Builds "Scout" the 1977 FJ40 (1 Viewer)

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Let's go buy a Land Cruiser with my dad... Part 2

Again, skip this if you're not interested.

We're trucking north on I-5 with some snow/rain starting to fall. It's still plenty light outside but the clouds are building. My dad is following me at 50-55mph in the slow lane because I'm thinking my wipers are possibly the original ones from 1977 and I'm terrified I'm going to wreck this beautiful rig before I even get it home. I'm starting to get concerned, we're nowhere near the Seattle area, let alone Tacoma or even Olympia... hell, I don't think we've even passed Centrailia yet! I check my phone and it says we have another 4 hours to go, I'm guessing the Seattle area traffic has been taken into account by the Waze app so I'm not surprised as most people in Seattle are not fond of driving in the white stuff.

The Seattle area snow driving motto is this "It's not ME I'm worried about, it's the other people." Which loosely translated means "I'm not great at driving in the snow, throw some other people in the mix and maybe a stop light or a slight curve and I can't promise I won't hit something.... or everything." I find it funny because the rest of the northern states drive in the snow with minimal issues. Washington is unique in this. 2 years ago we had some ice form on our road just as everyone was leaving for work. One of my neighbors crashed his car at the bottom of our hill, then I watched him walk up the hill, get his other car and crash it in to the first, then he walked back up the hill and drove his wife's car in to all of the other cars at the bottom of the hill, two of which were his. 9 years ago, it snowed 4 inches while I was at work. It took me 3 hours to go roughly 16 miles to get home. When I finally arrived a gold colored Nissan Pathfinder greeted me from my front yard having driven over a curb, sidewalk and a hedge of 6 foot tall laurel bushes to land on my lawn. The driver was "Glad I showed up, because he didn't know how to put his car in 4 wheel drive." Needless to say, I'm basing my concern on some real world experience.

My worries are not unfounded today either. Along the way we see a number of drivers who have decided they'd like to leave the roadway and park in a ditch or cause other similar issues. We pass a guy on the side of the freeway putting chains on the back tires of his Honda Accord.... there is still no snow on the ground. I radio to my dad to tell him, I need to hit the next rest stop. I'd like to check the oil. I'd also like to see if I can fix the wipers and wipe off the inside of the windshield a little better, it was getting really foggy inside. We pull over at the rest stop, my dad hits the men's room and I get out and pop the hood on the 40. I turn around and there's a 50 something grey haired lady smiling at me who seemingly came out of nowhere. "Is that a Willys?" She asks. I said, "No, it's a Toyota Land Cruiser." She doesn't skip a beat. "My grandfather had a Willys that same color, Is everything okay? I see your hood is open. did you know it's about to snow really hard?" I thank her for her concern, and assure her everything is fine, I'm just checking the oil. The oil is fine, it's burned none that I can see so far. I close the hood and check the wipers. No blades to speak of on either side and the metal pieces that hold the rubber in place are lightly contacting the brand new windshield. I rub some RainX on it haphazardly and dry off the inside of the windshield. As I toss the rag in the back I notice the brake lights are on. I open the drivers side door and wiggle the brake pedal... they turn off. I note that there is a future repair needed on the brake light switch. I can handle that.

Just then my dad walks up behind me, "Hey, do you want to stop and grab lunch?" Normally I'd say yes, but we have 4 hours to go and the rain mix is starting to stick. I let him know that I'd rather get this thing home and go out to dinner instead. I'd just talked with my wife as we were pulling in to the rest stop and the snow has already started sticking up north, she was on her way home. It was around 1:00pm. My dad agrees we should keep on trucking, so we leave the rest stop and get back on I-5, traffic is slightly slower than before but it's okay, I can't use my wipers and I'm 100% relying on the magic of RainX to do it's job. My driver's side mirror loses it's grip on the mounting ball and flops down once I hit about 50mph. I reach for the crank to roll down the window so I can adjust the mirror, but it's soaking wet... the whole driver's side door panel is soaking wet. I feel around as I'm driving and everything from the floor to the ceiling is dripping. Not just water, dirty, road spray water. This must be why my windshield won't stay fog free. Lovely. Fix the mirror, roll the window back up and glance at the gas gauge, It claims I have less than half a tank. Something doesn't seem right, I had just filled the tank in Portland. I was driving pretty fast but, that seems unlikely. I keep a close eye on it for the next hour or so and it's slowly edging toward 1/4 of a tank. We're getting close to Tacoma now, I check my phone and it's still estimating 4 hours to our house... did we go back in time??

