Ell Jay 78
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2019
- Messages
- 5
- Country Flag
Hi, my name is Dylan and I've been a mechanic for 30 years. I've always had a huge respect for Toyota mechanicals. Last Christmas I indulged my desire for an early 90's Land Cruiser.
I bought a metallic blue Japanese spec LJ78 2.4 auto.
I was determined not to buy another rusty restoration project, I know from previous experience that I've ended up with a couple of great vehicles but the grinding and welding process doesn't put me in my happy place. Here's the 69 Alfa 1750GTV that was so rotten it needed every body panel replacing when I bought it and everyone said it would never see the road again. They were wrong and the result was the preservation of a beautiful sporty Italian coupe. There were many dark times when I wished I had never set eyes on the rusty Italian piece of s##t, but it came good in the end.
The Land Cruiser I bought is fairly rust free....happy days!
When I collected it and drove it the 50 miles home I had one eye on the temperature gauge, waiting for it to squirt pressurised coolant all over the M6 and do its best impression of a kettle. I was pleasantly surprised how well it cruised at motorway speeds and even more pleasantly surprised that my engine wasn't aware of the head cracking problem that I head read so much about on the internet.
I was disappointed to find out the 4 wheel drive didn't work so I replaced the front hubs with manual ones.
I was even more disappointed to find out the locking diff rear axle had been changed for a standard one.
The battery going flat every couple of days was more than disappointing. This was caused by a bad repair done by a "professional" garage. I found an expensive receipt that detailed the recovery of the jeep and repair of the wiring fault that had caused intermittent breakdowns. They wired a live feed from one of the batteries straight to the injector pump! No more intermittent break downs but plenty of non starting due to a flat battery. This was an easy fix and the cruiser has been 100% reliable ever since.
I replaced the front brake calipers due to 3 seized pistons.
I replaced all four shock absorbers because one of the rears was completely pished and made for some interesting handling characteristics.
I replaced the thermostat because the engine was taking forever to warm up in winter.
I've run the Land Cruiser since then without any issues.
Recent upgrades have been a set of refurbished Colorado alloys, which I'm really pleased with the look of and replacing the original rusty spot lamps with a pair of Cibie Oscars.
I could do with some assistance with my next phase of upgrades, 1kzt engine and 5 speed manual box.
I bought a 4 runner for it's kzt engine and was hoping I could use the manual gearbox as well.
I've now worked out fitting the 4 runner gearbox might be possible but will require a lot of difficult modifications.
So would anyone sell me a good 5 speed manual gearbox/transfer box assembly for an LJ/KJ 70?
The other main thing that's bugging me is the front coil springs, they're either tired and weak or the wrong ones. It doesn't really show on the photos but the front sits an inch or two lower than the rear and crashes and bangs over anything more than a small bump in the road while the rear end rides everything superbly.
I'm having trouble locating any standard height coil springs, any recommendations?
In case anyone's wondering, we call it "the love jeep" because we already had a motorhome which we called "the love bus" so a Toyota LJ jeep just had to be "the Love Jeep".
I bought a metallic blue Japanese spec LJ78 2.4 auto.
I was determined not to buy another rusty restoration project, I know from previous experience that I've ended up with a couple of great vehicles but the grinding and welding process doesn't put me in my happy place. Here's the 69 Alfa 1750GTV that was so rotten it needed every body panel replacing when I bought it and everyone said it would never see the road again. They were wrong and the result was the preservation of a beautiful sporty Italian coupe. There were many dark times when I wished I had never set eyes on the rusty Italian piece of s##t, but it came good in the end.
The Land Cruiser I bought is fairly rust free....happy days!
When I collected it and drove it the 50 miles home I had one eye on the temperature gauge, waiting for it to squirt pressurised coolant all over the M6 and do its best impression of a kettle. I was pleasantly surprised how well it cruised at motorway speeds and even more pleasantly surprised that my engine wasn't aware of the head cracking problem that I head read so much about on the internet.
I was even more disappointed to find out the locking diff rear axle had been changed for a standard one.
The battery going flat every couple of days was more than disappointing. This was caused by a bad repair done by a "professional" garage. I found an expensive receipt that detailed the recovery of the jeep and repair of the wiring fault that had caused intermittent breakdowns. They wired a live feed from one of the batteries straight to the injector pump! No more intermittent break downs but plenty of non starting due to a flat battery. This was an easy fix and the cruiser has been 100% reliable ever since.
I replaced the front brake calipers due to 3 seized pistons.
I replaced all four shock absorbers because one of the rears was completely pished and made for some interesting handling characteristics.
I replaced the thermostat because the engine was taking forever to warm up in winter.
I've run the Land Cruiser since then without any issues.
Recent upgrades have been a set of refurbished Colorado alloys, which I'm really pleased with the look of and replacing the original rusty spot lamps with a pair of Cibie Oscars.
I could do with some assistance with my next phase of upgrades, 1kzt engine and 5 speed manual box.
I bought a 4 runner for it's kzt engine and was hoping I could use the manual gearbox as well.
I've now worked out fitting the 4 runner gearbox might be possible but will require a lot of difficult modifications.
So would anyone sell me a good 5 speed manual gearbox/transfer box assembly for an LJ/KJ 70?
The other main thing that's bugging me is the front coil springs, they're either tired and weak or the wrong ones. It doesn't really show on the photos but the front sits an inch or two lower than the rear and crashes and bangs over anything more than a small bump in the road while the rear end rides everything superbly.
I'm having trouble locating any standard height coil springs, any recommendations?
In case anyone's wondering, we call it "the love jeep" because we already had a motorhome which we called "the love bus" so a Toyota LJ jeep just had to be "the Love Jeep".