prwillard2
SILVER Star
You may have corrosion around your windshield. I had to get my rust cut out and patched.
Builds Over the Hills, and Far Away
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- #42
Let's hope that's not happening. I haven't seen any other evidence of it, anywhere, which is a good sign...but I do need to find the source. Any easy methods of investigation?
Some will get water running back into the cab from stuff that’s going through the firewall that isn’t sealed, due to water running down the front of the firewall or splashing up onto cables and such
prwillard2
SILVER Star
Only real way to investigate is to remove your windshield and poke around your frame.
When I bought my troopy I thought it was fine. Removing the windshield and wire wheeling the frame proved it was not.
Probably not the first thing you need to do though, as I'm sure others have better investigatory skills than I do.
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- #45
I don't know of anything that's unsealed or un-grommeted, but I'll look.
< noises of panic >
The fact that it's intermittent is what confuses me the most; sometimes water is present... sometimes it isn't. Like today, for instance; it's been raining steadily for awhile, and...
Pictured: Nothing but shameful pine needles and debris.
I never know when it's going to be present and when it isn't. But I know it's coming from above; I've felt it.
Also: big thanks to Cruisermatt for finding an OEM set of J-hook wiper arms for me.
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- #46
Quick Question: Are shaft upgrades not a thing on this platform?
I was getting burnt out with searching for fuel tanks, so I started looking up installation manuals for diesel heaters and 24V winches, and that kind of scraped my brain the wrong way as well...so I thought "I wonder how much a full set of chomos would run?" because reasons, and thus I proceeded to not get very far with finding any options that conclusively fit. There seem to be a lot of them for earlier 70's - up through 1990 - and for Prados, Etc, but I sent off a couple of contact questions to see if any of the options out there - RCV, Longfield, etc. - would fit my later-in-1990 model and got a resounding "We're not sure; we don't deal with that platform" response from all parties.
Like, I know I'm bad at getting any kind of helpful search results, but this is kind of bizarre...
I was getting burnt out with searching for fuel tanks, so I started looking up installation manuals for diesel heaters and 24V winches, and that kind of scraped my brain the wrong way as well...so I thought "I wonder how much a full set of chomos would run?" because reasons, and thus I proceeded to not get very far with finding any options that conclusively fit. There seem to be a lot of them for earlier 70's - up through 1990 - and for Prados, Etc, but I sent off a couple of contact questions to see if any of the options out there - RCV, Longfield, etc. - would fit my later-in-1990 model and got a resounding "We're not sure; we don't deal with that platform" response from all parties.
Like, I know I'm bad at getting any kind of helpful search results, but this is kind of bizarre...
Hello,
Usual suspects for the leak you have: grommets, windshield seal, windshield frame corrosion. You may have to unbolt the FRP top, lift it enough to fold the windshield and check the frame and the seals. Grommets get brittle and leak in old age. So do seals.
Have you checked for LongRange tanks? I think the US distributor is active on 'MUD.
If I remember correctly, you can source chromoly half shafts from TerrainTamer. Do you have a floating rear axle?
The way the rear axle is designed, if you have a floating one, is that the half shafts break if there is too much load on the axle, thus keeping the differential gears intact -well, most of them. A chromoly shaft exposes the differential to a higher load, which can cause catastrophic -and expensive- failure.
I would use chromoly shafts if I were doing hardcore offroad. Otherwise, normal shafts are good enough for most applications.
Juan
Usual suspects for the leak you have: grommets, windshield seal, windshield frame corrosion. You may have to unbolt the FRP top, lift it enough to fold the windshield and check the frame and the seals. Grommets get brittle and leak in old age. So do seals.
Have you checked for LongRange tanks? I think the US distributor is active on 'MUD.
If I remember correctly, you can source chromoly half shafts from TerrainTamer. Do you have a floating rear axle?
