Knox's Build Thread (2 Viewers)

[FortKnox98]

Some of you know me in person already, but around here I've been mostly lurking for years, and I figured that now's the time to change that! As I move on to my second 100 series, I'd like to get things a bit better documented for both my own sake and others this time around. I'm very excited to have the opportunity to build another truck using what I've learned from the many hours and nearly 100,000 miles put into my last one.

This summer, I flew out to pick up my "new" 1998 Land Cruiser in California. I bought it from the original owners with 299,295 miles on the clock. When I got there to check it out, I could hardly believe how clean and well cared for it was. Near perfect aside from a few scuffs on the exterior trim and cracks on the front seats. It came with a huge stack of maintenance receipts too (going back to 1999), which really provided some peace of mind for me.

Working on east coast trucks is all I've ever known, so you can imagine my disbelief when I got to see this undercarriage in person...

The test drive was mostly just me marveling at the great condition of this thing. Easy done deal. As soon as things were wrapped up, I hit the highway for a couple hours and things were all smooth and peachy. In the long run all I felt the need to do before driving it home across the country was change the oil and filter (and install a Fumoto drain valve).

I'm looking forward to showing y'all the progress as we go along! Stay tuned, because I've got some catching up to do. Been too busy rolling around in the driveway to write about it so far!

 

[FortKnox98]

Since the truck and I had such a nice time taking the long way home, here are a few pics from that trip:

Picked up a new (used) bike rack in Reno, since mine had just been stolen off the front lawn.

Had the privilege of rolling it over 300k miles and had to pull over to commemorate the occasion. Just east of Wells, NV on I-80.

Caught a pretty great sunset that evening too.

Got it out on dirt for the first time and ran into a friend in Jackson Hole, WY.

Poor man's oil change setup.

 

[FortKnox98]

Got back home and got the running boards off right away. It was pretty surreal for me to have those bolts come out...easily. And have shiny threads instead of brown.

Failed MD safety inspection because the D light, shifter backlight, and parking lights were out. 2 of the 3 never worked on my old truck and I was not looking forward to having a working D light blasting into my eyeballs at night. Turns out it's not as bad as I expected.

While I had the center console apart, I installed some nice big 3D-printed cupholders from Cruiser Design & Manufacturing. The '98 cupholders are impressively useless compared to the ones in my '01. I found a business card for a flooring salesman in Seattle under the center console trim. The truck left Washington for California in about 2000 or 2001, so that was an old one. This truck also still had original Toyota salesman's business card tucked into the owner's manual jacket. Talk about a time capsule.

After driving cross-country holding my coffee and water bottle between my legs, these cupholders made a big difference!

 

[kevgentile]

I met Knox a couple months ago when looking at his '01, cool cat!
I never got a close up of his new to him '98. Knox, that is a clean truck!

Cheers mate

 

[FortKnox98]

Thanks @kevgentile!

Next step: this truck needed a timing belt. I had just gotten the job done successfully on the old truck, so I felt more confident going into this one with that under my belt (no pun intended). Sure enough, I knocked it out much quicker this time. Big thanks to @cruiserpatch and @OTRAMM for very helpful videos, as well as mud threads from a few others whose names are escaping me right now. Having parts (i.e. pulley bearings, fan bracket, etc) ready before you start is a REALLY good idea on a truck of this mileage. On both this truck (304k) and the old one (283k) most of the pulley bearings were bad except the AC compressor. On this one, the serpentine idler had clearly been replaced recently, but I replaced the fan bracket and the bearing in the serp tensioner pulley. I found putting the new bearing in the freezer made it very easy to press into the pulley.

When I first moved my Scangauge over to this truck, I was unpleasantly surprised to see coolant temps hovering in the 205-215º range. It has a relatively new radiator, so I expected the cooling system to be healthy. While doing the timing belt job I replaced the cheapo parts store thermostat with OEM and all was well again. Amazing how spending an extra $10 on your thermostat can get you running 30º cooler.

The whole job went smoothly until the very end, when I ran the truck for ~30 minutes to burp the cooling system. I shut it off afterward and discovered...

