Meet Fram

[Nick Shepherd]

My 'new' 80 series. It's a 1992 HDJ81 with a 1HD-T and the earlier hydraulic A442F autobox (PRND321).

It was an ebay car and I schlepped all the way to London to pick it up - the price was good enough to bother

It has previously been owned by another member of the forum and he assured me over the phone that all the terrible things that have happened to it were on his watch and that it's the cruiser he kept hold of the longest because it was so good.

I work offshore so I have two weeks at a time where I can work on it and two weeks where I haunt the internet. The initial plan is to get all the maintenance stuff at a staring point for me so I can know for sure when the service needs doing so I will be changing all the filters, putting in ACL BEBs, changing the diff and T case oils and flushing through at least fifteen litres of ATF (the current stuff smells a bit scorched). There is also a weepy steering hub so I'm going to renew both sets of wipers (and do the axle rebuild in a few months). New brake pads and a new set of BFG ATs.

I just got home yesterday so I got started on some of the more irritating wee jobs while I'm waiting for bits to arrive. Fixed the broken spring on the fuel door with a 2p spring from an Aldi selection box:

That pops open like a champ now.

Also fitted a new washer bottle as the old one didn't have any seals around the pumps so dumped all the water out immediately on filling. That washer bottle seemed to be determined to not come out or go back in again without a fight. and fitted new washer nozzles. Not pleasant as the rocker cover gasket has blown at some time recently and liberally soaked the bonnet liner in oil - I'll need to get a new one of those at some point.

Next jobs include fitting the new door to replace the slightly landscaped one:

Luckily the owner before last has a large stock of bits and threw a new door in:

Need to replace the antenna - I'm favouring doing away with the retractable and fitting a rubber one.

The headlights need some sorting as they appear to have been bog snorkelling in their past:

Sponge and forceps or another trip to ebay.

Before I get to the wiper seals I also want to extend the breathers to sort the pressure that may be causing the seepage.

The rear fog light has been pulverised so a new one is in the garage waiting to get fitted to the tyre carrier where it won't get mashed again.

The paint is in a pretty poxy state and I want to get that seen to before it leads to any corrosion:

And this tint has got to go:

I also had a really good crawl around underneath, I know it's had a lift but I'm pleasantly surprised to see Rancho rather than some no name shocks and the lack of rust is a very pleasing sight.

I was also rather happy to see this in the Ebay ad:

But less happy when it looked like this behind it:

Essentially, it seems a decent car that is begging for a really good clean

The list of future mods is pretty short:

A Front Runner 62l header tank
Winch
Maybe a new suspension setup, I'm swithering between Ironman and OME but I'll see how it behaves one=ce I have some matching tyres fitted.

If anyone knows what this badge is could they share? It's intriguing me.

 

[karl webster]

Think ive seen that truck before

I wish id av kept that nick rarther than the pile of poo thats now a pile of bits

Karl

 

[callum]

she looks a little weathered, but these things brush up pretty well.

i think its almost exactly the same as mine, right down to the missing fuel filler spring.

 

[Nick Shepherd]

Think ive seen that truck before

I wish id av kept that nick rarther than the pile of poo thats now a pile of bits

Karl

Wait until it's finished, it will be lovely

Today was a slightly better day than yesterday - no fireworks, at least.

Got the call from my local Toy shop to say the bits had arrived so it was filter changes:

Air - I don't want to think about where you've been driving this thing Karl, that's just what fell out when I put the old one on top of the bin.

Oil filter - the sump plug had a very fine pile of metal dust on the magnet but nothing I'm worried about. The sump is dripping away just now as My replacement ACL BEBs also arrived this afternoon so I will be fitting them tomorrow. Thanks again Karl, just the job

Fuel filter had a lot of gungy bits that looked a bit like it had a cold, I feel better with a new one on, much more pleasant exercise to prime than the 60 too

You can also see the newly extended diff breathers in the background. Still waiting on a couple of cheap wee fuel filters off Ebay to finish that off.

And, to round things off I replaced the nearside steering hub wiper seals. Did a quick and sloppy job as I'll be doing a full axle service at some point near the end of the summer. The driver's side was dry as a bone so I've left it alone. There are all sort of little clues that the maintenance has been good on this thing, new nuts and bolts herre and there underneath and the steel covers on the hub wipers were nearly new once I got the grease off them.
Before:

After:

 

[karl webster]

As for the air filter nick. All i can say is snorkels are are must. I really do need to get myself one

As for the stuff in the bottom im supprised it got any in there. I was at a play day with it though and i did go a little deap

All part of the fun. Carnt wait to se it in action again

The bloke who i sold it to off had obviously not done a filter change then,or his macanic hadnt

 

[Nick Shepherd]

As for the air filter nick. All i can say is snorkels are are must. I really do need to get myself one

As for the stuff in the bottom im supprised it got any in there. I was at a play day with it though and i did go a little deap

All part of the fun. Carnt wait to se it in action again

The bloke who i sold it to off had obviously not done a filter change then,or his macanic hadnt

Spirited driving I think it's called Karl

I keep being surprised at how well it is, considering it's not in the fabled 'Time warp condition' (TM) on the surface, it's a cracker where it counts.

