Jack's " I have no idea how to forum" thread about a turbo '96 LX450

[toyotaaddict83]

Lets Copper Harbor:

Saturday
After a cold night in the tent, we took our time getting all of our gear together and ready for the trip out. As I was making breakfast, the rest of the gang was beginning to get reorganized and ready to begin the second day of the trip. The plan was to head to the northern coast of the Peninsula and try to find a nice spot near to the water that was still warm. After letting our gear dry, we packed up the trucks and began the trek out. We had to navigate the same conditions as the day before. Minuses a few instances in which the T4R needed to be recovered from the cold icy grips of Davey Jones' locker, the second day was going great. That was until, I decided to take lead after the group had made an incorrect turn. It was at this point in which I managed to swiftly give my Duchess a pieced ear. There was a downed tree/branch that spanned a third of the trail and as I saw it, I reckoned I could easily drive around it, boy was that not the case. A good friend of mine was my Co-pilot and all I heard was "Watch out...." CRASH.... SPRINKLE SPRINKLE! And sure a H3ll, I had managed to shatter my passenger side rear door window. I was furious! I do not want to sound full of myself, but I like to think of myself as good driver. I have good spacial awareness and I knew I had cleared that obstacle. But somehow, someway, I had managed to break my window. I think one of two things happened... A) Duchess slide into the tree, as there was a rut or wash out on that side cause the trail to fade away or 2) Since my 20 year old suspension is soooo awesome and perfectly suited for everything, a bit of side to side, rolling ship action caused her to slam into the branch. I think this is likely case. Oh well its done and over-with and now I get an awesomely bush fixed window made up of plastic from a bag you get when buying a comforter and a bit of duct tape. No I did not get any pictures, I was way to mad! After this incident the rest of the day proved to be a breeze and we made it camp with plenty of day light, which allowed us to finally relax a little.....

 

[toyotaaddict83]

Several more from Saturday:

 

[baldilocks]

Thanks for those great pics and descriptive posts. I grew up in the Traverse city and later teens in the Grand Rapids area where I entered the military from and never went back to live. When I as about 7 years old we lived in the Munesing area for little over a year. Our tiny house was surrounded by forest and for a period of time we had a bear living in the area until they trapped him and hauled him off. Definitely a great place for fishing and hunting. I get home sick sometimes so keep these awesome posts coming!

 

[toyotaaddict83]

Umm, there is ZERO mention of the LX owner's pink panties. You MUST have a pink panty sticker on the window....I decree

Well that will have to be my next mod! But how many is that job?

 

[toyotaaddict83]

Thanks for those great pics and descriptive posts. I grew up in the Traverse city and later teens in the Grand Rapids area where I entered the military from and never went back to live. When I as about 7 years old we lived in the Munesing area for little over a year. Our tiny house was surrounded by forest and for a period of time we had a bear living in the area until they trapped him and hauled him off. Definitely a great place for fishing and hunting. I get home sick sometimes so keep these awesome posts coming!

Will do, thank you for the kind words. I was a bit worried that I would be straying away from the sole intention of this part of the forum by making posts like these, but I am glad to hear someone is enjoying my stories. There will be plenty more stories to come!!

 

[on3i11s]

Just finished reading through your whole thread! I enjoyed all of your stories and pictures as well. Keep 'em coming

 

[toyotaaddict83]

Alright Duchess, Its upgrade time!!

With 145k miles on the clock, it is time to update and upgrade the ol' girls suspension. The saggy OEM LX springs became Icons new Progressive rate springs. Factory length Bilstein 4600s evolved into Icon's 2.5 remote reservoir shock. Icon's new 80 series suspension kit contains everything! Castor correction bushings (CC bushings), sway bar link spacers, springs, shocks, breather line and a TON OF STICKERS!!!

