FZJ80R from Devon

[Richard Turner]

Fitted the bearing for the A/C tensioner.

As there was only a seal one side I lifted the seal out of the old bearing with a little screwdriver, there are grooves in the new bearing for the seal, I cleaned it up and put a bit of extra grease in the bearing just pushed it in and it fits lovely. I have ordered some bits from roughtrax, new drive belts and some front pads.

 

[Richard Turner]

Fridges

We are going for our 2 week camping at the end of Aug and we want a fridge, currently I have a 3-way fridge out of a caravan that I used to strap in the doorway of the van and run from a big gas bottle. It works ok but it is not going to be very suitable in the Cruiser as I will have to make a proper chimney etc or if I use it on 12v it isn't very efficient at all.

Budget is tight so I have been looking at a fridge called Waeco FR35, it is 31L capacity.

For the 2 weeks in France we have a 240v hook up, so power will be ok there. Later I will try and get a solar panel and an extra battery.

No experience with compressor fridges, so if anyone has any insight that would be appreciated, or any reasons I have not seen that this would not be suitable for land cruiser camping, but budget is limited so I can't spend £6/700 on one!

 

[Gary820]

I have that fridge for my 80. I run from an aux battery (I fitted a 2nd battery and split charge) and can run it for a few days without a problem.

If you go for it I would help the insulation by adding some extra, I used the foil bubble wrap stuff and basically made a bag, it's taped to the casing around the vents and double layered on the lid. I did buy a cover (not insulated) for an indel fridge, not a perfect fit but a few tweaks and that sits over the foil stuff.

I rate it and it serves me well on camping trips and even on family days out.
I tend to run with the temp set 0 to 2 degrees depending on outside temp, the back of a black 80 tends to get quite warm!!

 

[Richard Turner]

That looks great Gary, nice job on the cover! Do you have your extra battery where the other battery in a Diesel fits? I saw a battery tray for sale reasonably cheap but I don't know where I would put the washer bottle. I think the washer bottle on a Diesel is where our carbon canister is.

 

[Gary820]

Cheers.
Yes mate I fitted the aux battery where the diesel one goes, I think the washer bottle is inside the wing on a derv.

I relocated the bottle, made some brackets, extended the wiring etc. Bottle tucks in nicely.

 

[Richard Turner]

Nice, that makes sense, near the washer change over valve.

 

[Richard Turner]

Took the alternator to work and gave it a clean up, cleaned and greased all the tensioning mechanisms, the a/c tensioning bolt sheared so I had to replace it with an MR2 one.

Also welded my modified bracket for the ignition coil.

I have sprayed it with zinc cold galvanise then laquered it (like I did with the alloys) seems to give a good finish.

It will be moved to the carbon canister mount behind the battery, as normally it is on the shock absorber mount and gets extremely wet.

My bits from roughtrax came today as well, new belts (I will keep the old ones as spare), new air filter element (seems good quality), front pads and a sump washer for the next 6k service.

My intake manifold gaskets have been sent to Coventry and have been in the customs house since 5th July, hopefully they will be delivered soon.

 

[Richard Turner]

Bits from Chapel Gate today!

2 distributor caps as when I emailed the part numbers I mis typed... so if anyone needs a distributor cap for an FJ60...

New distributor cap and seal, new spark plugs in now as well, perished breather hoses replaced.

Coil pack mounted in its new position with new H T lead. Hopefully it won't make electrical interference with the battery leads.

It used to be down here on the shock absorber bracket where the bolt and earth cables are and open completely to the wheel arch.

New heater plumbing nearly done. No major change, except the rear heater is now fed before the heater tap. Took ages of fiddling with different pipes though as there wasn't enough room to fit the t piece in.

The fridge I was intending to get (same as Gary's) has been discontinued and I can't find one... the new model is a funny shape, as the compressor is near the top and it leaves an alcove under the compressor which is pretty useless as you would have to unpack the fridge to get to it and stuff would keep falling in there. So I am going to have to re think the fridge until I have a better idea or more money.

