Rebuilt 2005 GX470 Project - From CO to TX and Back (soon)

Fine, I guess I'll tackle the emergency drum brakes on the GX...

When I was replacing the rotors, pads, calipers a while back, the rear driver side rotor was seized to the drum pads and it took a lot of whacking with the mini sledge and prying to get the rotor off. When it finally did, some of the hardware got loose and came off with it. So I just removed all rest and drum pads with it. Well since then I've had no e-brake, and while driving the cable slides against the rotor making a scratching noise.

This is no fun! unlike when I did the tacoma, on the GX the hub is in the way, and isn't removable, and you can't really see anything your doing! I sprayed some cleaner on it and washed it down with the hose. A little googling to find a YT video on it to watch, then back out there. Pretty sure this isn't gonna get completed today. So now I have the GX and JK on jack stands, with only the M3 to drive, which STILL has a top side oil leak that I thought I fixed. No biggie, just a little smoke when it drips down on to the exhaust manifold....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mQnO7iSy1U

 

^^^^ yup HECK with that noise!! HA! Fricken hands do not work that good anymore. The brake tool for the keeper makes things a whole lot easier.
That is a very not user friendly setup though!
Best of luck to ya!

 

There was a YT comment that said to zip tie the keeper spring assembly together first then cut it after the litte bar is in place. Sounds like a genius move! Gonna try that

Some New vs Old pics

 

If that works then there is no need for the tool, other than it would help getting the old out of there. Then you should just be able to turn the pin.

Either way that setup does not look like an easy fix.

Hope it goes smoothly

 

Well couldn't get the zip tie concept to work, but I do see how it'd be easier on a different vehicle.

But I finally got ONE spring seated!!

On GX, a brake tool for the spring won't work. Because you have to go through this little hole in the hub. Which I had to drill out a little cause the dust shield behind it was blocking the way.

After about 1.5 hrs of fiddling, lots of cussing, and a skinned up middle finger, I got it in!!

 

Used my outward snap ring plyers to manipulate it

 

This looks like one would go in there

https://www.googleadservices.com/pa...6MAxUj4ckDHQA1Jo8QzzkoAHoECAYQDQ&nis=2&adurl=


https://www.googleadservices.com/pa...1NfA6J6MAxV778kDHXEsOX4Qwg8oAHoECAYQFQ&adurl=

 

I think the pliers would, but not the rounded bits. The hole is pretty small. I may go to Harbor Freight in the morning and grab a set anyways. Appreciate the link

 

Went to HF and looked at the brake kit but it definitely wouldn't work but....

The other side of the drums were SOOOO much easier! Few things I should've used yesterday. One, magnets are awesome! Used a small strong magnet to hold the key bar for the keeper sprint in place instead of my finger. Two, a bit driver with an 11/32 socket end. Fit perfectly through the hub hole and got the cap on the keeper spring in seconds!

Don't really want to mess with the other side for now. Will store the spare parts and tackle the it sometime in the future, in CO.

 

Adjuster in the wrong spot on pic above. Moved it to the correct groove in the pads and adjusted until parking brake held firm when engaged, and wheel spun with minimum pad noise when not engaged. Glad that's over with. Now to put it back together and do a test drive

 

Got er Done!!

Easy Peasy. Good show, be careful someone might want you for a GX brake specialist! HA!!! Good work, looks nice

 

I despise drums with a fiery hot passion!

 

Ok this has been driving me nuts. I knew I bent the dust shield when prying the old rotor off the driver's side. I got a real bad scratching noise when I originally put everything back on. Made adjustments and it quieted down, but not entirely. I thought it was the ebrake parks I had removed at the time, still making noise. But nope, still doing it. It's consistently intermittent. Only just now got to comparing both sides in more detail to track it down. Since the passenger side isn't making the noise.

Looks like the dust shield is more out of whack than I thought. So back to bending the thing around till it shuts up

 

I think it's actually this inner lip that's rubbing

 

So annoying. I spent a good amount of time trying to straighten it and it's still making the noise. I'm wondering if the rotor being stuck before was a byproduct of wreck more than rust. When I got the GX after the auction, the tire on that same side had been swapped with the spare. When I dropped what I thought was the spare, it had obvious damage on the rim and tire was flat.

