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FZJ80R from Devon

Did some more work on the cruiser today, mostly drilling out sheared bolts, rust treating, and welding.

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Rust converter.

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Patch in frame.

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Synergic welder seems to be able to weld rust to air.

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Flatted back and treated.

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Jack's highchair was upgraded to FIA regs.
 
Got the MR2 ready for the Edinburgh trial,

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The cruiser is not ready to tow it though! Borrowing a Ford Ranger instead.

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Brake bias valve turned up the day after I ordered it, just need to work out where to mount it, and make the pipework.
 
Looks good.

Jack's growing well. Only seems like the other day you said a baby turned up
 
All the bits are here now to fix the truck, just need a clear dry day to get the heater pipes back in. I have lined the transmission tunnel with that shiny aluminium tape to reduce the hot footwell area problem the petrols suffer from. Also I will wrap the heater pipes in it.

I had some custom braided brake pipes priced up to replace the hard lines and the drivers side front hoses, but they were very expensive. I have got some 'diy' braided hose instead, you can get the hose and fittings online and make the hose up you need, they fit with compression fittings so no need for a swager.

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I need to run a line front to back for the rear brakes, but it will need to be re routed to the new bias valve set up.

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A fairly simple bracket was needed,

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The lever has 7 settings, moving the lever back will reduce the pressure restriction to the rear brakes,

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And with the gaitor fitted.

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Here is the graph for the brake bias valve, I don't know how I will set it up yet, I will probably have to get some pressure gauges but they are not that common to find. The ABS will unlock the rear axle if the rears wheels skid, so the big risk of having over braked rear (uncontrolled skid) should not happen.
 
Depending on a heavy or light load over the rear axle, you can use more, or less rear brakes. The other adjustment is how hard you are pressing the brake pedal! But because the Land Cruiser 80 has such big front brakes it is easily possible to lock the front wheels (and activate the abs). The way to stop quicker is using as much of the grip available on the rear axle as you can, but without letting the rear axle lock up before the front. This is what the Load Sensing Proportioning Valve does automatically - or it did when it was new!

I am changing from automatic load sensing rear brake balance, as the load sensing valve is seized and not working, I have very little rear brakes. It also leaks slightly and lets in air. I bought a new valve, but it was £90, and when I tried to fit it, all the brake pipes snapped, and the valve was so rusted i had to cut it off with the angle grinder. The mounting bracket which is critical for the adjustment is rusted and bent also. So I have decided to fit a manual system instead.

I have had vehicles before which have had the load sensing valve seized the other way round, and it lets full pressure to the rear brakes all the time and the rear wheels would lock up before the front, as my 80 has ABS this should not happen, but it would be a risk if you had a truck without ABS or ABS not working, and the brake balance was wrong.


I have drawn some diagrams to help myself understand the braking system, there seems to be pipes everywhere when you look at it on the truck, and also there is a mysterious pipe that connects the front brake line (as it comes out of the master cylinder) to the load sensing valve at the back. I had wondered if the load sensing valve let the excess pressure back into the front brakes somehow, and could this pipe be removed?

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As you can see in the diagram, the ABS can individually unlock the front left, the front right, or both the rears. It cannot unlock just one of the rears, but it should not need to. The purple sensing line on the diagram is a safety device, the load sensing valve 'sees' pressure from the front brakes from this line, if there is no pressure from the front brakes, the load sensing valve will let full pressure though to the rear brakes. This is in case of a leak or burst pipe on the front brake system, the rear brakes will act as emergency brakes, however they would still be extremely ineffective compared to the front brakes. I think if a front brake pipe failed under hard braking you would simply not stop in time.

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This is the diagram of the brake system I will be changing to, the LSPV has been removed and the rear brake line comes out of the ABS, into the cabin where the manual adjuster is, and then under the floor following the route of the handbrake cable to the rear axle. The sensing line will be removed and a bung fitted in the T-piece on the front brake line.

All the brake fittings on the land cruiser are M10x1 thread, it is quite a common size and easy to get hold of. I will be using stainless braided AN-3 hose with stainless compression fittings.
 
Started making my brake lines this afternoon:

First got the old rotted lines off and used them to find the length of the now one.

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Here are the components of the fitting,

M10x1 male end in stainless steel, olive, and collar.

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Cut the new hose (AN-3 stainless braided hose with teflon liner, pvc coated)

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My blunt side cutters were not sharp enough, so used these ratcheting pipe cutters instead.

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Next job is trim back the PVC so the collar can be fitted, for this I used a stanley knife.

