LJ78 Build Thread

[StarCruiser]

I guess it’s no different to having a jack under the car, it could still roll and have the jack turn over. I was asking as I’ve never used one or had the need to but could see if it was a long way up the angle and leverage and tendency for the truck to move would be greater the higher it went.

Engine in gear (or Park in an auto) seems like a pretty solid plan. Thanks Ben.

 

[Ben]

Got the car jacked up today and on some stands.



Then bolted the new rock sliders on.

 

[StarCruiser]

Lookin good Ben.

 

[rob rule]

Added bonus - now you can reach to the centre top of the windscreen when washing...
excellent work

 

[Ben Stratford]

Great job Ben, just what I need to do too

 

[clivehorridge]

Perfect job as usual Ben, looking great...

 

[Ben]

Thanks guys.

I'm really pleased with them.

I was a little concerned they may have distorted when I welded them, as they only had tiny tacks on them when I pulled them off the car to fully weld them, meaning fitting them might have been tricky.

But I need not have worried as they bolted straight on perfectly!

With only 2 weeks (maybe 3 if we push it back a week) to go until our next trip, this time to Big River state forest I need to crack on and get the front locker fitted.

So I'm going to try and get the diff pulled out and locker fitted this week, if 360 can squeeze it in.

 

[chrasjir]

A little update on Easter High Country trip. Here are data from Hema Explorer which have been recorded only during offroading.

 

[Ben]

Thanks Jiri, some interesting statistics.

I like the altitude profile graph, on day 3 we dropped almost a thousand meters quite rapidly and then climbed back up just as quickly!

 

[Ben]

I pulled the front diff out last week.





And dropped it off at 360 Diffs along with my E locker.

They fitted the E locker, all new bearings and machined up a solid pinion spacer for it.





Got it fitted this weekend, just got to wire it up now.

I also got an annoying electrical fault fixed that had been bugging me since I rebuilt it after the respray.

Since then I couldnt get the central locking or electric windows to work on the passenger side of the vehicle.

It turned out there are 2 identical connectors right next to each other in the loom, inside the passenger side A pillar and I'd connected them the wrong way around.

Swapped them around and now all my electric windows and central locking are working!

I've got a trip this Wednesday (its a public holiday) with Jiri and Aneta, were heading to one of the local state forests for a day drive.

Will be a good opportunity to test the front locker out.

 

[Ben]

This week we had a public holiday on Wednesday as it was Anzac Day.

So we got out for a day trip to Toolangi State Forest!

The front locker and winch got a workout as it was very steep and muddy!

Full trip report coming soon, but heres a great little video Jirri and Aneta put together.

 

[clivehorridge]

Bravo Ben, and a nice video from Jiri, I like the way he kept the sound of the trucks in, sounds good too Ben.

 

[Gary820]

Great vid with an awesome backing track playing

 

[Ben]

Thanks guys.

I thought you'd appreciate the music Gary.

Jiri and Aneta called around today and dropped off all their pics and videos from the trip, so now I just need to go through them all and upload them and write a trip report.

 

[Ben]

I got some maps from work for our up coming Big River weekend trip and also our Anzac Day trip to Toolangi.



And started planning.



The plan is to drive the bitumen to Cambarville.



And from there drive the short distance to Big River Road where there are lots of camp sites.



Cambarville is only 2 hours away so Big River is nice and close compared to lots of areas of the High Country which can be up to a 6 our drive away, down the freeway.



Before that trip though we has the Toolangi trip and I wanted to get my front E locker wired up.

I wired up the switch in the cab and then ran the wires through to the engine bay where I added another fuse in my fuse and relay box and wired the E locker up.





As a temporary measure the switch got cable tied to the rear factory locker switch.



I will order one of the factory switches that does front and rear lockers and wire the E locker off that.



With the front locker working it was time for the Toolangi trip.

A nice easy 40 mins and we were at the edge of the state forest and the edge of the High Country.

From here it is one state forest and national park after another heading all the way into and across the High Country, its hundreds of square miles of mountains and forests and all jam packed full of 4wd tracks!

Anyway...........

After a nice easy dirt road.



We pulled over to air down, lock hubs and raise rear mud flaps.



And then we were into the tracks!





Soon things got interesting!

With lots of rutted muddy hill climbs.

Which The 78 roared up!

Jiri was soon up too, his little all terrain tyres working hard to find some traction.











The 78 lifted wheels a few times.







But Jiri did an excellent job of spotting me.



























Jiri got a little bit hung up in the deep ruts and required some assistance.



So I turned The 78 around.






And we set the winch up.







The next track proved just as challenging.





After dragging his diffs along the first few hundred meters of track Jiri needed some assistance to try and get out of the deep ruts.









