Build His 80 and Her 80 tandem build thread

[hisandhers80s]

So I found an add on Facebook for a 4/1994 FZJ 80 with a clean frame, a 3” OME lift, ARB Safari bumper, 12k Winch, and a custom rear tire carrier and customer roof rack. Truck has 238,000 miles on it, and it came with a “parts” 80 which is a 5/1990 FJ 80. The plan was to use body parts on the 1990 and part the rest out. Once I got home with both trucks, I started messing around with the parts truck to see what was usable and what was not. The 92 (Soon to be called Her 80) had a bad relay and cranked over after I replaced it. It only has 112,000 miles on it but has been sitting in a barn for 10 years because the PO thought the engine was blown. My wife in her infinite wisdom has now decided that we will each have our own 80’s, her’s for more of a camping build and mine for wheeling. So just as I envisioned (NOT), and building two 80’s…

I started on the baseline with the 94. The plan was to change all the dead rubber vacuum hoses, plugs, wires, fluids, fix the AC, and run it for a bit and see what else needed to be done. Well once I started digging in, I found that I had a leak around the distributor, oil cover gasket, and the truck was idling quite high. I decided I would just go ahead take off the valve cover and and put a new seals in for the spark plug tubes. As bolts and parts started coming off, I decided to clean the throttle body. I found one of the hard lines was clogged. I have tried everything I can think of to get this hard lines unclogged. Used brake cleaner, PB blaster, small wire, even bought an ultra sonic cleaner and have been trying for weeks to get this line unclogged to no avail. I recently was able get a used throttle body from a part out and it is on the way to its new home as we speak.

 

[hisandhers80s]

Now that I had an ultra sonic cleaner, I decided to go ahead and pull the upper intake plenum off and get it cleaned up. I had secondary motives here, since I was having the issue with the high idle, and thought I might have an issue with one or more of the VSV’s that are so thoughtfully placed in such an easy place to get to. I did find that once of the VSV’s failed the continuity test as well as not making the clicking noise when applying 12v power. I decided to order all new VSV’s with the exception of the one that is NLA, but that one is still working. Decided to take off both the upper and lower intake plenum’s since I was already there. Also got the front of the engine around the oil pump cover cleaned up, thanks to advice from @Kernal. Also while removing the lower plenum and associated wiring harness i broke off the plug of the rear knock sensor. Thanks to @Fj80oregon for hooking me up with a used knock sensor.

 

[hisandhers80s]

I decided to take advantage of the @Marlin Crawler Diff-Tober event. I ordered rebuilt front and rear third members with ARB Air lockers installed, and a set of 300m Chromoly front axles and birfields, and an ARB twin compressor. I struggled with how to package up the rear third members since I have to send it in. I may have screwed up here, but hoping I am wrong. I put the third member in a contractor trash bag, and shrink wrapped it. Then I created a double wall thick box, and put two empty contractor bags down in the box and put the wrapped third member in the box. Next I took Sika post foam and mixed it and poured it int he empty trash bags to create a foam casing around the third member. What I did not realize was how hot the foam actually gets while expanding and curing. I am hoping it did not get so hot that the trash bags melted to the third member.

 

[hisandhers80s]

I just got my fuel injectors back from RC Injectors. 3 injectors dripping and 3 fair. The old parts looked like they had 31 years of time on them.

 

[Funner]

This is going to be expensive….

 

[Broski]

Off to a great start!!

 

[hisandhers80s]

Ok so I have backed myself into a corner mentally on this build could use some input before I just while you’re in there my way to an engine rebuild.

To make this a little more clear, I think I need to layout the full plan for the build that I am planning on doing all at once”one time”.

I am replacing the entire suspension system from the ground up to the body bushings. The entire system is shot and none of the shocks and the steering damper have any rebound. The OME 3” lift springs are tired and 15 years old. Every bushing on the truck including the transmission mount and body mounts needs replaced. I have ordered a full suspension kit including sway bars, bushing, springs, and every element of the suspension from Superior Engineering. I have at least 4-6 weeks to wait on its arrival here in the states before I can do anything with the suspension. I ordered 3” heavy springs front and rear, the mono-tube adjustable shocks, the hyperflex radius arms, the whole package.

I also ordered front and rear third members from Marlin Crawler that will be upgraded with 4.88 gears and ARB air lockers. According to Marlin these will take 4-6 weeks to complete and get back to me. Since they were running their Difftober sale, I also got RCV 300m front axles and Birfields as well as 300m rear axles.

