Since I have been here for a few years, I think now is a good time to start a thread on my 1987 Toyota 2WD pickup. This might be a boring thread to some but it is a good place for me to keep track of what I have done to the truck and I can ask questions here as they come up.

I have always been into Toyota trucks since I was little. My dad had a red 1986 4WD regular cab 22R truck and then later traded my grandpa for his 1991 4WD Xrta Cab 3VZ-E.

Anyway, my truck is my first car that I learned to drive on 7 years ago and I have been driving it ever since. I got it from my grandpa after my great-grandmother passed away. My truck follows the cliche of the car that was driven by a little old lady to church and the grocery store. If I remember correctly, the truck only had 50,000 miles on the odometer when I started learning to drive. It has the 22R carbureted engine with the A43D automatic transmission. Of course a manual would have been my first choice but I have come to like the automatic, even though it sucks power from the already under-powered engine. The only time it did not start is when the 11 year old battery finely decided that was time to call it quits. Put in a fresh battery and it started right up.


Over time, I am trying to make it a reliable, dependable truck for years to come. Even though the truck seems fairly mint, it has suffered the typical old car problems like having most of the rubber parts reaching the end of their useful lives. I have made some mild changes from when I got it and plan to make a few more. Most changes are factory upgrades and replacing aftermarket parts with either new or used factory parts. There is no rust anywhere except a little surface rust on the battery tray. Most of the truck is original, including the paint and even the original Koito headlights. The truck was rear ended a few years before I got it so it has a replacement "Japanese" style tailgate with the stamped letters, which I think looks better than the decals anyway.

This thread might be slow as I am a busy college student with a limited budget.


Here is what the truck looked like when I started driving:









I will add more later and what I have done to the truck so far. I need to find the most recent pictures I have.

 

Wow, I forgot I started this thread last year... This is just me documenting what I have done. More to come! (and sooner hopefully)

The pictures above were taken about five years ago. About a year and a half ago I replaced the tires, found a stock rear bumper, added NOS factory front mud flaps, and traded canopies / toppers for one that actually fit on the truck. I had the canopy painted to match the rest of the truck.

Then I completely replaced the brake system (except the hard metal lines and LSP & BV) at around the same time.

About 6 months ago the ORIGINAL headlights burned out within two weeks of each other, so I replaced those too.

Here is what the truck looks like today, freshly washed:


Yes, the white wall tires are gone! They were more like yellow wall tires. I think regular black wall tires look better on a Toyota truck, don't ya think!



I plan to use this thread as a "how to" on how I fix problems that come up. Or if things don't work, I will ask a ton of questions here.

In about two weeks from now, I will be tearing into the carburetor to see if I can fix several small issues on how the truck runs and will be documenting what I am doing.

I hope to show more on how the emissions/vacuum system works to help people in the future. Or I will be asking for help, not sure which!

 

Way to go man! Great story on the truck. Now hurry up with that carb rebuild so you can do a few on mine

 

Alright, I have started on the carburetor rebuild.

BY FAR, the hardest part is trying to remove the screws without stripping the heads. Some were in there super tight! Others were as tight as I expected.

So.... When removing the jets, the secondary came out easy. I can't say the same for the primary. The slot where you insert the screw driver is pretty marred up from the soft metal just bending out of shape with the force I put on it and I cannot remove it.

Is it OK to just leave it in there or will the damaged surface and slot cause problems??

I honestly wasn't expecting the screws and jets to be in there that tight, considering the carburetor is soft aluminum.

Other than that, the carburetor is pretty easy to work on. I am just taking apart one section at a time.

Thanks for any insight!

 

That is great to hear it started in the family and is staying in the family. Great looking little truck you have got.

 

Jake, where did you get the rebuild kit from? The dealership?

 

more pics! we need to see the interior.

 

Thanks Terrys87! The truck could have been passed onto other family members who would have drove it into the ground. I am so glad my grandpa and parents let me have this truck as my first vehicle.

