Builds GCRad1's 1992 ADV80 LAND CRUISER (1 Viewer)

[GCRad1]

Four weeks later and 3,000 miles already have gone by! Time to rotate the Falken Wild Peaks AGAIN!
Three trips to Johnson Valley in those four weeks will do that. Two trips for work and one for play.

So when I got home from work today I did a repeat of Post #275: https://forum.ih8mud.com/showpost.php?p=8334376&postcount=275

I also made a call to CDDan of American Toyota and place an order.

 

[swampfoxSC]

ADV sollute

Nice to see a fellow ADVr. I have been following your thread since the beginning. And Just got caught up on the last few pages. Not all that suprising since its all about adventure. I am about to start my build thread on my 94 locked 80. So far its a full motor rebuild,ARB front,Kaymar rear,roof rack and leather to cloth swap. Working on a tranny swap also. We share another passion also-RC. I race1/8 scale nitro buggies. And play with my son's Slash. But love my 1/5 scale Baja 5B fuelie. I have you seen the RCTech forum? Here is a link http://www.rctech.net/forum/ Check this loop I came up with. I knew I could find a few nuts(10?) to do it with me on ADV. We had a blast. Six states,six days in the saddle and 1600+ miles of mostly dirt. From sea level to over a mile high. And every type of terrain. On my trusty KTM 640ADV. The 80 of motorcycles
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=702160

 

[scrowley]

4.56 gears would be for more speed than tourque. More tourque and less speed would be to go to 5.29's from 4.88's .

 

[M32H32is]

Wow. Cool thread or should I say blog? Your 80 has come a long way - your wallet has also been in a diet!!!

 

[KS-Ryan]

How is the old girl doing, Rodney?

 

[GCRad1]

Hey ctrj!
Thanks for asking and thanks for bringing my attention to the fact I need to get back to updating my ADV80 thread! Its been a while since I have updated and need to get back on it! The rig has been doing fine. Nothing major catastrophic not nothing major in the way of fun either. Just doing the daily commute and serving my work duties and as always I will get my posting back up to speed! Stay tuned.

How is the old girl doing, Rodney?

 

[GCRad1]

ADV80 does work at King Of The Hammers 2013

Sorry this is several months old, but to keep everything on chronological order, I will proceed forward attempting to make it an interesting read and visually stimulating.

In preparation for KOH, Axial R/C Inc., would be having its first ever booth at the event. The booth would include a demo area and I needed to get some tools together and sorted. I wanted to make sure my tools made it back home with me so I went with TRD red to mark them.

I found an old metal gas can at a yard sale for FIVE BUCKS!!!

It was missing the gasket, but I've made a few before in the past and had the leftover material to doctor it right up. As we would practically be out in the dessert for a whole week, we will need fuel for the generator.

I'm going to be feeding the crew for the week as well, so I'm off to one of my favorite stores! I found that I can feed a crew with Mountain House food as we drove the 1/10th scale Axial SCX10 over a 3-Day Trek across the Rubicon Trail. If you are into R/C vehicles and big adventure you can read about this little trek and feeding four hungry men Mountain House for the first time on the Axial website blog: http://www.axialracing.com/blog_posts?cat=814

Plain and simple, the food is good and easy to prepare! So I stock up for the crew.

Next stop is Woodhill Firewood in Irvine off Bake Parkway. This is the cheapest wood I have found in Orange County so check them out at:
Woodhill Firewood
Address: 16321 Bake Pkwy, Irvine, CA 92618
Phone949) 837-9663
Hours: Sunday hours 9:00 am–4:00 pm
And they even have an active FaceBook page!
https://www.facebook.com/WoodhillFirewood

So, why does the ADV80 not have pull-out drawer system and fancy frig?

Because my rig has to do WORK!

Load up a few more items and its off from Orange County toward Johnson Valley via the 10FWY and see my landmarks and hang a left up the step hill Twentynine Palms Highway (62) to Yucca Valley. Hang a left on HWY247 and onward to Johnson Valley. Everyone is going to the same place.

HAMMERTOWN!!! And I did say grab a few more things... ADV80 is loaded top to bottom!

 

[GCRad1]

This is where I will be working for the week! Look at all that FLAT GROUND! We can't have that!

Everything is removed from ADV80 so we can move stuff around and collect stuff to add to our stuff moved around... Know what I mean?!
Flat ground:

Playground!!

