Information on me and my truck

Installing Nerf Bars on the truck.

Life with my truck has gone through several phases. Since I bought it with 183,000 miles on it, and in need of many repairs, the first phase was the restoration. The next two phases are ongoing, the upgrades and the maintenance. Details on theses phases make up the information on this page. There are also links embedded that lead to the source of information I used as the basis for the upgrades to my truck.

Contents:

Owner
General Info on the truck
Restoration Phase
Upgrades
Future Mods
Breakdowns and Field Failures

Owner:
Barney McNamara

Located in: Santa Cruz, CA.
My truck is my daily driver, which forces a compromise on every decision I make on upgrades and modifications to it. This is my first experience with a pickup, and off-roading. It is not the first older vehicle I have driven, my first car was a 1970 VW bug, bought in 1971, which I drove for 15 years.
I enjoy the places I can go in the truck. I love camping, and the outdoors. I used to do a lot of backpacking, but never found that very relaxing, it was always too much work, and I don't sleep well on the ground. The truck takes me away from the crowds at typical car-camping places, and lets me carry creature comforts that enhance my enjoyment of the outdoors. I don't yet push the truck to the limits of motorized vehicle performance, and I always keep the fact I need it to get to work on Monday in the back of my mind.
I used to drive a 1990 Acura Integra GS, but I scared myself too many times, so I sold it when the truck needed more parts than I could otherwise afford. I drove that car to work every day for six years (160,000 miles), and it never failed to start or left me stranded. Before the Acura, I drove a 1985 Mazda 626 for five years, and nearly as many miles, also without a problem while commuting.
I compare the truck with the VW in terms of maintenance and breakdowns. Both have left me stranded on the way to work. And both seem to need a lot of TLC to keep them going.

Vehicle:

1983 Toyota Pickup, Short Bed, Regular Cab.
I bought it at 183,000 miles, it currently has about 225,000 on the odometer, but it has had 31" tires on it since I bought it, and that set was worn out, so I believe it has more like 250,000 real miles.
It looked cool when my son and I went to see it for the first time, as it had already been lifted with extended shackles and a 3 inch body lift, as well as 31 inch tires. As I was totally new to off-roading I had no idea what to look for, other than a article I read somewhere that told me to buy a pre-85 Toyota truck for best off-road performance. Needless to say, I now know a lot more than I did then about these trucks, thanks in large part to the contributions of many on the Toyota 4x4 Mailing List.

Almost no factory options, this is a non-SR5 basic truck:

Cruise control - no (though on the freeway, the floorboard is a pretty good simulation of cruise control for my truck, I can't get over 65 MPH except down hill.)
Full gauge set - no (added by me - see upgrades)
Power steering and windows - no
Power brakes - yes
Tilt steering wheel - no
Driver's side adjustable sport seat - no (added by me - see upgrades)
Air conditioning - no (added by me - see upgrades)
Intermittent wipers - no (added by me - see upgrades)
Map light. - no
Altimeter, slope and tilt gauges - no

Restoration:

It had not been running for 6 months when I bought it, due to lack of smog certification due to a few problems I had to deal with immediately to get it on the road.

The carburetor was so dirty, it only started with a squirt of carb cleaner down the throat prior to cranking it over - solution: rebuild the carb
The muffler and tail pipe were rusted through, so the smog sniffer could not be inserted into the exhaust stream, and it would fail the visual inspection - solution: replace muffler and tailpipe.
The catalytic converter proved to be non-functional and so it would not pass the emissions tests - solution: new cat.

