Yoshi the HDJ81 (4 Viewers)

[kenavt]

Hello everyone, it's been a minute! It's been a busy but very exciting 2024 for me - got married in October, bought a house in November, and moved in December. So not much has happened on Yoshi in the interim beyond driving around and helping friends move. I've put on over 2200 miles and Yoshi's been running excellently with no issues.

My one big project, once short days arrived in Seattle, was been retrofitting LEDs all throughout the interior after starting with the altimeter and compass. I even tore apart the HVAC panel and soldered in new LEDs, which was a pain. However that made a huge difference - the HVAC panel lights are now visible in daylight, and nice and bright at nighttime.

I followed this great chart for USDM 80s, with some changes since HDJ81s have different telltales.

I also popped off the reversing JDM buzzer. That thing drove me mad, it's nice to have it gone. It is just clipped in - easy to pull out by hand, no screws or anything.

The only downside of the whole job has been that the HDJ81s don't appear to come with rheostats, so I find the cluster lighting (and some of the telltales) a bit bright at night. My ABS light is constantly on right now since I have the ABS solenoids unplugged; so I ended up swapping that light back for an incandescent. I will probably do the same for the green CRUISE telltale since that is quite annoying for long night highway stretches.

I think these two pictures below (during the day and at night) illustrate how bright things can get (as well as how green the SuperBrightLEDs cluster backlights I ordered are). I do wish the cluster backlights were a bit less green and a bit more white, but it's more important that everything is visible now.

 

[kenavt]

If anyone is interested in the EGR blockoff plates I fabricated, I've listed them in the Classifields at $50/set (kinda expensive but if I can get a lot of interest I can drop the price!) and also wrote up more detailed instructions.

I haven't done any more work on the brakes. I don't love the soft feeling, but I'm able to lock them up when I really push down so I feel good about that. I did buy some aftermarket front calipers to install, likely sometime in the next few months.

The other future big project I'm thinking about is doing a 2" lift with Dobinson variable rate springs as a nice upgrade. It means I won't be able to enter 6'8" parking garages in the Seattle area, but the ride quality and extra clearance will be lovely. I need to set up the garage in my new house (my very own garage I own!!) and I think that or new front calipers will be the first big job.

 

[ikarus]

Nice, congrats on the marriage and house too!

 

[kenavt]

And it's been five months since my last update! Time really flies. Until the past two weeks, I hadn't been up to much besides driving around town.

In late April, I changed the oil and put on a new OEM filter (for the first time in two years/8k miles, whoops - I want to do every year at a minimum). Around the same time I also had one of my two Costco Interstate batteries start leaking acid (at about 33 months/19k miles), and picked up another one.

I also had a slowly growing coolant leak that was coming down my RH side fender lining. I tried to find it, but got lost in the fender lining and under the exhaust manifold. It was an annoying puzzle, and I ignored it for a while until it gradually got worse and worse. Topped off the coolant a few times but it was becoming untenable - the underside of the truck started looking like a murder scene. Realizing that the firewall was wet helped me realize that it was the front cabin heater outlet hose clamp, which was soaking the firewall NVH foam and resulting in multiple convoluted weird paths to the ground.

I took the opportunity to bypass the rear heater - I've literally never used it in my time in the truck. As per this thread, I ordered a Toyota PN 87209-60360 hose that was the front heater inlet hose for non-rear-heater-equipped trucks. It nicely bypassed the rear heater inlet. And then for the outlet I just used a piece of straight Gates 5/8" safety stripe hose. Getting stuff off was a pain but installing the two hoses was nice and easy.

Maybe if I get into skiing this season and have passengers I'll go through and replace the hard and soft lines and get the rear heater working again.

 

[kenavt]

I also tried to replace my lower rad hose with OEM parts (instead of the Chinese kit I bought two years ago).

I need to do a full writeup on my coolant hose setup because I've never written it all down, and I've learned a few things since then.

