My Blue Beast, which is no longer blue

[tlaporte]

Many, many moons ago (it must be at least 12 years, because I got it before I was married, "when it was still my money" as SWMBO said at the time) I traveled to Ballina, NSW, Australia in response to this ad:

Yes, even in 2004 the Internet was a place to skive off and search for a dream. It turned out that the seller was in the process of moving back to England, and was looking to sell the truck within the next two weeks. I had a good chat with him, and we agreed that I would come out to Oz, see the truck and he'd show me around some beautiful areas on northern NSW for a week and if I liked the truck at the end, I'd buy it.

Ten days later I was the proud owner of the Blue Beast (shown here with Ben, who has since been forgiven for supporting Arsenal):

This being 2004, and the truck having a build date of 11/1982, let's just say that i was premature in purchasing a vehicle that was not, yet, easily imported into the United States under the 25-year old rule.

Off into storage she went.

...

 

[tlaporte]

The next summer was the first of life's interventions when SWMBO became my wife. To prove her undying love for me, though, she consented to a honeymoon in Australia. As long as we started at the Four Seasons in Sydney, and ended at an eco resort and spa north of Cairns, she was on board with a trip up the East Coast of Australia, camping in the Blue Beast.

She even helped polish it up when we got there. Sorry for the tiny pic, but I think that's her wiping down the inner windshield after our first day of driving—did i mention that it took 3 unplanned days in Ballina, NSW, and about $1000 AUD for new boots and some other fixes in order for us to get the road-worthy certificate and get a new registration?

Thus began the 2000KM trek from Ballina to the Jinbirrba Valley in Northern Queensland—in about five or six days. So much for a leisurely drive up the coast. In hindsight, we should have made Bribie Island our destination (<300 KM north of Ballina), enjoyed some wheeling and beach time and called it good. But we were typical Americans who really didn't have an appreciation for the sheer size of Australia.

In 2005, however, the truck had still not hit the magic 25-year mark, so back into storage it went, at Ballina Airport Car Storage. Willy and Allyson were awesome help to me, and although they've sold the business I'd still recommend them if you find yourself in need of storing a Troopy near the Ballina Airport.

 

[tlaporte]

Fast forward another two years, and by 2007 we had a little nipper and I was anxious to stop paying storage fees and wanted to get my truck to LA. I knew the truck was built in 11/1982, and I figured since there was nothing that I could see that said how to measure 25 years old I would say "built in 1982, that's 25 years ago" and I started the process of getting it shipped to the US.

I did the work myself, with the help of Willy at Ballina Car Storage, who helped arrange land transport for the Troopy from storage to the port of Brisbane. It was loaded on a RoRo ship and landed in LA about two weeks later, IIRC.

I took the metro (yes, a subway rider in LA!) down to Long Beach and walked the two or three blocks to get to the customs office. I got behind someone from Hyundai who was importing 240+ vehicles. Thankfully there was more than one person working at the counter, so I didn't have to wait for him to finish all of them before they processed my paperwork! I had everything filled out in advance, got my approvals and clearance in less than 10 minutes and headed off to the port itself to retrieve the truck. The whole process took me less than three hours.

I stopped just outside the port at the gas station where all of the semis fuel up for their cross-country journeys with whatever goods they've offloaded from the port, got back in, turned the key: nothing. Found a very nice semi driver to maneuver his rig near me to try to jump start me, but the old battery was deader than a doornail. AAA sorted me out by bringing me a brand new one and got me started, and I was back on the road with the temporary operating permit that I'd gotten at the DMV prior to import.

After a few weeks of driving it and the occasional appointment at the DMV and the CHP, I got honest to goodness CA plates, title and registration in the mail from the DMV. I felt a real sense of accomplishment having done all of the work myself, even if it's a straightforward process done by many.

This was when @65swb45 introduced my truck to the forum and drew me out of lurk mode.

Passenger Side by Thomas La Porte, on Flickr

 

[tlaporte]

After driving it on and off for a bit, trying to find time to work on it or funds to have @65swb45 work on it, I got hit on my way to work. T-boned by a plumbing truck that ran a red light, hitting three cars in the process, mine being the last in line.

