Builds The Dentist - Turbo Diesel LX450 (1 Viewer)

[asutherland]

SOLAR!

After weeks of being on the fence about various solutions, I decided on a 160 watt Renogy flat panel that I 3M VHB taped to the iKamper. I used little 3M black clips to bring the wires down under the tent and used the Renogy MC4 connectors there, so I can disconnect when I remove the tent.

I popped out the 2 little plugs I had used when I removed the factory roof rack, and put grommets in their place - the Renogy 10ga wires were a perfect fit! I ran them under the headliner, down the D pillar, and into the quarter panel.

 

[asutherland]

In the quarter panel, I built a small aluminum bracket using a jig saw, bench vice, hammer, and determination. It worked out pretty well, considering! It uses 2 oem captured nuts and 1 oem hole, and amazingly just bolted right in. I was impressed, as fabrication is not really my thing.

The charge controller I decided on was the Victron MPPT Smart Solar, which has BT connectivity... conveniently I'll be able to bring this up on my Android head unit and monitor it all from the dash too!

 

[asutherland]

Mid day sun yesterday, cool temps but sunny, panel NOT angled towards it though, just flat. Battery wasn't drawn down too much either. I've plugged my fridge in now, going to run it in the driveway and see if it can indefinitely support it at +3 / -10.

 

[asutherland]

This weekend's project was to replace the transmission kickdown/pressure cable. It's been "sticky" and causes a "heavy pedal feel" and erratic acceleration at lower speeds, like turning left after waiting in traffic. It's been an annoyance for more than 10 years now and I finally got around to replacing it, after unsuccessfully attempting to lube it with dry graphite.

The cable I bought brand new from Partsouq. A couple things to watch out for if you ever do this project...

1. There are 2 clips that hold the cable along the top of the transmission. The one closest to the engine bay is a simply C style clip you can pop the cable out easy. The one directly on top of the transmission is annoyingly a full wrap clip, which you must undo a 12mm bolt to remove. To do so, you HAVE to drop the transmission and driveline a few inches by supporting the transfer case with a jack and taking the cross-member down. The new cable doesn't come with this clip, you have to re-use it.

2. The new cable is shipped with the wire stopper piece in a tiny little bag inside the cable bag. You need to measure and crimp that onto the cable.

 

[asutherland]

3. The trans end of the cable is inside the transmission, so you have to drop the trans pan to get at it. If you decide to remove the trans filter while in there, MAKE SURE to have gasket kit available for the filter, or a whole new filter (I have pt#s for the filter kit) readily available.

4. MAKE BLOODY WELL SURE that you are prepared to catch another litre or so of ATF when you remove the trans filter. Otherwise you catch it in your face instead. Don't ask.

:|

I am pleased with the outcome! Wish I had done this years ago. Included a pic of the trans with pan and filter down and the solenoids in case anyone was curious.

 

[Lumpskie]

Man... that job doesn't look fun. My trans kickdown cable is slowly coming undone at the end with the stopper and I don't have the time or mental energy to dig into this. Think this is a job that a standard mechanic could handle without messing anything up?

 

[asutherland]

Man... that job doesn't look fun. My trans kickdown cable is slowly coming undone at the end with the stopper and I don't have the time or mental energy to dig into this. Think this is a job that a standard mechanic could handle without messing anything up?

Yeah, it wouldn't be too bad I don't think. Especially if you don't waste time trying to get it to pop off, HOPING the cable isn't bolted to the trans (like it is)

I'll post the part numbers for the filter kit up today...

 

[asutherland]

The ATP or Pioneer ones look correct, the Wix and others do not. Note my transmission is a A442F electronic solenoid trans from a 1993 HDJ81.

 

[Lumpskie]

great info. I wonder if those parts would work in my older (no electronics) A442f... any idea?

EDIT: I bet Permetex is a safer bet for me, haha

 

[asutherland]

To be honest, if you aren't sure, for the cost i would buy one of each type. Better to have it in case the gasket on the filter dies a horrible death coming off like mine did.

 

[asutherland]

Replaced the radiator, rad cap, radiator rubber mounts, upper and lower hoses, fan shroud, AC condenser, AC dryer, various AC o-rings the other night. used 60/40 Toyota Red w/de-mineralized water. Had the AC system evac'd beforehand as it was still working (surprisingly, considering the state of the condenser!)

All parts used were OEM except the dryer, o rings, and the condenser was a Denso unit (like 1/5th the price from Rock Auto and I believe what Mr T used to begin with...)

I used a diesel radiator this time, removing the gasser. The difference in weight was substantial, the gasser appears aluminum and the diesel one must be copper/brass? Either way, the gasser radiator didn't seem to keep up with the 1HD-T properly, as it would get warmer than I'd like on hills, cresting over 200F occasionally. I would have kept the old diesel rad except during the swap it became apparent it was pretty gross and rotten in the bottom end.

Have run the same hills this week with the new diesel rad, and I can't get it to go above thermostat opening temp (observing with my aftermarket water temp gauge, it appears to reach about 185-190 and then just stop there)

Out with the old and crusty, in with the fresh and new! A special thanks to @RockShoes for the helping hands and doing the 60 min drive out to John @ @Radd Cruisers to pick up a new fan shroud as well. Turns out the 1FZ fan shroud does not line up with the diesel radiator, the bolt holes OR the fan opening itself (it's about an inch or two off to one side!)