Pic limit reached and I'm out of time anyway.

We will continue the story soon.

 

[Ben]

The Max Trax were not really working, despite Jiri's best attempts at driving up them.





So I turned The 78 around and set up my winch with a snatch block to winch him out of the ruts.





And we soon had the Troopy back on the track but this time straddling the ruts.



But not for long as soon we were back driving more muddy hill climbs.

We stopped next to a dozer that had been parked up and had clearly been used to repair the track.





It was a very old machine and quite interesting to look at.



As we finished that track we drove past a Road Closed sign, but there had been no sign on the other end of the track.



Then things started getting a bit rocky.







The next track we drove was one of the few tracks in the area to have a warning on the map for being very steep and rocky.

We got half way up and decided it wasnt a good idea.

With just a front locker I was struggling on all the large rock steps, but I really didnt fancy reversing back down, so I chose to push on.













I managed to get the front up this rock step but the back wheels were just spinning.



So I had no choice but to winch.









Jiri and Aneta were great and worked hard to help winch me up the steep hill.

They re-positioned my winch rope 3 times to get me safely up all the rock steps.

I'm confident with a working rear locker I would have been able to drive the entire track.

After that track I drove back around and down to Jiri and Aneta and they reversed back down the track they had come up on as it wasnt quite as rocky as the one I had struggled on.

The next few tracks were a lot more gentle and relaxing.



We drove through areas that had been recently harvested.



Which meant we got some nice views.





We left the forest in the afternoon and headed for one of my favorite pubs, The Coldstream Brewery.

Where my wife met us and we all had dinner and drinks together.



An Australian delicacy, chicken parmigiana!



It was a great day out!

 

[alexy]

how you cook a chicken parmigiana? what is it? cheese wrapped chicken?

Jiri might want some MT tyres?

 

[Paddler Ed]

Chicken parmi is a chicken schnitzel with cheese, bacon/ham and some form of tomato sauce.

The challenge is making sure that the schnitzel has recently seen a complete chicken and isn't the reformed rubbish...

 

[Ben]

On Friday I went to work to do some of my own work, mainly for LJ.

And seen as they were having a quiet day and didnt have any customers cars in the fitting bay, they said I could bring The 78 in so the auto electrician could have a look at the un-working factory rear locker for me.





I removed the actuator and the auto electrician stripped it down and had a look at it.

He discovered that all the magnets were in the correct positions and the thing was trying to turn.





But the bearing which I knew was a bit dodgy, was in fact preventing the motor from turning.





The only reason I hadnt changed the bearing was because I didnt have a suitable tool to remove it with.

With the correct tool, the bearing was soon removed and 5 minutes and $4 later I had a replacement!



With that fitted the motor was soon turning away quite nicely!

He temporarily wired it up on the bench with some relays and as we tested it 2 small issues came to light.



Firstly the motor was struggling to turn slightly with the end cap fully screwed down over the armature, maybe there was slightly too much silicon behind the magnets, I dont know.

So what he did was connect the motor to full power and as it was spinning away frantically, he slowly wound all the screws in to tighten the end cap down, bit by bit. And that was enough to fix that issue.

Then he discovered that the motor wasnt always turning when connected to power and he soon worked out that under load the motor was getting pushed hard up into the end cap as there was no ball bearing on the end of the spindle.

I never saw a ball when I originally stripped the actuator, so maybe some one had been in there before me.

We stripped down an old window wiper motor and used the ball out of that which worked perfectly.

And I now had a perfectly working diff lock actuator!




I bolted it back on the car and now I finally had a solid red LED when I turned the diff lock switch!



My next job is to change this switch.



For one of these switches.



And wire my front E locker off it.

I just need to order one from Amayama in Japan as they are far too expensive to buy in Australia!



I also need to get a red LED.




And a resistor.




Then I need to carefully, using a step drill, drill a hole in the front diff on the little pic on my dash and wire up the LED to the front E locker.

Today I bought some VDJ76 genuine rubber floor mats.









Which fitted perfectly in my LJ78!

The joys of owing a car, whos body has been in almost continuous production for 30 years, parts from the brand new models fit!

 

[Ben]

how you cook a chicken parmigiana? what is it? cheese wrapped chicken?

Jiri might want some MT tyres?

As Ed said, although it has to be the right ham, the right cheese and the right tomato sauce!

We take Parmie's very seriously in our family and will travel many miles for a good one!

Jiri definitely wants mud tyres I think!

It wasnt an issue on our Easter High Country trip as the tracks were dry, but now were getting towards Winter the tracks are all very muddy!

If his tyres had been a bit bigger he would have probably been OK, it wasnt so much traction he lacked, as ground clearance.

He kept scraping his diff in deep ruts and getting hung up.