Now that it passed the smog tests and could be registered, I could start working on the next batch of problems that I had bought into:

The radiator leaked so badly that it wet your shirt to stand in front of it when it was warm - solution: new radiator, and hoses while I was at it, and hang it properly from more than two bolts, as the body-lift installer had short cut the installation by only hanging the radiator from two straps. I also remounted the fan shroud to properly control the airflow over the engine, rather than maximizing the air flow through a clogged radiator.
The temperature gauge never moved off the bottom peg, even though the engine warmed up and the radiator fluid had been over heating. - solution: replace the temperature sender on the side of the engine. I choose a non-Toyota part for this which later caused me grief when I finally had the cooling system fixed, and it still registered too hot - ultimate solution - use a Toyota temp sender.
Heater - once the radiator fluid was not pouring out onto the ground, I fixed the lack of heat in the cab by replacing the hoses, control valve and heater core to get water to flow through the air in the heater box.The water now flowed but the heater still put out no heat - solution: so much stop-leak had been put into the system while the radiator leaked that the bypass pipe on the back of the water pump was clogged, and no water could get to the pre-heater on the intake manifold or the heater core in the cab.
The cooling system now flowed well, and everything looked great except that I was still losing fluid, and I found a drip coming out of the water pump - solution: replace the water pump.
Nuts and Bolts, the front driveshaft was one of the many things a previous owner had touched, which meant that mounting bolts where missing, cross threaded or substandard size and strength - solution: Replace enough nuts and bolts on the thing that the guys at the auto parts shop accused my of owning a tinker-toy.
Clutch Hydraulics - a puddle of fluid was leaking onto the floor mat under the clutch pedal - solution: new clutch master cylinder, and a new slave too, to insure long term reliability.
Clutch Mechanicals - the previous owner had told me proudly how he had replaced the clutch himself, and gave me the receipt from Kragen that proved he had spent $50 for a clutch disk - no throwout bearing, no pilot bearing, not even a pressure plate. Well, that Kragen disk started smoking while doing a recovery on a trip to Pismo trip to Pismo. Soon after I heard an ominous thunk from the clutch, I went to 4WPW and ordered a Downey Super Clutch and al the fixings, then picked it up the next day. Another clunk, and finally a third on the way home on Friday night. Saturday I dropped the trans and found that nice new Kragen disk used rubber bushings instead of real springs. There was one left, each one had reported it's failure with a thunk as I drove down the street.
The front brakes sqeeled badly and on inspection, the rotor on one side looked like a slot car track with deep groves cut into it from pads worn too low - solution: replace one rotor with a junk yard special, and turn them both to match. Slap and a pat (install new brake pads and repack the front bearings.) This turned out to be a short term fix, and a later upgrade was done to FJ40 vented rotors and post-85 calipers.
Rear brakes - a quick inspection revealed the need for: drums turned, new cylinders, new linings and spring kits
Rebuilt motor - this was required after the headgasket blew. I'd checked the compression previously and figured the rings were bad. I made the mistake of buying the cheapest I could find, and have run into several problems since. This job is too much work to try to save money on parts.

That's me on the left, and my buddy Mike on the right. Follow the link for more on the engine installation.

Starter - Intermittent cranking prompted the replacement of the copper brushes, but the pinion gear was worn and it still missed now and then. A junk-yard special works fine, and the original is a nice field spare.
Rear differential - the original had a lot of wobble in the pinion bearing. For $75 (including shipping) I bought one off the OFF-ROAD.COM classified pages from a guy in Canada. It is an original from the front of an '82, so it was not too worn. Now I have a spare for my planned locker-gear change. My plan is to upgrade one at a time, and with a spare, I don't have to lose the truck for any time.
Front and rear axle seals - both sets were leaking and were replaced during the brake jobs.
Fuel intake hose - the body lift stressed the hose, and it started to leak. A local hose shop cut me a piece of gas-proof hose for $10 after Toyota quoted me $80 for a special order, and it would have been too short without the spacer anyway.
Rubber floor mat - body lift installer cut a huge hole in the old one, and I finally found a nice one on the web, and ordered it through Pep Boys for $80.
Shift lever boot - Another casualty of the body lift. I made one from neoprene and plastic from a waste basket. I could not find one that had enough throw and cleared the transfer case lever.
Extended front axle torque rod - Installer of the extended shackles left out one bolt because the rod no longer reached the axle. I bought an adjustable one after I figured out what the weird clunk down there was from, and why the bolt was missing.
Shock absorbers - the ones in the truck were old, and I put on the ones that 4WPW sold me, Pro Comp Explorers. They aren't Rancho 9000's, but they keep the truck from bouncing too much.
Steering stabilizer - a previous owner had installed a cool-looking double setup, but the top shock hit the bottom of the oil pan on spring compression. I found this out after bouncing off a curb while playing in a parking lot and having the motor mount break because the oil pan was acting as a compression stop rather than the normal rubber bump stop on the chassis. Now I have a single tube Pro Comp,and it works fine, while clearing everything down there.
Motor mounts - after breaking one in a parking lot due to the steering stabilizer interfering with the suspension travel, I replaced them both. The unbroken original makes a nice field spare.

