My HJ61 Rejuvenation (1 Viewer)

[Fifty Hertz]

Hey guys. It's been a fair while since I've visited. Looking back, I see that I haven't posted anything for over 12 months! Life gets in the way and time eludes us. Well never fear - things have still be happening with the orange machine. Over the next week I'm going to get everything up to date. Brace yourselves...

 

[Fifty Hertz]

Let's start with a wrap-up of the air system. I really wanted to have nice clean and dry air for my system, especialyl with all the solenoids now on board, not to mention the air lockers. It always used to trouble me how the catch can for the air locker solenoid discharge would gradually fill up with oily condensate. That can't be good for the internals.

The main item to alleviate this is an aftercooler. I wanted to have this immediately after the compressor. There isn't such a thing readily available (that I was able to find) so I struck upon the idea of using a small oil cooler. That's what the last photo above is. It's tucked up inside the left rear quarter panel:

Here it is fitted into the quarter panel:

 

[Fifty Hertz]

Obviously putting it in this location is great for space utilisation and to protect the cooler from getting knocked about. It isn't however that wonderful for airflow. I really want this to pull as much heat and moisture out of the compressed air as possible, so it needs some forced air flow. I found a couple efficient 5" fans to mount on the back side of the cooler.

I'm kinda geeking out with this! So here's it is all fitted in alongside the secondary air tank:

 

[Fifty Hertz]

Compressor bolted in:

Primary air tank fitted under the car:

 

[Fifty Hertz]

Here's the air outlet for inflating the tyres.

 

[Fifty Hertz]

The right quarter panel houses the control solenoids. I bought a pre-made valve block for the airbags with raise and dump valves for both sides. Onto this I fitted the air locker solenoids and also pressure sensors to drive the remote display for the airbags.

Here's a quick video. Obviously it's not quite finished in this clip but you get the general idea.

 

[Fifty Hertz]

The wiring was all pretty simple and only took a couple of hours. Connecting all the elements together with heavy duty hose was a bit more work but nothing too complicated. Here's the airbags going up and down

 

[Fifty Hertz]

Here's a shot showing everything pretty much finished on the left side.

The right side is a work-in-progress still and needs some tidying up. But it's all working at least.

At the moment I've put the display and operating switches for the airbags just inside the tailgate. I did intend to put these somewhere on the dash eventually, although this spot works ok for now. To be honest it's reasonably convenient, as it's easiest to check the ride height and perform corrections when looking at the rear from the outside. So maybe they'll just stay here. I'll see.

 

[TLC Norway]

The wiring was all pretty simple and only took a couple of hours. Connecting all the elements together with heavy duty hose was a bit more work but nothing too complicated. Here's the airbags going up and down

Looks nice and tidy. So you will now have colder air going to the tank, or do you have an oil and water separator first?

That control system is what I want! Where did you buy the contol solenoids, and what else will be needed? I'm in the middle of installing air bags now, just hooked up with schrader valves.

Please explain your system, what components and such.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[TLC Norway]

With some help from a friend, the front doors were fitted yesterday and I was able to move the rig out of the garage and around to the workshop for the final finishing jobs.

It's close now and I'm getting excited!



View attachment 1708257

What tow bar is that?
I'm struggling to find a sturdy one for my 61...

 

[Fifty Hertz]

What tow bar is that?
I'm struggling to find a sturdy one for my 61...

It's a Kaymar rear bar and dual wheel carrier. Made in Australia.

 

[TLC Norway]

It's a Kaymar rear bar and dual wheel carrier. Made in Australia.

Thanks... But I was referring to the one on the picture, before the kaymar, the one just sitting under the frame.

 

[Fifty Hertz]

Looks nice and tidy. So you will now have colder air going to the tank, or do you have an oil and water separator first?

That control system is what I want! Where did you buy the contol solenoids, and what else will be needed? I'm in the middle of installing air bags now, just hooked up with schrader valves.

Please explain your system, what components and such.

Thanks for sharing!

There's no need for an oil separator as such. The compressor is an oil-free design with a synthetic dry piston seal. The main purpose of the aftercooler is to remove moisture from the compressed air. The cooler is so effective with the two fans that it chills the air from ~200°C back down to ambient. This causes most of the moisture to condense out. There's a dead leg on the discharge of the cooler, so that most of the water drops down and collects in the dead leg rather than moving downstream into the rest of the system. There's a drain cock on the bottom of the dead leg that's accessible from under the left quarter panel just behind the mudflap. Periodically I open the cock and drain the water out.

