Yoshi the HDJ81 (2 Viewers)

[kenavt]

I also bypassed my EGR system by fabbing some blockoff plates, pulling off the EGR valves, and rerouting a vacuum hose. Talked about in this thread.

Would there be any interest from folks to buy EGR cutoff plates for their 1HD-FT trucks? The only ones I've seen for purchase online have been from Australia for a lot more then they cost me (before shipping).

 

[thetoyotaman]

IDK if you ever got your brakes where you wanted them but maybe this will help. Earlier this year I had a caliper start leaking and the master cylinder emptied out. I filled it and bled with a hand pump bleeder and it would not feel right. Borrowed a friends pressurized bottle that attaches to the cap and found air at all 4 wheels at this point. Without that tool, I don't believe I would have ever got all the air out of the lines.

 

[kenavt]

IDK if you ever got your brakes where you wanted them but maybe this will help. Earlier this year I had a caliper start leaking and the master cylinder emptied out. I filled it and bled with a hand pump bleeder and it would not feel right. Borrowed a friends pressurized bottle that attaches to the cap and found air at all 4 wheels at this point. Without that tool, I don't believe I would have ever got all the air out of the lines.

I haven’t gotten them where’d I want them yet!

I have a new standard Motive brand bleeder and a new OEM LPSV sitting on the shelf. That’s on my list to do first. I’ll try a pressure bleeder after that!

 

[kenavt]

The biggest issue facing the truck after sitting since December was that a ton of mold had grown in it while sitting in the garage! I left the driver's door (RHD) down for over a month before closing it... and mold clearly grew from there all over the driver's seat, steering wheel, passenger seat, shifter... it was gross. I'm going to skip the photos because they seriously grossed me out, so take my word for it.

My fiancee is very paranoid about mold, so I figured I would pay someone to thoroughly ozone and go through the car to remove any and all trace of it. I went with Buggy Scrubbers in SeaTac and they did a great job! The car interior looks cleaner then when it rolled off the boat at the Tacoma port two years ago; and all the plastics still seem perfectly fine. They did over 12 hours of ozone, pulled the carpets and deep-cleaned, and even tracked down that there's an interior leak. That was my next immediate project - to prevent any future mold, especially here in the PNW.

Dennis at Buggy Scrubbers told me it was probably the sunroof, and I know 80s' sunroofs' do leak, so I figured I'd start there plus clearing the sunroof drain hoses. I tore apart the interior and pealed back the headliner enough to see the four sunroof drain hoses (recommend this quick YouTube to see what you're looking for), and discovered... the rear right of them wasn't hooked up at all! Turns out it somehow had fallen back and gotten stuck inside the body - some previous owner has sprayed some black sticky substance in there behind the rear interior panels and the hose was stuck to the top of the fender. Once I pulled the hose off, I could hook it back up. That said, there was no water damage or any real dirt there, so I guess no real damage done. I confirmed the sunroof drain hoses still drained by spraying water into them, and then poured lots of water over the sunroof.

That's when I realized the sunroof wasn't leaking, but was actually leaking was the windshield. The bottom left corner is leaking, and then water dribbles down by the drain hole in the body in the passenger footwell. So some sort of windshield re-seal is in my future, and the truck still largely lives in the garage for now.

The leak below:

And the water pools in the red circle, right on top of a rubber drain plug. Please ignore all the extra wiring - my truck has some JDM accessories I'm still wrapping my head around.

 

[kenavt]

IDK if you ever got your brakes where you wanted them but maybe this will help. Earlier this year I had a caliper start leaking and the master cylinder emptied out. I filled it and bled with a hand pump bleeder and it would not feel right. Borrowed a friends pressurized bottle that attaches to the cap and found air at all 4 wheels at this point. Without that tool, I don't believe I would have ever got all the air out of the lines.

I still haven't gotten my brakes anywhere where I want them. Today I tried a Motive bleeder (specifically the 0101 bleeder and the 1101 universal fit cap they recommend for all Toyotas), and bleeding at all four corners, and it failed to improve my brake pedal feel. That said, I'm not sure it worked properly for a few reasons...

• It would lose about 1psi/minute of pressure when I did an air test. I think this was probably through the attachment between the bleeder hose and the brake reservoir universal cap hose, because once I re-pressurized with brake fluid, it dripped out very very very very slowly while I bled the brakes. It did seem to hold pressure when I re-pressurized with brake fluid.
• Very little fluid came out at each corner - the equivalent of two or three pedal pushes using the old-fashioned 2-person method.
• I started with the reservoir at the full mark; when I was done and released pressure at the bleeder pump handle then took off the pump cap fitting; the brake reservoir was overflowing, and I had to use a syringe to take fluid out of the reservoir. The various guides I saw online (like FCPEuro's page and their YouTube video) say that the brake reservoir should be at the correct level.

Was I using the brake bleeder wrong?

Next I'll try swapping the LPSV and see where that takes me. A little bit of crud (rust)? came out of it when I bled it today, and it looks rusty and gross, and they go bad and I have a new one on the bench. Seems like a better place to try then any.

 

[ikarus]

I use this adaptor with a Smotive Pro bleeder (total knockoff but I think it's better in some ways than Motive.) Don't know if this might help you:

Amazon.com

 

[kenavt]

I use this adaptor with a Smotive Pro bleeder (total knockoff but I think it's better in some ways than Motive.) Don't know if this might help you:

Amazon.com

Oh nice, thank you! I had been looking for these online but hadn't found them.

 

[thetoyotaman]

FWIW I just tried this and it wouldn't seal so it's going back. Going to try a Power Probe BA10 as I borrowed one from a friend that worked.

