Spring at the Flat

Wow, it has been way too long since the car has been out in the hills.  It's been driven around town a bit but there's nothing an old Toyota Land Cruiser likes more than dirt.  So, today I took it out to it's old stomping grounds Rowher Flats or "Rowher Flat" as I discovered by actually stopping and looking at the sign.

I've ordered new rear shocks (the old ones were killed by the race) and I wanted to do a little before and after test. 

Rowher Flat has been cleaned up quite a bit.  All the bathroom structures were rebuilt and they've added a bunch of shaded picnic areas.  It seemed to help.  In the hour I was there I saw 2 jeeps, about 5 motorcycles and someone camping with a trailer.  That's a lot for a Tuesday morning.  

Even with that crowd it felt pretty empty.  I did find a gopher snake to keep me company.

The fj40 ran great.  All the high and low gears were where they were meant to be, no stalling and it seemed to enjoy going fast.  I mainly stuck around the flats.

One thing I did learn is that I might need to wrap my new steering wheel.  The spun aluminum really came off on my hand....I guess that's what gloves are for.

Car 28 - new steering wheel!

The steering wheel on the old zebra fj40 has been a source of irritation.  Once I got power steering I didn't need a giant steering wheel to get the beast moving in the right direction.  So I replaced it with a 13" steel dune buggy wheel.  I didn't really think about the dish of the steering wheel but, as you can see from this picture, it was pretty deep.

With the roll cage I can't move the seat back and at times I feel like I'm hunched over the black wheel.  So, I picked up a flat aluminum wheel from Chirco.   Being aluminum it's light and it does look a bit like a go kart wheel, but the rivets on the back give you a really good grip.  

so far so good!  I'll keep you posted when I give it a thorough testing.

Rowher Shut Down

The sequester really hasn't affected me much much until today.

I decided to head out to Rowher Flats to give the car a work out.  It had been running funky, not starting, etc.  It turns out the DUI Ignition needs 10.5 volts to spark.  So, even though the starter was turning the engine there wasn't enough juice to start it.

The Kirkland battery that was in it was just outside of warranty and the race had really beat the crap out of it so I replaced the battery with a Sears Platinum.  It was pricey but after a lot of poking around the internet it seemed to be the choice for a car that sits for chunks of time and then bounces around the desert.

The car ran great until it didn't.  The car stalled driving back from the locked Rowher gate.  I managed to limp it into the Lowes parking lot and was getting out my AAA card when I decided to check the wiring again.  Turns out the red wire on the distributor wasn't all the way on.

There's the culprit - the little red one.

I must've pulled it loose when I put the battery in.  So, I pushed it in and it started right up.

Hopefully fixed?  We'll see.

Latest Race Repair

Well it's almost been a year since the Mexican 1000 and I just got around doing what I believe is the last race-damage repair.  At some point south of Lorretto the fan shroud came loose and chipped off a couple fan blades.

new fan - old fan

I eventually repaired the shroud with some bailing wire before driving the car home.  The water temperature never changed and even though Man-a-fre gave me a good used one when I returned to the US it took me almost a year to put it on.

In other news, the spur trails on the way to  Rowher Flats have been shut down.  They were dug up with some kind of earth mover and are impassible (I tried).  Since they're spurs off the Sierra Pellona Mtwy, they're technically not in the Rowher Flats OHV park but does seem silly to go from two parallel fire breaks to one.  But what do I know.

all dug up

On a brighter note - There's an apricot tree near the top of hills and it was in full bloom.  It was amazing that in the middle of this windy high desert there was one tree that was so happy.

Trip to Costco! and Up and Over Rowher Flats 2

I needed to go to Costco and decided to take the best route rather than the quickest.  The quickest would take me twenty minutes but the best would wind up taking over two hours.  30 miles of which were off road.

Basically, I'd start by driving in the wrong direction and then take The Sierra Pelona Mountainway off of Bouquet Canyon, climb over the hills through Rowher Flats and wind up on Sierra Highway about 10 miles east of Costco.

A - The start of the trail is pretty easy to miss it while your zipping along Bouquet Canyon.

B- I stopped at the first pullout to  quickly to check over the car and wound up right next to an ancient dump.  It was pretty picked over but still neat.

The road going up is pretty smooth but a bit narrow with plenty of blind corners.  There are some bits where rocks have fallen into the road and  if you don't like heights you shouldn't look down.

C - Weird rock formations!  The goelogy in this area is amazing.  

D- Pretty quickly you reach the most western point and have a great view of Santa Clarita and beyond.

E- As you head back east there are several spurs off the fire road.  Mainly little hill climbs, some more challenging that others but only one the Land Cruiser couldn't handle.

F - Somewhere around the highest point on the trail.

G - As you start to descend you can see the Bouquet reservour off in the distance.  Turn right and head down Fall Canyon Truck Trail.

H - More weird rocks!

I - As you head up Texas Canyon Trail keep your speed down.  There are a few puddles that seem to never dry up and in the case of the Toyota FJ40 hitting them at a moderate speed can mean a mud bath.  Here's what happened on a previous trip.

This time I kept my speed down and made it to Costco relatively clean.

And realized that because of my "active lifestyle" I need some new sunglasses.  It was the retro early 90s packaging that convinced me.

thanks Costco!

Repairs I missed

So, I opened the hood of the Land Cruiser and something didn't look right.  The engine was skewed, not perpendicular to the firewall.  It wasn't much but it was enough that it looked wrong.  I checked the engine mounts and from above they looked fine.  From underneath it was a different story, the bottom half of the driver's side mount was missing.

old mount - new mount

I'm assuming the bolt sheared off and the mount came apart somewhere in Baja.  I'm just glad the passenger's side stayed put.  I jacked up the engine and replaced the mount.  It wasn't all that hard.

While I was at it I replaced the front shocks.  The rough country shocks were feeling a bit stiff and I'm hoping the Bilstein shocks will smooth things out a little.

What I'm up to

We made the cover of Toyota Trails!  It's the magazine of the Toyota Land Cruiser Association, so it's not easy to find.  It's a huge article that documents my parents first trip down the Baja Peninsula and my experience in the 2012 Mexican 1000. You can read the first chunk of the article here.

Inspiration - Rod&Custom, August 1969

I picked up this 1969 copy of Rod&Custom magazine on ebay.  With the cool green model T on the cover - I'd remembered seeing it when I was a kid.  Like a lot of other stuff, my folk's copy was lost in the Harris fire.

For a hot rod magazine they dedicated a ton of space to the 69 Baja 500.  The first paragraph is almost illegible.  A long run on sentence with some hip lingo thrown in.  It reminded me that Hunter S. Thompson didn't operate in a vacuum.  There were plenty of people whacked out of their minds writing. Thompson just did it well.

The article's long, luckily there are plenty of pictures to go along with it.  There's also a short article on the "Norra Car Show" which I might get to later on.

This was one of the few races the Toyota Fj40 wasn't zebra striped.  Duffy/Younghusband finished fifth in their class doing the 500+ mile race in 18 hours 38 minutes. 

While looking over the magazine I really admired the amount of hand lettering going on.  You really don't see enough of it anymore.

Lights and GPS

The GPS is hooked up and the waypoints for the race are loaded. 

I've also got the lights mounted but am waiting for some switches and relays.  I went with some vintage NOS KC Daylighters, and even with their age, they are really bright.  The race is "supposed" to take place during the day, so, I hope I don't need to use them.

There's still a bit to be done.  Mainly narrowing down what we need to bring and where is can be fitted.  I should also change the oil and check all the other fluids.