As Mark said in the earlier thread, the truck was totaled by the other driver's insurance company and I bought it back for a few hundred dollars. I was pleased, in the end, with what they gave me though I had to fight a little bit. Their original set of comps was to a couple of 1983 FJ60s that were for sale in various places at the time. But they listened when I forwarded them For Sale ads for HJ47's that were here in the US.

Mark did some great work to get it back driveable and then I reached the crossroads of what to do with it. While I pondered, it sat in our driveway. In that time after the accident, I got in touch with OCDBeetle and we agreed to have him make me a new top, since the old one got torn up in the accident. it was old and needing repair/replace, anyway, even though it was not 'original" to the Norforce updates.

No need to go into the saga that was getting an OCD top, but suffice it to say that I was rewarded in the end for my patience and trust, with a special shout of gratitude to another Mark, the wonderful @woytovich, who stepped up and helped a lot of guys get what they paid for in the end.

I had just enough time for a test fit about a month or two before we made our first visit to China:

troopy-top-02 by Thomas La Porte, on Flickr

 

[tlaporte]

China?!?!?!?

By now we had had another two kids and then an opportunity came up for me at work to move to China (Shanghai). I went there to build a data center and all of the IT for a new office facility. We were expecting to be gone for three years, and @65swb45 Mark graciously agreed to take the truck on as a long-term project. We had an outline of work to be done and when he had time in the shop he'd put my truck at the front of the queue and cross off some of the items on the list. In exchange, I paid him for the work but avoid paying another three years of storage fees. I sold our other three cars to Carmax, but managed to keep ahold of the Blue Beast.

Before I knew it we were coming back to California after just one year abroad, but Mark and I agreed that nothing changed about our original agreement—it wouldn't have been fair of me to change the terms, and I was in no hurry.

Fast forward to last summer and Mark called me and told me it was time I finally brought it home:

Whoops, ain't going to fit in there!

With (black) replacement doors and a (red) replacement passenger's side fender, Mark and I decided she needed to be one color, and rattle can Army green is what was most appropriate. So she's no longer the Blue Beast, though my wife still calls it that. In addition to body work and straightening things out, Mark buttoned up the rear end and the seals all around so it was no longer leaking everything everwhere. She's a solid runner right now, with plenty more work to do, which is what finally (after almost 13 years of owning it) caused me to fully come out of lurk mode and start my own thread. I've got a list a mile long (ok, five pages and counting) and in the hour or two a week I actually get to putter about with it I've come up with far more questions than I have answers. So this is the thread where I shall ask.

 

[tlaporte]

I've benefited from so much wisdom already as I've read through many, many threads about the Superglow system. Kudos to @lostmarbles and @bj40green for all of the information that they have imparted, and to @bgennette whose Superglow Explained thread solicited so much feedback and knowledge sharing. I feel blessed to have such a treasure trove of information available to me with a search of the Google, and know that now that I've reached a place where i can ask a specific question about Superglow there will likely be members ready and able to educate me.

One of the items that has been on my list was to repair the glow system, as it was less than fully functional. In Southern California it's often hard to notice if the glow system isn't working 100%, unlike some other climes, but it was clear that i had issues. Through the wonders of the Internets I have been able to order new glow plugs, a new busbar, and a couple of the various insulators that help the Superglow system to function. I've been able to determine that my #1 Main Glow Plug Relay (Part #28610-54080) has been replaced with a Glow Plug Relay from a different vehicle (Part #28610-68030), available on Dynas and 70-series Landcruisers in Australia. Based on my research, I believe that those two relays are largely identical, differing primarily in their mounting brackets. In any case, the relays seem to be working fine.

What I have learned is that the water temperature sensor (Part #89422-30020) is no longer attached to anything in my truck:

Leave aside for the moment that the first thing you've noticed is that the alternator is wired directly to the battery. We'll visit that in a future post. Note that the green plastic head of the temp sensor is attached to nothing. So there is a weakness in my glow system. As I understand it, there is no feedback being given to the glow timer that suggests the glow plugs do not need to be glowing once the truck has reached a certain temperature.

