What have you done to your 200 Series this week? (41 Viewers)

[NQCruiser]

I assume you had the squeak? Ive had mine squeaking for about a year now and have been putting it off since it doesn't seem to bother me too much. Now I'm paranoid...

Definitely had the squeak at one stage, but I kept putting it down to the stone guards being hammered onto the lower shock mount bolt. I’d keep levering it out and the squeak would go away. I do run around with loaded tool boxes in the rear hatch as well, so squeaks sometimes get lost in the noise.

 

[skitym]

Loaded up the toys for the last leg of our move to Kentucky.

 

[ntsaint]

MetalTech Sliders.

Was not a fan of that install!

 

[JohnJB]

Not so much what has happened to my 200 over the last week but the last month. When I acquired my Land Cruiser, I knew that Rob aka @Taco2Cruiser was about to embark on a career change by joining the team at BudBuilt. Naturally, if you’ve followed Rob’s build and wealth of technical knowledge and experience, he’s the type of guy you want working on your truck. I mean he’s no trained engineer but he’s close I mean he tightens your brake bleeders with a torque wrench.

That said, I knew my truck would eventually end up in Hudson for at least the install of sliders. Rob graciously decided to give my truck an entire rundown. Well, anything I touch seems to always spin out of control. Let’s just say I owe Rob and the BB crew a lot of beer, like I might need to buy the shop a kegerator.

The gist of it is they installed sliders, basic aluminum skid plates, stainless shock guards. Also performed an alignment that ended up requiring the replacement of inner and outer tie rods that refused to budge. Then there were many hours of cleaning up whatever mess they found along the way, various steps of rust mitigation, broken bolt cleanup, etc. What else... installed SPC rear lower control arms (those are my old arms cut in half in his recent post; lesson is no need to replace stockers), brake fluid flush, and other nonsense I’m forgetting.

I just want to publicly thank Rob and BudBuilt for going above and beyond before returning the truck to me. I just hope the truck is not banned from the shop, or me as a customer!

Anyway, only one reason to put all this time and money into the truck, to use it. And so on Friday I hit up Uwharrie:

Putting sliders to use, ran the low side of a rutted out off camber trail

Put a few other bumps and bruises on it. No biggie, but my driving does leave plenty of room for improvement. But that’s the fun of it.

Here’s a before picture for those interested in BB Rock Sliders, no kick out/dimple down fill plate.

 

[tampacruiser95]

Had her washed, buffed, and waxed. Headlights restored. And put my Outback plates back on...next is the auxiliary tank, Kaymar rear, skids, and snorkel in August. Glad I took my time on this one rather than doing everything at once.

 

[ntsaint]

New rubber today. 285/70 Nitto ridge grapplers.

 

[Fisher23]

New rubber today. 285/70 Nitto ridge grapplers.

View attachment 2018357View attachment 2018358View attachment 2018359View attachment 2018360

Looks nice, Which roof rack is that?

 

[ntsaint]

Looks nice, Which roof rack is that?

It’s a Prinsu. It’s...ok.

 

[g rant]

New rubber today. 285/70 Nitto ridge grapplers.

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I love my Ridge Grapplers! Same size too. Enjoy!

 

[bloc]

30k on the diffs & transfer fluids, time to change. Has anyone done UOA on diff oils? The old stuff looked great and very very little metal on the magnets.

Also I was concerned about the 14mm external hex front diff plug.. saw someone here have one strip. That's a very small head for how tight those plugs seem to get.

Fortunately it came right loose..

Also, this is an EMPTY power steering reservoir with ~140k on it.

The crap on the inside is basically impossible to clean out.. Under the cap is a very small hole to actually add fluid. New one is ~$130 and should be here in a couple days. I'll flush the PS system at that point.

This truck had a flush and "power steering conditioner" added somewhere around 60k miles. Because all toyotas have power steering problems, of course. I'm wondering if the residue is a result of that snake oil.