For the lower rad hose, it's barely long enough to make it from my 1HZ radiator to the thermostat housing; and I had to heat it up to get it to fit around the thermostat housing. The hose clamps did not fit on the thermostat housing end, so I went out and got some 2-2.25" constant tension clamps (Dorman 14188 for ten, 14088 for two) and they just fit at that end. This is enough for rolling around; but if the hose doesn't relax into a better shape I will look at replacing it with a straight-across piece that I bend a little bit.

View attachment 3618881

View attachment 3618880

I also had a coolant leak from my lower rad hose in 2025, which lead me down a rabbit hole that resulted in me remedying an accidental mistake I made from when I replaced my lower rad hose with an OEM part (instead of a cheap Chinese silicone kit). It turns out I ordered the wrong part! It turns out that I ordered an upper rad hose PN 16571-17010 and stretched it to fit across the lower side. That was a real feat of hard (but dumb) work by me. The correct PN is 16572-17010 (the fifth digit is a 2, not a 1). It fits nicely.

The correct OEM part is on the left; the OEM upper rad hose I tortured into place (and pulled off the truck) is on the right. I'm impressed I managed to shoehorn it on there.

 

[kenavt]

Lastly, I spent the last two weeks installing a 2" Dobinson lift from ExitOffroad! Thanks @crikeymike for all the help over email and shipping the kit! I specifically went with specific components I had experienced on another 80-series and had liked:

• C59-222V front coils (in teal of course)
• C59-223V rear coils (in teal of course)
• GS59-693 front shocks
• GS59-682 rear shocks
• Dobinsons steering damper
• Dobinsons LPSV adjustment bracket

The install was quite a journey. I followed instructions from the Slee OME install page, and this YouTube video.

I did the rear suspension first, solo, and without an impact. It was a lot of sweating and multiple days after work, but I got the shocks and springs in. I did a couple rounds of PB Blaster on all the bolts after I snapped off one of the LPSV arm bracket mounting bolts on the diff. I had to drill that out and tap it back for M8-1.25mm. I also learned a lot of ways to use a spring compressor wrong (so it hits the frame when I go to install, or upside down so its near-impossible to loosen).

The only thing I did differently on the rear then the Slee instructions is that I also pulled out the bump stops as I wanted more clearance for fitting the coils in.

To do the front, I treated myself to a Father's Day special and bought into the Milwaukee M18 battery tool system - a drill and an impact wrench. Impact wrenches are incredible (who knew??). I also pulled in two buddies to help with the front, which made it really easy.

I will have before/after photos of the stance later this week!

 

[kenavt]

Getting the old OEM steering dampener off (to put the Dobinsons one on) was an unexpected huge pain (maybe because this was my first time doing suspension work). This thread and this thread and this YouTube video and this YouTube video were all helpful for reinforcing the procedure. But actually gettin gate steering dampener off was so frickin' difficult! Nothing really prepared me for how hard that was.

I picked up the Autozone tool loaner tie rod end remover and tie rod end separator (aka pitch fork), and ended up using one for each side. After lots of trial and error, I ended up using the tie rod end remover on the steering damper side that went straight into a bracket (after taking the bracket off). And I had to use my impact on it which I did not enjoy. For the other side connecting to the pitman arm, I turned the steering wheel to move the tires to give myself more clearance, then tried using the tie rod end remover. I eventually gave up on that, took out the pitch fork and whaled on it for a while with a 45oz dead blow hammer. Eventually it finally gave.

Installation was straightforward once I straightened out the wheels though!

 

[Andrew S]

View attachment 3934272

Nice work on the hose replacements! I can highly recommend throwing away the worm drive style hose clamps, and using the Toyota constant tension style. I solved a whole bunch of leaks on my 80 series that way. (I know, the last thing you want to do is take any hoses off again...!)

 

[kenavt]

Nice work on the hose replacements! I can highly recommend throwing away the worm drive style hose clamps, and using the Toyota constant tension style. I solved a whole bunch of leaks on my 80 series that way. (I know, the last thing you want to do is take any hoses off again...!)

A few people have mentioned this to me over the years! I've had more luck with worm drive style than most it seems. I also find that they don't work on non-OEM hoses that have different outer diameters for whatever reason (which I had to use for 1HD-FT coolant hoses that are NLA - instead had aftermarket silicone hoses and auto parts store molded hoses).

