The Beast

This was deregistered by NT police due to damage caused by Mackay police harrassment.

Sold for a rebuild to sumone living in Kenwick WA who has since reregistered it.

My Beast was a 2nd hand 1991 Toyota Landcruiser Troop Carrier which I lived in for most of the time hoping to construct my Trailored Houseboat.

It was forsale at $10,000Aus even though it had a redbook value as follows,

sold

Red Book Code TOYO91FN
   1991 TOYOTA LANDCRUISER
   FJ75RV Hardtop Troopcarrier 11st 4dr Man 5sp 4x4 4.0
   Trade in price guide*                  $8,300 - $10,200
   National average price - private sale* $9,800 - $12,800

Changelog
2004 April removed blown radiator & faulty thermostat, housing and seized bolts.


Had radiator repaired & flushed by VicParkRadiators in Western Australia.


Replaced corroded housing with one purchased from JustToyota who seem to be too lame to have a website or email contact.


Replaced US thermostat housing bolts with new ones purchased from Toyota who have a lame website that claims it can only be viewed with browsers that adhere to web standards, whatever the hell that is suppossed to mean is anyones guess, my guess is they wrongly assume that anything microsoft made is web compliant & that anyone who is not affluent enough or able bodied enough to utilise *standard* microsoft products can go hop.


2004 June Put TheBeast in to Katherine Toyota (NT) to have the handbrake adjusted, the bonnet release fixed/adjusted, the fuel filters replaced & a grease & oil change done.


On picking the vechile up they charged me for doing an oil change, claimed they could not get the back drums off & informed me the vechile was unroadworthy.


The service staff became quite irate when I requested a detailed list of exactly what was wrong with the vechile, rather then the vague list they supplied to substantiate their claims & when I asked what warranty I had on work they performed having already been burned once by mechanics cross threading critical things like oil filters.


After departing Toyota I was harrassed by the police wanting too know what was wrong with the vechile.  Needless to say the comprehensive list they supplied(tongue in cheek) was insufficient for the police to do anything, but enough to cover the mechanics backside should I become stranded by shotty workmanship at a later date.


Moral of this episode, do not trust anything to Toyota's Service mechanics, despite the millions of $ they pour into advertising and their sponsorship of moron's.


2004 June HR Motors fitted a shackle I purchased from TruTrak & assessed the general roadworthiness of the vechile discovering the stabiliser bar endmounts to be broken.


2004 June Hobbit Electrics Katherine remove faultily instaled ColHersey switch & install a heavy duty switch to isolate start battery when vechile ignition is off from the other two permanently mounted batteries split between front & rear of battery, preventing a no-start possability should lights be left on or the other solar charged batterries being fully discharged.


2004 July Stabiliser bar kit purchased from Repco Katherine & fitted by myself.


2004 September TruTrac 4wd remove, overhaul & reinsert gearbox replacing clutch & pressure Plate in the process.


2004 September Hobbits Electrics in Katherine remove, overhaul & refit starter motor


2004 October Kununrara TyrePower replace the 6 X 6ply wide tyres with 10ply second hand tyres & split rims.


2004 October Kununara Searles Mechanical Repairs stripped rear brakes & hubs, both sides, cleaned oil & grease from RHS, replace two broken studs in RHS, fit three new studs in LHS, fit new hub(RHS) & axle seals, new brake linings & wheel cylinders, Bleed brakes & adjust.  Handbrake cable seized & LH hub has been previously drilled out & helicoiled incorrectly--needs new hub. No proof but thank you Toyota for completely stuffing my back axle & costing me an extra $427.73 on top of what you've already fleeced me for.


Handbrake cable in need of replacement which requires removal of fuel tank apparrently.


2004 November hydraulic clutch continues to decline leaving me clutchless for the 900+k return trip too Perth.


2004 November 15 spent the 15 minutes needed to place fluid in the clutch reservoir & bleed it.  It wont fix the problem of why it leaked out, but at least I can now move the vechile with relative ease in order to obtain spare parts for it & other projects I'm currently working on.


Seems the deliberate addition of engine oil to the hydraulic reservoir was the problem of my failed clutch action.  Seems to be functioning fine after bleeding out this engine oil which appeared from ?

Turns out that hydrolic fluid become viscous as engine oil due to faulty design whereby slave cylinder is placed in such a position as to absorb all heat from the gearbox.

Solution is to use a brake fluid more tolerant of higher temperatures like dot5 fluid rather then the cheapest fluid available which no doubt was used when gearbox was refurbished.
For short haul urban 4wd's that seldom do more then a coupluh hundred k's in a journey it shouldn't be an issue.

Those who regularly do over 500k trip's should checkout their hydraulics & consider replacing with dot5 if they have a similarly flawed vechile.

I've not bothered with gearbox fluid cooling systems & suspect these products are just 3rd party scams

Overall assessment is that fossil fuel vechiles suck, Toyota's moreso  & I'll never ever have another vechile which requires registration or a license to operate.