When reading about importing Canadian cars to the states, some jurisdictions apparently make a big deal of proving the vehicles origin. I’d think the vin would be sufficient but maybe not. There’s a tiny sticker on the doorframe that is difficult to photograph. I captured this in case folks have questions.
CMVSS Canadian Transport Sticker on my 1984 BJ60 that was sold in Canada new.
Vin Plate in driver’s side door frame on my 1984 Toyota Land Cruiser Diesel (BJ60)
4oz of POR15 was enough for two coats on two spring leafs and the spare tire carrier. Not bad for $8.
My tiny $8 can of POR15 came through for me. Tough black shiny coating. Dried quickly, minimal prep. I’m impressed!
Then I went to install on car and don’t see where it goes. Looks like my frame has been modified and its normal install location is gone?
Lets review:
Odd feature of this vehicle, you must manually lock the hubs before the front wheels will be driven. I suppose this is a feature to save gas and wear on the diff.
Anyway, the other day I had car jacked up, noticed that with transfer set to 4wd and both hubs locked, that the drivers side wheel was correctly locked but the passenger side wheel would spin freely. No amount of jiggling would lock that hub. Last weekend I took the hub apart, cleaned it out.
Again the factory service manual is amazing. Each step takes about 2 minutes seconds. Wonderful well written instructions and everything so simple!
Probably the most difficult part for me was removing and installing the circular clip that holds the axle in place against the hub. Removing was difficult because of all the grease, installing was difficult because of all the grease. I think main issue is that my pliers suck.
After taking it apart and cleaning it, fiddling with it at the kitchen table I was confident in how it worked and that it shouldn’t have trouble engaging. I didn’t see why it wouldn’t work. Hmm, mystery.
I reinstall onto truck and before cinching everything down I try spinning the wheel with the hub locked. Hmm… it still spins freely. Shit. I visually verify that the hub is in fact locked. How can it be spinning? I reach in with cover removed and am able to freely spin the axle. With my fingers? The axle is spinning freely? How is that possible? The universal joint in the “birfield” can’t be broken, the bearings are all tight… it must be that something is wrong in the differential?
Dang. Oh well. I reinstall with torque wrench according to specs. Yeah, still doesn’t lock. Shoot.
Later that night, round about 9:30pm I have an epiphany. I didn’t lock the other hub!
Explanation:
Transmission is in first gear, transfer set to 4wd. Engine isn’t moving so transmission won’t move, so transfer won’t move. But the diff is open. If one hub is locked and the other free then the force of spinning the locked wheel takes path of least resistance and spins the unlocked hub! I go out with headlamp, jack up car again and sure enough the hub is locked once I lock them both. Sheesh. Stupidity. Now I know I verified that the driver’s side locked previously, but maybe I unlocked it before moving to the passenger side. I’ll never know.
Well I guess the good news is that I’m not afraid of hubs now and know how to rebuild them after my dwell time at the kitchen table.
Anyway, here are photos of the rebuild:
Jack up car:
Elevate car with jack, use jackstand!
Locking cover about to be removed.
Bolts out of cover.
Cover removed. Lots of grease in there.
Remove the hubcap surround.
Picture of the greasy cover. The grease spelled like burned gear oil.
Next step was strange. Instructions said to hit bolt studs with brass rod and hammer. This will loosen the “cone nuts”. I looked and couldn’t tell what they were talking about. The cone nuts go between the studs and the hub and are pressed into place with the hub cover. Sure enough I pounded on the studs and the cones came loose!
I didn’t have a brass rod so used a steel socket extension.
Two studs, one with and one without the cone nut.
Pound on the stud and the cone nut pops out like magic.
Now I forgot to take a picture of the next step. Using some circlip pliers you remove a circlip from the axle. This allows the hub to come free.
This was probably the most difficult part, probably because I bought the cheapest circlip pliers there are ($6 for 4 pliers!)
Hub removed from wheel.
Another view of hub and splines.
The cover cleaned of grease.
All the parts disassembled and cleaned.
Closeup of the cleaned cover (with clutch and spring).
To reinstall was a little difficult. The axle wants to slide in. Thread a bolt in, had wife pull axle out while I slid the circlip back on. Took about 6 tries.
Lots of grease on reinstall. Sure enough it locked up great, no issues.
For good measure I took apart the driver’s side as well. Again the grease was stinky so good to clean it. Amazing that inside the parts look like new.
Back on terra firma, now with genuine 4wd.
Big ol honkin toyota hood in the rain.
So for the Porsche I’d read a bunch of different offerings on the internet, find a consensus and order a finely crafted part. This is doubly true for something in the engine.
This is the factory intake elbow. Normally the engine sucks air through it. In my case the turbo pushes air through it and the compression can cause it to burst.