At any rate I got fed up and brought the angle grinder out lol. Put the cutting wheel on it and went to town on that lip...haven't put it all back together yet. Sounds like the noise has gotten better, but definitely still there. Will see how loud it is tomorrow.

It did get me looking at axle swaps though lol. I researched it a bit before but this is making me want to pull the trigger. Be tight on the budget before the move though.

The GX470 is an 8" rear axle. You can do a direct swap to a stronger 8.2" from a 2010+ FJ Cruiser or 4Runner w/Automatic and E locker. Found a match on car-part.com. and the lowest priced one happens to be 40 minutes away. Still almost $1900. I emailed them to check on availability of it. We'll see. I probably won't get it, but it is a popular upgrade for people that move up to 35" tires.

 

Found another thread where a few users have the same exact issue, and narrowed it down to the same lip that covers the ebrake parts. They ground it down and apparently it went away. I'll get back at that tomorrow and see if it helps

https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/new-rear-brakes-rotors-grinding-a-theory.1133627/

 

Well the noise is still there ..oh well. Not messing with it again until the JK is back together.

BMW and JK getting transported in late April. That's scheduled and paid for. $1700 after taxes and extra fees for the JK since it's lifted w/37" tires.

Took the last two weeks of May off work to move the pets and rest of the things. Been selling off the large stuff and hoping everything else will fit in a 6x12' uhual trailer for the GX to tow

 

Ok well this had to be done on the GX before the trip to CO. Front passenger side 6x9" speaker had been rattling for a while. Tooke the door card off and the foam was completely destroyed. Little search and the recommended speaker replacement for the 8 ohm factory Mark Levenson factory was this DS18 PRO-X698 BM. Didn't realize when I ordered it was just a single speaker, but that's fine. Will replace the driver's side at a later date. Driver side is fine except for sound cutting out on that door occasionally, not sure what that's about. I just modified the factory housing and wire harness a little bit for the new speaker to fit.

+ $75.

$70 DS18 PRO-X698 BM Loudspeaker - 6x9, Midrange, Red Aluminum Bullet, 400W Max, 200W RMS, 8 Ohms - Premium Quality Audio Door Speakers for Car,Truck and Motorcycle Stereo Sound System (1 Speaker)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07V48678X

Old vs New

 

On the JK, went to Ace Hardware and got new bolts, but forgot I need flag nuts since they tighten inside the boxed frame rail. I've found a few sites online I think I can order some, but not a lot of options. Else I may try and find some metal to try and make my own. Will continue that research this week.

 

I've been enjoying your thread since I subscribed. Don't stop with the updates because few are quoting or responding.

Thanks

Kirk in Michigan

 

Revisiting the digital cluster gauge. Finally got the updates with seller all sorted, and put the cluster surround plastic all back in place. I still like it.

Initial issues were that the Seatbelt warning was backwards. It would display and chime at you when the seatbelt was clicked in, and go away when not.

Second issue was that it randomly wouldn't display the shift back into park, or would display it starting in 4th gear instead of park. The seller was pretty good with sending me updates. And here's the thing. I'm not sure it was even an update issue. During this whole time I didn't have the cluster screwed into place. Because I was still messing with the external controller for setting navigation. Then I noticed when I would push the cluster back into place, that the gear selector display would then display correctly. So maybe so loose connection with the OEM wire harness and the cluster. Hopefully with it all together now I don't run into more issues.

Definitely on the expensive side at around twice the cost of a reman regular cluster that I would've needed. But makes the inside feel more modern. Since the GX470 doesn't have any sort of steering wheel dash controls, only radio, you need an aftermarket controller. And of the two I've tried so far, neither controls really match up with navigating the settings. So you have to click around and figure it out. But there really aren't many features to adjust or use that's compatible with this GX ECU. All the important gauges work, and that's as much as I could hope for. Short video below

https://youtu.be/JDZae3mMiek?si=S3BNxcxDrt3grbBj

 

FINALLY! got the scrapping noise under control. it was definitely the drum/emergency dust cover lip that slides into the groove on the rotor. After driving with the noise for a while I could see wear marks on it. Cut that off, and then could see even more of it that was making contact. persuaded it back with a hammer and no more touching!

