Axle Replacement

Swapping the old ’95 drum brake axles with 2004 disk-brake axles.

Upgraded from a 4.1 Diff ratio to a 4.3, planning to swap the 31’s to 33″ tyres.

Replaced the rear open diff with a fully rebuilt LSD within spec of the repair manual. You can see the broken wet clutch pack below.

Winch, Custom Front & Rear Bumpers, Bespoke Sidesteps & 33’s

Mounted a Warn 8274, upgraded with a 9.5XP motor – Increasing its effective winching weight from 8,000lbs to 10,000lbs

Swapped out Mud-terrain 31’s for All-terrain 33″ tyres (the mud-terrain tyres slipped on tarmac, and was not worth the safety risk)

The bespoke bumpers & sidesteps were lighter (& cheaper) than off-the-shelf offerings.

Chassis & Underbody coating

The inside & outside of the chassis, as well as the axles, were cleaned & stripped down to the base metal.

A specialized nozzle was required to apply the coal tar epoxy, which is conventionally a coating used on ship hulls.

100mm Suspension Lift

The Patrol already had a 50mm lift, but, for the longest time, it bothered me that the 50mm kit only replaced the springs and dampers without accounting for the changes in it’s static geometry. Hence, a full rework of the suspension was done.

Custom spring rates, with longer coils in the front – an unusual combination, made by accounting for the heavier than usual front axle load. The static height was well-balanced at the end. Replaced all swing arms, tie-rods & panhard rods to suit the new static height of the SUV.

The SUV was significantly easier to steer & felt more planted to the ground although it was sitting 2″ higher.

Coolant System Overhaul

Knowing the coolant system ran on plain water for years, I wanted to flush the entire system & address it’s slow warm-up time.

Swapped out the “always open” thermostat & a put on a new water pump.

Put in brass-rated coolant (for older cars).

Manual Transmission Repair

Worn-out synchro’s on the 1^st and 2^nd gears prompted the repair.

The sheer size of the gears on a TD42 patrol made standard gear pullers incompatible, so we made our own gear puller out of hardened steel.

Replaced all the bearings as well.

From Scrap Metal to Smooth running

An year long project, partly due to the scarcity of parts.

Bought on Tender as a scrapped vehicle from a State University (University of Peradeniya).

Overhauled the engine, transmission, hydraulics, and redid all the body panels to stock spec.