Builds The Story of Blue (1 Viewer)

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Nah man. Decision was made to go conventional at that point. Never looked back.
Ah, well there ya go. That may be an important detail to preface your AHC experience. ;) It can't be working flawlessly if pressures are out of whack - and they are on almost all used LX's that haven't been recently checked. If pressures are out of spec it will not ride correctly. It might go from L to H, but all the TEMS response side of AHC (the part that makes AHC ride softly, yet firm when you want it) will be fubar.

Pressure checks and adjustments (maybe once every 5 years) are as important to AHC as pad maintenance is to your brakes. Just because your car stops when you press the brake pedal doesn't mean your brakes are all healthy. Gotta check pads and rotors every few years and flush that fluid. Same sort of thing goes for AHC. On the brake system, lack of maintenance leaves you grinding pad warning tabs on your rotors and reduces stopping power as the rotors lose mass. With AHC, it leaves you stuck in L. I know you don't care because you've moved on, but others will read this and I think it'll be worthwhile for them to read. 🤷

Thanks for closing the loop. I appreciate the completion to the story. :cheers:
 
If you check for latent DTCs during an oil change (a good habit), it is trivial to check AHC pressures too if you're using Techstream. Might as well do a graduation test too.
 
Since Blue was not ready for long trip duties we ended up taking our Sienna for our trip last week. These minivans are amazing value for money, second to none in roominess in a compact package and the tried and true 3.5l v6 is just a little bundle of joy!
20210822_185421.jpg
 
Impex delivered the all new AHC globes and new AHC pump yesterday. Replacing the parts took abt 3 hours. The first time I managed to mess up the AHC pump gasket and had to take off the whole assembly to redo the job.
Not gonna lie, finding the gigantic leak right after replacing the pump was very disheartening. Anyway got through that dark hour and bled the system.


Ran out of time to recheck the front a rear pressures and height. Went for a quick drive and am.glad to report the magic is back! 🤩

20210828_103826.jpg
 
Impex delivered the all new AHC globes and new AHC pump yesterday. Replacing the parts took abt 3 hours. The first time I managed to mess up the AHC pump gasket and had to take off the whole assembly to redo the job.
Not gonna lie, finding the gigantic leak right after replacing the pump was very disheartening. Anyway got through that dark hour and bled the system.


Ran out of time to recheck the front a rear pressures and height. Went for a quick drive and am.glad to report the magic is back! 🤩

View attachment 2771333
Great news!
 
I measured how far the a soft rubber pipe will go when inserted into the globes. The new ones were all at roughly 2.75". The old ones were at 7.25" !! All of them were busted!

Now what do I do with the old globes? Dump them, or is there a better way to get them recycled?
what about the AHC pump? I am pretty sure it works great I just replaced it for peace of mind
 
How much have you spent on this cruiser already? 😳
 
I measured how far the a soft rubber pipe will go when inserted into the globes. The new ones were all at roughly 2.75". The old ones were at 7.25" !! All of them were busted!

Now what do I do with the old globes? Dump them, or is there a better way to get them recycled?
what about the AHC pump? I am pretty sure it works great I just replaced it for peace of mind

They can probably be scraped with other scrape steel.
 
I measured how far the a soft rubber pipe will go when inserted into the globes. The new ones were all at roughly 2.75". The old ones were at 7.25" !! All of them were busted!

Now what do I do with the old globes? Dump them, or is there a better way to get them recycled?
what about the AHC pump? I am pretty sure it works great I just replaced it for peace of mind
If you want to help the general community in here, donate the AHC pump to @suprarx7nut . He can use it for diagnosis at his shop. Additionally, he could be the beholder of it to send out to community members for remote diagnosis, where the community members pay all shipping charges. Naturally this is just a helpful suggestion.
 
How much have you spent on this cruiser already? 😳
I have the incurable disease of keeping a detailed spreadsheet of my expenses on hobby cars. This one has just crossed the $20k mark. I am hoping that things will settle down now.
 
I have the incurable disease of keeping a detailed spreadsheet of my expenses on hobby cars. This one has just crossed the $20k mark. I am hoping that things will settle down now.

thats not including the price of the truck right ? I’m about 7 grand in and my cruiser look stock lol
 
thats not including the price of the truck right ? I’m about 7 grand in and my cruiser look stock lol
Including purchase price, shipping etc. I found a once in a lifetime deal and jumped on it sight unseen. Check out the post #1 on this thread for background.
 
Including purchase price, shipping etc. I found a once in a lifetime deal and jumped on it sight unseen. Check out the post #1 on this thread for background.


Oh yeah i remember reading it when you first got it, with all the mods he had on there, you stole it for sure! Could've parted it out for more money. 20K into a running, well sorted out cruiser after all you've done, is a heck of a deal. I'm 22K deep into mine with purchase price and i don't have any of the bumper mods you have, plus i have 50K more miles.
 
I think this will be my last 100 series, i don't have the energy and time to keep doing this. This one runs really good, looks good, and should last me another decade easily. If i want something new, i'll just buy that, but won't sell this one. I have to repack the bearings and replace all the ball joints, the thought of having to remove the knuckle that easily weighs 100lbs have me cringing. Why so overbuilt toyota?
 
The knuckle isn't too heavy. The disc/hub is the porky bastard.
 
The knuckle isn't too heavy. The disc/hub is the porky bastard.

I remove that entire thing together, disc/hub/knuckle to do the ball joints. Pulled my back last time, this time it’d put me in a wheelchair
 
This might be a good time to summarize what I have done to the truck in my first 6 months of ownership:
  • Rewired fuel injector, ignition coil and headlight harness
  • 40G LRA tank
  • New Fuel pump, soft fuel line, fuel tank wiring harness
  • New rear control arms
  • New front upper control arms
  • New outer tie rods
  • New lower ball joints
  • New steering rack bushings
  • New sway bar links/bushings front/rear
  • New front diff pinion seal
  • Re-index torsion bars, install LCA strengthening brackets
  • 30 mm rear spring spacers
  • New Nitrogen globes, AHC pump
  • Rebuilt 270a by DC Power
  • Fresh oil/fluids everywhere
  • New Denso spark plugs and two new coils
  • New speaker/tweeter etc. on the driver side
  • All new vacuum hoses, fuel hoses, windshield washer lines, FJ Cruiser windshield sprayers
  • New hood and rear latch struts
  • Lots and lots of cosmetics:
    • Sand blast and repaint rock sliders and roof rack
    • New belt moldings, roof drip moldings
    • Clean up wiring, new battery terminals etc.
    • New wiper arms
Future Needs/wants
  • Timing Belt (only 66K miles since the last comprehensive job but it has been 8 years!)
  • Dual battery setup refresh - Ironman branded dual battery controller has given up the ghost!
  • Headlight retrofit (or perhaps just LEDs)
  • Pull intake to clean up remnants of rat nest and replace the starter, all gaskets, injector seals
  • Paint correction/polish/ceramic etc.
  • Refresh/powder coat bumpers
  • Reskin front seats - Iggee seat covers fit and look great but don't have the softness of real leather
  • Strip interior and apply sound proofing
I am sure I am forgetting something.
 
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I remove that entire thing together, disc/hub/knuckle to do the ball joints. Pulled my back last time, this time it’d put me in a wheelchair
You old bastard. Join the club
 

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