yngmrostrvile
GOLD Star
might want to flip those tube seals around
Project - Auction Non-Run/Drive 2000 LX 470
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- Thread starter
- #42
Like mirror them across the bay? The two seals looked identical and didn't have L or R indications so I take it I reversed them?
Unless I missed it, replacement of the heater tee's would an excellent addition to this project.
On the tube seals, it appears they may be installed upside down although I'm not positive, would be good to monitor those in case.
On the tube seals, it appears they may be installed upside down although I'm not positive, would be good to monitor those in case.
- Thread starter
- #44
Thanks a lot for the second set of eyes, I was missing the failure on that install. I'll flip them over. That's a great point, looking at the manual heater tees wouldn't be much additional work... I guess I'll have to bite my tongue in a couple months when I have to address those.
Development in this project as of 5-something this morning: When I pulled the wrong torque specs from the FSM, I sheared off three of the four corner "tabs" on the aluminum lower intake manifold. While it hurts my ego, I have a new (take-off) manifold on the way to replace this one and I'm happy to pay my $70 in tuition. These are the kinds of things I was hoping to learn on THIS vehicle, before tackling these maintenance items on the 200, where I'd be heart-broken if something went awry.
- Thread starter
- #45
All of this work is finally wrapped up as of Friday (Jan 15, 2021). Denso remanufactured starter installed, new lower intake manifold (pulled from a 4.7L Sequoia, VIN: 5TDZT34A13S164720) installed, injector seals replaced, throttle body cleaned, and everything buttoned back up.
Getting to the starter wasn't as bad as I'd read. The biggest PITA (new to the lingo, still thinking about hummus) was making sure I had all the nuts and bolts organized. For the intake manifold, I followed the SOP from other part installs, finding a piece of cardboard or a box, shoved the taken-off bolts through it in spots corresponding to where they came off the manifold. Nuts... I laid them out on a shelf in my garage, similarly to how the bolts were organized, corresponding to their installed locations.
I made the mistake of having all the manifold AND valve cover/coil bolts out at the same time, which led to more bolts needing organizing than was necessary. Had a bunch of them tossed in a magnetic tray by the time everything was disassembled, which didn't make things any easier. Got a little excited once I'd gotten the new starter in, and started throwing those bolts into vacant holes before thinking things through, so took them all back out, slowed down, followed FSM etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Sorted.
The old non-OEM starter was in decent shape, but obviously had very old contacts in it. One was much smaller than the normal starter contacts (like slightly probably 1cm x 1cm in area), and one was much larger (basically crammed in the damn thing). The larger one was worn down wafer thin, and the pluger wasn't in great shape. Got the Denso off Amazon, with no core charge, so I think I'll "rebuild" the old one, and hang onto it in case of emergency down the road. Plan might change.
The new starter looks beautiful in place. To be honest, after climbing into the engine bay as a 6' 4" 205lb man and fishing the bolts out of the back of the starter, the hardest part of the process was accessing the bolt that fixes the battery cable to the starter. Required a bit of a twist and pull/twist and push configuration while removing/installing the starters. Good opportunity to remove what I could only describe as being an owls living room, from the cavity between block and intake manifold.
A note worth making, given the photo above... I did all this with the fuel rails left in the engine bay, as opposed to pulling them with the intake manifold. This was NOT the move. I had to undo one of the fuel lines (mitigated spillage with mild success) to get the intake manifold to clear the rails on removal, so I would have been well served to just undo the other one as well, and pull the entire assembly. Would also have made injector seals access more convenient.
Fired the truck up. Started stronger, ran way smoother than before all this work, which was encouraging... until I realized there was probably a quart of fuel on the floor of the garage whilst I hooted and hollered at my great achievement. Feared a cracked fuel rail, but upon further inspection, I'd seated one of the injectors slightly off-kilter. Adjusted that, fired it up again, and all was squared away.
Bled brakes, bled AHC... both had some RIGHTEOUS grime in them, so good to get those addressed.
Next on the list as far as priority goes:
1- Replace broken lug nut so that the thing passes inspection once I've got the title in hand.
2- HOSES! Bunch of the air lines are cracking at their connections. Fuel and fluid lines look to be in much better shape though, far and away.
