Pacific Northwest Backroad Adventures

Brandon over at olympiafj60.net mentioned to me on the Whiskey Dick trip about a thread over on ih8mud.com in the 60-series forum on an adjustment that can be made to the Toyota Land Cruiser 3FE engines. There happens to be some type of fuel regulator on the fuel rail near the firewall that be adjusted. People are reporting increased power and even better yet, increased fuel ecomony.

You can see the thread at What the deuce is this thing?.

Well I went ahead and popped the plastic cap off and tightened the screw a couple of turns. Initial impressions while driving around my house seemed to be an increase in low end torque (a very unscientific approach).

I now need to take a test run over Snoqualmie Pass to check against my baseline mpg of 13.4 when traveling from Federal Way to Ellensburg, Washington. Hopefully, I’ll have a little more power on the climb to the summit. When I have the data, I’ll report it back here.

Thanks Brandon for the tip.

Steve

Since I’ve had my Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser, I’ve only had to deal with a few electrical issues, the Center Diff Lock, the Window Actuator Motor and the Fusible Links from the battery. The first prevented the transfer case to lock up in four wheel drive, the second prevented the window from rolling up, and the third prevented the engine from starting.

Now that I’m a year into the ownership of the Land Cruiser, I’m onto my fourth wiring issue. The engine will simply not start. It started last Thursday when I made a run over to the Cle Elum River near Salmon la Sac. I had one episode where it would not start for about two or three minutes and then it started up fine for the the rest of the trip. On Saturday, it happened again, this time in the grocery store parking lot. This time it would not start until after about ten minutes of trying. Finally, this morning (Monday) when getting ready to leave from work, the little tractor motor would only spin and would not fire up. Of course, this was accompanied by record rainfall in Western Washington. Perfect timing.
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Having one successful storage box build behind me for my old Jeep YJ Wrangler, it was time to build a storage box for my Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser. The storage box I built for my Wrangler was very simple. It was basically a box with one very large divided drawer that was bolted into the cargo area in place of the rear seat. In the storage box, I was able to store and provide easy access to all my tools, spare parts, recovery gear and spare fluids. Having all the above gear stored in a storage box allowed me to carry additional stuff (tent, sleeping bag, food, cooler, clothing, etc) on top of the storage box, basically doubling the cargo space. Gone were the days of having everything piled on top of other stuff. With the storage box, with a little creative packing, I even had room for my dog to ride in the back.

I purchased my 80-series Land Cruiser to be able to carry my family, my dog, and my adventure gear. The only way that this was practically going to happen was by building a storage box for the back of the Land Cruiser. In addition to the extra storage capacity, my needs list included an interior sleeping platform for my solo camping trips as well as having a place to install an auxiliary battery for my FJ80. Unlike the newer models (1993-97) of the 80-series Land Cruiser, there is no easy way to install the second battery on a 3FE powered (1991-92) FJ80 without heavily modifying the engine compartment components.
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When I purchased my 1992 Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser, the previous owner informed me that the four wheel drive system did not work. I knew the transfer case was a rebuilt unit so I figured it would be something simple such as a switch or a relay. Little did I know that I would spend hours trying to troubleshoot the problem. Hopefully this article will walk you through all the diagnostics needed to check the complete center diff lock (CDL) electrical system so you can figure out the problem much faster than I did.

You might ask, why did you spend hours diagnosing the problem? My answer is, I don’t like to spend money replacing parts when the part being replaced was not the problem. I’ve been a victim of paying people to do just that. Never again.

As in all repairs on the Land Cruiser, you should purchase the factory Toyota Repair Manual and the Toyota Electrical Wiring Diagram for your specific year of vehicle (order the factory manuals at techinfo.toyota.com). A Chilton’s or similar service manual won’t cut it when you are diagnosing specific issues. Invest the money in the factory manuals. It’s worth it if you (or your mechanic) does any diagnostics or repairs on your Land Cruiser. Purchasing the correct manual will pay off only after a few repairs because you will be diagnosing problems and not throwing parts at the problem until it is fixed. The reference for this article was the USA version for 1992 model year Toyota Land Cruiser. Even though there are similarities between all 80-series, there are differences between the various years of Land Cruisers and world markets so be aware of this when making repairs to your Land Cruiser.
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Toyota FJ Cruiser Wheels on my FJ80 Land Cruiser

