Sorich's Humble Build Thread.... (1 Viewer)

[PabloCruise]

I got my first 100 series (or any worthwhile tuck ever, for that matter) at the beginning of this year, and although I have high hopes of building up an awesome rig like a lot of you have on here, I realize that I probably won't be able to get my truck built up as much as I'd like to before it's time to get another vehicle. In the meantime, I decided I would start my own Humble Build Thread, just for fun. The plan for this truck is to turn it into a family adventure vehicle, as my wife, three kids (under 6yo), and I are moving from Illinois to Colorado, and we plan to see a lot of it once we're out there.

I'll try to update this first post as time goes on to give a current status of the build.

For now, some basics... I'll add to it later.

• 1998 Lexus LX 470, no factory rear locker.
  
• Purchased in San Diego, CA (sight unseen) with 156,000 miles in the beginning of January 2017.
• After failed attempt at shipping it, I bought a couple of plane tickets for my brother-in-law and I to fly out and drive it all the way back home near Chicago, IL. The road trip confirmed that this is a well running machine. Good! It also surfaced some gremlins... Bad!

Issues to start with:

• Mushy brakes... If you double pump them, the pedal is firm and the truck stops quickly, but that first press on the pedal is mushy and the truck is slow to stop. Could need a pedal travel adjustment, or a brake rebuild.
  
• Left side of truck sits slightly lower than right side of truck... By maybe an inch.
  
• Motor for telescoping steering wheel is broken. Tilt seems to work fine. I could replace the motor...
• During the 2K+ mile trip home, there were a handful of occasions where the battery light illuminated and the battery voltage gauge indicated that the system was approaching 18 volts (over voltage). When this happened, I kept revs down and turned on headlights and stereo, and it would usually go away after a few minutes.. Not sure if that was a coincidence or not. When I got home, I scrubbed the battery terminals and most of the grounding points for the electrical system and sprayed them all with CorrosionX. Hasn't happened since in a few thousand miles, so I hope that's all it was and not a sign that the alternator is failing.
  
• The "Bluetooth upgrade" on the factory stereo turned out to just be a REALLY crappy permanently installed Bluetooth module for an FM transmitter. It sucks. I need to decide if I will replace the head unit or if I'll get a GROM bluetooth kit for the factory head unit. In the meantime, I'm using a tape adapter. Hi, 1990's!! I haven't missed you!
  
• HID (aftermarket) headlights point too high.. They are high enough to blind truckers that are 50-100' ahead of me.
  
• Suspension feels worn... You feel every bump and there is a lot of sway in cornering.

The good:

• It was pretty well maintained, mostly at Lexus, and has new AC, Timing Belt, brakes, tires, and has just about NO RUST. This is gold from an Illinois perspective.
  
• It runs quiet and smooth.

What I've done so far:

• Before initial road trip back home: Replaced wipers, some missing brake lights, hood struts, greased doors, replaced the water in wiper reservoir with anti-freeze fluid, check fluid levels.
  
• Greased/lubed drive line/propeller shafts, and re-torqued flange bolts
• Oil Change (Mobile1 full advanced synthetic) and filter change (OEM from Toyota)
• Transmission Fluid swap (Valvoline synthetic)
• Front and rear differential and transfer case fluid swap (Valvoline synthetic)
• Flush radiator (at my local shop using Toyota fluid)
• Brake flush (at my local shop) to see if it helped mushy brakes... Worth a shot, right? Still mushy...
• AHC Fluid swap (using the PADDO 1-can method)
• Removed trailer hitch (storing for now)
  
• Removed running boards (storing for now)
  
• Removed 3rd row seats (storing - I'll definitely use these down the road)
• Replaced the new Michelin LTX AT's that the truck came with, sold them on Craigslist, and bought 5 new BFG KO2's in a size up. Now running 285/75/R16.
• Cabin Air Filter Change (the old ones were pretty clean.... oh well).
• Full AHC Service. Replaced rear springs, cross-leveled, and adjusted torsion bars in front to bring all pressure to spec (now running Front: 6.3mpa, Rear: 6.0mpa). I'm also now seeing 11 ticks on the reservoir H-L.
• Replaced all interior cabin lights with LED's from PFran. (March 2017)

Future plans:

• Full AHC service (replace rear springs, cross-level, and adjust torsion bars in front to bring pressures to spec) Completed March 2017.
• Sliders. Considering Bump It Offroad.
• Steel rear bumper with spare tire swing out and possibly Jerry cans on a 2nd swing out. Considering Slee, ARB, 4X4 Labs, BIOR, and Dissent. Would love to hear your guys thoughts on these and others...
• Stereo.. either GROM Bluetooth kit or a new head unit. Considering doing a double DIN CarPlay compatible touchscreen model with a backup camera.
• Roof top tent. No idea yet... probably next year.
• Front & Rear Lockers... Considering ARB vs. TJM. Open to feedback.

