All Blog Posts (44)

Has anyone had trouble with their power steering pump? 

I looked on some of the other FJ forums and it seems like a common problem that the steering pump groans and it takes a bit more muscle to steer...but it still works.

None of them said how it happened.  Well here's what happened to me.

I was out getting the FJ dirty when I got temporarily stuck in some mud.  I was also across the ruts, not in line with them, so to get out, I engaged the rear differential locker and…

I am upgrading my front bumper and wanted to see if anyone needs a stock front bumper you pick up and its free... I live in Sonoma County. Let me know... It is clean no scratches or dings.

Thought I would post up my build as of one year and 6500mi....Where i'm at and where i plan to go. 

So base is 2013 FJC Iceberg Offroad And Convenience With Tow Hitch

 Mods and daily carry so far include Budbuilt Skids & Beefy Sliders, Bilstein 5100's, Metaltech Rear Links, Boztec Diff Skid, 285/70R17 BFG KM2's, 10lb Powertank, Badger 5lb, Mpac Side rack, Van beest shackles, ARB snatch strap, Southeast Overland kinetic rope, Staun's, Fenix TK41, Kenwood TM-V71 Drilled NMO…

I visited my brother up in Paradise, CA Saturday and then took off exploring after lunch. I decided to explore some of the area North of Nevada City, so headed there and took N. Bloomfield road off of Hwy 49. It is paved until you get to the bottom of the canyon, where there is a one lane bridge across the river, where the road turns to dirt.

The road is well graded and passable for all vehicles. I continued up the road for many miles and wound up in Malakoff Digins State Park. This…

I took a trip to the Lost Coast area north of Fort Bragg, CA in August. We had beautiful weather, with fog and mixed sun running about 60 degree highs.

We took a trip up Usal road which is in very good shape this year; no ruts and mostly smooth but steep in places and only one lane wide. We met about 8 vehicles on the ~5mi trip to Usal beach campground, so some backing up was required. The campground looks like it is not being maintained with all the budget cuts and the collection box…

Before and After pics. I dipped all the usual silver pieces.

I want to thank Mark at Red Eye Fabrication for creating a rear window barrier for my K-9 Partner Artos.  I was looking to give my 90lb. pup a more secure area in the rear of the FJ and Mark came through.  His fabrication was top notch and the finished project looks amazing.  Thanks again Mark!

I've owned the 60 for a little over 7 months now and I still love it. I haven't done much of anything to it yet. I still need to get with Doug to apply to fix to the oil galley plug. If there is one sure way to kill a 2F motor that is it.

It's looking like I might be getting started sooner than later on the lift as I finally figured out who to talk to in HR and I should be getting almost 6k in employee referral money. So if that comes through there is my lockers, gears,…

The exhaust has been in my garage for about a week... I woke up this morning and it wasn't raining! 

1.5 hours later.... voila!

I've been actively looking for an FJ for about a month. I couldn't really decide on a color nor, if I wanted to buy new or used. I worked first with the dealer closest to me and got to know one of their younger salespersons pretty well. Once the wife and I decided on a color, we also decided we wanted new since we are planning to use the FJ as a daily…

There has always been the ongoing debate of whether one should sign up for the extended warranty or not. Some say it's a rip off whereas others swear by them. I probably fall into the former category, but opted to buy into the extended warranty for my FJC primarily because it was a first year model and I have heard things about first year models from any manufacturer.

Up until a couple of weeks ago, I wondered whether my investment would have a return. I've been one of the…

Last Friday, July 1st, I came across on Twitter a good article on Overland Gourmet. It was a camp kitchen tip on the double duty uses of a camp coffee cup. Always trying to be an advocate of re-use/recycle, I re-tweeted the link via @norcalfj as did Adventure Vehicles. One thing led to another and we decided to come…

Now one of the advantages of owning a new rig like the FJC is for a period of time if something breaks it's under warranty and you can just take it to your dealer to have it fixed for free more often that not.

WIth a 26 year old truck well your problems are your problems.

So over the last couple weeks I've worked on the vacuum lines and have fix most of those still have one valve I need to replace. I've gone through te compression testing with Doug and we are…

Well, I am not much for blogging, but I figure I would give it a shot.

TODAY 

I went to cow mountaingot REALLY freakin dirty (which was quite fun) and I get home to find a present... Thats right folks, my new demello hybrid kickout sliders came in! 

TOMORROW

INSTALL! 

Thats all for now!

Well one of the issues with the 60 has been that the rear of the truck feels like it has dead shocks. 

So I climbed under the 60 yesterday to look for any leaks or other items that might need immediate repair and as I looked back toward the rear shocks I saw some air-lines coming out of them, so I traced them and found the schrader valve which was well hidden and when I pressed on it nadda, nothing, no air. So I pumped a little are in to it and it held thus far no major leaks…

Well as most people that know me know that I've picked up a 85 FJ60 and since it's not a FJ Cruiser I'm going to use the blog feature we have here on NorCalFJs.com to be the primary site I'm using to document my build. While ih8mud.com might be a better place since this is a 60 I have almost no personal connections to the folks there except for the folks that are here and there and since I'm not getting rid of the FJC so I'm not abandoning the site. 

The main reason for using…