Upgrades :

In-dash stereo - with hacksaw and chisel I made room in the dash for a DIN-mount removable face stereo. I put in a Sony with a cassette player that I got a deal on. I was able to retain the ash tray, which I like as a handy litter basket in the cab. I also got a good solid mount on the back of the stereo by removing the glove box, and bolting the side of the radio to a bracket under the dash. I put some small JBL speakers in the doors, and while it will win no awards at a car show, it plays reliably, and is all I need.
Bucket Seats and center console - I found some nice low and narrow seats from a Mazda 626 - LX or an early MX6. I don't know exactly what the donor was, because the front end was missing when I found them in a junk-yard. The driver side has kidney wing and lumbar adjustments that I like. They fit nicely, the existing mounting point on the seat brackets were flat on the bottom. All I had to do was drill four holes for each seat through the floor of the truck, and bolt them in. The existing seat belts work fine. I also had room to install a steel horse center console between them, that acts as a nice armrest, and is big enough to hold my 35 mm camera in its case while I drive. An added bonus was the bass booster under the passenger seat that I hooked up to my stereo for extra drive.
Alloy wheels and BFG AT tires - I needed new tires, and tried to buy some used wheels and tires at the junk yard. This is when I learned about backspacing and incompatibility between newer and older Toyota pickups. I did not want to install spacers to mount the post '85 wheels on my truck, and the junk yard dealer did not want to give me my money back, so we compromised on a nice set of new wheels for a very good price. The AT's are great on-road, and have not given me any trouble in my off-roading.
FJ40 rotors - based on Jack's nice writeup, I installed the beefy vented rotors from an FJ40 and the calipers from an '86+ pickup. Mine fit fine, and work great. I don't know that they added much stopping power, but they seem to be less likely to overheat and warp while I coast down the hill to work everyday in stop and go traffic riding the brakes all the way. I needed new rotors anyway, so the cost was not an issue.
CB-radio - I hung a Radio Shack unit under the dash, with a 3 foot antenna on the inside of the bed, a couple feet behind the cab. It works fine, and is easy to remove. If I had known more at the time, I would have gotten one of the smaller units, and mounted in the dash, above the stereo.
Roll bar - probably more appearance than functional, but I like it. It also holds my removable light bar.
Low Buck Light Bar- the truck came with a couple of lights bolted to the bumper, without wires. The roll bar I picked up at the junk yard also had a couple lights on it. I didn't want the lights on the truck all the time, as we have a problem with people walking off with stuff as they pass our house on the way to the beach, so I made a removable light bar.

