Working On My Willy (A Terrible Build Thread) (1 Viewer)

[DeepBarney]

Great thread! Seems all we get here are high $ “resto” builds anymore. This is refreshing

Keep up the great work

Thanks! Posting this is all mostly so that in the future I have something to go back and remind me of my misadventures. But I'm glad you appreciate it. Especially since while the truck is getting a new lease on life, it's not as a high dollar resto like you say. Which is a fine thing that I like to see, just not something I feel this truck is a good candidate for.

I grew up on a farm, and have spent a significant portion of my 32 years fixing previous owners' jerry-rigging and so called fixes. So while I won't tolerate repairs that are functionally dubious/unreliable, I am totally fine with making solid fixes from scrap I've got laying around or unconventional means, even if it doesn't look super nice/original (at least on projects like this).

You probably wouldn't guess it from Reading this thread but I'm often a perfectionist, being very anal about details regarding how things are done and what they look like. Projects like this for me are a way to pull back towards the other end of the spectrum in order to try and keep a healthier perspective and balance out my more unreasonable tendencies. Frankly this particular truck isn't worth high dollar investment to make nice, but it's still too solid to warrant scrapping/parting out (in my opinion). So it's in a unique position to be used as originally intended without much worry over it's condition, at least athletically. A perfect candidate for a Lemons Rally, and if it survives that continuing serve as a camping and farm rig plus whatever else I don't want to subject my Frontier to.

 

[DeepBarney]

More important Land Cruiser repairs completed today:

It was cold out, I swear. I promise it's much longer when it's turned on.

 

[DeepBarney]

Okay, so I did get around to doing some other actually important things on the Land Cruiser today. First off was checking the plugs. The gaps were all out of spec, should be 0.031 and they were between 0.04 and 0.046.

Also they looked like this. At least until I cleaned off the carbon and re-gapped them.

 

[DeepBarney]

After the spark plugs went back in and I confirmed the truck would still start, I moved to the rear to replace the sway bar link bushings.

All bolts came out easy, save one. The driver side upper link bolt would turn freely but no amount of spinning with an impact gun, prying, or wailing on it with the mini sledge would see it free from the hanger. So I quit asking.

Thankfully had just enough room to get the angle grinder with a cut off wheel in there. Had to cut both sides since the bolt was seized in the bushing sleeve.

I hit the link and sway bar bores with a file and then some sandpaper to clean them up.

Luckily I happened to have a spare unused collar/sleeve from some past project. The old sleeves measured 12.5mm OD and this one was 13mm but i figured that was close enough to work (ID was the same).

Mr. Angle Grinder was kind enough to make it the same length though.

After a quick trip to the hardware store for a replacement nut and bolt I had her all mounted back up. Went ahead and coated every contact surface with dielectric grease to keep moisture out and hopefully make it easier for the next poor bastard who attempts to work on it.

 

[DeepBarney]

Ran into a hiccup though when I went to replace the rear sway bar bushings. The sway bar measures 23mm. The aftermarket bushings Amazon said would fit, will certainly not. They measure 17mm on the ID. On the bright side they refunded me right away and I don't event have to ship them back. Pictured next to the Toyota front 21mm sway bar bushings (on the right).

Slipped them both over the sway bar to show just how much neither is going to fit the rear bar.

If I can find a 7/8 drill bit (damn near 22mm) I may try to ream the 17mm bushings out to get them to fit. The rubber is noticeably harder than the OEM ones so I may have a shot. Or I could just buy the correct parts and save myself the hassle. Time will tell if laziness or being a tight ass wins out.

So moving onto the front sway bar (ends links previously taken care of) the bolts and bushing brackets (clamps?) came off easy enough. However there was significantly more rust scale built up on the bar and in the brackets. I chiseled out the majority of the scale in the brackets, then a file, 30 grit, and finishing it up with wire brush.

Picture doesn't do a good job of showing how bad it was, or I might have already removed some.

The bar cleaned up with the sandpaper and scraping a few stubborn spots with the edge of the file or chisel. Coated it all in dielectric grease and slapped her back together.

Oh and I forgot to post it then, but the other day I reattached the splash guard after the transmission fluid flush. Three of the five bolts snapped off when removing the guard like the first or second day into this project. Didn't see any reason to put it back on until I got around to doing the transmission flush since the lines have been routed under the cross member it mounts to and up to the auxiliary cooler on the front of the radiator (the whole of the hoses pass through has been sectioned and bent so the lines don't rub against any hard edges). The astute will notice the new bolts don't all line up with original bolt holes. This is because I couldn't be assed to try and drill out and retap the original captive nuts so I just drilled new holes and used a loose nut on the back side (if I ever pull the guard off I may take that time to tack weld the nuts in place).