Day 1:
My brother and I began with the front as we figured it would be the more difficult due to the bushings. We quickly and easily removed the shocks, springs and disconnected the sway bar. After this we focused on the CC bushings, which thanks to ICONS directions, were surprisingly simple. Proceeding as per directed, we loosened both sides, which then allowed us to remove one bar at a time. At this point, things were going so well and we were greatly enjoying ourselves and this project. However, as per every project something always goes astray. Being the relatively naive mechanics that we are, we thought that a little table vice would be sufficiently strong enough to remove the bushings from the radius arm. This instead turned into us breaking our table vice. No harm or anything became of the vice's failure but it was rather sad as that old brute has seen a lot. RIP little table vice. So after a bit of lunch, Joe and I decided it was time to buy a press, so it was off to Harbor Salvage. $200 later, we were back at it and making great progress once again. This part of the project was highly informative for me, it managed to demonstrate a few things. 1) Hydraulic presses are extremely powerful and a very valuable tool. B) CC Bushings that have been in use for 19 yrs and 11 months are very very stubborn to remove and make a ton of noise on the way out. We know this because as we where pressing out the first bushing the noises being made sounded like there were artillery shells being shot and exploding all within a can of soup. It was really loud and slightly unnerving!! After managing to press out all of the old bushing and press in the new ones, we began putting ICONS products into place. We chose to begin with the springs, then the shocks, then the sway bar spacers. Install was easy and painless, actually through out this entire project neither of us had blood drawn, which is unheard of when working on a cruiser who resides in these parts. Anyway, after completing the front and getting it back on the Duratracs, We look to each other and smile from ear to ear, in absolute love with what we have accomplished. After a few seconds of staring, we agree to begin tackling the back. This is where the project begins to fight back. We again, begin to take off the shocks, except it proved to be unsuccessful. Broken bolt within the bottom rear shock mount.... We look to each other and say.... "Lets clean up"

Pics from the first day:

 

[toyotaaddict83]

Alright Duchess, Its upgrade time!!

Day 2:

After letting the bolts on the tops and the remaining bottom marinate in Liquid Wrench over night.. We decide it is time to continue. Since we had broken the bolt in the passenger rear bottom shock mount the day before, we chose not to take any chances and since we were out of fuel for our torch, the welder was the next option. So, Joe boogered up a weld on the surface of the bolt. After we let it cool to below red hot, we got a socket on there are began to crank. We figured it was going to be successful, but not to the extent that it was. After doing the welder trick, this bolt seemed to be finger tight and was a piece of cake to remove. Food for thought for everyone else, yes you will need new hardware after but it sure gets the job done and you dont end up with half a bolt in your rear shock mount. Next was trying to remove the tops, which proved to be even more extensive than the bottoms. We had to have been going at those bolt for hours... Finally after many sweats, five clamping pilers/vice grips and many choice words, we got both free. What a nightmare that is!! After this point however the project became easy again. All that was left was putting in Icons products and taking care of the bolt in the passenger rear shock mount. While I was shortening the newly purchase hardware for said mounts, joe was drilling out that broken bolt and began to tap it. For those who need to know, the sizes are Drill : 27/64ths Tap: 12 - 1.25, we found them at our old reliable little hardware store. Maybe the bigger stores would have them, but I am skeptical, as they seem to neglect the existence of the metric system with regards to hardware. Back to the story. After completing the drivers rear with ease, we focused on the passenger rear to determine if that new tap will be strong enough. With regret, it was not. So as it sits now, my 80 series LX is now fully Icon equipped and on its own wheels but I am unable to drive it because of that stinking rear shock mount... I did get to pull it out of the shop and into the sun for a few pictures but other than that, nothing. No road miles to speak of.

All in all, I am again very impressed with Icon and their products. Just like the products on my father's 100 series, the products that consist of this new kit Icon provides for the 80 series are impressive and have the certain feel to them that matches the high quality feel of our cruisers. If you are on the fence about whom to buy shocks of this caliber from, I will kindly be able to assist you in your decision to buy ICONS!

Here are the final pictures, as she sits today... She is a bit of a monster truck, but that will settle out soon.

 

[toyotaaddict83]

Copper Harbor Camp & Ride: August 2016

Well this was another trip for the books and it was one that got a weeks worth of planning, at best. My brother on his SB66, my cousin on his Chilcotin and me on a Stumpie FSR, if you know bikes you'll see the problem here. Two bikes that meet the demands of Enduro/All-Mountain riding and one that is more for Cross-Country riding. All in all the riding was great. We made the climb to the top of Brockway Mountain maybe half a dozen times and then came to the realization that the shuttle is a good value for the money, so we bought three tickets and got to enjoy the air conditioning on the climbs. We went through three tubes. We had a hand full of crashes and spills/tumbles. But every way you look at it, we had a blast! When we had to leave, we were exhausted, but the feeling was mutual; we did not want to leave. We could have spent a week camping, riding and enjoying being outside.

The pictures below are from our campsite the first night, when the weather was favorable. Nothing beats the luxuries that Lake Superior has to offer to tired and worn out mountain bikers after a long day. After we parked the trucks, we took our sweet old time setting up camp and making dinner. Our appetizers were little 6inch frozen pizzas that was then followed by pesto chicken over ravioli. The little grill you see over the fire was a gift to me from my girlfriend, and it has quickly become one of my favorite bits of my camping kit. Burgers, chicken, frozen pizza all turn out amazing. The eventual goal however, it to be making fish that we have just recently coat on there. Thats just right!