 

[ikarus]

FWIW I just tried this and it wouldn't seal so it's going back. Going to try a Power Probe BA10 as I borrowed one from a friend that worked.

That looks even better. I had no problem with mine but that BA10 looks better constructed

 

[thetoyotaman]

I think it can be tightened unlike the Amazon one. The Amazon one looked great but I think there are tiny variances in the plastic reservoir that made the other one work better. Due to the leak with the Amazon one I was just leaking fluid out the reservoir. On this kind of setup it does overfill the reservoir when working correctly but you can use a hand vacuum pump or turkey baster to set the level when done.

 

[CharlieS]

FWIW I just tried this and it wouldn't seal so it's going back. Going to try a Power Probe BA10 as I borrowed one from a friend that worked.

The Power Probe BA10 is the cap adapter I use with my Motive bleeder on the 80 and it works well.

 

[kenavt]

The Power Probe BA10 I have not seen available on Amazon for months, or anywhere online for <$70. But I still might try it if my power bleeder doesn’t hold pressure well.

 

[Andrew S]

I can recommend the BA10 adapter, it's worked great for me. If you don't have any leaks in the system, the fluid level in the master cylinder reservoir won't change from start to finish.

Do you have new pads/rotors in your system? Have you bedded in the pads already? I went through this on another car recently, it took several cycles of bedding in the pads before I was satisfied with the performance. Symptoms were a very long stroke on the pedal, and only about 50% of the braking capability I had before replacing old parts with new.

 

[kenavt]

As a recap, here's what I've done on my brakes so far:

• Bleeding the whole system
• Bench-tested my master cylinder by removing the hardlines and plugging the outlets. It holds pressure just fine.
• Tried bleeding my ABS module by actuating it manually with and without the engine running, then bleeding. Didn't make a change.
• Bypassed my ABS module and bled - no improvement
• This past week I swapped my LPSV and then bled the whole system again. This didn't resolve the problem either, even though my LPSV looked super crusty and gross (take a look at the picture below!). I highly recommend this YouTube video for this if you're not sure about what to do with the linkage and want pictures, since I found the FSM lacking.

So I think what's next would be replacing my calipers, and might as well put in stainless steel lines while I'm there since I want to do a lift at some point and it would be useful for that. At that point I'll have effectively gone through the whole system besides hardlines.

I'm open to other suggestions and ideas! This is a pain in the ass to tie down.

 

[kenavt]

I've also been chipping away at other stuff. A buddy came over this weekend and helped me flush the power steering system with fresh Dexron VI ATF. The FSM manual's method was pretty good for this (jack up the front end; unbolt the reservoir, unplug the return hose to the reservoir, go lock-to-lock a few times while topping off the fluid until it comes out black; then run the engine for 1-2s a few times until air is all out). A buddy was really helpful for watching and plugging the return hose while someone else was in the driver's seat. My power steering sounded unhappy when cold and near full lock, and my ATF fluid smelled cooked and was real black, so I'm hopeful this will be a good improvement!

Also working on my interior illumination lights. A couple are burned out, so I think I'm going to replace them with LED. This was a good test of some cheap Amazon specials, plus I love the JDM compass and altimeter:

 

[Andrew S]

I read through your brake woes from the beginning, and I'd definitely suggest a few cycles of bedding in the pads to the rotors. I was skeptical on my own project, but it really did make a huge improvement. And it's free!
Make about 6-10 very hard consecutive brake applications from ~70-40mph, or sooner if you feel the brakes start to fade from getting hot. Drive home and let everything cool down overnight. Try not to keep the brakes applied at stoplights on your way home if you can help it, use the e-brake or stop the engine while in gear. If you see an improvement in the morning, run another cycle. It took me about 4 runs to get back to normal.

You can always add the stainless lines after if you don't see enough improvement. Good luck!

 

[kenavt]

I read through your brake woes from the beginning, and I'd definitely suggest a few cycles of bedding in the pads to the rotors. I was skeptical on my own project, but it really did make a huge improvement. And it's free!
Make about 6-10 very hard consecutive brake applications from ~70-40mph, or sooner if you feel the brakes start to fade from getting hot. Drive home and let everything cool down overnight. Try not to keep the brakes applied at stoplights on your way home if you can help it, use the e-brake or stop the engine while in gear. If you see an improvement in the morning, run another cycle. It took me about 4 runs to get back to normal.

You can always add the stainless lines after if you don't see enough improvement. Good luck!

I have never replaced the pads or rotors in my ownership of the truck (15k miles/2 years). My understanding of bedding in my pads/rotors is that is only useful when they’re fresh… is that not true?

 

[Dusten]

I have never replaced the pads or rotors in my ownership of the truck (15k miles/2 years). My understanding of bedding in my pads/rotors is that is only useful when they’re fresh… is that not true?

I'm curious if you've driven another 80 to compare?

 

[Andrew S]

I agree, bedding in is definitely something needed more often with new pads/rotors. But, since you never know what the previous owner did or didn't do, I'd still give it a shot. And Dusten's suggestion of driving another 80 series to compare is also an excellent idea.

 

[kenavt]

I'm curious if you've driven another 80 to compare?

I drove a low-mileage USDM FZJ80 last year a couple of miles. The brake pedal stiffness (and steering wheel play) were noticeably better then my truck. And it was way quieter with the 3FZ

I agree, bedding in is definitely something needed more often with new pads/rotors. But, since you never know what the previous owner did or didn't do, I'd still give it a shot. And Dusten's suggestion of driving another 80 series to compare is also an excellent idea.

I am curious now, so I will try it. Whatever previous owners this truck had in Japan had some weird thoughts about this truck I believe (like having magnets taped on the fuel lines as some sort of fuel-saving scam) so anything's possible.