted tire size.
In some combinaison the rear mounted spare tire was considered as blocking vision to the tail light so the tail light in the bumper. It's not that rare.

From what I read how easy it is to fit the "regular" tail light varies. Early years had connectors for both kind of light so it was plugNplay but later ones Toyota got cheap and only provided the connector corresponding to the spec so if you want to change the kind of light (or run both) you will need to do some wiring. On the latest one you may even have to do a hole on the right taillight placement to get the wires.
Anyway it's a very very common mod so can't be too hard

 

[aussie75series]

Blacked out tail lights are Australian as well. They are to comply with road rules when carrying wheel on backdoor. back door will sag with heavy spare.

 

[FJBen]

Learned something new, I don't think I've ever seen those on an aussie rig, only Euro... Maybe because they always mod them.

Ahh the 70 series, I just know there seems to be every possible combination you can imagine with them.


In 93, you should have a high-pinion 8" front diff. Rear 9.5" standard R&P so I believe you would have 4.11's in those years.

 

[Troopy Life]

Tail lights are standard in Australia up until they changed the 75 to the 78.( earlier 75's had different taillights too) You can put 78's on there but will need to do some wiring.

33's will fit on the door no problem but they are too heavy and will bend the hinges eventually overtime, much better with a swing away on a rear bar.

Your door will not be reinforced for the stock tire carrier.

 

[gilmorneau]

My Troopy had the "blackout" taillights, too. I made the swap to "regular" tri-color lights. Not that difficult--I made a wiring harness to go from the trailer light connections to the new taillights in the body, and kept the stock taillights in the bumper. I'll be posting about it in some detail in my build thread when I get around to it.

Spare tire carrier on the back door came factory equipped only on trucks that had the aux fuel tank (the spare tank goes where the spare tire was under the car, so the tire had to go somewhere else). If your truck didn't come with the spare fuel tank, it won't have the proper internal reinforcement in the door (unless someone has swapped on another door at some point).

 

[OGBeno]

Learned something new, I don't think I've ever seen those on an aussie rig, only Euro... Maybe because they always mod them.

Ahh the 70 series, I just know there seems to be every possible combination you can imagine with them.


In 93, you should have a high-pinion 8" front diff. Rear 9.5" standard R&P so I believe you would have 4.11's in those years.

Per Toyota, over 1,000 different variations on the 7x before even the major suspension change in 1999. Approaching a few thousand variations up through current model specifications.

 

[FJBen]

Per Toyota, over 1,000 different variations on the 7x before even the major suspension change in 1999. Approaching a few thousand variations up through current model specifications.

Thats a crazy amount of variations on that platform. No wonder something different always pop up.

 

[likethewheel]

My Troopy had the "blackout" taillights, too. I made the swap to "regular" tri-color lights. Not that difficult--I made a wiring harness to go from the trailer light connections to the new taillights in the body, and kept the stock taillights in the bumper. I'll be posting about it in some detail in my build thread when I get around to it.

Spare tire carrier on the back door came factory equipped only on trucks that had the aux fuel tank (the spare tank goes where the spare tire was under the car, so the tire had to go somewhere else). If your truck didn't come with the spare fuel tank, it won't have the proper internal reinforcement in the door (unless someone has swapped on another door at some point).

Thanks for the info. I just ordered a pair of tri-color tails and will do the same as you've done.

I plan to fab a custom rear bumper anyway so making a tire swing for the 35" spare won't be an issue. Do you know what all is involved with installing an aux fuel tank? I definitely want to do that. Wondering if it's easier to just get an aftermarket kit from LRA as opposed to retrofitting an OEM unit?

 

[OGBeno]

Go LRA all the way. Not worth the money/time/complexity going with the OEM unit unless you really want the OEM unit.

 

[Bogan]

Sean, holler at Goerg at Valley Hybrids/Cruiser Bros. They're a LRA dealer and can install that for ya.

Also, a rear spare carrier cannot be installed on that door. You'd have to buy a new door as the structure to support the spare is not in that door. I had the same issue and just stuck with the swing out bumper on mine.

 

[nonstopbike]

Sean, holler at Goerg at Valley Hybrids/Cruiser Bros. They're a LRA dealer and can install that for ya.

Also, a rear spare carrier cannot be installed on that door. You'd have to buy a new door as the structure to support the spare is not in that door. I had the same issue and just stuck with the swing out bumper on mine.

Which swing out rear did you end up going with? Dobinsons or other?

 

[SNLC]

Literally the last thing you want on your Cruiser are auto hubs. Oh and a 2LT under the hood!

Cheers

 

[roscoFJ73]

Old post I know but the troopys didnt get discs until 95 in australia and they also got dual tanks as standard and they changed the grill slightly. Not sure about the utes. Electric hubs came with the 79/78 series in 99.

From everything I've read, being a '93 it *should* have rear disc brakes and auto front hubs however the truck has rear drums and manual front hubs

 

[Bogan]

Which swing out rear did you end up going with? Dobinsons or other?

Mine came with a bumper that the previous owner built. Its very minimal.

 

[Bogan]

Old post I know but the troopys didnt get discs until 95 in australia and they also got dual tanks as standard and they changed the grill slightly. Not sure about the utes. Electric hubs came with the 79/78 series in 99.

Yeah I was going to say, my Troopy (1987) has a late 90s rear LSD axle swapped in with disc brakes (same calipers as an 80 series).

 

[likethewheel]

My Troopy had the "blackout" taillights, too. I made the swap to "regular" tri-color lights. Not that difficult--I made a wiring harness to go from the trailer light connections to the new taillights in the body, and kept the stock taillights in the bumper. I'll be posting about it in some detail in my build thread when I get around to it.

Spare tire carrier on the back door came factory equipped only on trucks that had the aux fuel tank (the spare tank goes where the spare tire was under the car, so the tire had to go somewhere else). If your truck didn't come with the spare fuel tank, it won't have the proper internal reinforcement in the door (unless someone has swapped on another door at some point).

Would you happen to have the part #s for the OEM tri-color tail light harnesses? I tried ordering what I *thought* were the correct part #s from Amayama but the harnesses that came only have provisions for two bulbs, not three. (side note: if anyone needs these 2-bulb harnesses let me know and they're yours if you pay for shipping).

 

[gilmorneau]

I was never able to find those harnesses, either. I just ended up making my own harness using bits I scavenged from other Troopies when I was in Australia and connectors sourced from here:

Vintage Connections

Vintage Connections

www.vintageconnections.com

If you haven't already seen it, the details are here, post #32:

Builds - Extremely Unhurried BJ75 Build Diary

I love your new old wheels.

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