tmleadr03 builds up "The Tank" FZJ80

[tmleadr03]

tmleadr will know if it's the soup when he pull the hub to tighten the bearings. Could just be slush from water, or just residue from a previous leak that was in the diff mixed into the new dope.

I'm with you TL on just looking at the truck closely. I've begun to think mine is self healing. I had an issue with mine that if I pushed on the gas at all, it automatically downshifted a gear. It was fine sometimes, but when it shifts from 3rd to 1st at 20 mph, it was screaming. I was gonna adjust the kickdown cable, and just put it through it's motion, and decided to wait til later to repair it. The next day the shifting was normal and I actually have a useful gas pedal now.

Now if the pwr antenna would fix itself, and the TC bearings would tighten up, and the parking brake would ....

Pretty much how I look at it. I am going to do the tie rod end, wheel bearing and flush it again all at once. Hopefully this week. Have to see how busy the shop ends up being. Right now there may not be time... it really sucks when work takes over and fun has to wait.

 

[mouse007]

Awesome, congratulations...!!! I'm a big Toyota & BMW fan, well I do have an M-Sport x3 & TRD 4x4 Tacoma. Cant wait to see how this turns out. Land Cruisers are amazing, sure miss my old one.

 

[tmleadr03]

First fill up. 11.38 mpg... need a commuter car. Lol!

 

[kletzenklueffer]

My 93 nets an average f about 12.5mpg. I got some 100% gas and the mileage from that tank was around 14.8mpg, but it's too far to drive to get that gas, or the local places treat it like racing gas ($4-5/gallon)

Is Colorado on E85?

 

[tmleadr03]

My 93 nets an average f about 12.5mpg. I got some 100% gas and the mileage from that tank was around 14.8mpg, but it's too far to drive to get that gas, or the local places treat it like racing gas ($4-5/gallon)

Is Colorado on E85?

It does have e85, but I am not running that.

 

[Grim Reaper]

Check the front axle vent and route it up the firewall. Same with the vent on the front locker actuator.

Seems to be a real common issue that the vent gets plugged and then it pushes oil out the seals when it heats up and sucks the grease in from the knuckle when it cools down. Hence being overfilled. :snorkel:

The oil at the front of the motor is about a 95% chance it's the oil pump seal is going bad. Very common complaint. Mine needs one and it only has 133k on the clock. Bunch of write ups on ih8mud. The screws are LocTited. Put some heat to them and you may want to order these before you dig into it. Also order the silicone PHH. Both available here

http://www.phhkit.com

 

[tmleadr03]

Decided it was capable enough as is, haven't done any more work to it (time has been short at the shop). Just took it to a trail. Nothing crazy but it was fun to get some mud on the tires.

Also went to the top of the closest pass, though it was a paved one.

 

[tmleadr03]

Went and ran some trails today.

Pulled a stuck Jeep out of a snow packed trail.

This was a fun part after that the trail was all wet.

Decided not to try crossing this one and turned around.

A lot of the trails looked like this only worse. The mud wasn't bad, the snow would suck you down.

End of the trail, and a shack.

On the way back down (had already split up from the Jeep I was running with at this point) took a wrong turn. It was very steep and muddy and narrow. Much more of a Jeep trail, then a tank (Land Cruiser) trail. Thankfully I have sliders, but it didn't completely save me.

Should have jumped out and got a pic from outside, this doenst do it justice. And I am not a rock crawler.

Here is the damage.

Cleaned up.

 

[tmleadr03]

So the biggest frustration I faced yesterday on the trails was the stupid flashing light saying my rear locker wasn't locking. And there was one trail I could have gotten up if the rear had locked. Wasn't technical, just snow pack killing the traction on the right side of the Cruiser. I had the front locked, but considering the angle the rear was doing most of the work and it was spinning the right RR tire, not grabbing with the LR where it had mud/dirt to grip.

So I fixed it today.

First thing I did was verify that it was actually getting actuated by the switch. Backprobe and read it out.