Ever since I purchased my Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser, I knew I wanted to replace the factory Toyota 15 inch alloy wheels and 31/10.50 BFG AT tires with larger tires and wheels. The primary reasons for wanting to complete this upgrade included:

• The “C” load rating of the 15 inch tires were being pushed to their limits with the weight of a fully loaded and accessorized 80-series Land Cruiser. I didn’t want to trust them very much longer on a 6000 pound vehicle.
• There are very limited tire sizes that will fit a 15×7 wheel. I wanted to run narrow 33 inch tall tires.
• I wanted to increase the ground clearance by a inch or more. Every inch in the vertical direction helps with a 112 inch wheelbase.
• The 31/10.50 tires looked very small in the abnormally large wheel wells of a 80-series Land Cruiser running the medium weight Old Man Emu (OME) suspension. Even my wife thought the tires looked small.
• In the future, I want to install a full float rear axle from a later 80-series Land Cruiser which requires a minimum of 16 inch wheels to clear the disk brake rotors and calipers.

With that in mind, I was planning on eventually acquiring an inexpensive set 16×8 black steel wheels and purchasing some narrow 33 inch all terrain tires to fit. My plan was to hold off on the tire and wheel purchase until I had the opportunity to regear my axles from a 4.11 to a 4.88 or lower ratio.
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When I purchased my Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser, I knew there were issues with the power windows. Except for the drivers door, all the windows rolled up and down, not perfect but they worked. Then one rainey day last Fall, I rolled down the rear door window and pop, the window would not roll up any more. Luckily, I wasn’t too far from home.

As a temporary fix, I wedged a door shim between the glass and door panel. There it stayed until I had a dry day to diagnose and fix the problem. Here are the steps I took to disassemble, diagnose and repair the problem.

After reading a few threads on ih8mud.com and with my factory service manual in hand, I was ready to tackle the problem.

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Having recently witnessing first hand what a deer can do to a full size vehicle at highway speeds and considering the locations I travel to and from, I decided it was time to add a little protection to the front of my Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser.

My needs for protection of the front of Land Cruiser were simple, maximum front end protection from animal strikes and other objects, and a strong point to mount a future winch. Since I’m building my Land Cruiser as an overland expedition type vehicle, there was no need for super high clearance rock crawling bumpers. I wanted a bumper that would increase the chances of reaching my destination if the unthinkable happens.

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Have you been searching for a way to mount your electronic equipment (CB radio, GPS, 2m radio, etc) in your Jeep Wrangler?

Using readily available materials, this article outlines a low cost buildup of a rack that mounts between the windshield support or roll bars on a Jeep Wrangler.

Read the article at http://www.omninerd.com/2006/03/07/articles/49

Since I purchased my 1992 Toyota FJ-80 Land Cruiser, I noticed, that when compared to other 80-series Land Cruisers, my FJ-80 actually sat a little higher than the typical soccer mom vehicle. Sometime in the past, a previous owner must have installed some aftermarket suspension on the Land Cruiser. Whatever brand of suspension was installed, it did not ride very well, providing a spine-jarring ride just over the rough pavement. There had to be a change.

My intended use for the Land Cruiser is primarily as a daily driver and to double as an expedition capable vehicle for taking the family camping, exploring, snowboarding and mild wheeling. I didn’t need a suspension system for extreme four wheeling or rock crawling. I needed a suspension that allows for a good ride when either empty or when carrying a load for a week-long adventure.

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After only having my Land Cruiser for about three weeks, I had had my first equipment failure - the number three belt that powers the air conditioning unit broke (the belt closest to the engine).

Normally, I replace belts on a regular basis and use the existing belts as spares in case of a failure, however this time around they looked in good shape so I waited. Luckily, it was only for the air conditioning pump and I wasn’t far from home on some back road adventure.

Since I haven’t done my research to find out the best belts to purchase (probably Toyota OEM) and because I wanted to get the project done as soon as possible, I visited my local auto parts store and purchased the needed belt. While there, I asked for the price and availability of the other two belts and found out that they only stocked the belt I needed and that one belt was available from the warehouse and the other is a four day order. The local availability of the other belts confirmed the need to have a full set of spare belts while traveling, especially if you need to rely on a small town auto parts store for a replacement.

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