My old truck. 1987 Toyota 4x4

So here goes. Sorry if this doesn't flow well, but I'm not operating on much sleep

So on day 18, I think I've stumbled on the problem. The piston seems too small for the bore. I initially think my engine must have a .020" over bore done, buuuuuuuut the STD size ring gap is good, so measuring ensues. The piston I removed is 3.62" almost on the money (I think it waS 3.62301...").

Begin day 19:

I give the old piston a good looking over and decide I could probably salvage it. The top is pock-marked from the spark plug core, but 99% of the damage is cosmetic. The top compression ring groove was scrunched in one spot slightly and pinches the piston ring a bit, but I think I can work with that.

Actually, I almost HAVE to work with that because I' m getting dangerously low on funds after all this oil pan dropping, and topping back off (figure: gasket, oil, and gasket sealer every time I've had this apart) and it's all adding up.

So I get a set of swiss files and take off most of the burrs that are causing the pinching. I only do as much as is necessary to get the ring into the groove, I then take off any remaining friction by inserting the largest chunk of ring into the groove and rocking it back and forth until it's smooth. This is some "Mississippi Institute of Technology" stuff right here:

All in all it's done to my satisfaction, and all is good. I make the promise to Mrs. Hungary that I will devote my full and undivided attention to the birthday party this weekend, and all the preparations necessary (clean, mow the yard, etc). As an added bonus for my good behavior my choke coil arrived in the mail:

Yay!

Day 20 (May 21st)

Well, as they say "Promise in one hand, poop in the other..."

For the last couple of days I've been thinking the passenger rear wheel of the Impala has been a bit "out of balance". I've been getting a bit of vibration at highway speeds. Since my focus was on the Toyota, I put the tire balancing in "I'll get to it later". On the way home from work that "vibration" continued in to much lower speeds (like 30mph).

I'm thinking I might be losing an axle bearing.

When I got home I make like an Autocross tech inspector and grab the top of the tire and pull and push. I can get some feedback on the driver's side, but figure it's probably the good side. I can get a bit more movement on the passenger side and interpret this to mean that I was correct in my bearing assumption. I figure I can't risk another drive to work. The bearing is quiet now, and might just be a simple "in and out" job. If I smoke check it, I figure I'll be looking at a new axle. Gluh. This means the Toyota needs to run tonight, and it needs to run well enough out of the box to get me to and from work for the foreseeable future.

Kid to bed at 8:00, asleep by 8:30. By 8:31 I've already got my hands dirty. No time for pictures, but no point really. This is all familiar ground by now.

By 10:00pm I've got the piston changed out for the original one, and the pan is going back up. During the install I realized I forgot to put the c-clips on the wrist pin (caught it before the piston went in. shwew!)

By 12:00 midnight I'm pouring in fluids and bolting up the exhaust.

Open headers, no hood? No way. By now I've sacrificed enough blood to this engine to please the gods. My hands look like I got in a boxing match with a tar-covered cheese grater.

By 12:30 I'm priming the oil pump and putting the hood back on.

My test drive ends successfully and I'm cleaned up, changed, and in bed by 12:50am. This has to be some sort of record (and that was left handed )

Anyone taking a 22r celica to chump-car? If you need a pit crew, I'm your guy

Up at 6:30am to get the kid ready for school , birthday preparation starts immediately after. Man, I wish all my late night wrenching sessions went so smooth.

Sea-trials for the truck begin in 4.5 hours. No more "around the blocks" it's sink or swim time. If this doesn't work, I seriously need to consider bailing out.

I'd say something positive but I don't want to jinx you...so I hope all goes well!

fingers crossed!

Day 21 (today)

So did she make it? berkeley yeah she did, and here's the proof!

Engine runs smooth and feels a little sluggish at first, but is definitely working as it should. I can get a little blue smoke out the exhaust if I do a long gear drag (I'm trying to avoid keeping the engine at a set RPM for too long). If I drag fifth from 65 down to 55 (figure a 8-count) I can get some blue smoke, when I get on the gas again it goes away. I'm thinking this is not an internal problem, but more of a carburetor issue.

The choke doesn't open. Last night I hooked up the new coil and let it sit with 12v and it never moved. Even with the truck very near its operating temperature. I'll have to look into this too.

