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Acerguy finally gets a truck!

Discussion in 'Introductions' started by Acerguy, May 15, 2010.

  1. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    Finally got all the lighting and other things finished a few weeks ago. The stock horn was rusted and never worked but a friend gave me a set of Hella Supertones or whatever they're called. Those, plus I needed to wire up the winch. Then there was the Massive Overkill Lighting project! I happened to have two sets of Hella 500s; one old style and one of the newer 500FF (free form) style. I've been wanting to do HID for ages because...well, just because. I've been on www.hidplanet.com for a long time and believe that on-road HID setups should only be done with a proper HID-specific projector. I've seen way too many bad plug-n-play lights around here where folks use a "HID conversion" kit to replace the bulbs in their halogen projector or, worse yet, in a halogen reflector housing. Both result in poor light focus and glare. On the other hand, for an off road light that essentially is just a "flood" light, I figured why not?

    So I picked up THIS 3000k H3 kit from EBAY based on a recommendation from Rottyfan on the forum. I went with 3000k (more yellowish) as one of the primary duties for my truck is snow plowing and I thought it might work well. I found some instructions on the net about doing this exact conversion and it couldn't be easier. THIS is pretty much what I did (except used a 3/4 spade bit) and THIS VIDEO pretty much covers it but takes longer to watch than it does to read the other post and actually do it! :D Again, if you search you'll find that this is apparently a fairly common mod with the offroad set and there are a number of different ways to do it. Here are four pictures that pretty much tell the story:

    hid conversion 1.jpg View attachment 9950 hid conversion 3.jpg hid conversion 4.jpg
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Apr 13, 2012
  2. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    Next up is the panel with all the relays:

    relay panel.jpg
    This is all mounted behind the bumper in that space between the frame rails. I used some unistrut for support. Again, this is a truck that only gets used around a farm, is never out on the road and, for that matter, rarely sees rain so I'm not concerned that it might not be 100% waterproof. I'm far more concerned about furry woodland creatures once the truck has to leave the comfort of the garage and has to once again live outside.

    relay mounting 1.jpg relay mounting 2.jpg

    The trigger wires for the lights come from behind the drivers side head lamp.
    headlight trigger.jpg

    Daihatsu, like Toyota and Subaru, use a ground switched system. This means that you have to grab both the hot wire for the high beam side of the bulb AND the ground. If anyone wants more details on how to wire up the relays, let me know and I can go into it in more detail. Suffice to say that I was pleased when everything worked the first time and the engine did not stall and nothing caught on fire! :) The ballasts for the HID lamps are mounted directly to the bumper below where the lamps are.
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2012
  3. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    Power comes directly from the battery. I had an old jumper cable that the ends were not it great shape. So I ran both hot and ground from the battery to the relay panel.

    battery 1.jpg battery 2.jpg

    Shoving it all back in the space was a bit of a trick but it worked. Looks like I forgot to take a picture of everything in there before I put the bumper on. :frustration: Here is a shot of where I put the switch for the winch:

    winch switch.jpg

    First light!

    let there be light.jpg

    Paint the bumper:

    painted bumper.jpg

    And first shot of it all back together:

    all together.jpg
     
  4. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    Finally some beauty shots!

    lightbar cropped.jpg
    beauty 1.jpg beauty 2.jpg beauty 3.jpg

    So far it's been working great.

    Next up, lift kit!
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2012
  5. greg0187

    greg0187 Moderator Staff Member

    Thats sweet!
     
  6. Kadeoner

    Kadeoner New Member

    Dont you need to use Ballasts for your HID's I see you just wired them straight to the relays on the panel or do you have the relays located in a different area ?
     
  7. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    The ballasts are mounted up behind the bumper. The cables for the HIDs weren't very long so that was about the only choice I had. Been working great for almost 3 years now! :) Thanks for the post. I'll have to see if I can get a picture of them.
     
  8. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    And another 2 years have gone by since I've posted in this thread. Sorry guys. The truth is that the truck just keeps ticking along so I haven't had much need to check in much. I did install a new radio with some big speakers mounted under the dash on the passenger side, a new headache-bar mounted reverse light to aid in plowing snow, and remounted my front tires on to the stock wheels after breaking ANOTHER ATV wheel. One thing that did go wrong is my alternator seized up suddenly. Cost me $250 bucks to get it rebuilt. Unfortunately, I broke my alternator belt at the same time. I was able to get a belt of the right length but the rib profile is not the same so it wants to squeal. I'll be checking out our vendors to see about getting a proper one.
     
