Catherines 1998 Toyota Land Cruiser

Owners Name & City- Greg Catherine Gardner - Grand Junction, CO



Make, Model & Year of Vehicle- 1998 Toyota UZJ100 Land Cruiser


Engine- 4.7L V8

Transmission - Factory Auto, A343F

Transfer Case - HF2A full-time 2 speed transfer case with center differential lock




Axles- Factory parts, IFS front, solid axle rear. Rear has factory e-locker, front has an ARB air locker. Stock 4.30 axle gears.


Suspension- Old Man Emu 2.5" with 863 rear springs and OME torsion bars.


Wheels and Tires- Factory wheels powder coated black, 295/75/16 BFGoodrich AT's


Winch- None yet


Favorite Trails- Kokopelli, White Rim, Lockhart, San Juans, Baja... anything scenic and fun.


Other- It does have a Slee 2nd battery tray for dual batteries eventually, plus a set of home-built bolt on rock sliders. Future mods are an ARB front bumper, Warn Winch, homebuilt roof rack and probably a snorkel.



I purchased this from RotBox on RME after he reluctantly decided it was time for a change. This is a high-mileage Cruiser, sitting at 249k when I bought it. It has been well maintained, doesn't burn or leak any oil and it runs and drives great. Andrew made some great mods that will be very handy to have, including some LED lighting, the rear tailgate carpet was replaced with a piece of stainless steel for food prep.

I'm going to post the maintenance stuff here, mostly for my info.

Recent service history:
Timing Belt & related parts done @ 201k
Second 90K service @ 207K
Spark plugs changed at 243K
Differentials and transfer case gear lube changed @ 247K


Some pics, taken while making the drive home after buying it. From Black Dragon Canyon in the Swell.

 

[Greg]

Needs to be a skull or the punisher logo... Kidding.

Yeah, no.

Remember, this will be a daily driver for a middle school librarian, who occasionally will use it to shuttle cats around.

 

[Greg]

OK, updated pics from today. We cleaned it up, fixed some small things and took pic of the current condition. 308k miles as of now.

 

[Greg]

And some additions.... I put the ScanGauge II back in. I hadn't ran it in anything since pulling it out of the 100 Series, so it's all set up with a corrected MPH, current MPG, Engine Temp and Voltage.

I had these MASSIVE 9" LED lights that I bought on Ebay a few years ago. They are Chinese copy's of the ARB Intensity... I don't expect them to be nearly as well built, bright or last as long. I was going to use them on another vehicle, but never did. They are HUGE and overkill, but I wasn't impressed with the Hella lights and since it was already wired I tossed the 9" LED's on. I think they are a Spot/Flood combo with 96 Watts, 8,000 lumens, 6,000K color temp. While I would LOVE the ARB lights, these were cheap... I think they were under $100 for the pair. We will see of they last!

I think they look pretty good mounted on the bumper, overkill for the use of this vehicle, but that's OK.

And some night pics... the lights are decent, I expected more distance to be honest. Seems like they reach out to about 150' and then the light dissipates quickly. The color is VERY white, the beam pattern is pretty good up close.... no hot spots or dark areas. Not bad for $80/pair.

Before, low beams -

Low beams with LED's-

 

[frieed]

You really have me thinking about a used cruiser instead of a new Jeep for the next 4x4

 

[Greg]

You really have me thinking about a used cruiser instead of a new Jeep for the next 4x4

That's a tough choice! They're both great 4x4's, both excel at slightly different things... all depends on what you want to do!

 

[Rot Box]

So cool to see this story unfold

 

[Greg]

So cool to see this story unfold

Pretty interesting, isn't it?

Catherine's siblings all have 2-4 kids each, when they've come to visit we haven't been able to take them to Moab or the San Juans to explore. Now when we have family come out, we can take the Land Cruiser and the Jeep, up to 10-12 people!

 

[Greg]

Some minor work recently, replaced both rear anti-sway bar end links. Figured since one had already broken and I had 2 new ones, I might as well get both on. After pulling them apart, I saw that the bushings in the sway bar ends are SHOT. I'll have to order new ones and replace them later on. For now, the rear anti-sway bar is connected again. It drives better with the rear anti-sway bar connected... no surprise.

We also got 2 keys with the truck, one worked fine and the battery was good. The other had a dead battery and the case was very loose, it needed work. I found a kit from Yota MD that replaces the case and includes a Titanium frame. It wasn't cheap, but it should last the rest of this Cruisers life. The swap was easy, but I had to buy a tiny Phillips screwdriver to get the key apart and battery out. I dropped in a new battery and put the new parts together.

And lastly, Catherine loves proper cup holders. It's the little things that make women happy, you know? The factory cup holders are about 3 1/4" wide, but very shallow. Any cups placed in them will wobble around, risking spilling coffee, etc. I found some cheap office pen holders at Walmart and set them in place with 3M double sided tape. They're the perfect size for a 32 oz. cup or Starbucks coffee cup.

