Tom's GX81 Chaser

[PowderJZX]

Hey guys, Just recently bought this car off Kurt, It was in this condition when I got it hahaha... with a bonnet of course.

 

 

I took this as soon as I heard the engine is going back in it only to find out that the engine was about 1 hour away from Auckland. But no big deal! The biggest challenge was towing the car from Takanini to Sunnynook with just a car and a 2m tow rope. I tried hiring a trailer but they were taken. Tried calling a tow company but they were all unavailable and I only have 1 week to use my mates garage so we decided to tow rope it.

Anyway, started working on the car today. Making a huge progress on day 2.



Engine was bolted in and wiring mostly wired up! We have 2 plugs left sitting in the back of the engine. I'm guessing it connects to the tranny.. 2 pins and 3 pins and the airbox plugs.

 

Few parts were missing as well:
 (drive shaft bolts (i think we left it when we picked up the car. we had to take it off to be able to drive it around), 1 exhaust gasket, exhaust ring seals( dunno what its called), hoses and a broken vacuum solenoid  or in stan's words.. "nipples" , broken battery mount with pretty much effed screws but thanks to Alex, I managed to acquire them tonight. I think it should start tomorrow night/ afternoon. I just need to figure out how to mount the gearbox coz all I have are mounts and auto X member, I hope it does fit. I can try make it fit tho. I'm sure there are more ways of fitting them but worse comes to worst, it's gonna get re-drilled.

 

I've got a w55 gearbox from a gx61 from alex but I have an auto xmember from an mx83. Do you reckon the auto mount from an mx83 will fit the car? I heard that the a340 auto cross member should fit fine... maybe I might have to reverse it. If any of you had done this before, do let me know! I'm not sure if gx81s have different boxes compared to x83s. 

[Hachi-ichi]

mean progress ! as far as the plugs for the back of the engine go, I don't think any of them hook to the gear box, the gear box only has 1 plug which is the reverse light plug and that's down the LHS halfway down the case. Make sure you find all the driveshaft bolts before you drive it decent distance, I drove mine a few km on 3 drift shaft bolts and the vibrations were nuts haha. And with the X member problem, I can attest that the auto X member will NOT either way, MX83s and GX81s both use A340Es (check ToyoDIY)), not that it would make a difference. When I manualed my car the second time I briefly tried the Auto X member in both positions to see, that and I have had another 81 owner tell me the same thing, unless you redrill it, it will not fit. SX80 and GX81 manual X member are the only 2 that will fit undrilled. LX80 doesn't fit undrilled. 

[PowderJZX]

mean progress ! as far as the plugs for the back of the engine go, I don't think any of them hook to the gear box, the gear box only has 1 plug which is the reverse light plug and that's down the LHS halfway down the case. Make sure you find all the driveshaft bolts before you drive it decent distance, I drove mine a few km on 3 drift shaft bolts and the vibrations were nuts haha. And with the X member problem, I can attest that the auto X member will NOT either way, MX83s and GX81s both use A340Es (check ToyoDIY)), not that it would make a difference. When I manualed my car the second time I briefly tried the Auto X member in both positions to see, that and I have had another 81 owner tell me the same thing, unless you redrill it, it will not fit. SX80 and GX81 manual X member are the only 2 that will fit undrilled. LX80 doesn't fit undrilled. 

Haha thanks man! yea I managed to get 4 driveshaft bolts from Alex when I went to pick up the vacuum solenoid! pretty stoked he had them aye! as well as a spare exhaust manifold gasket! now i can finally try starting the car! I was given a battery from a cressida to so that saved me 120 bucks haha anyway i'll keep everyone updated! 

true, Auto gearboxes

[PowderJZX]

^ typo 

[Trej]

Good to see this car's getting around like the beautiful lass she is.

 

TOP TIP:When you get the chance, have a look under the front tweeter cover (It should come off quite easily). You might score yourself a tin or two from one of its previous owners

 

Have fun and take good care of her.

[cute wee gem]

Should be a JZ going back in

 

Good to see it went to someone on OS

[cute wee gem]

I have used the auto xmember on both w55 and the current r154, no drilling at all.

[cute wee gem]

Might be something to do with facelift models? facelift have a different crossmember for the engine so maybe that's why it didn't work for hachi-ichi

[Hachi-ichi]

Might be something to do with facelift models? facelift have a different crossmember for the engine so maybe that's why it didn't work for hachi-ichi

have no clue, I purely tried it see if it would fit, my car is an 89 so that may make sense. flipped it around and it was well off. I just used the SX80 one I had in the end

[PowderJZX]

Day 3: This is probably the most exciting car i've done in months! The toyolo crew got the car running! woohoo for that! The auto gearbox mount and the gearbox crossmember did fit my x81 like a glove.. no drilling needed! it was off an x81 S1 Cressida. Got the driveshaft in (was a pain, had to separate them into two pieces just so I could hammer in the spline! wired up the rest of the loom, finished them hoses, gearbox and gearbox oil etc.. Here is a quick vid of it running for the first time! excuse the sound as the exhaust is disconnected. 

 

After it started,  We just ended up tuning the car. The first one we did was check for leaks and sprayed wd40 towards where the leak was, turned out, we forgot to tighten one of the clamps (heater pipe) so water was pouring out. Adjusted the dizzy to tune the engine to the right sound, adjusted and bled the clutch etc.. now what's left is the exhaust ring gasket and the powersteering fluid(2nd gasket after the main exhaust gaskets) I need to get them tires replaced to but its all good i have a temporary replacement! and oh the reverse ligths (w55 from gx71) didn't fit the plug from the loom so i'll have to modify it which shouldn't take more than 2 mins!  I should be going in for a wof tomorrow.

