79UglyIgor

Ok I did it, bought me a 79' TK with a 20R and "supposedly"108k miles. Guy had Bill of sale where he bought it 20 years ago from his cousin (did have same last name) and that guy bought it off the lot. so im taking the 108k with a grain of salt, might be 208k. they sold it to a nephew who needed a vehicle in 2011 and got it back a couple years after that kid went druggie and trashed it.

It has a new Alt, Motor mounts, rear axel all in last 2 years. has new Master Cil, starter, shocks/struts within last 10 years. and some super rugged type paint job = ugly as sin. It has been dubbed "Igor" but as i only need somthing to keep me warm through the winter ( my other ride is a motorcycle) it will do. Only $600 investment so far.

Replaced a couple essentials. Wiper blades, 2 used/new to me tires, radiator cap.

Washed engin compartment. (knocked loose Temp sending gauge wire i think, .... got to find it and find where to connect it)

Now things i want to do for minimal investment to make the truck a little less likely to fall apart / more comfortable.

Drivers seat is despicable in regards to comfort ,.... what will swap right in from junk yard? will i need to cut / weld rails to new seat?? should i just try to refinish the foam? Im open to spending $100 to just get a replacement i can just bolt in. (also seat belt docent lock when yanked on ,.... probably going to switch it out too.)

Front passenger side quarter panel needs replaced as does the part of frame holding front head light ( im ok with a cut weld in whats right type thing)

Back of bed is messed up and i have a couple 2x6 for a tail gate. Bumper is MIA but the frame is not jacked up there so thats good. Solution Replace bed off similar make/model? find new rear bumper in any cond. if not at least the mount arms and bolts.

hood rattles when on highway so im going to put a pin kit on to make sure its stable. either that or buy the adjustable things with rubber stoppers if they can be found. ( suggestions)

When the heat is on i can feel the heat @ dash or at bottom but the blower fan when running ,.... the air is not hot ...... do i have a valv thats not directing the air right?? what do i need to do to trouble shoot this?? PO put a block of wood in center area where vent housing should be. .... will put pics up soon.

Left rear wheel squeeks ( might need to do rear brakes)

Breaks feel a little spungy ( need to bleed to check for air)

Dash lights did work but quit (the light so you can speedo tac. etc in dark. break light and oil lights all light up fine on start.

Tach dosent work ( it cable or electric? how should i diagnos)

No clue what fuse goes to what ( Diagram would be handy)
Can you upgrade fuse block to newer type easily ( Cost? )

All i can say is it drives great and other than the seat being a pain i like it so far. any pointing, yelling or throwing me in the right direction would be appreciated.

Pics To come soon.

83

Early 90's Honda and Acura seats fit well. Nothing "bolts right up", but they're the closest you'll find. I took the seat rails off my original truck seats, and put them on the new seats (Honda). It only took drilling one hole in each seat rail to make them fit on the new seats. After that, they bolted right up. No drilling or modifications to the cab floor, just the seat rails.

The heat in these things sucks. The center vent will pretty much only blow outside air, along with the ball vents on each side of the dash. Some heat settings let more cold air in than others. Defrost is a good setting. But the valve that allows coolant to flow through the firewall into the heater core may not be opening. Or your heater core could be clogged.

Tach is electric.

RobotMoose

iTrader: (1)

I second everything here.
It's very easy to bolt the OEM seat rails onto a new seat, but it might take some in-boarding with metal plates if the replacements are wide. I think 83's motorhome thread shows how he did it. I can't recall the other thread, but another member ran horizontal track of 1/4" plate steel across the rear mounting nutserts of their floor and used carriage bolts to attach the seat tracks to that, sparing the floor from undue drilling. The best thing about these trucks is that if you're even only slightly handy, you can fit nearly any seat from a mid-sized car or truck in there, and they'll be fine. To-date, I've run APC racing buckets (bleh) and now have a bench from a Ranger in mine. Both installs took about 40 minutes.

The heat is... a lot like getting sneezed on by a squirrel, but things can be done to help! Heater cores are lint traps and after 30+ years of life most are packed full. It's a weekend's project but extracting and replacing the core is very do-able. You can also install a beefier blower motor with very little effort (I have one from an 06 Corolla that will peel your face off at high settings.)