3- Thermostat. I left the truck idling for probably 30 minutes, and the temp started climbing. Drove a lap around the block, let it sit, and temp continued to rise. Let it cool off, fired it up again, and held steady at idle. Assuming that idle was under the 180 degrees required by the thermostat to open, and that driving got it above that threshold while thermostat remained closed.
4- Ball joints/LCA bushings/reboot CV axles. It's a nightmare down there, and that will be the real work. I don't have a press or tools for that though, so I may have to do the ball joints and bushings with a local shop, unless I find a good work-around.
5- Diff/T-Case fluids, ATF, tranny. All drain and fill. Bottom of the list because I won't be putting much in the way of miles on the truck until thes above are addressed.
Otherwise... I've ordered the Gamiviti Roof Channel Towers, in anticipation of building my own roof rack. Get the ROAM toof-top tent on there while I finish the trailer, and we'll be off to the races, hauling this girl on some new adventures.
Getting to the starter wasn't as bad as I'd read. The biggest PITA (new to the lingo, still thinking about hummus) was making sure I had all the nuts and bolts organized. For the intake manifold, I followed the SOP from other part installs, finding a piece of cardboard or a box, shoved the taken-off bolts through it in spots corresponding to where they came off the manifold. Nuts... I laid them out on a shelf in my garage, similarly to how the bolts were organized, corresponding to their installed locations.
I made the mistake of having all the manifold AND valve cover/coil bolts out at the same time, which led to more bolts needing organizing than was necessary. Had a bunch of them tossed in a magnetic tray by the time everything was disassembled, which didn't make things any easier. Got a little excited once I'd gotten the new starter in, and started throwing those bolts into vacant holes before thinking things through, so took them all back out, slowed down, followed FSM etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Sorted.
The old non-OEM starter was in decent shape, but obviously had very old contacts in it. One was much smaller than the normal starter contacts (like slightly probably 1cm x 1cm in area), and one was much larger (basically crammed in the damn thing). The larger one was worn down wafer thin, and the pluger wasn't in great shape. Got the Denso off Amazon, with no core charge, so I think I'll "rebuild" the old one, and hang onto it in case of emergency down the road. Plan might change.
The new starter looks beautiful in place. To be honest, after climbing into the engine bay as a 6' 4" 205lb man and fishing the bolts out of the back of the starter, the hardest part of the process was accessing the bolt that fixes the battery cable to the starter. Required a bit of a twist and pull/twist and push configuration while removing/installing the starters. Good opportunity to remove what I could only describe as being an owls living room, from the cavity between block and intake manifold.
A note worth making, given the photo above... I did all this with the fuel rails left in the engine bay, as opposed to pulling them with the intake manifold. This was NOT the move. I had to undo one of the fuel lines (mitigated spillage with mild success) to get the intake manifold to clear the rails on removal, so I would have been well served to just undo the other one as well, and pull the entire assembly. Would also have made injector seals access more convenient.
Fired the truck up. Started stronger, ran way smoother than before all this work, which was encouraging... until I realized there was probably a quart of fuel on the floor of the garage whilst I hooted and hollered at my great achievement. Feared a cracked fuel rail, but upon further inspection, I'd seated one of the injectors slightly off-kilter. Adjusted that, fired it up again, and all was squared away.
Bled brakes, bled AHC... both had some RIGHTEOUS grime in them, so good to get those addressed.
Next on the list as far as priority goes:
1- Replace broken lug nut so that the thing passes inspection once I've got the title in hand.
2- HOSES! Bunch of the air lines are cracking at their connections. Fuel and fluid lines look to be in much better shape though, far and away.
3- Thermostat. I left the truck idling for probably 30 minutes, and the temp started climbing. Drove a lap around the block, let it sit, and temp continued to rise. Let it cool off, fired it up again, and held steady at idle. Assuming that idle was under the 180 degrees required by the thermostat to open, and that driving got it above that threshold while thermostat remained closed.
4- Ball joints/LCA bushings/reboot CV axles. It's a nightmare down there, and that will be the real work. I don't have a press or tools for that though, so I may have to do the ball joints and bushings with a local shop, unless I find a good work-around.
