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LJ70 Build Thread!
- Thread starter Ben
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This Weeks Update..........
I've been busy making battery trays this week!
Had a customers VW in for a custom tray.
As he now had a space underneath where the spare used to be he wanted to mount an auxiliary battery in that space.
Designed and built a tray out of 3mm sheet steel and some angle.
It needed supporting on the back edge and the only way to do it was to pick up the chassis where the towbar mounts.
Cut and drilled some plates.
Cut and tacked a piece of 50mm angle in.
Got it electro-plated.
Made a top mount and found some J bolts.
Bolted a battery in.
All done.
I also made 10 Suzuki trays.
Cut, drilled and bent all the steel brackets.
Used a jig to weld them all together.
10 finished and ready for electro-plating.
I also did a lot of work on the electric solar Suzuki, but I will upload those pics in that thread shortly.
I stayed back after work on Thursday and cracked on making the other pair of axle stands (or chassis stands as their called here) that I mentioned a week or 2 ago.
Got one of my ones that I'm copying on the bench and tack welded some off cuts of angle around each leg.
Cut and folded some 3mm sheet.
And clamped them to some angle I'd cut for the legs.
Welded.
Made another.
Cut and hole sawed some 6mm plate.
Welded them on the tops.
Cut and bent some 25mm x 5mm flat.
Clamped and tack welded in position.
To make the tube extension piece stable, I needed to weld another piece of steel with a hole in the middle underneath.
Put an off cut of tube in the middle so I could accurately mark where the hole would need to be.
Cut a cardboard template.
Gave it a tap to get an outline of where the tube was.
Cut and hole sawed some steel.
Welded in position.
And that is as far as I got on them but I should get them finished next week.
My old ones had always been missing the pins since I've had them.
I'd always just used some M20 bolts.
But decided to make some proper pins as would need some for the new pair anyway.
Welded some chains on.
And welded the chains to the stands.
Brought them home and gave them a coat of black paint.
OK................................
LJ!
I picked up some Nissan calipers last weekend which I hoped to use for the rear disc brake conversion.
My plan was to use a pair of my old front discs.
Wound one of the calipers back and it went back enough for the disc, so things were looking good!
Dug out my spare pair of rear half shaft and some old front brake discs.
Then discovered that the disc wouldnt fit over the hub as the center hole wasnt quite big enough.
It didnt need much removing, just to the edge of the bevel as shown in the pic below.
Dug out my rear wheel bearing press tool and took the whole lot to work.
Put one of the brake discs on the lathe and removed the offending section.
The center hole was now big enough.
Bolted the press tool on.
And pressed the old bearings off.
Same with the other one.
I then had 2 rusty old backing plates for the scrap bin.
And the bits I needed.
Minus the 2 old bearings.
Cleaned all the bits in the parts washer.
This 3 phase bench grinder fitted with a wire wheel does an excellent job at cleaning up parts and getting all the rust off.
So I could now turn rusty old parts into nice clean bare metal ones.
Rusty.
Clean!
Followed by a few coats of black enamel paint.
About this time I discovered that the old brake disc still wouldnt fit the hubs.
No way I could remove that much metal!
So at this point I had a dilema in that I needed to source brake discs that would clear the hub, but going down the tried and tested route of Nissan Patrol GQ rear discs would also mean I would need new calipers as the calipers I'd sourced wouldnt work with the much thicker Patrol discs that are vented and so twice the thickness.
Anyway.........................
I continued to spend my lunch break's cleaning and painting the parts.
Finally everything was cleaned and painted and ready for re-assembly.
Picked up some bearing kits.
With genuine Koyo bearings of course.
I couldnt work out why there is an extra hole on the hub! Doesnt make sense?
Paper gasket even has a cut out for it.
And the backing plate has a raised area for it.
Knocked all the studs back in.
Fitted the rubber seals/dust covers.
Pushed the new bearings in.
A bit of grease inside the rubbers.
Dropped them over the half shafts.
Got the other press tool.
And pressed the bearings home.