  9. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    Hmm...about time for my every-two-years post. As I mentioned in a couple of other posts, the truck had been running rough for about a year. It would start fine but fall on its face under load. As I've never really given it a tune up in 8 years, I figured it was a good time to pull off the bed and check things out. After some research, the likely culprit seemed like the fuel pump. Pulling the stock one showed that the sock filter in the tank was crumbling into dust so I ended up replacing the entire filter with a bosch one from ebay for about 70 bucks. (Surprise! It's one that would fit a 2001 Corolla!) Put in new spark plugs, cleaned the injectors and generally went over everything I could. I was not successful in replacing the air filter as the wingnut that holds on the cap was one of only two bolts that were rusted in the entire process (there are about 24 involved in removing the bed). I'll deal with that next summer. Anyhow, it runs like a top again and ready for the winter.
     
  10. Ohkei Dohkei

    Ohkei Dohkei Active Member

    Congrats on getting it back up and running right!
     
  11. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    Thanks! On a side note, I had a chance to spend some time in a diesel Kubota RTV 900 this weekend. While I'm sure the big fat tires and extra power make it much more capable than my truck in more extreme off-road situations, I've got heat, radio, wipers and it is generally more comfortable. And cheaper. No doubt they have their uses but for my little piece of property, the Kei truck rules.
     
  12. Ohkei Dohkei

    Ohkei Dohkei Active Member

    How was the noise level of that Kubota diesel?
     
  13. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    It was fine. Quieter than my diesel John Deere that's for sure.
     
    cmoore likes this.
  14. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    Future reference and fun stuff for anyone wanting to paint their Hijet!

    Part 1:

    Part 2 (about 3 minutes in):

    And another one:
     
    Last edited: May 1, 2019
  15. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    And how about one on how one Japanese shop does a lift on a 210?



    Or changing the front brake pads?

     
    Last edited: May 1, 2019
  16. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    By the way, to search for Japanese videos for HiJet content, type in ハイゼット (haijetto).
     
    Hemogoblin likes this.
  17. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    Winter 2020 update. I finally decided that I wanted to try running chains front and rear for plowing. For one, part of our shared driveway climbs a steep hill (to my neighbors) and I occasionally have some traction problems. Secondly, the relatively light weight of the truck sometimes makes it hard to push the snowbanks back. My hope is some chains up front will help keep it planted.

    I picked up some V-bar diamond chains for the 23x10x12 tires on the rear and some standard diamond chains for the 23x8x12 tires on the front from www.tirechains.com. Yeah...they are by no means cheap but holy crap do they work well! In order to make all this work, I did need to make some clearance. After years of no lift, then many years of a 1" homemade spacer on the front strut, I decided to go with MichiganMiniTrucks 2" lift. As the chains obviously need some more room on the inside of the wheel to clear the chassis and the front springs, I ended up doing 1" hubcentric spacers in the rear and 1.5" spacers on the front. In addition, I did have to trim a little of the front side of the wheel well opening on the doors. The fronts have been a bit tricky to get tight enough. I ended up using some heavy duty zip ties to snug them up. The rears were super simple.

    Also new are a pair of LED reverse lights. SUPER helpful when plowing at night! I replaced the stock one and cut a matching hole on the other side so that I have a pair. Oh, and there is also an additional round lamp on the headache bar for reverse too but it is currently not hooked up as I'm working on yet another lighting project. Details on that later...when I get around to it.

    A bit of work but it has all come together nicely. The only problem is now I find myself wanting a bigger plow!
     

    Attached Files:

    greg0187 and Limestone like this.
  18. Welcome to a group of folks who aren't too afraid to say, "Hey, mine is smaller than yours."
     
    Limestone and Acerguy like this.
  19. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    Tapped the maples today. The Lo Range, Diff Lock and chains came in handy as there is still a fair amount of snow up on the hill.




    tapping the sugar bush 2.PNG
    tapping the sugar bush.PNG
     
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  20. Limestone

    Limestone Well-Known Member

    Ace,
    Lookin Good! Go get that Sap! Right setup for the job!
    Limestone
     
    Acerguy likes this.
  21. Inane2

    Inane2 Member

    Looking great! Glad to see the 210 going strong. Nice job with the lighting mods, I’ve noticed the factory b/u light is pretty weak.

    I replaced all the OEM lights on my Kubota excavator with Auxbeam LED’s from Amazon. I absolutely love the lights, but when they’re on, it kills my radio, nothing but static. Seems to be a some kind of frequency interference with the oversea’s LED’s. Not sure how often you use your radio, but something you might keep in mind.

    Be sure to keep us posted with pics!
     
  22. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    Yeah, I have heard that a lot of the cheap import LED lights will cause interference issues. The 4' ones I put in my garage certainly do. They mess with radio AND with the garage door openers.

