Offroad-Express

I'm working on a cruiser for my neighbour. he keeps complaining of a knock and twist thru the steering when he's turning, but I've never managed to get it to do it. it's certainly an intermittent problem.

I noticed the article in the tech section about electric hubs being converted to manual hubs by using a spacer ring, and as far as i can see, this truck has them fitted. It's got aisin manual hubs on it.

It's a 1990 HJZ-77, 4.2 non turbo 6 cyl. did these come with electric hubs?

I'm thinking that possibly one of the spacers is maybe 1 or 2 mm too thin, and that's causing one hub to occasionally lock in and jam, or affecting the other side hub in some way.

Has anyone come across this before?

I've checked out the hubs themselves, they seem to be all working fine, steering's OK, suspension's OK.


I may just be jumping to conclusions, my Safari had the factory lockable auto hubs, and i left one locked in one day by mistake. I got from Karori to Levin before it did anything, and then the other side ground into 4wd at 100km/h. Which makes me wonder if something similar is happening here.

any help would be much appreciated.


EDIT: yep, the "hub lock" button on the dash is a bit of a giveaway...did have electric hubs.

I thought it was just the prados that had the electric hubs in the 70 series cruisers. Old Blue would probably know for sure?

That's what i thought too - It's a leaf spring 5door, with a bonnet the same as your average 70-series (long and pointed, not short and square like a prado), yet it's got prado wheels and an identical dash to my LJ71

Model is ZX, if it's any use