LJ70 Build Thread!

[ModelMakerMan]

Interesting that the aircon control is on the knob. I always thought it would have been a switch that went in the blank at the end of the heater controls. I wonder what goes in that blank then?

 

[Ben]

hey Ben,
It will be there. It's just one wire with a round grey connector. I also found it in my HZJ75.

Awesome, thanks mate.

Interesting that the aircon control is on the knob. I always thought it would have been a switch that went in the blank at the end of the heater controls. I wonder what goes in that blank then?

Yeah not sure whats meant to go in the blank Dave, all the 70's I've ever seen always just have a blank there. I'm thinking thats where the carling switch will go for my fuel pump.

 

[Craigmorley]

Did u find ur turbo sensor Ben?? It wires up to the loom that runs near the batteries and to big plug at the bell housing

 

[Ben]

No not yet Craig but I'm going to this weekend. I've got all weekend free to work on LJ, so planning on getting heaps done! [emoji41]

I will probably pull the batteries out to give me more room and have a proper look then.

I've got a bit of a nightmare in that when the auto electrician did all my wiring he ran all the wires through the rubber bung where the aircon pipes go, so I now need to move them all.




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[Craigmorley]

Good on you Ben I've not got no time atal did u make ur exhaust??

 

[Ben]

Thanks. [emoji3]

No got it made in Birmingham and got completely f****d over! They did a terrible job, charged me a fortune and took 4 times as long to do it as they said they would! [emoji107]

Wish I'd had known about the place in Cardiff that everyone raves on about, back then.

It's stainless steel 2.5" and at some point I want to replace it with 3", but until I find some one I think I can trust to do a good job I'm reluctant to throw more money at it!

If I had my own exhaust pipe bender/access to one id do it myself.


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[Craigmorley]

Hmm yea I see what u mean I like the sound of the one in Cardiff but seems too pricey to me so might have ago at making my own obviously not as good a welder as u Ben haha

try and run same place as the 2.4 exhaust runs so that it's out of the way.
Need to take dump pipe off first tho to see what I can do with that

 

[Shayne]

Phone Charlie Craig if you will send him your dump pipe he will make another using that as a template . The dump is the important bit what goes on after it doesn't matter much at all so why not just get a price at least .

 

[Craigmorley]

I would have but the only prob I have is I use my truck every day for work so I'm quite limited really

 

[Ben]

Portugal Holiday.

Given how terrible the UK summers are, I like to have at least a week in the sun some where in Europe.

Last year was Ibiza this year I chose Portugal for a bit more of a relaxing holiday!

We stayed at a beautiful 5 star hotel in Albufeira in the Algarve region.











As beautiful as the beaches were we were keen to get out and explore a little.

So we hailed a tuk tuk!





Our driver, Francesco, was a great guy and showed us all around the old town area of the city.

I asked him about his tuk tuk and he told me he had to wait 2 months for it to be hand built in Italy by Piaggio.

It was interesting how the design has changed so little in over 50 years and they're still made from pressed tin.



We were keen to avoid the new town and "the strip" as we wanted to experience the real Portugal and avoid the many English and Irish pubs, restaurants and clubs.

Francesco our tuk tuk driver showed us all the restaurants and bars that the locals go to where we could avoid the tourists and taste the best Portuguese food.

Our favorite restaurant was one he showed us which sits high up on the cliff over looking the beach.





The sea food was incredible!







I always look out for LandCruisers when I go to different countries and sadly I didn't see too many in Portugal.

I spotted a beautiful bright yellow 40 being driven around one day, another 40 looking very sorry for itself rotting in some ones front yard and then this nice KZJ73.









It was a nice one but was rusting quite badly below the windscreen.





Francesco was our driver for the entire holiday, if we needed to go anywhere we would call him and he would come and get us.













After a day on the beach we returned to our favorite restaurant over looking the beach for drinks and dinner!









We chose our fish.





And had cocktails.



We went on a coach on a day trip to the capital city Lisbon, or Lisboa as the Portuguese spell it.

It is a beautiful old city with lots of fine old buildings, many of which are now looking a bit sorry for themselves and are in need of a good paint, but they are still stunning.

