Growing the family -> HDJ80 VX

[HoJo 61]

Hello people! Some of you may know me from 60-series chat, but for those who do not, i'm Mikko (Mike) from Finland, and i'm addicted to Cruisers, this latest addition is my 3rd. And i have no intention to stop hoarding for more. Feel free to heck out my other Cruisers, links to the build threads are in my signature.

However, as we are on a Land Cruiser forum, let's get to the HDJ.

My previous daily driver was a BMW 325i E36 which i bought from a friend of mine, fixed it up with an intention to keep and DD, but i quickly realized i had to have a LC, that little gasoline guzzler just wasn't my thing in the end. Well, the BMW sold and i immediately posted a wanted ad on a Finnish Offroad forum, and somebody replied me in the same day. He didn't have any pics at the time and only wrote what kind of a rig he "possibly" had for sale. Few days passed and he sent me some pics and i fell in love instantly. The next weekend i and my cousin went to look at the rig, luckily it wasn't that far away, 300ish kilometers per side.

After some eyeing around the Cruiser, and a test drive we agreed on a price and shaked hands. I was hooked. Super fun car to drive, even it is bit of in an expensive side to own and drive, but as longs as i can buy diesel from fuel station, i'm going to drive these beasts.

The facts:
-1993 HDJ80 1HD-T with A442F
-ABS brakes
-480200 km in the clock at the time when bought
-VX model with pretty much all the options available in EU at the time, power everything, lockers, heated electric leather seats, glass moonroof, AC...
-Mild OME lift
-33" M/T tires
-Quick 3" straight pipe

The good:
-Runs and drives
-Big end and conrod bearings has been changed + some others i don't recall atm
-Fuel pump has been serviced with steeper cam plate (more fuel)
-Timing belt has been changed at 480k + front brake service
-Frame and body looks to be in very good condition, one dent on LHD front fender
-No rust!! At least visible, gotta check under flares next summer

The bad:
-Slow windows
-Security system starts to alarm if you open a door or hood, horns disconnected all the help is welcomed how to fix
-Oil leaks, front main or timing gear cover seal, typical knuckle leak too
-Bad batteries
-Front diff whines at 80km/h
-Slack in rear driveshaft u-joints
-Seat heaters and rear window defroster not working

The plans:
-Fix everything above
-Power upgrades, G-Turbo or compounds???
-More lift, 3-4"
-35" tires
-Paint needs a polish
-Winch bumper is a big maybe
-Some more light upgrades

Done so far:
-Engine oil change with OEM filter - 5W40
-OEM fuel filter
-Heater core cleaned
-Power steering reservoir return line O-ring changed
-LED driving-, front marker-, and license plate lights. Interior lights to come

And a bunch of some random, not so good pics.

 

[Ghostrider I]

I have always wondered why some vehicles in Europe have a round sticker on the rear of the vehicle that has a number. In the case of yours, it says "80" does that mean that is your limited speed? Please clarify. Otherwise, nice looking rig.

Interesting... semi-poverty pack... no sliders. Mine is from the Canaries, and has sliders.

 

[HoJo 61]

I have always wondered why some vehicles in Europe have a round sticker on the rear of the vehicle that has a number. In the case of yours, it says "80" does that mean that is your limited speed? Please clarify. Otherwise, nice looking rig.

Interesting... semi-poverty pack... no sliders. Mine is from the Canaries, and has sliders.

The number means max speed the vehicle can be driven. In my case, my HDJ is registered as a van without drivers airbag, therefore i must have the 80 tag on rear. That way people behind me on a highway will know that i'm not able to drive 100 or 120km/h, at least legally. There is no speed limiters on vehicle.
Most of older 4x4's and huge number of diesel station wagons are registered as vans in Finland due to lower annual vehicle tax.
Government realized that and setup a speed (80-100km/h) and a seat limit (no rear seats are allowed) + bunch of other dumb necessities. They thought that way people wouldn't care to re-register from car to van anymore.

In my case, my annual vehicle tax is about 450€ lower than as a normal passenger car.

 

[Ghostrider I]

Thank you for your explanation. Looking forward to reading more about your HDJ-80.

