Builds Spdstr280Z's While I'm in There 80 Series Build...

[Spdstr280Z]

I was going to ask why it looked used. Lol

Well, it kind of is. From the LANDTANK site description...

"We source used drive shafts, inspect the DC joint and slip yoke for viability and then replace the front U-joint, re-tube the shaft with thicker wall tubing while also shortening the overall length. We then finish it off with a high speed balancing."

So what I received was pretty much what you would expect to get back from a driveshaft rebuild shop. i just wanted to clean it up a bit, and took the paint off accidentally. Oooops.

Jason

 

[PNWTreeOctopus]

Epic thread Jason. I love where this started and how far your careful attention has taken your project.

 

[JamesR]

Nice looking shaft.

 

[Spdstr280Z]

Nice looking shaft.

That's what she.... Nevermind...

Even better now, cleaned up, little bit of paint, and some fresh grease.. Going back in with new hardware.

Jason

 

[Spdstr280Z]

How I make clean bolt holes in new carpet. Not a tutorial, this is not OSHA approved, or even smart. I'm an idiot, don't do what I do.

The first time I ever installed a replacement carpet I tried to cut the seat bolt holes with a razor , it really didn't go that well. Now that I'm older and wiser, I have a trick. Won't work for natural fibers obviously, but works well on the plastic stuff.

First, find the hole. I like pieces of welding wire, it's stiff enough but doesn't do any damage. You could use any kind of wire, a pick, or worst case, measure.

Once the hole is located, I use a prick punch as a guide....

Then something metal and round, I often use short lengths of tube, in this case I've ruined a perfectly good hole saw.

Heat the tube or hole saw with a torch., and use the punch to center. Quick slide over the punch, in to the carpet, twist and pull out. I don't have any pictures of this step, I don't like burns.

Pull the punch out of the hole...

...et voila !

A round, centered, not going to unravel or tear hole.

It even works as a hole.

Jason

 

[Spdstr280Z]

Once you have made all your holes and not burnt yourself, your truck, or your house, you can install your seats.

I was having a hard time aligning the seat to the freshly made holes until I realized the thickness of the Lizard Skin was the problem. Removed it from the area of the seat brackets...

White layer is Lizard Skin Ceramic Insulation, black is Sound Control....

More better...

You can also see the color difference between the stock carpet still on the bottom of the rear seats, and the ACC Dark Slate I replaced everything else with.

I thought about buying extra carpet from ACC and replacing that at some point, maybe when I redo the rear seats. But it's in OK shape and I'm not offended by the color difference, especially no more than I will see it.

Jason

Jason

 

[JamesR]

I think the heated hole saw was a clever idea.

 

[Spdstr280Z]

Well, we took a test drive to get an alignment...

Definitely still some work left to do. Throttle adjustment seems to need some work, and I have to get back to that tranny connector, it isn't shifting very nice. But it made the first 8 mile round trip with no explosions or major failures.

Jason

 

[JamesR]

Very nice 80.

 

[Spdstr280Z]

Had a question on how well the Scheel-Mann gray seats work with the factory interior. I wondered the same before I ordered, so here are a few pics. This is in the garage under a mix of natural light, and LED in the garage and dome lights. I would say they don't "match" but they "go together" very well. Yes, my wife and daughters taught me that... @FFFbuff

Passengers side will be here Tuesday. Kids can pay their own way to college.

Jason

 

[Spdstr280Z]

Might as well provide a current update while I'm in here... I SHOULD be riding around right now enjoying this 80 degree in March day with my not quite done but back on the road 80. Instead I'm pilfering with things like interior and paint waiting to order parts Monday. During the drive to the alignment I had little to no power when easing on the throttle, shifts weren't happening at the right times, and they were pretty hard. Also I had an idle between 1600 and 2000 RPM. I've found a couple things this weekend. Simplest was the trans fluid was low. I had filled it on level ground in the garage, and had even drained some because it showed over filled on the stick. Even after running it through the gears a while (not moving). Just like the power steering though, it fooled me. Must have had some air in the system somewhere that didn't clear out until it took a real drive., I suspect the torque converter. I'm not sure I have even posted it in this thread, the tranny never left the truck, but I dropped the pan to replace shift solenoids and pulled and drained the torque converter while the engine was out. The initial drain of the TC may have been slightly less than intentional. That improved the shifting somewhat, but it still wasn't good. Adjusted the trans to throttle cable for another incremental improvement, but still not good, and still have a high idle. At this point I suspect my nice, new, Toyota OEM throttle position sensor is bad. The spec at idle / closed is 2.3 KiloOhms "or less" across the idle circuit. I have 13.5 Ohms reliably as long as the sensor is anywhere before open. While that is "less than 2.3 KiloOhms", it doesn't seem right. I did find the old sensor I took off, but it gives me 33.6 KiloOhms for the same test, which is just, well, bad. With the TPS unplugged I get a nice ~600 RPM idle.

Speaking of the power steering and expensive new (or at least rebuilt) parts, I had a couple of nice puddles of Mobil DTE 24 in the garage floor Saturday morning. Looks like I am bleeding from the adjuster screw on top of the steering box. Sounds like a not uncommon problem after rebuild with both West Texas Offroad and Red Head Gear. This box was done by West Texas a few months before I started hearing less than great things about them (remember I have been working on this thing for a long time). Guess I'll order a new seal and nut with the new TPS and hope that takes care of it.

I really want to get this thing moving, local cars and coffee has an old 4X4 theme next weekend and I want to be there. No, I'm not kidding...