Small oil leak out of the top-front timing cover. Seems like a big job for such a small leak, so I may just add oil for the time being (4-drips after a 17-mile drive)

Had a soccer mom dry to muscle into traffic in her late 90's Chevy pickup when I made room for a work truck pulling a trailer. It turns out driving a half-beat to crap truck has it's benefits

Rear brake squeals a bit, but it might be just a little dirty. Brakes could use a good bleed.

No driver's side window

The seat that's installed doesn't belong in this year of pickup so the rear bolts don't line up with their holes.

Slight steering pull to the right.

Passenger grill amber light is missing. I have some "amber tape" in the form of a light, but it's not going to pass muster if someone looks close.

(I think it's time to start looking for a donor vehicle)

Today, I feel like this:

I am so terribly confused about which day is which.

Glad to hear the truck made it, though, to work. Whenever that was. Or is.

Oh and berkeley this berk:

berkeley that berk right in its berkeleying wrist pin.

Want to know what it measured? (same calipers. Stock 22r is 3.62, old piston measured 3.623...)

I wonder if I can get my money back?

Like ya'll said, next time I'll know what piston slap sounds like

On a slightly less irritated note: I'm amazed at how little difference there is in overall diameter with a bore job! I mean, I guess I should have figured it out, but what I just experienced was the difference of .020" or a standard 1st over. Even at maximum bore (1mm on this engine) there's seriously not much diameter added! Now that seems like a lot of money to add 1/2mm on each side of the piston really... Nice learning experience there.

tuna55 wrote: I am so terribly confused about which day is which. Glad to hear the truck made it, though, to work. Whenever that was. Or is.

sorry, edited for clarity (I still blame the lack of sleep)

Stupid POS lightning piston!

Berk yeah!

Go have a victory beer after work. While doing your ace ventura impression. Bonus points for the hair and pictures of you doing it.

Mezzanine: I was just measuring at the crown, I didn't even think to measure down the sleeve. I'll have to get the calipers out and see what the lightening piston measures down it's skirt. Next time I'll know better.

In other news the brakes stopped squealing. Way back when... I used to work at a Nissan dealership as a lot attendant. The mechanics used to have be "burn in" new brakes. This consists of three hard stops from a quick first gear or low second gear run. For giggles I "burned in" my old brakes and must have cooked whatever gunk was in there right on out.

I also now have a matching set of 4-rims/tires on the car (went to the auto hobby shop and used their tire machine to clean out the bead on the one that didn't seat).

The bad news is, I still can't get this choke to open with voltage applied... I think it might be because someone is using a nail as a "fast idle control rod" (do you have any idea how many parts breakdowns I had to go through to find that name?)

It's bent really nice, but I'm willing to bet the standard control rod keeps things much tighter. Also the choke wont close all the way, it refuses to close the last 1/4" or so unless I push it with my finger. I'm blaming the nail for that too, but really this is the first Weber I've ever owned. (except the Edelbrock Performer 600cfm on my old Chevy truck... IIRC those are made by Weber)

I brought the choke control assy into my "shop" but couldn't see anything obviously wrong with it.

After that it was just some adjusting of the throttle cable. Now this beast has telepathic throttle response!

oh hey! I stuck my head underneath the truck while it was on the lift (for the tire) and wouldn't you know? Flowmaster exhaust! That wasn't there before...

Which ties in perfectly with this one time... I was about to deploy on my second cruise (this time aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, as the Constellation was decommissioned) and I was going to miss my truck. So what does one do? Well, I don't know about you, but I dropped all the exhaust aft of the hollowed out catalytic converter and bought one of those mini-cassette recorders from Radio Shack. Then I zip-tied it right above the new exhaust outlet and I helped a friend move his stuff from about 10-miles out of town to a storage unit near base.

For the next 6-months or so, I had some pretty good tunes to fall asleep to

The big question right now is: Does a truck get a new name when you bring her back to life like this?

Not if it's already had a name the first time you owned it.

But id vote for slappy as a name.

Mississippi institute of technology and farm implements, approved.

Man, excellent thrash to get this thing from "pile of junk" to semi-dependable workhorse. That truck's lucky to have you back.

