What have you done to your Land Cruiser this week? (38 Viewers)

[lostmarbles]

Tojo failed its 6-monthy road-worthy inspection on "seatbelts" and "weak RH-rear brakes".

The seat belts are a problem because I actually don't think there's anything wrong with them and they're non-adjustable. (The inspector reckons the driver's one is not sensitive enough in the locking mechanism. And somehow he has the nerve to make safety suggestions to me when I watched him reach in and turn the key to start my cruiser while standing outside it! - Something I would NEVER do because I know how dangerous it is!)

And I already replaced all the belts a few years back after the originals were failed due to minor fraying on the edges.

But the "weak RR brakes fail" was a fair enough cop so I fixed that today.

Here you can see oil leaking from my hub seal that's getting on the nearby brake linings:



The wheel bearing had a bit of play so I decided to replace the hub bearings, the hub seal and the axle seal.

Here are the parts:


The wheelbearing kit is labelled "FRONT" but when you have rear full-floaters it fits the rear too.

And here is the all important axle seal being replaced (that was leaking diff oil into the wheelbearing grease and making it so runny that it was leaking out):


I'll go back for a recheck Monday and plead with them to be more sensible over my seat belts.


Wish me luck ....

 

[Falco80]

Good luck Tom. Are 6-monthly road-worthys the standard on your side of the ditch? I think they have yearly ones in NSW, but here in QLD we don't have any. I reckon we should, because the piles of cr#p you see getting around blowing blue smoke and rolling on bald tyres is crazy. It must pi$$ you off when the inspector gets picky, when it's pretty obvious you maintain your cruiser to a pretty high standard.

 

[lostmarbles]

Good luck Tom. Are 6-monthly road-worthys the standard on your side of the ditch? I think they have yearly ones in NSW, but here in QLD we don't have any. I reckon we should, because the piles of cr#p you see getting around blowing blue smoke and rolling on bald tyres is crazy. It must pi$$ you off when the inspector gets picky, when it's pretty obvious you maintain your cruiser to a pretty high standard.

You're hitting a nerve Dan... and I can feel a rant coming on....

Yes. 6-monthly checks are standard here in NZ (except new cars are exempt for a few years).

But this is actually a real pain in the a##e for people like me who can't afford a new car (and don't want to own one anyway) because the 6mth-expiries tend to come around too damn fast.

And the authorities give you no assistance at all to co-ordinate your expiry dates so the expiry month for your trailer is likely to be different to the expiry month for your tow vehicle (for instance).

At present authorities here are thinking of extending the check-period from 6mths to one year for vehicles up to 10 years old but predictably there's a lot of opposition from the motor trade (who resent the loss of income more anything else in my opinion).

Of course I have little interest in this development because all our "vehicles" here ... cruiser, car, trailer and 4 motorbikes are way over 10-years-old.

I suspect our system was developed by people who were/are exempt from the checks themselves and therefore have no experience of the extreme inconvenience they cause (and I believe they also have no empathy for the people their checks inconvenience).

Also the checks must represent a massive financial drain on the country .. and the only concrete gain is "keeping people employed" (which I admit has some importance in this depressed economy).

Interesting that you see merit in the checks. I see it more as "we don't trust you to maintain your vehicles properly so we order you to have them regularly checked and pay the full cost". ---- But the other man's grass is always greener as they say.

I go to one of a chain of inspection depots that used to be independant of vehicle-repair-interests. (You can choose a local garage instead - provided they're government-approved - but then you run the risk that they'll fail you simply to get the repair work.) But the NZ Motor Trade Association recently bought this chain so it has lost its independance and I should probably start going elsewhere.

However I like some of the inspectors at the place I use and have had real horror stories elsewhere. ....Like watching an apprentice at a local garage drive into the path of an oncoming car when road-testing my cruiser and having another inspector (at a different branch of the same chain I use) grab hold of the plastic brake-fluid reservoirs and shake them vigorously to test their strength!

Having more cops on the road targetting dodgy vehicles is preferable to me but then you have the problem there in that they'll probably target vehicles based on age alone. (And police training these days seems to have deteriorated.)

However overall I think the system I remember from my time in Western Australia was best. That is, forcing thorough inspections during any change of ownership and stopping and forcing checks on any vehicle that comes to the attention of police officers (and nothing else).

 

[s800]

Tested compression

145-140-142-139-140-142

Happy.

 

[bugsnbikes]

fabbed up mount for new shackle

 

[sloanstavern]

fabbed up mount for new shackle

Good Grief - What cargo ship did that shackle come off of? Looks like it was photo shopped on!

 

[bugsnbikes]

i spent a week doing curls with it while trying to figure out how i was going to mount it

i couldnt really figure out how to mount the hook that i got with it and its a bunch smaller than the shackle:

 

[ClemsonCruiser]

You're hitting a nerve Dan... and I can feel a rant coming on....

Yes. 6-monthly checks are standard here in NZ (except new cars are exempt for a few years).

But this is actually a real pain in the a##e for people like me who can't afford a new car (and don't want to own one anyway) because the 6mth-expiries tend to come around too damn fast.