Has anyone found an actual toyota power steering fluid like what comes in our trucks? Manual says use Dexron III.. but I'd rather use a clear or gold product to avoid dying the reservoir. I have a jug of Dex VI if I can't find anything that meets this requirement.

 

[Markuson]

I did manage to bend my stock rear control arms & with SPCs...which are somewhat stronger.

30k on the diffs & transfer fluids, time to change. Has anyone done UOA on diff oils? The old stuff looked great and very very little metal on the magnets.

Also I was concerned about the 14mm external hex front diff plug.. saw someone here have one strip. That's a very small head for how tight those plugs seem to get.

Fortunately it came right loose..

View attachment 2018485

Also, this is an EMPTY power steering reservoir with ~140k on it.

View attachment 2018489

The crap on the inside is basically impossible to clean out.. Under the cap is a very small hole to actually add fluid. New one is ~$130 and should be here in a couple days. I'll flush the PS system at that point.

This truck had a flush and "power steering conditioner" added somewhere around 60k miles. Because all toyotas have power steering problems, of course. I'm wondering if the residue is a result of that snake oil.

Has anyone found an actual toyota power steering fluid like what comes in our trucks? Manual says use Dexron III.. but I'd rather use a clear or gold product to avoid dying the reservoir. I have a jug of Dex VI if I can't find anything that meets this requirement.

Are you saying g the perceived level just below the “Hot min” and “Hot MAX” lines is really just a stain...with no actual fluid behind it to that level?

 

[bloc]

Are you saying g the perceived level just below the “Hot min” and “Hot MAX” lines is really just a stain...with no actual fluid behind it to that level?

Exactly.

If you look closely the area around the return nipple is illuminated because it has sunlight on the back and no fluid there.

I don't know if it's as much a stain of the plastic as residue of some kind.. but I don't like it.

When it gets replaced I'll probably cut open the old one and try to figure out what it is.

 

[Markuson]

Exactly.

If you look closely the area around the return nipple is illuminated because it has sunlight on the back and no fluid there.

I don't know if it's as much a stain of the plastic as residue of some kind.. but I don't like it.

When it gets replaced I'll probably cut open the old one and try to figure out what it is.

Good to know, as I will now scrutinize mine more carefully. As you say...might look full when not at all!

 

[KLF]

Also, this is an EMPTY power steering reservoir with ~140k on it.

View attachment 2018489

The crap on the inside is basically impossible to clean out..

I bet if you pop that into the dishwasher on the next load, it will come out sparkly clean.

Seriously, a long soak with something strong like Super Clean and then hose it out with brake cleaner, it should clean right up.

 

[bloc]

I bet if you pop that into the dishwasher on the next load, it will come out sparkly clean.

Seriously, a long soak with something strong like Super Clean and then hose it out with brake cleaner, it should clean right up.

When I was using the fluid extractor it felt as though there was a filter of some kind in the bottom. Maybe just mesh. Either way I'm betting it doesn't look great either.

Part of me buying a new one is being really curious what's in there.. and it posting here. If it doesn't seem serious others can try to clean theirs.

 

[JohnJB]

When I was using the fluid extractor it felt as though there was a filter of some kind in the bottom. Maybe just mesh. Either way I'm betting it doesn't look great either.

Part of me buying a new one is being really curious what's in there.. and it posting here. If it doesn't seem serious others can try to clean theirs.

In this post, there's a reference to said screen on the bottom of the reservoir:

Scored 2011 LC W/79K OMG CLEAN (2012 missing link)

Very good info in this thread. Thanks!

forum.ih8mud.com

I'm currently doing a cheap man's fluid exchange with RedLine D4 ATF since Brian Jowett approves of that particular fluid choice. I'll also note that my '09 has 103k miles on it and I'm not seeing that staining on the inside like yours, and I doubt the fluid has ever been changed. I can watch the fluid level drop in unison with fluid extraction.