That fast idle control nail is artfully bent. I'm surprised they managed to do all those bends without changing the angle of the rod.

The nail is normal on carb'd vehicles that have been tampered with. My dad had a coffee can in the garage with bent nails he would reuse in it(yes, he was the guy).

Awesome thrash and I'm glad you have it useable!

Thanks everyone

Chiodos:

In that case her name is (still) "Thumper". That's what she was known as during our last go-round.

On a slightly less positive note I went in and did a rear-brake inspection this weekend. It turns out that those "nice tight brakes" I mentioned earlier were artificially engineered.

It all started when that squeal came back... After that I decided I should pop the passenger side drum off and have a look.

That's diff oil, I think.

It was late and I didn't have a spare axle seal so I decided I'd pop off the driver's side and have a look there. That thing was so damn tight I almost couldn't spin the tire by hand!

What I think happened was: Someone noticed the diff leak and adjusted the passenger rear brakes almost all the way in. To compensate for that they adjusted the driver's side drum brake WAY too tight (the dust cover was chewed up from someone prying on it). I backed off the driver's side a bit and put everything back together. No sense fighting it without parts... While there I did a full brake system bleed.

Then I went for a drive. Did you know the "feel" of the pedal at first comes from the adjustment of your back brakes? I didn't!

I thought my master cylinder was bad. I thought the master cylinder was only operating the back brakes and when I adjusted it my foot almost went to the floor with really no feedback! I stopped ok, but I didn't like it one bit.

So I bought a new MC and tossed it in. After another bleed I went down my dirt alley and locked up the brakes to make sure. The feel is better (probably from the new fluid), and the fronts locked up without TOO much effort, but that squeal is still there.

Gluh. Parts on order.

Then I noticed my valve cover was leaking like a boat (new o-ring seal for that)

After that I noticed oil was escaping out of the distributor mating surface (new o-ring there too)

I also noticed that the steering seems much more difficult than it used to!

The power steering pump was completely out of fluid, so I topped that up only to find it's leaking too.

Good times

I think first up will be that axle seal. Then new shoes etc. After that I'll fight the pump leak.

All that aside though? I friggin LOVE driving this beast. It's like a scaled down TANK!

Speaking of power steering... Does anyone know which seal etc might be causing this drip?

The big nut in front seems to be where the fluid is coming from. I didn't know if there was a replaceable seal in there, or if I had to change the whole assy.

Good times

There has got to be some sort of seal where the shaft exits the body.

bottom left. I think I see it referred to as a "Sector Shaft Seal" on the interwebz. Thoughts?

This is my first time tinkering with power steering (or any steering for that matter)

Thanks!

(You know, this truck is needing a lot of work for a vehicle that needed nothing but GAS for almost 10 years...)

Hungary Bill wrote: bottom left. I think I see it referred to as a "Sector Shaft Seal" on the interwebz. Thoughts? This is my first time tinkering with power steering (or any steering for that matter) Thanks! (You know, this truck is needing a lot of work for a vehicle that needed nothing but GAS for almost 10 years...)

That truck never needed anything but gas and oil

and a cylinder head

and some pistons

and new steering gear

and and and and and

Poor thing. I really hope you get it all functional again.

There's probably a standard oil seal in there, might even be able to change it without pulling the box off/apart, just the pitman arm.

I'm scoping the youtubes now

Looks like a sheetrock screw is the hot ticket item when it comes to seal removal.

tuna55 wrote: Poor thing. I really hope you get it all functional again.

I just had to list my old Lee-Enfield for sale on Armslist today. I'm just about out of cash and not quite where I want to be with the truck yet

Quick recap:

• Sold a Ruger Superblackhawk for $480 to fix the Mustang

• sold the Mustang for $2000 to buy the truck

• Bought the truck for $1000 and got a free tow home

• Spent just about $1000 + some Ruger money on god-knows-what to get this beast where she's at now.

• Have just under $100 in my wallet

• Posted Lee-Enfield (SMLE) for sale on Armslist for $320.

Selling one addiction to fund another.

Good times.

it'll probably be called a pitman shaft seal when you go to get it. get a measurement of it with your caliper when you go to get it so you make sure you get the correct one. rock auto lists a bunch of different seals with different names that all sound like they should be it.