Back in a Land Cruiser: 1978 HJ45 Build and Adventures

[Paddler Ed]

OK, before I get cranky with it, how do I (easily) fit the weatherstrips at the top of the doors - where the window slides through...

It looks like I need to drop the window mechanism and then fit the strips before refitting the mechanism - is that right?

Thanks guys!
Ed

 

[Rodger]

Yes Ed, if you remove the window mechanism but leave the glass in the bottom then the weather seal can be fitted. Some manuals recommend removing the glass but I've found it easier to lower the glass and avoid the hassle of getting the glass back in. Some models have two tags at the end of the glass felt runner if so they need to be removed to free the glass.

Regards,

Rodger

 

[Paddler Ed]

Few updates, but no pictures:

1. Brake and clutch fluid changed - the old stuff was an awesome colour. Had a few hitches including a blocked bleeder, but some welding rod cleaned that out. One man brake bleed kits are a lie, so they got bled twice. Pedal feel was a bit odd at first, but is much better now (2 weeks later). Grass has nearly grown back on the lawn as well...
   
2. Weatherstrips fitted... that was a fun game... fit the outside one first, then the inside one - the clips on the outside are a smidge longer than the inside ones.
3. Bailey channel replaced in the bottom of the window runner as it was missing (that and #2 have cleared most of the rattles). I'm missing one guide on the drivers side though, so I'll source that soon.
   
4. Diesel leak has appeared in the engine bay (as Rodger knows from posts elsewhere) which I've tried to cure with some new washers, in the hope that was where the leak was originating from, but that's not solved it. Ordered a new fuel filter with new rubbers, so hopefully that'll cure it. Will find out on Tuesday...
   
5. New headlight bulbs fitted (Narva +50s) to give a bit more light on the road than the 2 candles did
6. Storage box on hold for the tray - I've found one that takes my tool and kit bags from the 4Runner and is a good size, so that's on hold for me locally at the moment (waiting for an invoice to be paid...) and that'll get mounted on the tray for carrying gear in.

On the other hand, it's been getting used a fair bit... until the diesel leak showed up. But that does mean I can get round to fitting some bits and pieces that I've picked up, such as 2 of these:

for the princely sum of $44... so there's some better reverse lights/camp lights. Where we park it, it's quite dark and the other car obscures the sensor light a bit.

I'm going to run them via one of these switches, so the first pull gives me one light and the second pull gives me both, depending on how I wire it up.

Also working out a shade cover for the dog; looked at some form of canopy, and I'm thinking that something like a boat Bimini could work - looking at doing something with some sail track and canvas, with a flexible fibreglass hoop system to hold it in place. When the diesel leak is fixed, it's off to the local saddlery to have a chat with them about it - and to get some canvas seat covers made up. Luckily they understand Land Cruisers as they have 4 of their own (1x HJ75, 1x HZJ79s, 1x HDJ79 and a KZN150)...

 

[Paddler Ed]

Diesel leak found... O-ring on the fuel filter. Luckily the filter I've ordered appears to come with all the O-rings I need.

Found it by using the hand primer to pressurise the fuel system and see where it leaked from.

 

[Paddler Ed]

So tracked the source of the diesel leak down to being the fuel filter - and a new Ryco filter included all 5 O-rings that are used on it - I suspect that some of them were a bit older and therefore were a problem as the filter looked to be pretty good that was in there.

The leak was on the intake manifold side of the fuel filter - I'd already put new seals on the hardlines at the top and had been told that the seal for the bleed valve (which is out in this picture) wasn't available from Toyota... turns up in the Ryco kit though...

Other bits and pieces... as we'd originally been looking for a space cab, when I decided to look at single cabs we knew that we'd needed to go for some tool boxes on the back as the solution for carrying "stuff"... so I found a breadbox (950mm long, 600mm wide and 500mm deep at the highest point) which would take my tools, spares and recovery bits and some extra stuff easily:

Test fitting at the shop:

And open (lid opens to a height I can just reach - Delz couldn't, but the step is on the other side:

And now on the same side as the step:

Also got a load of rubber matting to put under it so that there is some cushioning and avoids aluminuim tool box rubbing on steel tray...

When fitting it up today, I realised there was enough space to put a fuel can in between the box and the headboard, so that's the plan now.

Local Buy, Swap and Sell pages are paying off again...
Got a set of IPF XS900 driving lights + loom for $150... they're a $400 light and one of the few all metal lights you can get:

I like my halogen lights for the front - I find the yellow a bit softer on your eyes driving at night - we sometimes run back on main beams for an hour or so if we've been out for the day, so something that isn't tiring is nicer.