 

[Richard Turner]

Injector intercepting wiring done.

Taped up

Dash back together at long last.

LPG switch over button.

Engine bay wiring in place and secured.

LPG injector pipework fitted.

Whilst watching Battle of the Bulge (classic)

 

[Ben Stratford]

That new candle holder is a nice looking centrepiece for the front room table Rich!!
Great job, looking forward to the big day

 

[Richard Turner]

Thanks might keep it there, I think it holds 6 cans of Heineken!

 

[chapel gate]

Em would have six yankee candles in there..

 

[Richard Turner]

My wife is always very impressed when she comes home and I have lit all the candles in the living room. She thinks I'm being romantic.

I am actually trying to burn the bloody things away...!

Spare wheel has been rubbed down and painted the back. Got a KO2 from eBay to go on it. Inlet gaskets hopefully here tomorrow.

 

[Richard Turner]

Got some bits from Facebook market to do the kitchen.

Shorter 3 way fridge in better condition than mine. Mine blows breakers on 240v I think there is a short in the element but I will sell the old one as spares.

Oven as well but I don't think I will use that.

Sink with a hob, and a tap with a micro switch. I have a 2nd hand smev sink I was planning to use but it is a funny shape and has no tap, so again I will sell that for spares.

Even has a grille.

Some kind of mounting ideas. Looks like if I weld 2 toolbox drawer runners together they will be long enough. The gas cylinder may need to go under the truck not sure yet.

I am going to use the jump seat frame as the base as it has good clips and will mean I can remove the kitchen easily.

Put some rivnuts in the roof so I can make one of those cargo roof nets to hold the bedding and stuff.

Used the other Toyota to test sewing the seatbelts.

It was not entirely happy about it, but if you go very slowly and clear the tangle after each row it seems to work.

 

[Richard Turner]

Inlet gaskets turned up a couple of days ago, inlet is all back together and truck is back up and running on petrol.

The LPG guy came round this evening to check on the progress and so I could ask him a few questions of things I was stuck on. Really the main things are the regulator/evaporator to fit, the pipes front to rear, and some odd bits and pieces. Also wire the lambda sensor into the ecu, which means taking the dash back down.

Did some work on the frame for the rear kitchen, I will have to re do some of the brackets though as it doesn't sit flat.

Did achieve something today, got my 4500 EFI stickers stuck!

 

[Richard Turner]

Here's a link to how to fit the remote keyless locking I wrote a little while back, the locking is still working great.

https://www.landcruiserclub.net/community/posts/1483621/

 

[Richard Turner]

Did some work on my roof net this weekend, the sewing machine seems to sew the seatbelts ok. Fitted some netting too but I'm not that pleased with it, it looks messy and is difficult to secure.

Made some plates with a return on to clamp the edges under the handles but they don't work that well.

I can trim the edges but the plates don't have enough clamping force in the middle, they really need another plate to sandwich the net but if I go any further it is going to look pretty (even more!) Heath Robinson. I will test it by loading the bedding and see if I can scrap the netting idea.

 

[Richard Turner]

Tried the bedding in the roof straps but the netting is much too thin it just rips where it is secured. Pulled it down. Will have to think of a different soloution.

Did some work on the super 4x4 caravan fridge instead.

Building a box with drawer around it.

Sits on a metal frame. It is too tall to fit above the kitchen anyway.

New 2nd hand rear axle diff lock.

Will give it a tidy up and a restoration to get it working well again. The casting on my current rear one is split, although I did get it working before, it stopped, and is useful only for spares.

 

[Richard Turner]

Mk2 kitchen base, it is actually square and all the truck seats are out of square!

Next bit is make a framework to it for the cabinet.

 

[chapel gate]

Mk2 kitchen base, it is actually square and all the truck seats are out of square!

you'd make a good builder rich..