 

[CristianRamirez]

The number means max speed the vehicle can be driven. In my case, my HDJ is registered as a van without drivers airbag, therefore i must have the 80 tag on rear. That way people behind me on a highway will know that i'm not able to drive 100 or 120km/h, at least legally. There is no speed limiters on vehicle.
Most of older 4x4's and huge number of diesel station wagons are registered as vans in Finland due to lower annual vehicle tax.
Government realized that and setup a speed (80-100km/h) and a seat limit (no rear seats are allowed) + bunch of other dumb necessities. They thought that way people wouldn't care to re-register from car to van anymore.

In my case, my annual vehicle tax is about 450€ lower than as a normal passenger car.

450€ ?? That's good, how can I do it with my hdj80? I have to pay 1100 per year,.
I move to Finland in June and last month I bought one hdj80' 90 (I'm a Cruiser fan)
BTW, nice Cruiser it's hard to found cruisers in good condition (not rust), I see a lot of Cruisers before to take the decision..

 

[HoJo 61]

450€ ?? That's good, how can I do it with my hdj80? I have to pay 1100 per year,.
I move to Finland in June and last month I bought one hdj80' 90 (I'm a Cruiser fan)
BTW, nice Cruiser it's hard to found cruisers in good condition (not rust), I see a lot of Cruisers before to take the decision..

Welcome!
Sounds like you have rear seats, get rid of them and re-register your HDJ as a van. That way you can save some money in taxes.

 

[HoJo 61]

Well, not much to report, been mostly driving and fixing/cleaning little things there and here.
Bigger upgrades will follow eventually, like front axle overhaul, power mods and so on.
My two, or actually three other Cruisers takes a fair amount of my free time.

My seat heaters didn't work, i found out the switches were unplugged.
Sounds too easy? Yep, they still didn't work after plugging them. I haven't found out yet what is the matter.

Replaced the trailer plug, old one was badly corroded and the wiring itself was quite fancy.

Removed aftermarket cruise control system that was inoperative.

Cleaned air filter housing, dunno what that stuff on it was but it was tight.

Replaced window switch bezel back to correct color.

Swapped the Mud terrain tires to studded 235/75 Coopers

And picked up a front differential bearing and gasket kit plus swivel housing rebuild kits. One is for my red 61. I still need to buy new drive flanges, all U-joints, CV joints and steering dampener. Plus grease plus gear oil...

 

[projectcruiser]

Looking forward to the build

 

[HoJo 61]

Got started on the front end overhaul last week.

Tore everything apart and quickly realized i have to replace wheel bearings and spindles at the same time, they have probably seized at some point and can't be used anymore.

Differential has been rebuild at a local Toyota dealership, picked it up today. New bearings, pinion seal and crush sleeve.

Few pics of disassembly process. Will post more pics once i have some more free time.

 

[HoJo 61]

Uh.. i'm probably the worst when it comes to thread updating.

The HDJ has been up and running for solid 2 months after front end overhaul.
Front diff is tons of quieter now with the new bearings, but the whine is still there somewhere at 90-100km/h. (75-85km/h with old bearings)
But that's ok as i usually drive 80-90km/h at max.

A lot of new parts was installed at the same time:
New wheel bearings all around.
New U-joints.
Front spindles.
Steering damper.
Front sway bar poly-bushings.
2x 100Ah batteries.
Fuel cut-off valve...

And a lot will need to be done: (List not in order)
New front speakers. (ordered)
Rear sub and amp.
A/C condenser + dryer + refill.
Rear sway bar bushings + links.
Wheel well and fender rust repair/preventative treat on all corners.
Upper tailgate and all 4 doors, rust repair and paint.
Thorough interior clean.
Diesel injector service.
315/35" tires...
+ probably tons of more little things i don't recall right now.


Front 3rd back in place with a little help of floor jack.

Axle housing was full of this kind of crap, cleaned it all out.

New birfs going in with Redline CV-2. Wheel bearings got the same grease.

New Aftermarket spindles with OEM bushings.

A lot of these has been installed.

Rear wheel bearings had ZERO grease on them. Only some gear oil.

And i mean ZERO!

A lot better now with these and CV-2.

New GMB greasable U-joints to front and rear drive shaft + CV-2

Front sway bar going in as freshly painted + new poly bushings.

Extended front diff breather.

 

[HoJo 61]

Plus i did some clean-up at the same time.

And new fuel cut-off valve. Bosch F002D13642
Old on the left, note the difference in sealing. Smaller O-ring must be fitted to the new valve.

Old pin on the left and new on the right. Old one must be used, new is too wide.

Remember to clean the filter. There might be little metal shavings from ACSD.