 

[asutherland]

Had the AC system tested and charged up again. A word of warning, these "automatic" systems really do make it fool-proof... they tell you what to do, when to do it, let you select the year, make and model, etc....... BUT... for some reason it gave my LX about 3.4 lbs of R134, which caused it to not like life and continuously hit the high pressure switch over and over.

Manually setting it at the FSM specified 1.98 lbs however worked wonderfully. And has the results I was looking for! Brrrrr

 

[asutherland]

Rear locker troubleshooting... AGAIN

About 3 years ago I finally got fed up with rebuilding my crap condition rear e-locker actuator, and purchased a brand new actuator. It wasn't cheap. Bolted it up and figured I was done for another 20 years.

Well, not the case. Barely 2 years later and it started acting up again. being noisy, and taking it's time to actuate. Finally stopped working, forcing my hand into opening it up again.

Invited my friend James over for some beer and what I figured would be a casual afternoon of wrenching, being that I have been in the elocker before and I know my way around. I was wrong. It was in BAD shape. You could see where the water had made it's way through both the large O ring and the armature O ring. Bah. Probably a case of new-old parts.. new parts sitting on the shelf for years getting crusty. Luckily the armature was in good shape, only showing a bit of surface rust which I was able to get off.

James and I cleaned, cleaned, and cleaned the parts.. even my 6 yr old was there to help

Tip... use a impact screw driver to take the armature cover screws out.

Tip #2 (previously mentioned in rebuild threads)... hold on to the worm gear that goes into the armature as you pull the armature cover off. Keeps the magnets in the cover from lifting the motor off it's brushes.

 

[asutherland]

After all cleaned, I gave it a slight coat of moly grease in an attempt to keep corrosion down, and put everything back together.

Only of course, to be disappointed in NOTHING happening when I tried the magic dial. Not even a click from the relays in the 4wd "ecu" box in the LHS kick panel. GRRRR

On to troubleshoot wiring............... wtf

Did some schematic checks and found no continuity between pin 10 on the ecu box and pin 6 on the actuator. WTF. Brought in Friend #2 (how many call-a-friends do we get again?) who had an extremely handy DC fault finder (now in my amazon wish list), quickly determined a break in the suspect wire under the back of the truck... but in the middle of the harness, not even at a connector. Weird? Replaced the wire, double checked and all wires (armature x 2, limit switch x2, and gnd) had continuity. Bolt back up aaaand.... it locks. But doesn't unlock.

Now we break into the ECU box, finding one of the relays to be suspect. We couldn't get it to latch (but the other 3 we could). I trace it out and find it's one of the two relays for the rear locker. Ok, looking like ECU is bad..........

John from @Radd Cruisers steps in saves the day, informing me that

Toyota 89533-60030 is a direct replacement for the Unavailable 89533-60020
COMPUTER, 4 WHEEL DRIVE CONTROL

AND lets me try his, to ensure it's the problem. Well it isn't. Thankfully, saving me $200 usd. And back to the wiring.........

 

[asutherland]

I decide the best way is to rule out the wiring completely, and start with taking the locker motor from under the truck, setting it in the trunk and connecting it directly to the large square connector in the LS rear kick panel under the jack. From this, I learned four things... that my wiring to that point is good, that the locker motor works as expected, that the ECU is good, aaaand that I need better alligator clip leads, as I set one of them on fire and had a moment of panic throwing an on-fire test lead out of the back of the truck.

So I take out the entire harness from kick panel to axle, finding it to be very scabby, repaired by more than one person on more than one occasion (perhaps even myself???). I decided to build a completely new ~10 foot 5-wire harness, and used an extra piece of washer hose as an integrated breather. Spending more time than I'll admit making sure the wiring is tidy... I put it all together and PRESTO, locker actuator works WONDERFULLY... nearly silent and super quick. Success!

 

[Radd Cruisers]

Good to hear of your persistence in this operation, and the successful outcome.

I hope the suggestion that having continuity in a wire does not mean that it is necessarily capable of the carrying current required by the motor. I'm not sure what your "ohming" the wires turned up with respect to wire integrity, but either way a new harness sure beats messing around endlessly with this.

~John

 

[asutherland]

Yep, exactly what the problem ended up being. Wires were connected but not a good enough connection to provide it what it needed.

 

[Jroc561]

Always happy to see an update from your build, I may have to do that kickdown cable job soon and not looking forward to it.

 

[asutherland]

Always happy to see an update from your build, I may have to do that kickdown cable job soon and not looking forward to it.

Thanks! One thing I took away from the kickdown cable job... Don't even waste your time attempting to do it without lowering the driveline. Take the cross member down on a jack and lower it a few inches so you can get your hand and a 1/4 inch socket wrench on the top of the trans to undo the dumb clip.

 

[asutherland]

Been busy doing some OVERLAND type stuff lately on the Cruiser. I designed and built a full kitchen from 8020 extruded aluminum and baltic birch. 44 inches wide, 36 inches deep and 22 inches high, it features our massive 75L Dometic Fridge/Freezer, a European Dometic 2-burner propane cooktop and sink combo (with running water!), a large renovable 36 inch routered HDPE cutting board work area and a large 36" drawer. Everything is nested together and extends out 36" on 400lb capacity ball bearing full extension lock in/lock out slides. Build thread is here: 80 Series 8020 Cruiser Kitchen