Builds Ochenta sin Nombre Moves to San Diego

[perrobravo]

A couple small updates:

Installed an ISSPRO transmission temperature gauge using another custom (read: ghetto) ABS tube "bezel".

@Jebiker666 , I bought one of those Acura A pillar gauge pods discussed elsewhere on IH8MUD before thinking about the differences between LHD and RHD. It won't work for me, so for now, my home brew gauge mounting will have to do. Note to any LHD owners with grey/blue interior...a new Acura gauge pod is yours if you cover shipping.

Not wanting to let that factory "fog" light harness go unused, I pulled apart an old 30" light bar I bought from @2000UZJ a few years ago and mounted a couple pieces of it behind the bumper for some stealth off-road lighting.

Used slotted angle brackets I had in the garage and the lights bolted right up to a tab behind the bumper

Should work until I get a new bumper...wait...I'm trying not to fall down that slippery slope!

Now if only I'd tested all the LEDs before finishing things up. Oh well...9/10 isn't bad for a "free" lighting project like this. Love that this uses the factory switch/wiring and all fits without modification.

 

[perrobravo]

A few creature comfort updates on Ochenta sin Nombre

Added an Eezi Awn K9 rack and awning after a quick call to @Equipt

Replaced the broken and brittle front door seals with new OEM

Added a Blue Sea fuse block and couple outlets for fridge and USB charging

Picked up sliding rear windows for $50 off CL. New seals and couple hours of finger busting work, et voilà!

Took a much needed shake down run into the desert with @Dan2722

Quick nod to @beno who helps keep this truck on the trail AND help keep beverages cold!

 

[OGBeno]

Awesome bro.

Solid work here JEFF.

 

[perrobravo]

Sometimes it is the small things. @inacoma hooked me up with a pair of A pillar grab handles. Ochenta didn't have one on the passenger side, but the holes were there, tapped by Mr T, just waiting to be put to use. A few minutes later, passenger access was that much easier.

As if it was supposed to be there!

Matching pair

 

[perrobravo]

Big step forward in traction this week with the addition of a Terrain Tamer Harrop ELocker for the rear. One call to @beno for the locker and various seals, gaskets, and a few while you're in there bits, then another call to @cruiseroutfit for OEM rotors, and I was off to get things installed.

Since I am busy fixing things I broke on my 100 while in Baja a few weeks ago (winch, fresh water tank, etc.), I decided to drop Ochenta at Pro Gear in San Diego so they could help with the heavy lifting. These guys do great work...can't recommend them enough.

Shiny goodness!

Ran the Terrain Tamer wiring from the rear diff up to an OEM magic rotary dial. Amazingly easy. Anxious to get things going for a potential trip with @Dan2722 this weekend, I skipped the option of getting the locker indicators to work. Next time I have the things opened up, maybe I'll make all that happen for the extra cool factor. In the mean time, Ochenta is officially locked!

 

[wardharris]

Big step forward in traction this week with the addition of a Terrain Tamer Harrop ELocker for the rear. One call to @beno for the locker and various seals, gaskets. I decided to drop Ochenta at Pro Gear in San Diego so they could help with the heavy lifting. These guys do great work...can't recommend them enough.

Good to see another Harrop finds a new home. Merry Christmas from Terrain Tamer and the Cruiser Brothers team!

Georg, Clint and Ward

 

[Dan2722]

Best way to spend Christmas eve! Father and son passing on the Land Cruiser tradition.

 

[decoco]

what are those led lights you have in the bumper holes? very curious

 

[perrobravo]

Took a bit more effort than expected, but I finally installed new shiny red Trail Tailor recovery points from @reevesci .

In the front, I had to pull the entire bumper to get the factory recovery loops off. More work than I wanted, but pretty easy actually.

Fronts finished

Rears were also tricky. Broke a bolt when removing the OEM recovery loop on the passenger side and spent a couple hours drilling, tapping, cleaning, swearing. Then the captured nuts on the driver side were oddly rusty/crusty, so had to do significant cleaning to ensure these would be mounted securely.

