Hello,
After a while thinking about it, I decided to get a second Land Cruiser. Long story short, 70 Series Cruisers are a disappearing breed in my neck of the woods and after trying several options, I noticed there was no other car for me. So on with the search.
I wanted a 75/78 Troopie but failed to find one that was not rusting out or badly abused. Eventually I settled for a 73.
After many battered units which were in poor condition, I found a 1995 FZJ73 with FRP top.
Here it is.
As the model suggests, it is a gasser with the 1FZ engine. According to the EPC, it was manufactured in June 1995. It is an LX, more on this later.
I am the third owner. The first owner had it for 19 years; the last three years it was put on storage because he had become too old to drive it. It was then put on sale, for which it got the 33's, an aftermarket steering wheel and the bullbar. The second owner had it for a few months; a growing family forced him to ditch this 73 for an 80 Series with all the bells and whistles.
It is old enough to be exported to Canada, and in a few years it will be eligible for import to the US.
Rear views.
Aside from the 33s, bullbar and wheel it is in almost unmolested condition. No rust but a lot of dust and crud from nearly three years' storage. It even had the factory jack and tool bag, which none of the units I checked had.
It has 358K km on the clock. The engine, however, showed good compression figures. On inspection it needed oils/coolant/brake fluid change, as well as spark plugs, belts and filters. All of this has been done already.
The engine has a carburetor. My experience is diesel and fuel injection engines, so this is new for me but I am learning along the way. From the manuals, power is 180 HP, some 30 HP less than the 1FZ-FE engine; this Cruiser may not be as fast as its fuel injected cousins but pulls strong. Anyway, owning a Land Cruiser is life in the slow lane, so this is not a concern for me. The engine has an ECU but there is no 4WD control unit.
The previous owners installed an aftermarket power lock system, as well as a number of spotlights. The former was not working when I bought the truck, and the latter had been removed; all that remained were two hideous switches in the center bezel.
The spotties circuit consisted of a separate loom with six relays, hacked from the main harness. The power lock was hacked from the battery. All this additional wiring drained the battery and, as a result, this Cruiser took two attempts to start. Today I removed most of this, and the engine fires up immediately, as it should be.
Being an LX, the truck has fender flares, top stop light, suspension seats, H4 button and air conditioning. Power windows and power lock are missing. From what I checked, back then it appears they were not part of the LX package.
I am still cleaning up the dust and crud.
There is a number of things to be done, but at this time money is tight. Therefore all became long term projects:
I hope to continue this thread. No frame off here; I have had much fun cleaning, removing and replacing old parts so far.
Your input is appreciated. I hope you enjoyed this.
Juan
After a while thinking about it, I decided to get a second Land Cruiser. Long story short, 70 Series Cruisers are a disappearing breed in my neck of the woods and after trying several options, I noticed there was no other car for me. So on with the search.
I wanted a 75/78 Troopie but failed to find one that was not rusting out or badly abused. Eventually I settled for a 73.
After many battered units which were in poor condition, I found a 1995 FZJ73 with FRP top.
Here it is.
As the model suggests, it is a gasser with the 1FZ engine. According to the EPC, it was manufactured in June 1995. It is an LX, more on this later.
I am the third owner. The first owner had it for 19 years; the last three years it was put on storage because he had become too old to drive it. It was then put on sale, for which it got the 33's, an aftermarket steering wheel and the bullbar. The second owner had it for a few months; a growing family forced him to ditch this 73 for an 80 Series with all the bells and whistles.
It is old enough to be exported to Canada, and in a few years it will be eligible for import to the US.
Rear views.
Aside from the 33s, bullbar and wheel it is in almost unmolested condition. No rust but a lot of dust and crud from nearly three years' storage. It even had the factory jack and tool bag, which none of the units I checked had.
It has 358K km on the clock. The engine, however, showed good compression figures. On inspection it needed oils/coolant/brake fluid change, as well as spark plugs, belts and filters. All of this has been done already.
The engine has a carburetor. My experience is diesel and fuel injection engines, so this is new for me but I am learning along the way. From the manuals, power is 180 HP, some 30 HP less than the 1FZ-FE engine; this Cruiser may not be as fast as its fuel injected cousins but pulls strong. Anyway, owning a Land Cruiser is life in the slow lane, so this is not a concern for me. The engine has an ECU but there is no 4WD control unit.
The previous owners installed an aftermarket power lock system, as well as a number of spotlights. The former was not working when I bought the truck, and the latter had been removed; all that remained were two hideous switches in the center bezel.
The spotties circuit consisted of a separate loom with six relays, hacked from the main harness. The power lock was hacked from the battery. All this additional wiring drained the battery and, as a result, this Cruiser took two attempts to start. Today I removed most of this, and the engine fires up immediately, as it should be.
Being an LX, the truck has fender flares, top stop light, suspension seats, H4 button and air conditioning. Power windows and power lock are missing. From what I checked, back then it appears they were not part of the LX package.
I am still cleaning up the dust and crud.
There is a number of things to be done, but at this time money is tight. Therefore all became long term projects:
- Radiator change.
- New distributor cap.
- Distributor/spark plug cables.
- Pizza cutters.
- OEM power lock.
- EFI conversion (is this possible?)
- Radio.
- Steering damper.
- Shock absorbers.
- OEM steering Wheel.
I hope to continue this thread. No frame off here; I have had much fun cleaning, removing and replacing old parts so far.
Your input is appreciated. I hope you enjoyed this.
Juan