 

[clivehorridge]

So tracked the source of the diesel leak down to being the fuel filter - and a new Ryco filter included all 5 O-rings that are used on it - I suspect that some of them were a bit older and therefore were a problem as the filter looked to be pretty good that was in there.

View attachment 139648
The leak was on the intake manifold side of the fuel filter - I'd already put new seals on the hardlines at the top and had been told that the seal for the bleed valve (which is out in this picture) wasn't available from Toyota... turns up in the Ryco kit though...

Other bits and pieces... as we'd originally been looking for a space cab, when I decided to look at single cabs we knew that we'd needed to go for some tool boxes on the back as the solution for carrying "stuff"... so I found a breadbox (950mm long, 600mm wide and 500mm deep at the highest point) which would take my tools, spares and recovery bits and some extra stuff easily:

Test fitting at the shop:View attachment 139650
And open (lid opens to a height I can just reach - Delz couldn't, but the step is on the other side:
View attachment 139649

And now on the same side as the step:
View attachment 139651

Also got a load of rubber matting to put under it so that there is some cushioning and avoids aluminuim tool box rubbing on steel tray...

When fitting it up today, I realised there was enough space to put a fuel can in between the box and the headboard, so that's the plan now.

Local Buy, Swap and Sell pages are paying off again...
Got a set of IPF XS900 driving lights + loom for $150... they're a $400 light and one of the few all metal lights you can get:
View attachment 139654
View attachment 139652
View attachment 139653

I like my halogen lights for the front - I find the yellow a bit softer on your eyes driving at night - we sometimes run back on main beams for an hour or so if we've been out for the day, so something that isn't tiring is nicer.

May I suggest you think of some way to stop the IPFs from rotting out from the inside, ED?

I fitted new square IPFs on my truck, they cost an arm and a leg, and after 5 years, they had rotted through.

Of course, coming from the inside, by the time I saw it, it was too late.

Very disappointed. If I’d known, just a squib of some oil in there from time to time may have prevented it.

 

[tonytoyota]

Hi that is looking ever good that's tool box I would love one of them on me cruiser keep the pics comeing '

 

[clivehorridge]

Hi that is looking ever good that's tool box I would love one of them on me cruiser keep the pics comeing '

It is the business that one!

I’d like something similar, but 1/2 the height, (or a bit less) to go on my roof

 

[Paddler Ed]

The tool box is awesome, so much easier for everything!

Today's job was to do the wiring for the worklights/reversing lights. In hindsight, I may have over done it....

So, I planned on using one of the holes that was already in the dash, and I thought it was big enough:

The plan being to use the small hole in the top row of switches. Nope... 10mm hole, not 12mm.

So change of plan, and we ended up with the blanking panel that I've wanted to do for the butchered dashboard instead. Hunt around in the shed, and theres's some spare ali sheet from the camper trailer. Head off to a mate with an angle grinder for a 5 minute job.

2hrs later I get back home, and we end up with this after about another 15 mins of measuring up. The holes are all sorted, and off we go.

Spent ages doing the cabling runs - there's a cable from the battery to the switch, then 2 cables from the switch to the respective lights. All of which is conduit wrapped when outside the cab of the ute... I do this as the conduit saved the 4Runner's trailer wiring from the dog...

Keeping it simple, this is the cable run over to the other side - all conduit wrapped, and then run through the RHS that supports the tray.

Ended up using a load of P-clips to hold the cable to the angle on the headboard, and some Tekscrews to fasten that all to the tray... Bodgy I know, but Tekscrews are the best pilot drill bits ever... Once I'm all happy with the routing I'll pul the Tekscrews out and replace with some nuts and bolts.

The end result is this:

And I can switch the lights so I have either LH or both.

The guestimate on the range there is about 200-250m through the trees - we need to try in proper darkness as well.

Next up is the front lights - I'm going to pop them apart and check the condition inside as Clive suggested, but as we've only had a bit more than bugger all rain, we should be good.

 

[Paddler Ed]

First long run out with the HJ45; been doing 20km+ a day for the last few months around town and up to work, but today was it's first long run. On the run into town we clip 80 for about 1.5km each way, but other than that it's never had a long run anywhere.

So, yesterday at the dump (all great conversations and plans happen at random places) we got talking to a mate and he was heading out to their bush block 65km away with his Kaiser wrecker:

To put it in perspective, I'm 6'3 and that bumper is at about my gut... it's a mongrel to climb onto to sit on...

They said to bring the HJ out... the fun part was that both vehicles were unknown on long journeys - the Kaiser has only run around town or been trailered around, whilst we've not been game to go too far in the HJ. The benefit of this plan was that we were following the Kaiser, and if that broke we could run back to town and get the truck and semi trailer, whilst if we broke down, the Kaiser was in front of us...

