Pre-expedition build

[Mickldo]

G'day folks

I am going away on a month long desert expedition at the end of next month. My HZJ80 has been on a number of trips before and is pretty much set up how I wanted it but it is due for a bit of a freshen up.

I have just fitted a front airlocker and on board air system. I am in the middle of rewiring all of my accessories, fitting a HF radio, inverter, lap top and GPS. I am also fitting a water tank and redoing my sliding drawer system.

I'll post up some pics soon and start going into the mods that I'm doing.

 

[Mickldo]

My air compressor and air system manifold. I'm still in the process of wiring it ATM

A pic of my cig lighter box to go under the passenger seat. The cig lighters are stainless steel marine sockets and the fuse box is a Blue Sea Marine fuse box. I mounted them in a waterproof box to protect and insulate them. Of course with the sockets it isn't waterproof any more but it should still be fairly water resistant if I dunk it anytime in the future (I've already drowned it a couple of times in the past).

With the lid on. It slips in under the seat just. To change the plugs I'll have to remove the box from under the seat.

I have that many sockets because I hate changing the plugs all the time to juggle charging everything.

The plugs will be for
-laptop (Toshiba Satellite M110)
-GPS (Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx)
-mp3 player (Toshiba Gigabeat 30GB)
-My CDMA phone
-The wifes GSM phone
-spare socket probably most used for camp light fluoro

The Engel is run off a seperate socket in the rear cargo area. It now has 10mm cable powering it. I shouldn't have anymore problems with voltage drop now.



This is where I have mounted the HF radio and the inverter. The HF is only a loaner from a mate so I didn't get to carried away with mounting it too fancily. The inverter is just a small one for recharging the video camera and digital camera batteries. I plan on replacing it for a bigger pure sine wave one soon so it isn't mounted too fancily either.





These are the in progress shots of the wiring under the bonnet. This box will be waterproof and houses all of the fuses and relays for my accessories.

 

[Mickldo]

BTW here are a couple of shots of my cruiser before the makeover

 

[Mickldo]

I have really been getting into this build over the past week as I am fast running out of time to get it finished before I go on my trip. The and I are travelling with a couple of friends in their Nissan Patrol Shorty GQ. We are going to the http://www.outback4x4challenge.com/ to spectate and then we are going to do a round trip through the Flinders Ranges, Lake Eyre and then through the Simpson Desert.

 

[MoGas]

MMMMMMMMMMM,expedition mods............

 

[Mickldo]

The 80 is all stripped apart in the backyard ATM getting all this work done as I am waiting on a new pitman arm to come from Japan. Until it turns up I am leaving it all apart and working on it each night after work and on the weekends.

The reason I am waiting on the pitman arm is I replaced the steering box. I have had heaps of trouble keeping sector shafts straight on my rig. They keep on twisting. I have posted on MUD numerous times about it. I have replaced the shaft before but the new one only lasted about two weeks before it twisted again. I decided to bite the bullet and just get a new ps box. I ordered one and I fitted it the other week. When I went to bolt the pitman arm to it there was no way it was going to fit. I measured it up and found the original sector shaft is about 32mm OD and the new ps box sector shaft is 35mm OD. I went back to my friendly Toyota spare parts man and he looked up the part number again. It turns out there has been an upgrade and this was the superceded part number. I had to get a new pitman arm to match it.

It turns out that Toyota Aust. hadn't imported any pitman arms when they brought all the new ps boxes into the country. There are none anywhere in Australia. I have to wait 14 working days before I can get it. Easter and ANZAC Day is coming up so it will probably drag out to three weeks.

I'll post up the part numbers of the box and the pitman arm when I receive the pitman.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=100646

A link to a thread with twisted sector shafts. There are pics there of my first twisted shaft.

Here are some pics of my old and new ps boxes with closeups of the sector shafts on both. You can just see the slight twist in the old one.

 

[Mickldo]

MMMMMMMMMMM,expedition mods............

 

[Mickldo]

I'll update again tomorrow after I have done some more.

I'm going to try and get a start on a new set of sliding drawers

As you can see they are pretty basic and they are very heavy for what they are.

 

[wussyPup]

Mickldo, thanks for sharing...

What type of air compressor did you install, and do you have a remote tank as well?

I see why you need the negative bus fuse panel for your under-seat cig lighter box. Why did you use a negative bus panel in your under-bonnet fuse box instead of a chassis ground?

To reduce in-cab cable clutter, I use 12V chargers the for digital camera and GPSr batteries instead of running them off the inverter. I should look into a 12V power supply for the laptop like you've done.

-Steve

 

[cruiserdan]

The reason I am waiting on the pitman arm is I replaced the steering box. I have had heaps of trouble keeping sector shafts straight on my rig. They keep on twisting. I have posted on MUD numerous times about it. I have replaced the shaft before but the new one only lasted about two weeks before it twisted again. I decided to bite the bullet and just get a new ps box. I ordered one and I fitted it the other week. When I went to bolt the pitman arm to it there was no way it was going to fit. I measured it up and found the original sector shaft is about 32mm OD and the new ps box sector shaft is 35mm OD. I went back to my friendly Toyota spare parts man and he looked up the part number again. It turns out there has been an upgrade and this was the superceded part number. I had to get a new pitman arm to match it.

It turns out that Toyota Aust. hadn't imported any pitman arms when they brought all the new ps boxes into the country. There are none anywhere in Australia. I have to wait 14 working days before I can get it. Easter and ANZAC Day is coming up so it will probably drag out to three weeks.