Just like that. These came from the valve/filter housing.

New valve in place, hard to see, but there it is where the green wire goes. Adjusted kick down cable after this picture also.

I'm not an A/C expert but the condenser might need replacing. Dryer looks like original too.

Then i have had ABS issues. ABS light comes and goes randomly and pulls left and right, depends on a day.
Cleaned all the sensors, no change. Swapped in an another ABS ECU (came form 80breaker), few issues disappeared but i still have issue with one of the front speed sensors. Now the fun part. I can't find replacement sensor/s anywhere. Everybody i have asked in EU are on backorder and don't have solid answer when the sensor kit will be available. Used sensor doesn't exists here in Finland.

Added some LED lights.

 

[HoJo 61]

 

[per]

Great to see another EU spec HDJ80 VX, they seem to become rare these days - and to read what needs to be done after this mileage!

Mine is also a EU '94, a more basic package and a few miles less. Nevertheless there seem to be some similarities in the aging process, both have started building up rust in the same spots. Additionally to the spots you showed i had rust in the lower front corner of the booth windows, just behind the c-pillar. That lower curve there, rust under the paint. And i've seen a fail due to corrosion in a '92 ('93?) HDJ on the front left brake lines because they coil up below the left battery tray and some acid seemed to have gotten there.

Probably you have solved it already, but your alarm system needs to be set to a different mode in order not to go off on you at random times/events: It has two modes, self-arming and valet mode, the self arming program is the default setting: Just switch the ignition key to ACC and then press the alarm system button (middle of the dashboard, lower row in mine) for 5 seconds until the light permanently is off or on. If the light is flashing it is in self arming mode. Of you disconnect and reconnect the batteries, the system will go back to the default setting and be self-arming and you need to set it to valet again.

Little hack i found recently: If you had the batteries off and reconnect them, the alarm usually goes off - which seemingly does not happen, when you leave the driver's side door (any door?) open.

--

Since you seem to often have the bay open, may i ask you a question? The ground of the 12V/24V switchover relay, where is it hooked to in your car? The switchover is directly behind the driver's side battery and towards the back there is a black cable (16mm²?) with one grey stripe coming out and probably going direction firewall. Under this plastic roof (that's no lid, is it?) of the relay the cable is marked with 'E'. Could you maybe have a look?

Thanks and keep it up!

 

[HoJo 61]

Great to see another EU spec HDJ80 VX, they seem to become rare these days - and to read what needs to be done after this mileage!

Mine is also a EU '94, a more basic package and a few miles less. Nevertheless there seem to be some similarities in the aging process, both have started building up rust in the same spots. Additionally to the spots you showed i had rust in the lower front corner of the booth windows, just behind the c-pillar. That lower curve there, rust under the paint. And i've seen a fail due to corrosion in a '92 ('93?) HDJ on the front left brake lines because they coil up below the left battery tray and some acid seemed to have gotten there.

Probably you have solved it already, but your alarm system needs to be set to a different mode in order not to go off on you at random times/events: It has two modes, self-arming and valet mode, the self arming program is the default setting: Just switch the ignition key to ACC and then press the alarm system button (middle of the dashboard, lower row in mine) for 5 seconds until the light permanently is off or on. If the light is flashing it is in self arming mode. Of you disconnect and reconnect the batteries, the system will go back to the default setting and be self-arming and you need to set it to valet again.

Little hack i found recently: If you had the batteries off and reconnect them, the alarm usually goes off - which seemingly does not happen, when you leave the driver's side door (any door?) open.

--

Since you seem to often have the bay open, may i ask you a question? The ground of the 12V/24V switchover relay, where is it hooked to in your car? The switchover is directly behind the driver's side battery and towards the back there is a black cable (16mm²?) with one grey stripe coming out and probably going direction firewall. Under this plastic roof (that's no lid, is it?) of the relay the cable is marked with 'E'. Could you maybe have a look?

Thanks and keep it up!

Hi there, thanks for your reply.

The fact is, road salt and Cruiser steel doesn't come together at all. My doors were almost 100% rust free when i bought the car, but now there is rust everywhere. Same with the upper tailgate. I too have some rust bubbles behind the C-pillars.
Repainting the whole thing would be the best thing to do but that's one hell of a job.

Yep, i have set alarm system to valet mode.

And the E ground wire, it goes to the engine block, right under injection pump. Little hard to see the spot from above.


