Picked up my KZJ 78 today (1 Viewer)

[Bill2336]

I was able to pick up my new to me KZJ 78 today so I guess it's time to do an intro post. It's a 1995 with 242,000 km on it. I'm stationed in Okinawa, Japan and decided to pick up a Land Cruiser to bring with me back to the States in a couple of years. It seems like it's in pretty good shape. There's a few things I want to fix like a floppy passenger side visor, broken vents, cracked stereo surround trim, ect. I'm definitely going to have to upgrade the speakers. I'm not really an audiophile and am generally fine with factory stereo but these sound pretty tinny and there's a bit of crackle to one of them. Probably one of the harder to find parts I know I'll need so far is the trim piece for the sun roof. Luckily it works fine with a cracked one but I'd still like to find a good one if I can. It's got Kenda Klever M/T LT285/75/R16s on it which I'm sure are great for a mud tire but I'll need to find something more all terain oriented since I won't be taking it on any trails out here. There's plenty of them but they're much better suited to a Jimny or the like. For the next two years I'll be working on making it as bullet proof as I can before I take it off island and it gets much harder to find parts.

 

[Rigster]

Welcome Bill, and congrats on the new prado! Looks in really great shape, thanks for sharing.

 

[Gun Runner 5]

Interesting color. Looks very clean.

 

[Tigris]

Dig the looks. Especially that de-chromed rear bumper.

You probably already know but it is a good idea to baseline any new (old) vehicle purchase. Total fluid replacement is a terrific start.

Congratulations!

 

[Bill2336]

Kind of an odd AC issue going on. Air is cold but not coming out of vents on either side of the stereo head unit, just the driver and passenger side vents. Air is coming out of the defrost vent and causing condensation on the outside of the windshield as seen in the pic. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Rigster]

Kind of an odd AC issue going on. Air is cold but not coming out of vents on either side of the stereo head unit, just the driver and passenger side vents. Air is coming out of the defrost vent and causing condensation on the outside of the windshield as seen in the pic. Anyone have any ideas?

View attachment 3329070

You may not like this answer, but you will need to pull the central airbox and clean it all out and check the flapper linkages. If you are getting defrost and the slider is not on defrost, even partly, then a link is either not connected to a flapper, or there is something blocking it. What happens if you move the slider all the way down to the other end? Does it make any difference? does it get stiff moving it to the far end? That would indicate blockage, freely movable would indicate a link is not connected.

Best of luck!

 

[Bill2336]

You may not like this answer, but you will need to pull the central airbox and clean it all out and check the flapper linkages. If you are getting defrost and the slider is not on defrost, even partly, then a link is either not connected to a flapper, or there is something blocking it. What happens if you move the slider all the way down to the other end? Does it make any difference? does it get stiff moving it to the far end? That would indicate blockage, freely movable would indicate a link is not connected.

Best of luck!

Moving the slider doesn't seem to do anything.

 

[Rigster]

Moving the slider doesn't seem to do anything.

That is a sure sign that you should start with checking the linkages. It is not too difficult. If you do not have a FSM yet, you can find one under the resources tab.

 

[Tigris]

You may not like this answer, but you will need to pull the central airbox and clean it all out and check the flapper linkages. If you are getting defrost and the slider is not on defrost, even partly, then a link is either not connected to a flapper, or there is something blocking it. What happens if you move the slider all the way down to the other end? Does it make any difference? does it get stiff moving it to the far end? That would indicate blockage, freely movable would indicate a link is not connected.

Best of luck!

Agree with the above, I too have an (minor) issue with my vent selector not going past the front/feet setting to the front only. I will be dismantling my dash to remove all the unruly wiring jobs and to recover the vinyl, so that would be when I'll tackle the air selector issue.

Anytime you find yourself contemplating a repair/modification, I would advise you to consider other repairs and modifications in the vicinity of the area in question. For example, replacing backlights and speedometer cable are best tackled when you have the dash pulled apart. Obviously this opens the door for many rabbit holes to get lost into but if make a list and stick to it you'll be both fine and happy

 

[LouisiAnimalMgD]

Kind of an odd AC issue going on. Air is cold but not coming out of vents on either side of the stereo head unit, just the driver and passenger side vents. Air is coming out of the defrost vent and causing condensation on the outside of the windshield as seen in the pic. Anyone have any ideas?

View attachment 3329070

Take it back to Dream Run bro. I purchased mine through them, and any issue I had they took care of instantly with no issue or complaints.

 

[Tigris]

If you have the option to take it back to the seller then by all means..

Thinking more about this, maybe your ductwork is loose/disconnected around the defrost portion causing the air to come out of the dash vents vs the two center vents.

My passenger (RHD) front vent produced no air when I first got my truck. That was a simple fix that involved reconnecting the supply ductwork to it after re-lining the joint with new foam gasket.

 

[Bill2336]

Take it back to Dream Run bro. I purchased mine through them, and any issue I had they took care of instantly with no issue or complaints.

I'll be going to see them tomorrow to get the spare tire they said they would install. I also have a new issue for them to look into. While I was on Camp Hansen today I was heading to the gate with the windows down to enjoy the breeze and when I went on the expressway the drivers window switch wasn't working. Got me a little bit panicky with the weather looking a bit rainy and a typhoon coming next week. Fiddled with it for the next 10 or 15 km and it finally started working. I'm going to ask them if they know where to source a new switch since I definitely don't trust the one in it right now. Thankfully it's got the wind deflectors so I'll roll it down to just below those to poke my ID out the window when I go through the gate tomorrow. I'd also like to source a new set of wind deflectors since I had to reattach the drivers side with some house hold 3M double sided tape when the factory let loose on me the 3rd time I went on the expressway.

 

[LouisiAnimalMgD]

I'll be going to see them tomorrow to get the spare tire they said they would install. I also have a new issue for them to look into. While I was on Camp Hansen today I was heading to the gate with the windows down to enjoy the breeze and when I went on the expressway the drivers window switch wasn't working. Got me a little bit panicky with the weather looking a bit rainy and a typhoon coming next week. Fiddled with it for the next 10 or 15 km and it finally started working. I'm going to ask them if they know where to source a new switch since I definitely don't trust the one in it right now. Thankfully it's got the wind deflectors so I'll roll it down to just below those to poke my ID out the window when I go through the gate tomorrow. I'd also like to source a new set of wind deflectors since I had to reattach the drivers side with some house hold 3M double sided tape when the factory let loose on me the 3rd time I went on the expressway.

I have the same issue with my drivers side window, still haven’t worked on it yet smh. Let me know if they have a source for the switches please.

 

[Bill2336]

I have the same issue with my drivers side window, still haven’t worked on it yet smh. Let me know if they have a source for the switches please.

Will do. I do have one thing I'm going to try when I get a chance. It looks like the switch isn't too hard to remove so I'm going to do that and see if some WD-40 electrical contact cleaner I picked up will get things working better. It might just be an issue of corrosion on the switch. I got both my dome lights working the other day by doing that and using a screw driver to fix the switch contacts. I was also able to remove some large HID ballasts that weren't being used and swap in some LED bulbs so I should be able to see better now.