According to my FSM wiring diagram, that temperature sensor should be hooked up to the #1 pin on the Glow Plug Timer via a Y-W (yellow with white stripe) wire, and to ground via a W-B (white with black) wire. Now, I knew (know?) that the wiring on this truck is sometimes...creative. The Army had various options wired into the truck, e.g. for the purpose of lights out operation, and I understand from the PO that at one time a mechanic of his tore out some of the Army's modifications in an effort to fix or troubleshoot a different issue. But I continued the search for the elusive Y-W/W-B combo somewhere in the engine compartment. I was convinced it was near the firewall, close to where the harness enters the cabin near the Glow Plug Timer. Until I found an old photo of the engine bay of a different NorForce cruiser that I'd stashed away many moons ago, and I noticed that there was a wire that traversed the top of the engine and hooked up somewhere near the alternator.

That set me to looking in that area tonight, and lo and behold:

Zip-tied to the cable that is currently going directly from the alternator to the batter is a two terminal connector that shows a Y-W and a W-B wire attached to it.

Now, before just cavalierly cutting the zip tie and mating this connector to the temperature sensor, I think I should test to see what's going on at the connector, right? And that's where I really need some forum electrical advice: what am I testing for before I hook it up? Continuity? With the key in the "On" position? With the engine running?

I've got an ammeter multimeter [edit: gosh I must be tired!] and a rudimentary facility with it, so any pointers that can be given I'm all ears. My 2H Engine Repair Manual (Pub No. 36048E) does not describe the Superglow system for the HJ47, and for the little info that it has for the HJ60, there is no information about the water temperature sensor in the system. Since we seem to have all of the other bits in the Superglow system working, I don't want to mess it up by doing the wrong thing here with the water temp sensor.

Thoughts/advice on how to proceed? Have I even identified the correct wires/plug for the temp sensor?

 

[fjdavid]

Great story so far! subscribed!

 

[crustyBJ60]

that is the plug for the temp sensor.
Super Glow - explained
the system wont be working properly with that sensor disconnected. have a look at that superglow thread again.

my 83 hj47 also had issues with the superglow (suspect timer control) and so was bypassed with an aftermarket timer and manual switch.

the cost, complexity and difficulty in finding replacement parts for the superglow system are not worth it when a simple cheaper fix can be done. IMHO. i will admit that its a convenient and pretty slick set up when it works...

cheers
crusty

 

[bj40green]

I've got an ammeter multimeter [edit: gosh I must be tired!] and a rudimentary facility with it, so any pointers that can be given I'm all ears. My 2H Engine Repair Manual (Pub No. 36048E) does not describe the Superglow system for the HJ47, and for the little info that it has for the HJ60, there is no information about the water temperature sensor in the system. Since we seem to have all of the other bits in the Superglow system working, I don't want to mess it up by doing the wrong thing here with the water temp sensor.

Thoughts/advice on how to proceed? Have I even identified the correct wires/plug for the temp sensor?

Hi Thomas,

Y/W is "sensor" wire for the timer. W/B is the ground wire for the temp sensor.
You should see resistance when you check the sensor for continuity (don't know how much). This value should change when the engine warms up.
You should see voltage on the Y/W wire after starting the engine for a max time of 70 seconds (time depends on a working temp sensor).

HTH,

Rudi

 

[tlaporte]

Thanks for that help, @bj40green. With that encouragement I measured the temp sensor at 1.7 kΩ with the engine cold.

According to a 2H/12HT manual I found, that corresponds to roughly 70F, which made sense with the temps in LA yesterday and the ± variability of my cheap multimeter.

I also confirmed that I had continuity on the harness side, which I think confirmed for me that the wires hadn't been cut somewhere further up in the harness, so I went ahead and hooked up the harness.

I know that data is not the plural of anecdote, but I feel sure that there was much less white smoke after starting up the engine this morning. I'll be keeping an eye on it for the next few days.

 

[tlaporte]

I tried to figure out what was wrong with my instrument cluster lights last night. I put LEDs in a while ago but they weren't ever lighting up the cluster.

I pulled the bulbs and each one tested as working, I reseated everything and made sure that they were oriented correctly. My high beam indicator and my turn signal lights are now working properly, but the cluster lights still won't come on.

I've been going over @bj40green 's post on cluster restoration and I had a question: what is the proper method for me to bench test the lights on the cluster? Do I just need to jumper between pin 3 (12V+) and pin 10 (Meter Pilot Lights) and then apply power and ground to pin 3 and pin 1, per Rudi's diagram?