Check out the write up on the light bar installation by following this link

4Runner SR5 Steering wheel - this was a very nice grab from Scott Wilson. He was upgrading his 4Runner, and sold me his original for a very good price. The stock wheel on a '83 is hard plastic with spokes at 3:00 and 9:00 that can really mash your thumbs while bouncing over rocks, not to mention the poor placement of the horn buttons causing random beeping while wheeling. The 4Runner wheel fit right on, no big deal, it is shaped much nicer, leather covered padding, and the horn button is in the center, out of the way.
Air conditioner - my wife demanded this prior to a trip last fall up Hiway 395, east of the Sierras. I looked into junk yard installations, and R134A, and all kinds of cool sites on the web. I ended up with an aftermarket setup that cost $1000 installed. The cost of R12, and the legal hassles involved made it difficult for me to find anybody willing to charge a used setup. I also could not find a local yard that would sell me a kit, and I was reluctant to get into a mail-order junk yard deal. The installation I got was not the best, but I was able to tie up the loose ends, and get the thing to work OK. It gives me about 20 degrees differential inside vs. outside. If it's 100 outside, it is 80 inside, if it is 80 outside, it is 60 inside. The control is basically on-off, but when it is 90 outside, 70 inside is quite nice.
Headlight on buzzer - I have a bad habit of leaving the headlights on, so to protect the battery, I installed a buzzer to warn me when I open the door with the lights on (just like a real car.)
SR5 Gauge set - I like a tachometer and a trip meter, the original supplied neither. Another junk yard acquisition and come information from the email list, and I was in business.
Intermittent windshield wiper controls - a new addition, prompted by El Nino and all the rain we have had this year. I designed a circuit, and installed the timing control in the cab, and a relay in the engine compartment. It works fine.
Sway bar quick release and poly bushings - another trick I learned from the email list group. I used Eric's design, and installed the quick release. My drive to work is 25 miles each way over a twisty mountain road (Hiway 17 for you Bay Area readers) and I like the sure feel of the sway bar and poly bushings on the road. The quick release works great, and the articulation is much better off-road with the sway bar disabled.

Check out the pictures of my sway bar installation by following this link

Differential breathers - another trick from the email list. When I changed the diff fluid after buying the truck, it was brown and smelly. I don't know if the breathers will really help, but they were cheap and easy to install.
Rear brake proportioning valve mount extension - The shackle lift installer took a short cut and left this off, so after learning about it from the list, I made my own 2" extension for the mounting bracket. I have not noticed any difference in the braking, the pulling I was trying to fix was really caused by contaminated brake linings caused by the leaky axle seals that I finally fixed when I did the complete brake job the truck needed.
Nerf bars - I bought the standard Smitty-bilt and modified them to fit on the body lift truck. They don't sell the body lift model for the pre '84 body style, but that is OK. They come with a real weak front mounting tab that bolts directly to the transfer case cross member mounting bolts. To make them fit on my truck, we flipped them over and mounted the left bar on the right side, and vice versa. We cut off the weak tab and fabbed a new plate for the front mount on each bar. Then we bolted the bars to the chassis with grade 8 bolts, and tack welded the mounting plates to make them secure, but removable. I have yet to lift the truck with the, so we'll see how they hold up. They pretty much obscure the frame, and so with my extended rubber lips in the wheel wells, the body lift is well disguised.

Detail of my custom front mounting bracket. Follow the link for more details on the nerf bar installation..

Diamond plate storage chest - my latest investment is a Dee-Zee Gold aluminum tool chest that I am going to bolt into the bed of the truck for secure waterproof storage. The biggest problem I have with the regular cab is lack of storage. The roll bar prevents me from mounting a side-to-side tool box behind the cab, so I thought I would mount the chest where I can open it from the side of the bed, and use it for tools and other storage.

