The Restoration And Build Thread For My 1992 FJ80

Summit Cruisers Jr

Well-known member
Backstory: My 1992 cruiser was pretty smooth on my first set of Kenda Klevers MTs that were installed around 360k miles, but when they warrantied that set last at 374k miles March the ride quality deteriorated. We had a set put on and then headed out for Moab a day later, and it was shaking worse than it ever had. Since then, the shake/vibration has gotten worse and I always just assumed it was mostly the tires.

My dad and I did a bunch of trouble shooting trying to get to the bottom of the vibrations. Last weekend after returning from Colorado/Utah, we watched the truck from another vehicle on the highway and looked for a potentially bad tire/wheel combo.

Noticeably worse than the rest, the passenger rear tire was really vibrating. The passenger front tire was smooth so we started by swapping the tires. No luck

Next we checked all the pressures. All good there.

We swapped the rear shocks side to side hoping that maybe one of them was not providing enough dampening. Not much luck there.

Deflated the residual air pressure in my rear air bags. Helped just slightly.

Checked the wheel bearings. All good there.

Then we drooped the rear axle with the tires off the ground and put a prybar between the lower RCA mount on the frame and the arm. Sure enough it had some play that would wiggle the rear axle.

With new OEM bushings for the 4 control arms, panhard bar, and sway bar on the way, we also decided to get new rear shocks just to further eliminate any doubts.

Taking off the arms took less than an hour and was the easiest part. We wrapped a ratchet strap around the rear axle to keep it from slightly moving while everything was off and the truck was up in the air.

Pressing out the old bushings probably took about an hour. Luckily I picked up the 8 piece metric 3/4" drive socket set from harbor freight that had sockets that were nearly perfect for pressing them out and back in.

A lot of the bushings had deep cracking evident, and while some looked better than others, I'm glad we changed them all out. The panhard bar seemed to have the best surviving bushings.

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Once they were all pressed in, I decided to clean them up a little bit. 400k miles of grime came off with some brake cleaner and a lot of scrubbing. I'm amazed that the factory finish was still there and shining after all this time.

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After putting them back in and installing the new OME Sport Series L Shocks in the rear, the ride has really tightened up and the vibration has probably been reduced by 60-70%. Along with less vibration, the on road stability has drastically improved. The front of the vehicle still floats and dives like a boat while cornering so a matching set of OMEs for the front are on the way. The Ironman Foam Cell shocks were great at stock to slightly heavier than stock weight, but definitely not up to the task nowadays.

Whenever I get around to it, I'll likely go with a fresh set of BFG KO2s. That will hopefully take care of the remaining vibrations, but for now it's much improved.

While at home I also pulled out the rear carpet after some fuel injection cleaner fell over and spilled out while we were in Moab. Since the carpet was out I decided to pull the rear panels off and replace the broken poppers. I also added a little more sound deadener to the passenger side quarter panel. I also had a small Pyle Subwoofer sitting in the garage so I put that in and plugged it into the amp. The cargo storage cubby in the passenger panel had also started breaking the plastic rivets and flopping around so that had to be fixed as well. Some plastic welder sealed that back up nicely. In addition to that, I also zip tied a couple random unused plugs that were flopping around and rattling in the quarter panel. While the plastic welder was drying I turned my attention to the couple of millimeters of lateral play that had developed in my steering wheel.

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I didn't think the old control arm bushings would have ever served another purpose, but they did a good job holding this cubby down.
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I tried tightening up the mounting bolts, but that didn't help. I then put a small pick in the space to the side of it and it stopped the wiggles. With a small hole on each of the mount, a short self tapping screw made easy work of fixing the play.

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While the back of the car was open we also put in some new reverse lights. I didn't really have any complaints about them, but he had gotten a pair for my brother and wanted me to have some. Instead of just being a corn cob of lights, this one actually had an optic lens on the back. They are way brighter than I could have imagined and I'm glad to have them now.

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redthies

Renaissance Redneck
Still one of my all time favorite 80s. I love that you still haven't been bitten by the small block Chevy disease. All the trips you do are awesome too. Makes me remember the days before I was married and running my own business and I would take off in my diesel 60 series and head to Mexico with a stack off boards on the roof and a Z50 beer run bike strapped to the back. 4 months later I'd head home to lick my wounds... Ahh the good old days!
 

Summit Cruisers Jr

Well-known member
Haha that's an awesome story. Once I graduate I'm hoping to hit the road for who knows how long and see North America. I guess you could say I've been stung by the idea of an LS swap, but at the end of the day the sting subsides. In a way it would be nice to have more power, but typically when I travel I'm never in a huge rush anyways. As long as I'm doing the speed limit or close to it I don't really mind. Also I don't really see how it would add any value so to speak compared to having one of the highest mileage 3FEs that I know of. Just seeing the reactions of people's faces when I tell them it has 400k miles is a lot better than I imagine telling them it has an ls swap. Especially when they find out the motor has barely been touched and the idle still purrs nicely. If it ever dies, it might be considered, but I really would like to keep it all Toyota since Toyota has been good to us for this long.
 

Summit Cruisers Jr

Well-known member
How do you like that sub mount? I bought one years ago and it's been sitting in the garage.


Ah so you must have one made for bigger subs. This one is just the factory mount. It too has been sitting in the garage for awhile. My first sub amp burned the voice coil on my Kicker sub, and I never bothered to put it back in since my door speakers have plenty of bass. Ironically, I haven't noticed any increase in bass from this little sub, but I have yet to really mess with any of the settings.
 