Needless to say, after we finished eating and the sun was down, we all feel asleep almost immediately. It may not have been the best sleep, stupid sleeping pads and a forgotten power inverter were the reasons behind that but everything cant be perfect, right? Day two the weather cooperated for more great riding but when we had to make camp, thunder and lightning. We raced around trying to find vacancies, with no success. So, we were left to set up sleeping quarters in our trucks in a parking lot of a locally favorite restaurant. If I recall, there was one point in the night where I had my feet rested over my tool box, my bottom was resting on my TRED Recovery boards and my head was on the arm rest on the door. Not one of our brightest moments, but it sure was funny!

You live and you learn! It was another great trip, with no broken parts and no injuries. Id call that a success!

Oh and I almost forgot, ICON VEHICLE DYNAMICS STAGE 2 KIT is spectacular!

Cheers friends!

 

[GW Nugget]

Great job, just saw the Icon install...
You're one of the 1st to get the kit. If you don't mind, will you please get a center of hub to bottom of flare measurement? If it is a true 3" you will have 23" on all corners.

 

[toyotaaddict83]

Great job, just saw the Icon install...
You're one of the 1st to get the kit. If you don't mind, will you please get a center of hub to bottom of flare measurement? If it is a true 3" you will have 23" on all corners.

Its has already settled a lot!! Initially it was prolly a 5inch lift for me with those worn out old LX springs. Ill get that measurement for you right away! Cheers!

 

[toyotaaddict83]

The truth is in the pudding, here are photos of my drivers side front and rear. The first photo is the rear and the second is the front. The truck is level as it is sitting in the garage. Never has three inches been so satisfying. Cheers!

 

[skyline223]

How are your driveshafts doing with that amount of lift? Any vibrations/hum? Do you feel the need to have adjustable panhards with that setup? Looks great!

 

[toyotaaddict83]

How are your driveshafts doing with that amount of lift? Any vibrations/hum? Do you feel the need to have adjustable panhards with that setup? Looks great!

Icon supplies castor correcting bushing with their kit. So to my understanding, everything should be correct and should not be an issue. I do feel some vibrations every once in a while but it could be anything. Usually its seems to be because of the roads, since they are so rough. I plan on buying adjustable panhard bars however, in the future, because as it stands right now, my axles are not square with one another . It is not severe but if you stare its noticeable. Cheers!!

 

[toyotaaddict83]

My first question is about your new stereo setup. Were the (what I assume are tweeters) in the back doors stock with the LX450? Because I don't have those in my LC. Also, is the device hanging out of the right dash speaker hole an amplifier? And what size and depth were the speakers that was in those holes? Also, I have an aftermarket Avital alarm system that I wanna uninstall, but after seeing this I'm a bit scared... my system doesn't pop the trunk or anything but it has a remote starter and an alarm wired to it that is designed to go off is the door is opened without the alarm being disarmed via the wireless key fob. It also unlocks and locks the door with a push of a button meaning that Avital probably also installed some kind of mechanism to allow that? And I'm pretty sure it also has a tilt sensor that will trip the alarm if the car is moved. My second question is about your suspension. In the very first picture that you posted in this thread, is that your LX450 with the stock suspension? What size duratracs did you have then? And what products have you installed now to lift it, and what is the overall front and back lift?

I do not believe the tweeter speakers to be factory, especially since they do not work. I listed above the model of speakers and head deck that I chose, but I do not know what the sizing and specs were of the speakers that I removed were. With regards to the alarm system, My brother and I just went for it. Figured if we had a problem, we could source it on here and fix it. That is really your best bet. Until the write up about the ICON Stage 2 install, I was on bilstein 4600 shocks at factory height with the original lx springs. The tires I have now are 285/75/16 or a 32.8 inch.

I don't want to be rude, but almost all of your questions were covered in the thread.
Cheers, hope that helps!

 

[toyotaaddict83]

Hey mudders!!!!

I have been a bit dormant lately, well good news for those who are interested. I have just placed a large order for CRUISER parts. So I will updating this here thread again soon, hopefully. Now, just have to be patient and wait. I am super excited! But I think im going to be on ramen and hot dogs for a while here!!!!

Stay tuned!

 

[toyotaaddict83]

Cat is out of the bag! Thanks to SCS wheels for their bad APPLES F5 wheels! And thank you Nitto for their killer looking Ridge Grapplers! They are 35x12.5r17s. Still a few quirks to fix but I am super pleased with how it turn out!

 

[toyotaaddict83]

Time for a read, eh?