...I'd screwed up pressing in the new crank seal. I replaced this on both trucks because the area was a bit oily and grimy. So in an attempt to fix a tiny seep, I created a huge leak. I learned a valuable lesson (triple check that it's PERFECT when you're pressing in a seal that deep in the engine bay), and I ordered the parts to get back in there and take care of it myself. However, to make a long story short, it became clear that I wasn't going to make it to Cruisers on the Rocks just adding oil to compensate for the leak. It continued to worsen and it would not have been pretty had I tried to drive it much like this. HUGE shout out to the absolute heroes at Extra Mile Performance in Odenton, MD. They squeezed this job in on the day I had originally planned to leave for COTR and righted my wrong. An expensive lesson, but one I will be remembering.

 

[cruiserpatch]

This is an exciting day!

Stoked to follow along with the build. Cheers to 98/99 OEM lockers

 

[FortKnox98]

Now, skipping back a couple steps...

My White Knuckle Off Road sliders showed up in the mail, right on schedule. Craftsmanship, packing, and customer service were all on point and I'm happy I went with them.

Those bolted right up easily and I moved on to suspension. I put a lot of thought into what I wanted for this truck, and tried to take into account what I learned from my last build. There's been a lot of discussion recently among some of my close Cruiser friends (especially @ga12r1 and @cruiserpatch) about what makes a suspension system really work well offroad. That got me thinking, and I started taking notes from Lee's knowledge and incorporating my own ideas about how I wanted my rig to perform. I was fairly happy with my Ironman foam cells on the old truck, but I felt there were some areas that could be improved. I was also reminded on my trip home how great the ride is on a stock 100, and I wanted to try to preserve that comfort a little bit more this time around.

My goals:
- create a setup that was as softly sprung as possible for the truck's weight (therefore enabling maximum articulation)
- use a shock that was better equipped with the damping capabilities to control a heavy rig like a 100 through that articulation
- maximize down-travel. I have often seen the most effective rigs offroad be the ones on great tires with conservative lift and maximum droop.

I figured that making the truck a little less oversprung and underdamped than my last setup would also help achieve the on-road comfort I was looking for. With all this in mind, I splurged on some Icon 2.5" remote res shocks. I kept the springs pretty light by re-indexing the factory torsion bars (I've come to feel the HD bars that come with lift kits are stiffer than necessary for most 100 builds) and going with OME 2860s out back. I was putting most of my build-starting budget into suspension, so I knew the truck would be staying light for a while.

I figured it might be a little longer on this lovely rust-free truck before I had to break out the torch, but alas, those top shock nuts are a PITA. The "special tool" on the right below helped a lot on those as well.

It felt pretty weird to drill holes in such a nice frame for the reservoir mounts.

I also replaced the factory upper control arms with some Nitro ones while I was at it. These would allow me to get the most out of the longer-travel shocks, and get me nicer caster numbers once lifted. I actually bought these for the old truck and they just sat in the garage for over a year. Worked out well in the end. There was an immediate, noticeable difference in droop with the new shocks and UCAs installed. I forgot to measure but by eyeballing I'm guessing I gained at least an inch, maybe two.

Rears also went fairly smoothly. I couldn't believe how much travel these shocks are capable of; I had the sway bar off and still had to lean my weight on the axle to get it drooped enough for the shocks to go on. I had to go dig a right-angle drill adapter out of storage to make the holes for the reservoir mounts back here.

 

[cruiserpatch]

Now, skipping back a couple steps...

View attachment 3483987 View attachment 3483988

My White Knuckle Off Road sliders showed up in the mail, right on schedule. Craftsmanship, packing, and customer service were all on point and I'm happy I went with them.

View attachment 3483989 View attachment 3483990

Those bolted right up easily and I moved on to suspension. I put a lot of thought into what I wanted for this truck, and tried to take into account what I learned from my last build. There's been a lot of discussion recently among some of my close Cruiser friends (especially @ga12r1 and @cruiserpatch) about what makes a suspension system really work well offroad. That got me thinking, and I started taking notes from Lee's knowledge and incorporating my own ideas about how I wanted my rig to perform. I was fairly happy with my Ironman foam cells on the old truck, but I felt there were some areas that could be improved. I was also reminded on my trip home how great the ride is on a stock 100, and I wanted to try to preserve that comfort a little bit more this time around.

My goals:
- create a setup that was as softly sprung as possible for the truck's weight (therefore enabling maximum articulation)
- use a shock that was better equipped with the damping capabilities to control a heavy rig like a 100 through that articulation
- maximize down-travel. I have often seen the most effective rigs offroad be the ones on great tires with conservative lift and maximum droop.

