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Just got back from family vacation in the Mediterranean. We took a cruise out of Barcelona that hit France and Italy. Naturally, i wanted to see their cars as much as other points of interest. Here’s a 5 minute video slideshow of the cars. Missed one very cool Nissan Patrol on a highway in Italy. Couldn't get the camera ready quick enough.
Major accomplishment today, our second day of 95+ degrees here in the Boston area. My son and i got the A/C working!
He swapped in a new blower resistor from Rock Auto and installed an A/C belt from Autozone. Then i hooked a can of R12 with a hose from ebay to the low side and the compressor kicked on and began to produce cold air! I emptied the first can, then fed in a second one that has leak detection dye in it. Not that I am going to be able to do much about a leak if it happens, but retrofit the whole system for R134.
We took a victory drive with the A/C blowing strong and even snapped down the soft top for the full effect. Even the AC idle up valve works and the truck peed on the ground like it was supposed to. I don’t have gauges to put on, but don't see bubbles in the sight glass and the lines are cold/warm as explained in the FSM, no strange noises/smells either, so I’m calling it good. So happy!
Only weird thing, the A/C switch light doesn’t work. I thought this was working before though the AC wasn’t so we’ll look into that soon.
Last edited by Melrose 4r; Jul 21, 2019 at 06:08 PM.
Just got back from family vacation in the Mediterranean. We took a cruise out of Barcelona that hit France and Italy. Naturally, i wanted to see their cars as much as other points of interest. Here’s a 5 minute video slideshow of the cars. Missed one very cool Nissan Patrol on a highway in Italy. Couldn't get the camera ready quick enough. https://youtu.be/kuhlzenhY6g
No way, we were in italy at the same time!
Cool slideshow! My wife was happy to see all the "cute" little citroens and fiats
Wasnt happy with last year’s bike rack situation. I had a 2” hitch that bolted to the chrome step bumper but loaded up it flexed the bumper a lot.
So i bought a Curt hitch for a pickup and modified it to fit. More mods will be required to get the bumper mounted back up but thats for another day. My son and i have a camping/whitewater trip coming up in a couple weekends.
Last edited by Melrose 4r; Aug 14, 2019 at 10:45 AM.
Last week i scored some vertigo SR5 seats off Craigslist. They are in good shape but need a cleaning. I unbolted the bottom cushions to put the best on the driver’s side. They guy had replaced these with some in better condition from an 88 or 89 and misplaced the headrests so had to keep the vertigo ones.
I can use my vinyl ones temporarily. Not a bad deal at $100 for the set of 4. Will make a separate post about these.
Finn the cat checks it out.
Last edited by Melrose 4r; Aug 12, 2019 at 06:49 PM.
Had to mod the hitch to mount well to the frame and weld up a new bottom piece to convert my bike rack from 1-1/4” to 2”, but now its rock solid.
Saturday the boy and I headed west to Charlemont MA for a father/son roadtrip whitewater rafting, biking and camping. The truck performed great and was right at home on the rural roads. I was happy because this is the kind of adventure I rebuilt this truck for. My only complaint is the steering still seems too sloppy on the highway so i’ve ordered a new OEM Toyota rag joint. Will post an update when i get it in.
Got the new Toyota rag joint(steering coupler) in the mail and was very excited.
Until i realized that this is not like mine at all. Mine has a ujoint between the rag joint and steering box. And the lugs are larger. What gives?
I tried pressing out the lug bolts on the old one and that worked but not on the new one.
i found another one on ebay that looks correct and includes the u-joint but lists it is for 89 and up trucks.
What should i do about this? I don’t like my truck being down. I guess i’ll have to put it back together the way it was and buy the 89& up part.
I sure would like to hear from anybody who’s been through this.
So as i was driving to work Wednesday morning, the automatic trans in the daily driver Honda Crv started to whine and eventually “failed to proceed”. It had been acting funny for a while so i wasn’t surprised. It only had 255k on the original fluid...It’s off at a very reputable trans shop being replaced now.
I had to put the 4runner steering coupler back together with the original parts so i could drive to work with it yesterday and today. Great weather for it. I love driving my 4runner but will have to get the right steering coupler and start that job over because it really needs it.
Last weekend got my hard top back on for the winter with the help of a couple friends.
Then decided to swap out my 190* thermostat for 195* more for an experiment than any other reason.
My temp gauge always points at the leg of the P in “TEMP” and doesn’t really vary at all. I just wanted to see if it would
throw more heat with the 195*. Not a real noticeable difference. Longer term evaluation required. Gauge still reads about the same.
I haven’t driven it much since October but noticed the idle was getting a little rough at stop lights. It would smooth out ok with a little more rpm.
So i pulled all the plugs, cap and rotor for a look. They all looked more worn than i expected but consistent so that’s good. Odometer is at 190.5k miles now and i think i put them in when i first got the truck, 178k iirc. So that’s 12k5 at least, really about 13,750 due to 10% odometer error because of the oversized tires. Ok, i talked myself into it, truck gets new plugs for Christmas!
Now i wonder about the radiator cap/cheap plastic radiator which leaks. The truck always takes a long time to heat up when idling. Faster when under load driving, but still what i consider slow on cold days.
Last edited by Melrose 4r; Nov 28, 2019 at 02:54 PM.
Last weekend got my hard top back on for the winter with the help of a couple friends.
Then decided to swap out my 190* thermostat for 195* more for an experiment than any other reason.
My temp gauge always points at the leg of the P in “TEMP” and doesn’t really vary at all. I just wanted to see if it would
throw more heat with the 195*. Not a real noticeable difference. Longer term evaluation required. Gauge still reads about the same.
I haven’t driven it much since October but noticed the idle was getting a little rough at stop lights. It would smooth out ok with a little more rpm.
So i pulled all the plugs, cap and rotor for a look. They all looked more worn than i expected but consistent so that’s good. Odometer is at 190.5k miles now and i think i put them in when i first got the truck, 178k iirc. So that’s 12k5 at least, really about 13,750 due to 10% odometer error because of the oversized tires. Ok, i talked myself into it, truck gets new plugs for Christmas!
Now i wonder about the radiator cap/cheap plastic radiator which leaks. The truck always takes a long time to heat up when idling. Faster when under load driving, but still what i consider slow on cold days.
i have been running the same plugs, cap, rotor and wires for about 70k miles. denso, summitomo from the dealership. the wires should be good for a decade, we’ll see about the plugs.
Its worth mentioning that the idle control screw o-ring will deteriorate over time and can cause your idle problem you described here. Its worth checking out as it is easy to get to.
Its worth mentioning that the idle control screw o-ring will deteriorate over time and can cause your idle problem you described here. Its worth checking out as it is easy to get to.
That's a good point. I would adjust mine and a few miles later it would high idle again. I read here about it a long time ago. You can wrap the screw with Teflon tape or get a new O ring. I just got a beefier screw plus a free decal for about $20 from LCE Performance. It solved the problem. It;s been a couple of years. https://www.lceperformance.com/22RE-...yABEgI8Q_D_BwE
Thanks, guys. I was fortunate enough to find a new o-ring for that idle screw in with a bunch of new parts the previous owner gave me. I installed it about 2 years ago. I recently did the plugs, cap and rotor and adjusted the idle screw about a quarter turn and its just fine now but sitting in the garage until the roads are clear again.
Jul 18, 2019 | 03:45 AM
