Luigi (1 Viewer)

[majdomo]

New project! First order of business is CA smog (she's a '77). Yikes. But so psyched! Quick and dirty compression showed 150 across the board except #6, which is 140. Surface rust underneath, moist t-case from the shaft seals, front crank seal, rear main or oil pan (hard to tell), steering box, all more or less expected. Starts and idles nicely but dies once it runs out of fuel in the bowl, so looking forward to sorting that out. CA carb on the engine (to rebuild) and spare CA carb in a box.

Lots of smog spares. Has not been de-smogged, still has the VSV, AIR, smog pump, EGR cooler, and that little computer thing under the dash all in place and wired up. Also has the hot air intake doodad bolted to the block. I understand that's tough to find now. No rot in the usual spots, as best I can tell. Respray seems ok as far as it goes, but no idea why they missed the shade on the upper rear panels and the seller doesn’t know either, was done before his ownership. Fenders were cut as well. Wheels as they sit look kinda silly I think, they are NOS from 20 years ago. Hah.

After fuel and smog, it's tires and seals and cosmetics and finding rare bits and etc. Unless it all goes to hell, which it probably will. Showing about 69K miles on the odometer, I’m sure that’s rolled at least once.

Will be here to start work next week, and tide me over until the '02 gets back from paint... someday. I'd send this one in next but I don't trust this paint guy to get it done any time soon.

 

[EWheeler]

Clean. Where did you buy it from?

 

[majdomo]

Clean. Where did you buy it from?

Had a CL notification set up locally in LA / OC for about a week, after missing out on one close by a few weeks back. This one is better. Was luckily first to respond and first to come by to check it out. Traded some fun stories. This was meant as a father-son project from about 10 years back, but the kids weren’t interested. One of them got into Subarus instead, so the car bug bit but in a different way. I’d call that a win, though.

When my son (10) came in the garage the other day, he said “it always smells like oil and stuff in here.” ”Is it a good smell?” ”…yeah.”

 

[majdomo]

Today was the day! Got up bright and early, met the tow driver down at the seller’s place, and it was back home by about 11am.

The kids wanted an L name for this one, since it’s a Land Cruiser, so they came up with Luigi. I don’t think it looks like a Luigi. But I obviously don’t know anything about naming a car.

When I saw the truck last weekend, we could get it to get some gas in the bowl and idle for a minute, but no more than that. Same story when I got it here. I bought a carb rebuild kit with the intent of rebuilding the carb to correct it, and still have it. Will probably do it anyway - idles too high and the fuel cutoff solenoid seems shot or not connected due to some bad dieseling after shutoff. After more hunting discovered there was NO gas coming out of the inlet. That can either be a bad fuel pump, or junk in the lines. I verified suction from the pump at the fuel filter, so started yanking bolts and covers and so on to get the fuel tank out.

Someone’s been in here before. (Also note my sweet KROQ keychain. This STAYS with the truck.)

I had *just* dumped 2 gallons of fresh gas in it too, which ended up in a Harbor Freight bucket 5 minutes later. I blasted the crap out of the tank, drained as much of the varnish out of the tank as I could, blew out all the lines with compressed air, and let it bake in the sun for a few hours to evaporate off the water. Reinstalled, put more fresh gas in the tank, and it was idling perfect in the driveway with a rock steady fuel level in the bowl window.

After that, I spent a little time installing the air filter, hooking up loose ends, and installing the cooling fan for the carb. That’s all in the car for now.

I got an opportunity to drive it about 7-8 miles around the neighborhood, and first impressions are that:
- Steering is stupid sloppy. The truck came with a mini-truck power steering conversion kit. This may be going on the truck in the next few weeks.
- Muffler is SHOT. My neighbors were so pissed at me for making so much racket. I don’t think there’s even a silencer back there, but need to check. Question - this is a 77, are there other options than the Cruiserparts.com aftermarket option? Don’t mind that if it’s good, thought I’d ask.
- Rear t-case output shaft leaks like a sieve. I’ll get after that probably during the week, looks like an easy fix.
- Motor is good, trans is good, clutch is good, brakes are good. Heater valve is stuck. Turning on the fan elicited a crapload of junk blown in my face, so now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I can look into getting a new heater valve, which is frozen solid.
- Choke needs adjustment. Will wait until…
- I rebuild the carb, since it never drops off fast idle. Could be a linkage problem, but I‘d like to have the rebuild done for the peace of mind before taking it to smog.
- Going to pull this non-stock coil bolted to the back of the firewall. Will check if the installed stock coil is all good first.
- Odometer works, voltmeter works, temp gauge works, speedo works. Gas gauge does not. And come to think of it, I should have checked the circuit when it was out of the car. I’ll do that later.
- Headlights, brake lights, turn signals all good. No backup lights according to the kiddos. High beams also work. Dash / instrumentation lights do not work or are burnt out.