The rebuild kit was from Autozone. The OEM kit has been discontinued (I checked before the rebuild, I always prefer OEM parts). I am not sure if the individual gaskets are still available but it would have been too expensive anyway. Depending on how the rest of the rebuild goes, I will post up a "write up" here with what I did and what I used. The kit seems to be high quality.

More pics will come! I just need good daylight. My camera doesn't do very well with any of the lights I have.

The interior is in great shape. No cracks in the dash pad and the bench seat only has a small tear in the vinyl on the side. The fabric has no tears. It almost looks brand new!



I will post a pic of the main jet I was talking about in the previous post. Since this is my first carburetor rebuild, I don't know if it is OK to leave the jet installed with the gouged up surface or not. If it is fine, I will fix it with a new jet eventually and just put it back together now so I can get it back on the road. Anybody here know?

EDIT: Here is the picture of the jet. My camera would not focus on it any closer.

The primary jet won't budge and is gouged.

 

This happens on gas ovens when the brass and aluminum expand and contract they get really tight.

the only suggestion i have is take a torch and heat it up then put it in the freezer for an hour then try again.

 

Thanks 92ehatch. I don't have a torch handy unfortunately.

I know that I can leave the jet in if I didn't destroy the surface. Is it OK to leave as is or do I need to replace the jet?

 

I just went through your thread Cool truck! How did the carburetor work out?

 

Hey!

It looks like I didn't update this thread after the carburetor rebuild.

Well..... it just went okay. It made a little improvement, but I plan on taking it completely apart again and doing a better job.

The screws and jets were pretty difficult to remove, but as I now know, I was using the wrong tools.

I was using standard Phillips head and standard flat blade screwdrivers which are the wrong tools!

The factory Aisan carburetor (as well as other parts on the truck) are put together using Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) screws which look almost identical to Phillips cross-head screws, but have a slightly different profile which are not designed to "cam-out".

The Phillips cross-head screw is designed to cam-out and using a Phillips screwdriver on a Japanese Industrial Standard screw makes stripping that screw really easy.

If I were to do this again, I would definitely get a set of Japanese Industrial Standard compliant screwdrivers (like the Vessel brand), and hunt down a factory carburetor adjustment tool kit.

Oh, and that jet that was damaged shown in the above post is still in the carburetor and does work, although I would like to remove and replace with a nice, non-damaged jet.

A potential radiator replacement and water pump replacement is coming in the future.

 

Carburetors can be difficult to work on these days, I even have a hard time finding rebuild kits, let alone good literature on how to tune them well.
I had an old 84 corolla LE, and the carburetor would choke up when it was warm, long story short we ended up throwing a Weber on it and never looked back.

If your carb is still giving you problems, is that an option you would consider?

Loved reading what you have so far, looking forward to more.

 

I haven't spent much time updating my own thread!

I have been too busy seeing what everyone else is up to.

I do still have some problems with my carburetor, but looking back on when I rebuilt it, I thought I knew how these carburetors work.

It turns out, I didn't fully understand how the Aisan carburetors work, or even have the right tools to properly rebuild it.

The Factory Aisan carburetor is certainly more complicated than a Weber and also works a little differently. Even with the problems I have had with the factory carburetor, I still think it is the better carburetor.

The Aisan carburetor has the ability to compensate for changing environmental conditions that the Weber can't.

I have bought a spare carburetor (even numbers matching carburetor model) that I can start rebuilding without being rushed to get my truck back on the road. I also hope to find out what causes the mysterious fuel bowl drain problem that people have had with these carburetors too.

I have both the Factory Repair Manual and the Toyota "Technician's Handbook" for Toyota Carburetors that both help explain how theses carburetors work and how they are supposed to be adjusted.

As an update to my previous post, I did replace my radiator with another CSF over the Summer and is working fine!


