75 Cruiser Questions, (im new to cruisers)

[Lach568]

Gday all, I have some, I spose you could say I have rather "newbie" questions for my 1989 75 Cruiser ute.

its my first car so I'm trying to do stuff on a budget

So I'm installing a new head unit, a JVC one, I need to find out what turns on with the ignition, so far I can find nothing, I though the clock but its not working or the fuse is cocked, just what fuse?

Another probably really simple question but I cant seem to find the right answer anywhere is that I want to put 16 inch Sunrayias on it, for some 265 75 16 all terrains, what width sunnies and off set? I would like it to be legal.

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask but it has a Warn Highmount on it, 3 pin so I'm guessing that's old? I believe its a 8000lbs one, not 100% though, anyway when I went to try it clicked, but didn't move, or even try to move, a tiny bit of smoke came from where the solenoids are, so I'm guessing its the solenoids that need replacing, does anyone know what type and where?

Again sorry if these sound like really basic questions, but after some extensive digging I couldn't find anything really, so thankyou if anyone has the answers :)

Cheers

Lach

[GC_AUS]

Don't worry Lach - everybody has to be a newbie at some stage - nice car mate!

From memory on that model about the only things that came on with the ACC were the radio, maybe the wipers & the cigarette socket. You should see a square black plastic box under the bonnet labelled "Power outlet" in there you will find a permanent +, ACC + & IGN + terminal & also an earth. If you run the stereo from there it will be easy to trace in future if you have any issues.

Behind the dash there should be the original radio plug which was a two wire plastic plug or maybe some one has cut it off which would be fairly obvious - should be hanging just behind the ashtray.

The rims will most likely need to be 16x7's to be legal without flares on the front. the offset is 0 but just double check that on 4x4 earth or Lcool & someone will confirm pretty quick.

Warn high mounts are pretty good & plentiful as they are very common on tilt trays - just search on ebay & you will find one for spares or search Warn on ebay for the solenoids. sadly the most likely issue in your winch will probably be the motor as they done like being overloaded or used with water in the electric motor. you could get the motor rewound but check the price on that compared to a replacement working unit. either way its a project so if you have a bit of time & a workbench then its a pretty simple device once you look into it - change the grease / oil in the gearbox while you are there.

Keep the cruiser serviced & you cant go wrong

all the best

G.

[Lach568]

Ok great thank you, I'm thinking the lighter plug will work well, with the original wires who knows, its had a second head unit placed in the glove box with some awful wiring, not sure what any of it is, any way now its just a case of solder in the new bits and should be right i believe

oh sweet okay, yeah I'm looking to keep flares off it, i had in mind General Grabber AT2s for the rubber, these should be ok? for 65%road 35% off road, it did come with front and rear air lockers so this may help

one last question would be i was thinking a intercooler might be wise, its a turbo 2H and it has gotten quite hot in the past apparently, as in melting the black bonnet grille hot haha, does anyone know much about putting these on a 2H?

anyway thank you for the help GC_AUS

Lach

Edited July 9, 2014 by Lach568

[Lach568]

as for the highmount yeah I'm going to have to pull it off anyway for the bullbar to be powder coated, i have basic electrical understanding, if its too complex ill take it to the auto elecs i think

[GC_AUS]

No worries dude,

just check your stereo to be sure you have enough current at the lighter outlet - the lighter should be roughly 10A max & depending how much grunt your stereo has you may need a bit more than 10A. If its just a normal unit with a built in amp then probably will only want 5-7.5A so should be cool.

I always like to remove the dodgy old wiring & start again unless its clean & well done - then you know what you have & hopefully don't have any nasty surprises down some remote track or whatever.

General Grabbers sorry haven't owned any of those but sounds about right- I run 2 sets of rims with Cooper AT3's for everyday use & STMaxx's for proper offroad - not the cheapest but I've had good service from Coopers so am happy. Like you I'm not so keen on the flares look - I like anything up to 255's in width but the main thing is go for reasonably tall tyres so the footprint gets longer as well as wider. Your standard tyres on the cruiser were road grippers which are 810 diameter so that's a good starting point.