Maybe this weekend or next weekend I shall take this beauty to Ryan's garage for a cambelt change. It was so stupid of me to not replace it when the engine was out.. maybe because we were in a hurry to get the car out of the garage haha. Other than that, it all went as planned! It seems easy enough to do but I'm too lazy now! haha can't wait to give this thing a good clean

[PowderJZX]

if only gx81s are considered as oldschool haha, would've been nice to start up a project discussion! lol

[Hachi-ichi]

Neoclassic man, have to deal with that lol. Start one on JZXNZ too

[PowderJZX]

Neoclassic man, have to deal with that lol. Start one on JZXNZ too

Oh yea haha and that too! 

[PowderJZX]

I lifted the car to check for mechanical problems, I did find a bit of play on the front wheels. I took it to Wairau Alignment to double check which one I really needed. Inner rack, bearings or both. Luckily it was just the bearings, It was pretty expensive haha btw, Auckland bearings have them in stock, according to them it's the same as the altezza's bearing. Do check the code on the bearing just to make sure you don't destroy your hubs. Took them to the garage to do the bearings, surprisingly with the x's mechanical simplicity, it took less than an hour to replace both! The old bearings were effed, the flat part where the bearings are meant to be kinda dug their own trail on it. It was pretty bad. I'm guessing it hasn't been replaced in a long time? one more thing was the handbrake was a bit too soft, so i had to adjust that one too from the rear. Now it E-brakes pretty good.. got new tires for the rears etc, the only hard part was trying to get the car in the garage. I failed big time so I decided to do one side at a time. Just made them parts further than usual.. 

 

See what I mean haha.

 

 

Last photo was taken when I was standing in front of the car!  It was pretty far for a lazy guy.

[PowderJZX]

Got a lot of maintaining to do before I do anything more to this car! haha

[stillway]

Good some of us are sick of all the progress you're making.

 

Damn you. /niceworkkeepitup

[Hachi-ichi]

This car has been around the block (to say the least) with it's setup, i'm not surprised bearings need doing. Gonna keep the 1G for long?

[PowderJZX]

This car has been around the block (to say the least) with it's setup, i'm not surprised bearings need doing. Gonna keep the 1G for long?

Most cars have been around the block haha. Yea the 1g stays. It's still strong as it is. 

Update on car: Wofd and regd haha.. I just cleaned it too! it looks nicer than usual! I just need the other pair of wheels to complete the stern wheels from beachlander and it should be sweet for now! It looks weird with 2 sets of wheels atm. My battery dies sometimes too so I need that checked, Maybe I need more distilled water in it! hahaha

[PowderJZX]

Hey guys, I just noticed. My car drains battery when I turn the alarm sound on. When I turn it of, car is fine. anyone in auckland/north shore know how to test if there are any voltage draws throughout the car? I don't have the tools haha maybe i'm missing a ground wire or may have stuffed something up.

[PowderJZX]

Quick update: I did find the problem with the battery voltage draw, If this were to happen to any of you, Maybe get the reserve battery in the alarm checked or just simply buy a new one. The reserve battery that I had was effed, so instead of charging it self when you drive, it draws its power from the battery hence the battery dying overnight. I got quoted 100 bucks for a replacement! Cheap enough if you want your car slightly protected haha

Anyway, I did get the other pair of Stern from Kurt. It had a leak on one of the wheels, but as it turned out, it was just the valve thing that needed tightening! haha I Saved a bit of money there... now the wheels on the car look even!!. It doesn't look too aggressive I reckon. It just makes it look a bit cleaner? I'll give it a proper photoshoot when I have the time. A few things I still need to do for the car like the rear quarter panel and the rear bumper painted but other than that just maintenance I guess? 

I dropped my car off at Ryan's garage yesterday for some service I should have done when I chucked the engine in! Thanks to Ryan, the cambelt change is being done properly! haha gives me that peace of mind especially me, having only done the cambelt change a couple of times and maybe because I am just that lazy? 
 

All parts I bought are genuine. It's quite expensive... Should have gone to Partmaster... but when Toyota said the new belts nowadays last at least 150,000kms so I thought maybe it's worth it! Besides, genuine parts do last that long! Or maybe it's a toyota thing..

Few more "important things" I need to get for my car:
1. Get wide 16" SSR's from japan (maybe meshies and get the centres body coloured in white or the silver part)
2. The souped up 1gge from Alex <--- maybe the right time to tune a 1gge? although it's hard to find aftermarket parts for it! haha worse comes to worst, 2jz )
3. Roof spoiler and boot spoiler and maybe the original front lip?
4. Better exhaust and exhaust tips

5. Cooling system

Not so "important things" I wanna get. Not that I will taking it to track since I have another car to take to track haha but just in case! 

6. Anything to do with handling and body rigidity! (nolothane bushings? arms etc)

Does anyone know anything about the twin sway-bar setup for a gx81? Coz I bought those twin backets from Australia for $77bucks shipped. I'm not sure if will do my car any good but I think I can run twin swaybars.. lol I just need to find a set of aftermarket swaybars! seems impossible for this model! I was thinking of just getting them made up?  Does anyone know how much these would cost?