This Truck has been my daily driver for the past 10 or so years and is starting to get tired mechanically. I started a thread a while back about my #3 spark plug fouling and I have just been keeping a spare set of spark plugs to replace every oil change to keep them fresh. The reason I have not fixed this issue is I know that I will have to tear into the engine, and basically open up a can of worms. This truck still has its original timing chain, and would be smart to change out at the same time. For some reason (still unknown to me) the head gasket blew and sent coolant into the engine when the Truck only had 50,000 miles on it, about 12 years ago. My dad owned it at the time and all he could tell me is that the engine started running ruff, so he drove it to a local shop to have them check it out. Having the head gasket blow at such an early mileage still doesn't sit well with me. If I am going to go as far as trying to diagnose my fouled spark plug problem, and replace the timing chain, I might as well take the rest of the engine apart and see the health of the rest of the engine. I haven't been able to afford the downtime to do all of that.......yet.

My mom has been looking at getting a new Honda sometime this year and said that she would simply give me her old car: a 2003 Honda Civic LX Sedan 5-speed manual.

The Civic has been in the family since new and I know all of the service history as well as its current issues (oil leaks and one bad door lock actuator).

My current plan is to keep driving my Truck until my mom gets her new car, then her old 2003 Civic will become my new daily driver.

At that point, my Truck will be free to stay in the garage where I can work on it for extended lengths of time, which I have never had the luxury of doing before.

Once my Truck is freed from its daily driver duties, I will be going over just about everything from the fuel system, to engine, to transmission, to electrical, to suspension and brakes (suspension bushings are looking pretty tired!).

While I don't plan on doing a complete "frame-off" restoration, I do want the truck to drive like new and have the like new reliability that I have always enjoyed from these old Toyotas.

My parents were not expecting me to drive this truck for more than a couple of years, mainly because they thought it may break down, and that would be the end of it, but this truck has just kept on going, despite its issues.

The only time the truck left me "stranded" is when the over 10 year old battery finally died (stranded is in quotes because I was at a Starbucks that is a 10 minute walk from my house).

That is all for now.

 

Great update Jake, I'd love to get "stranded" at Starbucks. Only time my truck left me "stranded" was when a ujoint broke on rear driveshaft and left me stuck on the side of the Florida Turnpike for a few hours waiting for AAA to come tow me home.

Sounds like your truck is going to get some major attention here as soon as your mother hands over that Honda Civic. I drive a Honda Accord, a 2005 and honestly that thing has been a great car, not at fun as the 4Runner, but reliable.

 

The Honda Civic has been a great car and also very reliable.

I have been doing engine oil changes and basic light bulb replacements on this car for the last 5 years, so I am already familiar with it, plus being an early 2000s car, it isn't too complicated to work on.

 

Hummmm....

I went to go start my Truck this morning, and being a fairly cold morning just above freezing, it took two tries to start. I haven't driven the truck for two days and my carburetor does have a mild case of the mysterious fuel bowl drain problem, so one crank to get the fuel bowl back up to the proper level and another to start. That wasn't too surprising, but while on the first crank, I noticed that the engine skipped once per revolution of cranking: the classic sound of low / no compression on one cylinder. On the second crank, the engine sounded normal, and started with no misfires.

I went to buy some new shoes and then came back. Everything seemed normal and the Truck started right back up when I came out of the store.

My initial thought is that a valve is hanging up briefly, as I cannot think of another reason for compression to low and then come back. Oh, and I did not see any signs of a bad head gasket.

I plan on running a compression test and then a leak down test if I can identify the offending cylinder, but if the valve seals nicely when it isn't hanging up, I might have to wait until I hear the skipping while cranking to find which cylinder it is.

I would not be too surprised if it is cylinder #3, which is the same cylinder that keeps fouling its spark plug.

 

Updates?

 

Update coming next weekend! A lot has happened and yet almost nothing has happened since my last update. Stay tuned.

 

...and?