If I can add anything to this, just know that these trucks are noisy as heck. They're just like a giant tuna can: they echo road noise and the sounds of a loud R series engine or screaming transmission bearing. I sometimes go for long drives with earplugs on-hand.

Good luck, and welcome to the disease!

kawazx636

iTrader: (3)

I second the Honda/Acura seats or you can go with aftermarket seats.

Good luck trying to find a decent bed. I've been searching for nearly two years with absolutely no luck at all. I have ended up paying over $2,500 for a fiberglass bed from Toyota fiberglass. And you might have to fab a rear bumper as they are fairly rare too.

Passenger side quarter panel? You mean fenders? You can get aftermarket fenders from several different sources for fairly cheap.

I would stick with the factory fuse panel unless you know what you are doing with wiring. I've had no problems with mine.

Temp sending unit is located on the side of the intake manifold just infront of the thermostat housing.

Check the fuse for the dash lights first, then check the bulbs, then check the dimmer switch and then check the headlamp combination switch on the column. Sometimes the contacts on there can get a little corroded and cause failure.

The tach is electrical. Check the connections on the ignition box and then check the connection on the back of the gauge cluster.

You can take apart the heat core and clean it out fairly easily. I have really good heat in my truck, but I plan on doing mine soon since I'm doing a full restore.

Everything on these trucks rattles and squeaks, it's something that you may have to get used to.

Good luck and Welcome to YotaTech! Oh, and don't forget to post pics!

79UglyIgor

So i am sure many of you will cry when you see how ugly this thing is ,.... i see potential. As i said above mainly looking for a winter vehicle but if i have found a reliable vehicle im willing to invest a few $$ to make it a little nicer. or even find a donor body that has no motor / tranny and make the transplant. so far i like it.

I did throw a radio in but its not "installed" yet. speaker is sitting in the glove box that was taped shut when i got it. :-/

I have a few things im curious about. i have a little blue spade connector on pass side of motor by 2 green connectors,.... what might i check that it goes to.

on right side of motor threes a wire that has the grounding braided web that goes to the distributor. do i need to ground it (add a leg of wire to it and ground it?

also im in GA and there's no emissions on any vehicle older than 86 or 87. so would it behoove me to get rid of some of these vacuum lines and crap?

funny thing dash lights came back last night ,.... then went out again when i started again ,.... and on next trip back on again ...... so issue is intermittent

This weekends project ,..... Build something for radio to sit on ,.... Flush coolant,... find darn squeak in drivers side rear brake and bleed all brakes and install tag light and tap into tail light.

maybe next week get new seat and seatbelt, anybody try to install a heated seat? i can weld and did some work on my old 84 944 porsche seat without setting it on fire so ill do what it takes to get a new seat appreciate the suggestions. im intrigued by the bench seat idea ,...... hmmmmm. found i need some bondo for behind the driver seat. rusted through in couple places. hit it with stop rust paint and bondo it closed :-)


More photos can be seen at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fa8pdhs6h5dllf7/qKbLZdlMqX

kawazx636

iTrader: (3)

Is this the blue connector you are talking about?



If so, it's for you CMH (Cold mixture heater) that is on the underside of your intake manifold. It's not really necessary for most people.

If you are looking to get rid of you emissions, I created a thread that shows you everything that you need to do to de-smog your engine. Here's the link:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f114...torial-264405/

79UglyIgor

It is not that one, a pic in the link above. It's the 14th photo.

RobotMoose

iTrader: (1)

your truck looks to be in halfway decent shape. It's a little gem!

kawazx636

iTrader: (3)

Oh that one, I think it's the oil pressure dummy light sensor. It goes on the sending unit on the passenger side of the block right behind the oil filter. Here's a pic (it's to the left of where the oil filter would be in this pic):

83Toyota88

iTrader: (1)

I don't know about you guys but my heat is killer. I run it just barely on the hot side of the dash lever. I can get heat out of the defrost or the floor vents and it is plenty of heat.

Also 83 good idea with the swapping seat brackets. I might look into that with my chevy seats.

79UglyIgor

A picture is worth 1000 words. that was a ton of help any chance on a similar picture for the temperature sending unit and tachometer connection place?

( iv been scouring the internet looking for a PDF of a full repair manual without hafting to pay big $$ to automated database sites that are just there to generate $ .