 

[DeepBarney]

In preparation for de-scaling/flushing the coolant system on the Lemon Cruiser this weekend, I went ahead and sheared off two of the four thermostat housing bolts. Just getting that out of the way early y'know.

Thankfully they're the two on the front side furthest from the cylinder head, so I'll have more room to work when I go to extract the stubborn halves. Went ahead and cleaned the old gasket material off the top half of the thermostat housing. And for once I have a replacement gasket ready to go for this.

About a quart of old fluid I caught taking it apart. Not worst I've drained from a project car.

 

[DeepBarney]

Can't figure out how to delete it so ignore it.

 

[DeepBarney]

After a few days of popping the hood on the Cruiser to glare at the motor and hose down the rebellious factions of the thermostat housing bolts with PB Blaster for their refusal to evacuate when commanded, I decided it was time to put their insolence to an end. Was able the unthread the first one after a bunch of back and forth action with the vice grips and some extra PB plus the occasional love tap for good measure.

The one that broke off flush left me no such option, so the boys in High Speed Steel were called in. Punched a pilot hole then stepped up the bit size into it was just smaller than the recessed part of the bolt's threads. Took a punch and pried/lightly hammered out the threads and chased it (along with all the other holes) with a tap.

Also bled the brakes master cylinder, and then then flushed and bled the brakes AGAIN (this makes the third time) and was surprised to see dirty looking fluid come out of it (I've now put two 32 ounce bottles through this system).

Never saw any air bubbles come through, but I don't need to pump up the brakes for them to work now. Unfortunately it's not until the last 1/4 of pedal travel they really start doing anything and it still doesn't have near the stopping power it did before replacing the leaking brake cylinder.

This truck does not want me to fix it or go on this road trip...

 

[DeepBarney]

Forgot to post this up the other day, but after I took the thermostat housing apart I I decided to clean up and test the thermostat. Started by pouring it a nice little vinegar bath and heating it up with my camp stove.

Thermostat confirmed to open when the water gets hot. Happy that's one less part I've got to replace.

After pulling it out of the acid and giving it a light scrubbing with a brush, it's looking pretty good.

Then replaced the vinegar with a mild baking soda and water mix to neutralize the acid.

Then a round of plain tap water. Also took this opportunity to test the little heat activated switch/vacuum system valve that's on the thermostat housing.

Can't push air through it when cool, but as evidenced by the bubbles it opens up when hot and so confirmed to still work. Somewhat impressive considering it's a 35-year-old truck with over got a 180k miles on it.

Finally cleaned up and ready to go back in whenever I finish all the coolant system flushes I'm going to have to do.

 

[majdomo]

Great thread and rig! On your brake bleed - you included the LSPV last right? Mine's giving me problems right now, but the pedal feel is pretty solid after bleeding RR, LR, LF, RF, LSPV.

 

[DeepBarney]

Great thread and rig! On your brake bleed - you included the LSPV last right? Mine's giving me problems right now, but the pedal feel is pretty solid after bleeding RR, LR, LF, RF, LSPV.

Yeah on the last bleed I remembered to do the LSPV (didn't the first two times and I'm pretty sure I managed to get some air trapped in there the first time I flushed brake fluid). I did it after doing both the DS and then PS rear, then did both fronts and then went back and did the LSPV again since there was still some new fluid left in the bottle and I didn't see any reason not to use it. The issue I think (hope) was the adjustment on the rear brake shoes, but more on that to come.

 

[DeepBarney]

Revisited the rear brakes on the Lemons Cruiser. Jacked up each rear wheel individually with the truck in neutral (front wheels chocked) and adjusted them until they locked up and the drum couldn't be rotated by hand anymore, and then adjusted them back the other way until the drum started rotating freely without any rubbing. The passenger rear, which I replaced the wheel cylinder on first and probably screwed the adjuster back in too far on when I did, required a lot of adjustment to get the drum to lock. I'm hoping that was my problem. Driver side didn't take too many turns of the star wheel to lock up the drum, so it was probably not far off from where it needed to be, if at all. After finishing that I cranked the parking brake handle a few times for good measure, since that should also ratchet the mechanism and reduce any excess drum/shoe clearance.

