Tiger Bay Buggy Whip Install

So I've had a TigerBay Buggy Whip laying around the garage for a few months now, so I thought I'd get off my arse this weekend and install it!

Now, the TigerBay Whip is a break down version of two 1.25M lengths, making a 2.5M total whip. It comes with a quick detach base, which is like an oversize Nito air fitting and a brilliant idea for something that will be used on limited occasions. I also had Scott from TBBW to make me up an additional top, which was only 300mm. This top also had a flag and strobe, just like the main top; the shortened length was so I could also use the whip as the lead car on FJCC trips.

Components:

• 2.5M Break Down / Quick Release TigerBay Buggy Whip with 12V strobe
• 300mm shortened top with strobe and pennant
• 15Amp Anderson PowerPoles, Weather Caps and BLOK-LOK Clamps
• Custom "Whip Strobe" Rocker Switch
• 15Amp Wire, 7mm Split Conduit, Cable Ties, Heatshrink and other incidentals

Installation:

1. First, installation of the quick mount bracket. I used a rubber grommet in between my bull bar and the mount to save the paint work, not necessary, but I figured if I ever remove it, it'll be for the best. Use the supplied 1/2" washer and nut to secure it.
2. The TigerBay whip has connectors on the whip at the joining locations to join the cable, however at the base, there is no connector, so you need to use whatever suits your need. For this I decided to use 15 Amp Anderson Power Pole connectors. Anderson fittings are renown in the 4x4ing world, but are normally the large 150-Amp+ fittings. I found PowerWerx supplied 15, 30 and 45 "mini" Anderson Plugs, which suited the job perfectly. They are also available with weather caps and "Blok-Lok" clamps to prevent them coming apart, ideal for the task ahead.
3. Next, I ran 15-Amp power line from the Anderson Power Pole to my custom rocker switch and the return line to the aux battery distribution block. Fairly simple stuff, all lines were contained in split conduit for protection.
4. Coming from the Anderson Power Pole on the car, I ran the negative line straight to the base of the TBBW quick connect base, which had a good earth. The connection was established with a crimp connection and a second 1/2" bolt which had the added benefit of acting as a lock nut.

1. 15-Amp Anderson PowerPole

2. Attached to the quick release coupling.

3. Shortened top, principally for club use.

4. Whip strobe rocker switch installed

5. Full length (2.5M) whip.

BRC Diff Breather - Installation (Part B)

So as per the previous installment, we have the competition breather kit mounted in the engine bay. Now its time to run the breather lines to it.

1. First, remove the stock diff breather plug on the rear diff and replace with one of the plugs supplied in the BRC kit.
2. Once installed, connect the BRC poly breather line to the plug then run up to the top of the fuel tank, along the same path that the brake lines take. Drop the line out along the chassis rail. Put some 7mm split conduit onto it and run into the chassis rail as shown in the photo. The split conduit only needs to be long enough to cover the entry point into the chassis rail to stop rubbing the poly line.
3. Run the poly line through the chassis rail up to the inside of the passenger wheel well. Feed the line out through the hole shown in the photo and again use some 7mm split conduit to protect it.
4. Finally run the poly line up to the BRC breather manifold, which should be directly above the exit hole in the wheel well. Trim to size and fit.
5. You will notice that underneath the BRC manifold is the two factory installed breather tubes. We will now plumb into this using some fuel line barbs. For the larger breather, I got some brass fitting from my local auto parts store. The smaller end of the barb was still to large to easily fit onto the poly line, so I used a heat gun to warm up the poly enough to slide it on.
6. With the poly line fitted to the barb, remove the factory breather cap and install the new barb. Finally run the line up to the breather manifold and connect.
7. The same process is followed for the smaller breather line, but instead of using a reducing barb, a straight 4mm barb will work to connect the poly line to the rubber line.

1. Remove the factory breather plug from the rear diff.

2. Install BRC supplied breather plug.

3. Install the poly line into the connector. (Simply push it in)

4. Run the poly line up to the fuel tank following pre-existing lines. Cable tie in place with slack so it can move with axle articulation.

