Thanks Ray... I try to show in each of my threads the weakness in the harness and fuel tanks. I learned the hard way on my 86 Runner that just because their is continuity in the harness, doesn't mean that all is well. Thanks for the compliment on the moderator. I will give it my best shot on keeping it a great site.

Thanks cyberhorn... Any improvements that you can think of or suggestions will always be welcomed for the site.

 

For those that may not be following my 86 build thread, I just went thru a complete build on this 86 extra cab. My 85 will got thru this much and I have already done the motor in this truck so it will be actually a deeper build then the one pictured below. Just thought I would post this one for the ones that think this build is dead. I did go to HF and they has a sale on car dollies. I am using wooden ones for the back and they work great, but they are not strong enough for the one up front that have to support the motor.

Also have been setting some of my build funds aside for improving my shop and that has detracted from my truck along with the no fire to the spark plugs. I got all the insulation that I need to finish my shop and I think nearly all of the electrical things I need to get electricity to the shop and will be getting plywood to cover the shop walls soon. I plan to get on my truck now and with the new harness and parts I have coming in the mail, I have high hopes of having it running hopefully by the coming weekend. I still need to get the fuel tank back in and the harness in as well. If I can get it running, I can get it legal and the sooner I can get it on the road, the sooner I can work on my lunch break at work and have access to a few more tools that I can use there as well.

Here is one that I have went thru that is about the same as I need to do to mine. This one was a carbed truck and I converted it to EFI so this build is going to happen. It will be at the exhaust shop tomorrow and while there, I will be installing the harness.


I was at Harbor Freight today and got some front dollies. They had a welder on sale and I was tempted to get it as I want to start to learn welding and need to do a patch panel in the floor, but without electric in the shop I will catch the next sale. Besides, I have found a truck in the yard that is an SR5 and has a nice gray interior that I will be installing in mine. Not sure of the exterior color is still going to be but with the SR5 things that I will be getting, gray will go with a lot of the colors I may want to go with.

 

Not sure why the above picture is blurry as it is fine in Photobucket. I started putting the 87 main harness in. When swapping harnesses, it is best to cut the tape that holds the support to the firewall. I have not always been able to get the clips out and then I just zip tie them to the main harness. Got the Main Harness in and the Headlight Harness in. I am using the 88 Runner Headlight harness. I compared the two harnesses and they look the same with same wiring coloring.


For two reasons I think this truck was headed to the scrapper is someone tried to stick an 89-95 EFI system in this truck and could not make it work. Staying with the same generation is easy to do. I dont think I would want to try and use a next generation EFI system on an older truck. The two reasons I think this truck may have been a carbed truck is how the hole is cut and no EFI on the cab. I will need to run the VIN to see what it was originally.

I am pretty sure it is not a factory cut.


No EFI.


I thought I had a nearly perfect harness. More of a reminder for me but it has the blinker plug cut off. I have one that I will solder on later on.


You can identify what year truck by the harness. On 85 an 86, the wiper motor plug is the same as the Starter Relay. 87 and newer has the square wiper plug. I will just swap plugs at a later time as setting the timing on the wiper motor has been difficult for me in the past. There are other ways to identify what year these trucks are by the O2 Sensor and test ports as well.

 

that spring on the fender next to the hood support bumper in the pict showing that big firewall hole thats an old alarm plunger switch

 

Hello cyberhorn... I took me a while to find it. I may have seen it before but sometime you are least likely to see whats right in front of you. I am just trying to get it running but once it is, the engine bay is getting cleaned up of all excess things I can under there. I want a clean look under there.

 

Today hasnt gone as planned. I was going to put in the 87 harness and noticed a few wires were missing. Luckily I had a couple of harnesses that had the connectons I needed. I also got my new injector connectors and that took some time to get them soldered on as well.

I have two good injectors and a friend of mine had a set to get mine running. I am having some electricians to wire my shop up and want to get the 85 movable to get it out of the way. Getting injectors and the seal kit took some more time.

I use this video for installing the distributor. When I have everything right, I can get these trucks to fire up quick and get really close on timing.
Here is my new connectors. I get them from connectorfast.com Alex Conger is the owner and is a great guy to deal with. Not sure why picture is sideways and will correct that later.


Dirtdobbers made a home in the intake system I got from a friend. Its fuel rail needed cleaned as well but I just have the injectors in for storage and keep them protected. It is 88 injectors with an 85/86 thermostat housing. I am hoping the distributor goes a littel quicker then what everything else has been for today. Was a little disappointed as what I call "Lunch Break Fixes" that you can do on lunch break will save you a ton of time when you get to your project. I will get it the next time,lol

 

I didnt get as far as I wanted to yesterday. I did get the distributor in and the Plenum on and few other things. I am wanting to finish up getting the sensors hooked up and then hook up the steering column connections and any necessary connections to see if it will run on starting fluid. I dont even have the fuel tank in yet. Just wanting to hear it run for a second. That is todays goal.

I had the shop door open yestrday and had 3 different people looking at the 86 extra cab that I had sitting outside and people always want a nice looking or running truck or car and asking about repairs or some thing. I am plenty busy with the projects I got, but I tell them cost of paint or if they want to get the parts I will show or help them out. Usually cost or having to do it them selves and they take off so fast that even their shadows cant keep up with them.

I had a guy to stop that had a squeak to his truck the other day. I removed the serpentine belt and showed him that those belts do wear out and just need replaced to stop the noise. He drove by with the same squeak. Usually trucks give some kind of warning that it needs a repair, guess he will find out on the side of the road as the belt was starting to seperate.

