YOSHI: 2001 100 series build thread (1 Viewer)

[suadero]

Hi all,
Having said a fond goodbye to my 80 and four years of incredible road tripping memories, it's time to document the build of the new guy in town...Yoshi.
The objectives are pretty much the same. This car is an expedition rig designed and outfitted for supporting road and camping trips. Basically, keep the beer and yogurt cold and store the tent and air mattresses, plus be a comfortable environment to spend time in. I don't commute in it and I don't anticipate taking it off road, so it may look somewhat different than the average giant-tire rock crawlers, but it's arguably even more fit to the purpose of expedition than the 80 was. (Plus, you know, airbags...)
Here's how it looked in the dealer ad. Car had been thoroughly cleaned, including an engine detail (which sadly didn't extend to under the engine cover but what can you do). Bone stock, right down to the CD/cassette player and recently-installed Toyota-brand battery - except for the incongruous 18" wheels from a 2003+ 100.

 

[suadero]

First order of business was to sort those wheels out; although they look "good" in the picture the tires were 3/4 done and the other three wheels had curb damage. I gave the dealer some guff about them being effectively aftermarket and he came up with the alleged original 16" wheels...which looked even worse, but at least were the right size for me to get some Pirelli Scorpion AT+ LT265/75/R16. There just aren't enough choices in the stock size but I ran 265s on my 80 and felt they were fit to purpose.

 

[suadero]

Now I had some leftover 18" wheels and not enough space to store them. I should note that throughout this process I was moving stuff back and forth between the 80 and the 100 to store as I live in an apartment at present and can't leave stuff out in the parking garage (and have no storage). It was an almost comical logistical issue at times, but I made it work.
After advertising the 18" here, a mud member was kind enough to trade me for his clean 16", pulled from his LX. So off came the wheels again. (and off came the Lexus logo from the other 3 caps)

 

[suadero]

Side by side in the parking garage for the transfer for 3 weeks. Good thing the building hadn't implemented parking passes yet...!

 

[suadero]

The most important components to transfer over were the ARB drawers and second battery system that drives the fridge. I'm super pleased with how my original second battery system performed - even when it started to get really hot in Latam and the batteries were unhappy, I never lost any food to heat spoilage - so I wanted to replicate that setup and enhance it. Other than the side floor kits, the drawers are transferrable between the models - I was led to believe without any modifications to the hats, but that was sadly a bit optimistic. Nonetheless, mounting worked just fine once I figured out where to position the hats for bolt-down.

The diamond plate aluminum tailgate cover also came over from the 80 - it sticks up a little bit from the lip of the tailgate in the cut-out area but nothing serious. I took the opportunity to fatmat the tailgate, quarter panels and bed and install my rear electrics (more on this below) before installing the cover and the drawers. (The 100AIRFK side floor kit has only just arrived so not installed yet.) The tailgate has a very satisfying whump now - unlike the 80 which had no noise dampening by default, there was quite a bit on the back of the carpet components of the 100, and when the tailgate carpet was removed there was quite an increase in road noise.

 

[suadero]

As far as the electrics are concerned - I learned a few things running my 1.0 system in the 80 for this long. First, it worked great and I would do it again that way without any concern at all. However, I thought I could do a few things more easily/subtly. For example, the Rule 3-way bilge switch is very tactile and I love the look of the faceplate but it required holes in the console. The LED showing system status was barely visible and I had to buy 100 of them to get 1 (and in the 100 batch tons of them didn't work). And, the ANL fuse mounts were easy to mount to the battery trays of the 80, but without similar real estate in the 100, I would have to be a bit cleverer about how to fuse the interconnection and rear electrics.

With those enhancements in mind, and with the idea of having the drawers put in quickly, I needed to do the back fuse panel and outlets again, so I just re-used everything from the fuse box to the outlets, wiring included. Time will tell whether that was a good long term idea, but I was going to re-use the fuse box and outlets anyway, so why make things more complicated? I also wanted to keep things on the same side of the truck as before, so although @BenCC outlets for DS ashtray/cup holder replacement are more elegant, I elected to mount the outlets in the long skinny PS pocket, and the fuse box in the one below that. The fuse box pocket can be unscrewed for easy mounting and wiring. The outlets are drilled out the back, then the wires route via drill hole to the smaller pocket on the right (rear) side. Negative and positive for eventual battery wire up were drilled out the left and right closer to the front of the pocket. There were some wire clearance issues against the rear A/C but I eventually got it buttoned up.