Meanwhile, I'm busy getting my car washed every time I see salt on the ground in an attempt to keep my pretty undercarriage looking that way until I get to Colorado...

Now for some pictures!

Original condition when I picked it up in San Diego:

View attachment 1411522
View attachment 1411523

Mid road trip home (In Colorado):

View attachment 1411525

After removing running boards:

View attachment 1411527

After removing hitch and upgrading tires:

View attachment 1411529

Hey @sorich - Nice rig!
156k on a '98 is nice low mileage. And I know what you mean about rust in IL - ugh.
$8800 for a clean rig is a great price, you did well. Not sure how the interior looked, but it looks like a nice rig.

The LX did not come with rear locker, but some (all?) came with LSD. Have you run the VIN decoder to see if you have it? My '99 LX does, and I like it very much.

Regarding bumper/sliders, I cannot say enough good things about Bump It Offroad. I met the owner before I ever got my LX. His daughter goes to school with my son and I saw his truck ('99 100 w/ spare tire carrier and 2nd swing out) at the school. Then I was getting some parts for my Pig powdercoated and they told me I needed to meet Mike. We started talking about my Pig's rear bumper and even though the R&D time will never get him any kind of sales volume, he made me a beautiful bumper for my Pig. Now we have an LX, and his rear bumper and sliders. He does make a great jerry can carrier for the rear bumpers.

I saw your comments on my AHC postings. How did the rear spring install go? I am thinking about throwing in a set of 100 springs before our spring break trip just to get my pressures down before I pull a pop-up and have the rear all loaded (fridge + camping gear). You have to disconnect the rear level sensor, yes? And sway bar links, and bottom shock bolts? Did you leave AHC in N and just move axle up and down to hit the shocks/dampers?

Where are you in IL? I lived up in Libertyville as a kid.

Where are you moving to in CO? Hopefully we can meet up when you get here!

 

[PabloCruise]

Forgot to ask about your stereo - do you have the Nakamichi head unit? There is a great thread about upgrading that. That is what I have and the built-in 6 disc changer still works, but any kind of bump makes the disc skip. Crazy cool that there is a tape deck & CD in there!

LX470 Stereo Upgrade with Nakamichi

I would like to re-pin the LX connector so I can just use a 100 adaptor vs. cut & splice. I dislike splices whenever they can be avoided...

 

[PabloCruise]

I have high hopes of building up an awesome rig like a lot of you have on here, I realize that I probably won't be able to get my truck built up as much as I'd like to before it's time to get another vehicle.

Not sure what you mean by that, or if you put a lot of miles on your vehicles, but these 100/470s can go well over 300k miles with a little maintenance. As long as you get out of IL and the rust doesn't get it...

 

[PabloCruise]

One last thought about Bump It Offroad and then I will leave you alone - he is now a TJM distributor. I think the TJM front bumper is the lightest you can get for the 100, definitely lighter than the BIO front.

I am interested in keeping the AHC system as long as possible. My wife is barely 5'02", so a factory height vehicle is good for her to get in and out of (the BIO sliders help a LOT). So if/when we do a front bumper, a light one will be in order. Mike was recommending the TJM units for AHC rigs due to the weight.

Just FYI.

 

[sorich]

Hey @sorich - Nice rig!
156k on a '98 is nice low mileage. And I know what you mean about rust in IL - ugh.
$8800 for a clean rig is a great price, you did well. Not sure how the interior looked, but it looks like a nice rig.

The LX did not come with rear locker, but some (all?) came with LSD. Have you run the VIN decoder to see if you have it? My '99 LX does, and I like it very much.