To be continued...
 
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Howdy Mud Members!

Some pretty fun progress recently.

I replaced the crusty, noisy and badly leaking power steering pump below.

ps pump old.jpg


The studs at NAPA helped me pick out the right replacement and order it. Installation was a breeze.

ps pump new.jpg


I then got to thinking about the oil flow again and something the PO told me popped in to my mind. He had replaced the 10w-30 oil with 20w-50 because he felt it would burn less oil with thicker oil. After replacing the valve stem seals it appears to have done the trick at completely eliminating the oil burning. So I dumped the thick oil and put in 10w-30 and took it for a spin. Man, what a difference! It idles better, seems to have a bit more power and this is going to sound crazy but the shifts are smoother. I think the super thick oil was causing some unnecessary drag on the internals of the engine.

It ran so good that I wanted to confirm it on a longer test drive and frankly because my wife and I are taking this on a 500 mile road trip, I wanted to make sure everything was in good shape.

I drove some really pretty farming back roads from my house in Bothell to Snohomish and then to Duvall and back home. No oil burning. Woo Hooo! Here's a pic of a place I stopped to let the dog out.

drive.jpg


When I got home, I smelled some fuel, so I popped the hood and found the hose for the fuel filter was kind of swollen and had some leaking fuel around it. I cut up and installed some new 5/16 fuel line and 4 new clamps and figured, I'd better go drive it again. Twist my arm! I drove from my house to Monroe on Hwy 522, found a kick a$$ little taco truck, scarfed down these babies....

Tacos.jpg


Then I headed to Duvall and finally across the valley and back home. All told I put roughly 70 miles on it, zero noise from the power steering pump and zero smoke.

In this situation, I'm super happy the "restoration place" was wrong.... it doesn't need an engine rebuild as far as I can tell. It simply needed the valve stem seal replaced. $100 vs $5,000, I'll take that all day long.

One thing I noticed this morning was that the headlights flicker quite a bit at idle. I think I'm going to make a dedicated circuit for the headlight power with a relay and fuse to give it true 12v power. I've heard of a few people doing this and it seems to make a big difference.
 
Well, Scout received some much needed night time visibility improvements.

As mentioned before, I installed some ECE Hella 7" H4 headlights, they are much better looking compared to the Truck Lites that this vehicle came with.

I also installed these in lieu of the H4 Halogen bulbs the Hella lights came with. They are plug and play and make an incredible improvement on light output. I'd say about 20% brighter but it's really hard to judge, they're better for sure. Cost $38
Bults.jpg


Also, because they're LED they pull about 1/6th the amperage compared to halogen bulbs. With our somewhat weak alternators, this makes a difference.

Then I installed this...
Wiring Harness.jpg


It's a complete plug and play wiring harness with relays and fuses which give the headlights full power from the battery instead of far less from the alternator. This harness plugs in to the stock harness and you put one wire on the + terminal of the battery, ground the other and zip tie it all out of the way. Took maybe 2 minutes to install but will improve the light output quite a bit. Cost $22.

Then I installed these auxiliary lights connected to the high beam so I didn't have to put a separate switch in, just push the turn signal stalk forward and the high beams plus these lights come on. They are KC Daylighter 6" LED driving pattern lights.

Aux Lights.jpg


I found some shackles on Amazon that I used to mount them up...
Shackle.jpg


I've yet to try everything in the dark but I will tonight and I'll report back on the improvements I see from the wiring harness. I drove with the headlights without the harness last night. I expect the harness to make a rather large difference.
 
I'm sure nobody here does this, but it's easy to only share the good stuff online, so I thought I'd share a mistake I made... everyone is human right? Maybe this will help someone from doing what I just did.

When I replaced my power steering pump, I needed to remove the high pressure line, in order to get a fitting so the old high pressure line would fit on the new pump. I carted that line down to NAPA and then to PIRTEX and then used the fitting to reinstall it. Well, what I didn't realize I did was I over tightened the high pressure line on the steering gear box side.

So when I went to take the cruiser out on a dusk drive to check out the headlights, I pulled it out of the garage and noticed a spot of oil on the floor under the gear box. Upon further examination, I noticed the high pressure line was leaking. I figured, maybe it's loose, so I grabbed a wrench and checked it.... it wasn't loose, the threads had stripped.