All the way until the groove was visible for the snap ring.
Other one.
Both done.
I decided to order some of the Subaru L series calipers that people commonly use for these types of conversions.
Excellent customer service from this company, they were great to deal with!
Pulled the pads out.
And got them in the parts cleaner for a good clean.
Nice and clean.
The wire wheel also did an awesome job of cleaning the pads up which have still got plenty of meat on them so for now they will be going on while I get it all working.
Comparing the L series calipers to the tiny in comparison Nissan 200SX ones.
Picked up some Nissan GQ Patrol rear brake discs.
Which fit beautifully over the hubs.
The back of the disc looks good in terms of where the caliper mount will sit which will be bolted on to the back of the studs which hold the half shaft in.
All the bits collected up ready to be fitted.
I will need to change the master cylinder to an 80/90 series one and also get some hoses made up.
I did consider just fitting 80 series rear brakes but then I would still have drum brakes for the handbrake and its well know that 80's with standard rear brakes dont always have particularly great handbrakes.
I know I could have fitted some of the dogbones from www.hardcandy4x4.com, like most of the 80 owners down here have been doing for years, but I really wanted to get away from drum brakes.
I got the fuel pump all wired up and plumbed in.
I just put the fuel hose onto one of the many breather outlets on the top of the standard tank.
A quick check of the fuel levels.
Flicked the switch for the pump.
And within a few minutes of pumping I had noticable differences in fuel levels and no leaks!
Re-fitted the swing away wheel carrier.
And spare.
Re-fitted everything in the back.
Screwed the water container holder in place.
Which left some screw heads.
So I cut some thick rubber to go in the bottom and cover the screw heads as they would have worn through the bottom of the containers in time with the corrugations.
I also cleaned all the rust off the aircon brackets and got them re-painted, so they also now need fitting.
I'm hoping to get a few hours work on LJ this weekend to pull the rear diff out and investigate the leaking rear air locker, then start on the brake conversion.
I've been busy making battery trays this week!
Had a customers VW in for a custom tray.
As he now had a space underneath where the spare used to be he wanted to mount an auxiliary battery in that space.
Designed and built a tray out of 3mm sheet steel and some angle.
It needed supporting on the back edge and the only way to do it was to pick up the chassis where the towbar mounts.
Cut and drilled some plates.
Cut and tacked a piece of 50mm angle in.
Got it electro-plated.
Made a top mount and found some J bolts.
Bolted a battery in.
All done.
I also made 10 Suzuki trays.
Cut, drilled and bent all the steel brackets.
Used a jig to weld them all together.
10 finished and ready for electro-plating.
I also did a lot of work on the electric solar Suzuki, but I will upload those pics in that thread shortly.
I stayed back after work on Thursday and cracked on making the other pair of axle stands (or chassis stands as their called here) that I mentioned a week or 2 ago.
Got one of my ones that I'm copying on the bench and tack welded some off cuts of angle around each leg.
Cut and folded some 3mm sheet.
And clamped them to some angle I'd cut for the legs.
Welded.
Made another.
Cut and hole sawed some 6mm plate.
Welded them on the tops.
Cut and bent some 25mm x 5mm flat.
Clamped and tack welded in position.
To make the tube extension piece stable, I needed to weld another piece of steel with a hole in the middle underneath.
Put an off cut of tube in the middle so I could accurately mark where the hole would need to be.
Cut a cardboard template.
Gave it a tap to get an outline of where the tube was.
Cut and hole sawed some steel.
Welded in position.
And that is as far as I got on them but I should get them finished next week.
My old ones had always been missing the pins since I've had them.
I'd always just used some M20 bolts.
But decided to make some proper pins as would need some for the new pair anyway.
Welded some chains on.
And welded the chains to the stands.
Brought them home and gave them a coat of black paint.
OK................................
LJ!
I picked up some Nissan calipers last weekend which I hoped to use for the rear disc brake conversion.
My plan was to use a pair of my old front discs.
Wound one of the calipers back and it went back enough for the disc, so things were looking good!