Hey, thanks! Yeah, mine has the rear limited-slip differential. I believe all of them had it in '98. My understanding of LSD's is that that they have a service life of about 30K-50K miles before they need to be rebuilt. A lot of people don't notice because they don't test them. I haven't tested mine yet..... When they go, they essentially just turn into open diffs (like the front in our LX's), so when one rear wheel slips, all the power from the rear axle goes straight to it. I'm just assuming my LSD is now an open diff

Regarding bumper/sliders, I cannot say enough good things about Bump It Offroad. I met the owner before I ever got my LX. His daughter goes to school with my son and I saw his truck ('99 100 w/ spare tire carrier and 2nd swing out) at the school. Then I was getting some parts for my Pig powdercoated and they told me I needed to meet Mike. We started talking about my Pig's rear bumper and even though the R&D time will never get him any kind of sales volume, he made me a beautiful bumper for my Pig. Now we have an LX, and his rear bumper and sliders. He does make a great jerry can carrier for the rear bumpers.

Good to hear regarding the BIOR rear bumper! So are you running the high clearance version, or some custom version that doesn't exist on his site?

I saw your comments on my AHC postings. How did the rear spring install go? I am thinking about throwing in a set of 100 springs before our spring break trip just to get my pressures down before I pull a pop-up and have the rear all loaded (fridge + camping gear). You have to disconnect the rear level sensor, yes? And sway bar links, and bottom shock bolts? Did you leave AHC in N and just move axle up and down to hit the shocks/dampers?

Rear spring install went well overall.. It was my first time doing springs in anything ever.... It was time consuming compressing each of the four springs one at a time, which was a bit annoying, but I had some help with @starclassic which I wouldn't have been able to do on my own. I would say it was an easy job, but I went in thinking I could just jack up the truck from the rear of the frame, pop out the springs, and lower it on the new springs. In reality, I was able to do so on the driver's side, but for the passenger side I couldn't get enough clearance without disconnecting the lateral support bar on the passenger side. That bolt has a LOT of threads and took a little while, but gave us the clearance we needed. From there, it was a bit tricky getting it reconnected once the new spring was in since the bar was not lining up with the mounting hole so we spent a while jacking up various parts of the frame/rear axle until we got it to line up to slide the bolt in.

I think it ended up taking us around 4 hours, but if I had to do it again I'm guessing it would take me 2 or less due to confidence, understanding the process (less trial and error), and the use of a well charged 24v drill to drive the spring compressors.

Where are you in IL? I lived up in Libertyville as a kid.

Where are you moving to in CO? Hopefully we can meet up when you get here!

That's about an hour from where I live now - I'm in Aurora, IL and have lived in the Chicago suburbs pretty much my whole life. We'll be moving to Colorado Springs, CO this summer. Likely pretty close to 25 and near the Air Force Academy. Where are you in Colorado?

 

[sorich]

I forgot to mention - Interior is very clean... Some sun damage on the plastic around the shifter, two glued-on mounts for GPS or something, and some wear spots on the steering wheel, but other than that the leather is in really good shape. I'll try to get some pics up on here soon.

 

[PabloCruise]

Hey, thanks! Yeah, mine has the rear limited-slip differential. I believe all of them had it in '98. My understanding of LSD's is that that they have a service life of about 30K-50K miles before they need to be rebuilt. A lot of people don't notice because they don't test them. I haven't tested mine yet..... When they go, they essentially just turn into open diffs (like the front in our LX's), so when one rear wheel slips, all the power from the rear axle goes straight to it. I'm just assuming my LSD is now an open diff

Good to hear regarding the BIOR rear bumper! So are you running the high clearance version, or some custom version that doesn't exist on his site?

Rear spring install went well overall.. It was my first time doing springs in anything ever.... It was time consuming compressing each of the four springs one at a time, which was a bit annoying, but I had some help with @starclassic which I wouldn't have been able to do on my own. I would say it was an easy job, but I went in thinking I could just jack up the truck from the rear of the frame, pop out the springs, and lower it on the new springs. In reality, I was able to do so on the driver's side, but for the passenger side I couldn't get enough clearance without disconnecting the lateral support bar on the passenger side. That bolt has a LOT of threads and took a little while, but gave us the clearance we needed. From there, it was a bit tricky getting it reconnected once the new spring was in since the bar was not lining up with the mounting hole so we spent a while jacking up various parts of the frame/rear axle until we got it to line up to slide the bolt in.

I think it ended up taking us around 4 hours, but if I had to do it again I'm guessing it would take me 2 or less due to confidence, understanding the process (less trial and error), and the use of a well charged 24v drill to drive the spring compressors.


That's about an hour from where I live now - I'm in Aurora, IL and have lived in the Chicago suburbs pretty much my whole life. We'll be moving to Colorado Springs, CO this summer. Likely pretty close to 25 and near the Air Force Academy. Where are you in Colorado?