Twin lockers.... !! nice one - the only thing I hear that might trip you up with those is to check the airlines & pump to make sure everything is working fine otherwise I think they're pretty good at getting you into messy situations - you may want that winch... :)

with the intercooler I would say yep definitely do it if you can - you could probably get a bonnet scoop from the wreckers off a 76-79 series that would make it look pretty cool. I spoke to one bloke who said most fall into the trap on the 2H of going for too big a turbo - the point here was that as a non turbo motor it doesn't push enough air through to cope with the big turbo so it runs harder with a slightly smaller unit - he has a troopy & was pretty switched on - if you want his number let me know & i'll send you a PM so you can get in touch.

I think the biggest thing there would be to make sure you have a decent size exhaust & inlet so it can breathe. I'm sure there are heaps of threads covering 2H's with turbo mods on 4WD Action, Lcool or 4x4 earth - just have a search & I reckon you'll get a flood of info.

the winch - yep its pretty straight forward so a bit of patience & you should on the way. have a hunt around & you might find a parts & wiring diagram on the net without too much drama. Essentially its just a starter motor with Fwd & Rev poles & a set of switches. The main thing again with this is current - they draw a heap under load so any dodgy connections will affect that.

Sounds like it will be a pretty good machine once you have it all sorted

catchya

G.

[GC_AUS]

sorry - forgot one more thing..

I changed the core in my radiator on my last 2H from the standard to a mitsubishi truck core which was 5 core instead of 3 I think the original Toyota one was - never had a heating problem again. There are some pretty well priced aftermarket radiators now which may be worth a look with the added heat from the turbo etc - probably the same guys that do the intercooler will be able to help there

G.

[Lach568]

Ok thankyou, I'll check to see it's just a basic looking stereo but won't hurt to check, and yeah it's pretty bad, just want to start fresh with new wires I think, and oh ok cool, I was thinking maybe some discoverys or BFG all terrains, I spose with the grabbers they are all basically the same sorta tire, and is 265 75 16 good size for it? I mean they seem a little small but want this legal haha!

As for the lockers I think I'll definitely check all the lines, won't hurt I guess!

With the intercooler I think it will be one of those jobs I'll get eventually, not the biggest issue yet as roadworthy and stuff need to happen first, I like the idea of a top mount with a small scoop, but is there any benefit with going a front mount? Like on the radiator?

Patrol scoop or 79 I think will good!

And I hadn't thought of a new radiator but it makes a lot of sense, I'll look into it for sure, I had a little bit mote of a look and the bonnet liner above the turbo has caught a tad on fire once upon a time!

Thankyou for all the help it's great!

Lach

[GC_AUS]

Hi Lach,

sorry about the delay - away for a couple of days

Tyres.... now I don't want to start anything here because tyres can cause more arguments than any other topic I think - I would suggest the best thing is to watch what the others in your area are using. BFG AT's are popular in some areas but not others & I think you could say that for any brand really. what works on one surface may be useless on another so it really comes down to where you plan to use your rig. I know that sounds like a cop out but its actually true - I have bought certain tyres based on popularity only to find they lasted about half the time I had the previous ones on the vehicle - what works in the desert may be a stupid choice for the beach if you get my drift. It all comes down to experience really so sorry but the best advice I can give is see what your mates are using & be prepared for some heated discussions...!

Intercooler - my preference is top mounted on a 4WD. the amount of air rushing through mine is heaps - of course Toyota would have done airflow tests & the bonnet on my car is shaped to increase the flow as the air drops through the hole in the bonnet but a good scoop at anything over 30kph will shove a fair amount of air through the cooler. Front mounted is good on a city car but if you have any big grasshoppers with long tails or stones then the front mounted unit is quite vulnerable. the argument against of course is that you are forcing the hot air down under the vehicle but at any reasonable speed that's negligible.

How about a nice rex one? - there's one on ebay now for a decent price. there's also the 3.0ltr Rodeo which had a scoop which you might pick up cheap at a wreckers

I think there are some heat wraps you could have a search for which might be useful to cut down the heat off the turbo - they use them on large boat engines so as long as you protect it from stone damage then it might be a goer? - again the biggest thing here is get the heat out of the engine bay so the turbo can have airflow around it

ok - keep up the good work!

G.

[Lach568]

G'day all good ,

Haha right ok sounds like a bit of a shady area!

I'll see what the local tyre place recommends

Head unit is in a works a charm!

And cool

Yeah intercooler will happen eventually

Just a matter of gettin cash!

As for the scoop I'll see what's hanging around, and the truck radiator sounds good too, there has been a small fire in it before so I'm a it iffy about heat haha

Thankyou for the help it's brilliant!

[Lach568]

And yeah top mount seems to be the logical choice!

