Clints Cruiser Project

[Checkerhead]

Nice one! Congrats mate.

[Clint]

Fully Legit! Got the cert plate on a couple of weeks ago so she's now all warranted & registered & ready for action (well, was ready for action before, ready for parking in town maybe? )

With that sorted it was promptly put to work towing Dan's race truck over to the NZ1000 last weekend:



Now it's time to move on to some tidy up work, I want to clean up a lot of the wiring in the engine bay & under the dash, strip out redundant stuff, get all the electrical accessory feeds organised etc. Also on the list is to improve the intake plumbing & check out the EFI tune to make sure it's optimised for the new gearing & exhaust changes.

Cheers
Clint

[Lchundy]

Nice
Must be sweet seeing that cert plate on your truck!
Im hanging out for that day on my cruiser

[Mattman]

Nice work mate

[skid]

Looked 'beasty' cruising the pits on the weekend

Was good to see

[SMOKEY]

Hi Clint, Thanks for the project write up , I've been following this for nine years ( being an old Cruiser fan and not so much of the old ) and it has been an interesting and informative build . As has been commented on in other threads a lot of the earlier (I won't say OLD) poster's have moved on or don't use the key board any more and as a result ORE is changing. However the new members and projects need encouragement as we all started as beginners and this is our next generation of builders/fabricators and like Mike said who will be here in another 13yrs . Back to this thread ---------- Thanks Clint and look forward to the next instalment . ----- now go and ---

GET DIRTY,

FITZY.

[Eddieb]

Nice work Clint, a sweet addition to the garage beside the KTM.

Eddie

[Clint]

Cheers guys! I've got several trips coming up this month, it's great to have it fully operational again.

Recent shed time has seen the tyre carrier get some refinements. The bolt on bike carrier was done a while back & works great:





The reversing lights are a bit arse so have now been supplemented by an LED floodlight:



This can be raised, lowered. tilted & swiveled for a camp/work light & switched either to on or reverse.



I also made a spade mount with a nice solid latch, shortened up a spade to fit.

A stop & latch also got made to keep the whole mess in place when open.



Cheers
Clint

[Checkerhead]

As usual, nice work Clint.

[Clint]

Had my sparky hat on this week.

This is the switched LED strip light inside the rear door I put in on tilting brackets. Cheap from Jaycar. Real nice to be able to see into the back & in the drawers at night.



The drivers side engine bay wiring was a bit of a mess with lots of surplus original crap like the electric shocks & locking hubs etc, & a few hastily added relays that were my work.



Pulled out a huge pile of wiring right back through the firewall, tidied a bunch of stuff, put in some mounting blocks for the relays & wrapped it all back up.



Behind the dash I also stripped out some surplus crap, tidied some splices, converted the old glow plug light into a locker warning light, re-routed some accessory wiring along the loom instead of hanging down around my knees & stripped out an old keyless entry / immobiliser box that was starting to get flaky.

The left of the engine bay wiring needs a tidy up too at some point... all the engine management stuff was tidily done by Mike & is all good but there's lots of other stray stuff that needs sorting.

Cheers
Clint

[Mattman]

Nice work

[Clint]

Cruised out through to Waikaremoana on the weekend to go hunting with some mates.



The combination of the stiffer springs & shocks in the back & the 35" Hankooks has really improved the handling. It's a real pleasure to drive on twisty gravel now, better than it was on the original running gear & 33"s

Cheers
Clint

[Clint]

On about the 9th anniversary of smacking up my passenger door at the Reefton challenge, the right combination of having some $$$ in the toy budget, remembering to look for one & actually finding one all came together & I finally got around to replacing it.

Jeez there's a lot of stuff going on inside a door with an electric window & central locking... but got it all swapped over & working good. Having a window that goes all the way up & down should win me a few brownie points from the co-driver.

Cheers
Clint

[Clint]

The cruiser has had plenty of use in the last few months. A few hunting trips, the Dirt Drags & had a great camping trip into the Urewera with some mates a couple of weeks ago.



About to get into a few jobs on it, just got a hopefully quieter Walbro fuel pump to replace the whiny Repco one. Might mount it off the chassis rather than the body too.

Also need to do the clutch as it's getting a bit tired. Fine in low range with the new transfer gears but starting to slip in high range when the jandle goes in. It's a hybrid of Nissan GTR pressure plate & 9" Toyota disc. Thinking about going to a 6 puck disc to make it a little more abuse resistant - anybody tried one of those in a 4x4 application?

Cheers
Clint

[Jafa]

Looks great Clint, clutchwise, I replaced my stock one with an Exedy 5 puck copper thingy and it's great, barely notice the extra clamp force at the pedal, but it works perfectly, no letting go at all.

[Clint]

Cheers Mate! Good info. Will get a price on one today. The puck clutch isn't too grabby on engagement?

Clint

[Jafa]

Cheers Mate! Good info. Will get a price on one today. The puck clutch isn't too grabby on engagement?

Clint

A little, but nothing to worry about, you can still ride it a bit, just takes a run to get used to it I was a little worried about the issue, having only a little 4 banger, but really was worried about nothing, pleasantly surprised.

[Clint]

Bugger - Exedy only sell clutches as kits - they won't mix & match parts. Might have to look elsewhere for a puck clutch disc.

BNT will do me an HD pressure plate on it's own, & a basic disc on it's own so that's one option. Another is a rebuild/improve of the old bits by Autoclutch in Auckland. The guy there seemed to know what he was on about, reckoned they could do some bling friction material, plus a pressure plate rebuild with a bit extra clamp. Anybody dealt with those guys?

