GCRAD1's ADV80

[GCRad1]

So the ADV80 is now in 2WD, more like 1WD mode for a little while and it is carrying me to/from work every day. In the mean time, I am waiting for the money tree to grow in the backyard, to afford to get the all fixed and processing what it will take to make upgrades at the same time.

In the mean time, it's those little items that can keep us going during the long upgrade waits.
So, here is a little inexpensive fun project to do in the time of big project waits.

THANK YOU to my Gabe Pari who came up with a great fix and upgrade at the same time! On top of that - at a very economical price too! Like him, I am unwilling to pay $137.50 - EACH!!! for hatch struts from the local Toyota dealer. Gabe sorted out a mod on some struts that are easily obtainable, and priced very reasonable...

Total price is $31 for the pair from McMaster-Carr: http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/118/1204/=izyhtj
Part #4138T579 - Gas Spring with Ball-Joint End Fitting 90 lb Force, 19.72" Extended Length, 7.87" Stroke




The culprit, factory gas-juice has left the tube! Dust traces the escapage path.

So I made the McMasterCarr order for both the struts and the thin 5/16 nuts. Package arrived and my mission begins. This is going to be the shadetree-parking lot installation version.


I start by getting a stick and proping up the rear hatch.


A good place to place the stick up top in is in the rear-hatch handle slot to keep it from popping out and dropping the hatch on your head.

I get the right side strut removed. I don't have a vice and my workbench is working overtime holding too much crap to even work on it, so I figure out a way to just work on the tailgate. I am from Alabama originally - BAMA-GETTER-DONE-TECH!!!

I toss the gas strut-tab into the vice-grips so I can hacksaw off the press-in post.



Now onto the other side's mount and this time I figure out how to get a little more heigth out of the vice-grips by placing the mount in at a angle.

Now to drill out the pressed in shaft-pins:

The pins have a natural drill point.


Vice-Grips to hold the mount and drilling begins!


Mounts drilled and toss on some paint to prevent rust.


Mount up the new strut to the mounts. Note bolt/post is rather long with the thin-nut on.

So I rig up my vice...

Vice-Grips that is!


We are going to cut the excess bolt off.


I replace the stock grease with some Bel Ray waterproof grease. Yea, I ride motorcycles too.


LocTite for the vibration sensation at woop city. I heard that Death Valley has a 27-mile road with 6" square ruts that will vibrate your teeth loose.


Re-install the top mount.


This shows you how much lift we are going to have! At this point I will need to remove the left factory strut so I can push the door up to.


The stick goes straight up and I need a little booster block to get it up enough to get the new longer strut in place. SWEEEET!


I add a couple of washers to the mounting bolts for a little clearance for the strut bolt and nut to clear the side of the body.
Duplicate process for the other side and now you are FINISHED!

New and improved!

[GCRad1]

While I'm waiting on working on the real issues of my rig, may as well work on some fun stuff!
6828776596_c7f8288daa_z.jpg
Removed the middle row seats, center console and carpet.

I got some Cascade Audio Engineering VB-1X & TG-1 Thermaguard material to use for sound dampening and heat shielding. But before we get into that, there is the rear heater that sits under the front passengers seat that needs to be removed and cleaned out as the previous owner seemed to have left me some crumbs, money, trash and dried soda.



What you do not see from the top side is that the heater has two hoses from underneath that will need to be disconnected. You will need to get a bucket to catch the antifreeze if you are not looking to make a mess all over your driveway.


Back on the topside, you can see the mess I have discovered under the heater unit:



The floor gets a thorough cleaning!

Now for the fun stuff!!!

Cascade Audio Engineering VB-1X & TG-1 Thermaguard


Cascade Audio Engineering VB-1X Liquid Vibration Damping Compound
Red more about it here: VB-1X Liquid Damping Compound For Boats



The Cascade Audio Engineering VB-1X is the first layer and goes on in a blue purple color and dries to black. This is for sound damping.