 

[karl webster]

A few on here know i like my water mate.

It is a good truck nick thats why i was in two minds if to keep it or not. As per usual i made the wrong choice and my little baby mux is now dead and underground

 

[dave b]

Thought i reconised that 80.you have a good truck there it suprised me where it could go with no lockers.
I think i remembere how that watwer got in to the headlights

 

[Nick Shepherd]

I think i remembere how that watwer got in to the headlights

I so don't want to know

 

[karl webster]

It did do well dave most of the time. Didnt stand a chance up chapel gate though as mux didnt having no lockers.

As for the headlights, i dont know what you mean

 

[Nick Shepherd]

I got bored to death of waiting for the assembly lube I ordered to arrive so I decided to crack on regardless (and use moly grease instead).

First up, the driver's window doesn't work at all - no sound, nothing so I went with the optimistic approach and pulled the switches to give them a damn good clean. As you can see they needed it.

Unfortunately it had sod all effect so that's a problem for another day.

The BEBs had clearly been done previously, as evidenced by the black sealant and the sloppy nature of it.

But they too were rather the worse for wear and I'm rather glad I did them now, massive pain in the bum though it is, especially when you can't find either a 12 point 1/2" socket or a 1/2" - 3/8" adapter to use on your torque wrench and you have to break off half way through the job to go to Autosave and then you remember, much later while writing up the day's activities that being in Autosave presented a great opportunity to buy some replacement ATF for the 7.5 litres of it you drained out of the transmission.

Back tomorrow then

The condition of the BEBs:

6 to 4

3 to 1

Nasty looking, every one. I feel happier now that there are some ACLs in there.

Next job is to extend the starter battery cables so they reach the terminals on the new battery.

 

[Andrew Prince]

How many miles has the truck done, Nick?
If that's the 2nd set of BEBs that have come out, they're in pretty poor shape unless the truck has done crazy miles. Conventional wisdom(?) is that replacement BEBs should be good for life, especially the ACLs Can you see what brand the old BEBs are?

Cheers,

 

[karl webster]

Nick, I would be very supprised to if the bearings had already been done previous.

Was the crank all ok?

May be cheap bearings that went back in,but still supprised on the condition of them.

Karl

 

[Nick Shepherd]

Aye, the crank looked fine, no scoring, certainly. The truck is on 166,000 miles now, it's possible that it was clocked prior to coming to the UK and it has been here for nine years so plenty of scope for the first UK owner to have done them with cheap bearings and them to have worn in that time. The bearings that came out weren't ACL, I'll have a quick look in the morning to see what they are - not Toyota, in any case as they are marked STD rather than in sizes. The condition of the silicone gasket and the fact that it was black makes me think they were done at least once before, the Toyota stuff is grey, isn't it?

 

[karl webster]

As long as the crank looks in good order then all good

And the new bearings will be fine

 

[Nick Shepherd]

And the new bearings will be fine

That I have faith in

Here are the markings on the removed bearings:

Not Toyota, I would say.

 

[Nick Shepherd]

Today I refilled the ATF - whoever it was that came up with the garden sprayer idea, you deserve a medal or at least a pint if I ever meet you .

While that was happening I made up some 4" battery cable extenders so that the battery cables wouldn't need to stretch too far to the Numax terminals, particularly on the starter. I've got some new post type terminals on the way so I had to reuse the pressed steel ones for now.

Once all that was done it fired up instantly. Which was nice.

Jobs that have cropped up from that are that the alternator makes a sort of rhythmic rattle. Confirmed it was the alt by levering it gently away from the engine and the noise stopped. It may just need mounting better, the belts were changed by the PO's mechanic and maybe he didn't tighten everything up quite as straight as he should have.

The other, rather more concerning issue, is a continuous wisp of acrid white/grey smoke. I've seen this diagnosed on the forum as being either injectors needing cleaned or the turbo seal having gone.

Does anyone have any diagnostic ideas for working out which? The engine oil is very slightly over full, measured with the engine warm it's about 2mm above the upper level mark so I'll run a pint of oil out later to see if that helps (I doubt it will but best to have things right, just in case).

Any other suggestions are also most welcome.

Oh, the Stebel horn works a treat

 

[Nick Shepherd]

Just had another look to see if a few things could be ruled out.

I took off the crankcase breather pipe and it was pretty oily, with smoke coming from it while the engine was running.

The small amount of smoke at idle became a BIG plume if given a big throttle input. This now worries me that it is turbo related.

 

[Dave Docwra]

While that was happening I made up some 4" battery cable extenders so that the battery cables wouldn't need to stretch too far to the Numax terminals, particularly on the starter. I've got some new post type terminals on the way so I had to reuse the pressed steel ones for now.

Hi Nick, Why did you have to extend them?

 

[Nick Shepherd]

Hi Nick, Why did you have to extend them?

Because they wouldn't reach

The new Numax batteries I have aren't 'directional' as the Toyta ones are so the starter battery has the posts as far as possible from the terminals, the batteries are also a little bigger than the ones that were in there and so the main battery positive terminal was at full stretch. I gave that one a little more room at the same time. I'd rather have a little slack than have the cables straining at their connections.