For this Toyota, given that its already running a rubber intake elbow that the previous owner reenforced with tape, I’m going to do better at the parts counter at NAPA. Consensus on ih8mud was to use either silione or radiator hose.
I swing by NAPA and give the parts lady the rough measurements. 2.5″ inside diameter, about yay long, and yay high? What cha got made from radiator hose?
She finds a part available from Georgia, straight from the manufacturer! Arrived late last week and now its time to install.
First I remove the old elbow, no issues there except that the red hose clamp isn’t actually connected and comes loose in my hands.
Intake elbow removed.
Next I layed the two parts next to each other on the garage, and taped the new hose where I should cut:
Pic of the old elbow:
The old elbow with nice tape job.
The new elbow about to receive its second cut:
New intake elbow, made from radiator hose, about to receive its second cut.
Interesting tip for cutting this stuff. The knife wanted to skid and smear and it was really hard to cut. I put some fluidfilm on the knife and it cut like butter.
Since the old clamp was shot I went to OReilly for a new larger hose clamp, cost $1.63.
New intake hose clamped in place.
Including the drive to OReilly this all took 45 minutes.
Engine shot of Turbo 3B with new intake elbow. Can see the plumbing that connects the turbo to the intake.
On a drive later that day my younger son commented that the truck seemed to be running better and faster. I notice I can actually rev the truck above 3k rpm now. Sweet!
Found a new knob for the transfer case shifter. It’s nice to have the pattern on it. This was $15 from cruiserparts:
New transfer shift knob, now with shift pattern!
It’s surprising how easy it is to find parts for this thing. Took me months to find the shift knob for my 930. Judging from the different size this may not be correct though, but what do I care? I want to see the shift pattern on the knob, and at least this pattern is correct.
If you’re wondering what a transfer case is…
This vehicle is 4 wheel drive. Or, its got a transmission that can be configured to drive all four wheels. Normally the vehicle only drives the two rear wheels. This is done for efficiency. When 4wd is needed there are two things that must be done.
1: the hubs must be locked. The front hubs on this vehicle can be locked and unlocked. Locked means the wheel turns with the axle. Unlocked means the wheel turns independently of the axle. This unlocked state is the low friction state, the wheels just spin on their bearings. When the hubs are locked the wheels move with the front axle and differential, which is less efficient.
2: the transfer case must be set to one of the two 4WD modes. These modes cause power to be directed to the front differential and then to the axles. The transfer case is a second transmission. Its just like the main transmission except it has fewer gears. The main transmission has 5 forward gears, neutral, and a reverse gear. The transfer has 2WD, 4WD, Neutral, and 4 WD Low. This transfer case connects the main transmission and the wheels, so each of its settings can be applied to each of the main transmissions gears. If we consider the main transmission to have 6 unique gears (not counting neutral), and the transfer case has 3 unique gears, then the car has 18 settings. The difference between 2WD and 4WD is that the front wheels are given power, the difference between 4WD and 4WD low is that in low mode the transfer lowers the ratio of each gear. If first gear normally gets you to 7mph, in 4WD Low you’ll get to 3.5mph before needing to shift. These low gears are useful offroad as you have nearly infinite torque and the ability to compression brake down very steep hills.
In situations where you might be changing between 2WD and 4WD, it is ok to leave the hubs locked and the transfer case in H2. This means the transfer only drives the rear wheels, the front is left to move as it will. When the front wheels are locked the front axles are turning with the wheels, the axles turn the differential, and the differential spins the pinon shaft between the differential and the transfer case. When transfer is changed from H2 to H4 the transfer now locks the front pinion to the engine and 4wd is engaged. I guess back in the day this was luxury! You can change from 2WD to 4WD without going out in the elements and dealing with a freezing muddy hub.
Yes!? Luxury!
In other news, I’ve been working to de-rust the spare tire-carrier that was included with the car. It was pretty rusty and I don’t have access to a media blaster. Instead I’m using phosphoric acid to convert the rust to calcium phosphate which is pretty easy to scrub off. Man I wish I had access to a media blaster.
By the time I’m done it might be warm enough to give it a coat of epoxy paint. Check out this piece of junk, isn’t it something that this has value?
The spare tire carrier. It was pretty rusty, now all that white stuff is calcium phosphate, converted rust.
The bolts to hold this to the frame are $1.25 each, so this isn’t a big deal to install. Only issue I don’t see to have the tool that’s used to lower the tire. It’ll be nice to get that tire out of the back of the truck.
Horrible racket this morning from the middle of the car. Too horrible to be something important like the engine, I guessed something in the exhaust came loose. Climbed under and found this:
Broken exhaust pipe
Ya, der weld in der pipe it brokah. How to fix eh?
How come I didn’t spot this when I bought the car? Did it matter?
First stop is home depot where I purchased the wrong thing, a light aluminum plumbing seal with puny little hose clamps. It stopped the sound but I knew I’d need to find something better.
