LX470 - Ignition Cylinder Rod Fix.

This was a weird problem. Went to crank up the LX one morning and well key turned heard a clicking noise but no startup. Turning the key again I felt no resistance. I did some research and come to find out that the cause of this is a particular rod in the ignition cylinder that breaks. It is a known issue in high mileage cars documented more so on the Land cruisers and LX470. This is probably documented more so on these cars because they actually last a long time. Also at this I should point out that ih8mud.com is an awesome resource and most of the explanations etc. I find that makes sense to me is from people on that forum that actually like to analyze the problem. So thank you ih8mud.  Anywho onto the problem at hand. 

Cause of this issue is a rod in the ignition cylinder rod that breaks at a particular stress point over time. The rod is a cast metal part and a 21 year old cast metal part can only do so much. The fix is to change the ignition column bracket, part # 45280-60510. 

To do this there are some security bolts that needs to be drilled out and then the old part can come out and new one reinstalled. Well I didn't want to do that. The other method is to actually change just the ignition cylinder rod that is broken. A quick google search shows a lot of different options or manufacturers rather for replacement part. I ended up ordering a couple and I ended up using a part made by or rather sold by Bross, part# is BSP36FBA. The reason why I ended up with this is because the part had the same stampings the new superseded part Toyota uses. If it's lasted 21 years I'm ok with that. I'm not going to go into detail on how to replace this part. This video pretty much does all that and I want to thank the poster for doing this. 

Below are just pictures to show how some components from the old cylinder rod is transferred onto the new one and a couple of slight modifications I did to help prolong the integrity of the part.  

On the left is the new part and the right is the old part depicting where it broke off. As you can see both the parts have the same stampings. 

The spring and two blades that sit in the ignition rod are shown below. 

This is the steps to insert the spring and blades into the new rod. 

Only thing that I did differently is smooth out the new part. My thought process was that if the part has sharp edges etc that just adds more force on the weak points of the ignition rod. Smoothing out these lobes I felt would help lower the tension the part is under by causing the part to move more freely through its sequence. I used a 800 grit scotch-brite buffing wheel on a rotary tool to smooth out the lobes and polish up the part. I used the old part as reference to see how the lobes have worn out and tried to mimic it.    

Use enough grease on the ignition rod and reinstall. Everything is back together and functioning as it should. 

-AJ Abraham

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LX470 - On-board Air

After the drawer system was done, I felt that the rig could use a compressor system. I had a couple of components for air at home so I set out to plan for that. I wanted to utilize the space under the flaps on one side just to maximize space so set out to do that. 

First I laid out the tank and compressor to see what works best as far as layout, clearances etc. 

With the measurements of the components in place traced out the floor and the sides. This would make it completely removable and going to integrate the straps etc. to hold the onboard air in place as well. Pics below shows the platform I came up with.

The platform was clearanced and fits perfectly under the flap.

With the platform clearanced, positioned the compressor and tank for it's final location.  

The mockup and mounting of components. Created a wiring harness utilizing a switch, a pressure switch, a relay and an automatic reset trip fuse. I wanted the setup to work only when the car is on and the switch is on as well. When the tank reaches 150psi the pressure switch turns the compressor off, when the tank falls to 120psi the pressure switch turns the compressor on. All the wires are soldered, heat shrunk where needed and used tech flex to clean up the wiring. 

There are three wires to unplug and the whole unit is removable. Power, Ground and ignition trigger.

All the components mounted.

Dismounted everything and then carpeted the platform to match the drawer system.

Platform carpeted and everything mounted.

This is the other end of the harness that will get wired to the car. 

Unit mounted and strapped down using the same straps holding the drawer system down as well. 

Used one of the tank holes to mount a pressure gauge and another with a safety coupler to attach an air hose and fittings.

Everything fits nicely under the flap. 

 

Happy with how everything turned out. 

-AJ Abraham

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LX470 - Park Light & Turn Signal Light mod

 This might be pointless to some but I didn't like how the top corner lights was just park lights and the turn signals were down next to the fog lights. I was going to upgrade the headlights and fog lights to white and I wanted the park lights in the corner lights to be white as well to match. At the same time I wanted to use the corner lights to be amber turn signals as well and the turn signals in the bumper next to the fog lights to be amber turn signals and amber park lights. 

To start I wanted to clean up and smooth out the fog lights which was definitely showing its age. Sanded the fog lights using 600, 800, 1200, 2000 and then got them cleared using PPG's 2K Clear.

With the fog lights looking fresh, I ordered the clear corner lights as well. 

The fog lights and the corner lights from factory come with a two pin connector. For what I want to accomplish the two pin connector needs to be converted to a three pin connector to use a dual filament bulb. 

Parts List:
For the socket that goes into the corner lights and the fog lights:
Toyota part: 90075-60060 x 4

For the connectors to go into the sockets you can either go OEM: 

Toyota part: Housing connector (3 Prongs): 90980-11020 x2

Toyota part: Terminal Repair (for insert into housing connector) - 82998-12440 x 12

OR

Aftermarket Toyota style connector: Corsa-technic - TS090-3S-6

Bulbs needed:

Light Bulb (Dual Filaments): Sylvania 7443 x2

Switch back LED: 7443 x 2

Now to test and note what control what on the connector. For this I just used a 12V battery to power and test the connectors.

Below is the wiring schematic for the connector.

With the schematic figured out, I created a harness to integrate into the factory wiring. Everything is soldered, heat shrinked and used techflex wire loom for a clean look. 

The white wire coming out of the harness I made goes to the park light side trigger of the harness. This white wire I spliced into the green wire which is the park light signal on the factory harness. The yellow wire on my harness goes to the the turn signal side trigger of the harness. This yellow wire gets spliced into the green wire on the factory fog light harness. The ground black wire from my harness goes to the white and black wire on both ends of the factory harness. 

I left the factory connectors and wiring in place just incase the mod needed to be reversed. All the wiring was soldered, heat shrunk and taped up where needed.

This is what it looks like with the park lights on now. White up top and amber at the bottom.  

With the turn signals on, both top and bottom blink amber. 

Happy how it turned out, now I just need to figure out what I want to do for the headlights and fog lights.

-AJ Abraham

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