Upland80

Adventurer
Mine was made for a 10 inch. The 10 inch Alpine I have isn't a shallow mount, but I was going to try and make it work. Had second thoughts and figured a simple box would suffice, but I still like the idea of having it cleanly mounted in the rear quarter.
 

Summit Cruisers Jr

Well-known member
Mine was made for a 10 inch. The 10 inch Alpine I have isn't a shallow mount, but I was going to try and make it work. Had second thoughts and figured a simple box would suffice, but I still like the idea of having it cleanly mounted in the rear quarter.

Yeah definitely I almost designed space for a couple in my drawers, but decided against it. I don't know how deep your sub is, but it may fit nicely after pulling out the grille back there and enlarging the hole and adding some sort of spacer to space it out enough. I know my shallow mount is pretty tight on space.
 

redthies

Renaissance Redneck
My last trip south in the BJ60 was very slow. But that's half the fun. You get to see more, and might as well drive the smaller roads since you won't be doing 80 on the interstate anyway. It's a better way to travel, in my opinion.
 

Summit Cruisers Jr

Well-known member
My last trip south in the BJ60 was very slow. But that's half the fun. You get to see more, and might as well drive the smaller roads since you won't be doing 80 on the interstate anyway. It's a better way to travel, in my opinion.

Yeah when there's no rush to be somewhere that's the best. I think so many people are just so worried about getting places quickly. I have a friend who can't stand riding along doing 65-75 on the highway in my cruiser. It's not like you really save that much time doing 75+. Granted, when you're in the middle of farming fields, it wouldn't be a terrible thing.

Were did you source your passenger side grab handle?

LandCruiserJunky on ih8mud had a few when I messaged him awhile back.



Also I forgot to update on my drawer build. Currently I have everything built except the front panel and "fit kit". I went ahead and ordered Accuride slides. Two 9308 36" lock in/lock out slides, two 9301 36" slides, and two 9301 22" slides for the fridge slide.

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The only thing that's holding me up from completing them is attaching the slides. I may be overthinking this completely, but the outside slides attach to their own 3/4" birch upright while the two inner slides will attach to the same 3/4" upright.

Do you guys think 1/2" long screws be long enough to hold the outside slides on? Or should I drill all the way through and bolt it using a nut and washer on the outside wall? That way would prohibit it from ever stripping out, but they should never have forces pulling them towards the center of the drawers.

The same goes for the inner slides sharing the same 3/4" upright. I would think 3/8" long screws would be too short to be reliable and I'm almost looking for something like my bikes shock mounting hardware. It consists of a hollow bolt that's smooth on the outside with threads on the inside and then another screw goes from the other side into that hollow threaded bolt.

Here's a pic from the Yeti owner's manual showing this. I'm not entirely sure what these are technically called, but I feel like this would get fairly expensive. That's assuming these are even commonly availavle in a correct length and small enough diameter.
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Gatordoc

Adventurer
...The same goes for the inner slides sharing the same 3/4" upright. I would think 3/8" long screws would be too short to be reliable and I'm almost looking for something like my bikes shock mounting hardware. It consists of a hollow bolt that's smooth on the outside with threads on the inside and then another screw goes from the other side into that hollow threaded bolt.

Here's a pic from the Yeti owner's manual showing this. I'm not entirely sure what these are technically called, but I feel like this would get fairly expensive. That's assuming these are even commonly availavle in a correct length and small enough diameter.
View attachment 393770

Would something like this work for you? Binding Posts @ McMaster-Carr.
 

Summit Cruisers Jr

Well-known member
Would something like this work for you? Binding Posts @ McMaster-Carr.

Thanks! Rhat's exactly what I am looking for! Sometimes just coming up with a name for what I want is the trickiest part. I never would have guessed binding posts but that makes sense. Just looking quickly at the numbers it seems the head diameter might be 1/16" to large compared to what Accuride describes, but I'm gonna go check some local places and see if they have any.
 

letgonow

New member
Also known as:
"Mating fasteners are known by many different names: sex bolt, binding posts, Chicago screws, interscrews, barrel bolts, barrel nut, partition screws, door closure bolts, furniture screws, panel fasteners, architectural sex bolts, arch series screws, hinge screws, display fasteners, screw nuts, connector bolts, threaded rivets, grommet nuts, post and screw sets, book screws, and stationary screws."

from wikipedia

are often used on horse tack - bridles 'n such.
 

Summit Cruisers Jr

Well-known member
Thanks for the alternative names. Found some at lowes under the Sex Bolt name. Along with sex bolts on the center slides I alternated using #10 wood screws. Unfortunately I forgot to buy more screws to attack the drawers so they will have to wait. I'm almost thinking I should shorten the height of the drawers as they don't have much clearance between the top and the bottom with the bolt heads.

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Unfortunately last Saturday agternoon I had a pretty serious mtb wreck out of the blue that has left me with several breaks in my jaw, fractured cheekbone, exploded right wrist, and plenty of lacerations/soreness overall. I've already undergone surgery for the jaw and it will be left wired shut for 4-8 weeks. Now I'm just waiting on the wrist surgery. Looks like I won't be getting back to these for quite some time. I'm really hoping this doesn't interfere with the building of the swing out kits. On the plus side o got to ride in a helicopter for the first time while being mediflighted from Arkansas to Tulsa. Never thought that's how my first helicopter ride would have gone. Haha
 

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