The way the rear axle is designed, if you have a floating one, is that the half shafts break if there is too much load on the axle, thus keeping the differential gears intact -well, most of them. A chromoly shaft exposes the differential to a higher load, which can cause catastrophic -and expensive- failure.
I would use chromoly shafts if I were doing hardcore offroad. Otherwise, normal shafts are good enough for most applications.
Juan
I'd stay stock with axles if it was me. I don't like the hard-as-glass nature of chromo axles. I've seen two axles break, ever - spinning wheel in the air comes down hard onto the ground - and both were chromoly. So sample size of n=2 for what that's worth.
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- #49
I was thinking that it might be a seal; I was also hoping that it might be a seal, because that would be an easier fix. I need to do some paint repairs this winter, so I was thinking that while the top was being painted I would replace what seals were present there as a matter of routine maintenance. I do know that the firewall grommets on the passenger side are in good shape, because I used an otherwise-unused one this past spring/summer for a 24V drop to the rear of the vehicle; it was in great shape. I'm not sure about the ones on the driver's side...but I feel like the leak would be more around the windshield area, since it's coming down from directly above. Think "water droplet hits your foot - just a single one - while you're driving." No wet carpet, no water running down the firewall, etc. Just a tiny bit right under the accelerator pedal.
Thus far I've checked:
- Long Ranger down in Oz, because I found a single post on here that described a 180L tank fitting in a 73 or a 74; there were a couple of pictures, but no model number.
- Brown & Davis; they have a 125L replacement tank that they say should fit, but they can't guarantee fitment on a JDM model.
- Long Range America...which has the only true auxiliary tank I've found (even though one is mentioned in that thread link)...but it requires a separate fuel filler door be cut into the body, and that's not an easy thing to do, cleanly.
- Several other manufacturers that offer Land Cruiser tanks, but nothing listed for the 70's. None have had anything available.
KO85, which I think is a full-float LSD.
I guess I was around a more destructive crew in my younger days; I've seen two shafts break inside of two minutes on two different rigs, about twenty feet apart from each other. I can also think of oh...two or three dozen other instances where I saw a shaft or stub axle break...but in almost every case, snap traction is what broke the part, and it happened in almost exactly the manner Tennessee describes. Using wheel speed to grab traction is an incredibly common thing to see in the Appalachians; you can almost see the breakage coming if you know where and when to look.
That said...I've not seen too many over-hardened chromos snap, even with Big Girl Tires; I also haven't seen them wreck the ring and pinion. Most of the time I've seen them wind up and (possibly) plastic twist rather than just brute-force grenade the diff. Conversely, I've seen a lot of twisted and broken stock shafts in low-pinion Dana 30s and 44s...but still not too many broken diffs, Super 30 kits being the exception on account of the 1350 universals. I've only seen one high-pinion R&P failure, ever; that was a Hi9 under a heavy rig running 40's*.
All this being said, I guess I need to get in pretty deep on the possible/likely failure points of the axles; I'm not nearly as familiar with the Toyota designs as I am the Dana/Spicer/Ford stuff...and that goes for the rest of the rig as well, because right now I can't even find a water leak. I should look for an air freshener with an "Entirely-New-Platform-That-I-Know-Nothing-About" scent...
Very nice thread, enjoying your story-telling style. Thank you for sharing!
I think the reason you don't see many driveshaft and axle aftermarket replacements is because the OEM is quite good quality... unlikely certain competitors, where if you don't replace you are guaranteed a failure.
I think the reason you don't see many driveshaft and axle aftermarket replacements is because the OEM is quite good quality... unlikely certain competitors, where if you don't replace you are guaranteed a failure.
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- #51
You're welcome, and thank you in turn! I'm trying to keep it engaging.
You can just say "Jeep"; we all know that's who we're talking about, here.
As an aside, Tsuda Racing over in Nara Prefecture got back to me with some front shaft info: if I do consider an upgrade, part number 303347-1-KIT from Trail Gear will do the job.