 

[linuxgod]

Finally put the diff drop on this weekend. I bought a kit off ebay 2 years ago, which looks very similar to the current Dobinson's kit.

Diff Drop Kit 4WD For Toyota Landcruiser 200 Series Suit 2 " - 5" Inch Lift Kit | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Diff Drop Kit 4WD For Toyota Landcruiser 200 Series Suit 2 " - 5" Inch Lift Kit at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Dobinsons Front IFS Diff Drop Kit for Toyota Tundra, 200 Series Land Cruiser and Sequoia - Dobinsons Direct

Keeps CV angles at a good working angle Allows for lifts over 2.0" Includes all necessary hardware, including machined spacers and nuts/bolts Compliments Dobinsons 3" lifts for IFS Toyota vehicles

www.dobinsonsdirect.com

It didn't come with instructions so I ended up combining the ones from Low Range Offroad, Marks 4WD, and the ones from the diff drop group buy from a few years back at Diff Drop Kit Group Buy.

• I ended up using 2 of the large spacers for the front diff arms. I used the new 150mm long bolts but reused the old Toyota flanged nuts rather than the supplied nylock nuts.
• The 3rd large spacer was used to drop the center skid plate mount. I missed that at first as I think only the group buy kit shows that being installed, and my skid plates wouldn't mount up cleanly. With that spacer installed they fit perfectly.
• The 6 bash plate screws and spacers went on fine, no issues.
• In the rear arm I just used the smaller washer/spacer (it's maybe 6mm tall) as my kit didn't come with an 18mm tall spacer like the group buy kit. Not sure if that is "correct". Doing it this way, the 14mm grade 8.8 bolt which is 80mm long isn't needed as there's plenty of thread on the factory bolt. Also no need to grind the top of the arm like the group buy kit suggests. If anyone has done this differently I would be interested.

Total cost was about $70. If anyone does this in the future with the Dobinson's or ebay kits, I suggest following the forum group buy instructions through step 5. When you get to step 6, simply loosen the bolt that is marked "NUT" in the second step a few turns, then remove bolt B, slip the 6mm tall washer/spacer in, reinsert bolt B and tighten B and NUT to 89 ft/lbs.

FYI the instructions say 1 hour but it took me more like 2-3. (Actually closer to 4 but part of that was grinding out the lip of my steep bumper which was resting against the front skid plate bolts and making it extremely difficult to remove them). I could probably do it in an hour now with power tools and a lift.

 

[Romer]

Why did you install a diff drop kit? I put one on my 100 series and was going to do it on the 200, but Slee said the 200 didnt need it

 

[linuxgod]

@Romer I have 25k on my setup and I had a torn CV boot on the passenger side, at the edge of the clamp. Keep in mind my truck was re-booted when the original boots were torn during the lift install, so I'm not sure if it was an original Toyota boot or an aftermarket one. Also they were subsequently leaking grease and had to be re-clamped after a few hundred miles. So a $60 kit felt like it might save me a future $350 reboot cost per side.

So maybe it was just bad luck and with a new Toyota boot it'd be fine? But I also tow a lot and my trailer tongue is 850-900#, so even with a WD hitch the front of my rig lifts up quite a bit when towing, and thus I felt like I really have a ~3" front lift (I'll confirm the actual pre/post trailer impact this weekend).

I've also found under heavy acceleration I get some torque steer - pull to the right when it downshifts to pass, then pulls to the left when I let off the gas. It's not awful but it's not "right" either. I was hoping with lesser CV angles this would decrease. I drove ~100 miles this weekend and it seemed better, but I really need to get the trailer hooked up this weekend to confirm.

FWIW I agree many people might not need a diff drop, but many also don't need UCAs to get their alignment within spec yet I couldn't get caster above 1.3 degrees with the cams full run out after my lift was installed with the stock UCAs.

 

[slowpok3]

Extended the front seat belts outside the truck, applied combination of simple green and Basic H soap, then pressure washed out most of the prior owners filth.

Very satisfying.