Then I drained the oxalic acid solution in the Lemons Cruiser from the block and radiator. This is what I got out of it:

I'd already dumped the bucket and that's just what was left in the bottom, but it looks like I managed to clear some crap out. After draining it I used the garden hose to flush (until the water started looking clean), then back flush, and then forward flush again for good measure the two heater core circuits, the radiator, block, and any other lines in the system (there is a surprising amount of coolant lines on this truck). Then I did the same thing again with the air hose. Tomorrow I'll go and load the system up with DI water, run that for a day (hopefully drive it around if the brakes are sorted), drain it, rinse and repeat at least once more, and then add the antifreeze (concentrated).

While I had the hose rolled out I decided to wash all the dirt built up in the driver side rear fender behind the rust hole. There was a LOT.

Seems a weird place to stash condoms...

 

[DeepBarney]

More futzing with the Cruiser today. These hard lines back to the rear heater core were leaking after the oxalic acid flush. So before refilling the cooling system with DI water I figured I should address the issue.

Bit of work to get old hoses off so I could drop the lines.

Yep, no fixing these. Rusted through at the bracket mount. Unfortunately the hoses used back here are 13mm, and the nearby Ace didn't have anything suitable in a size smaller than 5/8. O'Reilly's had high pressure fuel line in a half inch size which looked like I could squeeze over the ends if I heated them up before hand. And the guy behind the counter even offered to drop it to the price of regular half inch heater hose since they didn't have any on hand. So I figured I'd give it a shot since no better options were presenting themselves. Tossed 6' of it on the driveway to soften up in the sunny 100° weather, and then went to work cleaning the factory hose clamps up with the wire wheel.

Took a fair bit of effort and a little cursing, but eventually I got the hoses slipped onto the hard lines. Bit more fiddling and I had the hoses ran smoothly without any kinks. And before anyone comments on it, the hoses are not directly above the drive shaft and have plenty of clearance away from it, the angle I took the picture out really skews how it looks in person .

There used to be some foam between the radiator and radiator support, but it had mostly deteriorated. So I took some foam pipe insulation and slid it down in there.

With that done, I filled the cooling system with DI water and did my best to burp it. Don't think I'm getting circulation through the heater cores as they're not blowing hot when the truck is up to temp and has been running/driven for awhile with the heaters running. I've got a plan for that though.

Also I'm happy to report that the brakes seem to be working as they should now. Not exactly going to stop on a dime, but at least as good as they where before.

 

[DeepBarney]

Finished up the coolant flush yesterday. Figured parking it on the slope of the slope of the driveway and putting some blocks under the front wheels to elevate it further, would make the burping process go a little easier.

Was still getting some scale out back at the rear heater core so I did another DI water flush. Took 15 gallons total across all flushes and still wasn't running perfectly clear (scale all but gone, just cloudy).Oh well it's good enough to get me to Detroit.

The new OEM thermostat housing gasket decided to try it's hand at mitosis when I went to reinstall the thermostat. *muffled screaming in the distance*

So I cleaned up the inside of the housing and sensors then made a replacement gasket. I've had these rolls of gasket paper for 5yrs and used them more on this truck than I have on everything else combined.

Noticed this thermostat bypass hose had a pinhole leak after cruising around in 106°F weather. So I replaced that too. Too much of a bend to get away with just using some of the extra hose I had from fixing the heater core lines, and Toyota could have the replacement the next day so I went that way. In hindsight I could've ran up the road to Ace Hardware and grabbed a brass 90 to splice into some new hose and saved myself around $15. Oh well.

God this was a fiddly bastard to install and keep the hose clamps held in the right place until I got them tight. And it made it a pain to keep the gasket and thermostat housing lined up long enough to get the bolts started. Finally got it all back together with the umpteen sensors and hoses installed correctly though.

Been monitoring the temps with a IR reader, 205°F is the hottest I've seen it get so far, normally it's right about 180°.

 

[DeepBarney]

Also somewhat fixed the seat while I was waiting for the water to drain from the truck before going back in with antifreeze.

Bolstering for the left hip is totally blown out, but enough of the fabric is still intact I could roll my own and jam it home. I've got a cheap seat cover that'll ultimately go on it but for now it's good enough for Detroit.

Also decided to take a trip to local pick-n-pull for and grabbed a couple 4Runner driver side wiper arms and swapped them. Much better, now my new wiper blades actually stay on the arm and keep contact with windshield.