I am assuming that there is an issue with the connection on the PCB, so I'd like to get the cluster on the bench and then just be able to test it there first, without putting it back into the truck.

 

[bj40green]

Why don't you test for 12V on pin 10 when the headlights are on?
Of course you can jump 3 to 10 and hookup 3 to +12V and 10 to negative.

Rudi

 

[bj40green]

Led lights are polarity sensitive. I've marked the + and - side for each bulb.
Note that the Hi beam indicator gets his ground from the 3 prong Ammeter cable so it will not work while bench testing, unless you add an extra ground wire to the center prong.

Hth,

Rudi

 

[tlaporte]

Helps loads, @bj40green. I shall endeavor to get some time on the truck tonight and utilize your suggestions.

The next step after that is likely a good thorough cleaning of the PCB. It's quite dusty underneath the dash in the old Troopy!

 

[guistou]

Nice little beast!
Subscribed!

"Funny" to see an bracket mounting for aircon compressor on a soft top....

 

[tlaporte]

Finally got a chance to get into the truck and follow the advice of @bj40green. I think I learned some more but I'm also puzzled about my tests and I still don't have cluster gauge lights that are working.

Switching the polarity of the turn signal bulb was enough to get both of my turn signal lights working again, which is great!

I tried to measure the voltage on pin 10 with the headlights on, and although I didn't get the reading I expected (12V) , I did get consistent readings between the dash lights on pin 10 and the turn signal lights on pins 9 and 8, so maybe I'm doing something wrong with my multimeter.

With the headlights off, I got a reading of 0.022V,

and with the headlights on I got 0.057V.

I thought that this was wrong, but testing pins 8 and 9 with the turn signals off gave me roughly 0.022V on each. Turning my turn signal on and my multimeter couldn't really keep up with the flasher, so it was hard for me to say what the reading was when the turn signal lights flashed on.

This was how I did my test:

Am I setting my multimeter wrong? With those same settings I measured 12.5V across the battery terminals, so I thought that this was the correct setup.

 

[bj40green]

This is better picture to figure out which pin is what.

It looks like you're doing it right. Meter setting is also correct.
1= ground and 10 = +12V if the headlights are on, so what is going on?
Do the following: Red test lead to pin 10 and the black test lead to a bare metal surface. Voltage? Y/N
If yes, you have a missing ground (not likely because your gauges and turn indicators are working).
If no, you don't get 12V from the headlight switch. Maybe your dimmer (if you have one) is turned to low?

Rudi

 

[tlaporte]

Thanks, @bj40green, as always for helping guide me on this troubleshooting journey.

More information:

• I confirmed that I get 12V at Pin 3 with the key switched on, which helped me validate my testing and my multimeter
• I measured only 0.016V at Pin 10 with the red lead on 10, the black lead on bare metal and the headlights turned on
• Further, I tested the tachometer light wiring in the same manner as above and measured 0.016V; my tachometer light is behaving in the same manner as my dash cluster lights

According to my wiring diagram, the tachometer light and the combination meter lights are on a shared circuit, so I'm wondering if them both measuring to the same voltage is indicative of where my problem might be.

As a potentially related aside, I lost my headlights for a brief period while I was doing my testing. I cleaned up the dash area where the switch connects and also sanded the nut that holds the switch in place on the dash and that was sufficient to get my headlights back and working, presumably because the headlight switch is ground through the dash. I did not, sadly, get working cluster lights after that.

 

[bj40green]

So, there is no voltage on the G-Y/G wire from the light switch.
I don't have that wiring diagram but check for voltage on the light switch G-Y/G and the other side G-R.
Can you post a picture of the full diagram?

Rudi

 

[tlaporte]

@bj40green, I have a full copy of all three pages of that diagram on my computer at work. I'll try to post them on Tuesday.

In the mean time, to make sure I understand how best to do what you are suggesting:

I will need to disconnect the headlight switch from the harness and then place my red probe in the pin connected to by the G-Y/G wires and the black probe into the pin connected to by the G-R wire, is that correct? Since this is for the headlights, the key will not need to be in the ignition, just need to make sure that the battery is connected.

Is that about right?