Builds Project F u k u s h i m a... my 1990 HZJ73 build thread

[tmarx]

Made a little more progress today before heading out to dinner to celebrate mom's day...

Started with some 1/8" mild steel plate. Traced the template onto the plate and fired up the plasma cutter. Ended up with this...

Used a 2" hole saw in the drill press to create the holes for the gauges. Also hit the face plate with the DA sander to clean it up a little.

Test fit with the hood before starting weld some legs on for the mounting system.

Used some 3/4" angle to make a bracket that gets bolted to the dash.

A little truck bed liner sprayed on top of semi-gloss black. Did a little test fit... with and without the hood. I made the mount so that I can remove the hood pretty easily if I need to do some work on the gauges.

I did get the wires pulled up to the gauges, but that's about as far as I got.

Do you perhaps have any pics showing how the mounting bracket "legs" are attached to the dash pad, please ?

 

[sbechtold]

Do you perhaps have any pics showing how the mounting bracket "legs" are attached to the dash pad, please ?

Here is what I have. I opt'd to drill holes in my dash, as there were no factory holes (my 73 never came with the dash pod). In the first picture you can see where I welded a couple of 7/16" bolts into the bracket. In the second picture you can see the bolts... the nuts were installed underneath after the radio was removed. It's worked great ever since. Very solidly mounted. I also drilled a hole to fish the gauge wires through as well.

 

[tmarx]

Thank you !

 

[sbechtold]

Haven't been working the 70 lately, but the A/C made a nasty noise this week. Checked things out and the idler pulley was pretty worn and noisy. Ordered a new one and replaced it. The belts were ok and the compressor clutch looked good (not burned or melted). We'll see if this solves it. I may pull the clutch just to check it out.

Here is the part number that I used for the idler pulley... 88440-35010

While I was at it I finally reinstalled the dash, glove box, bezel and stereo HU. I pulled it apart months ago...

Now I need to get the new HU wired up... sounds like a good Christmas break project.

 

[sbechtold]

Getting ready to finally get the 12v house battery project going. Spent some time this weekend moving the starting batteries, so I can fit another 12v battery under the hood. I'm not sure if this is going work... there is going to be a lot of weight on this poor little fender. If it doesn't work I'll make a tray for it somewhere else.

Started by trimming down the factory battery tray that is nearest the firewall. Trimmed the raised edge off 3 side of it and removed the left bracket that mounts to the fender.

The used some flat stock and angle to make a battery hold down. Also cut a piece of tube in half lengthwise and welded on the angle for the hold down mounting location.

A little test fit... fit like a glove.

Then I needed to make some brackets for the actual tie down bolts to mount to. I also wanted these to be multi purpose. They bolt to the fender under the stack battery tray, they support the bottom of the tray and the battery tie down bolts to them.

I used 5/16ths all thread for the tie down bolts. Double nutted and locktite on the lowers.

Installed... ignore the battery cables. I'm going to redo those next weekend. The house battery will go into the stock front battery location.

Next up will be the house battery, a Redarc charger, a fuse box for switch and dedicated power. Hope to get a little time over the next couple of weeks to finish it off and get some power to the stereo.

 

[ForealBoreal]

nice work. I did two solenoids to separate fuse blocks (1 being 24v and the other being 12v. I managed to fit mine into the fender between it and the battery. Nice being able to run a fridge solely off 12v without every having to worry about compromising the starting system.

 

[sbechtold]

nice work. I did two solenoids to separate fuse blocks (1 being 24v and the other being 12v. I managed to fit mine into the fender between it and the battery. Nice being able to run a fridge solely off 12v without every having to worry about compromising the starting system.

I am going to run the Redarc from the 24v to the 12v battery in order to keep it charged. I have a dual circuit blue sea fuse block that will also get installed. Half of the fuse block will be switched power (for the stereo and seats). The dedicated circuit will be used for 12v power for an ARB fridge and some other 12v items. Really looking forward to having tunes...

 

[ForealBoreal]

I used a redarc BCDC1220
The Fuse blocks are switched.

24v running mainly my accessory lights and also feeding the Redarc.
The 12v fuse block is located by the clutch pedal on a dash support in the foot well in my truck.
It mainly runs USB, GPS power, Cig Plug and the Isspro gauges which I found out after could have simply been 24v.

I also run a hard wire straight from the 12v Battery to the fridge so it can pull constantly.

 

[sbechtold]

I used a redarc BCDC1220
The Fuse blocks are switched.

24v running mainly my accessory lights and also feeding the Redarc.
The 12v fuse block is located by the clutch pedal on a dash support in the foot well in my truck.
It mainly runs USB, GPS power, Cig Plug and the Isspro gauges which I found out after could have simply been 24v.

I also run a hard wire straight from the 12v Battery to the fridge so it can pull constantly.

Sounds like we will have almost the exact same setup. I was looking for a place to put the fuse block. I might stick it in the read storage compartment next to the rear passenger seat. I haven't looked under the drive side dash yet. I'll poke around a bit for a nice, easy access, location. I did this same setup, sans the Redarc, in my FJC. PLus I included a solar panel to recharge the battery. That made it really nice to go camping and not worry about killing the starting battery.

 

[sbechtold]

Picked up new plates the DMV... I was surprised this was still available.