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You need to cut off the same amount as the collar, as otherwise you won't be able to fit the olive later.

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Next job is use a pick or small screwdriver to spread the braiding away from the inner part of the hose, to enable you to fit the olive.

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Then slide on a bit of heatshrink (optional) and the collar.

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Then push the olive in whilst making sure all the strands of braid are outside of the olive.

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Next, push the pipe onto the fitting.

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Do it up (tight!)

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Now the olive has pulled the pipe onto the barb of the fitting and clamped it in place, the collar has clamped the braiding onto the pipe and the fitting. But the gap in the PVC doesnt look very nice, and dirty water will be able to wick under the PVC and discolour it, so some heatshrink is used to finish it off.

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Here is the other end, this end is a banjo fitting.

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And the completed pipe.

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Next job is fit it to the truck,

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This is the fiddly bit really. It doesnt sit the same way as copper brake pipe, so you need to adjust it to get it to sit correctly, if you loosen the collar you are able to rotate the fitting on the hose though so this helps with lining up the ends. I used some brake hose rubber holders I had in my workshop to stop the hose rubbing the securing brackets, but when I ran out I had to use wiring grommets,

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The brake hoses are very quick to make up, probably easier on the bench but you could do them on the vehicle quite easily.
 
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Hey man just found your brake job posts. Looks good what your doing!

On my 70 I'm in the process of adding the adjustable proportioning valve and just running the single pipe to the rear, it's really the way to go about this! The factory LSPV will fail eventually and raising the suspension just means that the brakes sense that it's unladen. And the rear brake pressure goes back down the purple line which adds to the front locking up!

You've inspired me to take some time soon to achieve the goal of adjustable rear brakes, I have the valve mounted and the correct union nuts unf 3/8 24Tpi so need to quit stalling and strip out the pipework and get it setup.

Interested how you tune the valve :thumbup:
 
So in order to tune the valve, I have gathered some data and drawn some graphs to help me understand it.

Data 1, from service manual, shows brake setting at 1330kg axle load.

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Data 2, shows brake pressure at unladen 995kg, although confusingly written does not tell you this.

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Data 3, sticker on inside of rear tailgate, 'SETTING' weight has been damaged so I have to assume 1330kg, unless anyone has an undamaged sticker they can confirm with.

1850kg is the maximum plated axle weight you can carry.

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The 3 different sources written out:

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Graph 1, showing the relationship between an input pressure of 100 bar, and 80 bar, against the axle loads.

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Graph 2, showing the output pressure at 995kg unladen with factory LSPV.

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Graph 3, showing pressure restriction of standard LSPV, overlaid on the graph of the lever type proportioning valve I will be using.

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So the last graph shows that position 3 on the lever type valve is ideal for an unladen (995kg axle weight) truck.

Position 5 seems acceptable for a truck loaded at 1330kg,

At 1550kg you would need to use position 7.

However if you have a full axle limit load of 1850kg, you really would need full pressure at the rear brakes, which the lever type of valve cannot give you.

This would also be the case if you have uprated springs and your truck is always loaded (or overloaded) 1850kg rear axle weight or above. That is 855kg more than empty. If you had a rear fuel tank, a roof tent, roof rack, rear drawers, full kit, swing out bumper etc, I think you would be in this range or above. In this case you would not need an LSPV.
 
Professional attention to Detail as Per usual Richard.. Cracking work mate an inspiration to us all... Crack on:thumbup:
 
Not updated this thread for a while! I have been busy with work and trying to change our lifestyles to work with a young child... I got all the brakes plumbed up with the braided hoses but I kept finding I had an issue with long pedal travel, in the end I needed to use the truck again so had to MOT it as is, and still have not fully got to the bottom of the issue.
 
Lockdown Gauge Holder

As part of the air suspension/on board air upgrade I want to do, I need a place to mount an air pressure gauge. I found a nice Smiths one on ebay cheap, and decided to mount it in front of the auto gear shift. On my truck it has a wooden trim around the gearstick area which I like so I wanted to build it into that, and there is a recess under the wood trim which I think may be for coin tray which seemed ideal for the gauge to go in, so I hole sawed a 52mm hole into the console and tried to get the gauge to fit nicely.

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Unfortunately my choice of position was not very good as the gauge with air unions on is very deep, and also the centre console is not that easy to fit, and impossible with the gauge fitted where it was. You just can't slide it forward past the gear shift.

So back to the drawing board, I need to mount my gauge somewhere else, and do something to repair the hole in my console. Decided to make a nice gauge holder further forward where there is lots of space and depth for the gauges, also I could have more gauges, and perhaps even lights and switches! I am going to make it just using parts and tools that are already at home.