Sat at upto 95kmh quite happily on the tar, and up to 80kmh on the dirt:

Dog travelled well on the tray (eventaully) - she just had her head round the side of the headboard all the time on the way, but was knackered on the way back so slept.... 2km of chasing 'things' out at the bush block - from people to people who were in cars and she wanted to be with them - and then an hour swimming in the river, she was knackered. I'll get the other picture off wife tomorrow, as she's got some good ones of the dog on the tray.

 

[clivehorridge]

Enough of the 40, that Kaiser is beaut brute...

 

[Paddler Ed]

I got home from work today and a neighbour who we haven't spoken to that much was talking with Delz...

She used to have a 1971 FJ45 ute with a tub, and tidying up the shed found 3 split rims lying there spare:

2 have the clips for the wheel trims, and one is a later rim. I'm likely to use the later rim as a spare in time.

Also for amusement, the university car park is always good... one thing with being a rural university is that people often have dog boxes or dog chains on their ute. This one may not have needed to lock the Ranger up with this Fido:

Our Collie x Kelpie is quite happy on the ute - in fact she has paws up most of the time on the edge of the tray... possibly good that she's not got jumping up sorted yet, as I think I'd end up with paw prints on the bonnet... I get paws on the wheel arch when I'm working in the engine bay, and if she doesn't think that the Cruiser is promising, she'll try the 4Runner instead... bull bar, rear bumper and tyres are all paw marked...

 

[Paddler Ed]

Got fed up of the lack of odometer, so pulled the dash apart yesterday

No joy making the dials turn, so asked around to find out how much a "new" cluster would cost

Can get some spare parts, and a "new" cluster was an option... but I decided to check if any bits were broken, so pulled the whole lot apart.

So, I ended up with the whole lot in pieces:

And the high tech checking tool - abit of the original speedo cable in the drill and off we go...

Tomorrow's job is to pull the numbers apart again, and clean them properly with some contact cleaner... and then re-grease them and put it all back together properly.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Now that I have a working odometer, I can keep track of the fuel economy... no wonder my visits to the servo have dropped - I'm either on a motorbike or in the Land Cruiser, and both are much better on fuel than the 4Runner is!

9.4L/100km, or 30MPG for the Brits (25US) Corrected to 11.3L/100km 25MPG (20.9US) after I found an extra 10 litres of fuel had gone in...

Adjusted all the drums up properly now, and the brakes are much sharper than they were before - had to replace a few of the drum retaining pins as they'd got lost. Best $13 I've spent on a tool in a long time was for the proper brake adjusting spoon thing, made it much easier.

Other than that, we tried it with the 33s on, was a nightmare, so the skinny's went back on. The long term plan is to put some 235/85R16s on which gives a good bit of height and some sidewall.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Quick update on things that have happened, and then a more long winded plan.

Driving lights got fitted and highlighted how weak the stock loom is - I think I need to work out if I'm going to do a 3 relay upgrade or a 2 relay loom upgrade...

Ute got another load of firewood, as did the 4Runner:

The rounds that went in the 4Runner put it to my plimsol line on the chassis, so it was sitting around 500kg in the back - the Land Cruiser is still an unknown, but if I can sit on the tray easily it's got to be near 1000kg on it.

Unloaded all the wood, and went off to see the Lachlan Valley Railway set that was running up here this weekend:

The door cards got pulled out a few months ago as the were aluminium checkerplate and rattled really badly - this then let me work out a plan b for them, and to collect the following bits and pieces:
-Cardboard: a piece big enough to work as a template for the door card
-Trim clips: to hold the new door cards in place
-Bushes: for the trim clips to fix into
-Screw threads: for the door handles to attach to
-PVC Expanded Foam Board

Combined with a few bits lying around at home, such as the wife's quilting ruler, and the roll of parcel tape, and we were off.

First up, mark the sticky tape up with where the holes are:

Transfer that sticky tape to the cardboard for each side, and you end up with this:

Cover everything that's hidden in black marker, and hit the template against it, and you're pretty close for where the holes are supposed to be for door handles and things:

From that, it all gets transferred to the foam core board, along with some more accurate measuring:

And then with a very sharp knife (and the wife's quilting ruler) the panel is cut out!

Drilled the holes for the trim clips where I was completely happy with them, and the others got the texter and bash approach to mark them up; the end result was:

Still needs the corners trimming a little bit, but no rattles and no need to find a piece of door to pull on to close it.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Door cards have been great - no ratling in the doors now...