That said, when the constant tension clamps do work they're great - the two hose ends that attach to the firewall use them, in that tight space they're invaluable.

 

[Andrew S]

Yes, that's 100% accurate, the constant tension have a pretty narrow range of diameters they'll clamp correctly on. I have a list of all the sizes I know of, with diameters and part numbers.

Glad to hear you have not had issues with the worm drive style.

 

[FMC80]

Good work! Seems you gained quality components for your cruiser, but also gained valuable experience during the process. Now to enjoy!

 

[kenavt]

Yes, that's 100% accurate, the constant tension have a pretty narrow range of diameters they'll clamp correctly on. I have a list of all the sizes I know of, with diameters and part numbers.

Glad to hear you have not had issues with the worm drive style.

Having that list sounds invaluable. Is that something you’d be willing to share with the community (if you haven’t already)? That would definitely help me in the future!

Good work! Seems you gained quality components for your cruiser, but also gained valuable experience during the process. Now to enjoy!

Thank you! It was a lot of fun too!

 

[Andrew S]

Having that list sounds invaluable. Is that something you’d be willing to share with the community (if you haven’t already)? That would definitely help me in the future!

Happy to share the information. The ID dimensions are what I've found noted in parts books/diagrams/etc. I've been meaning to order the ones with question marks to verify, but the rest I have checked. The wire loop style are used on 1970's era vehicles, but some carried over into the 1980's.

ID (mm)	Wire loop w/ screw tensioner clamps	Constant tension band clamps
5/8"?​		96134-42100
16?​		96135-51300
20?​		90467-17013
20+?​		90467-20011
25​	96112-10250	90467-21010 (light gauge 90467-22004 (single layer spring))
27​		90467-41002
30​		90467-43002
33​	96112-10330	96134-52600
49​	90460-49062	90466-41003 or 90466-A0026
50​	96111-10500	90466-41003 or 90466-A0026
58​	90460-58013 supersedes to: 96111-10580

These three I also need to order and measure:

90467-37005

90467-41008

90466-41008

 

[kenavt]

Happy to share the information. The ID dimensions are what I've found noted in parts books/diagrams/etc. I've been meaning to order the ones with question marks to verify, but the rest I have checked. The wire loop style are used on 1970's era vehicles, but some carried over into the 1980's.

ID (mm)	Wire loop w/ screw tensioner clamps	Constant tension band clamps
5/8"?​		96134-42100
16?​		96135-51300
20?​		90467-17013
20+?​		90467-20011
25​	96112-10250	90467-21010 (light gauge 90467-22004 (single layer spring))
27​		90467-41002
30​		90467-43002
33​	96112-10330	96134-52600
49​	90460-49062	90466-41003 or 90466-A0026
50​	96111-10500	90466-41003 or 90466-A0026
58​	90460-58013 supersedes to: 96111-10580

These three I also need to order and measure:

90467-37005

90467-41008

90466-41008

This is great! Thank you!!

 

[duece71]

Happy to share the information. The ID dimensions are what I've found noted in parts books/diagrams/etc. I've been meaning to order the ones with question marks to verify, but the rest I have checked. The wire loop style are used on 1970's era vehicles, but some carried over into the 1980's.

ID (mm)	Wire loop w/ screw tensioner clamps	Constant tension band clamps
5/8"?​		96134-42100
16?​		96135-51300
20?​		90467-17013
20+?​		90467-20011
25​	96112-10250	90467-21010 (light gauge 90467-22004 (single layer spring))
27​		90467-41002
30​		90467-43002
33​	96112-10330	96134-52600
49​	90460-49062	90466-41003 or 90466-A0026
50​	96111-10500	90466-41003 or 90466-A0026
58​	90460-58013 supersedes to: 96111-10580

These three I also need to order and measure:

90467-37005

90467-41008

90466-41008

Nice and thank you for posting.

 

[kenavt]

In lieu of measurements (since I forgot to do before measurements), here is a before-and-after picture of the Dobinsons lift.