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You Am I posted:I love the fact they still run factory split rims They’ve FINALLY gone away from the old death rims and gone to a solid tubeless rim. It’s still a 16x6” rim, but you don’t have to worry bout being killed by it changing a tyre now! They also run the DUMBEST tyre size from factory- 225/95R16. With a V8 turbo diesel in front of it. It’s basically a factory spec burnout machine!
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Nov 14, 2019 11:15
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 12:13 |
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Its time for the annual Taxation Office Funded 4wd upgrade party! Theres a few things i've been meaning to do on the Landcruiser for a while now. I finally got sick of my stereo from 2004 because it lacked ANY feature other than an Aux input and a USB, No bluetooth, No carplay support, nothing. That and Its starting to get hard to see whats behind me when its full of gear in the back and with the two wheels hanging on the rear carrier. Plus Im also upgrading my second battery system and investing into solar to keep my beer cold when im doing extended camping stops. So the first thing we tackled was the dual battery system. The turbo diesel 100 series came from factory with two N50 batteries wired in parallel under the bonnet for cranking in cold weather. Its not needed in Aus, so most people simply split them, upgrade them to N70 sized batteries and use one as an aux and one as a crank- Which is what ive done. Currently theres an Optima D27F Yellow Top as the crank battery, and a 105AH powersonic AGM for the secondaries. Up until now i've only used a standard voltage sensitive relay from Redarc, but that wont get you a complete charge in an AGM, plus with wanting to put solar onto it, i needed an MPPT controller to maximise the imput from the panels so that lead me to one thing- a DC/DC charger. They take the imput from your alternator and crank battery and then behave like a multi stage mains charger to completely charge a battery to 100% capacity. For this I went for a Redarc BCDC1240D. Its a 40A rated, Dual input DC/DC charging unit. Took a bit of finangling, but we made a bracket for it out in the grille area for cooling and wired it all up. Theres an anderson plug on the bullbar for the solar input so its nice and convinient to plug in the solar. Picked it and a fuse kit up from the 4wd show on special for about $600  Speaking of solar, I decided that since solar technology is advancing at such a rapid rate, there wasnt alot of sense in spending $1-2K on a big name brand solar blanket. Sure, they might last 10 years vs 5 for the cheaper one, but who knows how good solar tech will be in another 5 years, let alone 10. So I went for a 200W Adventure Kings solar blanket. At $250 delivered to my door, I can buy two of these, have 400w of panels and still be half the price of a 150w entry level Redarc blanket.  I built a frame out of sticks and zipties to angle it to the sun properly when i was up the Flinders a few months ago. And the last piece of the puzzle for the dual battery works was a battery gauge. I found a Projecta unit for $230 that uses a massive shunt on the negative line to your battery to measure current flow. Bit more wiring work and some bracket making and I had it all fitted in on the rear drawer unit.   So with all that sorted, It was time to turn my attention to the suspension. The springs and torsion bars arent fine, but the shocks were stuffed. So, $1600 later I have 4 Superior Engineering remote res adjustable monotube shocks fitted to the truck. They're manufactured by Profender to Superiors specs and im REALLY happy with them so far.  Next was the stereo. I went from an old single DIN Pioneer stereo from around 2005 with an Icom IC400 pro UHF radio hanging under it to a Kenwood DMX8019DABS double DIN unit and a new Icom IC450 remote head radio. First step was to completely dismantle the dashboard. The new stereo requires SOOO many more inputs than the old one- Theres the standard power, acc trigger, ground and all that, then theres also a reverse signal, a vehicle speed sense signal, a handbrake signal, a DAB antenna to install, a GPS unit to install, a Microphone to install.... and wiring for a reverse camera to run. It was a spaghetti nightmare.  Looks good tho!  The next morning, after I rescued the cat (She jumped up on the bonnet and walked the length of the car before she realised it was too far to jump down from the rear tyre carrier and she needed a lift) I finished off running wires and installing the new UHF radio   I now have wireless apple car play and digital radio. However I now no longer have access to my 120GB iPod Classic. Which sucks. The last bit of work to do on the stereo install was the reverse camera. I found a spot that actually works on the back of the truck between the rear wheels and the towbar, cut a hole and mounted it into the rear bar. Now i can see whats behind me AND the towbar!   But that left the biggest pain in the arse job. I had to pull the entire drawer unit out to get to a bung in the bodywork to pass the reverse camera cable through.  They're a cavernous vehicle once you pull all the drawers and fridges and poo poo out of them! But a little bit of work later and Success! I have rear vision!  Thats going to make hooking up a trailer easy! Theres one last thing to do, but it involves these boxes and me going to see the powder coaters first. 