Shoot! I needed a new power steering line, damn! So I removed it and was going to bring it somewhere for a replacement and I noticed something... the threads on the hose were perfect.... it was the box that stripped. NOOOOOOOOO!!!! So essentially 2 crisp Benjamins later and I now have a new (reman) steering gear box on my FJ40. Not the end of the world, but I can think of a whole hell of a lot of things I'd rather spend $200 on! The icing on the cake... the gear box I stripped was new from the PO.

The good news, NAPA had the box at a warehouse, it was 12 hours until I'd have it in my hands, and I needed to buy a pitman arm puller anyway because I didn't have one.

The moral of the story here is this.... I need to slow down and be more careful. It's easy to get excited and slam things back together. It's also easy to only share the good things online and not the bad, but I want this thread to be helpful for others, and I for one like to learn from other people's mistakes, so hopefully this helps someone else.

Don't tighten the hydraulic lines on your Saginaw power steering box like your life depends on it. They simply need to be snug.

Happy Friday everyone!!
psbox.jpg
 
On a slightly more "perfect timing" kind of note... I ordered a new clutch master/slave and stainless braided hose a week ago because of the road trip we have coming up.... and Lee's experience in Pueblo (Saving The Old Rustbucket story).

The master and stainless hose came in so I thought I'd take a quick look under the dash at what it takes to replace it. Lo and behold that crusty master cylinder isn't just crusty, it's also just started leaking on my fire wall.... So at least I have what I need already on hand.

The slave is already wasted and leaking some fluid, but I don't have that just yet.... fingers crossed I get it before we leave. Even if I just toss the part in the back of the rig as we head out the door it will give me peace of mind knowing I can change it in parking lot if I need to.

Here's some pics of that master cylinder... it's a peach.

Old mc 2.jpg
old mc 1.jpg


Notice those cracks in the reservoir, the black fluid and 3 different paint colors on it? The firewall leaks look like they've been there for a while too. Yep, this thing just spent 3 months at a Land Cruiser specialist. Not impressed, but it gives me something to do I suppose. :confused:

Every time I opened that hood it was just begging to be ripped out of there and replaced. I'll see if I can get to it on Sunday and who knows, maybe the slave cylinder will be here by then... it's also leaking, crusty and is begging to be replaced.
 
.... Hey dad, let's pick up a Land Cruiser in Portland and drive it home in the snow. Part 3

We're making our way north on I-5 through Tacoma at about 40mph, just about to make the bend in the freeway where the Tacoma Dome appears, everyone ahead of me suddenly hits the brakes. It's a sea of brake lights as far as the eye can see. The weather combined with the merger of highway 16 and highway 7 has created an epic log jam of cars. The snow has been sticking for the past 3 or 4 miles, I need gas soon according to the gauge and I have a black lifted Dodge 3/4 ton ahead of me with a driver who clearly has no love for his rear tires and shows everyone around him how much he wants to destroy them at every opportunity to creep forward. The rolling smoke show is also a diesel so the exhaust fumes combined with the rubber smell is making for a really enjoyable experience. I back way off and let him spin his tires into oblivion again. My dad radios... "What's wrong?" I share the details of what's happening ahead of me and my dad jokes over the radio "Let me around you and I'll shoot him." Nothing about shooting someone is funny, but my dad has always had a slightly unique/morose sense of humor. Great. I don't answer him and pretend he didn't just say that on an open channel.

The radios I bought for the trip aren't just normal 40 channel crappy 2 way walkie talkies. They're nice UHF/VHF little hand held BaoFeng dual band radios. The kind police, fire and other professional businesses use. We picked an open channel and I shared with my dad before we left that since neither of us were licensed we should probably use these things sparingly and if someone else starts talking on the channel we're using, we may want to stop using them.

Between the truckers surrounding us in the traffic, the Port of Tacoma and other businesses or ham radio operators nearby there are plenty of people potentially using these dual band radios all around us. Many of whom may not understand that my dad has a unique sense of humor. Additionally, because of the "adventure" we were on and the large amount of cash I was going to be carrying... we both had our concealed carry guns with us. The thought of someone, somehow misinterpreting my dad's attempt at humor combined with the already less than ideal traffic and weather conditions made me uneasy.

Thankfully, no one was on that channel except the two of us knuckle heads making our way north in a snow storm which was now dumping more and more snow. With the lack of speed, the RainX wasn't working well, the interior of the Cruiser was soaking wet, the windows were fogging up pretty bad and I was reacquainting myself with just how cramped the driving position is in these early Land Cruisers. Hours ago, I'd reached down to make sure I had adjusted the seat as far back as possible. With the constant stopping and going of traffic, I was cementing in my mind the fact that I was going to add seat extenders to the short list of things I wanted to install immediately.

