Build meet tucson
- Thread starter nuclearlemon
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Subscribed a little late but looking forward to seeing what you've got in store. What a great truck and amazing stash of parts for it!
i can see the emotions flowing thru all the way from both sides. This pose should be on every cover page related to classic Land Cruisers.
- Thread starter
- #24
so, i bought tucson at a bad time...i brought it home just in time to find out i was being transferred to wyoming (that part was a positive....so glad i'm not in kalorado, especially for this b.s.) . i towed it home from arizona, only to have to tow it down to bonham and leave in the capable care of texican for almost two years. i have after living in a hotel, i finally bought a house in cheyenne to find their rules were too strict to build a suitable shop, so i've since bought a 13 acre farm complete with barn and tiny insulated quonset hut that should fit tucson just fine. after a delay on a trailer build, one of the techs at my shop was able to make it down to texas and load up my motorcyle and annie and tucson. they should be home tomorrow!!!!!
2020, craziness! Sounds like it’s been quite an adventure finding Tucson a good home but it worked out for the best!
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- #27
lol...i am sooooo not patient. thankfully, the move entailed starting up a company almost from scratch with a lot of newbie employees, hotel living while fixing up one home the next state south to rent, finding a home here, moving, then realizing that home wasn't going to work, finding a new home, dealing with a deadbeat renter, nothing but clusterfucks at work and selling one house and buying another the same week and moving out of one, into storage, then from storage to the new one in one month and the new house was owned by a hotbox smoker who never cleaned. been too busy to miss too much stuff
Huge ass thanks to @Texican for taking care of everything for me. they are tucked away in my she shed now. took a bit of cramming but both eventually fit, so right now, 7 of 9 vehicles (if you include the trailer) are indoors for the winter!!!! wooohooo!!!!
Hey, I want a she shed!!!lol...i am sooooo not patient. thankfully, the move entailed starting up a company almost from scratch with a lot of newbie employees, hotel living while fixing up one home the next state south to rent, finding a home here, moving, then realizing that home wasn't going to work, finding a new home, dealing with a deadbeat renter, nothing but clusterfucks at work and selling one house and buying another the same week and moving out of one, into storage, then from storage to the new one in one month and the new house was owned by a hotbox smoker who never cleaned. been too busy to miss too much stuff
they are tucked away in my she shed now. took a bit of cramming but both eventually fit, so right now, 7 of 9 vehicles (if you include the trailer) are indoors for the winter!!!! wooohooo!!!!
View attachment 2491085
Love this truck, is it getting used?
- Thread starter
- #30
time for a way too long update. in april this happened,.....
april of 2023...yeah.......that's how crazy life has been. between trying to keep up the 13 acre property, fix up the home that has suffered neglect by an older couple, work, mow, spend weeks at a time working at other stores no where near home,, blah blah blah, the axle sat for years. then, i said 'i have to get to work on this axle..i'm sick of stepping around it;
in july of 2025, i had started stripping it and put one knuckle and parts in the solvent tank because it was not pretty
april of 2023...yeah.......that's how crazy life has been. between trying to keep up the 13 acre property, fix up the home that has suffered neglect by an older couple, work, mow, spend weeks at a time working at other stores no where near home,, blah blah blah, the axle sat for years. then, i said 'i have to get to work on this axle..i'm sick of stepping around it;
in july of 2025, i had started stripping it and put one knuckle and parts in the solvent tank because it was not pretty
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- #31
four months later, i cleaned and painted the springs. eight months after i took one knuckle off and it spent that time in the solvent tank, i can tell you that the grime/grunge/funk laughed at eight months in ed's red and i had to wire wheel everything eventually. and that was fresh solvent.....
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- #32
i also discovered this fine "repair job" by a previous owner. yup, that funky double not well threaded stud was in on one of the steering arms.
i drilled, tapped and helicoiled it and it's "like new"
seems like there's a lot going on, right......yeah....that's why this job just kept getting longer and longer and longer.
i drilled, tapped and helicoiled it and it's "like new"
seems like there's a lot going on, right......yeah....that's why this job just kept getting longer and longer and longer.
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- #33
assembly began, but i realized that every time i went to put something on, it was skanky and i had to clean it. lesson learned. the rear axle is going completely different
after a lot of time with a razor, wire wheel, sand paper......
after a lot of time with a razor, wire wheel, sand paper......
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- #34
in july, i finally got the rear front back under the vehicle.....no steering yet and there is still a few things to be done, but the front end is no longer on jack stands
still needed are dealing the the steering and brakes
more later.......
still needed are dealing the the steering and brakes
more later.......
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- Thread starter
- #35
that picture above gives a hint as to what i did for steering. when i had annie, they said current tie/relay/drag rods wouldn't fit. and yet they did. iirc, i had to cut the tie rod down, but it worked.
i took a chance. and ordered i tie rod end, one relay rod end and the drag link end (the normal one, not the one at the gearbox). if you order the ends, they come with a new rod. for the other ends, a friend was selling off his stash of parts from his old fj40 and that included a box of new 555 rod ends. here is what i learned. the tie rod taper end appears to be the same by my not so accurate dial guage. the tube thread is larger so the ends will not fit the 25 tube. no problem, it comes with a new tube....that's not quite long enough.
i decided to chance it and have the extra .75 of an inch per side of thread sticking out. this rig won't be running 35" tires or going 75 down the highway, so i think i'll be ok.
the relay rod.....perfect match!!!
the drag link was a hare long....i almost cut it until i really cleaned the scuzz at the gearbox end side and realized there was a bunch of threads showing and decided to use those. i can cut it in the future if i need to. don't shame me for not pulling the gearbox end....i wasn't planning on doing steering...this all started when i decided to replace spring bushings.