Once the playground is setup for R/C action, I get to play media and also get to cart around some media personal in the ADV80 for close access to the full-size race action. Did you notice the big rock in the above image under the Toyota? I was watching it get move around with each passing rig and the black Toyota just buckaroo bounced right over it, but it shifted more into the left trench and the drivers could not see the boulder over the drop ledge...

But here it is!

Now we know why our little sport has grown to large diameter tires as they just bounce right off making the rock a seemingly small obstacle.

Night falls and we head over to Backdoor for the non-KOH / non-competition free-for-all activity.

And it does not dissapoint as we had first time guest with us and they witness their first rollover. For those of you who have never been, just look at that last image and notice the rock wall lit by the blue light and notice the tire size, this is big stuff!
You won't find me putting the ADV80 up in here!

But my Falken Wild Peak tires could handle it!

Here is the Falken Team from Japan running basically the same tire just custom cut for for a more aggressive bite.

Sorry this post was not chock with more ADV80 images but I thought you would like to see that my rig gets used in action. Its not just a daily parking lot show commuter.

 

[GCRad1]

Johnson Valley & Joshua Tree Family Trip - February 2013

It was not a week later from going to King of the Hammers and the family and I load up and head back out to the desert to enjoy the warm weather. I guess that is what happens when you get to see and taste all this stuff while working and its just a taste. While Johnson Valley can be a bit on the rough and wild side I thought I would also get the family over into Joshua Tree as we had never been over there. Well, I haven't as I did not grow up here but my wife had growing up with her family, so it was a good time for us to go and with our kids!

We left Orange County late and we decided to just grab a bite to eat in town before dropping off the grid into Johnson Valley. We are on HWY247 just into the town of Joshua Tree and stop at Crossroad Cafe for what we discover as a great little restaurant and bar. Their address: 61715 29 Palms Hwy, Joshua Tree, CA 92252

Great atmosphere and I am intrigued with their wood framed screen door.

Dinner is done...

ADV80 is loaded and ready to head to the desert!

Earlier in the week at KOH - HAMMERTOWN, I picked up this cool TJM LED light and tossed it into the rig so we could test it out on this trip. With all girls in tow, you can never have enough lights!

Once in the desert and to make the rig ride with more comfort...

I air down the Falken Wild Peaks. I have been very happy with these tires.While shuttling media during KOH and navigating some tricky passes, my confidence is at new highs as the added 4:88 Nitro Gears worked great. More float from the larger tires and more grunt from the gears compared to last year this time when I was on 32" tires and stripped the otter flange.

When shuttle media the week before I spotted this little valley and a spot with a couple of large rocks that I thought would make for a great location for a quick stay and be isolated from the surround area's popular in Johnson Valley, yet relatively close and I knew how to get there in the dark.

As soon as we get to the location I get a fire going and start setting up the tents.
The girls drag into bed and the wife and I hang out by the fire and check out the stars.

 

[GCRad1]

Johnson Valley & Joshua Tree Family Trip - February 2013

Next morning:

We get up make breakfast and scout around camp before we break it down. From here we are going to go back over the Johsua Tree and check into the info center and see what JT has to offer. We know it will not be off-roading, but it should be a good time for the family. So before we do that I have a couple of spots to show the family.

Chocolate Thunder is a big attraction for King of the Hammers competition arena and dedicated weekend worriers alike. This is looking out over the valley east of Hammertown. For me, my rig has not place in those nasty rocks that lay behind us. But, all along the left side is what seems to be a massive sand hill. Earlier in the week I notice another media crew getting up higher using a back route and thought I would attempt to get up there. I did... scared myself a little as it was up higher than I had previously made it up with my mate during KOH. But I did not realize how far I had made it up until we got up there! The fun part is coming down the long sand hill as the decent is pretty step and the kids equated it to a roller coster size drop.

Next stop is across the valley to Backdoor.

We climb up to give the girls a glimpse of what the monster rigs are climbing up.

On the way out of Johnson Valley I like to try and take a new way out and we cut towards Joshua Tree from the Hammertown Drylake. I see trails and know the general direction will get us there and we do come out into the Johnson Valley dirt road neighborhood. We had to stop and take pictures of this yardscape!

Over to the Joshua Tree Visitors Center and we get the 411 on first time visits. We make our way down to Jumbo Rocks Campground to set up before nightfall. We all love the rock scrambling that seems to be endless all throughout Joshua Tree. Its easy to see why this is the number one free climbing spot that everyone comes here for and is also evident when walking about looking at everyones camp setups - they are here to climb!!!

February is still chilly at night in the Southern California desert but my troop is good with it!