Ok, that sucks. Electrical problem to the actuator has so much more potential for an easy fix. Ah well. I knew it before I did the test, just wanted to verify. I could hear it moving.

So now I wanted to see what exactly was going on inside there. So a couple of cover plates came off.

Not actuated:

Actuated:

Huh, it looks like it is trying but no dice. It pushed the pin out but not with any force, I could still reach in and wiggle it. At this point I was thinking broken spring. That would be the suck.

Nope. I pulled the second cover off and did some more digging. The gear was rotating to where it should but wasn't putting pressure on the spring to push the pin in. There was so little tension I could remove the gear assembly while it was actuated. Which I did, sorry forgot to snap pics of that. So I played with it a bit, actuated and retracted it using a power probe. And it clicked. I needed to reclock it. The springs were intact, but it looked like the pin gearing had just jumped a tooth. I couldn't see any damage, so I actuated it, pulled the gearing out, pushed the pin in till it locked the diff, put the gearing back in, retracted it. It worked. It pulled the pin out. So I actuated it, it pushed it in and locked the diff. And now it was under tension to the point I couldn't pull it out at both ends of the spectrum.

Not Actuated:

Actuated:

Now to put the cover plates back on, hope the oring is still good and go try it on the dirt next weekend.

 

[tmleadr03]

First of, rear locker worked! Woot! Not as quickly as the front so it is most likely going to be replaced in the next 10-20k miles.

Second, want to know how you can tell you live in one of the best states in the Union? When this is the view on the hardball, an hour before you get to the dirt.

Made it to the dirt and it only got better.

Two weekends running I have had to pull a Jeep out.

Found a camping site, nothing much just a place to park. The view that night was a bit meh.

But waking up the next morning was glorious!

I really do need to take a day off on the weekend trips and actually rebuild my front end. The birfs are on their way out and there is entirely too much play in the gearing. Full day. Sigh. I would much rather be out cruising the mountains then working on it.

 

[All-Terrain]

Great truck and great trails!

Not sure if I missed it - what are the specs and mods on your truck?

 

[tmleadr03]

Great truck and great trails!

Not sure if I missed it - what are the specs and mods on your truck?

Not sure if I posted it. I picked it up as it sits now.

Current:
Factory lockers (working now tested last weekend)
2.5 inch lift
OME 850 front springs
OME 860 rear
ARB Bumper

Upcoming:
Rear bumper with tire carrier
Aux fuel tank where the tire went
Winch
LED light bar for the front
LED interior lighting
Second Battery (probably the same weekend as the winch when I get around to that)
Awning. I really want an awning.

And really that is all I can think of needing. It isn't going to be a rock crawler. My goal is to be able to comfortably do level 7 trails (according to Traildamage.com). And really that would only be a rarity since I will probably stick to 6 and lower. More into seeing new places, not ripping off body trim.

 

[tmleadr03]

Spent a bit working on it today.

One of these is not like the others...

The rear wheel seal was leaking so I figured (especially since it was actually making the abs kick in from oiling my brakes) it was time to take care of that before heading out to the woods again.

Old and busted.

Very badly soaked.

Getting cleaned up.

Shiny!

This is the back side of that wet rotor.

And it looks like another project is on the horizon.

 

[tmleadr03]

Haven't done a great deal of work on the Tank recently. Went 4x4ing last weekend and had the brakes go to **** when they got hot. Flushed the fluid this last week (huh, should have done that much sooner clearly old) and this weekend didn't have an issue all weekend. Also did a rear pinion seal.

Fluid difference:
Before

After

Some pics from last weekend hanging out with some Jeeps.

This weekend I spent in the San Isabel National Forest area and had a wonderful time. Close to the water was a bit buggy, as in as soon as you stopped you were swarmed by mosquitos. They would just hover over everywhere you had bug spray wanting to land.

Here are a few pics from that area.

 

[tmleadr03]

The panoramic pics really get buggered by photobucket. They come out as clear as the rest on my phone and if I upload them directly to the PC but when Photobucket gets them meh.