Has your Cruiser ever left you stranded, and if so, what broke?

[davegonz]

My first 80 series, the stock pesky heater hose blew. It had 185k miles on it.

The second 80, it never left me stranded.

The diesel 62 left me stranded due to a crappy ignition system. I took care of that with a dedicated starter relay.

My current 100 series has never left me stranded, but a broken CV joint made me limp home for 80 miles. Sucked all the way with the loud banging, but I made it home.

 

[cruiser guy]

Once, in 600,000kms.

Dropped a pre-combustion chamber in the engine. Put in a wrecker engine and I've been running on that for the last 300,000kms. I even turbo-charged the wrecker engine!

Not too bad in my books.

 

[memcruiser]

I have a 98/100 series that has left me stranded once due to blown front diff.
That was at Superlift ORV park in Hot Springs AR. Due to all the great people at the Cotton Land Cruiser Crawl, it was not a big deal. Had to winch up the mountain and then towed to camp. Then a few hours maint. to get it ready to free wheel home.

A few times I have been stranded by battery or bad alternator.

 

[gunny1001]

I had an 1984 fj60 that had 400,000 on the odo and still truckin. The only thing that was bad in the time i had it was a radiator. I wish i still had her with all the rust and everything......

 

[Christian P.]

My faithful TroopCarrier never left me stranded but there has been a couple incidents...I blew the front shocks on the corrugated road between Kenya and Ethiopia...

 

[Fergie]

Alternatore crapped out coming back from Bahia Gonzaga.

Thankfully I've got an NL dual battery system, and was able to get across the border...jsut abrely. Made it to the US inspection station, and it wouldnt start; jumped it and made it 50 yards and it died. Walked a few blocks for a new battery, drove from Mexicali to Yuma on that battery, swapped the alternator in Yuma, and it has been happy since!

 

[lowenbrau]

Out of fuel...
Web SK
Ft St John BC
Las Vegas dump NV
Jasper AB
Death Valley CA (x2)
dozen more places close to home (its a sickness)

Swapped a third member in a parking lot in Idaho at -10F
Have welded, tie wired, strapped bungeed lots of parts on the trail.
Did a throw out bearing in an abandoned shed in NW Ontario
Limped home 1000 km on a worn out clutch by filling it with baby powder.

Very rarely 'stranded' though.

This tow bill was $800 after the motor league paid for the first hundred miles though. Still haven't fixed it, 13 months later so I guess it is well and fully stranded.

 

[alia176]

The wife's 97 80 series tried to strand us with a busted head gasket about 500 miles from home. Barr's stop leak in the radiator and then I drove it like I stole it all the way home. :wings: I probably could've kept driving it for months but I took it all apart and fixed it.

My '96 has yet to complain from all the abuse I keep throwing her way. :smiley_drive:

 

[lugal]

Blew a head gasket on a rented 60 in '95, while we were crossing the Rub' al-Khali desert in Yemen. Drove it to our destination (Shibam) pinging like crazy, and got it fixed later that week at a local shop. Served us just fine the rest of our field season, no worse for the wear, and got us back to Sanaa two months later w/o incident.

That truck's the reason that I drive a 60 now. :smiley_drive:

 

[corbinwelter]

i dont even want to start about my FJ40, but it is more my fault putting a chevy engine into a Toyota.

My FZJ80 only left me stranded once, and it was at home one morning, it blew the headgasket on start up with 160k miles.

 

[Mike S]

I have been driving Cruisers since 1973. There is only one time that one of my Cruisers failed to preceed -- the turd who serviced my FJ40 failed to refill the transfer case with oil, and it burned up (after quite a few miles).

Other than that, a perfect record, if you don't count the flat tire I had in Arizona this spring.

 

[gwittman]

My FJ55 never really stranded me but the engine would start running poorly or just shut down every once in awhile when on a long trip. For some reason the points would burn themselves out. All I had to do was file them a little and reset the gap then I would be off and running again. I eventually put a capacitance discharge ignition system in it and that problem went away.

 

[dlbrunner]

my first fj40 blew a rear main seal 20 miles north of Pyramid on 447. had to hitch a ride and go back the next day to tow it home. Original f motor that had 370K.

First 40 (again) popped a radiator hose outside of tonopah (fixed and went on)

buddy's 66 FJ 40 caught fire near chiminey reservoir in NV. We put the fire out and continued.....

FJ 40's are like a hot chick with issues, you always want to jump in and drive cause they are so dang sexy, but you have to deal with said issues.....

 

[esh]

I drove my stock '64 FJ40 all over Oregon in college. Single barrel, psycho drum brakes, solid accelerator linkage, old 1F, all course spline drivetrain and pre-birfield front axles.

Never let me down. Once I nearly slid it off a mountainside in winter (digging with an ice scraper down to gravel got me out), and another time for some reason gas started coming out of a hole in the top of the carb below the air filter housing that prevented it from running. A little sheet metal screw plugged it, never gave more problems so I left it alone.

I have had pretty good luck with dozen or so cruisers I've owned, and the '85 pickups, but I think it is not all luck. It is Toyota.

I guess the only other strand is when I had an instant torque event in FJ454, spun all the hub studs on the rear FF axle and did some carnage to the NP205, but it still limped in 3wd back to the tow rig miles away.

 

[lovetoski]

Starter froze in the "start" position on the 94 fzj80, which started a fire, had to call the fire department to put it out, and get towed home. It was mostly due to my stupidity though, as it had been acting up and since it's a known Toyota starter issue I should have figured it out. One of the fireman had just had the same thing happen to him a few days before...

Two airpumps have failed on my 87 fj60. Once I was able to bypass it by using the A/C belt. The second time I had to get towed since I had no A/C belt (A/C was in-operative).

Lost a headlight ground on my 60. Happened right at dusk in February, in eastern BC in a cold steady rain. Couldn't figure out the problem, and given the weather I wasn't in a mind to stand outside pondering...so I pointed my driving lights down as low as possible and drove home that way.