My Parts-Fu grows stronger!
*eep and Defender, but I was mainly referring to the latter. No way I would travel in remote areas with the stock LR outfit.You're welcome, and thank you in turn! I'm trying to keep it engaging.
You can just say "Jeep"; we all know that's who we're talking about, here.
As an aside, Tsuda Racing over in Nara Prefecture got back to me with some front shaft info: if I do consider an upgrade, part number 303347-1-KIT from Trail Gear will do the job.
My Parts-Fu grows stronger!
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- #53
So, Fun Fact: my current job is restoring and repairing Series Rovers...and there is no. f-ing. way. that I would ever take one of those things anywhere that's very far from a repair facility. Seriously, no exaggeration there; I really wish this forum allowed profanity because I would exhaust my entire collection thereof in describing how incredibly awful they are. Honestly, the Defender is a significant improvement in many ways; it's a shame that it was built by Land Rover and is therefore of middling quality at best.
Another Fun Fact: I've been trying to convince the rather-stodgy shop owner to let me build a crawler out of one of the unused/unrestorable chassis that we have. He's not amenable to that idea because he thinks that unless it's a factory-perfect restoration as both God and Lucas intended, it's inferior...so I constantly needle him with things like "Hey, you know what would be cool? Swapping 80-series axles into this and running some real tires. Coilovers would be pretty simple..." and by that point he's walking away, irritated with me.
I also do this every day.
Pictured: You have to keep them running if you want to drive them somewhere to park them...
nuclearbeef
SILVER Star
Don't know if this helps, but here are some bulb numbers for 24v bulbs I've needed in my 5 years of 70 series ownership.
3w bulb on far right.
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- #55
Information always helps; thank you!
Man, I sold my 1993 Defender 90 to make some money and to buy a minty HZJ73. I have not looked back once. The D90 was stupid simple to work on, but everything was just such poor quality even though mostly everything was restored and restored correctly.
Anyone who owns a 70 series Land Cruiser can clearly see in the photo you are parking your Land Cruiser there...So, Fun Fact: my current job is restoring and repairing Series Rovers...and there is no. f-ing. way. that I would ever take one of those things anywhere that's very far from a repair facility. Seriously, no exaggeration there; I really wish this forum allowed profanity because I would exhaust my entire collection thereof in describing how incredibly awful they are. Honestly, the Defender is a significant improvement in many ways; it's a shame that it was built by Land Rover and is therefore of middling quality at best.
Another Fun Fact: I've been trying to convince the rather-stodgy shop owner to let me build a crawler out of one of the unused/unrestorable chassis that we have. He's not amenable to that idea because he thinks that unless it's a factory-perfect restoration as both God and Lucas intended, it's inferior...so I constantly needle him with things like "Hey, you know what would be cool? Swapping 80-series axles into this and running some real tires. Coilovers would be pretty simple..." and by that point he's walking away, irritated with me.
I also do this every day.
Pictured: You have to keep them running if you want to drive them somewhere to park them...
View attachment 3456541
With the shop owner being so stodgy, I am surprised that he allows you to bring a Land Cruiser to the shop at all. Bad advertising. One of the "Land Rover" restoration specialists that drives a Land Cruiser because he won't go near a Land Rover? Kind of undermining the whole premise of the shop, lol.