I had heard similar stories about the LSD wearing out, so we were not sure what to expect last year on our outing to Canyonlands, but it was very sure-footed for having 140k miles on it. I can try to find some pictures of what we navigated, but I was very pleased with it. About a month later I was in Moab, driving a friend's 100 and went to climb something that I felt confident I could climb, based on the LX performance. The 100 spun. His was a '99, and had the e-locker, so I engaged, climbed and then turned the e-locker off. It was nicer not having to mess with the whole lock/un-lock procedure. Hopefully your LSD has some life left in it!

I think I am running the standard BIO rear bumper. The high-clearance bumper is pretty cool! Mike was talking about switching his rear bumper on his 100 to one of the high clearance units.

I was amazed at how quick we were able to get the inserts in on my LX. It was the same process as as replacing springs. We did start on the passenger side as we thought it would be harder, but after disconnecting the AHC sensor, sway bar links and lower shock bolts, it was as simple as lifting one end of the rear axle housing, so it would drop the other end, and removing the spring. We were pivoting the housing on the jack that was supporting the pumpkin.

Aurora - Waynes World! Sorry, you probably got tired of that back when the movie was still cool. I know that area N of CO Springs. I used to drive down there every weekend to work on my Pig with fellow Cruiser Head @dmaddox in the Falcon area. I hope you get moved out here okay and like the Springs. We live No of Denver, just outside Fort Collins. Hopefully we can get together this summer!

 

[Kabanstva]

I wanna say I saw you driving today?

Around 6:20 PM on 290 (southbound) exiting on Thorndale 390 going west into the new tollroad. If that was you, truck looked clean and amazing as hell.

I wasn't in my LX at the time, it's still sitting in storage this time of year. I couldn't keep up with you in my Sienna haha.

 

[sorich]

I wanna say I saw you driving today?

Around 6:20 PM on 290 (southbound) exiting on Thorndale 390 going west into the new tollroad. If that was you, truck looked clean and amazing as hell.

I wasn't in my LX at the time, it's still sitting in storage this time of year. I couldn't keep up with you in my Sienna haha.

I wish I could say that was me! Haven't been on 290 with this truck yet though, so it must have been some other lucky guy

 

[Kabanstva]

I wish I could say that was me! Haven't been on 290 with this truck yet though, so it must have been some other lucky guy

Interesting. When I saw it I immediately thought of this thread because that truck was the same color, looked rust free underneath from what I can tell (uncommon sight in IL) and had the oem silver 16's with big rubber. Can't remember if it still had oem running boards but it looked taller than a stock LX, possibly due to the bigger tires. Guy was hauling ass, blew past me (I was going the typical 70-75mph in that area).

 

[YodatheLC]

Did you need an alignment after cranking t-bars?

 

[TheForger]

Did you need an alignment after cranking t-bars?

Yes. By cranking the torsion bars and raising the front end you change the geometry of your suspension and that change should be accounted for to avoid driveline vibrations, uneven wear on tires & suspension components, etc...

 

[sorich]

Yes. By cranking the torsion bars and raising the front end you change the geometry of your suspension and that change should be accounted for to avoid driveline vibrations, uneven wear on tires & suspension components, etc...

Actually on the LX, cranking the torsion bars is really just effecting the pressures on your AHC suspension, and it's not effecting the geometry of your suspension at all, so no alignment is necessary.

Now, if your on a traditional suspension and your cranking the bars to add lift, the yes, you'll need an alignment afterwards.

 

[PabloCruise]

Any updates?

 

[sorich]

Any updates?

The latest is that I fixed my auto dimming rear view mirror. It turns out the 12v positive wire had been severed somewhere near the sunroof switch panel right near the plastic connector. I soldered it up and shrink tubed it and it's as good as new. The most difficult part of the job was getting my soldering iron into the vehicle safely and with enough slack in the power cable. Took 2 minutes after that.

 

[varun bhargava]

Regarding the left side of the truck sitting lower than the right side, and the condition of the AHC in general...

Currently, my AHC pressures are a bit high (took readings with TechStream). I'm running 7.8 in the front, 6.7 in the rear, and 107 at the accumulator. Given that, I see that I'm above the high range in front and right at the high range in back. So, here's my plan:

• Replace rear springs: I've ordered up some OEM AHC rear coil springs from Lexus. I'm fairly certain these are the original springs I'm running and they are certainly worn by now, as I'm at the top of the pressure range even after removing the rear hitch and 3rd row seats with a 1/2 tank of gas.
  