 

[KenH]

Nice. build
what's the cost for the LC? been looking for 1.

 

[suadero]

Negative and positive from the rear fuse panel are, for now, terminated at rear PS feet - as I have some major work to do under the hood to prepare for the second battery system's completion. Two off the shelf options exist today for second underhood batteries in the 100: the Slee option, which necessitates buying their bracket and downgrading to a smaller second battery, or going whole hog Australian/MEA at much higher cost by ordering a cyclonic airbox and associated parts, relocating the power steering fluid reservoir, and installing a battery tray on the PS side - much like the standard second batt setup on the 80 series.
I'm not generally someone who spends money lightly, but in this case I believe that the Australian parts are the superior solution. Without shipping, the parts cost just under $1000, but the TCO is less because:
1. I don't have to buy a new house battery; I had just bought a new Interstate 27 Deep Cycle in July for the 80. Savings +/- $130. (Guess this is only applicable if you already have a group 27 house batt.)
2. I don't have to buy Slee's bracket ($175) - am hopeful I can make a factory battery tray setup work for +/-$60, or less if I can find the parts at a wrecker. Savings at least $110
3. If you fabbed/modified your own bracket to move the existing PS fluid reservoir instead of buying the new one you'd save another $100 off the price I quoted.
4. That airbox looks like it came out of an Exploder and the cyclonic reminds me of an 80. Value: priceless.
(5. If I was an LX owner I wouldn't have to delete the AHC to do 2nd battery with this system. Value for them: no new suspension)

No pictures of this yet as I've not got the parts, but here's a pretty California sunset to tide you over.

 

[suadero]

The way to simplify the underhood fuse situation, I've postulated, is to use MRBF fuse terminals and fuses. They attach directly to battery screw terminals on the positive deep cycle, and the terminal/extender on the starter battery. This saves a small run of cable from the battery to the ANL fuse that is a point of potential catastrophic short, as well as saving the need to find an ANL fuse box mount point on both sides of the engine bay. I believe MRBF would have been tough to make work in the 80 given battery tray interference etc but although I've not yet tested, I think they will work in the 100. I'm also going to try to switch to using a Blue Sea/Carling switch to control the solenoid with an integral LED. The construction of the switch is not as solid as the Rule, and it seems ironically like it would be easier to inadvertently flip, but the flush mount possibility will help mitigate that. The best part about that is that @BenCC makes a fitting for the useless change/AHC pocket to hold that switch as well as the USB plug from my (to be installed) Sony XAV-AX100 radio.

The other updates are mostly around wire gauge: the old diagram said 4 but I used 2 and will use 2 again for the main wiring, and I will use 10 to the switch based on the fact that I have some extra 10 wire (12 or 16 would otherwise still be fine). Also, the 100 series uses mini fuses, so the tap type will change slightly.

Regardless of the changes, I will be using a Cole-Hersee 200A solenoid again because why mess with success? Please enjoy my bad photocopy diagram because I was too lazy to start from scratch tonight.

 

[suadero]

Oh, and just when I was wondering how I was going to do a Tuffy console transplant...maybe I won't have to!

Hidden Console Vault – 100 Series Land Cruiser/LX470

Isn’t it strange that one would spend $500+ on a handgun and then stick it in a $20 lock box? Gone are the days of cheap imported “safes” holding your precious firearm with nothi…

www.massivemetalshop.com

 

[suadero]

Photo of the new tires, new wheels and de-Lexus'ed caps. They wouldn't look half bad if not for the awful looking brakes behind them...next on the to-do list. I also removed all of the faux-woodgrain. I hate fake wood and am glad to have gotten rid of it, but I'm grateful that the original owner got it because it kept the underlying plastic (especially the black ABS) from the sun for almost 20 years.