It was quite clear that once this city was very wealthy, rich off all the gold and treasures taken from the new world and what is now known as Brazil!

We stopped just outside the city.





This trippy paving is every where in Portugal and is all made from small pieces of black and white stone.



















Looking back up the river towards the huge bridge we crossed on our way up from the Algarve.



And the huge statue of Christ the Redeemer.











I liked the old French built crane in the harbor.























We would see lots more tuk tuk's.













We got back onto the coach and were driven into the city and dropped off with 3 hours to explore.

We immediately found some where for lunch and I had some amazing salmon!



We then walked around and explored this beautiful old city.



























Ceramic tilling entire buildings seemed popular, not something I've ever seen before.



We walked through the banking quarter and I was most impressed with Santander's building.



Guarded with lions.







There was a protest going on but not like one I've ever seen before!

Here they come down early in the morning and set all the signs and banners up for the day and then go home!

Human statues.









On the way back to the Algarve we went over what we were told is the second longest bridge in Europe, at 10km/6miles long. It was very impressive but difficult to get pics of.

We went on another day trip to a big outdoor market in a little town.













I was most impressed with, and made full use of the man chairs that were dotted around. Some where for the men to sit while the women shopped!









Really yummy pizza for lunch!









On the way back the coach driver said over the microphone in a Borrat style accent "If you look to the right, you see Portugease Ferrari! That is the old model, only 2wd."



Our hotel had 4 swimming pools, each positioned with a group of apartments around it.

This was ours and was about 30 meters from our apartment.





More cocktails with dinner.



And the best lasagna weve ever tasted!



As Bec and I were going to a night club that night I asked for a double vodka and lemonade.

I got given over half a pint of straight vodka and a bottle of lemonade.



The next day we saw some awesome sand sculptures.





And that was our week in Portugal.

No more holidays for a little while now.

But I am going to Bathhurst for 5 days in October to watch the car racing.

Then in November Bec and I are going on holiday to Byron for a week.

Then in December I will get 3 weeks off for Christmas, so I'm hoping to get away then, hopefully for a week or 2 of 4wding and camping.

 

[Ben]

I had a busy few days back at work this week.

My boss was back from the world record attempt which had proven to be an absolute disaster!

The trailer which was being towed behind his 80 with the Solar Suzuki on got destroyed on the dirt roads and corrugations!

They had to make temporary repairs on it after ripping one of the axles off, shearing the leaf springs and bending the mud guards badly. They got new springs fitted at Mount Dare and then the 80 blew a front diff which was so bad its taken the housing/axle out with it.

He attempted the world record attempt crossing and all went well for the first day but then the sun ran out and it was forecast to be cloudy and overcast for then next 3-4 days and as the crossing has to be done in less than 10 days they had to abandon it.

They are planning on going back to try again next year after I've designed and built a heavy duty off road trailer capable of carrying the solar Suzuki.

So my first job this week was to assess the damage of the trailer and make repairs.





I found lots of cracks in all the welds for the leaf spring mounts, so opted to flip it over to ensure good welds, rather than welding overhead.



One of the mud guards was badly damaged and I couldn't hammer it straight.





I bent up a new section using my awesome new folder that got delivered while I was away.





Its a great bit of kit and as it has fingers I can now fold up boxes and fuel tanks etc.

I also like the digital angle guide.



Welded it on.





Re-sprayed the entire trailer as the front was very badly sand blasted from being towed behind the 80 on dirt roads.







My boss got a Suzuki in for parts which he says is the rustiest Suzuki hes ever bought!



While I was away the guys got the wheels on the tip truck shot blast and powder coated and fitted the mud tyres.







The spacers we had laser cut have worked well and have given us some clearance between the tyres.





Pulled the body off the rusty Suzuki.





Took the chassis outside to pressure wash the engine, transfercase, gearbox, axles and fuel tank before removal.





Then made a start pulling it all apart.



OK......................

Back to LJ.

I drilled the other hole for the fuel gauge in the alluminium fascia.



I removed my burnt out oil pressure gauge and the new one.



You can see how badly melted my old one is.