While I appreciate the factory adherence of the shop owner, perhaps one day you may help him see the light and he can turn the shop into a Land Cruiser restoration shop instead. LOL
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- #58
You made a wise choice. I'm not saying this from bias, but instead, from a position of turning wrenches on them every day: Land Rovers are not the greatest things since sliced Jell-O...especially the early ones. They were simple machines built in a post-war, rationed economy, and they were built to an acceptable standard; not to a high standard. At that time, British manufacturing was still more bespoke than best-practice, and that led to wide variances in difficult-to-repair systems. Stodginess didn't just prevail in my shop, either; the company owners were reluctant to keep up with the times and often simply unable to do so because of broken finances, and it took far too long to get even the vestige of modern engineering beneath Rover sheetmetal...and in the end, that's what killed the Defender and instead allowed the Discovery - which is not a bad vehicle, for what it is - to take off. Comparing either one of them to a purpose-built Toyota, however, is just an exercise in mirthful head-shaking; and - again - that's not me being biased. I'm well-aware that the later 70's like mine aren't the most industrial of trucks, but there's just no comparison insofar as quality is concerned. Or parts availability, for that matter. If you think we have it bad in the US with JDM and ROW models, know this: at work, we only have used spares for most of the parts that the Series Rovers require...and we have one of the biggest known inventories of OEM Series parts. Now, we can't find any of those parts because hoarder with no organizational skills, but that's another issue.
Anyone who owns a 70 series Land Cruiser can clearly see in the photo you are parking your Land Cruiser there...
Yeah, it's a deceptive photo unless you're very good at picking out RHD steering wheels and blurred images of dashes...but it works in the context of the thread.
He doesn't like to admit it, but he's seriously jelly of that grey Toyota...and it gets more comments than anything he has parked there, because I actually keep it up and work on it.
As far as undermining the image goes: he doesn't need my help with that. In addition to letting all of his stuff sit around and collect rust, he's a snob when it comes to Land Rovers and anything to do with them; if you don't agree with him, you're wrong and he'll want to talk your ear off if he thinks he can prove it. I can shrug that off; if he wants to spend time spouting nonsense while I'm on the clock, that's fine; he's just buying Toyota parts the entire time. What irritates me is that he's the same way to customers; we had one call the other day who had an LS-swapped Series III and the shop owner said - and I quote directly - "We don't deal with garbage like that; I'd advise you to get rid of that engine and put a decent Lucas-built motor back in it, the way it's supposed to be" and hung up the phone.
I let him have it over that. I don't care who you think you are; that behavior is not acceptable...and I had to tell him that I would no longer be working there if I ever heard anything like that again. I like turning wrenches on old stuff, but I'm not going to tacitly support that kind of behavior. I probably should have packed my tools that day and not come back, but I'm occasionally too nice, so I've put him on notice and given him another chance.
While I appreciate the factory adherence of the shop owner, perhaps one day you may help him see the light and he can turn the shop into a Land Cruiser restoration shop instead. LOL
Doubtful. He's in his late 70's and there's no real reason for him to change. Right now, I'm planning to hang on to this job until around June of next year, or until he crosses the line again...at which point I will have zero issues with leaving him high and dry and entirely without assistance. Petty Toyota-based revenges aside: it's a sad situation and I wish things could be better for him...but I don't expect they ever will be.
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- #59
Meanwhile, there's some actual building going on in this thread, for the first time; a few parts that I bought and stored before The Exodus finally made their way west.
Pictured: New door scuffs...
Also Pictured: ...and some armrest dinguses.
Okay, so it's not the most buildy of building, but it's better than me just going back and authoring retrospectives and/or stumbling through lightbulb purchases. While we're on the subject, however: I've mostly finished the edits to Post 2 and Post 3, so if you want to see how the trip turned out, definitely give those a look.
Lastly: anyone that's traveled through Alaska and/or western Canada...let me know that you exist, please. I have some questions about...things.
Pictured: New door scuffs...
Also Pictured: ...and some armrest dinguses.
Okay, so it's not the most buildy of building, but it's better than me just going back and authoring retrospectives and/or stumbling through lightbulb purchases. While we're on the subject, however: I've mostly finished the edits to Post 2 and Post 3, so if you want to see how the trip turned out, definitely give those a look.
Lastly: anyone that's traveled through Alaska and/or western Canada...let me know that you exist, please. I have some questions about...things.
“Lastly: anyone that's traveled through Alaska and/or western Canada...let me know that you exist, please. I have some questions about...things.“
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