Camping at Jumbo Rocks would set us up to visit Skull Rock nearby the following day.We see the Skull Rock and decide to do some more exploring around the area. We find some cool trails and start cutting our own paths.

We came to this one area were it was we either turn back or I get to show my family how to decend the v-crack. Nothing major, but the girls had a blast learning some basic skills.

Back at the ADV80 and as we are loading up, I spot it!

Look closely over the top of my rig, you can make part of it out but look at how well it blends in color wise!

OH MY!!! Look at this cool rig!

One more stop:

I spend a few minutes setting the little pocket camera up making use of small rocks to hold the camera in place so we can get the group family shot. Mission accomplished.

Poor ADV80 is not getting enough dirt road action at all on this Joshua Tree trip. I did however locate a dirt road for later use and exploration but I will do that when I have some buddies along.

We on our way back home from a nice couple of days in the desert and we vowed to explore more of Joshua Tree as it was just a nice relaxing place to go wit the family.

Back out on the 10FWY and into the wind!

And back to the overcrowded civilization of Southern California!

 

[GCRad1]

ADV80 Quick Trip again to Johnson Valley - DO WORK!

In April we had a quick one day trip to what would seem like our favorite place and is for many. For myself, I've been to this one place too many times already as the desert is large and I hate going to the same place over and over when there is so much more to see. But it is what it is and we just have to get our work done!

Can anyone name this section of rock?


How about this, does this give you a clue?

We are at Backdoor again in Johnson Valley. Does the scale of the rig seem a little off compared to the rocks?

It should...

Here is my co-working shooting what would become the master images for the box and press release of the Axial Jeep® Wrangler Wraith-Poison Spyder Rock Racer 1/10th Scale Electric 4WD - RTR. We went out for an overnight meeting with Larry, owner of Poison Spyder and to shoot all of the collateral plus shoot the product video as seen here:

We finish our vid/pho-shooting and get over to Chocolate Thunder as we hear something going on over there mid-week.

It's mid-week and this dude is down from Santa Cruz just getting his crawl on!

So funny how this stretch of sand is right next to the rough and rugged rocks of Chocolate Thunder. This image looks more like a Dakar shot and I am quite happy with that!

Our job is done and we are headed home:

We are on HWY62 going west. Palm Springs is just minutes away on the left. The mountain ahead is Mt San Jacinto. To the right is Beaumount, California.

Sorry to be showing you all this Jeep stuff, but it takes my Land Cruiser to put all this into action! Long Live the ADV80!!!

 

[flow]

So funny how this stretch of sand is right next to the rough and rugged rocks of Chocolate Thunder. This image looks more like a Dakar shot and I am quite happy with that!

Very cool shot! I thought Paris-Dakar right away also. Im super jealous of the diversity of terrain you have down there in Socal.

 

[GCRad1]

ADV80 does no frills - no fuss vacation !

It's April and my ADV80 does a quick family vacation beach camp not too far down the road in Dana Point. We wanted to camp, be close to home as it would just be an overnighter. We also wanted the "perfect" weather and just relax with no frills or fuss.

Its my birthday weekend! I would like to take off on some expansive ground covering exploratory weekend, but my dead president printer ran out of ink and the decimals are moving to the left in my global digital monitory holdings system. So improvise it is! A camping trip calls for firewood and Dana Point campgrounds have fire rings so a stop to my spot is in order! Woodhill Firewood! 16321 Bake Pkwy, Irvine, CA 92618 • (949) 837-9663

Dana Point has this campground that is pretty nice considering the fact this is prime Southern Location property. It is located within the Doheny State Beach located to probably the best place to learn to long board surf spots as well. Doheny is the original spot where Cars & Coffee use to be until it outgrew the space there. Doheny State Beach is two parks in one with camping in the southern area (with some campsites only steps away from the beach) and day use in the northern area, where there is a five-acre lawn with picnic facilities and volleyball courts. Surfing is popular, but is restricted to the north end of the beach. Surf fishing is also popular.

If you sort your reservations early and pay attention to the map, you can score yourself some prime beach front real-estate and promptly propped up my REI passage 2 2-man tent on the sands of the left coast for the evening! I think we paid $65 dollars for our spot and most of these spots are RV accessible too. Yes, this is not free Yellow Posting camping... this s prime southern California real-estate. And we only have a handful of quick easily accessible beach camping spots in southern California.

RELAX - CHILL and soak up my $65 dollars worth! Mission accomplished!