What I am really on about is the Cascade Audio Engineering TG-1 Thermaguard for HEAT!!! I recorded heat temperatures of 138 degrees coming off the transmission housing on the drivers side! So my thought is to give my A/C all the advantage I can by blocking as much of this heat as possible. Read more about it here: TG-1 keeps your vehicle cool and comfortable!

So I get after it!



While the first coat of TG-1 is drying, I take the heater fan apart as every time I turned it on, I got a couple of rattles from something loose inside.



The culprit and tell-tell sign that this rig has had a broken window as my little rattle is a couple of pieces of broken glass.

I give the pan a good cleaning:


Scrub the fan while I am at it too! When will be the next time I'm ever going to be back in here? But you never know...



For instance, does anyone know if this sensor looks correct? When I opened it up, it had some crust on it and I do not know if there was some type of coating that is suppose to be on here, or if it was truly just some random crust as it had an almost ceramic type feel to it????

It's all back together and going back in:




Cascade Audio Engineering sound and thermal coat - round one is complete. I will be doing another coat later once I get the shift plate gasket replaced and the chance to coat that area under neither there as well. I will also take a temp test with one coat and see what that does.

[Driver-Navigator]

At least it looks like you found enough loose change to pay for the thermal coating. I don't want to know what's down there in my 80, especially thanks to my daughter... Nice work.

[GCRad1]

Prior to installing the Cascade Audio Engineering sound and thermal coatings I recorded 138F degrees coming off the transmission housing. This is the temp recorded with the interior carpet removed. The transmission is so large and puts off all this heat, I wanted to see if I could make it cooler inside just by keeping the heat generated from the motor & transmission at bay.

I conducted the test a couple of days in a row to see if there was any variance. Our weather has been consistent, but I would have to do this test over several different times during the day at various temperatures to get thorough data collection. But we all have jobs here... So this simple sample will suffice.

After the coatings:
The 116F temp was recorded while driving to work.
The 119F temp was recorded while sitting at the light right before I pull into work.

Before the coatings:
The previous 138F temp was recorded while driving to work and I did not think to test while sitting at the light at that time. With that, if you take this 138F temp and subtract the 119F temp, you still have a 19 degree reduction in heat.
Not bad! I am going to do another coat of the Cascade Audio Engineering's TG-1 Thermalcoat around the transmission housing once I replace the shifter gasket, so we will see if by just adding more material, will it result lower temperatures?

I'm happy with it so far!

[GCRad1]

Coolstream A/C Parts for the ADV80 arrived!!!

I'm on my way to having A/C in the Land Cruiser - FINALLY! Only after 4-years as I bought this rig back in July of 2008.

Check out Coolstream pdf-doc for your Land Cruiser A/C prices!
http://coolstreamac.com/images/LandCruiser.pdf

The site: coolstreamac.com

[GCRad1]

I finally got around to ordering the boot!
And I got another package!!



I got a used lower shifter boot Specter P#: 065-045B-U $25 used or $51.70 new. I went for the used one.

Here is the page I ordered it from:
Specter Off-Road Land Cruiser Parts - Search On pagetitle2...

Here is the exploded view diagram page / part #045 in the FJ80 section:
Specter Off-Road Land Cruiser Parts - Page 065 Land Cruiser Automatic Transmissions


Now I am in business to get on with my floor project and get the gapping hole closed up!

[GCRad1]

Getting a little time to work on the A/C. Kinda' late as summer practically over, but it is still blistering in Southern California right now! I have made it a few years without it, same time I'm missing another outting with my family & adventure partner as he is taking off tomorrow on a trip with his family to the Sierra's! I have to get this A/C going!!!

What I got from Coolstream A/C:


What I paid and when you do your homework you will see that will not even buy the one part from Toyota.

New expansion valve on top:



Bought the correct R12 Lubricant to start putting things back together - yes, I read instructions when I am doing things I do not know how or what I am doing. I had no idea there is special lubricants for A/C stuff:

Pep Boys did not have it, I had to go to Hub Auto on Harbor blvd, local old school parts supplier, so you might want to call around for it before you get started.