@bushdoctor , consider this truck officially ready to serve as an anchor point next time you take a more "creative" line! (Kidding...kidding)

@decoco , if you scroll up a bit, I posted a few pics and details about those lights. Short version: Pieces of an old LED bar I had laying around.

 

[Jebiker666]

Jeff would you please pm me the contact info from who you purchased the truck from?

 

[Masud]

Man nice rig I wish I had a diesel

 

[perrobravo]

Been chipping away at a few basics on Ochenta. None all that exciting, but each contributing a bit to reliability and therefore peace of mind when out in the middle of nowhere.

Had to get a jump start from @Dan2722 in one of those "middle of nowhere" locations a couple weeks ago and decided it was time for new batteries. Added a pair of Interstate group 27s and all has been good since.

Rear brake rotors went in with the rear locker, but I finally got around to doing bearings, races, and seals from @beno

Found an OEM transmission cooler at a local wrecking yard. Seems to be helping keep temps under control better than the aftermarket one I'd installed a few months back.

Nothing technical here...just a shot of Ochenta and a random 100 series at the airport. Do Camry owners take pictures of theirs parked next to another Camry?

 

[perrobravo]

A couple random updates...

Following instructions from @Malahki I got my dash locker light to come on with the Harrop Elockers. Part of this involves adding the bulb itself. I also added the bulb for the front locker indicator, you know...just in case.

Then, I "accidentally" bought a set of 35s on OEM wheels from @elripster who it turns out lives an exit or two up the highway from me. Although the tires (Nankang N889 M/T Mudstars...which I'd never heard of before) are a bit noisy, so were the General Grabber X3s, and initial impressions on pavement at least aren't so bad. And they sure look cool which has to count for something!

Driveway test: Pass

 

[perrobravo]

Inspired by @Dan2722 , I removed the shag carpeting that was the OEM tailgate cover and replaced it with a sheet of aluminum. Other than my poor measurements and questionable skills cutting aluminum, it turned out OK and should be a lot easier to keep clean.

Had been wondering why my feet would get so hot driving the 80 and stumbled across this thread and instructions for replacing the upper steering shaft seal posted by @LandCruiserPhil . Gotta love $15 fixes that take less than a half hour. Thanks, Phil!

Here's the before shot. Pretty clear why heat and dust would get into the truck.

While I was at it, I put down a bunch of QuietCrap. Awesome stuff!

 

[perrobravo]

Perhaps when I took that ledge, subconsciously I was looking for an excuse to upgrade. The damage wasn't that bad, I guess, but reason enough in my mind to give @sleeoffroad a call.

What would become the "before" shot

Factory bumper off. Found the areas around the turn signals were bent out of shape, so tried to gently coerce them back into their original position. Don't look too closely and maybe it'll look straight.

Had to relocate what I believe is an outside air temperature sensor. Thankfully there's another threaded hole just above the original, so with a little twisting of the bracket, that became a 30 second task. This was the hardest part of the bumper install. Amazing how simple the Shortbus is to mount up.

Installed a Blue Sea switch to control power to the winch (went with a Warn M8000 with synthetic line) by mounting a simple plate to existing threaded holes on the side of the air filter housing. Also took the opportunity to replace old, nasty battery terminals with much cleaner military style versions of the same (not pictured).

Pretty fired up about the finished product and looking forward to trying that ledge again!

 

[OGBeno]

Dayum. Looks sweet indeed! Awesome

 

[1973Guppie]

did we meet each other at that taco joint / gas station the other day down in the miramar area? I was in my crappy toyota echo commuter car.......

 

[perrobravo]

Despite having installed a factory transmission cooler and done proper fluid drain/refills, I was still seeing higher than desired transmission temperatures during long climbs. Slowing down helped, but inevitably after dropping into 3rd, temps would go up.

I decided to throw some time and money at the problem and ordered a Wholesale Automatics Nomad valve body through @orangefj45 and Cruiser Brothers/Valley Hybrids. Given the limited number of valve body cores floating around, this required not just money, but also patience. Several months later, one finally arrived and within a few days, I had it installed. I am yet to put it fully to the test and therefore can't completely declare success just yet, but initial results look promising and the truck feels a bit more spirited than before...albeit based on seat of the pants measurements only.