5- Diff/T-Case fluids, ATF, tranny. All drain and fill. Bottom of the list because I won't be putting much in the way of miles on the truck until thes above are addressed.
Otherwise... I've ordered the Gamiviti Roof Channel Towers, in anticipation of building my own roof rack. Get the ROAM toof-top tent on there while I finish the trailer, and we'll be off to the races, hauling this girl on some new adventures.
ramangain
Clarksonian disciple
She looks thrilled that she is about to be punched in the face!
- Thread starter
- #47
Wrong place, wrong time!
- Thread starter
- #48
Low-key week/weekend. Still waiting on title (Copart dropped the ball on that one, but it's en route so whatever...) so I'm looking forward to getting it on the road and enjoying some of my work.
Was going to do a full wheel-bearing overhaul but there was no play in the hub whatsoever and when I pulled the bearings they looked untouched, so I regreased and re-torqued the locking nuts and will do the full overhaul at some point later this year. While I was there, I replaced all the front lug and hub studs. All nice and shiny now (snap ring installed and rotor cleaned post-photo).
I addressed a "BRAKE" light issue which I initially thought was a problem with the parking brake given that I ripped it pretty hard when I applied, and that's the point at which the light wouldn't go out. Turns out, I'd mistaken discoloration in the brake fluid reservoir for the actual fluid level... from what I read on here, I'm a broken record in that respect.
Stainless steel brake lines in. There's something I won't have to worry about for a good long while.
Got the Gamiviti Roof Channel Towers thrown on top, ready to start fabricating a roof rack.
Really all that's on the docket for the near future at this point, is rebooting the CV axles and getting the new shoes put on. KMC 542's in 16x8 5x150 0mm offset wrapped in 285/75R16. I'm sure the 0mm offset will cause a little rubbing, but I don't have any problem doing a little minor fender work, and got both wheels and tires for exactly $1000 total so for that cheap, I'm happy to make-do. I'll look into something with a little greater offset if it poses a problem in future, and if I start spending a signifcant amount of time on more difficult trails once out in CO.
Future items prioritized:
1- Hoses
2- Ball joints
Was going to do a full wheel-bearing overhaul but there was no play in the hub whatsoever and when I pulled the bearings they looked untouched, so I regreased and re-torqued the locking nuts and will do the full overhaul at some point later this year. While I was there, I replaced all the front lug and hub studs. All nice and shiny now (snap ring installed and rotor cleaned post-photo).
I addressed a "BRAKE" light issue which I initially thought was a problem with the parking brake given that I ripped it pretty hard when I applied, and that's the point at which the light wouldn't go out. Turns out, I'd mistaken discoloration in the brake fluid reservoir for the actual fluid level... from what I read on here, I'm a broken record in that respect.
Stainless steel brake lines in. There's something I won't have to worry about for a good long while.
Got the Gamiviti Roof Channel Towers thrown on top, ready to start fabricating a roof rack.
Really all that's on the docket for the near future at this point, is rebooting the CV axles and getting the new shoes put on. KMC 542's in 16x8 5x150 0mm offset wrapped in 285/75R16. I'm sure the 0mm offset will cause a little rubbing, but I don't have any problem doing a little minor fender work, and got both wheels and tires for exactly $1000 total so for that cheap, I'm happy to make-do. I'll look into something with a little greater offset if it poses a problem in future, and if I start spending a signifcant amount of time on more difficult trails once out in CO.
Future items prioritized:
1- Hoses
2- Ball joints
gregnash
Anal Retentive Analyst
Nicely done! Looks like you are getting plenty of work taken care of....
Should have done some reading here as it is not necessary to pull upper and lower intakes independent of one another when doing starter. Whole assembly can be removed as one piece as the lower bolts can be accessed pretty easily with the upper still in place. Of course that is unless there was another reason for removing upper separately. When I had my starter done I argued with my mechanic a bit about this, sent him the link for the thread. When I went back to pick the truck up he apologized and said I was right, saved him a bunch of time just pulling out as one piece. He inspected to ensure that upper intake mating surface to lower didn't look to have any issues to be sure, but all was good. Said in the long run, doing all that as on piece probably saved him an hour to hour and a half all said and done. Funny enough he found MUD highly informational and said he had a couple other customers with various year Land Cruiser so he was going to do some perusing.
