Thursday, April 30, 2009
Brakes
After hearing squealing coming from the rear of the Land Cruiser for a little while and suspecting it was the brake pad wear indicator, I have finally got around to replacing the brakes. Due to a few factors, I have broken with my fashion and gone non-OEM. And not for something better, just something cheaper. I need brakes that aren’t about gone, I can’t afford local dealer prices, and don’t want to wait for a CruiserDan order. So for now, and until our cash flow is stabilized, I’ll be running a cheap NAPA set of pads. They seem to stop the Land Cruiser, and the awful noise I was hearing is gone, so I’m happy for now.
It was actually a very easy job doing the rears. When I did the fronts before (the only brakes I’ve replaced so far), I did not have the right tool to compress the cylinder(s) and get them far enough to slide over the fresh pads. On the rear caliper, there is only one cylinder, so there is no need to fight pushing one in as the other goes out. I also now have a big C-clamp, so I put an old pad against the cylinder, and just kept clamping it down until it was in all the way. After that it slide right on over the old pads.
When checking for the noises that I’ve been hearing, I went out and found a neighborhood street with no cars parked along it. It was a straight road, with a slight up-hill. I put the Land Cruiser in low 4 (due to a modification this no longer engages the center differential lock automatically, so no reason not to use low-4 on pavement). Put the transmission in drive, made sure it was crawling forward straight and then hopped out and walked around the car some listening for any rear end noises. After a 100m or so of the car driving along at a snails pace and hearing nothing unusual, I got back in it, spun it around and did the same in reverse. I have no idea what those neighbors though, a car driving slowly down the street while the driver got out and walked around it.
Anyway, new brakes and I did what I could to set them without burning up the fronts.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Winches
When I first had my Land Cruiser I did a bunch of research into how I wanted to build it up. One of the items I wanted was a winch. If I’m going to go out alone, I want to be able to free myself. My conclusion at the time was to go with a Warn M12000. It’s a 12k lbs winch, for a 6000-7000 lbs truck that should be plenty. Prices however on this winch, seem to have increased 30% in the past two years. At that price, I’m no longer sure the Warn is worth it.
So, I started looking around for others. I also started thinking about how big a winch I really need. The theory with the 12k lbs winch is that it is largely overkill. For most scenarios you will not need that power, but in the rare case it will be there without a snatch block. For a rig out on it’s own, this is important. On the other hand, out on my own, doing more expedition driving, I’m unlikely to get myself stuck in the same way that many off-roaders do. I think there is a different attitude between those who are out to push the limits of their truck for the day, and those that are traveling out of their vehicles for long periods of time. As someone living out of my vehicle, I’m less likely to go into situations where my truck is very likely to get stuck. With that in mine, perhaps I don’t need 12k lbs of pull. With a smaller winch there is still extra power available through the use of a snatch block. But that requires winching anchors within a shorter distance of the stuck vehicle.
When I started looking around, I came across the Superwinch Husky. It comes in a 10k lbs version and an 8k lbs version. The 8k lbs is too small. The 10k would be perfect, however it is not a bolt on addition. With an ARB front bumper, it would require significant cutting and welding to make it fit. It is also the same price as the Warn M12000. But my reading indicates it is a superior winch in many ways. I started looking at the other Superwinches and came across the EP9. This is a little smaller than I’d like, I was hoping to have at least 9.5k lbs available. However, it has received very good reviews, is recommended by Expedition Exchange, and seems like a generally good winch. It is also about half the price of the Warn and Superwinch Husky.
I still haven’t made up my mind on which one to get, and Whitney and I have other uses for cash in that amount, so it’s not a pressing decision. I am starting to watch the local adds though. If a good condition Warn comes up, I may get it. If I have to buy new, I think I’d go with the Superwich EP9.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Power to the Shed
Whitney and I did some more work outside this weekend. We cut down and graded the path area and then firmly set the flagstones. We also bought a few more to finish the path all the way to the shed. Then we started to fill the rest of the path with river rock gravel. It will take a few trips buying a few bags to get all we need. The Land Cruiser could carry them all at once, but I don’t want to pull the cargo unit out, and we know we’ll be going back to Home Depot many more times before we’re done. We will have to pull up the logs that separate the path from the grass when we till and lay the sod. So we are only laying gravel in the path up to about 6” from the log. It has this unfinished look to it right now as a result. But we like what is there. I think we’ll be quite happy with the finished product.
I also ran electricity to the shed. There was a circuit in the garage that was dedicated to a freezer outlet. Instead of drilling up inside the wall to reach the circuit panel, I just tapped into that, ran it along a couple feet and then through a hole into the crawl-space and across the house. It was not fun working in the crawl space. There is lots of rat feces down there, though surprisingly clean otherwise. Before we finished grading the path and setting the flagstones, we trenched enough to bury some wire out to the shed. I wired up an outlet, some lights inside the shed, and some lights outside the shed. A little more work is needed to make it all safe (GFCI circuit breaker and a cover plate) but we turned it on with the current breaker and admired our lights and being able to see in the shed. Even during the day, with only one window, it used to be very dark in there.
While I was crawling around, Whitney was working on the irrigation system for our new vegetable garden. We’re doing a seasonal tap off the hose bib and taking that down into an underground box for the timer, back-flow preventer, and pressure regulator. A line then runs out to the vegetable garden and around various ways. She’ll figure out exactly where once we actually plant stuff.