Re-assembled the instrument cluster.





ToyoDIY has once again proven invaluable in helping me with the aircon install in LJ.

I ordered all new O rings for all the joints that I've undone.



New O rings.



I picked up some HZJ75 front brake discs which are the same as KZJ70 ones.







Fitted the aux fuel tank gauge.





Made a start nice and early today on LJ.



First job was to move all the wires that were through the hole in the bulkhead where the aircon pipes need to go.

Removed the batteries and one of the trays.



The wiring was a bloody mess!





I looked inside the passenger side wing as Craig had mentioned and I found the turbo pressure sensors!



Not sure how I have missed them before, I can only imagine I poked the hose inside the wing years ago when I was pulling the old engine out and completely forgot about it.

Thanks Craig.

Back to the wiring mess.



I needed to move about 20 wires running through the bulk head where the aircon pipes will go.





I needed to pull everyone of the colored wires out going to the fuse box.



As well as all the control wires going to the winch.



Eventually I'd disconnected everything and could pull all the wires back through the bulk head.





I decided to re-route all the wires through a rubber grommet right in the top corner of the bulk head.





The auto electrician who did all my wiring did an OK job but rather than running one length of 20mm split tubing with all the wires inside he ran three or four and so everything looked very cluttered and messy.

So I spent the next 3 hours sorting it all out and getting it nice and neat in one length of split tubing.

I had lots of wired to sort out and push inside the split tubing.



I had to remove the fan unit to allow me access for re-routing the wires and so I thought I'd explain exactly where I'm adding the new aircon evaporator.

This is the standard, no aircon setup with the fan unit on the left and a section of ducting which connects it to the heater matrix.







On models with aircon the aircon evaporator sits between the fan unit and the heater matrix.

So this duct section is now redundent.







Fan unit re-fitted.





Followed by the aircon evaporator.







Connected the electrics to the evaporator.



Re-fitted the glove box.



A small loss of passenger foot room but not much.



I now had the aircon pipes sticking through in to the engine bay.





I re-fitted the batteries and the wiring was now a lot neater.



I still need to tidy up the loom around the engine but I've been waiting to get the new oil pressure gauge fitted so the auto electrician can finally work out which wires go where.

With the batteries back in I re-fitted the instrument cluster and could then start the engine and see if everything worked.



All worked well including the new aux fuel gauge.





By connecting the hose from the boost sensors that Craig told me about I now have working turbo lights again!

The green currently eluminates at just over 2000.



Not sure at what rev the red light comes on at, will have to test drive it to find that out.

I had been trying to work out which wires to connect to this turbo pressure sensor on the 1KZ-T engine and had never managed to work it out before, hence no turbo lights before today.





I still need to do some more electric and finish wiring and plumbing up the fuel pump but I decided to do some on the brake upgrade.



First I checked the new discs against standard LJ70 discs.



Exactly the same height.





And exactly the same width.





It also looked like the dust guard would only need a tiny bit of trimming.





Pulled the hub off.





Removed the 2 M8 bolts, knocked all the wheel studs out and prised the disc off the hub.





Fitted the new disc.



Set the wheel bearing preload exactly to the FSM.







Marked what needed cutting off the dust guard.



And fitted the caliper.

So this is the setup LJ would have had had she left the Toyota factory with the 1KZ-T engine. Obviously there must have been a reason why the 3 litre 70's got bigger brakes.



Slight technical question now............................

Ignore the bolt currently pushed through holding the pads in, that will get replaced with the proper pin.

The disc is flush against the inside of the pad but on the outside of the disc there is a 3mm gap between the disc and the pad.

Do I need to space the caliper out with some washers?

I think the pads will just get pushed to where they need to be once the brakes are applied and the pistons push out?

 

[stumog]

I think you shbrakesget the caliper body central for the brakes to work properly. Does the manual or parts list show washers? there doesnt seem to be much clearence between the top of the caliper and the disc?

I changed the brakes on my 80 to the later ones and refitted the washes that were already tbere and tbe caliper was spot on.

 

[Craigmorley]

Ben i give it to you mate u do get a lot done in a day lol
also yes is put a 1mm spacer between caliper just to get it more central
the more the caliper is central the better they will work.