If you're of any height above 5'8" and you haven't already installed seat extenders in your FJ40, I highly recommend them. They were one of my first additions to this vehicle and they've made driving far more pleasant. There are a few ways to accomplish extending the seat mounting points. I went with the pre-made powder coated brackets that come with all of the hardware for about $90. I know I could have done it for far less, but sometimes the "easy way" is worth it.

Traffic continues crawling past the Tacoma Dome, over the Puyallup river and in to Fife where there is a carpool lane, a very empty carpool lane. I radio to my dad, "Hey, I'm going to get in the car pool lane, this traffic is stupid." My dad radios back, "We can't, we are single occupancy and I don't feel like getting arrested." Clearly, no one is getting arrested for driving in a carpool lane without a second passenger but I get the point... he doesn't want to get in trouble. Funny, my dad, who taught me that rules are sometimes worth breaking has become a staunch rule abiding citizen. When the hell did this happen??!! I radio back, "I'm pretty sure the police have more important things to do than worry about two cars trying to get home in a snow storm by using a completely clear lane." I don't wait for him to answer, I stab the throttle and hop in the carpool lane, he follows me.

The traffic in the other lanes was horrendous and all but completely stopped, but we were passing everyone at about 35mph. It was wonderful, we were finally making some headway. If we're lucky we might be home by 5pm, not too bad! We crest over the hill and past the very empty snow covered Wild Waves water park and sitting on the left side of the freeway is a white Washington State Patrol car. We can't dive back over in to the normal lanes of traffic at this point, it would be obvious and then we'd definitely get a ticket. I'm hoping that between the distraction of the snow and the other people sliding all over the freeway, that he wouldn't even notice us go by. My dad is probably $hitting his pants. Luckily, my dad follows my lead and we cruise right past. As we go by I look over and the state patrol officer is using his computer and probably doesn't even see us go by. Is today our lucky day or what?!

The drive from here on out is much better. The traffic in the normal lanes is still bumper to bumper, but we're flying past and because of the speed, the RainX is working, the fog on the inside is starting to clear and the snow is a little deeper but it's easily manageable. I'm happy this rig has brand new 33"x10.5" BF Goodrich All Terrains. They're doing a great job of keeping me in control. The only thing eating away at me at this point is my very left leaning fuel gauge needle. I remind myself that if I get off the freeway to get fuel, it means I need to essentially stop and merge over 2 lanes of stopped vehicles. The thought of doing so causes me to keep pushing forward.

Eventually, I-405 signs start to appear. My dad and I slow down and get in the line of cars headed in that direction. Traffic is stop and go, the snow is now about 2" deep on the shoulders, my gas gauge is starting to touch the E. I radio to my dad that I need fuel, he barks back. "Already?" Yes, I tell him and I share that I am nearly empty. Traffic isn't letting up. I don't know of a gas station near the freeway in this area and I'm hoping the gauge is accurate.

We merge on to I-405 at a snail's pace and again, I dive in to the carpool lane, my dad follows me and we start to cruise. I give the steering wheel a little wiggle and I still hear a tiny amount of fuel sloshing around in the tank mounted under the passenger seat. I continue to cross my fingers that we can make it a bit further to the Shell station at the top of Kennydale hill. Today really is my lucky day, we make it there without any issues. We exit the freeway through the snow and bumper to bumper traffic, turn left sliding a little in the snow and motor on in to the gas station. I fill up the tank and while the pump is clicking away, I lean over to the passenger side front hub and twist it to the lock position. Just as I do the same to the driver's side hub, an important memory creeps in to my mind.

I distinctly recall the feeling of locking the hubs on a Land Cruiser from my childhood. How could I forget? When I was about 12 years old my family went camping with my aunt Margie, uncle Bob and two cousins Kari and Jeff. Jeff was my age and these camping trips were always exciting. Campfire stories of when my dad and my uncle Bob were kids, getting in to trouble were usually one of the highlights.... however this camping trip was about to get awesome!! For some unknown reason, my dad hands me the keys to our relatively new white FJ60 and said, "don't crash it!" Jeff immediately hops in the passenger seat and I in the drivers seat. I'd never driven a stick before, let alone a car, but I knew the basic principles after watching my parents do it for years. I pushed in the clutch, started the engine clicked it in to first and promptly stalled it when I try to move forward with the parking brake still engaged. The next attempt was better but still clumsy. Jeff and I slowly motored out to the dirt road away from camp listening to Sir Mix-A-Lot and ready to explore.