A few pictures of the messy installation process for those who may be interested. In addition to the provided instructions and the FSM, I referenced this thread quite a bit as well as the instructions here. As most have concluded this is a messy and awkward job, but in the end, not terribly difficult.

Everyone loves unboxing shots, right?

Georg mentioned in advance the transmission would no longer automatically kick down while using cruise control. I've never used cruise control on this truck, so could live with that.

New filter, accumulator spring and gaskets provided with the kit

While waiting in vain for the fluid to finally stop draining, I cleaned the pan mating surfaces and little magnets which had collected some, but not an unreasonable amount of metal particles (truck has just over 300K kilometers).

No pictures of the removal process since my phone and transmission fluid wouldn't get along. Instead, here's the belly of the A442 relieved of the valve body and still "draining".

One of the challenges of this job is figuring out which bolts go where (various different lengths all 10mm), so as I removed them, I put them in place in the new valve body, then taped everything up so I could lift it into place without getting showered with bolts AND transmission fluid.

Used two jack stands to hold the valve body in place close enough to get a few bolts started and keep the accumulators in place, then torqued each down per the FSM instructions. Finally the dripping was slowing down.

Connecting the throttle cable was a bit tricky, but here it is, in place. I chose to do this after the valve body was bolted up which worked for me since I was doing this solo. Holding up the valve body, lining up accumulators, and attached the throttle cable would otherwise have required more hands than I had available.

One easily overlooked step is to get this piston lined up as you're bolting the valve body into place. In this case, the truck is in neutral, so 3 notches up (as pictured)

From there, I bolted up the pan, added a bunch of fresh fluid, and went for a drive. The transmission worked well right out of the garage (always a pleasant experience after digging in this deep) and once I got it to operating temperature and topped off the fluid, all was well.

Many thanks to @RockDoc for that post from 11 years ago and to @orangefj45 for getting me the goods!

 

[perrobravo]

As if dripping/pouring transmission fluid all over the garage floor, on my clothes, in my hair, and everywhere else wasn't enough, I decided to take on the classically messy knuckle rebuild project not even a week after replacing the transmission valve body. After a quick call to Bryce @cruiseroutfit for a rebuild kit and a stop at the hardware store for some ABS pipe and 12 pack of shop towel rolls, I was ready.

Yuck. Not a moment too soon.

Ran into a challenge seating the longer axle shaft and trashed the inner axle seal. No solution for that on a Saturday evening. @bushdoctor was over to help, which he did, but his decision to quit working on the truck and go get some beverages was his most appreciated contribution.

Pictured here, the FIRST bottle of sake. Not helping that inner axle seal at all.

Then some sort of Applejack, Cynar, and mezcal concoction took all thoughts of finishing a knuckle rebuild out of mind.

The next morning after sleeping in, finding a new inner axle seal locally, drinking lots of water, the job is finally done. Should be good for quite a few more kilometers!

 

[saltycoconuts]

As if dripping/pouring transmission fluid all over the garage floor, on my clothes, in my hair, and everywhere else wasn't enough, I decided to take on the classically messy knuckle rebuild project not even a week after replacing the transmission valve body. After a quick call to Bryce @cruiseroutfit for a rebuild kit and a stop at the hardware store for some ABS pipe and 12 pack of shop towel rolls, I was ready.

Yuck. Not a moment too soon.

Ran into a challenge seating the longer axle shaft and trashed the inner axle seal. No solution for that on a Saturday evening. @bushdoctor was over to help, which he did, but his decision to quit working on the truck and go get some beverages was his most appreciated contribution.

Pictured here, the FIRST bottle of sake. Not helping that inner axle seal at all.

Then some sort of Applejack, Cynar, and mezcal concoction took all thoughts of finishing a knuckle rebuild out of mind.

The next morning after sleeping in, finding a new inner axle seal locally, drinking lots of water, the job is finally done. Should be good for quite a few more kilometers!

I know where I’m coming to get help with my seals on the 70 soon.