That 1kzt turbo pressure gauge u have on the inlet pipe, i never bothered with that took it off as I wired it up and got a green light on from it but was on as soon as I started it so gave up a threw it away after that
I'd like to see if ur red light comes on once uve drove it
mine comes on once up to temperature and wen under load in 3rd 4th and 5th it comes on at around 3000ish now
I'd like to see if it does just as I've copied what uve done with installing engine and upping fuel so will be interesting

also going to clean my actuator and waste gate tomorrow just to be sure

keep it up mate

 

[Ben]

Thanks guys.

Going out to make a start shortly so will look at spacing it out with washers.

It does look close to the disc in the pic above but its not bolted in place, just sat there so it may have dropped slightly.

I havent checked the manual/Toyodiy to see if there is washers, will have a look now.

Will let you know regarding the turbo lights Craig.

I'd be interested to know where abouts on your loom you found the wires/connector for the oil pressure and low oil warning light sensors?

I've got a bunch of wires on the passenger side that arnt connected to anything and a few more on the drivers side.

Once I get them connected and working I can finally get all the loose wires taped up and tidy all the loom up and run it neatly in split tubing.

 

[Ben]

No mention of washers/spacers on Toyodiy.

 

[Craigmorley]

Ok well as for the oil pressure sensor I used the 2.4 and wired up one to earth I believe and one to a live I'll trace them tomorrow for u mate

 

[Craigmorley]

As for low oil warning light I haven't got one

the eh oil sensor on the 1kzt sump I took the wires out the plug and filled with silicone

 

[Ben]

Thanks mate. [emoji106]

Just trying to build up the courage to brave the frost outside. Dam it's cold here! [emoji33]


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[Craigmorley]

Really it's nearly 30 here lol I'm up pub at the mo need make exhaust up tomorrow hope I can see straight haha

 

[Ben]

I had a busy week at work.

I've been doing more work on the airboat.



This was going to be the donor vehicle.



The engine is just under 100bhp.



I worked out the height and position of the front 2 passenger seats.





Cut some alluminium.



And tek screwed it in position, it will be bolted on with M6 bolts into rivnuts at some point.





Fitted another one.





As we were going to use the Suzuki engine, we decided it would make sense to also use the Suzuki fuel tank.

Removed the tank.



It fitted quite nicely behind the bulkhead at the front of the boat.







We thought about fitting twin tanks to give us more fuel range.





The new folder bent a piece of 3mm alluminium beautifully!







Worked out the height this section needed to be welded on.





Got the TIG setup.



And tacked it in place.





We got lent a brand new boat seat by our local upholsterer/boat guy, so I could get some measurements for how big to make the frame that 2 of these seats will mount on to.



The frame of the seat is fiberglass.







A slight change of plan..........................

My boss has acquired a 250bhp Subaru Impreza engine that he wants to use instead of the 1.6l 100bhp Suzuki lump!







So with that I decided there was no point using the Suzuki fuel tank.

So I decided I would build a tank from scratch.

Cut a template of the shape/size of the tank.







Folded some 2.5mm thick alluminium.





Cut and folded up a baffle.







Welded it in place.



Thats as far as I got on the main body of the tank.

I found a low millage 2L Suzuki tank.



Removed the pump which has the fuel level sender and fuel flow outlet and return built neatly all into the one unit.



Next I started making the boss that the fuel pump unit will mount to.

I got a 15mm thick off cut from a piece of 150mm solid bar.



Cut the center out on the lathe using a hole saw.











It will need the mounting holes drilling and tapping into this alluminium boss, then it can be welded into the center of the top of the fuel tank.

I made a start on what will be my main job for the next week, making alluminium frames to mount the most efficient solar panels in for the solar Suzuki in preparation for next years attempt at the world record.

Started welding a frame up.



Out of channel.





Slid the flexy solar panels in.





Made up a frame out of 40mm tube for the first frame to mount inside of.





Welded in some corner braces.





And some tabs to bolt the other frame down with.





Bolted the other frame in position.





It weighed just under 24kg.