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Used some left over floor insulation to make the template. Its nice and crispy, easy to cut and has 1cm squares printed on. Very handy stuff. This is the angle needed to match the dashboard. Scored it with a screwdriver to make a mark.

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Cut it with the angle grinder and a very thin disc. The varnish and veneer are very easy to chip but the angle grinder gives a good cut.

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Looks good. Next make a template with the floor insulation.

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Made it oversize to start with as I will need to trim the ends.


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These areas I will need to avoid, and you can see the mountings that I need to retain.

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This line shows where the trimmed wood panel now fits, the plastic console will have to be trimmed, but I need to retain its shape and its mounting points. I didn't cut along the line I drew, I cut it further forward along one of the plastic ribs.

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Next I cut the corners of the template with the console in place, I also have trimmed the wood panel more to remove the bit I hole sawed, but I have kept the bit in front of the gearstick as it has a mounting point underneath.

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Used an old aluminium sign, it's about 2mm thick, drew around the template, cut it out with the jigsaw and a metal blade, tidied the edges and then scored the fold lines with a sharp stanley knife. The tabs at the bottom of it will hold it in place as it will be clamped by the wooden trim. The top will be against the lower dashboard.

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Folded the edges just by hand in the vice, used a 3mm piece of stainless clamped in the vice to give a nice sharp edge. Fiddled around with it a bit, trimmed some of the corners off etc.

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View from driving position. When you have the shifter in park, it covers the middle of the panel.

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If I make a mk2 version, I would make the tabs at the side bigger, so they line up with the cut bits of the plastic console. But it is ok for now.

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I can either fit 1,2,3 or 4 gauges in the area, I have decided to go for 3 gauges.

1 - air pressure in tank, air pressure in rear suspension.
2 - oil tempature of the gearbox.
3 - don't know yet. I have a water tempature gauge but I already have that on the dashboard . Possibly rear ride height? I can't afford any new Stack gauges as they are so expensive!

Any suggestions of gauges an overlander might need, and why, would be appreciated!

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I wanted a bit of grey trim to stop the top rubbing the dashboard, I don't have any the right colour but used some electrical cable (2 core and earth) insulation cut down the middle. Looks ok I think.
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Next is a test fit, paint the panel and start to sort the wiring and pipes.
 
Got the panel in for a test fit last week,

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Jack is helping today!

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The panel fits well so time for the spray job!

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acid etch primer, next was filler primer and sanding back, then colour. the colour has a crinkled effect which matches well with the dashboard.

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then lacquer to stop scratches.

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Looks good! (the small hole in the centre is for a 3rd gauge in the future.)

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These two images show how much of the console I removed.

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Wiring was next, used a superseal connector for an easy disconnect, and the wires were taken from an old MR2 loom. WIred for 3 gauges, with a spare sensor wire for the future if needed.

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The finished holder. I am quite pleased with it, it looks in-keeping with the dashboard and is out of the way, yet easy to see. it is easy to get the whole console in and out for maintenance etc. as well. the next job is fit the temperature sensor, and wire the other bits into the dash so I have power to the gauges and illumination.
 
Looks very good! What gauges do you have in there? And did you have the housing made or make it yourself? Looks like the early dashboard gives a better amount of room along the bottom! Top job!
 
Richard this is an old picture setup the same just changed over a couple of gauges since then.
Todays set up 2 USBs,
VDO battery,
VDO sub-tank,
VDO transmission temp &
VDO boost gauges.

This was a land rover MUD item bought and cut accordingly. Fits well without having to mod the dash or console. Yours look great BTW thanks :icon-wink:
 
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Finished product looks good mate, As expected!..... Nice and Neat
 
Richard, hows is your LPG running and the Flashlube?
I'm considering installing a Flashtube as no 'additive' for last 4 years and running LPG more now.
Any way to gauge when needed?
Thanks
 
Thanks for that detail @Dervis Garip , I was looking at this very gauge holder today and wondering if I could mount it in the same place on my KZJ78.

I wonder if you know how to wire gauges to dim when the headlights come on? I have read about taking the feed from the headlights but I'm not sure how to do that. Appreciate any help you can give.

Cheers
 
Hi there there were two sizes to choose from. Mine was a wider version. Something to consider.
I got my auto electrian to do the wiring to the inside dash other 12 volt connections. One for lights, one for power and then individually connected to facilitate for the each function I.e trans temp wired addictional to the gearbox new sensor install.
 
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