Dug out my spare pair of rear half shaft and some old front brake discs.
Then discovered that the disc wouldnt fit over the hub as the center hole wasnt quite big enough.
It didnt need much removing, just to the edge of the bevel as shown in the pic below.
Dug out my rear wheel bearing press tool and took the whole lot to work.
Put one of the brake discs on the lathe and removed the offending section.
The center hole was now big enough.
Bolted the press tool on.
And pressed the old bearings off.
Same with the other one.
I then had 2 rusty old backing plates for the scrap bin.
And the bits I needed.
Minus the 2 old bearings.
Cleaned all the bits in the parts washer.
This 3 phase bench grinder fitted with a wire wheel does an excellent job at cleaning up parts and getting all the rust off.
So I could now turn rusty old parts into nice clean bare metal ones.
Rusty.
Clean!
Followed by a few coats of black enamel paint.
About this time I discovered that the old brake disc still wouldnt fit the hubs.
No way I could remove that much metal!
So at this point I had a dilema in that I needed to source brake discs that would clear the hub, but going down the tried and tested route of Nissan Patrol GQ rear discs would also mean I would need new calipers as the calipers I'd sourced wouldnt work with the much thicker Patrol discs that are vented and so twice the thickness.
Anyway.........................
I continued to spend my lunch break's cleaning and painting the parts.
Finally everything was cleaned and painted and ready for re-assembly.
Picked up some bearing kits.
With genuine Koyo bearings of course.
I couldnt work out why there is an extra hole on the hub! Doesnt make sense?
Paper gasket even has a cut out for it.
And the backing plate has a raised area for it.
Knocked all the studs back in.
Fitted the rubber seals/dust covers.
Pushed the new bearings in.
A bit of grease inside the rubbers.
Dropped them over the half shafts.
Got the other press tool.
And pressed the bearings home.
All the way until the groove was visible for the snap ring.
Other one.
Both done.
I decided to order some of the Subaru L series calipers that people commonly use for these types of conversions.
Excellent customer service from this company, they were great to deal with!
Pulled the pads out.
And got them in the parts cleaner for a good clean.
Nice and clean.
The wire wheel also did an awesome job of cleaning the pads up which have still got plenty of meat on them so for now they will be going on while I get it all working.
Comparing the L series calipers to the tiny in comparison Nissan 200SX ones.
Picked up some Nissan GQ Patrol rear brake discs.
Which fit beautifully over the hubs.
The back of the disc looks good in terms of where the caliper mount will sit which will be bolted on to the back of the studs which hold the half shaft in.
All the bits collected up ready to be fitted.
I will need to change the master cylinder to an 80/90 series one and also get some hoses made up.
I did consider just fitting 80 series rear brakes but then I would still have drum brakes for the handbrake and its well know that 80's with standard rear brakes dont always have particularly great handbrakes.
I know I could have fitted some of the dogbones from www.hardcandy4x4.com, like most of the 80 owners down here have been doing for years, but I really wanted to get away from drum brakes.
I got the fuel pump all wired up and plumbed in.
I just put the fuel hose onto one of the many breather outlets on the top of the standard tank.
A quick check of the fuel levels.
Flicked the switch for the pump.
And within a few minutes of pumping I had noticable differences in fuel levels and no leaks!
Re-fitted the swing away wheel carrier.
And spare.
Re-fitted everything in the back.
Screwed the water container holder in place.
Which left some screw heads.
So I cut some thick rubber to go in the bottom and cover the screw heads as they would have worn through the bottom of the containers in time with the corrugations.
I also cleaned all the rust off the aircon brackets and got them re-painted, so they also now need fitting.
I'm hoping to get a few hours work on LJ this weekend to pull the rear diff out and investigate the leaking rear air locker, then start on the brake conversion.
keep those templates!
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I'm going to write another HowTo once its all done, so all the pics and info will be neatly together like I've done with some of the other mods I've done.
http://www.landcruiserclub.net/forums/blog.php/6170-Ben
Here is mine lj70 with diskbrake, http://www.4x4sweden.se/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=19039&hilit=toyota&start=105
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Awesome.
