The White Dragon (91 FJ80)

The new chapter in the life of a '91 Landcruiser. I picked it up from a fellow member, Idaholandho (thanks again dude!), yesterday in Boise and made the trek home to Oregon through some nasty weather. The White Dragon surfed through the heavy rain, wipers on panic, hydroplaning at times but doggedly marching forward. At the summit of Deadman pass there was a couple inches of slush on the road and it did fine, and even pulled the mountain at a respectable 65mph.







General Bradley approves.



Today I went through it stem to stern checking fluid levels, brake wear, and looking for any issues. I noticed on the drive home the brakes were a little spongy coming down the mountain, so I pushed a quart of dot 4 through the mastercylinder and bled the brakes. I also noticed the LSPV (Load Sensing Proportioning Valve) arm was bent while bleeding it. I hate those things even when the work right, so I cut the arm and zip tied the remainder in the "heavy load" position for max brake pressure to the rear drums. (first mod! lol) They lock up at the same time as the front disks, perfect balance. Quite a bit of air came out of the LSPV, so I assume that was what was causing the spongy brakes. I replaced the radiator cap as it was overfilling the overflow tank, so to speak. I also lubed the window channels with some dry teflon lube as the windows were a little slow, seemed to help but I have a feeling I will be replacing the tracks soon. Found some other minor things to address, but nothing critical. I love it. My dog loves it. My wife had a smile while driving it around town today, and said "this thing is cool!".
It is indeed cool.

 

Which bike is that?

 

KTM 990 Adventure. It has almost as much horsepower as the Landcruiser.

 

Tonight I fixed the shaky mirror problem that plagues virtually every FJ80 on the road. Inside the housing, the mirror is hung with two undersized tabs and a single screw. When using the power adjuster the tabs often crack, leaving that single screw to hold the glass in the mirror while it flops around like Ron Jeremy doing the helicopter.
The broken tab (the keyhole looking thing)


The repaired tab. (used plasti weld) I pressed the soft plasti weld back into the housing tabs to leave indentions, then used a small flat blade to work out slots.




The housing

 

I need an offroader again. As soon as I get my house built, I'm going Land Cruiser hunting.

 

This looks like it's has lots of potential, always liked land cruisers, cool rig, what's the ultimate goal with this?

 

Hmm. Mostly drive the crap out of it. Go places I've never been before, and spend more time in the woods with the family. My taco is cool, and fun to drive, but you miss the forest for the trees driving it at triple digit speeds through the woods. I think I'm officially old. I want to slow down and poke around more, finding things most people never get to see. Explore overgrown trails and forgotten paths, find ghost towns and do it comfortably. I still have the taco for short rips across the landscape if the mood strikes, but it's nice to bumblefuck around too.

 

This is my kind of word. This is my kind of build already.

 

Very well said and I like the end goal, looking forward to this, I am certain it will turn out awesome.

 

Did a couple hundred snow miles. No issues except a check engine light from the temp sensor. Gauge works fine, but there is a separate sender for the ECU. Will order a new one after the holidays.

 

So is this a new did?

 

Pretty much. I've had my tacoma for almost ten years, time for a new build.

 

So what is your plan for this.

 

Really focus on maintenance for now. It idles a little rough but runs fine at speed, so I'll get that figured out. I'll do an EGR delete and clean up the engine bay some while also increasing reliability. I want to keep it simple, and focus on mods that make it more usable. So far I'm averaging 14mpg, and I need to extend the range some so I'll probably build a new rear bumper with a swing out spare tire carrier and use the spare tire space for a second fuel cell. I don't know if I will build my own or go with an off the shelf option yet. Either way, I want to have the range to do most of the OBDR without having to divert for fuel. I guess kind of an expedition type build, gravel road runner, and all around weekend warrior with the capability to go where I want to go. Nothing too hardcore, I've got the taco for that.

 

Cruised around in the snow some more today. On the highway, I've never owned a rig that does as well as this thing in these conditions! It's amazing.

 

Just got back from almost 500 miles of snow covered roads. No issues other than the temp sender thing, but after resetting the light it didn't come back on. Weird.

 

subbing cuz coolness