Builds Owyhee J.A. BJ75 Troopy Journal (1 Viewer)

[Owyhee Jackass]

Acquired a spare CO2 tank for my kegerator, figured I'd just keep it in the BJ and use it to fill tires whilst not filling my pint glass...

It was a 20# tank, which is what I have in our 80 and has lasted me years. I traded it in (as it was out of date and needed tested) for a 10-pounder as it takes up less space. As you can see I located it behind the driver's seat and under the jump seat. I can reach all four tires with the coiled air hose from there.

Strapped it down with a couple river straps, bolted some footman loops through the floor.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

A few weeks ago my wife said she 'saw a puff of smoke' come up from the hood when she was starting it. I popped the hood and looked around and found this on the second battery's negative post (24V in series)

Not sure what happened, but one of the 'mods' done by the P.O. was the addition of a 'kill switch' in the wire that goes from the 24v+ to the starter. I decided to replace all the battery terminals, re-lug the cables that weren't lugged and remove the kill switch cabling.

Batteris were only a month or two old and Costco replaced this one, no questions asked.

New terminals:

Luckily, the kill switch wiring was just bolted and the stock 24+v wire hadn't been cut, the added cabling was much lighter gage that stock, stock is about 1/0, added wiring was 2 or 3 ga. rated for about 50 less amps.

I don't have starting current going into the cab, next to my knee and back out to the starter now, which is nice...

Hopefully this solves the problem.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Installed a new snorkel last week, got the kit from @bjowett at Jowett Performance its for a 2007 and newer, but the price was right, so I figured I'd get it and make it work on my 1989 troopy.

Kit:

@AlbertoSD gave me an air box from a 70 series so I had a spare to modify.

I purchased the OEM hardware, pad for the a-pillar bracket and inlet boot. The hard plastic piece (upper left in the photo above) is bigger diameter than the inlet to the air cleaner. I thought the stock boot may be able to be modified to work with this set-up, but ended up not using it.

Needed two of these for the main body:

and two of these for the A-pillar bracket:

and one of these for the A-pillar bracket:

plus one 91621-40816 for the hidden mounting bolt on the fender

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Took the troopy over to a friends shop and he helped me with the install. He had a riv-nut tool, along with a sweet little pneumatic saw that was great at cutting the hole in the fender as well as modifying the air box.

Taped the assembled snorkel on and marked the mounting hole-centers, then drilled out the fender and installed the rivnuts, bolted the snorkel to the lower fender and then located the holes for the a-pillar bracket, then installed those rivnuts.

Used some 3M weatherstrip adhesive to seal the holes a bit.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Once we had it all mounted, we used the square-plastic piece that mates to the square-to-round transition piece to locate the large rectangular hole we needed to cut in the fender. We located it off the front mounting hole, it has another mounting bolt/rivnut that is hidden by the snorkel body.

You can see the other mounting bolt/rivnut in this picture after the big hole was cut and we have the transition piece installed.

Cutting the big hole:

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

So all that was the easy part...I contemplated calling it a day after we had the snorkel mounted as I had no idea how we were gong to get the thing mated to the air box. Tasche had the brilliant idea to heat the square-to-round transition piece with a heat gun and make it conform to the opening in the inner fender; this was an iterative process, and took a bit of extra weather strip and adhesive to close the joints, but it ended up working well.

We used a spot-weld drill bit and cut the snoozle of the donor air box (thanks Alberto!), thought we may be able to turn it 180* and use the OEM rubber boot I'd purchased but that was a no-go as it's too short to reach. Ended up just making a plate to close up the old inlet and used a silicone hose ( and more weather-strip adhesive) to poke it into the air-box.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Viola! No cutting of the inner fender, used all the stock fittings, plus one silicone hose.

All the joints of the stock snorkel have foam gasket material to seal the joints, not sure how water tight these are supposed to be. I think everything we did is as good as the stock joints, but I'm not sure I'd drive this further than a short river crossing fully submerged.

But it sure does look cool.

 

[bjowett]

Awesome! I think we should be able to seal those multiple pieces together quite easily. Either a thicker gasket or some rtv sealant.

 

[gilmorneau]

Nice job on the snorkel! I've got an OEM snorkel kit for my 1987 Troopy, but haven't yet committed to cutting a hole in the fender. I'm currently in Australia, and my Troopy is on a boat in the Atlantic (on its way, yay!). The snorkel is in California. So, it seems I don't need to worry about it for now. lol..

BTW, totally off topic, but I love the glimpses of the Baja Beetle in your friend's shop!! I spent many years with air-cooled VW's of all iterations, Baja and otherwise. It's amazing what those little cars will do!

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Thanks. I did seal most of the joints with that 3M weather-strip adhesive.


@gilmorneau Is your kit for your year? Do you need the rubber boot I purchased and didn't use?

That Baja was his back in high school I think, it went to his little sister (twenty years younger than him), then sat at his dad's and has now found it's way back to his son who is going to be driving in a year or so. He's also got a sweet 62(?) bus project in there.

 

[gilmorneau]

Yes, the kit I have is for an early troopy (75, not 78/79). Not sure if I need the boot you show in your photo, but I'm guessing I have it--it was sold to me as a complete kit, all OEM Toyota parts. I'm in Australia now, and the package with the snorkel is sitting in a garage in California, so I can't really check right now. You planning on returning it? Or could you hang onto it for me? PM me.
I'm going junk huntin' later today and hope to find an airbox for a snorkel equipped Troopy, so I don't have to butcher mine.

 

[Nas90tdi]

Can you see any reason the same approach couldn't be taken with this snorkel on an LJ78? Seems with a little creativity with the air box, it should line up otherwise. Input on that idea??

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

I don't think I can return it, so I'll hold onto it, until you have a chance to check yours, no rush.

I am not familiar with the LJ78, but if your's takes the same snorkel as a BJ75, which is what I have, then I'd say this would work. Connecting to the air box was definitely the hard part of the install.

 

[coldtaco]

I don't think I can return it, so I'll hold onto it, until you have a chance to check yours, no rush.

I am not familiar with the LJ78, but if your's takes the same snorkel as a BJ75, which is what I have, then I'd say this would work. Connecting to the air box was definitely the hard part of the install.

The fender on a LJ is straight vs angled like the BJ, so if the upper mount can rotate enough to adjust for the change in fender angle (?) it might work. Don't know where the air filter intake is though in relation to a BJ.

 

[AlbertoSD]

We used a spot-weld drill bit and cut the snoozle of the donor air box (thanks Alberto!), thought we may be able to turn it 180* and use the OEM rubber boot I'd purchased but that was a no-go as it's too short to reach.

You are welcome, Dan!

I am glad it went to a cool project

-Alberto

 

[Devils Paw 80]

To me, a snorkel just looks "right" on a Troopy. Not so on other Land Cruisers.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

To me, a snorkel just looks "right" on a Troopy. Not so on other Land Cruisers.

I know what you mean, I've only had it on two weeks and it doesn't look new or seem new to me, like it's always been there.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Went camping (finally!) this weekend. Got a new MSR shade, worked out nicely.

 

[umpqua]

I believe you’ve been on a river or two.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Not enough, but yeah, I like to float. The desert rivers hear in ID are my favorite.