What calipers did you use and what have you done with your handbrake?
Do you mind if I use one of your pics when I write the How To, just to show that people dont have to do it quite like me in terms of using a press and changing all the bearings and they can in fact just cut the old backing plates off?
What calipers did you use and what have you done with your handbrake?
Do you mind if I use one of your pics when I write the How To, just to show that people dont have to do it quite like me in terms of using a press and changing all the bearings and they can in fact just cut the old backing plates off?
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Awesome!
I never thought I could use a brake disc with a different stud pattern and just re-drill the disc!
If I had thought of/seen that sooner then I could have used the Nisan calipers that I bought first. Would have saved me $220!
Yes I also have an X-ENG X Brake which I'm hoping to sell once the new brakes are finished!
I never thought I could use a brake disc with a different stud pattern and just re-drill the disc!
If I had thought of/seen that sooner then I could have used the Nisan calipers that I bought first. Would have saved me $220!
Yes I also have an X-ENG X Brake which I'm hoping to sell once the new brakes are finished!
Disc brake rear
Ben,
I haven't had time to read through your whole disc brake rear process yet, so apologies if you already know this info.
I have a LJ70 with 1KZ that I bought with a disc rear conversion already done. Subaru L-Series calipers, patrol rotors, profile cut 10mm caliper mounting plates.
The car also apparently has a 80 series master cylinder but original booster, and late model hilux front calipers and rotors.
All this equipment was on the car when I bought it, but untested and not connected. I have hooked everything up and it is working, but it's not very impressive. The rear bias still needs more adjustment due to being lifted so high, but I am not impressed at all.
15" rims will not fit for a start, I have had to go to 16's. Then there is the handbrake assy. Subaru is designed to have the cable split, with 1 "leg" going to each cylinder. Bundera has the cable going to one wheel, with a 2nd cable going across to the other side. This means that there is less travel at the cylinder than subaru intended and the cable comes in on the wrong angle. Modification of the input arm is required but even then it's not an ideal setup.
Last week I bought a KZJ78 for parts which we don't really get here in aus, but when I looked it has a factory rear disc setup and double diaphram brake booster. I haven't even pulled the wheels off yet to look closely but with your contacts in UK you might have more access to those kind of parts. Handbrake cable setup is same style as my factory bundera. Looks like it would be a better option
Cheers
Dave
Ben,
I haven't had time to read through your whole disc brake rear process yet, so apologies if you already know this info.
I have a LJ70 with 1KZ that I bought with a disc rear conversion already done. Subaru L-Series calipers, patrol rotors, profile cut 10mm caliper mounting plates.
The car also apparently has a 80 series master cylinder but original booster, and late model hilux front calipers and rotors.
All this equipment was on the car when I bought it, but untested and not connected. I have hooked everything up and it is working, but it's not very impressive. The rear bias still needs more adjustment due to being lifted so high, but I am not impressed at all.
15" rims will not fit for a start, I have had to go to 16's. Then there is the handbrake assy. Subaru is designed to have the cable split, with 1 "leg" going to each cylinder. Bundera has the cable going to one wheel, with a 2nd cable going across to the other side. This means that there is less travel at the cylinder than subaru intended and the cable comes in on the wrong angle. Modification of the input arm is required but even then it's not an ideal setup.
Last week I bought a KZJ78 for parts which we don't really get here in aus, but when I looked it has a factory rear disc setup and double diaphram brake booster. I haven't even pulled the wheels off yet to look closely but with your contacts in UK you might have more access to those kind of parts. Handbrake cable setup is same style as my factory bundera. Looks like it would be a better option
Cheers
Dave
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Hi Dave,
Sounds like an identical setup to what I am doing!
15's will fit if the caliper mounting brackets are made properly! Its bloody close, but there is just enough room!
For you to say that your 15's dont fit that makes me think that the calipers must be mounted too high on the discs and this must be resulting in the pads not making full contact with the discs.
