1994 Land Cruiser Build! Pic heavy.
- Thread starter DesertFZJ80
- Start date
DesertFZJ80
Observer
Well the holiday break brought on a chance to do the knuckle rebuild, took a couple of days due to cleaning but it all went really well, turns out one of the previous owners installed Timken wheel bearings, glad I didn't buy new ones right away!
Knuckle rebuild went perfect, Changed the oil in the diff and put about 200 miles on it after the rebuild. No more strange sounds when turning or humming after long drives.
Me and a few friends started to prep for our yearly flagstaff trip to play in the snow, I was in the Land cruiser, another friend in an older Chevy 2500, and the third in a 13' Power wagon, Got some Maxtrax and some awesome solar stuff from Goal-Zero for Xmas I was looking forward to testing out while I was up there.
We hit the road at about 5:30am, made it outside of Phoenix with the Land cruiser running great, good temp and oil pressure the whole way. Doing an easy 65mph and 50-55 up the passes.
As we approached Camp Verde at the top of a pass the front diff went, Could feel and hear the driveshaft under me banging around, I pulled over on the side of the highway and when I got to about 5mph the front diff locked and skidded the cruiser to a stop.
Luckily I was about 2 miles from Camp Verde, I put it in gear and limped it to town doing about 5-10 mph. About 30 minutes later the two other trucks that went with showed up as they had to turn around (after I told them we should all stick together incase something like this happens, they like doing 80mph).
Fast forward through the day and a flatbed showed up about 4 hours later, 2 disappointing hours later I was back home.
Just glad it happened while I was getting cell phone service by a town, would have made for an interesting trip if that happened in the middle of cinder hills.
Sucks that it had to be taken back by a flatbed but the only friends I have with trucks capable of towing that weight and trailers were busy at work that day.
The other two trucks continued on to Cinder Hills and had some issues of their own, The chevy lost all its coolant out on the trail so they were sitting out there for hours after going to town to buy tools, coolant and a couple of hoses, their repairs went on into the night and the temperature dropped to about 13 degrees, they finally fixed it and had a long drive home without any heat.
Well, another lesson learned, front end will be coming back apart to see what officially went wrong. More to come!
Knuckle rebuild went perfect, Changed the oil in the diff and put about 200 miles on it after the rebuild. No more strange sounds when turning or humming after long drives.
Me and a few friends started to prep for our yearly flagstaff trip to play in the snow, I was in the Land cruiser, another friend in an older Chevy 2500, and the third in a 13' Power wagon, Got some Maxtrax and some awesome solar stuff from Goal-Zero for Xmas I was looking forward to testing out while I was up there.
We hit the road at about 5:30am, made it outside of Phoenix with the Land cruiser running great, good temp and oil pressure the whole way. Doing an easy 65mph and 50-55 up the passes.
As we approached Camp Verde at the top of a pass the front diff went, Could feel and hear the driveshaft under me banging around, I pulled over on the side of the highway and when I got to about 5mph the front diff locked and skidded the cruiser to a stop.
Luckily I was about 2 miles from Camp Verde, I put it in gear and limped it to town doing about 5-10 mph. About 30 minutes later the two other trucks that went with showed up as they had to turn around (after I told them we should all stick together incase something like this happens, they like doing 80mph).
Fast forward through the day and a flatbed showed up about 4 hours later, 2 disappointing hours later I was back home.
Just glad it happened while I was getting cell phone service by a town, would have made for an interesting trip if that happened in the middle of cinder hills.
Sucks that it had to be taken back by a flatbed but the only friends I have with trucks capable of towing that weight and trailers were busy at work that day.
The other two trucks continued on to Cinder Hills and had some issues of their own, The chevy lost all its coolant out on the trail so they were sitting out there for hours after going to town to buy tools, coolant and a couple of hoses, their repairs went on into the night and the temperature dropped to about 13 degrees, they finally fixed it and had a long drive home without any heat.
Well, another lesson learned, front end will be coming back apart to see what officially went wrong. More to come!
DesertFZJ80
Observer
Hopefully I can post some better pics soon! It'll be up and running again this weekend so I'll go somewhere dark with a good camera and get some.
Do you have the 7-pin mod? You could have pulled the front drive shaft and ran in 2wd most likely. I regeared to 4.88s and I still have my stock front gears if you want them. Free. Call up Kurt at Cruiser Outfitters and get a bearing set and you'll be good to go.
The gears had ~140k on them btw.
Paul
The gears had ~140k on them btw.
Paul
Last edited:
onemanarmy
Explorer
man...that sucks, but that is the way it goes.
On another note, do you remember the brand/color of the paint you used to paint your wheels when you first got it?
On another note, do you remember the brand/color of the paint you used to paint your wheels when you first got it?
DesertFZJ80
Observer
Yeah that was the original guess, was pretty chewed up unfortunately!
Thanks!
Wow thats a really generous offer I appreciate that, There were too many pieces floating around in the diff I feared rolling it any further would do more harm than good, decided to go with a new diff from toyota, knowing it's new and not having to worry about it will be nice as it is a daily driver/ road trip vehicle. Thanks again for the awesome offer though!
Pics to come shortly
DesertFZJ80
Observer
Here ya go, just picked up another can a few days ago for touch-up, home depot has it
DesertFZJ80
Observer
Well this should be a good picture to start off with haha, enjoy the carnage pics -
Found the piece of the tooth in the bottom of the housing while I was cleaning it out.
Should be all done tomorrow, the front diff will be ready for another 251,222 miles haha. More than that cause it'll be properly maintained.
More to come, thanks for reading!
Found the piece of the tooth in the bottom of the housing while I was cleaning it out.
Should be all done tomorrow, the front diff will be ready for another 251,222 miles haha. More than that cause it'll be properly maintained.
More to come, thanks for reading!
onemanarmy
Explorer
thanks for the paint info. weekend project coming up.
Great pics btw! It's a great feeling to get into those diffs and get new bearings anyway. I'd be happy to find a new home for the gears
Also, remember that 7-pin mod whenever one end is behaving badly you can drop and axle and 2wd it home.
Paul
Burley
Adventurer
Well this should be a good picture to start off with haha, enjoy the carnage pics -
Found the piece of the tooth in the bottom of the housing while I was cleaning it out.
Should be all done tomorrow, the front diff will be ready for another 251,222 miles haha. More than that cause it'll be properly maintained.
More to come, thanks for reading!
What did the new diff cost?