It only took us about 10 minutes to find a rutted out dirt trail we thought would be a good idea to drive up. I hopped out, locked the hubs and away we went. That Land Cruiser could climb up ANYTHING! We drove around on those trails for about an hour and returned back at camp for lunch beaming with pride and excitement. Our first four wheeling excursion! It was amazing, the Land Cruiser was a beast and I now knew how to drive a stick. Best trip ever! The memory is as clear as if it had happened yesterday.

Locking the hubs on my new green FJ40 brought all of that back in an instant. I already knew I loved this new Cruiser. The gas pump clicked off, my dad and I hopped in our respective vehicles and slid back on to the side street and made our way back to the freeway. Traffic was still really bad but it was a consistent 20mph. We pushed north to Bellevue in the carpool lane and I glanced at my watch it was 4:00pm. Neither of us had eaten anything, but we were almost home.

Driving north on I-405 in Bellevue something amazing happened. I looked around and we were suddenly about the only people on the freeway. We're cruising at 60 through the snow and making great time. In a little more than 30 minutes we are exiting the freeway, no other cars in sight. Everyone must have run home as quickly as possible to avoid the snow. As we are slowly making our way toward my house to put this thing safely in my garage I reflect back on our little adventure. Just dad and me doing what guys do best. Buying project vehicles, taking road trips, overcoming adversity, breaking rules, saying things that could get us in trouble, but most of all, just having fun. It might have been the most fun I've ever had with my dad. I know he's not going to be around forever so these times are really special.

We get home, put the 40 in it's spot in the garage, I kiss my wife, and before my dad comes in the house, quickly tell Megan about the "avoid freeways" piece of the trip. She's laughing her butt off as my dad walks in. I think it takes the edge off her mood from her 1.5 hour commute home in the snow.... 11 miles. WTF Seattle??

The three of us pile in my bright blue Jeep JL with 37" mud terrains and drift our way to our favorite neighborhood restaurant for a huge steak dinner. We order a celebratory bottle of wine, too much food and recount the day's adventure to my wife. As we watch the evening darkness begin to hide the snow quietly falling outside, I'm mentally locking away every detail of this trip with my dad.

The end
 
I spent a little time today replacing the clutch master cylinder. The old one was leaking, crusty and the reservoir was very badly marked with surface cracks. It took about 30 minutes to replace it. I also installed the stainless steel flexible hose between the slave cylinder and hard line attachment. I'm still waiting for the new slave cylinder so I can button everything up and use my cool vacuum tool to bleed the system.

Old master cylinder
OMC.jpg



New master cylinder (I also installed new bolts while I was at it)

NMC.jpg


Super easy job to do and just like many of the items I'm replacing, it's 50% piece of mind and 50% because it's starting to fail, could fail or if it did fail it would leave me stranded.
 
Something kind of funny happened on Saturday morning. After taking my dad to breakfast in the Land Cruiser, I wanted to show off how quickly my engine started with this new gear reduction starter. I literally said, "Hey Dad, listen to how well this thing starts...." I went to bump the key and nothing. I turned the key a half dozen more times and nothing. We both found the humor in the fact that the timing could not have been more perfect.:rofl:

I wiggled some wires around while he turned the key and finally, it started and we headed home.

Later that day, I had a friend come over to the house and hold the key while I tested some wires, ground, power, signal wire and so forth. Finally, I looked under this grey boot and the nut under that boot was not even finger tight. I believe that's the 12v battery connection to the motor, so kind of important. Tightening this nut fixed the no crank issue.

Starter nut.jpg



The starter is a brand new, so I guess I'm only sharing this to save you this embarrassment. Go check that nut and snug it down before you show off how amazingly fast your engine starts with one of these gear reduction starters. :) HA!

In my mind this new starter still stands as one of the best improvements I've made to this thing. I can just bump the key and it starts immediately.

(edit - I later find out this starter from Cruiser Corps was just junk, I sent it back, they kindly gave me my money back and I ordered another gear reduction starter on Amazon for $80 which is going strong. Part number 028000-8220 from Rareelectrical.)
 
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Love the recap of the drive!

Rain-X and interior foggy glass, ... people like to park in the ditch, LOL
 
The good and the bad -

First the good. I installed my new clutch slave, it went on in about 10 minutes, super easy. There are plenty of posts here on how to do it. Mine was a hammered, sloppy, leaking mess. For the slave and the master I used OEM parts because they're relatively inexpensive and I believe in their quality.

clutch slave.jpg


I used some instructions that someone was kind enough to post here on Mud, so I'll re-post it for those of you who are like me and still waiting for my FSM.

