What have you done to your Land Cruiser this week? (42 Viewers)

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What happened?

Repo man!

LMAO! Sure looks like it huh? I am still trying to figure out what the culprit is here. Was driving in stop and go traffic and went to push clutch and brakes at a light. Had bad braking and realized that the engine had sputtered and died so my brake booster obviously wasn't giving me any assistance. Some how got it cranked (it really didn't want to) and pulled in to some sketch place to try and diagnose and realized quickly that the only way I could even get it to turn over and run was with the choke all the way out. The temp was also a little higher than normal, but nothing alarming. Noticed two things under the hood - who knows if they are related to said incident. 1) Bottom Vacuum hose on HAC had disconnected itself 2) There were signs that fuel had been leaking from the Secondary slow cut valve

While I was waiting on the tow truck, I decided I wanted to chance it and move across the street to an easier access spot for the driver. Struggled to get the engine to kick over, but once it did everything was like normal? Engine purring, idle normal, drove just fine on my short journey? I even got it off the tow truck and drove it into the garage without issue. Guessing the heat was part of the issue, but i'm at a loss currently - will spend some time trying to diagnose later this afternoon
 
Typically, if will only run with the choke on, it probably has a vacuum leak.
 
Bought a FJ40 tub trailer. Collecting a variety of items before I send it of to get painted.

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I was lucky and got it for $1,100... but if you price it in parts alone your looking at about ~$2,500 not including labor.

That’s great and crazy on the price. I’m in the process of building one and yeah the cost adds up!
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Pulled the head yesterday to change the gasket.
Had to pull the new tbi, manifolds, etc...
Head looks pretty good. Going to clean it up today and reinstall everything.
You can see whe the manifold was leaking. :/
Off I go!

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Finally got my roof rack put on. I helped make it with a welding buddy of mine. That was the fairly easy part. The hard part was the clamps. I had six made, 3 each side and all adjustable if I want it lowered or lifted. Really happy how it all came out.

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I Restored / Refurbished a handful of HAZARD switches , 2 early / mid 70's style & 1 late model 1979 type, each got new springs

and detent balls sonic cleaned , Copper & Brass contacts polished to " Bright " , everything re-assembled with generous helping of

di-electric grease . This also gave me the opertunity to take my new TEq Shadow Box & Shrine on its maiden Flight



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I didn't like the tiny little transfer case shift knob so I bought one for a different year that is larger. The threads were too big though so I cut a small piece of aluminum tube, threaded it for the shifter lever (8 x 1.25) and epoxied it into the knob. I also did not like the shift boot for the transfer case. It is a replacement and was made from some cheap vinyl cloth or something. So I took it apart and used it for a template and sewed up a leather one. Pretty simple and I like it much better.
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Heater Blower works fine - just looked like s_ _t!!! :meh: So.............
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*Additional observation after doing this: I follow with unabashed envy some amazing builds done by others here and think to myself...
nah, even if I had the nowhow/ability to do these things, I wouldn’t because I really like having my truck to drive and enjoy... but
today after doing the heater, I got to considering how great it would be to just pull all the rest of the engine bay apart so I could
clean it better and maybe pull the engine and rebuild it, then yank the tub off and really do a better job on the frame and underbody
etc, etc...........
Then, I took a deep breath, went into the house and got something to bring myself back from that ‘rabbit-hole’ thing.......
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* I’d gone and got this especially after all the crap being thrown around social media about comments he made some 50 years ago!
Here’s to you JW :cheers:
 
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I gotta do that... the heater motor, not all that other stuff!
 
Finally got the head gasket changed and everything bolted back up. Whew!!
Busted some knuckles, some minor cussing, but after triple checking everything, fired her back up after letting her turn over and get the oil pumping.
End result... manifold leaks are gone, looks like I got some water in the oil so changing that out asap. Overall happy, and I think I'm good to get her back on the road!!!
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Finally got the head gasket changed and everything bolted back up. Whew!!
Busted some knuckles, some minor cussing, but after triple checking everything, fired her back up after letting her turn over and get the oil pumping.
End result... manifold leaks are gone, looks like I got some water in the oil so changing that out asap. Overall happy, and I think I'm good to get her back on the road!!!
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How’s the sniper working out?
 
Installed a fuse box to house relays for powering the flood lights and new Hella H4 headlamps.

New lights are much brighter! LED “bulbs for everything else should be here this week sometime.

Headlight on the garage door pics are all taken with the rig running, at idle.

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@firefighterjed where did you get those new headlamps? Is it necessary to do new wiring or could they work with original?
 

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