Getting my 68 Patrol back on the road.

KungFooMASTA

KungFooMASTA

El Stupido
Joined
May 19, 2020
Messages
1,334
Loc
17 miles West of Murdock KS
I have a 68 soft top. I bought it back in 08 or 09 and parked it under an oil tank shed. It sat and sat and sat. Then got attacked bypackrats, building a nest under the entire hood and cab. I always said I would get to it one day and never did. Until I came under attack by tweakers. Tweakers are the scum of the earth. Where I have some vehicles stored they stole every catalytic converter I had, cut almost all my wire harnesses off vehicles stole all 5 wheels from my Range Rover classic. Then they tried unsuccessfully cutting the radiator out of my patrol but in the process they ruined it beyond affordable repair. They even cut the exhaust off the Patrol even though it doesn’t even have a cat (the stupidest of tweakers).

This gave me reason to get my Patrol out of there before they attack again. At the time I did not have time or a place to work on it and I didn’t even know if it would run. I took it to a friend that said he would work on it on the side when he had time. I told him I only want to hear it run, that will give me enough ambition to fix it.

After a couple months of battling packrat mess patching wires and such. He got it to run. He said it fired right up. It ran like a sewing machine. It only has 27k miles on it so it shouldn’t be worn out.

Then he decided he wanted to fix the brakes. I wanted to find new seals and rebuild what I had but he ordered all new wheel cylinders from Australia instead.

I am also sharing this build thread on 60Patrol. They seem to be one of the only L60 Patrol Forums left.

Here are pictures from the Gregslist ad I bought it off of back in 08 or 09. I got it from Grain Valley, East of Kansas City.
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My dad came with me to get it and didn’t want to bring a trailer in case I didn’t buy it. So we rented a uhaul trailer. It was a terrible idea. My dad also drove his Nissan ***an which was fairly new at the time. It did great pulling it at 75mph into a 30-40mph headwind. But it got about 3-4mpg doing it. I was pretty poor at the time and was paying for fuel. I remember it barely even to do 100 miles before having to stop for fuel. I know we stopped 3-4 times for fuel on the way back. I think I was broke till payday after that. Good memories of being poor and making great financial decisions…. I remember being too broke to buy it so my stepdad gave me a loan for it and I used my AK47 as collateral until I paid it off.

Pictures from when I first got it home.

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I dont know what is worse. Packrats or Tweakers. Either way the world would be a better place if they all were deleted.
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That pile is how much packrat mess we pulled out of it. Taking it out to my friends I wanted to be sure I wasn’t introducing packrats to his farm. I also powerwashed it underneath and inside out as good as I could. Like he said, a fullsize packrat can hide under a dinnerplate.
 
The PO started working on the brakes. Well he took one side of the front and one side of the back. Only to realize parts didn’t exist for it in the US. When I first got it I could get all the brake parts from Australia for under $250. But at the time I was poor and couldn’t afford that.

Now even in Australia many of the parts are unavailable.

Wheel cylinders are still available over there on EBay. They cost about $250 for just those after shipping and tariffs.

Shoes and adjusters are not available. And it just happens I am missing one rear shoe. If I lost it or the po did. I dont know.

I was also missing some springs. Those can be found somewhere, but not in Nashville KS on a weekend. My friend had a 87-91 F150 bed trailer he pulled a drum off and we were able to use springs from it.

The orange springs are from the Ford.

Front brakes.

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The rear with the missing shoe. My friend checked the F150 shoe and it was close in size. He cut and drilled on it till it fit.

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Ford Shoe on rear, Nissan on front. It kinda fits.
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When I got it home I started on the brakes. I had to build a new front right hardline. I had to get the left rear adjuster adjusting. The nut on it was spinning. So I welded it on and got it freed up. I pulled the cone off and sprayed Trust penetrating oil in it and worked it back and forth and back and forth till it was easy enough to spin with my fingers. Got the pistons freed up in it too. Its a pretty simple unit. I was worried about stripped gears and who knows what else inside of it but it is simply to pistons with and angle cut in them and a 4 sided bullet looking thing on the end of a threaded piece. As you tighten it the bullet pushes the pistons out.

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SKULLYOTA said:
Is the rear offset or centered? What about swapping FJ40/60 axles in for ease of parts?
Click to expand...
It is offset to the right side. I considered putting toyota axles in but want to try to keep the originals if I can. They are low milage so the ring and pinions should be in good shape. Who knows though. I am giving them a try at least.

At this point I wish I would have just built a disc brake swap for it.
 
Patrols pop up for sale semi regularly around the PNW, they are really cool. i would love to have one.

i would be tempted to just plop the body on a toyota 22re truck chassis.

i bet a disc swap wouldnt be too bad with some 1/2 ton chevy rotors and homebrew caliper brackets.
 