Should have done some reading here as it is not necessary to pull upper and lower intakes independent of one another when doing starter. Whole assembly can be removed as one piece as the lower bolts can be accessed pretty easily with the upper still in place. Of course that is unless there was another reason for removing upper separately. When I had my starter done I argued with my mechanic a bit about this, sent him the link for the thread. When I went back to pick the truck up he apologized and said I was right, saved him a bunch of time just pulling out as one piece. He inspected to ensure that upper intake mating surface to lower didn't look to have any issues to be sure, but all was good. Said in the long run, doing all that as on piece probably saved him an hour to hour and a half all said and done. Funny enough he found MUD highly informational and said he had a couple other customers with various year Land Cruiser so he was going to do some perusing.
- Thread starter
- #50
You’re totally right, I was just doing pretty much every gasket up there so was going to have to take both apart from one enough regardless.
HOWEVER, if there’s a reason to get under there in future, I did learn (by making more work for myself... this is a pattern that has a way of repeating itself in my short 28 years) that just pulling the whole intake as well as injectors as one cohesive unit is for sure the move. Logistically it was a nightmare dealing with all those separately. THAT part, I had read about on here, but again, that lesson was learned the hard way haha
- Thread starter
- #51
New socks and shoes for Groot.
Went with KMC 542 Impact 16x8 5x150 0mm offset wrapped in Atturo Trail Blade M/T 285/75R16. First impressions: impressive. Massive upgrade (is it really an upgrade if it was a mandatory replacement? Old wheels were SHOT), balanced out perfectly, and super quiet relative to other M/T tires I've run on my 2011 F150. Sub-$1000 for the entire package, which works for me. Going to run the truck pretty hard, and was looking to run something that I wasn't going to get precious about. I was worried about the 0mm offset, and it certainly sticks out a bit, but so little rubbing on the fender liner that I'll just be heating and warping the liner back about half an inch and will be whistling Dixie. No interference on the inside edge and none at the front bumper, nor at "High" suspension setting. Definitely a wider track, but I don't do enough technical trail driving that an extra 3 inches of track will be in any way a hinderance to me. Obviously won't be able to give much of a proper assessment until I get off road and air them down.
Also, ran into a guy in my neighborhood, Gus, with a 1999 Land Cruiser with 550K miles on the odometer as the original owner. Whole lotta love for that. Not that it will need any help filling out numbers, but invited him to LCDC 2021.
Mine started running a little hot at idle again today, so I suspect a fan clutch will be in the cards here ASAP. As soon as I get driving and air is moving, needle falls back to operating temp.
Went with KMC 542 Impact 16x8 5x150 0mm offset wrapped in Atturo Trail Blade M/T 285/75R16. First impressions: impressive. Massive upgrade (is it really an upgrade if it was a mandatory replacement? Old wheels were SHOT), balanced out perfectly, and super quiet relative to other M/T tires I've run on my 2011 F150. Sub-$1000 for the entire package, which works for me. Going to run the truck pretty hard, and was looking to run something that I wasn't going to get precious about. I was worried about the 0mm offset, and it certainly sticks out a bit, but so little rubbing on the fender liner that I'll just be heating and warping the liner back about half an inch and will be whistling Dixie. No interference on the inside edge and none at the front bumper, nor at "High" suspension setting. Definitely a wider track, but I don't do enough technical trail driving that an extra 3 inches of track will be in any way a hinderance to me. Obviously won't be able to give much of a proper assessment until I get off road and air them down.
Also, ran into a guy in my neighborhood, Gus, with a 1999 Land Cruiser with 550K miles on the odometer as the original owner. Whole lotta love for that. Not that it will need any help filling out numbers, but invited him to LCDC 2021.
Mine started running a little hot at idle again today, so I suspect a fan clutch will be in the cards here ASAP. As soon as I get driving and air is moving, needle falls back to operating temp.
@GOLIGHTLY! A Hundy and a P-car make great pair in any driveway!Curious if your 470 came with a clean title? Asking because I'm watching Texas copart lots for a non-running (aka "Mechanical") and NON-salvage LC100 to breathe new life into. As a private individual I'd need a broker or willing dealer to assist when the right titled truck comes to the auction block.