I had to grind a little bit out of my L series calipers to get the pads to have a bigger contact area on the discs. I think this must be because the Subaru must run smaller discs than the Patrol.
My calipers then have about 5mm clearance from the discs and then another 5mm between the calipers and wheels, so its pretty tight!
I'm currently looking at the handbrake cable situation as that might have an affect on the exact position of my calipers. I'm thinking of trying Vitara handbrake cables, but need to decide whether I need short wheel base or long wheel base ones.
Vitara's have 2 separate cables that link together at the handbrake, so I'm confident they should work on a 70.
Nice buy!
It may even have a rear locker if your lucky!
Your quite right in that it has rear discs but it still has a drum brake handbrake inside the discs, which is something I'm very keen to get away from as mud and off road driving and drum brakes really dont go well together!
Drums fill with mud and that grinds away at the friction material of the shoes and they wear out in no time. There also a pretty inefficient brake IMO compared to a disc brake.
Sounds like an identical setup to what I am doing!
15's will fit if the caliper mounting brackets are made properly! Its bloody close, but there is just enough room!
For you to say that your 15's dont fit that makes me think that the calipers must be mounted too high on the discs and this must be resulting in the pads not making full contact with the discs.
I had to grind a little bit out of my L series calipers to get the pads to have a bigger contact area on the discs. I think this must be because the Subaru must run smaller discs than the Patrol.
My calipers then have about 5mm clearance from the discs and then another 5mm between the calipers and wheels, so its pretty tight!
I'm currently looking at the handbrake cable situation as that might have an affect on the exact position of my calipers. I'm thinking of trying Vitara handbrake cables, but need to decide whether I need short wheel base or long wheel base ones.
Vitara's have 2 separate cables that link together at the handbrake, so I'm confident they should work on a 70.
Nice buy!
It may even have a rear locker if your lucky!
Your quite right in that it has rear discs but it still has a drum brake handbrake inside the discs, which is something I'm very keen to get away from as mud and off road driving and drum brakes really dont go well together!
Drums fill with mud and that grinds away at the friction material of the shoes and they wear out in no time. There also a pretty inefficient brake IMO compared to a disc brake.
Ahh yes now that I've had time to read a little more (I've been too busy to follow your thread for several months now) I can see you quite rightly want to get away from the drum handbrake. I am in Katherine NT and custom fabrication is hard to get done at all, let alone at a reasonable time frame and price. Even just getting an engineer to re-swage the factory bundera handbrake cable to a shorter length was very difficult. I suspect the reason my brakes are ordinary is just a mis-match of components. I wouldn't be suprised if the master cylinder is actually disc/drum, not drum/drum. Also the double diaphram booster would help a lot. My last bundera with factory brakes all round (I did rebuild calipers/cylinders and replace master tho) stopped much better than this one.
Quite interesting what you suggest about caliper/pad alignment, I didn't look closely at that when I got everything working as it was already bolted up. Definitely on my to check on list.
If you come up with a good hand-brake cable solution I would be very interested in hearing/seeing/buying it. ha
The KZJ78 is just LSD rear, but my bundy has arb airs both ends already. I do want many parts from this car, including the 4.3:1 diff gears, full glass front windows, nicer seats, instrument cluster, centre console, brake booster, and maybe even the updated nosecone
Quite interesting what you suggest about caliper/pad alignment, I didn't look closely at that when I got everything working as it was already bolted up. Definitely on my to check on list.
If you come up with a good hand-brake cable solution I would be very interested in hearing/seeing/buying it. ha
The KZJ78 is just LSD rear, but my bundy has arb airs both ends already. I do want many parts from this car, including the 4.3:1 diff gears, full glass front windows, nicer seats, instrument cluster, centre console, brake booster, and maybe even the updated nosecone
Just got my callipers aswell, and first i thought i had gotten the wrong ones, everywhere you read about "ABP3K", when i looked on the ones i got it says "ADP3K" But after looking at some on the internet, and yours i have decided that i must have the correct ones, because yours also says adp3k, and some others i found too.. So why the hell do people call them abp3k? 