5. Conduit installed over the poly line and running into the chassis rail.

6. Poly line exiting the chassis rail inside the wheel arch (no conduit installed yet).

7. Conduit now installed and running up into the engine bay.

8. I labelled the line since five will be run into the manifold, so this makes them easily identifiable.

9. Installed into the BRC competition manifold.

10. Brass reduction barbs to fit poly line into pre-existing breather line.

11. Since barb was larger than the internal diameter of the poly line, I used a heat gun to warm it up enough to fit it.

12. Installed into the manifold and onto the pre-existing line.

13. Two lines down, two to go!

BRC Diff Breather - Installation (Part A)

Time again for another installation instalment.... This time around its a new BRC Competition Breather Kit, which has 5 intake ports for: rear diff, front diff, transmission, transfer box and winch. The kit comes with a stack of Billet Race Craft branded poly tubing, adapters, the breather unit itself, K&N filter, a piece of laser cut steel to be used for a mounting plate and the pièce de résistance, a BRC stubby holder! Perfect for the work ahead.....


Components:

• BRC Competition Breather Kit
• M6 Stainless Bolts and Nuts
• Etch Primer and Paint
• 13mm Split Conduit
• Incidentals (Cable Ties, Grinding / Cutting Discs, etc)

Installation:

1. First off, as anyone with an FJ knows, space under the bonnet is at a premium (I've probably harped on about this a few times by now!), so locating a place that's out of the way, yet easily accessible and viewable from a maintainence perspective was my first mission. I located a bracket on the passenger side of the engine block - directly opposite the OEM Fuse Block, which fitted the bill nicely. It had only a single tapped M6 hole to use, but if I needed more support for the bracket, I figured I could weld some sills onto the back of the bracket to stop it moving around.
2. Now that I had a mounting point, it was time to put the breather core onto the supplied mounting plate. This was a simple task as all the hardware required came with the kit and included 3 x M6 hex head bolts and 3 x Nyloc nuts.
3. Trial mounting the package onto the bracket located previously in 1 highlighted a couple of small problems. First the bolts were too long and fouled against the bracket, second, the supplied mounting plate had some sharp edges that were close to digging into an electrical conduit run underneith it. So out came the trusty marker to make some adjustments...
4. I had figured to remove about 20mm from each side of the plate and round off the edges to make it more finger friendly when fishing around in the engine bay. I used a 4" angle grinder for this purpose, cutting away the majority of the excess, then cleaning up with a grinding blade. To get rid of the rough edges and burs I used my trusty little Dremel.
5. Once I was happy with the final shape and again trial fitted it in the engine bay to make sure I hadn't missed anything, I used some wet and dry rub to remove the surface protection and clean up the plate ready for priming.
6. Before priming (like anything paint related) you need to clean the surface. I used some 3M surface prep stuff I had lying around which cleaned off the grease, oil and other gunk on the metal plate. Once I was happy that it was clean, I hung the plate from one of the bolt holes suspended across a spare box I had lying around the shed.
7. Following the instructions, I covered the metal plate with 4 coats of etch primer, then left it overnight to dry. Apparently you only need to leave it for 1 to 4 hours, but it was getting late and I figured the longer it had to completely dry the better.
8. Now that I had the metal bracket primed, I rubbed it back slightly with some 600 grain paper (as per the instructions) and then cleaned again with the 3M surface prep product. I then re-hung the bracket in the box and sprayed it with 5 coats of 3M Gloss Black paint I had lying around. Again, I left this overnight for it to completely dry.
9. Now that I had the bracket done to my liking, it was time to reinstall the breather system onto it and fit to the engine bracket. I used an M6 Stainless Bolt which threaded straight onto the tapped hole in the bracket. As there was only one bolt holding this in place I put some Loctite on the thread, cranked it up then put a nut on the exposed end of the bolt at back of the bracket to make sure it couldn't rattle loose. I was surprised how solid the mounting was and doubt at this point in time it will need the welded sills to make sure it remains in this position, however time and rough roads will be the true test.... 

1. Diff breather installed on mounting bracket

2. Side on view - Note excess length of bolts

3. Trimmed down bolts with angle grinder

5. Keeping hydrated while working is important!

6. Bracket location on the engine block to mount breather

7. Breather trial mounted on engine bracket

8. Cutting down breather mounting bracket

9. Mounting bracket primed for painting

10. Diff breather mounted to engine bracket

11. Engine cowel reinstalled

Driving Lights Installation

This install I completed the weekend past (29th / 30th October).