11.jpg


For the bleeding, I used the tool below. It made the bleeding of the clutch system a 1 person job and done in about 3 minutes. It makes it so easy you second guess yourself and end up using it a couple of times just to make sure no bubbles are left in the system. I picked it up on Amazon a few years ago.

Bleeder.jpg


I drove it a few times and the clutch works perfectly.

Now the bad. The no crank issue is still there and I have only one clue. If I hold the key long enough, it starts. Here are the series of events.

- Hop in the rig warm or cold, turn the key and nothing.
- Hold the key in the start position and after about 5 seconds it cranks and starts like normal.

I'll keep digging and see what I can figure out. I'm somewhat skeptical of the electronic portion of the ignition switch behind the mechanical key piece, simply because it's old. Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Adam
 
The good and the bad -

First the good. I installed my new clutch slave, it went on in about 10 minutes, super easy. There are plenty of posts here on how to do it. Mine was a hammered, sloppy, leaking mess. For the slave and the master I used OEM parts because they're relatively inexpensive and I believe in their quality.

View attachment 1943444

I used some instructions that someone was kind enough to post here on Mud, so I'll re-post it for those of you who are like me and still waiting for my FSM.

View attachment 1943445

For the bleeding, I used the tool below. It made the bleeding of the clutch system a 1 person job and done in about 3 minutes. It makes it so easy you second guess yourself and end up using it a couple of times just to make sure no bubbles are left in the system. I picked it up on Amazon a few years ago.

View attachment 1943443

I drove it a few times and the clutch works perfectly.

Now the bad. The no crank issue is still there and I have only one clue. If I hold the key long enough, it starts. Here are the series of events.

- Hop in the rig warm or cold, turn the key and nothing.
- Hold the key in the start position and after about 5 seconds it cranks and starts like normal.

I'll keep digging and see what I can figure out. I'm somewhat skeptical of the electronic portion of the ignition switch behind the mechanical key piece, simply because it's old. Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Adam

I can't read it, what's the brand name on that bleeder pictured?
 
I just test drove Scout with it's new brighter eyes and I can confirm that the changes I made in post #45 improved the night time visibility by leaps and bounds. Plus the headlights stay brighter at idle. If you have a vehicle with 7" round headlights, the Hella ECE housings with those LED bulbs and a dedicated harness with separate relays makes a huge difference. Total cost about $120 and total time installing and aiming the headlights might be 1 hour. Add in those KC Daylighters and I doubt you'll need much more light for normal night time rainy driving.
 
I can't read it, what's the brand name on that bleeder pictured?

It's a Capri Tools vacuum brake bleeder. It's roughly $85 and I found it on Amazon.

Amazon product ASIN B00OM751EC
It made bleeding the clutch system super easy. No more of that... "Hey babe, can you help me in the garage for a minute.... you sit here and push the pedal while I tell you UP, DOWN and HOLD and fiddle around under the hood." HA!
 
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I like the factory steering wheel diameter but it's pretty skinny. I found this on Amazon for $13 and it took about 30 minutes to install. I'm not going to pretend it wasn't a bit of a pain to stretch it around the wheel but damn it looks nice!
sw.jpg


Here's a link.... Amazon product ASIN B01L8NUQSS
The size I used was L- I needed to warm it up a bit, so I threw it in the microwave for 15 seconds and then 20 seconds. It was still difficult to stretch around the wheel but I didn't want it to be loose.

We're leaving tomorrow on a 500 mile road trip. Hopefully everything goes smoothly.
 
So I completely forgot I ordered a new brake light switch from NAPA a couple of days ago. Mine was intermittently not working and I didn't want to get backdoored by a 18 wheeler while on our trip. It's part number SL 152 from NAPA and about $26. It took me less than 10 minutes to replace it.

First, remove the two screws for your gauge cluster and pull it out of the way, no need to fully remove it. Also take a 14mm and loosen the jam nut on the pedal plunger portion.

Access.jpg


The brake light switch will be right in this empty spot, threaded in to those threads you see in the 11 o'clock position in that big hole. Unplug it and then unscrew to remove it. (it's dusty in there!)

BLS Hole.jpg


Here's the old one and new one for the poser shot to make it look like I know what the hell I'm doing here. HA!

BLS.jpg


I used the approximate location of the jam nut to get the position about the same on the new one. Reverse those steps with your new one and you're good to go.
 

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