Trial fitting it on the roof of the car.





And finally the tip truck is now completely finished and ready to be put to work on the farm.

We had some stickers put on this week which I think finish it off nicely.







OK...........................

Finally LJ.

I finished fitting the passenger side brake caliper.





I had to grind a chunk out of the bottom of the caliper which I wasnt too happy about but I dont think it should matter.









Spaced it out with some washers to ensure the disc sat perfectly center in the caliper.











With that side done.



I moved on to the other side.









I decided to replace the brake hoses as after 23 years the rubber was a bit cracked and perished.



I was going to get stainless steel braided hoses made but I couldn't justify the price.



Fitted them.





And bled the brakes.



Aircon next.



The drier will be getting replaced as thats standard procedure when getting an old setup working again.



Removed it.



And the brackets.



Wire brushed it.



And rust killed the condenser surround and brackets.



Then painted it black.



And painted all the brackets.





Bolted all the brackets back on.



Started fitting it.

The space it would fit into.



The 2 metal power steering pipes would need moving and the horn and bonnet catch would need unbolting to allow me to swing the condenser in.





Power steering pipes disconected and twisted up out of the way.

And condenser in.







The brackets lined up with existing holes in the body and everything bolted up nice.

I re-fitted the front wheels.

And the wheels cleared the new bigger calipers nicely.

Back to the con install.

I needed to fit the pipe work next.

I'd fitted the power steering pipes in front of the radiator years ago when I did the engine conversion but I really wasnt happy with their position, they were in the way and looked shit.

I removed the pipes.

I managed to run them neatly along the front cross member instead, behind the winch, in a much better position.

I took LJ to work on Friday and after work I de-greased and steam cleaned the engine and underneath.

I have a confession that I did something really really stupid and that was why I needed to steam clean the engine.

After bleeding the new brakes, I thought I will just drive backwards and forwards a few times and test the brakes. Only issue was the power steering pipes were not connected and were sat up in the air.

So I ended up with a power steering fluid fountain that went f*****g every where!

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

After cleaning LJ I got her on the hoist for a full check over and to try and diagnose an engine oil leak.

There were no noticeable leaks with LJ on the hoist with the engine running but I believe I've traced it to the top of the engine on the turbo intake pipe, so I will order a new gasket.

I went out and saw the guys at Huntsman on Saturday for a replacement KM2 tyre to replace the damaged one.

They gave me an absolutely awesome price and wearing my Piranha shirt helped as they know my boss and come in from time to time for Suzuki parts.

New tyre fitted on my rim.

Old tyre which I have a seriously cool use for.

While fitting the new tyre the guy shouts over to me from the tyre machine "I've found what caused your puncture"!

He had found a massive chunk of hardwood inside the tyre!

Removed my spare which is a KM1, purchased from Tony Toyota many years ago, and fitted the new tyre.

Still cant get over that chunk of wood! Crazy!

I also picked up a drop hitch as I'm going to add a receiver hitch to LJ's rear bumper.

As its going to probably be a few years until we can afford a 79 series ute, we will instead buy a big trailer for the property renovations were planning on getting into next year when we buy the first property to fix up and sell on. So LJ will become chief tow vehicle to enable us to pick up materials and drop off rubbish at the tip.

I also got a sticker from them for my tool box.

Bec is on nights this week meaning I should get plenty of time each evening to get lots done on LJ.

The grill needs to come back off so I can finish a little bit of wiring and fit the support/securing brackets to the aircon pipes.

I need to source the mounting brackets to mount the air compressor onto the 1KZ-T(E) engine as that is one thing the guys at All 4x4 dont have.

Looking at pics of 1KZ-T aircon compressors I suspect I may need to make/source some pipes to connect the new pump to the rest of my system as I dont believe the ends I've currently got fitted will bolt to the 1KZ-T pump.

I also need to finish wiring and plumbing up the fuel transfer pump.

Modify my rear bumper to add a receiver hitch for towing.

Once all thats done I want to turn my attention to the rear end regarding the disc brake conversion and 3 link suspension conversion.

I also need to fit a modified quick release anti roll bar.

So making progress, but lots still to do.