As mentioned elsewhere, all you really need is a plastic putty knife and some patience. The more sun the spot has gotten, the easier it will be to remove. As you'd expect, the hardest spots (e.g. least sunny) were right at the front of the center console and on the back doors. The console front bit is easier if you take out the console cover (no screws, just unscrew the cap on the t-case shifter).

 

[suadero]

The ever popular "How do I bypass and remove the stock amp and radio" question - 2001 100 Series Land Crusier edition. I was happy to find the attached EWD excerpt on the webnettubes for a 2001 LC but also confused, as it conflicted with the excellent how-to video from YotaMD.

The confusion arose from whether ACC and Battery passed through the factory amp and whether it was necessary to jumper them together once removing the factory amp, as indicated by YotaMD (e.g. A2/A9 jumper and B7/A3 jumper). Well, I'm happy to report that with my 2001, it was not necessary - the EWD excerpt is correct.

If you look at the PDF, you can see that both ACC and Battery are connected directly to the fuse from the radio harness rather than routed down through the amp and back. This saves the A2/A9 and B7/A3 jumpering (and saved me a trip to Napa for some wire taps). BUT - you still need to grab a ground somewhere as that lead DID pass through the amp. You can either grab it from the dash on the stereo harness or car wiring harness, or use what for me is the more convenient (if technically less electrically sound) solution, clipping the brown ground wire out of connector B and grounding under the seat.

 

[suadero]

In the first image, you can see the Metra 70-8116 connector plugged into the amp "A" connector. The four wires in the Metra to the top left are connected to the factory harness wires back to the factory sub. As I removed my sub, these are not used (for now - reserved for a backup camera, perhaps), and are visible in the second picture left loose on the dash side of the harness. In the third picture, you can see the front and rear speaker wires connected to the radio harness in the dash. (Note: In the first picture, on the left hand side of the factory "A" connector, you can see the blue/yellow and blue/yellow/grey wires - these are the A7/A16 +B wires, but again in my 2001, no action to jumper them was necessary and they can remain untouched.)

 

[suadero]

Now for the "B" connector. Literally all you have to do for a 2001 LC 100 is shown in image 1 - clip out the brown power connector, which comes from your radio in the dash, and ground it as shown. (You'll note the factory amp is already removed). The second image shows the ACC, battery, antenna and ground wire in the other connector of the Metra 70-8116 - these connect to the appropriate wires on the factory harness.

 

[suadero]

First the test (to make sure my interpretation of the EWD was correct) then the mounting. I think the XAV-AX100 looks great in any dash (and I've had this very unit in three cars already!). Aside from the bypass stuff, which took some sweat but wasn't particularly hard, the LC100 was the easiest dash I've yet mounted a radio in. Third shot is another plug for @BenCC 's incredible 3d printed switch/USB bracket - having a factory looking USB is amazing. The switch is in there, and will be eventually used to control the solenoid, but it's not connected to anything yet. (Have to get the underhood 2nd battery stuff sorted out first.)

 

[suadero]

The mystery box! I spent a good 60 minutes last night trying to figure out the part number for this little gem, which would replace my (now removed) subwoofer and block some of the noise coming through the speaker-cutout trim panel. I settled on this: Genuine Toyota 62603-60010-A1 (6260360010A1) BOARD SUB-ASSY, QUARTER TRIM, LOWER
We'll see if I was correct or not, but it was acceptable risk.

 

[suadero]

You can see the whole saga on the poverty pack thread, but a bunch of variants of the pocket including the one I cited above are NLA. I have an order in for this one, we'll see if it's still available: Genuine Toyota 62603-60010-B1 (6260360010B1) BOARD SUB-ASSY, QUARTER TRIM, LOWER

In the meantime, I got a couple new master keys cut and programmed. I also found out that the squeaky brakes are from crap parts, but that they're not worn down per se.

 

[suadero]

Subwoofer replacement pocket - arrived but not yet installed. Only grey available now.

 

[suadero]

Poverty pocket and ARB side floor kit installed.