I juice up the o-rings.


I juice up the area where the o-rings will be fitted onto.


O-rings in place and slide the expansion valve in place.


The cross pipes are next to be installed.


The expansion valve has two bolts that holds the cross pipes in place. Now its ready to go back into the housing.


I drop the mini-rad into one side of the housing.


Slide the other half of the A/C housing into place.


Don't forget to put this sensor back into place as it goes through a small cut-outs between the two housings, before it gets snapped and screwed together... yes, like I forgot to do...

Detail of the small cut-outs:



Then its time to install the rubber gasket.


This is the gasket that goes through the firewall.


The "garage part" is buttoned up and ready to go back inside, but the truck is outside and it's hot out there...rincess: So much-much more to do!

[GCRad1]

Finally going to addess this hole in my shifter boot! It's letting a lot of heat into the cabin of the truck from from all the heat coming off the motor & transmission.
This shot [above] is when the shifter is in Park.

This shot is of when it is in Drive:



Here is a shot so you can see the boot location in the center console.


I start pulling out the center plate.


You can see the arm for the 4H/L shifter, this is where the big tear is.


Here is the torn boot area and this was letting in a lot of heat from the transmission into the cabin. I think I said that already...


Shifter plate is out!


Underside of the shift plate and you can see the rubber boot.


Start pulling the shifter assembly apart.


The through shaft is looking a bit rough and parched for grease.


From my dirtbiking, the Baja racers like to have nice smooth detailed axles for quick changes. I do the same for my dirtbikes and so I figured it wouldn't hurt to do that here as well.


Center console area without the shifter plate in place. You can see my white Thermalcoat materal. Time to add a few layers and fill in the missing area too!

[GCRad1]

I add another layer of Soundcoating [black material goes on blue].

While that is drying, its time to takle the shifter boot.

Old crusty boot on left, newer and or better condition boot on the right.


Fresh boot going back in!


When you remove the rubber, there are these metal guide sleeves you will want to pull out and save.


I dabbed a little grease on them going back in.


Shifter assembly going back in. Notice the main shifter is not installed yet to make the process go easier as you want to hook up the 4H/L shift arm to the shaft first.


Then install the main shifter.


Once the main shifter is in place then I installed the shaft bolt that holds it into place. Makes the installation much easier...
How do I know? Yea, I had it all assembled and tried to put it back only to get frustrated! hehehe


Shifter Bulb & Cover is left out to remind me that it needs replacing. Anyone know of a LED replacement?

If not, I will need to order - Part Diagram:
http://www.sor.com/sor/cat065b.tam
Part #110 in FJ80 diagram


Drop the secondary boot back in and bolt down and we are almost finished!


OK, now we are finished... with just this little portion of fixin' the ol' ADV80!


Final coat of Thermalcoat heat shield for good measure.

[GCRad1]

Went to Home Depot to pick up some ADV80 items.
1-roll of Nashua Extreme Cold Weather Foil Tape $21.
1-roll of Enerflex Radiant Barrier foil $16.

I was thinking about that super-dope F1 gold heat protection foil and thought I would do the budget version test.

Previous temp gun readings from my first test yielded some good numbers, but we are human, we want MORE! So if I can drop from 138F to an average 117.5F, then how much more can I drop? When I did this initial test it was June and still cool weather compared to what we are seeing right now. So I figured my original test could be a little higher with the higher outside ambient temps.



So I rigged up this little test panel so I can take temp readings on various spots before I just wrap the whole transmission tunnel.



While driving on the freeway I performed the same type of test readings I did previously; I am taking a couple of readings from the Thermalcoated section without the Radiant Barrier.


Here is my temp test reading from the Radiant Barrier patch. I think I am getting somewhere with this!!!
Sorry for the blurred images; its hard to drive, shot photos and opporate the laser gun all at the same time.