• Cross-level and normalize front pressures: I'm also assuming my torsion bars haven't been tightened ever. I plan to cross level the front torsion bars to get the suspension sitting even, then check pressures and tighten the bars an equal amount to decrease AHC front pressure further while keeping the rear in range.
  
• Assess: My hope after that is that my front and rear pressures are both near the bottom of the pressure range. Next steps would be to tighten the front TB's further, re-index them if needed to get more spring, and/or add 30mm Slee spacers to the rear springs to further decrease pressure. I don't expect I'll need to do that.

Hopefully at that point my suspension will be completely level L-R, and have around 1" of rake, front to back. Down the road I plan to get a steel rear bumper, and at that point would probably add the Slee 30mm coil spring spacers to normalize pressure again.

I expect I'll have to replace the globes sometime soon, but I hope after the above service they will be performing well enough to keep for a while.

What do you mean by cross-leveling? I just flushed the fluid on 06 and am waiting on my copy of techstream to adjust the torsion bars. Thx.

 

[sorich]

What do you mean by cross-leveling? I just flushed the fluid on 06 and am waiting on my copy of techstream to adjust the torsion bars. Thx.

Paddo has some good write ups that you can find by searching on cross level.

But the basic jist is that you measure the vehicle height at each wheel by measuring from the center of the wheel hub up to the bottom lip of the fender directly over the hub. The drivers side front and passenger side front should measure nearly identically. If they don't, use a half turn at a time and loosen the torsion bar on the side that is high and tighten it on the side that is low in equal parts. So, if driver is 1" low, you tighten drivers side by 1/2 turn and loosen passenger side by 1/2 turn bounce the truck, and remeasure. Keep going until both sides are level. From there you just tighten both or loosen both to get your pressures in range measuring those with the techstream.

 

[geanes]

Quick AHC update:

After swapping AHC fluid, my pressures up front have been hovering around 7.8-8.1, and in rear they have been between 6.7-6.9. The left side of the truck has also been sagging by about 1/2 inch.

Over the weekend I spent some time working on my torsion bars up front in preparation for replacing my rear springs next week. After a lot of back and forth, I cross leveled and then adjusted for pressure. I was amazed to find that it took 9 turns on the driver side to cross level and normalize pressure. Now the truck is sitting at 19.25" in front and 20.25" in back, with pressures of 6.7 in front and 6.3 in back (within spec ).

What a difference! The ride is much smoother now and just feels overall more stable and composed.

I'll be putting in the new springs next week, so we'll see if I end up having to back off on the torsion bars to keep pressures in range.

@sorich ... I finally ran a techstream on my AHC last night and was shocked at the results (no pun intended). I'm leaving for Colorado in the morning and not sure I'll have access to techstream this evening. Here are my results:

Best
FR Height Control Sensor: 0.4
FL Height Control Sensor: -0.5
RR Height Control Sensor: -0.1
Front Pressure Sensor: 8.5
Rear Pressure Sensor: 7.7

The only weight addition to my stock 98 LX has been the MetalTech sliders. These techstream results were with 2 "full-sized" adults in the vehicle (350lbs approx)

Worst
FR Height Control Sensor: 1.7
FL Height Control Sensor: 0.8
RR Height Control Sensor: 1.7
Front Pressure Sensor: 10.6
Rear Pressure Sensor: 9.2

I'm curious if I cross-level and then crank 5x on each torsion bar if that will make a difference. I can't be 100% if I'll have access to techstream this evening. The ride doesn't have to be ideal, but I don't want to overly stress the AHC.

 

[RMTWELL]

After removing hitch and upgrading tires:

View attachment 1411529

SORICH,
I'm interested in your wheel/tire combo. What size and offset are the wheels? Any rubbing with the tires? Have you noticed annoying shift points after the bigger tires changed the final drive ratio?
I've been reasearching tires and that same size looks like it might be the perfect "big tire" for the 100.

Edit: I just re-read your post. You went with 285/75/R16, I had in mind 285/75/R17. So an inch larger diameter, same width. But still curious to hear your comments.

Thanks!

 

[sorich]

I'm curious if I cross-level and then crank 5x on each torsion bar if that will make a difference. I can't be 100% if I'll have access to techstream this evening. The ride doesn't have to be ideal, but I don't want to overly stress the AHC.

How'd it go?