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Bad ending to my holiday week

Personally if there was no rush i think i would wait for genuine parts as its fit and forget then .

That's a sensible approach, but I'm always concerned with what is really OEM?

Is it enough that it comes in a box with Japanese writing on it, or should it clearly say Toyota, or what?

Stock bearings are Koyo as far as I'm aware, do Toyota make Birfields? I doubt it somehow, they buy in from a supplier, who are they? There's probably a number of them if I know car manufacturers. I know on my old Rover 214, the standard distributer was one of 7 possible variants, Bosch, Lucas, NGK, and several others, it took the dealer a week or two to decide which one it should have when I took it in for a replacement.

As said, jury still out for the time being...
 
That's a sensible approach, but I'm always concerned with what is really OEM?

Is it enough that it comes in a box with Japanese writing on it, or should it clearly say Toyota, or what?

Stock bearings are Koyo as far as I'm aware, do Toyota make Birfields? I doubt it somehow, they buy in from a supplier, who are they? There's probably a number of them if I know car manufacturers. I know on my old Rover 214, the standard distributer was one of 7 possible variants, Bosch, Lucas, NGK, and several others, it took the dealer a week or two to decide which one it should have when I took it in for a replacement.

As said, jury still out for the time being...

Most genuine parts come in toyota boxes (red+white) with the part number clearly labelled on them by a sticker (depends on the part, some very small bits are just in a plastic bag). If you look on 'cruiserparts' you'll see pictures of OEM parts in their OEM packing.

The nitrogears? stuff seems to get good write ups on MUD.

I still think I would agree with Shane and go OEM, just source the major stuff overseas. Be aware though that while DHL can ship stuff to you from Japan/UAE very fast *********************************************
 
Jon uses nitro gear stuff on his diff rebuilds IIRC Clive, might be worth a note to him...
 
Jon uses nitro gear stuff on his diff rebuilds IIRC Clive, might be worth a note to him...

Thanks for that Gav, I'll drop him a pm.

I went to see the truck today, and the Nitro shafts and birfields they propose to fit.

It's very strange, I had misunderstood what the problem was, when I lost drive, but I understand it now. I had assumed they had found a broken shaft, but the truth is, the RH birfield had lost its balls :shock:

They were scattered about in the grease and with me driving it in that condition, the center part of the joint having a bit of a hammering with no balls to protect it from impacting the outer, has damaged the spline on the driveshaft. There's play now between the driveshaft and the birfield center, so their advice is to replace both the shaft and the birfield. I'm doing just that, on both sides. New Mr T rotors too. The birfields on my shopping list are quoted OEM parts, in the Toyota box, not after market. That's why they were so expensive, about £480 each....

The nitro birfields look nice, but they would. All shiny and chrome looking :icon-rolleyes:

The other bit of news is they've found me an axle casing. For years I've known I've got a bent casing, giving me a slight Hillman Imp ish positive camber on the RH side. It's about 1 and a half degrees out from the laser measurements I had done some time ago.

An empty casing is going to cost me about €300 so don't tell Karl, he says after strip down, he throws the casings away for scrap :lol:

Pricey, but it will be great to have upright wheels again, or at the least both wheels at the same camber angle. He's also going to check the front diff to see if some of the backlash can be reduced. I've got about 5 minutes of free play in the prop flange, but I don't know whether that's in tolerance or not.

I had a good chat with the guy, he's very knowledgable and interesting to talk with. He's got a bobbed 80 that's his favourite comp off-roader. It's an 80 chassis with a home-made body, short and high with some monster shocks on it. They must be 6" in diameter :wtf: He's also got a 70 comp truck which is bobbed as well. He says there's 6 donor 70s at his place, the parts are so hard to get, he's been buying up knackered second hand trucks as donors.

Looking forward to getting the truck back...
 
:think: not sure i would think any of that was good news but bravo coz u seem happy enough ..... or is that the Brit stiff upper lip kicking in lol .
 
:think: not sure i would think any of that was good news but bravo coz u seem happy enough ..... or is that the Brit stiff upper lip kicking in lol .

Pretty much Shayne, still if I let it get to me, depression would set in, so I may as well stay buoyant and enjoy the research!

The shop they've got at the service is the sort of place you'd like to do a "all you can get in the cart in 2 minutes is yours" stunt. There's winches, ropes, snatch blocks, inertia straps, aux lamps, wheels, bull bars, everything ARB/WARN/TJM and the like, bloorry expensive but all juicy stuff.

I had to drag myself out of there backwards, I would have spent my life's savings in an instant! :lol:
 
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I've made a decision, only time will tell if it was a wise one or not!

I'm going for the Nitro Gear, new shafts and Birfs, all chromoloy.

I've also sourced an axle casing for €300 (cos mine's bent) only it's a RHD and needs the panhard bracket cutting off and my LHD bracket welded on. After welding, it will be shot blasted and painted.

They're checking the backlash on the diff before the rebuild, so I'm interested how worn that is, although it's given no signs of excessive wear.

Thats it till they have finished, hopefully next week. :thumbup:

Boarding a plane for Istanbul for 3 days, I wish I had a bit of time to do more on the truck myself. One bonus, using the little Dacia is saving a fortune on diesel, it's turning 5.4 l/100km, which is about 12 l less than the 80 :lol:
 
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Kerching, nice one Clive :icon-cool:

Some photos of your man's comp trucks required when you get a chance old boy :whistle:
 
An interesting read Clive and I 'm sure it will work fine for you.I don't know what a Dacia is but I do know that nothing beats a landcruiser
 
An interesting read Clive and I 'm sure it will work fine for you.I don't know what a Dacia is but I do know that nothing beats a landcruiser

Thanks Pat!

This is our little baby Dacia, it certainly isn't a Land Cruiser by anyone's standards!

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Kerching, nice one Clive :icon-cool:

Some photos of your man's comp trucks required when you get a chance old boy :whistle:

I'll try to get some Gav! He's got the 70 and a couple of 80s, but the 80s are difficult to recognize...
 
Kerching, nice one Clive :icon-cool:

Some photos of your man's comp trucks required when you get a chance old boy :whistle:

Just for Gav, Razvan's other (and better) 80 comp truck...

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The front winch is completely hidden, couldn't see it let alone take a photo...

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Big meaty shocks on the front and rear...

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One of the (two) rear winches...

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The other rear winch is tucked away in the tray with a couple of extra batteries for good measure...

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There's no fairlead on this one, he says its for serious winching, like in a major crash, vertical pulling and such like :wtf:

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So much for other folks' 80s, I've got a bit of an update, well closure it seems to my little escapade.

Collected the truck today.

Managed to secure the replacement axle casing, it was a RHD so the panhard mounting was cut off and welded onto the right hand side (to match the vehicle LHD) with some reinforcement for luck. Then the casing was grit blasted and painted in 2 pack black, and fitted to the truck.

In went my new chromoloy Nitro Gear driveshafts and birfields, obviously new oil seals.

I was pleased that he reported no diff oil in the CV grease, only some water (which I guess isn't uncommon).

New wipers on the back of the knuckle balls, new top & bottom swivel bearings, new bronze bushings on the birf shafts, new brake rotors and pads.

All done.

And my front wheels look vertical for the first time since I can remember!!! :dance:

Only 3 photos, I'll try to post some verticality shots later...

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The truck drives straight. I didn't realize, but it had been pulling slightly to the right. It's been so long like this that I'd got used to it :whistle:

One happy bunny... :dance::dance::dance:
 
well done clive but your photos dont load on my computer tried a couple of refreash but to no luck.
stu
 
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