A Tale of Two 80s

[subzali]

A few weeks ago I wanted to address the leaky Ron Davis radiator that I had, that came installed by the PO of the white 80.

This radiator has about 100,000 miles on it, but I have been told by two radiator shops that it’s unrepairable. Thankfully the PO had given me the OEM radiator with 140,000 miles on it and it looked perfect. A few hours of swapping and I bought a little more time before needing a replacement.

At the same time I decided to check/change the fluid in the fan clutch because even with the RDR the 80 would temp creep up to 110C when idling in warm weather. Not acceptable. It had about 20 mL of unknown fluid, so at any rate it was under filled. Because of the extra heat from the turbo as well as the extra restriction from the front mounted intercooler, I went with 50 mL of 30,000 cSt fluid for now to see what it would do. So far I think the fan is pulling too hard so I think I will need to back off the viscosity.

 

[Hulk]

This morning I finished the replacement of the belt mouldings on both 80s. Also replaced the one above the rear quarter since it was dented from hail.

Where did you get the moldings? I need to do this.

 

[subzali]

Where did you get the moldings? I need to do this.

Serra Toyota was having one of their 25% off sales so I picked all these up.

 

[subzali]

I’m pretty sure the green 80 popped a head gasket tonight coming back from the mountains. Sitting in Conifer right now waiting for a tow truck.
-229,391 miles
-Temp spiked >260
-cracked radiator (original) spewing coolant
-coolant overflow is over-full
-waited for it to cool to 200, restarted to get to a safer pull-off, within 30 seconds coolant temp was at 230. Had heater running full blast but no heat was coming out. Shut it down.

At least we did Hackett, China Wall, and Twin Cone this weekend and it didn’t fail way out there.

I started a thread here for discussion:
https://risingsun4x4club.org/xf/threads/subzali’s-1fz-fe-head-gasket-repair-turbeaucruiser.36513/

Edit March 2025: As it turns out, it appears that it was just the radiator that blew, and lost enough coolant that 30 seconds of additional running made the temperature spike. It also explains why no heat was coming out of the heater. In hindsight I could have just topped off the radiator with water and probably run it at atmospheric pressure and gotten it home on its own power.

 

[Corbet]

Get her home. Probably be fine with a new HG.

 

[subzali]

So while the green 80 is still down, the white 80 failed to pass emissions for the first time ever. New exhaust and cats two years ago at last emissions test, cleanest report I think I ever saw.

Now high on HC and NOx. Going to replace air filter, spark plugs, cap, rotor to start. I think the guy had it in 2nd gear the whole test, not sure if that makes a difference so might try retesting just for grins. I hope the cats aren’t toast already.

Spark plugs, cap and rotor looked perfect so doubt that will change much.

 

[subzali]

A couple years ago when I did the 1-day diff swap, after getting it back together I discovered that my front locker bulb would keep flashing, even though the locker seemed to be engaging just fine. Feedback from the steering wheel told me it was engaged. I was very careful about clocking the locker actuator correctly when I put it back together, and even did it a couple of times to be sure. But still my bulb was just flashing.

So last night I thought that I would pull the position switch off my green 80 and put it on my white 80 to see if it's a problem with the position switch. As I was in the process of doing that I discovered that the switch on the white 80 had two aluminum gaskets on it somehow. I pulled out the extra gasket and reinstalled, and now it works perfect. So that extra 2-3mm was enough to make that switch not function correctly. The more you know...

 

[60wag]

I just replaced the rear locker switch on my 80. It just stopped working after 29 years. It doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would fail but it did.

 

[subzali]

I just replaced the rear locker switch on my 80. It just stopped working after 29 years. It doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would fail but it did.

Our 2009 Corolla had the reverse light switch on the manual transmission go out a couple years ago. I couldn’t believe it. 1977 FJ40 reverse switch is just fine. Lol

 

[Jacket]

I just replaced the rear locker switch on my 80. It just stopped working after 29 years. It doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would fail but it did.

Both my front and rear switches failed in recent years. Like Matt said it’s easy to know when the front switch isn't working but it’s still locked. Rear is a bit trickier

 

[subzali]

Something from the PO that I have never yet fixed: broken recline switch knobs.

I watched the texasknowhow YouTube video on fixing this a few years ago but never got up the gumption until this week.

Went to Ace hardware, built a couple studs, drilled and tapped the switch, glued and hoping they will work and not break again. We don't slide our butts out of the seats but use the sliders to step up and out of the seats. Hopefully that will help.

Outer stud is 1/4” dia. Aluminum spacer, threaded inside 6-32, 0.30” long
Washer is aluminum, 0.29” diameter
Inner stud is same as outer, but cut so total assembly length is 0.885”. Held together with two set screws 6-32 x 1/2” long.

 

[subzali]

On the white 80, the wide band digital readout was not working when I bought it, so I could never determine my actual AFR. Recently the boost gauge stopped working too. I sent them both back to Autometer and they checked them out.

They rebuilt the wide band for me, and replaced the boost gauge. It was so old they couldn’t rebuilt it.

Got them back today and they are both installed and working great!

 

[subzali]

The white 80’s antenna broke within days of purchase back in 2019. When it broke something was preventing it from fully retracting so it was always sticking up about 5 or 6”.

The 1997 design is different than what I was used to with the green 1996, in that when the radio is turned on the 1997 auto-raises the antenna a minimum of about 3”, or to the last-used height position. And then when the radio is turned off it auto-retracts all the way down. By contrast, the 96 is fully manual.

My theory is that the 97 antenna gets a lot more use due to the auto up/down, and therefore might have a tendency to wear out faster.

Anyway today was new antenna day, and now it works perfect. Took about 3 hours, and I never was able to pull the motor out of the fender. Not enough slack in the antenna cable from the radio. I had to take the screws off the motor while the thing was still inside the fender.

 

[Corbet]

I ended up with a middle east spec OEM manual antenna. I have not pulled it out since install but have it if I need it.