- Thread starter
- #54
Yes sir, clean title! That did mean that I needed a broker. I bought from Copart via Salvage Resellers.View attachment 2567351
Curious if your 470 came with a clean title? Asking because I'm watching Texas copart lots for a non-running (aka "Mechanical") and NON-salvage LC100 to breathe new life into. As a private individual I'd need a broker or willing dealer to assist when the right titled truck comes to the auction block.
View attachment 2567414
Be prepared, the fees are insane (EDIT: I believe I paid $600 for a $3350 winning bid) but did some reading where others had a good experience with Salvage Resellers, and that the fees were pretty comparable to others. I DID have to take that into account when bidding, in order to meet the budget constraints I’d put on this project. I got lucky, bidding on Christmas Eve. I was the only bid, so even after fees I still wound up net positive on budget balance. I WILL say, that their customer service was excellent for me. Little hitch in terms of getting the title headed my way, and they got on top of it within a day. But I hope that doesn’t dissuade you from getting the right vehicle. Just account for that when you set your limits as far as bidding goes.
If you’re looking to go through Salvage Resellers, I’m happy to walk you through it step-by-step. Happy to do the same with your registration details if you’re going to register in TX.
Can definitely see how, if you’re going to make a habit of this and flip these things, it makes money-sense to get a brokers license. Keep me posted on whether you find a good one! I found mine in Houston (lucky that it’s 30 minutes from me) and that lot seems to get a fair number of 100-series, in the month or so I was looking for one.
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- Thread starter
- #55
Still gawking at Groot, and he's nowhere near finished as far as the curb-appeal is concerned.
Wheels and tires are a nice fit as far as not creating a ton of hassle. 285/75R16 are I THINK a true 33" which is more than enough for me right now. MTs pumped up are definetely a little livelier ride, but never phased me before. That being said, I did grind down two little tabs at the front of the pinch weld at the rear of the wheel well. Melt-and-molded the plastic hump back around that area and all is free and clear of rubbing at "Normal" height. "Low" might be a different story, but the truck probably won't spend much more than one or two parking garages worth of time in "Low" mode.
Rather fittingly, Groot had a tiny sprout growing in there, and I'm reserving concern until branches start growing through the drivers side floor.
Got up to a bundle of fun this weekend. Turns out, fill plug bolts on both the rear and center differentials were effectively rounded, and entirely siezed. That prompted me to go ahead and finish the job, mangling the rear diff bolt beyond all recognition after many iterations of "PB, heat, smack, repeat". Think I'm going to have to wind up taking it somewhere... at least I have the replacement bolts en route, so all is fine. Went ahead and did the front diff, and the fluid looked pretty good, without much in the way of anything of note on the magnet. Drained the transmission fluid pan and judged by the quality of the fluid, that I probably didn't need to go too ape**** there. I have the gasket for the pan, but I'll go ahead and do drain-fills at oil change intervals for the foreseeable future. Wouldnt hurt to clean the screen though, so I guess I'll do that whenever the mood strikes.
Power steering leak as gotten somewhat worse, and its no surprise given that I'm driving the vehicle regularly now. I'll drive the 200-Series for a little to avoid creating any more of a mess for the short-term, but I have a new hose assembly en route, both return and pressure, as well as new screw clamps. I'll go ahead and do a deep clean on the reservoir itself, get everything put back together, bleed the system thoroughly, and should be back in business. If not, I'll consider trying a replacement reservoir.
Lastly, fan clutch is on the way. Should be a pretty straightforward swap from what I can determine. My copy of the FSM doesn't have a page explicitly outlining that procedure, not even the fan assembly outside of the line item leading up to the water pump, so maybe I don't have a complete copy. Regardless, looks like at worst, its "pull fan shroud, remove fan assembly", so I won't soil my trousers over it.
Picking up steel for the roof rack tomorrow, and once I've got the above parts installed, I think I'll do a good road trip and shake out any other cobwebs I can.