 

[GCRad1]

260,000+ miles and I think the ADV80 deserves new U-Joints! I finally broke down and made the purchase with service! I trust and have become quite dedicated to taking my rig to Yotamasters for all of technical service beyond my means. I would love to do all my service myself, but time and space are not in my stack of cards. Plus, I was getting ready for a trip to the High Serria's and wanted to get this done and sorted rather quickly without hassle as I had a lot of other things on the plate to make ready for this business trip.

The 80-Series Toyota Land Cruiser is a full-time 4WD system consisting of two drive shafts driven from the center differential. This is the front drive shaft or output shaft that connects to the front axle. We have already removed the bolts from the flanges and are removing the rear bolts and about to pop this shaft out. We will use Trail Gear U-Joints vs factory Toyota U-Joints for the front shaft. But for the rear we will use Factory U-Joints.

Front U-Joints:
Trail Gear / Matsuba U-Joints:
These stock OEM Replacement U-Joints have been tested to 3700 ft-lbs of torque before failure. These U-Joint fit most 1979-1995 4wd applications. Does not fit CV assemblies. Includes four install clips and Zerk grease fitting (not shown in photo). Made in Japan.

Rear U-Joints
Toyota OEM U-joint 100048
Due to the massive and or odd size of the rear U-Joint OE is the ONLY way to go!!!

Looking down the barrel of the rear driveshaft.

Chris Besanson of Yotamasters working on the ADV80 as shot in Panorama mode with an iPhone 5.

Whats going in:

Front U-Joint:
Trail-Gear U-joint, Toyota OEM, 100048-1-KIT
Rear U-Joint:
Factory Toyota U-Joints #04371-36030

Old dogs are out - new pup's are in and the boss takes a visual inspection:

Eric of Yotamasters gives us the 411 on the finer art of drive shafts and the front driveshaft in-phase / out of phase discussion. Most all Toyota 4X4 trucks call for in-phase shafts. The 80-Series Land Cruiser calls for a out of phase front shaft. We actually tested it both ways and didn't notice much difference. But again, my truck is not sitting at factory height and that could have something to do with it.

Either way... WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG TO CHANGE THESE!!!! Less driveline clunk and SMOOTH!!!

 

[lt1fire]

Good write up. It reminds me how I should most likely replace mine at some point..... but a custom made DC front shaft is in order first.



Your 92 might have a bigger brother 92 pulling back into the LA area near the end of the year.

I'm using some of your trips to plan out some camping trips for me and the

 

[GCRad1]

Somewhere through this year I somehow missed posting these images of the ADV80 while coming back from a work trip that had me on the northern side for Lake Tahoe. But the trip was not without issue as my DiffLock light came on the dash and the CDL engaged while driving. I came to the forum for a "LIVE HELP forum post: https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/747475-need-live-help-92-diff-lock-light-locked-didnt-push-button.html
Long story short, I also placed a phone-call to Yotamasters to consult with them as well. Needless to say, I would be 2WDriving it back home.

While on the way back, I came through south Lake Tahoe and came across Monitor Pass - HWY 89 as it connects to HWY 395 the scenic way.

Monitor Pass (el. 8,314 ft / 2,534 m) is a high mountain pass in California in the Sierra Nevada southeast of Lake Tahoe. It is traversed by State Route 89 near that highway's southern terminus at U.S. Route 395 near the community of Topaz. While this section of Route 89 serves to connect the basins of the West Walker River and Carson River, Monitor Pass itself lies on a side ridge between tributaries of the East Fork Carson River. Crossing the pass allows for a more direct route between U.S. 395 and Markleeville, California, at the expense of some additional elevation.

At the top of the summit:

You will see this marker and if you travel in the direction toward HWY395, just after this sign, look on your left and you will see...

A little two track trail! I had to give it a quick look!

I spent some time shooting some cool images of the rig in this BIG OPEN surrounding!

I drove around on a few different splits and came back out onto the paved road a little ways down from where I entered, but with time permitting, I could have gone further back in. How far? I don't know and need to spend some time looking at the maps as this place is epic in every direction!

 

[GCRad1]

Charcoal Canister Replacement Option

Found this thread on 'Mud for a replacement option for the charcoal canister: https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/412261-charcoal-canister-great-option.html

I removed the stock charcoal canister. Its best to come in from the bottom as the fasteners are located on the engine side.

