Builds What did you do with your cruiser today?

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Tony.... at least he used wire nuts. I had some stuff in Alita that was just taped together. Then there is me, the anal retentive, that goes through, cuts, strips, puts metal crimps on and then heat shrinks with marine heat shrink (has water resistant adhesive) when I so stuff.
 
Tony.... at least he used wire nuts. I had some stuff in Alita that was just taped together. Then there is me, the anal retentive, that goes through, cuts, strips, puts metal crimps on and then heat shrinks with marine heat shrink (has water resistant adhesive) when I so stuff.
I like the 3M crimp connectors with the heat shrink sleeving, they have the adhesive inside too.
 
We’re down in Vegas visiting family, so I had to swing by Man-A-Fre. I’m going to FZJ front brakes, so I needed to get the conversion front brake hoses. They have so much cool stuff!

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I know it doesn't look much better, but it is... it really is! The stereo has two distinct harnesses (traditional for audio/power and one for video, amps, and aux inputs) and a few stand alone connectors too. There just isn't a lot of space back there for all of that! I think I'll be back in here again and I am going to extend all the wires by a few feet so I can stow things to the left or right of the center dash and just have the connectors in place, but I don't wanna do that right now so it is what it is.

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My LEDs are supposed to arrive today so I should have everything together before the club meeting on Thurs.
 
Well it isn't exactly how I wanted it all to turn out, but it is better and more functional than it was. Most happy about deleting that stupid LED someone decided to mount in the middle of a fake blank. Taped the back side, filled the hole with epoxy, sanded it flush and sprayed the entire bezel with textured black paint. No more LED!

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Got my dimmer connected...




LEDs look good too...

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That plastic cover's seen better days though! The low fuel warning light was out when I started. The LED made it stay on all the time though, so I put an incandescent bulb in it. We'll see if it actually works in about 5 miles ;). Center diff lock light stayed on all the time too, so I had to put that back to the old built. I cannot get the PWR light to come on no matter what I do and it seems the ECT button only works when it feels like it so maybe there's a problem elsewhere on that.
 
What started off as a simple brake pad and rotor swap turned into a full front knuckle rebuild.
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As I dug a little deeper, I found my bottom trunnion bearings were in really sorry shape so now it’s getting all new seals and bearings .

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I also found a leaking inner axle seal on the rear so that will be rebuilt as well now.
When I put the truck on jackstands I wasn’t planning on messing with the rear axle beyond swapping pads and rotors. Now I’ve got to figure out how to snake the axle shaft out with very limited room. Fun:
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This is how simple projects spiral out of control...

Anyway, I also bought one of those $60 leather steering wheel covers on Amazon and spent about 5 1/2 hours today getting the wheel wrapped. I’d give the results a 7.5 out of 10 as I was really hoping it would allow me to cut and remove the old leather wrap but this one was designed to be installed over the old layer which makes the wheel diameter thicker than I really wanted. But, either way you look at it, it’s an improvement over the old worn out steering wheel.
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Finish the front axle first, get the front wheels on the ground. Then put the floor jack under the rear diff and pull the back end toward the center of the garage to get the left axle out.
 
Tell me more about this LED conversion?
Superbrite has a selector, you put in your vehicle and it gives you a list of the led cross referenced bulbs.
For the turn signals you may need to replace the blinker relay since LED's don't draw enough current to heat the bi-metal strip used to open/close the contact.
I replaced the blinker "fluid" in my FJ40 using the OEM blinker housing. I gutted it and shoehorned in a standard blinker relay. The 80 should be a simple swap. BTW the service and tech support at Superbrite was excellent, I have no hesitation to recommend them.

 
Tell me more about this LED conversion?

I just got a bunch of 3030 chipset LEDs off Amazon and followed the guidelines found in this post. I didn't go bat**** crazy and start soldering new LEDs onto boards (yet), just did the easy ones. Here's the ones I bought

PRND2L in cluster - WLJH 10x White T3 Neo Wedge Led 3030 SMD Chip 8mm Base Led Car Dash Instrument Clock Light Check Engine Transmission HVAC AC Heater Climate Control Bulb Lamps Radio Switch Indication Bulb Replacement

Gauge backlight - SIRIUSLED 194 LED Bulbs Extremely Super Bright 3030 Chipset for Car truck Interior Dome Map Door Courtesy Marker License Plate Lights Compact Wedge T10 168 2825 Xenon White Pack of 10

Map light - Phinlion 400LM Super Bright 3030 5-SMD BA9 BA9S 53 57 1895 64111 LED Car Light Bulb 12V 24V 6000K Xenon White

Dome lights - SIRIUSLED N3 DE3175 LED bulbs Pure white Super Bright LED Festoon 300 Lumens 3030 Chipset for Car Truck Interiors Dome Map Door Courtesy Lights 1.25"

Warning lights in cluster - WLJH 6x T5 LED Wedge Bulbs Canbus Error Free 74 73 17 Extremely Bright White 3030 Chipsets for Auto Car LED Gauge Cluster Dashboard Light Lamp Instrum

None of these had an issue with the dimmer, but like I said some of the warning lights didn't like the LEDs and all of these are polarity sensitive so you have a 50/50 shot at installing them the right way. I took my cluster out several times to get them all right.
 
My OEM timing kit and water pump came in. Glad I got the entire package. My tensioner was failing and the belt was getting chewed up. Dodged an expensive failure!!!

Starting the install of the new turbo once I’m finished with the water pump.

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Well it isn't exactly how I wanted it all to turn out, but it is better and more functional than it was. Most happy about deleting that stupid LED someone decided to mount in the middle of a fake blank. Taped the back side, filled the hole with epoxy, sanded it flush and sprayed the entire bezel with textured black paint. No more LED!

View attachment 2633963

Got my dimmer connected...




LEDs look good too...

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That plastic cover's seen better days though! The low fuel warning light was out when I started. The LED made it stay on all the time though, so I put an incandescent bulb in it. We'll see if it actually works in about 5 miles ;). Center diff lock light stayed on all the time too, so I had to put that back to the old built. I cannot get the PWR light to come on no matter what I do and it seems the ECT button only works when it feels like it so maybe there's a problem elsewhere on that.

Hey where did you get you’re LEDs for your dash?! Those are dope and look awesome. Great job! I have my dash all pulled apart right now and I’m wanting to replace all the bulbs but have come up empty handed. Help a brother out!
 
Hey where did you get you’re LEDs for your dash?! Those are dope and look awesome. Great job! I have my dash all pulled apart right now and I’m wanting to replace all the bulbs but have come up empty handed. Help a brother out!

Scroll up six posts in this thread to see the list. :)
 
Yes, Tony. It’s just the front pads.
I bought a set of Powerstop 100 series front pads and the noise shim was wrong for my pistons. Either the 100 series front pistons are closer together, or the pads were mislabeled. The Powerstop 80 series pads have done great though.
 

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