fj60 advice to possible buyer

[jsimmons]

drove a 60 for first time today, looks great. few questions if you experienced people can help. remember, my first time

1. when accelerating at medium speed, lots of vibration, does the motor always sound like it is about to explode when accelerating

2. lots of foot travel in clutch but engages sharply in like the last inch

3. how`difficult is it to replace the oil pressure guage. does whole dash cluster have to be replaced?

4 lots of gear whine.

5. looks like rear end leaks, big problem?

6. how much it cost to replace clutch, how hard to do yourself?

7. not much brake pressure, not even sure if i could have locked the wheels.

 

[60wag]

It sounds like the 60 you drove needs some maintanance. It shouldn't vibrate. Vibration can come from any number of things from tires, brakes, driveshafts, clutch, engine and probablyy several other things. The clutch likely needs to be adjusted. THe oil pressure gauge can be replaced seperately. Bad gear whine could be a worn out transmission, transfer case or differential. I'd check to see if any of them is noticeably low on oil - that can definitely trash the bearings. Rear end leak - likely the pinion seal on the diff. No big deal. Easy to change. A clutch can be 700-800$ to have done. YOu might be able to do it yourself, I don't know what your wrenching skills are. 60s aren't known for great brakes but if the system is working correctly, you should be able to lock up the wheels.

I'd rec' having the rig gone over by a pro mechanic for a $100 if you're serious about buying it. It sounds like a bunch of things need attention - none are show stoppers.

 

[Mike S]

As 60Wag said, there is often a bunch of 'deferred maintenace' on any 60 for sale. Usually you will need to budget for getting the truck right after you buy it. How much to budget depends on condition.

It is ALWAYS cheaper to buy a well maintained truck for more money than to get a bargain 'fixer upper'.

M

 

[Cruisergreg]

Maybe I'm just more pessimistic than 60wag and Mike S, but the issues you describe would probably make me walk away. Noticable gear whine in a 60 is bad, as is the vibration you mention if it sounds like the engine is about to explode.

All the things you mention might be isolated gremlins or part of one big failure getting ready to happen.

There's deferred maintenance and then there's abject neglect - make sure you're dealing with the former not the latter.

 

[High Desert]

Shop around at least drive some other fj60s even if they are priced out of your range, at least you can see, hear, feel how a 60 should drive.

 

[fowldarr]

It all comes down to whether or not you can fix it yourself. If you can't fix at least part of these problems yourself you might want to continue to save up and buy one that is in a little nicer condition. however, you should by a 60, their great and you'll never have a rig with better reliability and personality as an fj60. Where is the truck at? If it's close to someone with experience on this forum maybe they would be willing to take a look at the truck and let you know. I would but I doubt that it's in Idaho. There just aren't many here.

 

[et3surge]

I guess I am hearing questions from someone who has never ridden in one before because the whine or engine exploding sounds might actually not be problems but instead "the way the trucks sound". I don't remeber where but there was a place where you can actually hear one like a sound bite. I remember it's on the Heritage site. Go to http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/minisite/landcruiser/index.html find the 60's and there is a way to hear them from their spec section. Additionally, I will agree with everything else 60Wag said, but hey what is the $, is it super cheap or ? Good luck and hopefully welcome to LC's

 

[jsimmons]

thanks for the good advice so far, the cruiser of mention is 1984 with 145000, located in san antonio , tx , classic smurf blue. Im not familiar with any mechanic shops here as im just going to school in a nearby town. Im a chronic looker whenever i the itch for something and this is the cleanest and most solid ive found. only rust isn in bottom of tailgate. paint could use touch up in few spots, interior is excellent butnot mint. ive been looking at it for a while and told the guy i would give him a decision by this afternoon, the price is 4000, about on par from what ive seen, im needing some thing reliable enough to be a daily driver for about 3 months to finish school.
i thought i might just be being a pu**y about all the engine noise and vibartaion but its similar to my dads 69 z28. i think it just has a loud ass fan that you have to get used to, but what would cause motor vibration or drivetrain vibration under acceleration? ist smooths out pretty well at about 45. i think that is the only issue worrying me now.

thanks again for the geat advice so far

 

[Cruisergreg]

Low speed vibration could be caused by bad or broken motor/tanny mounts or out of pahse/worn out drivelines. Less likely is tranny or transfer case problems, except that you're hearing gear whine. A 60 is a fairly modern, well insulated machine and you should not be able to hear a lot of gear noise in the cockpit unless something's funky.

$4000 sounds high for a 60 with any question marks.

 

[High Desert]

Shop around at least drive some other fj60s even if they are priced out of your range, at least you can see, hear, feel how a 60 should drive.

Don't want to rub it in but, really, you need to slow down and drive at least one more, you can read this stuff all day and still not really "know" anything more..

I scratched my itches way too soon way too many times before I learned where all those burn marks came from..

There are brobably a billion fj60s in TX.

 

[BadgerManBEN]

When I bought my 60 I drove from Salt lake City to Seattle. I paid $4300 for a rig with the set up you see in my signature below. The guy told me it was mechanically solid and when I got there the only mechanical problem I found was it didn't start right up every time, but it did always start. After driving the 15 hours home i started going through it and found all sorts of problems. I ended up rebuilding the carb, and the distributor, putting on some headers since there was a exhaust manifold leak, and finally desmogged the thing since I had all sorts of vacume leaks. Don't get me wrong, I love my cruiser more than any vehicle I have ever owned but just be prepaired to put some money into it especially on a vehicle that may not have been taken care of. I consider my 60 a cruiser that was taken care of and it still had some work to do. And don't be afraid to go for a drive to pick up the cruiser you like.