Builds Golden Boy / was 'an as-yet unnamed gulf spec diesel 1991 HZJ pickup'

[John Young]

Here is Golden Boy getting on the train

And safely arrived in sunny Florida

None the worse for wear. My immediate destination was a short visit with CruiserMatt for him to look over the truck for baselining. There are a bunch of things needing doing. Neither tank's fuel gauge works; there is slop in the driveline and a lot of the tank rubber and hoses are old and brittle and need replacing. I had a nice visit and am now in Daytona Beach where I will try to register the truck.

 

[cruisermatt]

20% of John’s fleet was at my shop today

 

[John Young]

Golden Boy is going in for a major going-over with @cruisermatt in November, and the parts are piling up!

We also are going to add the turbocharger this time around. Should be interesting....

 

[svsisu]

Golden Boy is going in for a major going-over with @cruisermatt in November, and the parts are piling up!
View attachment 3452962
View attachment 3452963
We also are going to add the turbocharger this time around. Should be interesting....

Is that a dual diaphragm brake booster? If so, could you share a P/N for it and the master? Thanks.

 

[John Young]

@cruisermatt selected a new OEM FZJ80 master and booster for Golden Boy. Matt eventually will look here and perhaps may share his reasoning and the part number. It had not occurred to me to to use an 80 booster but I have learned to trust Matt. If you like you also could PM him and I suspect he would get you one.

 

[cruisermatt]

Is that a dual diaphragm brake booster? If so, could you share a P/N for it and the master? Thanks.

Yes it is dual diaphragm. It is the 93-97 US FZJ80 Booster and 93-94 Non-ABS FZJ80 master. Happy to sell you them if interested. They are not cheap though

 

[John Young]

So Golden Boy is finally going to @cruisermatt for a BUNCH of general maintenance and repairs and installation of all this:

That is a conservative Safari turbo kit.

 

[yourID10Tdriver]

Golden Boy sure needs some lovin', he's been leaking fuel all across the driveway and I had to shovel it away then patch it up. Diesel makes a kind of mud that never dries up and it was awful. Also, I heard a rumor that there's a snorkel in one of those boxes. What could be more fun than going snorkeling?

 

[John Young]

@cruisermatt's place. So glad he and his team are within a reasonable distance of my place in Florida.

 

[yourID10Tdriver]

View attachment 3480969
@cruisermatt's place. So glad he and his team are within a reasonable distance of my place in Florida.

When I took this picture, I noticed there's need of a large blinking neon sign that says: "Cruiser Matt's Offroad: We Build so You can Cruise!"

 

[John Young]

Today work began in earnest on Golden Boy at @cruisermatt's

Lots of horrors...

 

[John Young]

Brakes were in a sorry state

But there is real progress. New brake lines going in, for example

And Matt is going to remove two leaves of the rear springs to see what that does to the ride. I have 6 leaf springs on the front to deal with the extra weight of the PTO winch, but the back always has been a real annoyance going over bumps even when loaded

 

[John Young]

Golden Boy is getting a new Load Sensing Proportional Valve (LSPV) too.

And they found absolutely no pre-load on the rear diff. This does not surprise me. I made a decision to ship Golden Boy after reaching the state of being 'driveable' but knowing that the truck still needed serious work.

Knuckles and other front axel bits getting cleaned up

Really glad to have Matt and his team on Golden Boy.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Great to see your 75 getting some TLC John. I have those same rear springs.....all you need is two full grown camels in the bed.

 

[John Young]

Thank you WDE.

Matt sent some more photos, none of them particularly pretty. This is Golden Boy's rear diff.

Well the bit of a clunk when going on and off the throttle is becoming more understandable. I guess hauling camel and goat feed, and maybe sometimes actual camels, is pretty hard on a rear differential.

Matt's plan is to swap in a pristine 80 rear end with the same ratio, and keep the 70 series core for rebuilding for some other needy soul.

 

[John Young]

The front axel is starting to go back together

So nice to see these new parts going in. That's the taller 5th there for the H151 transmission, BTW.

That brown Corolla in the background is one of Matt's projects. The damn thing has some monster engine in it. He keeps urging me to put an LS in one of the trucks but I have resisted, preferring the choices offered by Mr. Toyoda.

New e-brake cable

I should comment that what I asked Matt to do was to go through the truck stem-to-stern and bring everything up to spec. It was a 2-stage process, where the first stage took place a couple of months ago--a survey. Then Matt and his team went away and ordered about 6K worth of stuff. The question at that time was whether the team had gone overboard. Turns out not to have been the case. We've been planning this for quite some time and Matt had to slot it in carefully to the other work flowing through the shop. I genuinely like working with him and his team. It costs $$ to be sure, but there is very good value for money.

Golden boy has gone through a few stages now. From auction running, repainted (badly) derelict to running and driving with problems. The goal now is permanent, nice, driveable lifetime keeper. When I retire I will spend my time puttering and doing things around the edges like taking the cab apart and behind the dash apart and redoing it, but this heavy stuff I am happy to have Matt take care of for me.

 

[cruisermatt]

Thank you for the kind words.

minor correction on the overdrive gear I know you have the other trucks getting the taller 5th, but in this we are replacing the transfer case's high range with a 10% overdrive gearset, so all of high range will be taller, not just 5th

 

[John Young]

Thank you for the kind words.

minor correction on the overdrive gear I know you have the other trucks getting the taller 5th, but in this we are replacing the transfer case's high range with a 10% overdrive gearset, so all of high range will be taller, not just 5th

Thanks Matt. I wonder if I should have done that on the other trucks...

 

[coldtaco]

are the windshield resting pads on backwards?

 

[WarDamnEagle]

are the windshield resting pads on backwards?

Yes they are. Good eye.