Im confuzzled!
Edit. AND GODDAMNIT. Dont scare me like that! For a second i thought i had tog et new rims and tires too! GOD DIGGITY DANGIT. *Breathes heavily*
Im confuzzled!Edit. AND GODDAMNIT. Dont scare me like that! For a second i thought i had tog et new rims and tires too! GOD DIGGITY DANGIT. *Breathes heavily*
Last edited:
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Dave, are these the brackets you have?
http://www.designfab.com.au/shop/brake-parts/disk-brake-brackets/
http://www.designfab.com.au/shop/brake-parts/disk-brake-brackets/
Just got my callipers aswell, and first i thought i had gotten the wrong ones, everywhere you read about "ABP3K", when i looked on the ones i got it says "ADP3K" But after looking at some on the internet, and yours i have decided that i must have the correct ones, because yours also says adp3k, and some others i found too.. So why the hell do people call them abp3k?
Edit. AND GODDAMNIT. Dont scare me like that! For a second i thought i had tog et new rims and tires too! GOD DIGGITY DANGIT. *Breathes heavily*
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I'm struggling with the handbrake cable situation.
A LWB Vitara one is too short and looking at other LandCruiser cables they all seem to run the same sort of system, with a cable going to one side which then goes across the axle to the other side.
I'd love to find one off another car that will fit and work, but failing that I'm going to look into maybe having one made.
Found a couple of localish companies that would be able to make me one.
http://speedscreen.com.au/index.html
http://www.autocables.com.au/
But its how best to go from one cable inside the cabin at the lever, to two cables going to the brakes. The Vitara uses two cables that then go to one inside the cabin but its not quite setup how I remembered and wont be a nice simple solution like I previously thought, even if the cables had of been long enough.
A LWB Vitara one is too short and looking at other LandCruiser cables they all seem to run the same sort of system, with a cable going to one side which then goes across the axle to the other side.
I'd love to find one off another car that will fit and work, but failing that I'm going to look into maybe having one made.
Found a couple of localish companies that would be able to make me one.
http://speedscreen.com.au/index.html
http://www.autocables.com.au/
But its how best to go from one cable inside the cabin at the lever, to two cables going to the brakes. The Vitara uses two cables that then go to one inside the cabin but its not quite setup how I remembered and wont be a nice simple solution like I previously thought, even if the cables had of been long enough.
The factory cable could probably work with careful modification of the caliper-lever. Mine have potentially been lengthened slightly which has made the problem worse. The in-car lever has to be adjusted so it's actuating a little when off, then only just grabs right at the top of the travel. While it does work better than most toyota drum handbrakes, it doesn't inspire confidence. I also had to shorten the linking cable by roughly 150mm.
My view was that the Bundy is too short to have a cable that splits in 2, and goes to each wheel on the intended angle nicely, modification of the caliper looked unavoidable to me. I am looking forward to your nice simple elegant solution that I can then adopt.
My view was that the Bundy is too short to have a cable that splits in 2, and goes to each wheel on the intended angle nicely, modification of the caliper looked unavoidable to me. I am looking forward to your nice simple elegant solution that I can then adopt.
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Think I've solved the handbrake cable issue today!
We had a customers Jimny on the hoist today fitting rocksliders to it and I glanced underneath at where the handbrake cable enters the body and low and behold it had exactly what I've been looking for!!
Two cables going from the wheels which split where they meet the floor pan with one single cable going through to the lever!
So using a Jimny splitter and single cable to my lever with 2 LWB Vitara cables going to the brake calipers should work perfectly!
We had a customers Jimny on the hoist today fitting rocksliders to it and I glanced underneath at where the handbrake cable enters the body and low and behold it had exactly what I've been looking for!!
Two cables going from the wheels which split where they meet the floor pan with one single cable going through to the lever!
So using a Jimny splitter and single cable to my lever with 2 LWB Vitara cables going to the brake calipers should work perfectly!