This is the first vehicle i have not been successful with



NEW UPDATE: Just got off the phone with a guy going to send me a weber 32/36 thats been sitting on a shelf comes with adapter plate for $40. came off a 20r. should i just buy a gasket re-build kit? what else do i need to look for? want to make it like new before i put it on.

83

No digital pre-85 FSM for any Toyota that I know of, except for ones that individual people have personally scanned.

There's one on this site for 1983 pickups. That's the closest I know of.

83Toyota88

iTrader: (1)

Here is a pic that has the tach hook up. In the top right corner you see the ignition coil and there is a bright green plug that has a red wire going to it. That green plug is the hookup for your tach.

[IMG][/IMG]

Also here is the link for the FSM:

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f114...wnload-261385/

83

Here's what mine looked like. The difference is that if yours is stock, it might look different...

When I switched clusters from one without a tach to one with a tach, I had to run this wire myself. So yours will likely not be a blue wire, and might look a bit different...but this is one of the places the signal comes from, anyways.

You're looking at right in between the ingnition coil and brake booster, basically.

79UglyIgor

That's great!! going to check it out tomorrow when I do the antifreeze.

79UglyIgor

well thermostat is working again. That's a +

Flushed out radiator. That went as expected, easy as pie. Put in some water wetter too.




I took the passenger seat out, found some rust. And a original Toyota vinyl for documents =) painted up with rust inhibitor and installed a battery bracket / cleaned up some wires.




No pic after I painted. Working on it again tomorrow.

79UglyIgor

So i posted yesterday but somehow it did not save/post :-/ so here i go again, hope i can rem,ember everything.

I travel out of town a lot and have been out for about 3/4 weeks and only back for a day or two between jobs.

So iv done some searching on the forums and even other forums had have had crap luck finding detailed electrical for the 79 Model.

#1 Have a radiator hose leak on the left side of the motor that goes from the motor up to the carb. its only a pin hole and i have it patched ATM but i want to replace it. Who carries a OEM replacement? i tried Auto Zone, Advanced and O'rileys and all with no luck.

#2 driver side floor board has been real wet, I noticed some fluid coming from rod connecting to clutch peddle and i have had to top off / fill slave cylinder 3 times in about a month with very light driving. Does that = need to replace clutch, replace slave cylinder? I probably have a leak letting water in also (wet carpet) where should i look?

#3 my running lights have a short or similar, not blowing fuses but was working intermittently then not at all. I replaced the relay thinking since it looked original that had to be it ,.... ($20 ) and it still does not work. so i ran a power line from 12v to under passenger side seat where wires come into cab and made it so i can manually connect it there and the lights all work ,.... but would like to trace wires and find out where its messed up. alas the need for a wiring diagram.


I really appreciate all the help you guys give and help in pointing me in the right direction. the ability to come to a fourm that is so knowlegable and to lear from others who have been through trial and error is such a blessing. Hope everyone is having a great day and Happy Christma-hanna-quansi-ca . :-)


hope the image uploads correctly.




hose with a patch on it.

83

Try the dealership for the coolant hose.

For the leak...if it's brake fluid, then yeah, it could be your master cylinder leaking. If that's the case, replace it now! Brake fluid is super corrosive and will not help your rust problem. Slave cylinder (or the more PC "clutch release cylinder ) can't be filled and is the one attached to your transmission.

For a wiring diagram, your best bet is to try to find a Factory Service Manual (FSM), which is pretty important to have for this truck anyways. Or find someone on this site with one and ask them very nicely to scan and email or post a copy of the wiring schematic for you.

79UglyIgor

yes it is brake fluid but it is not the main resivior, its the smaller one to the right , i am pretty sure it has to do with the clutch operation correct? yeah ,... need a FSM ,... all other vehicles i have found a PDF like 600MB ,.... this truck ,.... is a PITA to find anything on it.

As far as the hose,.... what is it called / part number so when i talk to the dealer i can say i need a "__________" . if you know great if not ,,... .well i hope someone chimes in :-P

dsal_86Yota

Great find. Looks like a good little truck. Id like to find one of those 2wd 79-83, When I find a 1st gen 4x4 they usually want 2000+ even if it isnt running. Did find a 83 4x4 for 500 not far from me but didnt have the money wife would have prob shot me for getting it tho lol