Wheels and tires are a nice fit as far as not creating a ton of hassle. 285/75R16 are I THINK a true 33" which is more than enough for me right now. MTs pumped up are definetely a little livelier ride, but never phased me before. That being said, I did grind down two little tabs at the front of the pinch weld at the rear of the wheel well. Melt-and-molded the plastic hump back around that area and all is free and clear of rubbing at "Normal" height. "Low" might be a different story, but the truck probably won't spend much more than one or two parking garages worth of time in "Low" mode.
Rather fittingly, Groot had a tiny sprout growing in there, and I'm reserving concern until branches start growing through the drivers side floor.
Got up to a bundle of fun this weekend. Turns out, fill plug bolts on both the rear and center differentials were effectively rounded, and entirely siezed. That prompted me to go ahead and finish the job, mangling the rear diff bolt beyond all recognition after many iterations of "PB, heat, smack, repeat". Think I'm going to have to wind up taking it somewhere... at least I have the replacement bolts en route, so all is fine. Went ahead and did the front diff, and the fluid looked pretty good, without much in the way of anything of note on the magnet. Drained the transmission fluid pan and judged by the quality of the fluid, that I probably didn't need to go too ape**** there. I have the gasket for the pan, but I'll go ahead and do drain-fills at oil change intervals for the foreseeable future. Wouldnt hurt to clean the screen though, so I guess I'll do that whenever the mood strikes.
Power steering leak as gotten somewhat worse, and its no surprise given that I'm driving the vehicle regularly now. I'll drive the 200-Series for a little to avoid creating any more of a mess for the short-term, but I have a new hose assembly en route, both return and pressure, as well as new screw clamps. I'll go ahead and do a deep clean on the reservoir itself, get everything put back together, bleed the system thoroughly, and should be back in business. If not, I'll consider trying a replacement reservoir.
Lastly, fan clutch is on the way. Should be a pretty straightforward swap from what I can determine. My copy of the FSM doesn't have a page explicitly outlining that procedure, not even the fan assembly outside of the line item leading up to the water pump, so maybe I don't have a complete copy. Regardless, looks like at worst, its "pull fan shroud, remove fan assembly", so I won't soil my trousers over it.
Picking up steel for the roof rack tomorrow, and once I've got the above parts installed, I think I'll do a good road trip and shake out any other cobwebs I can.
looking good!
- Thread starter
- #57
Thanks a lot. Still plenty of work to be done!
Power steering write-up coming soon, once I can finish the write up for my own notes. Ran into some hitches that I didn’t anticipate, but a great learning experience.
- Thread starter
- #58
Got the power steering leak situation sorted, finally. With the proper tools, this would have been super straight forward... with my garage-sink approach, it took a little problem solving.
I appreciate the input from some other folks here on the forum, regarding removing the drivers side hard-line nut. Correct tool to use there: crows foot. Tool used: a hammer and a chisel, followed by a 17mm socket. Clipped the hard line off the top of the nut with the hammer and chisel and then just removed the fastening nut. The metal was soft enough and I wasn't using a hacksaw or anything like that, so I wasn't terribly concerned about particulate falling into the system.
Replaced the hard lines with a non-OEM system. Sunsong something-or-another, looks like it was manufactured in South Carolina I think. I'm alright assuming the risk of going non-OEM, for similar reasons as the ignition coil packs. The price was affordable enough and the job simple enough that I'd be alright swapping it every year, if I had any reason to feel like I needed to. Also, swapped the power steering control valve with a Dorman unit, after f*cking up the installed one while trying to the banjo bolt undone. Slip, *crack*.
Lastly, I did a "rebuild" kit that cost $13 for the pump itself. Just some new seals and bearings, mostly for peace of mind. I'm going to do a big order with brakes, oil pump, ball joints and various bushings so I'll just wait until I place that order to get a new pump put in.
Filled the system and did a bleed cycle with Valvoline Dex III fluid, and all was well. As with most systems I've addressed on Groot, didn't seem like the power steering system had been touched in a long time. Dirty fluid, a leaky but empty reservoir, leaks at multiple points in the system... thoroughly jacked up. Everything dry now after a couple days, new hoses at all junctions, including air lines, all is well in the world.
