Ckucke had mentioned during his voluminous research for his Taco timing set that the OEM Toyota timing belt was made in the USA by Gates. That made sense, since the truck itself was made here. What came as a surprise to me was when I got the latest set of V-belts for the FJ-80, these too were labeled as “Made in the USA”. All the belts I got since 1991 and up until now were Japan-sourced Mitsuboshi belts. The new belts looked exactly like the previous ones, with the standard Toyota part number colored field and Mitsuboshi label, but the cardstock packaging sleeve had the US origin indicated. I would have thought with the relative rarity of the 3F-E motor and associated consumables, it would be more cost-effective to still source the belts from Japan, as opposed to going through the whole design/test/contract procedure with a CONUS third-party factory. I don’t think these belts are common with any other Toyota engine, with the exception of the 2F and F, which possibly might use the same alternator belt. Gates must have given them a really good deal. Heck, they’re probably exporting these USA belts back to Japan and worldwide! Next time I have to replace them, I’ll get all Gates belts, since the pricing is better.
I am currently running Toyota OEM for both the AC compressor belt and the alternator belt, but I’ve got a Gates PS pump belt. I needed a shorter belt than the OEM Toyota one since I’m bypassing the air pump for the air injection system of the emissions control, and the original belt went around both pumps and the crank pulley. As far as I can tell, there isn’t a short OEM Toyota belt for non-emissions markets, since for the most part Land Cruisers of that era were sold mostly with turbodiesel engines worldwide. Here’s a picture with all the part numbers.
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