New canister on the left / stock on the right. I purchased this new canister from Pep Boys as they are closet parts to both my house and work here in Southern California. Here is the canister for reference: BWD Fuel Vapor Canister
$35.99 - Part # CP1018 SKU: 9780059
http://www.pepboys.com/product/details/9780059/00660/?quantity=1

On the new canister, notice that I drilled a hole in the very center and out on the outer portion of the trey. I should have shot another image of the other side as you will see baffle trey's and you would understand why I did this. Also from reading the canister thread talks about this as well.

Black tubes are from the new canister and the metal ones are from the stock canister. You will notice that the new canister has a larger [5/16"] inlet. The stock line is a smaller [1/4"] tube from the fuel tank.

I patched a connector from the 1/4" line to the 5/16" line into the inlet. Not the best case scenario but it is what it is...

It's not pretty:

But it works. While in the canister thread, most remove the bottom bracket only. I removed both and used zip ties top and bottom as I did not have a longer bolt at this time. It will all go bath together stock again soon as I think this canister is only going to be temporary.

Within the charcoal canister thread I ran across a couple of guys who replaced the charcoal in their factory canisters. So, I will keep my stock canister and try to replace the charcoal so I can put it all back together to have the factory look.

 

[B Point]

And through all this....the "aged driver" kareha magnetic sticker remains...haha. Ya know, that one is no longer used. I should send you a new one.. You're pretty ambitious for a 70+ year old fella...

Just for trivia it's actually called ... Korei Untensha Hyoshiki..

 

[GCRad1]

Korei Untensha Hyoshiki

Hello B Point,

Yes, the "aged driver" magnetic sticker remains in tact on the ADV80! This sticker-badge was given to me somewhere around 1998 when I was publishing a little underground import magazine called TMRm'zine. This was during the heyday of the import car craze happening here in Southern California and across the USA - globe. The JDM subsect within the import scene was very popular and thus all things associated with it. We collected all of these items and showcased them in the magazine. I gave the "student driver" sticker-badge to our youngest staff member and I claimed the "aged driver" one and thought, one day I will put it on one of my vehicles for fun.

When I purchased this Land Cruiser back in 2008 I was 42 years old. This being my first Land Cruiser I learned about the "ALL MIGHTY" 3FE engine that is delivered in the 1991-1992 80-Series Land Cruisers. I quickly discovered that driving 75mph sucks the dinosaurs right out of the tank! So, driving 60-65mph on the freeway is much more economical, hence I drive the big tanker ADV80 in the right/slow lane. It was also mental change of life-pace to with this rig as well.

Upon digging through my sticker collection to claim the rig as mine, I came across the "aged driver" sticker badge and decided it was time to apply the JDM sticker to my JDM rig! Plus, it is night time reflective. Stickers, yea, I'm a product of growing up on skateboards, BMX, motorcycles and motorsports - stickers are important!

While it may not be in use any longer in Japan, here is southern California it is common to see the "student driver" sticker-badges on kids cars associated with the "tuner scene" for the JDM'ism factor. So its funny to rock the "old man" badge when the vehicle I am driving is not associated with their scene, but truly appropriate in my mind as I am driving slow, old by their definition, in the right lane and may "unexpectedly" swerve off the road at the sight of any dirt two-track!

I sure hope that when I hit the "seven-oh" mark I am still ambitious!
May our adventures keep us such!

And through all this....the "aged driver" kareha magnetic sticker remains...haha. Ya know, that one is no longer used. I should send you a new one.. You're pretty ambitious for a 70+ year old fella...

Just for trivia it's actually called ... Korei Untensha Hyoshiki..

 

[GCRad1]

Smog check - pass!!!

Smog check time! For those of us in California, this is an every two year process.

So I switched up my location as my previous smog check guy by my work has vanished. I gave a call to my buddy Steve who runs I FIX EM service shop in Costa Mesa. He sent me over to the guys at 7 Star Smog also in Costa Mesa.

The sniffer apparatus stuffed in the exhaust outlet.

Checking my timing. How advanced are you? I'm super-advanced, just not in the engine compartment. It is a 3FE engine...

The hi-tech toilet plunger is stuffed into the fuel inlet side and more test are ran.

While the guy is playing with his smog test toys, Im admiring his mirror setup for spotting cars into the shop when he is working solo.

Getting close, but I'm not seeing the verbiage that I want to see...

Now that is what I like to see! $55 dead presidents - thank you very much!

I'm out the door until next time - every two years for smog inspection. The 7 Stars Smog guys said that pre-2000 vehicles will have rolling dyno stress test going into effect next year and more equipment the smog stations are mandated by the state to purchase, thus fee increase.