Copious amounts of spare parts are in the garage, intermingling with all my parts from the 2002. I also have 15” mini-truck wheels, along with calipers, pads, and a few other odds and ends for a mini-truck disc brake conversion. A spare air filter, a bunch of smog parts, new points, distributor cap, and so on.

Tired but a fun day. Won’t get much more done until parts get here.

 

[TheHardWay]

So, you and the kids having fun? All good

 

[majdomo]

So, you and the kids having fun? All good

So fun!! They both spent the day watching and helping out, getting tools, expanding their swear word vocabulary… all good stuff! Hoping to get this rig out camping in the fall, if we have time and the world isn’t on fire like it was last year. Once the 2002 gets back from paint, focus will shift so I want to get as far as I can with the 40 for now. Need to get after some parts this am!

 

[zerotreedelta]

Nice clean rig...looks more like a Leonard/Lenny than a Luigi.

 

[majdomo]

Made my way over to SOR today in Chatsworth, evidently they are NOT doing in-person sales. This is on their site, but hidden in a window that you have to click down to see. I called them *from their literal parking lot* and the best they could do is a phone order for mail delivery. Ugh.

Stopped at K&H as well, booked until September. Highly frustrating morning. May just do a smog pre-test and roll the dice on my own.

 

[cruisermatt]

Paint? Why the heck would you paint that, looks like perfect original paint

 

[majdomo]

Paint? Why the heck would you paint that, looks like perfect original paint

The paint is an ok respray, at least on the hood, front fenders, rear fenders, and ambulance doors. Color on those areas though are spot on. The upper rear panels are a slightly different shade, also a respray. It's flaking / peeling off in some spots, particularly high-wear locations like the running boards (may not be the right term on a 40?).

If anything, I'd paint the upper rear panels to match the rest of the truck, but the two-tone look is sort of growing on me. I'm going to give it a wash and clay bar, then some mirror glaze and a polish. Then, realistically, probably leave it. I'll also want to replace those fender flares , these are cracking and ready to come off.

I do want to paint the bezel, am not excited about that chromed look.

 

[Catching Neutral]

Had a chrome bezel once…..couldnt wait to replace i
Have fun working on Luigi, looks like a superb starting point.

 

[majdomo]

Getting after the carb rebuild today. Using Pinhead’s great video series as a guide. Vacuum hoses for reference.

Fresh off the engine.

Disassembly. Primary and secondary for reference.

Soaked everything in Berryman’s Chem-Dip, the bottom third is in there marinating, will pull it later tonight. If all goes well, may have it back together mid-week if I have time for a pre-check.

I also did the front and rear transfer case seals yesterday afternoon, and changed the t-case gear oil. No photos because I was trying to bust through in a short window of time, but got that done and no leaks this am. Input and selector seals will have to wait until I pull the trans for a clutch and RMS job, which I’m researching for later.

 

[majdomo]

Carb rebuild and reinstall complete. Feels way peppier than it did before, now that the secondary isn't frozen shut. Tightened up the linkage with some washers, which seems to have fixed my fast idle issue, adjusted choke as well. Next step is to get a tach and vacuum gauge to set the carb idle mixture, replace spark plugs, rotor, cap, wires. May also pull the distributor and replace the o-ring, which is leaking. Check points, timing. Drove around the neighborhood again, no leaks from the t-case, which is good. Would also like to swap the gear oil in the trans, just for good measure.

My hope is to knock most of this out on weeknights, will be heading out of town again for this weekend and the 02 is inching closer to completion on paint. Really would like to have the 40 smogged and registered before then. EDIT - found this great spec from CARB on 1977 California smog: Link

Also, big ups to @hyhpe for the roll bar!! Made it to LA in 4 days via Greyhound, awesome condition and a big THANK YOU to a great seller! This is currently riding around in the back of the 80 until I can find a home for it in the garage.

 

[EmanC]

Carb rebuild and reinstall complete. Feels way peppier than it did before, now that the secondary isn't frozen shut. Tightened up the linkage with some washers, which seems to have fixed my fast idle issue, adjusted choke as well. Next step is to get a tach and vacuum gauge to set the carb idle mixture, replace spark plugs, rotor, cap, wires. May also pull the distributor and replace the o-ring, which is leaking. Check points, timing. Drove around the neighborhood again, no leaks from the t-case, which is good. Would also like to swap the gear oil in the trans, just for good measure.

My hope is to knock most of this out on weeknights, will be heading out of town again for this weekend and the 02 is inching closer to completion on paint. Really would like to have the 40 smogged and registered before then. EDIT - found this great spec from CARB on 1977 California smog: Link

Also, big ups to @hyhpe for the roll bar!! Made it to LA in 4 days via Greyhound, awesome condition and a big THANK YOU to a great seller! This is currently riding around in the back of the 80 until I can find a home for it in the garage.

What's the plan for the roll bar? Seems like you had a good shape one in the rig already?

 

[majdomo]

What's the plan for the roll bar? Seems like you had a good shape one in the rig already?