And the authorities give you no assistance at all to co-ordinate your expiry dates so the expiry month for your trailer is likely to be different to the expiry month for your tow vehicle (for instance).

At present authorities here are thinking of extending the check-period from 6mths to one year for vehicles up to 10 years old but predictably there's a lot of opposition from the motor trade (who resent the loss of income more anything else in my opinion).

Of course I have little interest in this development because all our "vehicles" here ... cruiser, car, trailer and 4 motorbikes are way over 10-years-old.

I suspect our system was developed by people who were/are exempt from the checks themselves and therefore have no experience of the extreme inconvenience they cause (and I believe they also have no empathy for the people their checks inconvenience).

Also the checks must represent a massive financial drain on the country .. and the only concrete gain is "keeping people employed" (which I admit has some importance in this depressed economy).

Interesting that you see merit in the checks. I see it more as "we don't trust you to maintain your vehicles properly so we order you to have them regularly checked and pay the full cost". ---- But the other man's grass is always greener as they say.

I go to one of a chain of inspection depots that used to be independant of vehicle-repair-interests. (You can choose a local garage instead - provided they're government-approved - but then you run the risk that they'll fail you simply to get the repair work.) But the NZ Motor Trade Association recently bought this chain so it has lost its independance and I should probably start going elsewhere.

However I like some of the inspectors at the place I use and have had real horror stories elsewhere. ....Like watching an apprentice at a local garage drive into the path of an oncoming car when road-testing my cruiser and having another inspector (at a different branch of the same chain I use) grab hold of the plastic brake-fluid reservoirs and shake them vigorously to test their strength!

Having more cops on the road targetting dodgy vehicles is preferable to me but then you have the problem there in that they'll probably target vehicles based on age alone. (And police training these days seems to have deteriorated.)

However overall I think the system I remember from my time in Western Australia was best. That is, forcing thorough inspections during any change of ownership and stopping and forcing checks on any vehicle that comes to the attention of police officers (and nothing else).

Dear Lord I don't think we'd have any 40's left on the road here in the US if they were subject to these standards Talk about the "Nanny State" I feel for you Lost Marbles

 

[Weber Sarge]

Drove mine to work - 70-72mph the whole way with no issues , still smiling ...
Sarge

 

[lostmarbles]

Dear Lord I don't think we'd have any 40's left on the road here in the US if they were subject to these standards Talk about the "Nanny State" I feel for you Lost Marbles

You've made the right connection there ClemsonCruiser.

I doubt there's more than 50 road-legal 40-series cruisers in this whole country now and I believe the 6-mthly WOF checks are largely responsible for the big decline.

And once vehicles cease to be road-legal it's usually not long before they're wrecked for parts or sold overseas. (Excepting those that are butchered for use as competition vehicles and trailered to and from events.)

Of course those in authority pat each others' backs murmering how many lives they're saving.

But looking at the facts tells a different story.

To give just one example of how unfair they've become over the years - A rust hole in a panel the size of a large coin can cause a "fail" today whereas 15 years ago any rust failure had to structural/safety related. (I say "15 years" only because I can't be bothered finding out exactly when they made this change. It could be more recent.) They're continually becoming stricter and continually encompassing new non-safety-related checks.

Make sure you fight against any moves to impose such a system in the USA. Even if a promised system appears reasonable you run the risk of it becoming the monster that we have here.

 

[sloanstavern]

I pulled my 40 out of the garage to help my son with our joint project an '85 K5 and took my first crack at rebuilding a rochester quadrajet M4ME with ECM ....... yeah it is that much fun. It took three tries but got 'er done. I will never complain about Asian Carbs again!!!!!!!

 

[bj40green]

I'll go back for a recheck Monday and plead with them to be more sensible over my seat belts.


Wish me luck ....

Tom, I wish you all the luck in the world and keep my for you.

Rudi

 

[74HogGuy]

Removed 30lbs of previous owner trailer hitch. Also removed the hard top to get ready for my transmission swap. Just to make things easy to get to.

 

[Pearly]

Took her back to her real home....

She came back with a few battle scars - Those 35" tires are a bit too big when the springs are compressed. The sound of the tyres eating the front fenders is not a happy one! I borrowed them for the weekend, so I will change back to my 33's and look for something more suitable!

 

[Hugh Heifer]

Discussed the possibility of selling.

 

[RockTactics]

I started working on a bumper/crossmember , and started working on the new frame for my FJ40.

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[crumbo]

Drove from tennant creek to uluru a round trip of 2000 kms heater hose failed but fixed that and all is good



I don't know if you realise that there is a garbage dump in the middle of the desert:whoops:

 

[Awl_TEQ]

That photo was strangely missing from my tourism brochure!?

 

[FJmaine]

Sadly, after a summer and fall of plans to start fixing her up, I had to put the plow back on. Maybe I can get some work done between storms.... Really need to replace the rear sill and amby door posts because they don't exist anymore.

 

[krzyabncanuck]

Took it out on Saturday to Uwharrie one last time this year. Shut down this morning till the end of March. Now time to spring over it and to finally put on some power steering. Only had this thing since the late 80's.