Did a service the other day and found:

• Air filter housing loose (well, loose was an understatement - it would imply there was some effort at fastening it down... there wasn't)
• Various bits of wing, front panel and other bits and pieces only finger tight or not bolted at all

Also dropped the coolant out... well, that was interesting... it's been run on dam water I reckon in the past, so was full of muck - no wonder there wasn't a thermostat in the engine, it was blocked enough that it didn't need it! Ran a pot of Nulon cleaner through as that can be done without dropping the coolant, and that got it a fair bit cleaner, especially after reverse flushing the radiator and block. Next one was fill it with de-ionised water and some more cleaner... that got the dropped water to the colour of a muddy puddle, but a quick look inside the engine shows that it's looking a lot better now.

Getting the new bottom hose has been an interesting challenge - the stock one was hose-pipe-hose, but later it changed to a single hose that followed the same routing.

As can be seen, the pipe has had better days:

So, it's off the road until that new hose arrives...

In the mean time, I'm going to work out what's going on with some of the electrics, and tidy up what I've installed in the engine bay as well. The glow relay seems a bit dodgy - it clicks like it should, but I'm not sure it's drawing quite right.

 

[clivehorridge]

Nice work Ed, good to see it coming together.

Any plan to cover the white board door cards?

I’m thinking they will show kicks and scuffs in time, but looking good ATM.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Nice work Ed, good to see it coming together.

Any plan to cover the white board door cards?

I’m thinking they will show kicks and scuffs in time, but looking good ATM.

Plan is high tech...





Stickers...

 

[Paddler Ed]

Few updates (having just got on Ben's case about his lack of updates....):

-Coolant hose: the single piece one from the slightly later HJ45 fitted fine, so we're rocking that. Radiator was massively full of gunk, and still seems to firing muck out of the recovery tank every so often. We've done a couple of trips to Tamworth in it now (250km round trips) and it's only played up once or twice.
-Driving lights: Night and day difference. Neighbour was wondering what light's we'd fitted as they lit his garden up quite well... he was surprised when I said some old halogens.
-Radio: Now have a radio (thanks eBay for a 20% off voucher...) with tidier wiring as it now all runs up the windscreen pillar; it's mounted on the shelf that the boys who owned it before us made, so not the tidiest, but works. There's wiring run up there for a UHF as well, as we still travel with quite a few who use them on the road.
-Roof: Our roof is rusty, leaky and draughty... more local finds... I ended up with a fibreglass roof (with a roof lining!) that already has a hole in it that happens to be the right size for the FM aerial I'm going to use for the radio, and only cost me $150 - I also got 2 wings and side panel for that... The only problem is, new rubbers are a couple of hundred dollars...
-Trips: we did a 400km trip with the camper to near Byron Bay... Cruiser was fine after it farted the muck out the radiator/cooling system again... camper trailer on the other hand needed a bit of assistance... one of the welds on the swing arm let go, and allowed the tyre to rub on the side of the trailer... much smoke and a bit of warmth, and we pulled over, got the wheel off and worked out what had happened. NRMA (RAC/AA) to the rescue, and a tilt tray to the town nearby to find a welder who could fix it. One 44 gallon drum + 3m of RHS later, we had a wheel sitting within 5mm of the other side, and enough clearance to get us on the road again.

Got it home, and I pulled the arms off; the faulty one is on the LHS in this picture:

The weld that let go is in the corner near the hub, and it allowed the whole stub axle assembly to twist - which is why the inner mount is so much higher - it's been welded a bit low on the outside arm.

This one just shows the spring mounts sitting out of whack:


You can see the difference here - the arms are built in 50mm box...

-And now more smoke... the wiring in the Land Cruiser wasn't making sense on Monday - I'd lost power to the radio in the morning, and the fuse box was hot... so I parked up at uni and disconnected the battery. Went to head home, and worked out it was the headlight fuse that was getting hot, so got home and checked all the wiring. Headlights had a bit of a voltage drop to them, but got that up a bit by cleaning some contacts until I ran out of contact cleaner. Got more contact cleaner and had a look at it all this morning, and dropped the switch out... then it started to go wrong when I found this mess:

So it now looks like I'm pulling the loom apart and rebuilding some sections of it... Does also mean I can check that everything is working as it should, as I had a LOT of live wires hanging around.

Other than all of that... the world is pretty good!

 

[Rodger]

Hi Ed,

In an earlier post you mentioned that the glow plug relay clicks but doesn't seem to be working properly, maybe this is why...
When I replaced my g/p relay I ended up by-passing the two sensors in the inlet manifold and now the glow coil behind the dash glows within 6 seconds and she fires straight away, I have two sets of the i/m sensors and mixed and matched but could not get consistent times or performance when they were in the circuit, but now it's consistent every time.
I think that they are resistors (could be wrong) but if they are faulty would that create extra heat in the g/p wire and potentially cause this mess? My wiring was okay because my g/p relay died.
It's just a thought as obviously you are needing to establish the cause.

Regards,

Rodger