Next, I placed an order for sumo 3.3:1 low range gears and the 10% under drive gears. So I will be pulling the T-case to do that. This is where the conundrum comes in. Do I go ahead and pull the Transmission at the same time so I can do the rear main seal? This engine has 338,000 miles on it and none of the records I have indicate this has ever been done.

Then my brain says, since you already have the valve cover off, and the upper and lower intake plenums off, along with the alternator, and a new power steering pump, do I go ahead and pull the head to do the head gasket and timing chain? Again the engine has 338,000 miles and have no indication that the head gasket has ever been replaced.

I have vacuum hose to replace all vacuum lines, have replacements for all the vacuum valves, all new coolant hoses, deleted the rear heater, have a new fan clutch, and just replaced the oil pump cover seal and front main seal.

I hate to “while you’re in there” myself all the way to a head gasket, but I also don’t want to do all this work and get it all back together and blow a head gasket in the next 30,000 miles and have to undo all of this work since I am so close to where I can do it now.

Please help with your thoughts?!?!?

 

[TheBussman]

do a compression test first before you make that decision. Not saying a good compression test = good headgasket but sometimes an engine can seem like its running great at 60PSI.

 

[Broski]

Don’t over think it

 

[hisandhers80s]

do a compression test first before you make that decision.

Well, I probably should have done that but the engine is half torn down at this point. It was not something that was on my mind when I started this journey. Also, I am restoring the wiring harness and waiting on all the new OEM connectors to come in, so I can’t put the intake plenums back on until that is all done.

 

[TheBussman]

Well, I probably should have done that but the engine is half torn down at this point. It was not something that was on my mind when I started this journey. Also, I am restoring the wiring harness and waiting on all the new OEM connectors to come in, so I can’t put the intake plenums back on until that is all done.

If you still have the starter, timing chain, and the cyl head installed you can do a compression test. cover up that alternator + wire real good so it doesn't arc on anything.

 

[hisandhers80s]

I decided I needed to do some work on the wiring harness after finding a jumper wire that ran from one injector plug to another. I had also read quite a bit about the wiring harness melting or disintegrating around the EGR valve, so I decided to pull the entire engine harness out and do my best attempt at a restoration. I found a thread from @OGBeno that was an awesome reference on plug connectors and decided to follow in his footsteps and take the entire harness apart, clean all the wires, inspect for any cracks or bad spots in the wire insulation. I was able to find a large majority of the plug connectors still available between Toyota and Ballinger Motor Sports. I also ordered 1/4” TechFlex Insultherm High Temp Braided Fiberglass Sleeving which has a melting point of 2,048 degrees and some adhesive backed double-wall heat shrink tubing. After dissembling the wrapping starting about half way across the firewall and all the way to the end of the harness, I was able to take paper towels and degreaser to get all the Waite’s wiped down and cleaned up so I can inspect them for any cracks or breaks in the insultation. I only found 4-5 spots where i needed to make any repairs, and was able to cut those bad sections out, add a new section of wire, solder it back together and take the heat shrink tubing and get it sealed back up. The connectors from Ballenger Motor Sports came very quickly and all of them came with new pins and rubber grommets to seal up the plugs. I then replaced all of the connectors over the course of 4-5 nights using a de-pinning tool set off Amazon made by JRready. It is tedious work but once you have the hang of how these connectors come apart, its pretty simple unless the plug connector is just disintegrating. I only struggled with two of the connectors, and ended up carefully breaking those two apart to get the pins out. It also took a bit of practice to get the hang of the ratcheting crimping tool set used to crimp the pin connectors, but Ballinger had included extra pin connectors just in case you mess one up, which I thought was amazing since I practiced with two to get the hang of it, then messed up two more while trying to crimp pins on to the harness. I am still waiting on a few connectors from Toyota, but I certainly feel like I am on the down hill side of this restoration. I included the link to the reference thread I was able to use along with the FSM to find and track down all the connectors I am using for this project.

FAQ Thread 'Engine Wiring Harness Information 8/1992-12/1994 FZJ80: 82121-60340/1/2'

Dec 20, 2023

Hello all:

I’m lucky enough to be working on a cool project at the shop where we will be rehabilitating a OBD 1 1FZ-FE engine harness. As such, it seems there is some information useful to the community as I go through this process that might be worth passing along and sharing.