Cheers
Clint

[Jafa]

http://www.pro-wholesale.co.nz/

I dealt with these guys in Tauranga, he was really helpful, and he managed to mix and match exedy bits for me.

[Clint]

BNT Rotorua tracked me down a heavy duty Exedy pressure plate (I think it probably came from Pro wholesale) for not much more $$ than std. The diaphragm is definitely thicker than the old one so hopefully it isn't too heavy (could put on a remote booster if required I suppose) They also ground the flywheel. I got the old friction disc re-lined with a carbon-kevlar compound at Auto-Clutch in Auckland, cheaper than a new plate & they reckon it's a big improvement in durability over std. Unfortunately you need to freight the whole mess up there & back so they can get it set up just right so no saving after that's paid.



Over to the machine shop to make a clutch aligner...



& in she goes:



Now waiting on the gearbox. Sent that into Driveline Automotive for a birthday as it was a bit noisy. Some gears needed replacing, hopefully the spare parts gearbox I gave them also has the right bits in it in good shape.

The Walbro fuel pump is now in & is definitely quieter than the rowdy Fuelmiser Repco job.

So hopefully we will soon be back to this... without the clutch smoke


(cheers to the photo guy at the dirt drags!)

Cheers
Clint

[Clint]

Finally got the gearbox back in. The parts box I had was also worn out. While it's got an R150F trans like a million other Toyota 4wds, turns out the LJ71 version is a bit different, new bits were $$$ ex Japan, I couldn't find any other decent bits around, but the guys at Driveline had a a few old boxes out the back & eventually managed to find a good layshaft & input shaft to go in along with some new bearings.



My rough-as gearbox positioner cradle worked mint. A steel frame bolted to the trans mount & the trolley jack & welded together in place before removal so it sat at the right angle, with a scissor jack at one end for adjustment. Made the trans swap an easy 1 man job. All bolted to the motor now, looks like good shed weather this weekend so should get everything else connected & back together & knock off a few other minor jobs.

Cheers
Clint

[Clint]

Rolling again! Gearbox all in & working nice. The transfer case gears are still a bit noisy though, trying a different oil hasn't helped there. Might look into some of that soundproof matting for under the carpet. New clutch is working well, doesn't seem too much heavier at the pedal.

Planning a bit of an expedition to the Mainland next month so I've been re-jigging the storage setup in the back to house our new car fridge & add a few refinements to make it nicer to camp out of. The boxes in the back have done pretty good service for 10 years:



The initial plan of drawers never happened after I found that 2 plastic bins per side would slide in nicely

The modular design has made modding one section to fit the fridge really easy.



I got some 60kg full extension drawer sliders off Fullie on trademe, an alu drawer will mount on these to hold the fridge.



Where the old cooler used to sit in front I'll mount a 50A/hr sealed battery which should run the fridge for a couple of days.

Also being made is an alu tray that folds down off the back door, angle frame & 3mm base:



Cheers
Clint

[Big]

what ever you do do not put a GL4/5 mix into the transfer.. use GL4 only or it will self destruct..trust me the thrust washers will degrade the bronze and it'll just turn to custard from there

[Clint]

what ever you do do not put a GL4/5 mix into the transfer.. use GL4 only or it will self destruct..trust me the thrust washers will degrade the bronze and it'll just turn to custard from there

Great info thanks, but I'm not sure I've got any thrust washers left in there, they're only on the layshaft right? The Mark's Adapters low range gears come with a new layshaft assembly that runs on taper roller bearings to eliminate the thrust washers.

Cheers
Clint

[Clint]

The Bar is open





Now waiting on the alu tray that is being bent up at a local engineering outfit, this will be the drawer for the fridge. Just ordered a gel cell battery to run the fridge when the wagon is off, about to hit up jaycar for a dual battery controller relay & some cables to hook it up.

Cheers
Clint

[Clint]

Good progress on aux battery wiring over the weekend. First I stripped out a bunch of redundant/surplus wiring to tidy up around the battery area.



Then made up some brackets & mounted up the blingtastic 60A fuse holder & the Jaycar voltage sensing relay. This dual battery isolator cuts in at 13.8V & out at 12.8V, so the fridge battery gets charged when the engine is running & the starting battery is topped up, & the fridge can't run down the start batt.



From that I've run a bit of 8awg cable back to the box behind the pax seat where the fridge battery will sit. Hopefully my deep cycle gel-cel arrives soon & I can finish the job.

Also made up some 25mm shorter rear bumpstop packers. Since the 35" touring tyres are 50mm+ smaller in dia than the 36" Simexs that the spacers were made for (no it's not MY math that is wrong ) I thought I may as well use the extra inch of travel. Also planning to check the rear ride height when fully loaded up with the full travelling/tramping/mountainbiking/camping kit (& a fridge full of cold beer ) then make some spring packers to level her up. Last time we were packed with supplies for a big trip she was a bit down in the bum.

Cheers
Clint

[Clint]

Out cruising on the weekend.



All going good. Got quite a few 'nice to have' jobs to tick off before sailing South on Saturday though.

Cheers
Clint

[Clint]

Well she made it down south & back no worries.



Fridge & table etc in the back made it really nice to camp out of.

Towed home a little souvenir from Dunedin too:



More pics in the trip report over on ExPo: http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threa ... ost2299627

Cheers
Clint

[yeti]

Cheers Clint good read ,glad ya enjoyed ya trip down here ..............

[SMOKEY]

Thanks Clint I also enjoyed, as the add say's --------

OUT THERE DOING IT,

FITZY.