Addressed the slight rubbing with the new wheel and tire setup. Chopped the plastic at the front of the running board, tabbed and folded the thin sheet metal behind it, and (not pictured) cut away about a cm from the leading edge of the pinch weld. All of those areas were subsequently smoothed out with a grinder (melted in the case of the plastic at the running board). All of the metal parts, I taped off and spray painted to keep fresh cut areas from attracting rust. It's not super pretty even after smoothing and coating, but sure beats myself and friends would throw at Silverados with 37"s stuffed into square wheel wells. There was a lot wrong with that whole situation, pretty much across the board.
He's starting to shape up pretty well. I've barely fired up the 200 in a couple weeks because I'm finding I really REALLY enjoy the 100 series platform. Speaking with my brother about the racing world, it reminds me of the modern performance vs air-cooled Porsche platforms. The new ones are insane, and undoubtedly better for most applications, but the air-cooled have a soul. I'm strating to feel the same way about this 21 year old, beat up, poorly maintained LX. Just feel like it has more of a personality than the 200. Stoked for the rest of the adventure.
I appreciate the input from some other folks here on the forum, regarding removing the drivers side hard-line nut. Correct tool to use there: crows foot. Tool used: a hammer and a chisel, followed by a 17mm socket. Clipped the hard line off the top of the nut with the hammer and chisel and then just removed the fastening nut. The metal was soft enough and I wasn't using a hacksaw or anything like that, so I wasn't terribly concerned about particulate falling into the system.
Replaced the hard lines with a non-OEM system. Sunsong something-or-another, looks like it was manufactured in South Carolina I think. I'm alright assuming the risk of going non-OEM, for similar reasons as the ignition coil packs. The price was affordable enough and the job simple enough that I'd be alright swapping it every year, if I had any reason to feel like I needed to. Also, swapped the power steering control valve with a Dorman unit, after f*cking up the installed one while trying to the banjo bolt undone. Slip, *crack*.
Lastly, I did a "rebuild" kit that cost $13 for the pump itself. Just some new seals and bearings, mostly for peace of mind. I'm going to do a big order with brakes, oil pump, ball joints and various bushings so I'll just wait until I place that order to get a new pump put in.
Filled the system and did a bleed cycle with Valvoline Dex III fluid, and all was well. As with most systems I've addressed on Groot, didn't seem like the power steering system had been touched in a long time. Dirty fluid, a leaky but empty reservoir, leaks at multiple points in the system... thoroughly jacked up. Everything dry now after a couple days, new hoses at all junctions, including air lines, all is well in the world.
Addressed the slight rubbing with the new wheel and tire setup. Chopped the plastic at the front of the running board, tabbed and folded the thin sheet metal behind it, and (not pictured) cut away about a cm from the leading edge of the pinch weld. All of those areas were subsequently smoothed out with a grinder (melted in the case of the plastic at the running board). All of the metal parts, I taped off and spray painted to keep fresh cut areas from attracting rust. It's not super pretty even after smoothing and coating, but sure beats myself and friends would throw at Silverados with 37"s stuffed into square wheel wells. There was a lot wrong with that whole situation, pretty much across the board.
He's starting to shape up pretty well. I've barely fired up the 200 in a couple weeks because I'm finding I really REALLY enjoy the 100 series platform. Speaking with my brother about the racing world, it reminds me of the modern performance vs air-cooled Porsche platforms. The new ones are insane, and undoubtedly better for most applications, but the air-cooled have a soul. I'm strating to feel the same way about this 21 year old, beat up, poorly maintained LX. Just feel like it has more of a personality than the 200. Stoked for the rest of the adventure.
Loving the updates on Groot. I feel the same way about my 05 LX vs the 2011 LX570 I just sold. There is something special about the 100 series, and most maintenance is fairly straightforward and well documented thanks to this forum (starter is still a PITA). Be careful or you’ll be selling the 200 before you know it 
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- Thread starter
- #60
Ha! That’s what I’m worried about! Stuck debating whether I'd like the money out of it, or if I want to hoard LXs... life is hard.Loving the updates on Groot. I feel the same way about my 05 LX vs the 2011 LX570 I just sold. There is something special about the 100 series, and most maintenance is fairly straightforward and well documented thanks to this forum (starter is still a PITA). Be careful or you’ll be selling the 200 before you know it