In other news, after almost two weeks of frustrating attempts, I finally got the intake manifold off the Scirocco. It involved much dremeling and hacking at a stripped allen head bolt. Now I think I have things as far torn apart as I want. The next nice free evening I have, I’ll roll the Scirocco out into the driveway and start spraying the engine bay. Hose water, engine degreaser and much scrubbing and I’ll have something I can spot oil leaks in rather than something that is just a big pile of oil and grime itself. Once I get it cleaned or at least cleaner, I’ll put together a purchase order from a number of online places and get that going. Then I can start reassembly.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Backyard Work
The previous owners made a bit of the mess of the backyard. Apparently they took down a grove of cheery trees and then planted grass seed over some of the area. On one side there was a shed and a carport that they used for their dogs. I’ve been using the carport to store the Land Cruiser, since with the tent on top, it doesn’t fit in the garage. The shed was falling apart, but the first thing we did after buying the house was to fix that up. We tore down a lot of bad wood replaced it and cleaned it up inside. Removed a whole bunch of dirt and dead rats. Installed a new door and window. It cleaned up nicely.
The carport however was quite ugly, but still functional. So we moved it. Now it is blocked by the house so you can’t see it from the seating in the backyard. That also gave us 20′ or so of open space. There used to be raised two flower beds in front of the patio. They made the seating at the table a little cramped, and the dogs thought they were a great place to lie so no flowers grew. We took those apart and used them in the 20′ of new space in front of the shed to build up a garden area. We rescued a bunch of what looks to be good quality top soil and brought it over. A couple extra bags from Home Depot and we might be able to get something growing. We also put an 18” fence around it. Small enough to be invisible from a distance, tall enough to give the dogs pause before leaping into it. So far they’ve stayed out when we’ve been working in it.
In one corner of the patio area, instead of poured concrete there were a bunch off flagstones. These were not laid close together and were set too deep such that they were mostly covered with dirt. We dug those up and laid them down in what is left of a gravel path running out towards the garden. They are set just for looks now. We need to go back in and dig off the top inch or so of gravel then the stones and then bring some nice river rock in around the flagstones. We are also going to continue the river rock around the corner and run along the garden to the shed. The old carport was set on top of a number of 3×3 garden trim logs. We saved as many of those as we could and are going to dig them down and use them to line the edge of the path. This will help define the transition. Something that was sorely lacking in the previous layout where it was just sort of a messy flow from gravel to mossy areas, to places the grass seed took.
A few more ideas that we are playing around with: Sod the whole area. The grass yard area is pretty much unusable because of how lumpy it is. I think it was never sloped to drain properly, that and decay from the removed cherry trees makes it awful. I’m hoping we can till the ground through out the grassy area, break it up, slope it right, and then lay sod across it. This should give us a much nicer grassy area. And with it being nicer, we are more likely to keep it up and free of dog droppings.
We also are going to try to enclose the heat pump with wood trellis since it is rather ugly and right next to the outdoor table. Also, we are thinking of building a little storage area near the hot tub to store all the cushions for that table. Right now half the cushions live in the garage and the rest live near the table. The storage area would hold all of them, would add some steps to make getting in and out of the hot tub nicer, and would provide a big flat spot to place drinks while in the hot tub.
Finally, we fixed the lock to the gate so it should be easy to open from the inside and the outside, which will make getting the Land Cruiser in and out much more pleasant. And, we went around and took down all the various hanging pots and other junk attached to the fence. It was very knick-knacky and they were all quite ugly. Just doing that gave the yard a good face lift.
Now, a puppy picture.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Solving Mysteries
I did more reading and talked with Andy some about cars. I think my mystery vacuum line is supposed to run back underneath the car to the gas tank. This then ties into the charcoal canister and captures fuel fumes rather than releasing them to the atmosphere. That line has a hole and needs replacing, but one mystery solved. I also should correct my thinking in the previous post about vacuum being generated by the exhaust. It is generated by the pistons as they bring air in (perhaps I mis-read someone who said it generates it as it exhausts). So the intake manifold is thus the source of vacuum when air is sucked into the cylinders.
There is still a capped hard line in the same location as the above line that I cannot identify. It runs underneath the intake so I’m trying to remove that to see more. I’ll need some PB blaster or something to loosen those bolts though. I have an all-angle allen key and managed to break off the rounded end inside one of the bolts when trying to remove it. Thankfully it didn’t bind so I could pull it out easily with a magnet.
I think that whole in the trans-axle, is a vent around the flywheel. I’m not sure if this is part of the trans-axle or the engine, but it’s in the vicinity. From my reading this engine was supposed to have a small slit vent, not a big hole, so I’m a little confused. However, more recent models of this engine are supposed to have a hole capped with a plastic piece. Perhaps this is a later model replacement frame, or I’m not clear on when the change occurred. Either way, I’m going to want to find some way to cover that, because I don’t like such a large upward facing hole with no vent cover.
I’ve slowed my messing around in the engine bay and decided to mess with the other end of the wiring mess for a bit. So I took the interior apart. I discovered that this car does have the central locking vacuum pump, not sure what will be needed to make it work. It’s hard to test components with the battery out of the vehicle. I don’t quite understand how it locks and unlocks the fuel door with this, but did discover that I will need to drill out a riveted piece and find a replacement if I want to get the fuel door to stay shut anymore. It currently flaps around as I drive.
I removed all the cruise control wiring and its control box. I don’t see how to remove the vacuum and electric switches on the pedals so I will probably just leave those. I also removed a hot start pulse relay. I’m not sure why it is in this car. I know it was in the cabriolet version, and was a recommended upgrade to install them on the automatic versions of this due to the location of the starter in those cars. But this car isn’t supposed to need or be helped by one. Either way I pulled it out for now. It won’t be that hard to reinstall if it does turn out to be beneficial.