I'll post up the part numbers of the box and the pitman arm when I receive the pitman.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=100646

A link to a thread with twisted sector shafts. There are pics there of my first twisted shaft.

Here are some pics of my old and new ps boxes with closeups of the sector shafts on both. You can just see the slight twist in the old one.

View attachment 132001

View attachment 132002

View attachment 132003

This is interesting information. I looked in my catalog at the LHD box and it too changes numbers and the new box requires a different arm. The change takes place after 80 series production ended. It appears that the sector has been enlarged in order to strengthen it.

The list price for a new box over here is $2,503.52 (USD) How much for that one?

 

[GXO]

Post up the laptop mount solution as well...I am designing one for mine.

 

[Mickldo]

Mickldo, thanks for sharing...

What type of air compressor did you install, and do you have a remote tank as well?

I see why you need the negative bus fuse panel for your under-seat cig lighter box. Why did you use a negative bus panel in your under-bonnet fuse box instead of a chassis ground?

To reduce in-cab cable clutter, I use 12V chargers the for digital camera and GPSr batteries instead of running them off the inverter. I should look into a 12V power supply for the laptop like you've done.

-Steve

Hey Steve

I wanted to install my York a/c compressor I have but I just physically don't have the room. I had a portable 12V one that is a cheap knock off copy of one of the better 12V ones. I can't remember off the top of my head what it is a copy of now but mine is just a cheapy copy. It puts out a heap more air than the ARB one though. When it dies I'll look at some other solution.

The remote tank will be located underneath, inbetween the chassis and the sill on the passenger side. I'm using an old 9kg fire extinguisher tank. I've already modified it all to accept all the fittings, I just have to mount it to the chassis. It'll have a 6mm aluminium bash plate as part of the mounting to protect it under there.

I used the negative buss because I could. I fit out boats at work and we wire everything back to a buss. I find it is much neater to do it this way. I run double insulated twin core wire to everything and I have the red going to the fuse and the black going to the buss. Very simple to diagnose if anything was to go wrong with it in the future. It also eliminates the uncertainity of dodgy earths all over the vehicle.

If I can find 12V chargers for my cameras I'll run them instead of the inverter, but until then the inverter will do.

 

[Mickldo]

This is interesting information. I looked in my catalog at the LHD box and it too changes numbers and the new box requires a different arm. The change takes place after 80 series production ended. It appears that the sector has been enlarged in order to strengthen it.

The list price for a new box over here is $2,503.52 (USD) How much for that one?

Hey Dan,

When I was doing all the ringing around in a panic I called the 4wd parts shop/wreckers where I did my mechanic apprenticeship. They rebuild a lot of steering boxes. I thought Toyota might have sent me a late 80 or 100 series box by mistake but they reckon all the 80s (and 100s) use the same 32mm sector.

Apparantly this part number of the box I got is the new superceded one to fix the problem of the twisting shafts. The shafts start to get expensive when you are doing them all the time at $700-$800 a pop plus a o-ring/ gasket kit and ps oil each time.

I got my box for trade price which was about $1520AUD but they retail for about $1700AUD IIRC.

I'll have to get the part number of the RHD box off the cardboard box which is down in the shed ATM but the pitman arm part number I don't know until it finally turns up.

(I know you don't need these part numbers Dan but I'll post them up for any other RHD 80 owners if they are replacing their boxes so they can make sure they get the right ones)

 

[Mickldo]

Post up the laptop mount solution as well...I am designing one for mine.

Hey DanKunz

I haven't even started on that yet At the moment it just sits on the 's lap when we need to use it And no you can't get photos of the . ;p

I think I'll just go for a Ram Mount as I think I'm going to run out of time before I leave. http://www.ram-mount.com/

I was going to use the Ram Mount system but make my own base out of Stainless Steel.

The Ram system also has a triple mount system that I think i might get for the GPS, Gigabeat and phone. I don't know where they are going to fit but it looks like a neat compact mount for them. Maybe I could mount them off the grab rail above the glove box.

If my pitman arm turns up in time and I can take the 80 down to Brisbane I'll take it to one of the shops that sell Ram mounts and try a few options but at this stage I can only "window shop" online which makes it hard.

 

[Mickldo]

A couple more pics of the progress so far.



A better shot of the air system manifold so far.



more of the air plumbing including the one way valve to take the load off the compressor a bit.



A trial fit of the HF radio aerial base.

 

[Felt]

Mickldo, Your post is one of the many reasons why i love this forum. I really like what your doing and can't wait for the next installment.
Cheers, Felt.

 

[Proven]

That steering box looks a wee bit beefier than the previous one in girth too not just the size of the splined end. Is that so? is that really a more heavy duty box? When did they start installing that one?

Inquiring minds want to know!

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Mickldo, what necessitated the replacement of the sector shaft other than the twisted splines? My sector shaft has a slight twist in it from an accident. I adjusted the draglink to account for that, and it's been fine for ~2.5 years now.

Just curious.

Thanks,

Ary

 

[topend yobbo]

Good stuff there Mick.Make me jelous.
Bloody neat wiring job to.
Maybe you could pop up to Darwin and rewire mine to mate.

 

[Mickldo]

Mickldo, Your post is one of the many reasons why i love this forum. I really like what your doing and can't wait for the next installment.
Cheers, Felt.

Thanks Felt

Over the next month I'll be updating it fairly regularly while i'm preparing for the trip.