Future Mods

Spare Motor - based on the on-going lack of reliability of my purchased rebuilt, I plan to buy a rebuildable core 22R, and do a crank up rebuild. I've never torqued the rod bolts onto a crankshaft, and have always wanted to. Maybe I'll actually do it this time. I don't think I'll do the V-6 swap, mainly due to the pressure of driving it to work on Monday. I know I can drop in another 22R in a weekend. And to me, that is part of the challenge.
Lower gears - to improve power, mileage, off-road capability, etc. This one is delayed due to finances and the desire to do the next mod at the same time. I already have my spare diff so I can have one built up at a time, and install each over a weekend. Ratio is again a tradeoff, I'd love to go to 5.28 and add 3 inch tires. but I don't want to drive to work with them. So I'll probably do 4.88 and stick with 31 inch tires.
Locking differentials - along with the gears, this is my next big thing. I've compromised on this decision based on road performance. As long as I drive this over the hill, I do not want to deal with clicking and chirping rear tires. So I plan to go Truetrac front and rear. First option would be full Detroit Locker in the rear, if I could dedicate the truck to weekends and off-road. ARB's are just too much money for me to be interested, unless I can figure out a good on-board air setup that could also handle the lockers....
Bigger tires - another on-off road compromise. I'd like to go 33 inches, but I know if I had two sets I would rarely swap (those things are heavy) and I don't like the idea of driving slick highways with mud tires. As long as I drive it to work everday, I'll probably stick with 31 inch tires.
Front bumper - I like the look of the Smitty-bilt tube bumpers, and like the idea of a hoop to protect my investment in air conditioner condenser. I'll go with the winch-mount style to make room for my winch.
Winch - I'd love to have a Warn M8000 hanging up there for the confidence I could get out of any jambs I drive myself into. It again comes down to money. For now, I'll try to stay out of places I can't drive out of. I'm also planning to carry a few more recovery tools this year, just to give me a fighting chance.
Dual Batteries - with the winch, I'd like to add more energy storage.
Marlin Xfer case - we all want to crawl, and this guy sells the stuff that brings our trucks down on their knees.
Auxiliary fuel tank - mounted where the spare tire used to live. The key will be to make it smog-legal.