 

Well the scraping is definitely gone. But this knocking noise is still there...it doesn't make it when I first start driving around, but after a few minutes it does. No idea what it is...

https://youtube.com/shorts/aQCRp9omAZo?si=FPu0xSkOqTtDMlnb

 

JK is 95% back together. Almost $100 in new Grade 8 zinc coated bolts, washer, and nuts. The only thing I didn't get to, and another reason I'm not a fan of the Evo kit, is putting the nuts on the frame side control arm bolts. They require flag nuts, and the ones that came with the kit are fine threaded, the Ace Hardware bolts are all course threaded. I tried cutting a flag off an old nut and welding it onto a new nut. It kinda worked, but it's still a PIA to even get it inside the frame rails and onto the bolt. I'll probably, I mean I should, try again...but it's "good enough" for now. At least just for the transport. Not driving it around town or anything till I get them on. You can see in the photos where I'm pointing at the slots you have to use to put the nuts through. Been debating on cutting a new hole in the frame for easier access...

I also need to put the tailpipe back on. It got banged out of shape when I was removing it. I've at least got the "muffler" tack welded on better than it was before. May just leave it as is for now. The tailpipe was running against the shock reservoir before and want to avoid that.

Also need to put the sliders back on, but that's easy compared to everything else I've done on it recently.

 

Drove the JK to the carwash a few blocks away cause it was just covered in dust and tree pollen. Then to the gas station and back. Checked the control arm bolts each time and no movement. So definitely "good for now" without the nuts on. They're held in pretty tight. The new bolts are also an inch longer than the old ones, if that matters. The main thing with the new, longer bolts, is that more of the smooth, unthreaded part of them are in contact with the Jonny joint ball. Where the old shorter ones had about a half inch of thread in contact with them. So these should be better...right? Anyways, glad it's back together. No more major projects need to be done before moving back to CO next month!

 

You should figure out what the heck that clunking noise is so the masses are not kept in suspense during the move!!!!! HA!!!!
All The Best and hope your move back is a smooth non eventful process!

 

Ugh ya I need to sort that before a 900 mile trip towing a uhual trailer! My best guess is another metal flange bit hitting that stupid, hard to install retainer spring for the drum brakes. Hard to tell because the noise isn't there for the first bit of driving. And it does have a slight smell after driving it for a while. Drove it to the office a few days this last week

 

Fixed my spelling errors! Dang fingers and I swear this phone makes its own mind on what to put down!

like the dash start up it had all sorts of purdy colors!! HA!

 

Ok, kinda of an embarrassing, but deceptively easy fix. Just gotta set the drum pad adjuster properly! But I'm not sure it's 100% yet. Took the wheel off, adjusted the pads outward more, set emergency brake, couldn't move the wheel. Put tire back on, tested emergency brake, didn't seem tight enough yet to keep the GX from moving. Went for a drive around the block, knocking noise came back. Readjusted pads more. Seems to be a fine line between adjusted correctly and too tight. Enough that it was hard to get the rotor off again, similar to when I removed the old rotor. Loosened it up a tiny bit and retested. Held GX with parking brake when it was fully pulled to the limit. Went for another drive and it was like 99% gone. Could barely hear it at one point. If I pulled on the emergency brake slightly it went away. I'll probably give the passenger side swap a go before the move.

The main thing that's still a little concerning, there seems to be more heat coming off the drivers side. Noticably more than the passenger side. So I'll keep monitoring that.

I've also been getting some suspension creaking occasionally. So I'm gonna run through all the bolts and re-tighten. Haven't done that since originally installing all the new parts in CO. So good time for that.

 

Couple of things so far. The front lower control arm nuts weren't fully torqued down. Tightened those. Test drove. Felt better, quieter. Still a few slight creaks up from on occasion.

Got back and removed these height sensors from the rear upper control arms. There's used to determine height for the OEM rear height adjustable air springs. They've just been hanging out ever since I converted to traditional springs and have been meaning to remove them for a while.

Still a few more bolts to check before another test drive.