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Nov 16, 2019 07:00
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No matter what tools you've got on hand, it can always get worse... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW8GUfETbSw
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Dec 4, 2019 07:01
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Put a new exhaust on my mates 120 series turbo diesel Prado yesterday. 2.75” mandrel bent straight through from the turbo to the bumper. We had the option to fit a resonator pipe in but decided the straight pipe with cat would be the go, dunno whether the drone will get annoying or not. drat little 3.0TD sounds like a dump truck now!
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Dec 8, 2019 01:46
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Could be worse, you could have an 11.5L sump. Having to buy a $180 20L drum of oil every single change is a pain in the arse.
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Dec 23, 2019 21:05
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Bennys Custom Works did a video on re-foaming your seats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZGQu72yEbY Im thinking of doing that to my now 15yr, 380k old seats in the front of the landcruiser, but im also thinking of getting a set of late model Sahara seats which are all electric adjust and have an adjustable height seat base for maximum comfy. I finally replaced the CV shafts in the landcruiser. They've had torn boots for about 18 months now- I would have done the boots except they failed mid outback trip and had 3000km of sand, dust other various poo poo blown into them while working hard offroad, so the joints themselves were a writeoff with the wear in them. They've also been fully submerged a few times since then too. Its amazing how much nicer it is to drive when there isnt 1/4 of a turn of slack in your cv shaft! But of course, being a 15yr, 380K km old vehicle, I discovered the lower ball joints are shot, And of course, to do them properly you have to remove the lower control arms. And if im going to do that, I may as well replace the 380K old bushings in those arms too. And if i remove the arms, Im going to need to get an alignment because the 100 series uses torsion bars to adjust the ride height, and they install into the lower control arms, and if i change the ride height be even a small amount on reinstall, it changes the wheel alignment! So thats another.... $4-500 worth of parts and a whole weekend to fix.
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Dec 29, 2019 01:04
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STR posted:I mean... isn't it usually faster to just buy the lower control arm once you're at the bushing and ball joint stage anyway? Eight. Hundred. Dollars. Each. Trade. Genuine only. then once you get them, you have to grind off a heap of the E coating and weld up all the seams and add reinforcing plates to fix a few design flaws where the arms can crack where the torsion bars bolt on after a lot of heavy offroad use, especially in the diesels.
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Dec 30, 2019 09:44
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Went playing on the beach for the long weekend, so had to do something bout the tonne of sand and salt stuck up under the car, and it was still 36 deg (c) when i got home so I ended up on my back under the car with the hose. Its probably the cleanest the underside of the cars been since i bought it, but I ended up looking like the swamp thing. I was washing pippi shells out of the bash plates!
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Jan 29, 2020 12:54
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Crossposting from the LX/Cruiser thread... I got bored waiting for my PC to try and unbreak itself on my first day of leave... And these have been in the shed since October... was going to wait till i could get all the barwork powder coated in one go but since theyre 12 nuts to remove and black down that low looks fine its not a big deal. Went from factory mediocrity and flex  To maximum clearance, minimum short missus approval rating  To shiny new ARB hotness!  There are scrub rails to go with it, but they would have looked really odd in gloss black going to a gold coloured front bar!
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Mar 30, 2020 02:36
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KakerMix posted:I see no mental problems in the slightest. You want a laugh? Look up the list price for that clock unit for a 70 series. Keep in mind that the only Aus delivered 70's that got the elusive dash clock were the RV specs in the HDJ/HZJ78/79 and the GXL's in the VDJ76/78/79, so theres a LOT of people who would want one https://partsouq.com/en/search/all?q=83910-60070 List price from a dealership in Australia is $538...
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Jun 3, 2020 14:14
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StormDrain posted:Love that truck. Perfect spec sheet. And I like the tie-downs on the outside of the bed. Just wait till you have to drive it down a bad road... those leaf sprung hilux's make a loving bulldozer feel like a Bentley in comparison... I had high end shocks, springs, greasable everything under mine and it was a still spine shattering hard ride. Speaking of, I had my 508,000km old 1992 hilux in the workshop the other day, trying to get the brakes to work properly!