 

[frieed]

They're the perfect size for a 32 oz. cup or Starbucks coffee cup.

Officially a mini-van now

 

[Greg]

Officially a mini-van now

I don't care, it's the wife's!

Besides... 33" BFG's, lockers, ARB bumper, Winch, roof rack, snorkel.... it's one hell of a minivan!

 

[frieed]

OK, Mall Terrain Vehicle

 

[Greg]

Got the snorkel back in place. Totally unneeded but if the wife ever needs to ford a flooded river on her way to work, she'll be prepared!

We knew the Cruiser needed a passenger side CV shaft, found CVJ Axles in Denver that rebuilds OEM axles with some quality boot upgrades. The aftermarket axles for 100 Series are known to be questionable at best, they go bad quickly and are much weaker than factory. The only other option is going to the dealer and I believe they run aound $600/ea. CVJ axles start at $119, by the time you add better & upgraded boots you add up to $120 more.

There is a vibration coming from the front end under hard acceleration and seeing how the passenger-inner CV boot is torn, I grabbed the CV shaft and it's loose. Pretty sure the vibration is due to the shaft getting thrown to one side in the worn joint under hard acceleration. I'll be ordering a new CV shaft next week.

Lastly, I don't recall the Cruiser leaking oil when we had it but it does now. There are a handful of drips when parked. Looks to be the rear main seal. Not a huge surprise with it's north of 300k miles, but it is a disappointment. I'll see what it'll take to fix the leak.

 

[Greg]

Got the Cruiser aligned at Firestone today... toe was way off. But those guys didn't straighten the steering wheel... and I mentioned it before they started working on it! Not impressed.... either I'll take it back or do it myself.

 

[mesha]

It is crazy how hard it is to find a good alignment place. Especially if there are ANY mods done to the rig.

 

[Greg]

It is crazy how hard it is to find a good alignment place. Especially if there are ANY mods done to the rig.

Truth.... the last 3 alignments I've had done had massive issues. I had one done at Big-O here in GJ right before our last Baja trip and the dumbass moved the steering stabilizer (it was centered, by myself) so that I couldn't turn full left. I didn't notice it until we were on our way and had to deal with it thru the trip.

 

[Greg]

Did a lot of maintenance, repairs and upgrades yesterday. First the engine received a full tune up, Denso spark plugs, new air filter, new fuel filter, PCV valve, MAF sensor was cleaned, throttle body cleaned, etc. Also vacuumed out the air filter box, it has a small amount of junk in the bottom and didn't want the junk getting pulled into the air filter. I'm pretty sure the plugs were the same that I installed a few years ago when we owned it, so it was time.

I replaced the switch panel on the drivers door that controls the windows and door locks... the original was well worn and loose in places.

Lastly, I upgraded the headlights (again).... this time I went for 55 watt HID drop-in bulbs from Retro Solutions. The bulbs I upgraded to before were a small improvement at the time, but seem to be dimmer than when first installed. The headlights were pathetic, I hated the idea of Catherine driving in the dark with such poor low beams. The HID bulbs from Retro Solutions don't create a scattered light pattern, the beams ended up right where they're supposed to. All the reviews were very high with lots of good feedback from people running them, so I felt good about buying. Install was easy, bulbs dropped right in. I added their wiring harness and relay, for more voltage going directly to the bulbs.

After a test drive in the dark, I have to say that I'm impressed.... this is how the headlights should be. I left the halogen high-beam bulbs in place, but may upgrade to HID's down the road if needed. I'll try get some night shots of the difference soon.

 

[SunnySayWut]

Hello all you awesome peeps! I just posted an introductory thread so my name is Jalil living in little Ouray, CO. I am the very happy (and final) owner of this lovely landy. Found on ExPo classifieds and purchased in October 2018. I mainly joined here because after reading through this thread I feel like I should continue this cruisers legacy haha. It now has.... A new passenger CV, a Smittybilt synthetic winch line that replaced the cable (35 lbs lighter!), rear main seal, wheel bearing repack, extended front sway bar links, a recent alignment, heater tees, cleaned out rear locker actuator since it wasn't engaging (instantly engages now), cleaned the window runs (below freezing the windows would struggle to roll down then took off the door panels to find the runs CAKED with dust, grime, etc.), MetalTech's torsion bar reinforcement bracket, a new interior fan motor, and obviously an oil change. Have some MetalTech sliders on order (more upward protection) as well as Ironman Foam Cell Pro shocks. After that the little pocket of fender rust will be taken care of them plan on getting Dissent off roads 1/4 in aluminum skids. So yeah haha

 

[SunnySayWut]

Also, I read in here that one of the POs possibly has video footage of when the front diff was blown. I REALLY want to see that haha