I figured that making the truck a little less oversprung and underdamped than my last setup would also help achieve the on-road comfort I was looking for. With all this in mind, I splurged on some Icon 2.5" remote res shocks. I kept the springs pretty light by re-indexing the factory torsion bars (I've come to feel the HD bars that come with lift kits are stiffer than necessary for most 100 builds) and going with OME 2860s out back. I was putting most of my build-starting budget into suspension, so I knew the truck would be staying light for a while.

I figured it might be a little longer on this lovely rust-free truck before I had to break out the torch, but alas, those top shock nuts are a PITA. The "special tool" on the right below helped a lot on those as well.

View attachment 3484023 View attachment 3484049

It felt pretty weird to drill holes in such a nice frame for the reservoir mounts.

View attachment 3484025

I also replaced the factory upper control arms with some Nitro ones while I was at it. These would allow me to get the most out of the longer-travel shocks, and get me nicer caster numbers once lifted. I actually bought these for the old truck and they just sat in the garage for over a year. Worked out well in the end. There was an immediate, noticeable difference in droop with the new shocks and UCAs installed. I forgot to measure but by eyeballing I'm guessing I gained at least an inch, maybe two.

View attachment 3484030 View attachment 3484029

Rears also went fairly smoothly. I couldn't believe how much travel these shocks are capable of; I had the sway bar off and still had to lean my weight on the axle to get it drooped enough for the shocks to go on. I had to go dig a right-angle drill adapter out of storage to make the holes for the reservoir mounts back here.

View attachment 3484065

I still need to take a ride in the truck with you sometime and see how this setup feels. After riding along with @ga12r1 through Colorado I realized how terrible my truck rides on and off road…

 

[FortKnox98]

I still need to take a ride in the truck with you sometime and see how this setup feels. After riding along with @ga12r1 through Colorado I realized how terrible my truck rides on and off road…

Yep, I owe you a ride for sure! We'll make it happen. I'll get into more detail later but you know I'm very happy with it...

 

[FortKnox98]

After a brief thanksgiving hiatus, we're back for another installment! Hope everybody had a lovely holiday with people and food you like. I sure did!

Now, back to pre-COTR in October...after finishing up the suspension install, I headed over to Extra Mile Performance for an alignment. This is the day they also saved my ass by doing the timing belt job over for me to correct the crank seal issue, which was absolutely puking oil by this point. I'm glad they talked some sense into me, and incredibly grateful that they managed to do it in time for me to make it to COTR! I had my truck back by the end of the day both aligned and leak-free. They also pointed out that my steering rack bushings are shot, so the rack (slightly leaky) and bushings (I'll probably switch to poly) are something I'll need to address sooner rather than later. Let the saving begin.

With all that done and both my wallet and my conscience lighter, I amended my plans. Now I'd be at the tire shop when they opened on Wednesday to get my new tires mounted, and more or less immediately hit the road for COTR. This mostly went according to plan, although I did have to argue a bit, as the tire guys were convinced the new ones wouldn't fit. I went with 315/75r16 Yokohama Geolandar M/Ts, based on quite a few friends' good experiences with them.

I'd already got my Spidertrax spacers swapped over from the old truck, and hammered/repainted the pinch welds while I was doing suspension.

The spare tire I took off was the original, and as you can see above, it was older than the truck...and older than me...
I got a cheap new-old-stock BFG for my new spare and got it secured nicely in the back. I was pleasantly surprised how well it stayed put while wheeling.

After getting home from the tire shop, I did some quick clearance trimming on the plastic fender liners up front, packed things up, and hit the road. I was loving the look with the new setup! We ended up rolling into camp at COTR around 1:00 in the morning, but we did make it!

 

[cruiserpatch]

Wow you have fender liners? You didn’t tell me you bought a luxury model

 

[ClassyJalopy]

Great thread! Like how it looks with meaty shoes. Any complaints in the noise department from MT tires?

 

[FortKnox98]

Great thread! Like how it looks with meaty shoes. Any complaints in the noise department from MT tires?

Just seeing this @ClassyJalopy! I'm about 5,000 miles in on the tires already. No real complaints here. They're noticeably noisier than the ATs I've run in the past, of course, but not super loud at all. Cruiser sound deadening allows me to still have a conversation and/or hear my music on the highway, so I'm happy. I was counting on this being true, because on my buddy's '01 Tacoma the same tires are a bit obnoxious to me...