We’ll be disassembling an 82121-60342 engine wiring harness and reconstituting it using all OEM parts. This engine harness has been discontinued for a long time. I know of one NIB/NOS iteration owned by another well-known parts nerd for his own vehicle. Other than this person, I don’t know of another version...

• OGBeno
• 1fz fe fzj80 obd1 wiring harness wiring repair
• Replies: 48
• Forum: 80-Series Tech

• 
• 

 

[Broski]

I decided I needed to do some work on the wiring harness after finding a jumper wire that ran from one injector plug to another. I had also read quite a bit about the wiring harness melting or disintegrating around the EGR valve, so I decided to pull the entire engine harness out and do my best attempt at a restoration. I found a thread from @OGBeno that was an awesome reference on plug connectors and decided to follow in his footsteps and take the entire harness apart, clean all the wires, inspect for any cracks or bad spots in the wire insulation. I was able to find a large majority of the plug connectors still available between Toyota and Ballinger Motor Sports. I also ordered 1/4” TechFlex Insultherm High Temp Braided Fiberglass Sleeving which has a melting point of 2,048 degrees and some adhesive backed double-wall heat shrink tubing. After dissembling the wrapping starting about half way across the firewall and all the way to the end of the harness, I was able to take paper towels and degreaser to get all the Waite’s wiped down and cleaned up so I can inspect them for any cracks or breaks in the insultation. I only found 4-5 spots where i needed to make any repairs, and was able to cut those bad sections out, add a new section of wire, solder it back together and take the heat shrink tubing and get it sealed back up. The connectors from Ballenger Motor Sports came very quickly and all of them came with new pins and rubber grommets to seal up the plugs. I then replaced all of the connectors over the course of 4-5 nights using a de-pinning tool set off Amazon made by JRready. It is tedious work but once you have the hang of how these connectors come apart, its pretty simple unless the plug connector is just disintegrating. I only struggled with two of the connectors, and ended up carefully breaking those two apart to get the pins out. It also took a bit of practice to get the hang of the ratcheting crimping tool set used to crimp the pin connectors, but Ballinger had included extra pin connectors just in case you mess one up, which I thought was amazing since I practiced with two to get the hang of it, then messed up two more while trying to crimp pins on to the harness. I am still waiting on a few connectors from Toyota, but I certainly feel like I am on the down hill side of this restoration. I included the link to the reference thread I was able to use along with the FSM to find and track down all the connectors I am using for this project.

FAQ Thread 'Engine Wiring Harness Information 8/1992-12/1994 FZJ80: 82121-60340/1/2'

Dec 20, 2023

Hello all:

I’m lucky enough to be working on a cool project at the shop where we will be rehabilitating a OBD 1 1FZ-FE engine harness. As such, it seems there is some information useful to the community as I go through this process that might be worth passing along and sharing.

We’ll be disassembling an 82121-60342 engine wiring harness and reconstituting it using all OEM parts. This engine harness has been discontinued for a long time. I know of one NIB/NOS iteration owned by another well-known parts nerd for his own vehicle. Other than this person, I don’t know of another version...

• OGBeno
• 1fz fe fzj80 obd1 wiring harness wiring repair
• Replies: 48
• Forum: 80-Series Tech

• 
• 

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Nice work !

 

[hisandhers80s]

Parts keep rolling in! Marlin Crawler 8” front third member with 4.88 gears and an ARB Air Locker and Also the ARB Twin Air Compressor.

 

[MooseMichaels]

My wife in her infinite wisdom has now decided that we will each have our own 80’s

A keeper for sure! The 80’s must be saved. Following along here.

 

[tmxmotorsports]

Hell yeah way to get after it.

 

[hisandhers80s]

Another big order placed today! Huge shout-out to @Delta VS for being patient with my many questions!

Panhard Lift Bracket

Front Bumper

Tailgate Storage

Useless Ashtray Replacement

Rear Quarter Panel Mount

 

[hisandhers80s]

@Delta VS

Weld It Yourself Frame Kit

Shifter Console

Center Console

Rear Storage

And a Baja Designs Lighting Package!

 

[hisandhers80s]

Also, have a used Scheel-Mann driver seat on the way from @Surfdc

 

[hisandhers80s]

Finally have the engine wiring harness finished and ready to go back in! I took almost all of it apart, cleaned every wire, soldered any areas that needed to be repaired, and replaced all the pins and plug connectors that I could source from Toyota and Ballenger, which was the majority of them. I have also started getting it back into the engine as well but did not take any pictures of that yet.