Here's a basic system diagram that I've quickly sketched up.

The control solenoids for the airbags is this one from Boss Air Suspension:

4 Valve Airbag Valve Block| Boss Air Suspension Shop

BOSS new 4 Valve Air Suspension Valve Block. 5W continuous duty coils with a total amp draw of less than 1.7 amps for all 4. 12 volt 2.5mm oriface direct acting style 150 psi rated with 40% pressure differential

bossairsuspension.com.au

It's just a pair of inflate/dump valves mounted on a common air header. The airlocker solenoids are attached to the end of the common air header in the 4-way block. I've also fitted a pressure sensor to each airbag port. Here's an annotated photo of the components.

Excuse the roughness, I just scribbled on it using my phone...

 

[Fifty Hertz]

Thanks... But I was referring to the one on the picture, before the kaymar, the one just sitting under the frame.

Oh right. Yeah that's the old one that's always been on the car. I don't know what brand it is sorry. A previous owner fitted it. Obviously this was removed to fit the Kaymar bar.

 

[Fifty Hertz]

So I bought this set of drawers for the rear.

They're sized for an 80-series and are about 10mm too wide to fit between the wheel arches. Totoro Special Tool #354 to the rescue.

By pumping up the jack and applying the requisite force, I was able to liberate the extra space required and get the unit to fit.

 

[Fifty Hertz]

Getting the holes to line up with suitable locations on the body was a bit of a challenge. In the read, I settled on this.

At the front end, I managed to pick up the box section that runs the full width of the tub.

Wires and hoses for the air system cable tied in place.

 

[Fifty Hertz]

The end result.

Couldn't resist giving them a "real world" operational test.

Obviously there's a bit still to finish here. I need to make up infill panels for the sides and covers for the open quarter panels. I'll get there.

 

[MarkBC]

Nice drawers set. Your last photo shows my pet peeve with tailgates since the drawers knock all your food off. How do you plan to have a countertop? Separate standalone table? For quick lunch stops I'd rather just pull down a counter from the vehicle itself rather than set up a table so I just mocked up this foldout platform. Any other ideas?

Builds - Mark_BC's Apocalypse BJ60 Build

Finally made some progress on the rust repair at the corner behind the back left door. I was left with some welds to grind down in a spot I couldn't get the grinder into (last photo). How are you supposed to get rid of them? I'd go through tons of dremel stones to get those flush. I went to the...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[Fifty Hertz]

Nice drawers set. Your last photo shows my pet peeve with tailgates since the drawers knock all your food off. How do you plan to have a countertop? Separate standalone table? For quick lunch stops I'd rather just pull down a counter from the vehicle itself rather than set up a table so I just mocked up this foldout platform. Any other ideas?

Builds - Mark_BC's Apocalypse BJ60 Build

Finally made some progress on the rust repair at the corner behind the back left door. I was left with some welds to grind down in a spot I couldn't get the grinder into (last photo). How are you supposed to get rid of them? I'd go through tons of dremel stones to get those flush. I went to the...

forum.ih8mud.com

I've now fitted a painted plywood counter to the tailgate. To be honest, the positioning doesn't bother me greatly. My drawers mostly contain tools, spares, recovery equipment and other gear. Food mostly goes in tubs that sit above. For quick stops, it suffices. One just needs to think ahead a little before setting up. For longer stops and overnighting, I get the portable camp table out.

That's my dad enjoying his tailgate lunch...

My rear setup is still pretty rough'n'ready. I need to do some more work on it. I've been waiting until I have the air system and electrics done. It's all time

 

[Fifty Hertz]

I've been meaning I'd been meaning to attend to the brakes and front hubs for a while. The last time I did the front brakes, I must've got a dodgy set. It developed a noticeable shimmy under braking that could be felt through the pedal. Plus the wheel bearings were starting to show some play.

So I decided to go right through the front hubs and brakes.

Full hub rebuild kit.

Stripping it down.

I did actually polish the swivel hub surface with some 600 grit sandpaper, but I forgot to take a pic before getting it back together.