Does it have to be cruiser specific or any old one with custom pipes?

[GC_AUS]

no worries man -

tyres - do a quick search for Beadell Tours dot com dot au & have a read of his tyres blurb. Its a very well written article & regardless which way you decide is best from there you will have a pretty good understanding of the pros & cons of various tyres. sorry I cant paste a link here for you - replace the words dot obviously but you knew that :)

Be careful about the tyre shop - they almost always will "sell" you something they want you to buy rather than what you maybe should buy for your requirements. I'm not criticising tyre shops - my local one is excellent & they are sensible but the owner has a VDJ76 & he spends time in the outback so he has a sensible head on his shoulders. some do not....

if you're just cruising then something like Coopers AT3 or BFG AT or Mickey Thompson STZ should be cool - more off road then more homework & something a bit more angry.

Intercoolers - well you might pick up one of a VDJ76-79 from a wreckers pretty easy but there are heaps that would fit - just need to measure the space & make suitable brackets really. anything that has enough airflow capability would be fine I think so the real thing will be how much air the engine can force through with the turbo. You might think this strange but for some reason I recall that the 2H pushes 222CFM in standard form - I only know that from fitting a Donaldson on mine years ago. there will be calculations around to figure that out but again I think the best thing will be to learn from what others have already done - we already have wheels so there's no need to invent a new one unless you are heading down the path of hoverboards perhaps...

I reckon the fire in the engine bay would have been from the turbo - they do get red hot under load so add dry grass seed or spinifex & you have a barbie pretty quick - just have to scrape the paint off the bonnet before you chuck on the steaks. A big exhaust should be the quickest solution for that unless you have that already.

cash - yep join the club I think everybody could relate to that one.

good to here the sounds are up & running! - so did you go with the 15" subs behind the seat or just enough pressure to stop the windows from rattling.

[GC_AUS]

Hey Lach,

have a look on 4WD Action & search 2H Turbo

1335 matches - there must be some useful info in there....

catchya

[Lach568]

Ok cool, thankyou for all this help I actually have an idea now!

Will have to take a trip down to the curry and find a wreckers

Nothing decent where I live

As for tires yeah I think 265x75 16 or 275s on 16x7 will suit it well

And legal , and yeah looking for nice ATs as realistically I won't be doing 4wding as my primary use, but none the less still go places

Yeah it gets quite hot, would a tune up help? Like a decent once over by a turbo fitter?

It already has a 2.5 inch pipe on it and fairly new, compared to the rest of the rig

Haha subs I wish but some decent fusion speakers should do the trick

Not like the rattling will ever go but gonna do marine carpet door liners, roof and back wall to make it a little nicer inside

Anyway thanks again!

Love it

Lach

[GC_AUS]

no worries man,-

2.5" I would think might be a bit small - I had a 2.75" mandrel bent system on mine & it didn't have a turbo. I also put extractors & a Unifilter on & that made a bit of difference,- particularly in sand or down low the torque was much better. The extractors gave it a bit of a note but it was all fine. You cant do the extractors thing obviously because of the turbo but any improvement in breathing will help. The Unifilter or K&N whichever is your preference is a good thing - they definitely breathe better & you can wash them of course so no more expensive filters. I think I have said this before but not too much oil in the filter whatever you do.

Yep - definitely get a tune when you have the dosh - again it all helps. Worth having a good look at the injectors too - the 2H is pretty forgiving so often the injectors might be a bit inefficient but you don't really pick up on it. I think Berrima Diesel have a pretty good rep if they are not too far away for you otherwise there must be someone in Vic.

I know I am plugging 4WDaction again but have a look at the "VDJ76R Military" thread on there & you will see some of the same topics you are going through - check out a product called Dynamat.

Good to hear you have a sensible approach to the tyres - a huge amount of people burn a lot of rubber up on the highway which all sucks money out of the pocket. Keep the hardcore tyres for where you need them

ok - better get back to it

G.

[Lach568]

Oh ok cool, it'll do for the moment though, yeah the current filter is a bit not nice, and like everything on a Toyota it costs a fair bit!!

And know all about the too much oil bit as I race bikes and bad things happen with lots of filter oil

So maybe a all around tune if the engine is worth doing? Just to freshen it up?

Hah it's ok it's a good site, and cool I'll have a look at both the thread and dynamat

Yeah well I thought I may as well be realistic about it,no use wasting cash on burnt rubber!

Ok cool cheers!

Lach