Components:

• Hella Rallye 4000 Chrome Lights (1 Spread, 1 Spot); 55w HID @ 6000K
• 16 Gauge Wire (Red, Black, Blue and Green spools)
• Spade Crimp Connectors
• 7mm Split Conduit
• M4 35mm Stainless Bolts
• Terminal Block
• Heatshrink, cable ties and incidentals.

Installation:

1. When I measured the size of the lights on the bar from the dimensions from Hella's website, I knew it was going to be a tight fit, so immediately on getting them unboxed I dropped them into the holes in the ARB bar and breathed a sigh of relief when they fitted perfectly!
   
   
2. Rather than putting the metal base straight onto the metal bull bar, I cut 2 pieces of rubber mat slightly smaller than the base of the lights, used a gasket punch to cut a hole for the light bolt in the centre, then mounted the lights into the bar with the new rubber spacer.
   
   
3. If you have an ARB bar, drop the bash plate off to get better access to the light bolt. You can do it with a ratchet and an extension, but a uni-joint in this equation makes the job so much easier and allows you to get this bolt done up nice and tight. I put a couple of drops of loctite on the threads to make sure it can't rattle loose over time on corrugated roads.
   
   

4. Now I had to pick up the high beam circuit for the relay to operate on. This was a fairly simple task of unplugging one of the headlight connectors and placing a multimeter over the terminals with someone flicking the high and low beams. On my rig, the high beam was on the red wire with a white stripe; I'd hazard a guess that every Aussie FJ will be the same, but please check first!
   
   
5. Pop the back off the black plastic housing which holds current terminals for the OEM light setup. A small flat blade screwdriver helps, be aware this thing is packed with white grease, so have a rag on standby! Once you get the back off the housing, use the flat blade screwdriver to lever the terminal out of the housing and clean off all the grease.
   
   
6. Fire up a soldering iron; because you'll be soldering onto the current connection a decent size iron helps. I used my 80W for this job, it also helped cook off the rest of that grease! Solder your relay lead (I used blue 16G cable) to the correct connector (Red/White) and secure it around the cable with some self amalgumating tape and some small cable ties (though down the cable a little bit with the ties, you don't want to foul the ability to close the housing).
   
   
7. Slide the connector back into the housing and test your lights to make sure they still work. If so, put some white lithium grease into the housing (to replace the stuff you took out) then click the back onto it and re-install.
   
   
8. Put the lead wire into some new 7mm conduit (or use a conduit that has some space, I used the one for my fog light lead). Run up to the rubber grommet on the drivers side of the firewall, then push the wire though.
   
   
9. Run enough of the blue wire to your switch point (mine was in the centre console) and cut it. Now run a second blue lead from your switch point, back out through the rubber grommet to the location you plan to attach the relay. I installed my relay using a pre-existing tapped hole under the bonnet hinge on the drivers side.
   
   
10. From the relay, run the power lead to your fuse block and the ground to and appropriate place. My fuse block also has a negative bus, so I connected there.
    
    
11. Terminate both blue wires with spade connectors and attach to your switch.
    
    
12. For the illumination on the switches, I cut into the line that ARB had run into my cab for the fog light switch. So when the lights are on, the rockers light up like the rest of the dash. I used a terminal block so I had a common point to leverage when adding more switches.
     
13. Next I created a common ground using the same technique in 12. Using an M5 35mm bolt (which I cut down to around 30mm) I attached this block to the side of the UHF radio in place of the thumb screw. This negative ground will be used for the connections from the rocker switches. I created a 3 tail lead out of the terminal block for this purpose (not shown but the same as the photo above). The ground was then connected to the front left bolt holding down the transmission cover.
    
    
14. The Carling rockers don't fit in the holes out of the box and need a little adjustment. I used my trusty Dremel to trim off some of the plastic to make them fit, very little needs removing to get the switch to fit.
    
    
     
15. Now, run the light harness into some 13mm split conduit, attach to the lights through the grill and cable tie into place all the way back to the relay location.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
16. Once the dash is back together; time to admire the handy work!

Lights on illumination

Switch active; Left one is the driving lights,
right one is the UHF

Switch installation

Fired Up

Distance Shot