Next the Rochester carburetor was leaking from the main gasket yet it ran great. I took the top off and rebuilt the top end and cleaned what I could from the bottom. I had the wrong kit so I couldn’t change the accelerator pump, but the original one still kind of worked and it ran good so back together with the half rebuilt carb.

I thought someone put this carb on and did a really good job, but the people on 60Patrol say later on Nissan put a Rochester on from the factory. Thats a good deal.
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Back to the brakes. After what I did. I couldn’t get the back or right front brakes to bleed. Couldn’t even get fluid to them. Turns out the ancient soft hoses were plugged. I found some hoses that fit. But each hose I unhooked from the truck the hardline was twisting and breaking.

So I built a new left front hardline and the line that goes from front to the back.

Got it all back together and got the brakes bled.
 
Then it was onto the cooling system. The tweakers ruined my factory brass radiator. I took it to a shop and he said he could fix it but it was going to cost a lot of money because it needed new tank, frame and tubes and I would be better trying to find another one that fit.

I had a chicom aluminum radiator from my big TJ that was bad after I bent a blade and spun a circle in it. I test fit it and it looked to be perfect except the pipes were on the wrong side. I found one on amazon that was the same radiator but for a TJ with a V8 swap. It was while it was still at my friends house, he cut the factory mounts off the radiator core and used some slotted channel iron to mount it and it works great. The TJ rad has big flat plates that go out for the mount side and shroud side so plenty of room for new holes. The factory shroud still fit perfect. This thing has an aftermarket fiberglass fan that I need to change before it flys apart. I would like to see if a clutch fan will fit but not sure I will have the room or the right pattern. If not I will use a flexlite style fan. For now the fiberglass one will work with Prayers.

I need to get pic of the radiator installed. I dont have any but will add some here when I do remember.

One of the POs built a coolant block out of waterpipe, im sure it worked fine but looked bad so I put a fitting in the bottom coolant line. Sort of like factory except I added a ball valve for the heater line.


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Next the factory temp sensor was stuck in the thermostat housing. After battling it out the original threads were damaged. We tried to retap it to 3/8 pipe thread then the housing cracked. I had my friend tig weld the crack and when I put it back together it leaked from the threads which were not great. So I tried to tap it out a little deeper and it cracked again in another spot. So we decided to put the threaded pipe in and weld it all the way around so we wouldn’t have to rely on the threads sealing and the pipe would help hold the housing together. It sealed this time.


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Next was to add some gauges so I dont damage the engine. Since the factory temp gauge doesn’t have a sending unit. I didn’t know if the factory oil pressure gauge would work and it had an ammeter. I added these chicom gauges my friend gave me.

Surprisingly the factory alternator worked. The bearing in it sounded like a diesel engine though.

This is just above idle.
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I put a new set of old used 245/70r16 General AT tires that were slightly better than what was on it. It has a set of Toyota Tundra steel 16” wheels.

As I put the wheels on the right rear brake seemed to be dragging bad so I backed the adjuster off till it wasn’t dragging.

Then we took it for its first ride in who knows how long. The wiring is still a mess after the packrats have been involved. Surprisingly I had 1 headlight and one taillight. Good enough for a ride around the neighborhood with the wife and kids.

Evidently I backed the brake off too far. The first stopsign I came to the brake pedal went to the floor. Luckily I was going slow and nobody was coming.

The alternator rattled the whole time but temp, pressure and volts were good the whole time.
 
Back in the garage to figure the brake out. I figured the wheel cylinder piston came out so I took that drum off. The piston was out and it happened to tear the new seal. I took and old wheel cylinder apart and stole its umbrella seal and stuck a few orings in it to make the umbrella stick out further and put it back together. The adjuster had been slotted so far the rear piston will not push out the rear shoe. I put it back together and let it drag some.
 
Went for another ride around the park after a couple brake checks. Yes it will stop. I dont trust that old wheel cylinder seal so Im afraid to get on the brakes hard but it will stop it.

As I would make a left and turn I would hear a squack noise from the front left side.

After driving it around the park we stopped by the tamale lady and I got out to check hubs and brakes. The left front was HOT! That squack is my wheel bearing too tight I think. The right rear drum was hotter than the rest too. But not as hot as the hub.

I was worried I wouldn’t make it the mile or 2 home but did. When I got home I put the temp gun on. The right rear brake drum was 136f, the left front hub was 198!

Also it is dumping coolant from the back of the waterpump. I am hoping it is just the backing plate not something more. Because like everything else the waterpump is unavailable. It never got over 180 though.

That is where I am now. It is sitting in the garage waiting for me to have time for it again.
 
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