need an fj80 aficionado in sheboygan

[dropframe]

I was wondering if anybody here ever makes runs thru the Sheboygan area? I have a very beat up fj80 ('93) that I am trying to get back up to 'reliable' - I made some ill informed choices when i bought this fj80 and now I am trying to make it work. It's my DD and only vehicle.

I need someone who loves the fj80 to help me make a repair list. It is making a terrible grinding noise at highway speed right now, and my local mechanic is gonna have to start playing a guessing game.

Money is tight - the PO told me it only need a few little things, and promised to fix some of them himself - he of course had no intention of doing that. An example - he just had the brakes redone - of course he ment disabled the the back breaks and remove the mechanical safeties. The back calipers where rusted shut - it was a pretty expensive fix. Plus for some bizarre reason it had a 4-runner front drive shaft in it that started rubbing agains the undercarriage.

Anyway this thing is probably a huge mess, but I have 5k in in now and I'm not stopping My wife and I really like it, it's just not totally safe yet.

I need someone who can take a test run with me and get me going in the next direction. My mechanic said he has no idea - I'm sticking with him bc he is honest, and that is hard to come buy in this area

Our goal is to take a gigantic trip out the great lakes at the end of next summer. We are going to try and do it in 3 - weeks. I have a lot of bugs to work out of this machine first tho.

Any fellow Wisconsinites have time to help a fellow cheese head out?

except for the dude who ripped me off of course

 

[Hank]

Not in Sheboygan and no 80 master but I'd be happy to help.

 

[woody]

happy to help as well, but leaving today for a week in Arkansas...

post up some pics...never know, might spot some oddities

 

[4LLC]

could possibly help also

 

[dropframe]

Thanks for the responses - would have posted here but for whatever reason I didn't get an email notification that anyone responded so I moved this into the general fj80 section. This thursday my mechanic is going to look at it - I think the center dif isn't aligned right with the drive train and all the grinding noise is coming from it.

Providing he can find out what that noise is and fix it for a reasonable cost, the LC should be highway safe Once it is I would like to set up an appointment with someone mechanically knowledgeable about the vehicle to give me a list of what needs to be done.

My mechanic is happy with it, but he's no LC nut - I have no idea what creaks and groans in the drive train are o.k. and what are just disasters waiting to happen. I know I used to drive my saab almost 2 hours to a mechanic in appleton just b/c they loved saabs - they could fix anything quickly and properly b/c they specialized in them.

I need someone to do that for me - I need to know if the suspension is ok - it makes different noises in left and right sharp turns - I need to know if my diffs are ok - it takes them a long time to lock up and a lot of switch throwing to unlock them - I just have no base line of what a 93 LC should sound and operate like.

The good news is everyone is really starting to like the truck - we want to find out if there are any newbie trails in wisconsin we can take it on. Summer 2011 we want to take it on our great lakes tour but the summer after that we are already talking about the upper michigan tour thing I have seen online - would be cool to get a taste of trail riding around here tho once we get the LC sorted out....