Got the new speakers in this week. I chose Ground Zero Iridium series 4" coaxials, they were bolt on except for wiring. But that's easily solved by splicing correct connectors in. Way better sound quality than with original speakers, who knew.

 

[HoJo 61]

Hi there, thanks for your reply.

The fact is, road salt and Cruiser steel doesn't come together at all. My doors were almost 100% rust free when i bought the car, but now there is rust everywhere. Same with the upper tailgate. I too have some rust bubbles behind the C-pillars.
Repainting the whole thing would be the best thing to do but that's one hell of a job.

Yep, i have set alarm system to valet mode.

And the E ground wire, it goes to the engine block, right under injection pump. Little hard to see the spot from above.


Got the new speakers in this week. I chose Ground Zero Iridium series 4" coaxials, they were bolt on except for wiring. But that's easily solved by splicing correct connectors in. Way better sound quality than with original speakers, who knew.

Whoops.. forgot to add this pic.
As i said, fits like a glove.

Then found out i have slight coolant leak somewhere. Quick look around revealed it is most likely not the radiator but the water pump. Not sure yet, gotta take a closer look.

 

[HoJo 61]

Alright, i've got something done.

Let's start with something not so important, like front turn signal upgrade.
Fronts are Depo brand and fender indicators are ebay specials.

Then replaced rear sway bar bushings to polyurethane, and replaced the links with Febi brand parts and made 2.5" longer frame mounts. Painted the sway bar also but for some reason i don't have any pics of it. Whatever.

 

[HoJo 61]

Then to something more important, and expensive. But necessary.

Got the diesel injectors checked, 3 were real bad and 3 were bad. New Denso nozzles and re-setting opening pressures later they are good to go for another +20 years? No more bad smells, a lot less smoke, more power and hopefully better mileage.
As i was working under the hood, i thought i would go thru the cooling system. As i mentioned before, i had a coolant leak somewhere, bad water pump it was.
While i was there, replaced both water hoses, t-stat and flushed the system. New green coolant.
Engine mounts were replaced too, rubber was almost fully separated from metal. No wonder it rattled so bad.

I was about to go thru AC system too but i got send wrong condenser, and crankshaft side AC belt pulley was broken. Again rubber separated from metal. New parts are ordered, waiting for them.

Bottom ring/ heat shield puller. Simple M8 threaded rod and piece of steel water pipe.

 

[HoJo 61]

Cooling system refresh.

New 76C thermostat with new gasket.

New upper and lower radiator hoses. Plus valve cover, charge pipe and front crankshaft seals.

New OEM water pump with gasket.

Flushing radiator core, it sure was pretty clogged. Yuk!

Yes, front crank seal was definitely leaking. And water pump.

Old motor mount, long gone. Both sides were almost fully separated.

Right side was piece of cake. Left side was total pain in the rear due to transmission oil pipes running right over the mount + few other items on the way.

Well, i got to enjoy it for solid 2 days until this happened. Alternator died. Always something. Fix a thing and one or more pops up.
New Denso alternator coming my way.

 

[HoJo 61]

Old news but the alternator has been replaced with new Denso 80A unit.
Pretty quick and straight forward job. Disconnect battery negatives, remove air filter box, unplug alt wires and remove two bolts.

Next up is annual roadworthy check. Unfortunately there is at least two rust spots on left side rocker panel i have to address before even trying my luck. Second and biggest problem is acting up front ABS sensor. New sensors hasn't delivered yet, oh well.
Will see what else inspector finds, i hope there is not much.

I need to source/make the inner fender splash guards.

Cleaning.. Too bad the leather has started cracking and fading in color.

 

[HoJo 61]

Next up is annual roadworthy check. Unfortunately there is at least two rust spots on left side rocker panel i have to address before even trying my luck. Second and biggest problem is acting up front ABS sensor. New sensors hasn't delivered yet, oh well.
Will see what else inspector finds, i hope there is not much.

Well, everything went way smoother than expected.
Inspector guy was chilly at least and didn't catch on things. Horn did not work and he only said "check connectors, might be simple fix". I'll take it.

Before driving in i did weld one patch and threw smaller tires on.

Then hauled parts E39. 360 kilometers without any issues.

And today was happy day also. My long waited front ABS kit finally showed up! Been hunting for one for 4 months.
Euro4x4parts found one for me, this part is barely available from Toyota afaik. 04895-60013