Breakdowns and Field Failures

Starter power wire - when I went to start the truck after picking up the check from the guy who bought my Integra, the starter would not crank over. I call it karma, that Integra could not believe I would sell it after all the great miles it gave me. Anyway, the heavy wire from the battery to the starter had come apart at the crimp on the battery end, and was lying loose on the chassis. The truck saved itself by being so greasy that the wire did not short to the chassis and blow up the battery. I knew at the time that this truck was not going to be as effortless to maintain as the cars I'd been driving had been.
Carburetor bowl plug - this was one of those kick yourself in the pants deals. I'm barrelling down the hill when the engine coughs, sputters and dies. Open the hood and smell gas. Find the source is the carburetor,and that the threaded plug in the bottom of the bowl is gone. Yes, when I rebuilt the carb I pulled that thing out and then put it back, obviously not tight enough. A whittled twig with a rag wrapped around slowed the leak long enough to get me to a parts house where I got a bolt and enough washers to make it tighten into the few available threads. That jury rig is still there, some parts can not be found.
U-joints - these have been a real learning experience for me, I never dealt with one before the truck. The first time one went was on my first trip to the mountains with the truck. On the way up on a Saturday afternoon, the vibration that the truck had when I bought it (I figured it was a truck, so it vibrated) finally expressed itself in an obvious way. While stopped at a light, after 150 miles on the freeway, a large bang came out from under the truck. I pulled over, and did not even know what to look for. I saw an open foreign auto repair shop across the street, with a guy on a creeper under a car in the lot. I drove across the street, and when I stopped, pieces of metal rolled out from under the truck. I explained my symptoms to the mechanic, and he took a look under the truck. He said "Is this your U-joint?" as he picked up one of the cups off the ground. He then started tossing it from hand-to-hand like a hot potato, and exclaimed "It must be yours, it sure is hot!" He replaced the U-joint, but the flange was all bashed up, and he did not have parts to repair that. I went ahead with my trip, and was happy that the vibration was gone. The new joint only held for a short while, and the vibration was back. I crossed my fingers and drove home at high speed, as the vibration was less when the driveshaft rotated faster. At home, I took it to my local mechanic who found another flange at a junk-yard and put it in with the U-joint that was attached. He also found the transfer case flanges were loose, (a typical problem) and tightened them. Since then, that old U-joint has failed, as well as the rear joint at the differential. I now have a new differential, with less wobble, new U-joints on both ends of the driveshaft and spares in a box.
Head gasket - I checked the compression one weekend, and found one cylinder real low, and that oil squirted in would bring it up - bad pistion rings. As if that was not sobering enough, Monday morning while coasting along at the bottom of the hill, a large puff of white smoke came out the tailpipe, and the engine started running real rough. I always carry a gallon of water, so I fed the radiator, and continued to work. The radiator was empty again five miles later. Refilled, ran an errand, and another gallon of water gone. So, I had it towed home, and rented a car, for the first time. I worked a deal with my mechanic for the cheapest rebuilt I could find $1200, big mistake. It took a week after work and on the weekend for me and a buddy to get it in, and it seemed OK for awhile.
Front crankshaft seal - About 30,000 miles later, while on a vacation with my wife, driving up 395 east of the sierras, oil started leaking out of the front of the engine. A lot of oil. one quart every ten miles. I stopped at a gas station in Lee Vining, just at the bottom of the grade up into Yosemite Park where we had reservations at a nice little lodge, high in the mountains. we decided it was the front seal, and no parts or mechanics nearby. He sent me back to back to Mammoth Lakes. Since I had no support vehicle, and no experience with the job, I paid a shop to fix it, and only lost $150 and my visit to Yosemite was cut short.
Timing Chain - Another 10,000 miles of driving, a rainy Monday morning. I pull off the freeway, sitting at a light, when thunk - engine dies. I cranked it over and it sounded like the spark plugs were out, no compression. I had it towed to a local shop, just in case it was something easy, I had become so confident that I did not have my tools. They verified it was the timing chain snapped. No warning, no clicking, just thunk. So, I'm too mad to deal with it myself, figuring it was valves into pistons and a new motor. I had it towed back to my trusty local shop, and rented another car. He replaced the chain, and found compression was OK, no major bashing. So I'm back on the road, wondering what is next on my "Bargain" motor, and planing to build my own soon.
Igniter - this one went out 30 miles of dirt road past Ubehebe Crater in Death Valley National Park. This was actually a good place, as I was just about to head over the rise, and descend the Lippincott Mine Road into Saline Valley, which is known as one of the most isolated areas in California. My buddy and I were alone in the truck. We figured out we had no spark, and no loose wires. We knew it was the igniter module and that we were stuck. We dozed in the cab, waiting for something to come along. We had plenty of food and water, and being January and at 4,000 feet, the weather was mild. A Navy jet came screaming by about 50 feet off the deck, but he did not even wave. A few hours later, a couple of grad students doing geological research and camping in the area came along. They had not been to town for a week, so were happy to go in for a shower and some supplies. They took us to Stove Pipe Wells, where we had dinner, and stayed in the motel. In the morning, I found that the local tow truck would only charge us $700 to pull us back the 80 miles to his gas station where they had no parts. After calling all the local parts places (within 50 miles) I found that the igniter is a dealer only part. There was a junk-yard in Pahrump that had a few Toy trucks, so we headed the 75 miles out to there. The igniters were gone from the trucks, but there was a car rental agency in town, and an igniter at the dealer in Las Vegas, only another 125 miles from Pahrump. We parted ways with the students, after thanking them for their kind support. My buddy and I blasted to Vegas, picked up the igniter, as well as a coil and distributor pickup (total $400) and headed back to the truck. After a 400 mile parts run, we installed the igniter, and she started right up Oh what a feeling - Toyota! We went back by the students camp, thanked them again then headed back to Pahrump with the car. Luckily the agency did not notice the dust, and we did not break anything under the car which I had promised not to take off the pavement, I did pay for the insurance coverage of that rental. Back home. I picked up another igniter at a junk-yard for $100 - with a coil attached. I used that one for a few weeks to convince myself it is OK. I now carry the used one as a spare, and the new one is in the truck. As far as I am concerned, this is a required spare, without it you are stuck. If I had computer controlled EFI, I would want a spare computer, too. Electronics are wonderful and extremely reliable, but they fail with no warning, and then you are real stuck. I also try not to go too far away from help without a partner vehicle, but sometimes you end up alone.
Alternator - voltage regulator - this time it was probably the muddy water I let my son drive the truck into at Hollister Hills that did the damage. After driving into the puddle, and stalling the engine, and soaking an hour while we found somebody to pull us out, the alternator did not generate enough voltage to turn off the idiot lights. I put in a rebuilt, and threw in a voltage regulator for good measure. I carry the old regulator as a spare.
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