 

It is halfway ALIVE!!! The video below is the second time it fired up. I dont have the tank in it. They changed the plug from the tank that connects to the Main Harness so I get to go to the salvage and get it grrrr. 2:25 my time is when it first cranked up. Long ways from running but from here on out I know that I can get it back together. Nothing is hooked up but just what was needed to get it to fire up. Even if the injectors are bad or not firing, I am not concerned. I know how to go about and fix that. This truck will eventually live again. It is the last coupel of seconds that you here it.

 

Awesome!! It's such a good feeling when the engine turns over and runs after you go through the trouble to get to that point!!

 

Thanks Gizzler00.. After all of the trouble I have been trying to get a good wiring harness and get fire to the plugs, it was a big relief. If there are a 1000 steps to go, at least I have the first 3 or 4 feet done. Where I want to bring this truck to can be a little overhwleming as it is a long ways yet, but it should start to move from here on out. Sure some thought this thread was dead, but it to is going to start coming back to life.

 

Glad to hear Terry. Sometimes my projects go untouched for quite some time due to other things getting in the way. So I understand.

 

I seen this '57 or so Ford today on the way to the bone yard. You could tell he cleared over the patina. I am hoping that fad goes away some day as well as the big exhaust pipes out the bed of diesel pickups. But I am glad he has it on the road. Like seeing the oldies out there.


Got me some SR5 Door panels and another SR5 Guage. Got to get while the getting is good. May not be there the next time.


Got my tail light and fuel tank harness. Of course it had some speaker wires just twisted to the harness and wrapped with tape. Got that all fixed and cleaned up.


I really think every truck I looked at had the big white plug with wide blade connectors. I am starting to think 87s have are the only year that had the smaller yellow plug. I could of spliced in a new connector and made it work but that isnt how I do it. 200 miles round trip for these parts.


I did get the harness in. I suggest starting at the rear and run the harness to the cab to make sure you get it routed right and easier. Especially if you still have the tank in. Now I can start getting the tank in and let it run longer then just a few seconds. Yesterday it was only running on starting fluid.

 

I talked to the guy that owns the yard and he will ship small items. He has 2 first gen trucks somewhat complete. One nearly complete 85 standard cab that could be fixed, and several 86 and up trucks, I am guessing 25 or so.He has a nice selection of 89-95 trucks as well. If he has a title, he will sell them out of the yard. Alot of potential trucks there. Also 3 first gen runners.

He has another SR5 guage for a 22re manual truck that I seen. He charged me $40 for mine and $35 for the pair of the SR5 panels. He also has a SR5 guage for a 3.0 automatic that can be set up for a 22re. Just need to adjust the potentiometer on the tach. A few of the rear cargo pockets for the passengers in the rear seat. No dash pads, I would of grabbed those. Best selection you will find here in my area and probably others as well.

B&B Import
417-725-5296

I can get the address for you and he is normally there Mon- Friday 9-5 but call to make sure.

 

Nice score on the parts!

It's nice to have a resource semi close by to get parts that don't exist anymore.

Thanks for the info Terry.

 

Hello Gizzler00...He has quite a few parts that are hard to find. Somebody beat me to the SR5 seats it had in the truck that I got my harness out of. I have gone quite aways for parts in the past.

 

I have started reassembling the dash and will start putting the interior back together and see what I am missing or needing. I orignally was going with a blue interior but now that I have gray interior panels, it is going to be gray interior.

I have had this plug laying on my work bench for quite some time. More then once I have considered throwing it away. I am so glad that I didnt. My O2 sensor is missing and this little bit of harness had it. It is all wired up with shrink wrap on it. Just need to solder it and finish it up. A couple of small steps in getting the truck back together. I will be pulling the bed back off soon and will start body work in it and getting the gas tank back in.


So glad I kept this harness, Whew!!!

 

I always try to hang onto various parts for just in case stuff like your O2 harness.

But I usually end up with way to much stuff. Haha

 

Hello Gizzler00...It paid off again hanging on to some stuff. I am like you though, but it never fails when I get rid of something, I need it.

I wanted to get a few things done. I painted my tail light seperators silver for a cheap upgrade that I found on 4Crawlers site.


I got the fuel tank mounted but I dont have the fuel assembly in. Neiieer one of them will work. Actually some of the cleanest ones I have seen but the wires are just worn out that gives the readings.


While putting the tank in, I could not get the fuel assembly to seperate. These are to expensive and to hard to find to risk breaking. I will be taking the bed off later on and will try to get them to seperate.


I havent completely forgotten about the truck. When I was in the salvage yards in the past, always kept up with what I knew I needed. It is a washer pump from a Sienna van.


I will just need to splice in the new connector to the older harness. Will do that when I start soldering all of the wire connections. Notice the wonderfulf ground wire the PO used for the battery.


Some of the soldering I will be doing later. Luckily I didnt throw this piece of harness away also. It goes to the blinker.


This past winter, I found an 86 camper in the yard. It had some great condition parts. Got a perfect dash pad out of it, but it went into the 86 Runner. I did get some excellent door seals for the 85.

 

Was at the boneyard today and they had this excellent 79 two wheel drive bed, rust free, and with minor damage that is showing in picture.


Been repairing some wires on the truck and pulled the bed to start working on the rear of the frame and start on bodywork on the bed.


Justin said I wouldnt get my 85 going. I have a motor coming that runs and I told him lets see if he could get the 87 runner in the back running. I have been using it for storage. He is cleaning it out and this runner came out of the boneyard and is dirty. I was shocked how clean he has gotten it already. He has the shop vac after it and getting the trash out that was in it.


Some of the parts that will be getting put in the shed.


Doing a good job on cleaning. He knows how I start out a build and must be listening once in a great while. We will see if he is still ambitious after awhile.

 

boy getten it clean! an ooh nice L trim lol so ya gona make that rig his terry?