New member with a "new" truck
 

Hello,
I just sold my 1990 Celica and moved here from Celicatech and bought a 1980 4X4 short bed. Its rust free (I did some magic to find this in Indiana, and I paid for it...) with 126,xxx miles, beige paint, two dents, a straight body and everything except for the butcher job on getting speakers into the door panels and the not quite as bad stereo job (except for the exposed wiring). So far I've done nothing except drive it 3 hours home, then 3 more to my other home. The alternator died so I'm doing a GM 3 wire swap (with a 60 amp so I don't overcharge anything) because I'd rather not have to replace the alt, vr, maybe some fuse wires, and charge relay since I have no charge light on ignition. Would a burnt out bulb render the circuit incomplete?
Thanks for any help guys and I'll probably be on here a lot, it needs a bit of carb work and de-smogged (it couldn't be harder than tuning a 4 carb bike...). Oh and I paid $2,750, how bad did I do? That's about the going rate for them where I live if they're in one piece. Let me know if I need to move this thread too.

Welcome to YT dude.., hang tight your question will be answered shortly. Post some pics :)

Per the rules on the front page new introductions followed by questions will only be answered with pics of your truck, detailed pics. Interior, exterior only then will your questions be considered.

For an introduction you just need 1 pic, but with a question attached you need a minimum of 10 pics with a high megapixel camera with good lighting and preferably good scenery behind it.....

Actually all that was a load of crap, but I would like to see some pics and welcome:)

Hahaha, I'll try and get some pictures up as soon as possible guys.

I sat and read all that bull S*** thinking wtf then I read the bottom... Man you even got me on that one...

It was pretty good I must say:) but every intro I'm like oooo oooo nice what's this guy got? to be let down with just text, it's preposterous I tell ya:)

They're not HiRes or in an awesome location, but here you guys go. That spot on the bed is the worst rust, you can see my dash crack, and the mangled door panel (the other side is the same way but the speaker is still in there), and my other toy the 1977 Kawasaki KZ650. Oh, and my Celica, which I had for six or seven years and kinda miss.
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Where is the best place to get a replacement shifter bushing? I would rather not have to hope for fourth gear every time I shift from third.

Marlin Crawler.


And I LOVE your wheels and hub caps..

I want a set for my truck.

nice truck those wheels and hub caps are sweet...

i got my shifter seats from marlin

Thanks, I ended up going to my local dealership for the L43 bushings since they were a bit cheaper and I didn't have to pay for shipping. I'll let you know how my three wire alternator swap goes.

Stock wheels AND hubcaps. WOW. Nice find. Good price.

Yes you did well. Original trucks are hard to find especially back east/ mid-west. And it's anSr5... Keep it covered, or the cancer will spread... Congrats good luck..

absolutely!!! now be prepared to be a yotatech addict!! nice truck,and welcome.oh ,and no,a burnt bulb should be just that ,a burnt bulb, unless its a turn signal and then it wont flash in the truck.check your grounds first,and have your alt checked.

Schlobeck, I thought the SR5 came with gauges, or was it just an option package (tach, tilt steering, ect.)? Also, I plan on sanding down every speck of surface rust I see and painting it with "matching" spray paint until I can get it painted. Any tips on keeping it low on rust? And I'm a tiny bit concerned about that bed seam in the picture, how should I take care of that.

Cman1, after reading all the stories about chasing electrical gremlins on the charging system, I'm just going to convert over to a gm 3 wire. That being said I know one heavy gauge wire goes to the battery, a smaller one also goes there or jumps into that wire to tell the alt what the system load is, but the third wire needs ignition power and I'm not sure where to hook it up. Any ideas? I'll do some more searching before my parts arrive anyway.

I know I'll be a yotatech addict, I've been here and all over other forums since the day I got the truck.

Nice Truck!! I always think the round headlights are smiling lol. She needs a little work but I am envious of the hubcaps and the headlights!!

As for keeping it low on rust a good removal and then protecting it with paint should help quite a lot. When I get down to bare metal with rust I use an acid etch from eastwood and that finishes off the rust for good. I had some pitting in that seam (you can see it in the thread rattle time) and I did the best I could on it.

So my alternator swap went mostly pain free except for the 30 minutes of trying to figure out how to actually get the old alternator out since I have power steering, I ended up having to rock the engine over and finagle my steering joint until I just barely had clearance to slide it though. I even managed to get my charge light to work, which I'm super happy about.

My next project is tires, then fixing the wonky high idle problem, and then rust prevention. About the tires, I'm thinking about getting some TreadWrights, but since I have the stock rims my options are the stock replacement 235/75/15
https://www.treadwright.com/p-23-235-75r15-atg-p.aspx
Or something a bit larger 30/9.50R15
https://www.treadwright.com/p-6-30-9-50r15-puma-c.aspx

Which do you guys think would be a better idea? The truck is my only four wheeled vehicle but I don't drive it all that much and when I use a tire size calculator there isn't that much of a difference between the stock ones and the 30's. Thanks for any input.

*Edit*
They do offer Warden's in 15s but I feel like 31s will be too big for a stock vehicle. They look good though.

31s are fine,you can go up to a 33x10.5x15 with a 3 3/4 backspacing with a stock truck safely.

Here's a walk through for anybody doing the GM alternator swap, I don't know where else to put it:

http://toyotatrekker.proboards.com/t...&scrollTo=5270

thats a real "nas" find. it's certainly in fair better (rust) shape than my pickemup.