Got the batteries installed along with the Redarc BCDC1220. Installed a blue sea dual circuit fuse block in the kick panel. Also got eh new head unit, speakers and amp that I bought last May installed. Nice to have tunes...

Here's battery setup... yep that's a lot of weight on that poor little fender.

I installed a Pioneer AVIX 6200nex with a small amp and 4 speakers. Sounds good enough to drown out the rest of the noise from the truck.

My radiator had some light rusting on the inside of the core... and one spot where the core was leaking ever so slightly. I decided to get the radiator recored at the local rad shop. I should get it back early next week. While I was pulling the radiator I noticed the water pump was a bit rough to turn, so decided to replace it while was at it...

Pulled the thermostat too... I ordered a new one.

While I was at it and had some time to kill... I decided it was time to rebuild the injectors. Pulled them out and dropped them off at Diamond Diesel in Oakland. They should be back in about a week.

While I was poking around I noticed that my power steering pump was starting to weep fluid. So out it came... and while I was at it decided it was time to fix the weeping valve cover gasket and intake gasket. Still had a little more time today... so decided to finally install the boost compensator.

And finally here is where the day ended...

Everything to put her back together is on order from Cruiser Outfitters and Partsouq in Dubai. Now I just need the stuff to arrive...

 

[77cruiser77]

Your engine compartment, like mine and Karters, is filling up fast. The price we pay for having a really cool looking front end that offers excellent visibility while crawling around in the woods.

What did you need to do to your PS pump, hoping cheap seals? mines weeping too but holding off until I finish other projects first.

I really enjoy watching keeping up with maintenance without getting distracted by cool mods. Keep up the good work!

 

[sbechtold]

I really enjoy watching keeping up with maintenance without getting distracted by cool mods. Keep up the good work!

Thanks...! This is the hardest part of having this truck. There are a bunch of "cool" mods I want to do, but need to make sure she's reliable first. I do have a set of sliders started, plus front and rear bumpers in process also. Once I get the maintenance done I'll get back on the cool mods.

 

[JuanJ]

Hello,

Looking good.

Looking forward to seeing it all set.






Juan

 

[sbechtold]

Stoked that the injectors are back and looking like new. The place that overhauled them said they were definitely overdue for a rebuild.

 

[sbechtold]

What did you need to do to your PS pump, hoping cheap seals? mines weeping too but holding off until I finish other projects first.

I got the steering pump rebuilt last weekend. I needed the rebuild seal kit part #04446-60070 for $38. Once I got the pump apart and through the parts cleaner I realized that the main bearing was shot. Wouldn't barely rotate without getting stuck during the rotation. Good news is that Napa had a matching Koyo Japanese bearing in stock for $15. I got the pump all put back together and back in the truck along with just about everything else before I ran out of time. Hoping to get the truck running again this weekend.

I used this link (How to rebuild a power steering pump on 1H engines) as a basic tutorial to help me rebuild the pump. That gear on top was a BITCH to get off...

 

[77cruiser77]

Thank you for posting. I'll be referring back to this come spring.

 

[sbechtold]

The HZJ73 is alive again....

New water pump, re-cored radiator, rebuilt the power steering pump, installed a boost compensator, got the injectors rebuilt, replace the fuel lines and replaced the radiator hose.

Got everything put back together. Tried to fire her up and no go. No fuel at the injectors. Checked the fuel cutoff... working fine. Then pulled the glow plugs, cracked the fuel lines at the injectors and cranked for a while... still no fuel. Screwed the fuel screw in all the way, then cranked and fuel finally started flowing. Tighten the fuel lines, reinstalled the glow plugs... and she fired right up. Smoked like crazy... then backed off the fuel screw until she stopped smoking.

Still need to spend some time playing with the tuning, but she runs really good and doesn't smoke too much. EGT's are good. I'll be playing with the boost compensator as it in the stock position right now.

Got some help bleeding the steering from my youngest...

Post test drive... ready for the road again. Next up bumpers and sliders...

 

[sbechtold]

OK first real drive was the commute to work today. A total of 5 miles each way. The boost comes on MUCH earlier in the RPM range and when it hits you can definitely notice. She pulls very different from before. Engine runs really smooth and the temp gauge now reports back an accurate temp. Before the temp gauge never moved. I think the thermostat was stuck open. The steering is really nice, much improved over the steering before rebuilding the power steering pump. All and all very pleased with how things turned out.

Now the not so... that will need some attention. The darn things smokes too much for me. Doesn't smoke too bad, but definitely can see a light cloud going puff out the back during acceleration from every signal. The next thing I'll need to address is the EGT's... when I'm on it the EGT's rise REALLY fast. Pretty easy to get up to 1000-1100 degrees real quick, pretty sure if I kept my foot in it I would go right past 1200, 1300 and maybe keep going. If I drive sane the temps stay in the 800 degree on the highway. I'll spend a little time reading the 1H tuning thread for some ideas. My starting point will be to back off the fuel screw and get the AFR back in range. Then start playing with the boost compensator diaphragm.

Still having fun playing and learning...

 

[NM Frontier]

Still having fun playing and learning...

I'm in the same boat, every time I get one thing fixed/improved/modified it reveals the next project, but man it is fun to figure out these things!

 

[sbechtold]

I'm in the same boat, every time I get one thing fixed/improved/modified it reveals the next project, but man it is fun to figure out these things!

Couldn't agree more...