    I have one of the now-ubiquitous bro-dozer 30" LED light bars for the cab and I wonder if that will cause a problem? It won't matter much as I only would use it when I'm snow plowing at night and I generally don't listen to the radio when I'm doing that because I'm too busy listening to make sure I'm not over revving the snot out of my engine. I really need to get a tach installed! :D
     
  23. Jigs-n-fixtures

    Jigs-n-fixtures Well-Known Member

    Adding a capacitor to the power feed for the lights will help kill the static. One of the difference between the higher end and low end LEDs is the size of the filter capacitor. Like all things, bigger higher quality components cost more.
     
  24. Jigs-n-fixtures

    Jigs-n-fixtures Well-Known Member

    Acerguy, on my S110 the weight is pretty much balanced between the axles until I put the plow on, then the load shifted to the front, and the rear wanted to spin. I ran out to the public scales, and weighed the truck, the rear was now 300 pounds lighter than the front. Adding 6 50-lb bags of sand over the rear axle solved my traction problems. Still have two pair of chains in my tool box, but haven’t put them on except to make sure they would fit.
     
  25. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    Yep, this year I did just that and have a half dozen bags of salt in the back. Usually I will put a few stumps in too. This is the first year I've run the chains and it did really help with certain sections of our drive. We have a shared driveway and my neighbors have a section that runs about 100 yard straight up the side of a hill (a dumb design but the previous owner that built the house did it). When I would plow UP the hill, I sometimes had problems so I would have to struggle to get to the top and then plow down the hill. With the chains it just trucks right up. Also the chains on the front help give the plow a little more "authority" when pushing the snowbanks back. The front of the truck stays planted a bit better. I just wish I had a little more horsepower - but then, isn't that always the case?

    And yeah I definitely learned my lesson with the cheap LED T12 fluorescent replacement bulbs I got. I can tolerate the little bit of radio static but my wife can't use the remote to open the garage door if I have all the lights on!
     
  26. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    Time for a winter 2021 update I guess. After running well all year long, I started to have a long crank time issue this fall. Plenty of crank...just didn't want to start well. Once I got it warmed up, it ran fine. Ran some SeaFoam and freshened the gas with no effect. So a few weeks ago, I again pulled off the bed (I really should do a writeup on doing that if anyone is interested). The first thing I did was to finally fix the air box and replacing the filter. So I had air. Checked the fuel pump. Clean and seemingly running as it should. So I nominally have fuel. Spark plugs look good and, since it runs fine once it's warmed up, I think I'm getting good spark. If my compression was down, would it run normal once warmed up? It was due for a coolant change (I'd never done it....after 10 years...uh... o_O) so I put in fresh. The temp gauge seems to work normally and the fan goes on as normal so I think the temp sensor is functioning normally.

    My guess is that it is not getting enough fuel enrichment when cold. Cam position sensor? I don't have any diagnostic tools other than a multimeter. I'm open to suggestions.

    Meanwhile, I made some improvements to my snow plow mount and....that's about it. I can get it going and fortunately I have room for it to live in the garage over the winter so I'm not stuck as far as plowing but it sure would be nice to get it running normal again. Especially since I still haven't put the bed back on it as I want to get things sorted first.

    I finally got around to ordering the Electronic Service Manual from, of all places, Barnes and Noble. Maybe that will help.
     

    Attached Files:

    Limestone likes this.
  27. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    Update: I had a friend come over with a fuel pressure gauge. We plumbed it up near the fuel rail and found the pressure was only around 15psi. So we took the fuel pump assembly out of the tank and gave it a real good cleaning. Decided that the fuel pressure regulator looked a bit suspect so I went ahead and ordered one for, you guessed it, a 2001 Corolla. (By the way, the price range on these things is ridiculous. Everything from around 8 bucks to over 90. I went with a moderately priced one for around US$25.) Then, in a classic case of shooting myself in the foot, before I put everything back together I decided to clean the injectors with some carb cleaner. Word to the wise, don't let the o-rings sit in carb cleaner. They all swelled in varying degrees and I ended up roasting one of them trying to reassemble everything. Finding a replacement locally was a bust. So I called G&R Imports first thing yesterday morning and they had them in stock. Much to my surprise, they showed up in the mail today! Sure, it wasn't cheap but I'm not complaining. They are amazing. Anyhow, got everything back together, have something like 50psi of pressure and all seems to be back to normal!

    Now, before I put the bed back on, I'm going to relocate the bracket that holds the e-brake lines from the bed to a rail I'm going to weld on to the frame. All to make taking the bed off easier. Or maybe future dump bed conversion? Kind of glad that winter has held off so far so I haven't needed to plow.
     

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