Jason

 

[Dusten]

Might as well provide a current update while I'm in here... I SHOULD be riding around right now enjoying this 80 degree in March day with my not quite done but back on the road 80. Instead I'm pilfering with things like interior and paint waiting to order parts Monday. During the drive to the alignment I had little to no power when easing on the throttle, shifts weren't happening at the right times, and they were pretty hard. Also I had an idle between 1600 and 2000 RPM. I've found a couple things this weekend. Simplest was the trans fluid was low. I had filled it on level ground in the garage, and had even drained some because it showed over filled on the stick. Even after running it through the gears a while (not moving). Just like the power steering though, it fooled me. Must have had some air in the system somewhere that didn't clear out until it took a real drive., I suspect the torque converter. I'm not sure I have even posted it in this thread, the tranny never left the truck, but I dropped the pan to replace shift solenoids and pulled and drained the torque converter while the engine was out. The initial drain of the TC may have been slightly less than intentional. That improved the shifting somewhat, but it still wasn't good. Adjusted the trans to throttle cable for another incremental improvement, but still not good, and still have a high idle. At this point I suspect my nice, new, Toyota OEM throttle position sensor is bad. The spec at idle / closed is 2.3 KiloOhms "or less" across the idle circuit. I have 13.5 Ohms reliably as long as the sensor is anywhere before open. While that is "less than 2.3 KiloOhms", it doesn't seem right. I did find the old sensor I took off, but it gives me 33.6 KiloOhms for the same test, which is just, well, bad. With the TPS unplugged I get a nice ~600 RPM idle.

Speaking of the power steering and expensive new (or at least rebuilt) parts, I had a couple of nice puddles of Mobil DTE 24 in the garage floor Saturday morning. Looks like I am bleeding from the adjuster screw on top of the steering box. Sounds like a not uncommon problem after rebuild with both West Texas Offroad and Red Head Gear. This box was done by West Texas a few months before I started hearing less than great things about them (remember I have been working on this thing for a long time). Guess I'll order a new seal and nut with the new TPS and hope that takes care of it.

I really want to get this thing moving, local cars and coffee has an old 4X4 theme next weekend and I want to be there. No, I'm not kidding...

Jason

With the trans it's very important that it's up to temp before checking it.

 

[Spdstr280Z]

With the trans it's very important that it's up to temp before checking it.

Good point, entirely likely the trans was not up to temp just sitting in the garage working through gears. I always thought not being hot would make it read low though.

Jason

 

[Dusten]

Good point, entirely likely the trans was not up to temp just sitting in the garage working through gears. I always thought not being hot would make it read low though.

Jason

If it's the initial fill the bypass might not have opened and circulated fluid because it hadn't been up to temp.

 

[jht3]

FSM says to brings trans up to operating temp, stop on level ground, shift through ALL gears, and then fill according to dip stick. i think you are supposed to keep it in N as well.

having recently blown a trans cooling hose, and losing all the fluid, i got to experience losing shift points in real time. it felt like a clutch was slipping. getting the trans filled up took repeated efforts, with the shifting improving as i got the level dialed in.

 

[Spdstr280Z]

Yeah, I think my miss was that the trans isn't at "operating temp" unless you are drive it. Which you have to get a decent fill in first to do. New TPS is ordered and should be here tomorrow, of course I have to pay list at my local dealership parts counter to make sure of that... Power steering sealing washer and nut are on the way too. Soo maybe another test drive Wednesday-ish. I also forgot to mention that I put the right side rear window down during the nice weather testing. Seems I had never put it down in my couple of weeks driving this thing. Yeah, it doesn't go back up and makes crunchy rattle noises. Of course I have new regulators and motors for the FRONTS, but never thought about the rears being bad. Toyota regulators aren't too bad, motors are a little bit pricey....

Jason

 

[Spdstr280Z]

38 degrees and 20 mile per hour winds didn't seem like Cars & Coffee weather to me, so I did the next best thing, more polishing and coating.

Last polish round before "wax"... It's far from perfect, but for 29 year old paint and how it looked when I got it, I'm amazed.

Jason

 

[heckler]

What did you use to polish?

 

[Spdstr280Z]

I don't think I've buffed a car since they started calling it "paint correction", so I watched a bunch of videos to find out what is out there. Back when I did a lot more of this, Turtle Wax was the paste in a can your grandpa used. Now it seems like they are leading the market and still priced right. Used two rounds of the 1 and Done, first an orange pad, then white, on a Griots Garage dual action polisher. Applied the To The Max Wax with a red pad. Hopefully this will make it easy to wash, and prevent the white paint from being stained by Georgia red clay again.

The only negative to the to the "wax" I see so far is that it needs to cure for 24 hours before getting wet. That could be hard if you don't have alternative transportation or a garage.

Jason

 

[Spdstr280Z]

I love the archeology aspects of doing this for some reason. Here's another example. The right side rear window stuck down during my recent test drive. Pulling the door panel off it was obvious someone had been in there before, and they weren't overly careful. Unfortunately it was also obvious that despite looking pretty good on the outside, this door panel is also seriously water damaged and needs to be replaced, so I'm looking for door panels. Anyone have good gray 93 + panels for sale ? Anyway, here's the scene I found in the bottom of the door...

So.... That shouldn't be laying there, and it shouldn't have that all too familiar Toyota parts department label on it. Also under it and coated in years of grime is glass from a broken window.

The date is still legible, 7/15/96. So, in July of 96, before her third birthday, she had a shattered right rear window. There is no other obvious evidence of the door being repaired (and the glass in the bottom tells us this is the door it was broken in) so I would assume just the glass was broken out. May be a break in, but not sure why it would be the rear, so maybe just a baseball or other incident. The fact that the channel was replaced though makes me wonder if there was maybe some type of part or assembly issue that caused it. Unless the part was just cheap enough that the shop didn't want to pick glass out of the old one. Maybe that, since they didn't vacuum the glass put of the door either....

Jason