 

[DeepBarney]

Horn wasn't working on the Lemons Cruiser, so I decided to address that. Pop the cover off mark the wheel and shaft for alignment. Then headed over to O'Reilly's to borrow a steering wheel puller.

The Culprit :

There's supposed to be a lot more brass on the end of that little pin at the 11 o'clock position. It's no longer making contact with the ring in the back of the steering wheel.

The Fix:

Hey I spent good money on that coolant bypass hose, gotta save a few bucks somewhere else now.

Cut it down, swabbed the inside with flux, dropped some solder in, and then hit it with torch until the solder melted and leveled off. Kept adding solder until it was about 2/3 full.

Pushed it on over the end of the pin and crimped the opening so it couldn't fall off

Also clocked the turn signal cancel thingy (brown ring) so it actually sits in the detents on the steering wheel and does it's job again.

All back together now, the horn works, and even the steering wheel is clocked correctly for when the wheels are straight ahead. Previously it was like 10° to the right and irritating as **** to look at.

 

[DeepBarney]

Didn't get up to anything big today, but I did adjust the throttle and transmission kickdown cables on the ol' Land Cruiser. It's a fair bit peppier now. Also played with aiming the headlights a bit. They suck regardless of how well they're adjusted.

Think I may need to slacken the throttle up a touch, as it's now idling about 800-850 whereas before it was 700rpm.

 

[DeepBarney]

Was given one of those little grease guns that take the 3oz cartridges that my brother found laying around his shop. Which reminded me I hadn't actually ever gotten around to greasing any of the tie rod ends or u-joints on the old Land Cruiser since we got it. So I picked up a three pack of Sta-Lube Moly-Graph grease and went through nearly all of two tubes between 4 u-joints, 2 sliding yokes, and 2 tie rod ends. I know they're small cartridges but that seems a bit much

 

[DeepBarney]

Well I screwed up yesterday. I noticed a small wad of foil had been stuffed where the window lock button would have once resided on the ol' Land Cruiser. So figuring it was trash that had found it's way in there, I picked it out. Apparently I removed a previous owner's means of completing the circuit for all the passenger windows. Makes sense though now when the passenger windows didn't want to roll down, why a bit of percussive maintenance on the switch usually got them working again.

Some people's kids, I swear to god...
Anyways today I set about fixing it in a slightly less hokey a way. I soldered a piece of wire across the two contacts in the switch since I'm not really worried about needing to lock out the use of the passenger windows, and just want them to work period (it's too damned hot out to be driving this truck around without AC and only one functioning window).

Put a bit of duct tape in there to keep things away from exposed the live circuit. Probably going to mask it off and spot some black caulking or RTV in there later to make a plug for more protection and slightly less terrible aesthetics.

Then I moved onto pulling the door cards to clean and lube the tracks and lift mechanisms. Also checked all the weather stripping while I was at it and fixed a bunch of places where it had come loose using the original little clips where possible and RTV where it wasn't.

And finally I pulled the steering wheel (again) to clean and lube the turn signal cancelling mechanism. I think the resistance in the signal cancelling mechanism caused the ring around the steering shaft that pins to the steering wheel to hang up and the spring tension wasn't enough to keep it engaged, because it still wasn't working. But mainly to correct the fact that when I reclocked the steering wheel the other day when fixing the horn, I didn't go quite far enough and it was still too far clockwise when going straight down the street.

There was a few other small odds and ends I tended to, but the main goal today was to regain use of the windows and I'm happy to say not only was that accomplished but they're faster and smoother than before (and rarely stop and refuse to roll down/up the rest of the way).

 

[DeepBarney]

More mucking about with the Land Cruiser today, last push to have everything ready before we leave Thursday for Detroit. A month back my brother took the wrong sized sway bar bushings Amazon sent me and drilled them out at work. Well one of them anyways,. The other, according to him, wouldn't cooperate because of where the split was located so it was undersized and out of round. Bit of work with a ball end bit and scalpel got it serviceable.

Don't know why the two are different. They came together in the same kit but are clearly different molds/manufacturers and the rubber is different too. Shouldn't be surprised I think they were $8. Tossed them on the bar and yeah I can work with that.

I'm not complaining, but why in the hell are these not rusty and caked in scale like they ones on the front. This is the part of the truck that's terminally rusty and these are fine?

New vs old:

Gave the bushings a healthy smearing of dielectric grease, squeezed the brackets over them, tightened the bolts down with the impact driver and voila another unnecessary repair checked off the list.

I did do more actually necessary stuff today, but I'll post that later after a shower.