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Jul 19, 2020 13:57
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Fixing the brakes on the old red hilux because they dont loving work any more and every loving single thing is corroded or seized! Front Calipers- Not a spot of rust in the bores or on the chrome BELOW the piston rings- Above it? enough rust to sieze the pistons in the bores. Couldnt get the pad slide pins out without a punch because they rusted into the calipers and it took close to 80psi of air to push the pistons out!  Broke out the blast cabinet and went to town after a lot of masking and protecting of bores   Then repaint the calipers because I blew all the paint off and didnt want them to rust again instantly. The piston tops all got hit with cold galvanising spray because it should help stop corrosion in the future.  And then MANY hours later per side on the front, calipers back together and on the front with new seals and boots. And a shitload of rubber grease all over the areas that rusted and couldnt be painted.  And then found the load proportioning valve (that changes rear brake bias depending on whether the utes loaded or not) was totally siezed up and corroded too... so that took several more hours to overhaul.  I dont know why a car thats in Australia looks like one from the rustbelt? Got that done, then got stuck into the rear drum brakes, and had to pull an axle to replace a leaking axle seal because it was filling the drum with oil  And thats when i found the rear brake cylinders didnt move either...  Probably cos the pistons looked like the one on the left, the one on the right has been cleaned up. DIY bore hone?  and I need to buy a lathe so I can do this poo poo properly...  Spun em up and polished with wet and dry And then the bearing decided to put up a shitfight with me and wouldnt come off with an oxy and sledgehammer and at 10pm at night I decided that firing up the cold cut saw and welder to build a set of press tools to hang the axle below my press deck to push the axle out was probably going to upset the neighbours whos house is literally 6 meters from my workshop...  So thats another days problem. This thing has done 1700km in the last 12 months and been parked outside and it shows!
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Aug 6, 2022 14:13
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Drum brakes suck. Drum brakes with a leaky axle seal suck even more. Drum brakes with a leaky axle seal on a semi floating axle that you have to press the bearing and retainer on and off suck the absolute most. I am covered in black, stink of kerosine and every time I touch a brake clean can every single cut or scratch on my hands sings the song of its people. I should just find a 95 series rear axle and weld it in so I get rear disks and be done with it…
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Aug 8, 2022 02:10
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Replaced the hubs, rotors, brakes and wheels on a friends Astra today to convert it to 5 stud rims to take advantage of all the good used rims in the wreckers with good tyres on them- Plus move from some stupid lovely fragile 17" aftermarket rims with 215/40R17 tyres to a MUCH more common and cheaper 205/50R16, which is good considering they live in the country and spend a lot of time on crappy roads full of potholes... which is what shattered one of the stupid lovely aftermarket 17" rims a week ago... Good thing we did the hub conversion too, the front wheel bearings were shot, the front rotors had obviously had the inner pad backing plate lathed into them at some point and someone with access to a brake lathe just skimmed them off- the inner side of the rotor vents was a solid 3mm narrower than the rears and the rear rotors looked like they'd been machined with an angry racoon, again, due to the inability to work out just what that horrifying squealing/grinding noise was every time you touch your brakes... Did notice the rear shocks are leaking, one front CV shaft has a split boot and a tie rod end boot is knackered with a pretty unhappy joint, so time to price up what those parts are worth vs going back to the wreckers and grabbing the brand new rear shocks, brand new CV shaft and finding a good, tight tie rod end since the owner has absolutely no money since inflation and interest rates have gone through the roof.
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Oct 9, 2022 13:49
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 12:13 |
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Winch overhaul and replaced the steel cable and steel roller fair lead with a dyneema rope and alloy hawse setup. Winch was very overdue a gearbox overhaul to keep it spooling nicely, but I hadnt got around to it, so the winch scheduled its maintenance for me- by seizing the clutch drum halfway between locked and free spool, so you couldn't use it at all.... The tie rods were stuffed too, bent and gouged out from cable wrapping unevenly so I wanted to replace them, but they were about $40 and 4 weeks wait to get them from the US because nobody had stock anywhere in Aus, so bought a meter of 20mm solid aluminium bar stock and made my own.   did a whole pile of wiring work while i had the front end apart too- Decided to finally fix my stupid decision years ago to run antenna and light cables through the grille, meaning you couldnt remove the drat thing to work behind it properly, so redid everything to go under it.  Swapping to rope and alloy from steel cable and steel rollers made the front end of the car come up by 15mm- I must have shed at least 10-15kg straight off the very tip of the car!    The hawse and rope setup really modernizes the look of the bar vs the old dirty, rusty cable and rollers. And then I bought this. Between this thing and the HF radio, I should be able to make communications with someone ANYWHERE in Aus, without the cost of a sat phone. 
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Oct 22, 2022 22:12
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