I had a rather large shopping cart on ebay (Tires, cb radio, fuse box and a bit more), well I also had an NEW ARB front Winch compatible bumper. I know, i know. Soccer mom Lexus owner, but hear me out. I am in the midwest, I am most worried about smoking Bambi doing 70mph some night on a long haul. With an ARB, bambi would keep from destroying the nose of Duchess (my 80) and would just turn into hamburger. Anyway, back to the story. Well I placed the order for the bumper and it all went smoothly. The best thing about ordering bumpers is that, they always come in full sized semis, which look very hilarious on the road near my house. Its never been a problem in the past, so why would it this time. Well it was! I received a call in the middle of the day, while i was at work from the driver, he said that his truck was too heavy for the road where I live. No problem, so I told him my brother meet him with a UTV to retrieve the bumper. Well my brother raced down the hill and met the driver, unloaded the bumper and raced back. Once he got back, he began to unwrap it. And by unwrap it, I mean remove the LAYERS and LAYERS of plastic wrap (no box/crate). Once he got down to the bumper, he noticed that the passenger side wing was terribly bent, as if it were dropped. The finish was chipped as a result of it and the front of the bumper is all scratched as if it was dragged across the ground/truck. All in all, I am a little disappointed in the overall transaction. So I am currently trying to resolve the issue with the seller on ebay. So learn from my experience! Yes, buying from our trusted Land Cruiser shops is more expensive but you get what you pay for, everytime!

Cheers guys!

Oh and can anyone see anything else, that I have yet to mention, that is newer on Duchess?

 

[toyotaaddict83]

It has been a minute since I have shared anything on this thread and frankly, thats because I forgot about it. Looking back at this, a sense of embarrassment presents itself. Little did I know, just how back words I was doing this. Well I promise from now on that this will only be related to tech and mechanical posts. For those that did find some enjoyment out of the stories, I have created a website that is reserved for that exact purpose. Below is the link for that. Please let me know if you do enjoy them, that way I can keep doing them.

Now, these pictures are here to show off the light cannons that are on the front as well as the because I like the pictures, so I hope you do too. Cheers everyone.

Jack

Adventure | TrashCat Unlimited

Welcome to Being Unlimited! | Gear | Advice | Support | Adventure

www.trashcatunlimited.com

 

[toyotaaddict83]

*****************UPDATE with a foreshadowing*******************************


This past winter was a season full of repairs, upgrades and general improvements. There has been upgrades to the infotainment system, the driveline has been upgraded, there has been a solution for rear storage brought forward, and yet the greatest improvement has to be the addition of the Wits End Turbo kit. I do not even know where to begin since it has been so long since I last was on here. I could make a list of things that have changed to the truck since this time last year and I am sure I would be forgetting something. So instead, let's talk about the big additions and go from there. Sound good? I thought so too. I say, let's start at the bottom and work our way up.

As she sits, there are 4:88 Nitro gears in the truck and I can say that they are fantastic. I actually forced myself to re-gear, to be honest, and it is rather embarrassing. I was under the truck one day looking for a leak or who nows actually. Anyway, I could not recall the last time that I had greased the zerks in the drive shafts. Grease gun retrieved and a few too many pumps later, I had managed to extend the rear tail shaft into crushing the seal in the third member. In my defense, there was water coming out of the tail shaft and it needed to get out so pump more grease was my thought. Wrong thought, oh well, Live and learn. So with a slow leaking rear diff, I place an order for 4:88 Nitro gears. Now this is another one of those projects that my brother and I had no experience with but with the help of youtube and the awesome team at Nitro, it was pretty easy. The biggest detail in this is to take your time and make sure you double triple check every measurement and you will be a success. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any pictures of this but I will talk to my brother and see if he has some of this.

Now in regards to performance, and I stated this in the turbo thread. Re-gearing these trucks has to be the least talked about "significant improvement modification". Now, I have no affiliation with any gear supplier, but they make a night and day difference. I recall before the truck had the gears in it and on 35s, it was sluggish. These motors have the grunt to get the tires rolling on the OEM gear set, but it is a work out. Keep in mind that this truck is light, only a front bumper. I would especially notice this disadvantage when trying to merge into 70-80 mph traffic on the highway. That is where they really fall on their face, even with the mythical PWR button pressed. Once I put in the gears, that changed drastically. I would not say it was as much of an improvement as the turbo was however it certainly restores that light on their feet feeling about a "naked" 80 series. I will talk about the gears with the turbo once I get to that "chapter" of this update sequence and next time I will promise to have pictures.

Cheers, friends and happy cruising!