The one in there now is a full bar that covers the front as well. A PO welded the front section to the main crossbar. Good for hard(er) wheeling, but my plan so far is sympathetic restoration and refresh back to stock. I could probably cut off the front section and grind down the welds, but this one was super clean and year-specific.

Once I get to it, I'll post up the one in there now on mud if anyone wants it, either as is or happy to cut off the aftermarket section.

 

[majdomo]

Now for timing... seems like the PO installed the distributor in a position that made it impossible to time to the ball. Had to pull each of the spark plugs so that I could turn the motor over to 7 degrees BTDC, painted the ball with some white acrylic for extra good measure.

Some relatively healthy looking plugs here, but will get replaced ahead of smog test. Arranged 1-6. 4 looks a little wet on the threads, will look at that more closely.

The cheap-o HF tach I bought is garbage, though. Doesn't give a reading anywhere near useful, so will be looking for a better tach so I can finish out timing and setting idle.

 

[majdomo]

Some updates:
- Was not able to get the Sun tach that came with the rig to register a consistent RPM either. I had this problem with the 2002, and it turned out that the diodes on the alternator were fried. I've pulled the alternator and have it in for a rebuild right now. It's not expensive, and won't hurt, but we'll see how that goes.
- Stock coil that's on the rig registers about 2.8 ohms consistent resistance on the primary, and nothing on the secondary when checking against the FSM. I got marginal spark out of it when checking to ground, so that's getting replaced as well. No idea if it's shot or whatever, but the new coil was about $50 from Rockauto and again, can't hurt. Pulled the aftermarket stuff, as part of the de-non-Mr T.-ification process.
- Rest of the tune-up parts are coming with the Rockauto order. I stopped off at Napa and bought up about 7' of 5/8 ID heater hose, getting ready to baseline the cooling system once I sort out spark and timing. Will pull and replace the rest of the hoses as part of that process.

 

[majdomo]

Minor update - alternator is back and reinstalled, and by some miracle (read: cleaned the terminals some more) was able to get the rig running on the original coil. Diodes are good, but brushes were toast. Bearings were replaced as well, charges nicely. Will just hang on to the new coil as a spare, or send back.

While in there, I squeezed on the coolant hoses coming off the oil cooler, and they felt and sounded like they were full of sand. Guess baselining the cooling system is next! Full complement of hoses, new heater valve, and replacement Aisin water pump / thermostat are all on the way.

 

[Dread Scott]

Minor update - alternator is back and reinstalled, and by some miracle (read: cleaned the terminals some more) was able to get the rig running on the original coil. Diodes are good, but brushes were toast. Bearings were replaced as well, charges nicely. Will just hang on to the new coil as a spare, or send back.

While in there, I squeezed on the coolant hoses coming off the oil cooler, and they felt and sounded like they were full of sand. Guess baselining the cooling system is next! Full complement of hoses, new heater valve, and replacement Aisin water pump / thermostat are all on the way.

Minor update - alternator is back and reinstalled, and by some miracle (read: cleaned the terminals some more) was able to get the rig running on the original coil. Diodes are good, but brushes were toast. Bearings were replaced as well, charges nicely. Will just hang on to the new coil as a spare, or send back.

While in there, I squeezed on the coolant hoses coming off the oil cooler, and they felt and sounded like they were full of sand. Guess baselining the cooling system is next! Full complement of hoses, new heater valve, and replacement Aisin water pump / thermostat are all on the way.

Where did you you order your hoses from? I need to do the same. Able to get all required hoses from the same vendor? BtW, Luigi looks great!

 

[majdomo]

Where did you you order your hoses from? I need to do the same. Able to get all required hoses from the same vendor? BtW, Luigi looks great!

Thanks! It‘s been a fun project so far! I had to go to a few different places - oil cooler hoses and heater valve are coming from City Racer, big radiator hoses and bypass hose are from Rockauto, which also had the Aisin water pump and 82 degree thermostat. I’m just now realizing that I need a thermostat housing gasket, so will get that from my local dealer if I can hunt up a part number.

I sprayed the whole motor with some degreaser yesterday in preparation for today’s dismantling, which went fine. I failed to notice the petcock on the bottom of the radiator, which is GIANT, and just ended up pulling hoses off the radiator to get the coolant out. I was also able to drain the block, plug came out pretty easy. Coolant was nice and green, but not surprising as the PO just refilled it. Degreased the bejeezus out of my leaky steering box.

Glad I’m doing this, note the crystallization on the water pump. Pump flange is very loosey-goosey, might be the original pump? I also have a leak right around the timing cover, so I’ll be pulling this and replacing the cover gasket and crank seal. Evidently there is also a plate behind the timing gears that may leak, which I’m hoping isn’t my issue. If it is, well… it wasn’t leaking that bad.

General view of where I left things this evening.

And the radiator. This looks new-ish, just flowed some hose water through it until it ran clear. My son likes to show that the Auto Shop is open when I’m working on the cars.

That’s it for now, more to come tomorrow and over the weekend once the City Racer parts get here.