the yellow line is where it was threaded to...
and yes, all of the drag link did look that bad
so, we have steering handled outside of final tie rod adjustment. that will happen this week when i rebuild wheel cylinders that i wasn't planning on rebuilding and make those brake anchor pins that i didn't know were supposed to move actually adjust. again....i was just going to replace spring bushings...i have no freakin' clue how i got to replacing much of my steering.......
i took a chance. and ordered i tie rod end, one relay rod end and the drag link end (the normal one, not the one at the gearbox). if you order the ends, they come with a new rod. for the other ends, a friend was selling off his stash of parts from his old fj40 and that included a box of new 555 rod ends. here is what i learned. the tie rod taper end appears to be the same by my not so accurate dial guage. the tube thread is larger so the ends will not fit the 25 tube. no problem, it comes with a new tube....that's not quite long enough.
i decided to chance it and have the extra .75 of an inch per side of thread sticking out. this rig won't be running 35" tires or going 75 down the highway, so i think i'll be ok.
the relay rod.....perfect match!!!
the drag link was a hare long....i almost cut it until i really cleaned the scuzz at the gearbox end side and realized there was a bunch of threads showing and decided to use those. i can cut it in the future if i need to. don't shame me for not pulling the gearbox end....i wasn't planning on doing steering...this all started when i decided to replace spring bushings.
the yellow line is where it was threaded to...
and yes, all of the drag link did look that bad
so, we have steering handled outside of final tie rod adjustment. that will happen this week when i rebuild wheel cylinders that i wasn't planning on rebuilding and make those brake anchor pins that i didn't know were supposed to move actually adjust. again....i was just going to replace spring bushings...i have no freakin' clue how i got to replacing much of my steering.......
- Thread starter
- #37
not so sure about the fun challenge thing. after years of working on different land cruisers, this has been the most painful. after battling to get the front axle out, a friend mentioned a new tool he bought after working at the oilfields. a magnetic induction heater. he brought it over to show if off at my annual bbq. while it took a good 20+ hard strikes with the sledgehammer to get the front shackles and spring pins to get out, he had a friends son hold the heater on the rear pins (i already had gotten the shackles off) and after about 30 seconds, he gave it about 3 taps with the sledge and they tinked to the ground....."b.s. do it again!" . so he did. so i bought one.
two days later the rear axle teardown began
and came to a quick halt when the pinion shaft lock bolt snapped with what turned out to be two threads left holding it......
the bump stops looked like crap, so it was a good time to order a new set since i need to order a new pinion shaft lock bolt.
- Thread starter
- #38
while waiting for parts to show up, i came across an extra set of shoes to send off to be relined. it was a small fortune, but i suspect i will never need to do that again. i also began cleaning the brake parts and springs.
before the induction heater showed up, i was doing the map gas and penetrant method to get the brake fittings off the lines and i didn't chance doing that where the rear soft line bet up at the frame, i just cut the line.
after the induction heater, even the stubbornest stuff spun out...sorry, no really impressive pictures of smoke with the induction heater
a new left hand bit showed up and this came out
before the induction heater showed up, i was doing the map gas and penetrant method to get the brake fittings off the lines and i didn't chance doing that where the rear soft line bet up at the frame, i just cut the line.
after the induction heater, even the stubbornest stuff spun out...sorry, no really impressive pictures of smoke with the induction heater
a new left hand bit showed up and this came out
- Thread starter
- #39
then, i read somewhere that the lower pins on the brake backing plates weren't just anchors and were supposed to turn to adjust the shoes....crap, guess i'll be dealing with those when i pull the front drums to put the relined shoes on, in the meantime, i have my spiffy new tool
its working good and i'm loving life....then i hit the last pin for the rear.....brutal and a lot of damage was done. i have extra backing plates, but the pins are already missing .
i cleaned it up the best i could, caked all the anchor pins with antisieze, cleaned up the rest of the axle parts and was ready for assembly
slapped in, wheel cylinders were all rebuilt, added some kyb shocks on the rear (it had ranchos with lovely red boots....yeah, those had to go). back on all fours for the moment.
so far, new shocks all the way around, both axles stripped almost all the way down with new diff gaskets, i have not replaced any pinion or rear wheel seals. knuckles rebuilt, wheel cylinders rebuilt, new soft brake lines, new tie rod and ends, relay rod and ends and drag link and one end. next up is to replace teh front cylinders with rebuilt, put on the "new'" shoes, and get those anchors pulled and coated with anti sieze, then order the master kit and rebuild that, fill the system and cross my fingers.....
its working good and i'm loving life....then i hit the last pin for the rear.....brutal and a lot of damage was done. i have extra backing plates, but the pins are already missing .
i cleaned it up the best i could, caked all the anchor pins with antisieze, cleaned up the rest of the axle parts and was ready for assembly
slapped in, wheel cylinders were all rebuilt, added some kyb shocks on the rear (it had ranchos with lovely red boots....yeah, those had to go). back on all fours for the moment.
so far, new shocks all the way around, both axles stripped almost all the way down with new diff gaskets, i have not replaced any pinion or rear wheel seals. knuckles rebuilt, wheel cylinders rebuilt, new soft brake lines, new tie rod and ends, relay rod and ends and drag link and one end. next up is to replace teh front cylinders with rebuilt, put on the "new'" shoes, and get those anchors pulled and coated with anti sieze, then order the master kit and rebuild that, fill the system and cross my fingers.....
WOW ! what a Great build thread.