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For just starting out, baselining it and getting it on a pm regimen really helps. Recommend OEM parts for pretty much everything, so see if you have a local club that has a discount at a local dealer, or a discount through TLCA, or order from online dealers.
Start with front/rear diff fluid changes (always remove the fill plug first) and an oil change and grease your driveshafts. You will need/want a 1/2" breaker bar/ratchet with 24mm 6-point sockets and/or a 24mm open-end wrench. Sockets have a little bevel on them, and it sometimes helps to grind that flat so you get good seating of the socket on the head of the plug. You will also need to get a grease gun for the driveshafts.
Check your air filter and clean the "tuna can" on the underside of the air cleaner housing.
Check/change your belts.
Next replace your distributor cap, rotor, and spark plugs and maybe wires. The spark plug tool that comes in the OEM toolkit is gold for getting the spark plug at the far back, #6, out. You will want to get some feeler gauges for verifying the gap on the sparkplugs.
Then do a coolant change. Stay with whatever color you already have in the system, either red or green. You will want/need some buckets and some distilled water.
Then inspect your brakes and bleed the brake system. Or have a good shop bleed them for you.
Then have your transmission fluid changed. Nothing wrong with taking it to a shop to do this.
Then flush your power steering fluid.
At this point your truck will be pretty baselined and you will have touched enough systems you will have a chance to find crusty hoses, plugged radiator, or anything else that may need immediate attention.
PHH will be important to check/replace, maybe while the cooling system is draining.
Vacuum hoses will also be good candidates for inspection/replacement as well.
Then do a front axle service and learn about bearing packing and preload setting.
At this point you’ll be fairly comfortable with the basic work. From here the trucks needs will guide you, from suspension replacement, to getting back into the cooling system to do all hoses, thermostat, water pump, or doing A/C system work.
Other things:
-make sure you have no CEL codes stored
-your exhaust may need new cats, muffler or total replacement depending on corrosion
-steering linkage should be checked for play and fixed if any is found
-shocks should be replaced as needed
get that PHH replaced and carry some heater hose to bypass the heater valve and/or rear heater lines if they fail on you, and drive it!
This is exactly the answer im looking for. Practically a checklist. I will definitely take your advise. I just got the breaks taken care of this weekend and plan on getting the o2 sorted out. I greatly appreciate the knowledge and the time it took to write all of that. Pictures to come soon.
I recently got a 92,
and the first thing I did was detail the hell out of the inside.
Big person to recognize that.....you’ve started with the righ 4x4! Lots of great resources here. Look to see if there is any Land Cruiser clubs in your area or region that will accelerate your learning. Get the brakes sorted out. It would be cheaper if you did it yourself but if not comfortable take to reliable mechanic. As for the check engine light get the codes.....yourself. Super easy to get:
Tackle the small stuff to start learning.
Good luck!
Big person to recognize that.....you’ve started with the righ 4x4! Lots of great resources here. Look to see if there is any Land Cruiser clubs in your area or region that will accelerate your learning. Get the brakes sorted out. It would be cheaper if you did it yourself but if not comfortable take to reliable mechanic. As for the check engine light get the codes.....yourself. Super easy to get:
Tackle the small stuff to start learning.
Good luck!
Welcome to mud, nice score and best color. And the official salute.
That bumper is wild! Any info on it?