Don’t buy this to repair your exhaust. Its a cheap little piece of crap.
At OReilly they had a 2 1/2″ muffler clamp. 3 inch wide stainless sheet with a much heftier set of bolts and bracket. $11.
OReilly to the rescue, a 2 1/2″ muffler clamp.
Muffler clamp and socket.
And put a couple stripes of rvt:
RVT Copper Silicone allegedly makes a seal.
The rvt ought to be fine since this exhaust doesn’t seem to get wicked hot.
Fixed!
?
I guess we’ll see in a week.
Came across an amazing document on the internet last night:
Yeah, its for 1986, not 1984, but as far as I can tell its for my car. I’ve done some of the stuff here, the easy stuff I thought, and not one of them had been done in a good long while. Pretty sure I’ll be doing everything in it.
I found the page with the lube points and it marked something I didn’t know about:
Lube the steering knuckles? I go out and turn the wheel to look, sure enough a square 1/2″ drive bolt peeks back at me from behind the front wheel. Well Hello! I remember reading that the huge ball of the birfield joint is supposed to have a light coating of grease. Mine are bone dry. Why didn’t I notice that in Canada?
Undo plug and look inside. Hmm. Seems to be full? I push my grease gun down into it and the grease is just a thin layer, the thing is basically empty. I start pumping, and pumping. Figure I’ll keep going till grease starts coming out. Use up the remainder of the tube (1/3), start up a second and maybe 80 more pumps before it starts acting full. I put another 100 or so pumps into the one on the right, it actually starts to fill when I stop.
Little one helps here, he shines the headlight and watches that it doesn’t overflow. Then he gets to put the plug back in and tighten it up. This stuff is so easy, I guess people forget?
Putting the knuckle plug back in. Watch that alpaca sweater!
And tightening the knuckle plug.
Then we follow and age old tradition and climb in for a victory lap. See if the front end stops clunking when going over bumps with the wheel turned hard:
Climbing in for the post repair neighborhood victory tour.
Midway though the tour I turn the wheels hard left and the little gets out and checks the left knuckle. Yes, covered in grease he reports. Turn to the right and check: YES! Covered in grease. Back in the car and home. I’m a little worried as sometimes the seals fail and flood the knuckle with grease. Inches thick, grease flung everywhere. Home again I check myself and its in fact just a very light coating, a clear line at the fill mark. They’re perfect AND the clunk is gone.
I notice a grease nipple on the steering arm, give it a go and see grease come out the other side. With the headlamp I can see that the boots are torn. I’m sure this is something that will need to be replaced. Sigh.
Well no doubts now I’ll need to do everyting else in that book.
Had some time this afternoon and installed the front facia. Previous owner had wanted to paint it red. I’ll just try out the green and see how it fits. Better than a huge hole there. Also taking the bumpers off to have a go with the Fluidfilm, and fix the bumpers on properly with my new bumper bolts!
A pretty green facia! I purchased the mounting bolts for the facia from the Toyota dealer, with washers they were $1.25 each. My little one loves the green. Older one things its strange.
To put the facia in you need to remove the grill. To remove the grill you need to remove the headlight surrounds. So I got to discover all the bolts that you don’t need to undo to remove the headlight surround… Well, an opportunity to clean everything out and grease.
Facia is supposed to be held in place by 8 bolts, 10mm. They’re a gorgeous copper color. Sadly the bottom two mounts for mine don’t seem to exist. 6 is lots anyway. Quite a reach to the side bolts, needed to use 2 extensions on the socket.
Note the rust on the frame under the bumper. This is the area that needs rust treatment. Other than this spot at the end thats hidden under the bumper the rest of the frame looks amazing.
I applied several rounds of phosphoric acid to the backsides of both bumpers which cleaned up the rust quite a bit. Then washed well with water and then painted with fluid film. This is an experiment to see how well that magic stuff works. I’ll see I guess. Since both bumpers are bent I’d need to replace them to have it look truly cherry.
After hosing it all down with fluid film I got to enjoy putting on the rear bumper. See, its a little warped and bent so the holes don’t line up. Technique we developed, put on the left and right bolts but not tight. Then I backed the center of the bumper into a rock while the little one sat in the back of the car holding a board to protect the bumper. Sure enough pushed the bumped back far enough for the little one to drop a bolt into it. Had to do it once for each bolt (applying nut in between). So thats how you get all the bolts in place on a warped bumper. Dang that thing is on there securly now. The bolts used to attach it weight about 1/3 of what the bumper does. 10 Bolts, 10 washers, 10 lock washers and 10 nuts.
Front put back together with green facia.
And that dang warped rear bumper. Its going to take some doing to get that off! I think I know why it was so hard to get off the other one (had to grind each bolt).
Front is always much less trouble, more room for the socket.
CanadianBJ 