BUILD:1993 Toyota HDJ80 - 1hdT, 5 Speed, 3x Locked, LHD. My dream vehicle!

[BryceD]

Beauty shots of the new and improved Duke! ?

 

[BryceD]

Long overdue update:

prepping for a big trip was last minute and fun. I flushed out the cooling system and replaced the green coolant that was in the truck with Toyota red. Imalso replaced the OEM thermostat.

in the process I cracked the thermostat down pipe, so that had to be replaced.
I also did an oil change and new OEM filter.

on the trip, the truck performed flawlessly through the 110 degree heat. 3500 miles up and down mountains. There isn’t a single drop of oil or coolant under the truck upon returning home. Dry as a bone.

 

[BryceD]

Been tinkering the last few weeks Doing my yearly maintenance and more!

• Oil change (liquimoly 15w40) and OEM filter + liquimoly ceratec
• transmission oil change (redline MT-90 + m0s2)
• transfer case oil (redline MT-90 + m0s2)
• rear diff oil (redline MT-90) + new OEM hex drain and fill plugs
• new OEM fan and AC belts
• rebuilt front knuckles with new OEM studs and nut huggers from Wits end. New seals and baskets from Cruiser Outfitters. The seals were gone… the oil in the diff was THICK WITH MOLY GREASE!
• new wheel and steering koyo bearings
• front diff oil - flushed once with cheap oil, then filled with Redline MT-90 + new OEM hex drain and fill plugs
• grease drive shafts
• rotated tires

lots of work but it felt good to get it done! Everything looks and feels as good as new. Motor is smooth and shifting is butter.

 

[BryceD]

New roof rack setup!!

went with Gamiviti low gutter mounts, which are amazing quality and so strong. Then I ran 80/20 25 series crossbars.

then I was lucky enough to find a silver painted Packasport! Such an amazing piece of kit. Fiberglass, lockable, and rear opening. Looks absolutely perfect and not a peep of wind noise. OfferUp for the win!

 

[BryceD]

I’ve been sketchily driving around for what looks like a very long time with a broken alternator tension bracket. I went in to refresh my belts to find this:

I ordered what I thought was the correct bracket only to find out that it was the bracket used for high output alternators. I have the correct bracket in the mail coming from the Middle East.

 

[BryceD]

Oh no more exciting note, I got the opportunity to add escape gear seat covers to the rig. These things are bulletproof and work great. The fitment is amazing and the cabin looks factory fresh. I got the two front seats along with the split rear bench!

 

[BryceD]

Finally got the correct alternator tensioning bracket. I can finally say the belts are done and finished correctly.

 

[BryceD]

I painted the mismatched door with Rustoleum Semigloss Enamel to match the window surrounds on the rest of the truck.

 

[Mattlodi]

Out of curiosity, do you have any traffic restrictions with the diesel engine?

btw great pictures, do you shoot analog?

 

[BryceD]

Finally some fun modifications! NEW BOOTS ON DUKE!
I swapped out the OEM 80 alloys for BRAND NEW OEM 80 steelies... the perfect look.
went with Yokohama Geolander AT G015 (LT295/75r16) for the new tire setup and I am in love with the look and performance. These handle the road and highway soooo much better than the old KO2s.

 

[BryceD]

Out of curiosity, do you have any traffic restrictions with the diesel engine?

btw great pictures, do you shoot analog?

it depends on the state. Here in California, it is hard to get the diesels registered because of smog.
thanks! I shoot some film but mostly digital and iPhone.

 

[BryceD]

Latest project: I replaced the drag links and TREs with marlin Crawlers heavy duty kit. Figure it couldn’t hurt with the added weight of the steelies and bigger tires… I needed TREs anyways.

painted with VHT chassis paint. Clear Lacquer on the TREs. I cleaned, sanded, and painted the pan hard and front axle as well.

I did a DIY alignment that’ll do for now. I measured the distance between the inner tire walls at the furthest forward point and the furthest backwards point on the tire. I adjusted the drag link until those distances matched.

I also tightened my adjustment screw on the steering box.

rides like it’s on rails now!

 

[Gifu]

You need toe-in. At least 1/8” - 3/8”. Or you’ll get some sweet death wobble.
of course a professional alignment is always nice. If you do; keep the numbers to see where your caster is.

 

[BryceD]

You need toe-in. At least 1/8” - 3/8”. Or you’ll get some sweet death wobble.
of course a professional alignment is always nice. If you do; keep the numbers to see where your caster is.

Ah good to know thank you!

 

[BryceD]

FRONT FOG LIGHT FINAL WIRING: PT 01

Goal: The goal is to wire the new front fog lights (55w H2 Cibie 95s) into the OEM fog light switch that was installed in my European HDJ80. This switch controls the rear OEM fog lights mounted on the tailgate. This switch and the rear fog lights ONLY WORK when the headlights are turned ON.

WIRING:

Rather than splicing into the rear fogs, I plan to instal a designated 30A relay that will work solely for the new fog lights. This relay needs to be triggered by the OEM switch before it can send power to the front fog lights.

• The OEM switch is a Negetive Trigger switch (this seems to be the case with many Toyota switches). Rather than sending out a positive signal when the switch is ON, it activates the ground. So, the only wire that changes signal when the switch is pressed is an outgoing ground. In my case it was the Red and Blue wire. In order for our switch to work for our relay, I had to splice into this switched ground and run that to the (85) *ground* pin on the new 30A relay.
• For the (86) pin *positive side of the coil*, i found that I needed to run this from the corner running light. Power doesnt matter, as long as it gets a signal. Why? I had initially run the (86) and the (30) Pins both directly from the battery (with a 30A fuse). This presented a problem when the headlights were off. Whether the ignition was on or off (motor running or not), there was always enough power being set into the relay to make the relay act funny. It would click on randomly. Once the headlights were tuned on, however, everything would work as it should. In order to solve this, I spliced into the cover running light rather than the battery for (86) pin in order to eliminate any power being sent to this pin UNLESS THE HEADLIGHTS WERE ON. I used the corner light because it is on no weather there are high or low beams.
• The (30) *power in* pin was run straight from the RH (Passenger side in LHD 1HDT 24V starter HDJ80) with a 30A fuse. *DO NOT PULL ACCESSORY POWER FROM THE LH BATTERY IN THESE 24V STARTER TRUCKS*
• The (87) Pin is your output. I ran this to the fog lights. Each fog light is grounded individually to the fender.

After tidying everything up, everything works as it should. WIth the headlights on, I can press the OEM button and the front and rear fog lights will turn on at the same time. The in dash light turns on to notify me they are on. And this works with high or low beams.