Daniel

Hello all, Im a newbie toyota truck owner. Just got an old 1987 toyota 4x2 short bed pickup, for $1100 with 76,000 original miles from the original owner! Its a great little truck and I love it! There are two things wrong with it besides the bed starting to rust, the horn has a short somewhere, the owner put a cheap after market horn in that didnt work, I tried putting a napa horn in and it worked when I put it in then it stopped working then started again! Anyone have any ideas? I need to pass inspection
and everytime I think its gonna work to pass it stops working
The other thing which is probably more serious, the clutch slips when you get on it hard in 3rd and 4th gear, I know it needs a clutch but how long do you think it will last like this?
Thanks in advance
Dan

rimpainter.com

Welcome to the boards.

1. You can narrow the short down to two places: Up front where the "new" horn is, and at the steering wheel itself. Both are very easy to troubleshoot with a multimeter. To pass inspection, you could always get one of those can horns they blow at downhill ski racing events...

2. I had the same problem with my clutch when I first bought my truck. It will last a bit longer, maybe 5K miles, but you run the risk of scoring your flywheel beyond milling capability. My clutch was worn down past the rivets!

I dont know about you, but the last thing I need is my clutch to slip while passing. The way I saw it, is it was a safety hazard.

Get it fixed and start modding!

Cebby

Could be a grounding problem on the horn. Like 96 Runner said, finding the problem with a multimeter should be pretty easy. I'd start with a continuity test from the neg. battery terminal to the neg. horn lead. It might be as simple as a dirty contact in the horn buttom itself.

Welcome to the forum...

Daniel

Thanks for the replies! Im going to go ahead and do the clutch within the next two weeks or so, in the meantime I will check out the ground in the horn, thanks again for the help. Any ideas on simple mods? I think the first thing I would like to do is a body lift and add a set of 15x10 rims and 31inch tires to give it more of a muscular stance like you 4x4 guys and go over the entire bed with por10.

jx94148

Your horn is switched ground. When you push the button the circuit is completed by grounding the current from the horn to the steering wheel. If it were shorting out either the fuse would constantly blow or the horn would blow randomly on its own.

My horn was dead when I got my '87. It turned out to be a little spring loaded brass contact that was worn down preventing contact. There is a brass ring that turns with the steering. The spring loaded contact is on the stationary part of the column and rubs on that ring as it turns. Over time the brass wears away, no more horn. You have to pull off the steering wheel and remove the plastic around the column to get to it.

Victor

To pass inspection in an old car I had I put one of those buttons that you push in to turn on a light - the type that don't rotate to dim the lights. You could also buy a cheap button at radio shack and go for the ricer look by mounting it on the steering wheel. More points if you mark it turbo or supercharger as obviously you have to press a button to make those things work.

Daniel

I think you nailed it jx94148, that would explain why
it would start working out of the blue then when I
drove anywhere it would stop working again. I'll take it
apart this weekend and check it out, thanks again guys

Lol, good one Victor, I think I might have to add a couple hundred large
fake performance parts stickers all over my hood to go with that new
fake boost button (horn), oh and a triple stacked alluminum wing to go on
my tailgate j/k

Daniel

Yep sure enough the horn problem was that little ring under the steering wheel, the contact was worn down, easy fix! The clutch is getting done this week

Todd E

Daniel,
For the bed, that kinda depends on how bad it is.
My bed was rusting through in multiple places in the floor, so it was either get a new metal one, fiberglass, or build one.
I chose to build a wood one (pic).

Check out my webpage for how I did it.
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2dxnp/bedpage.html
As for mods, I don't think a body lift will get you to fit 31's without rubbing.
To help fit larger tires, I suggest swapping on the 4wd fenders (I've done that to my 86 2wd). You will have much less tire rub and I think it looks better
Check out Roger Brown (4crawler) for a body lift.
There are a couple of places that do suspension lifts for these as well, but not many.
Enjoy!
Todd

jx94148

I've heard tales about wooden beds. I thought they would be much rougher than that. That's some nice woodworking skills you have.

I'm glad the horn thing worked out OK.

Todd E

Thanks!
Ya, most of the time I see either stake sided or flatbed wooden beds, but you could say I went a little crazy
I've gotta learn how to weld a bit now.
There's some things that I can't do in wood on my truck!
Todd

Daniel

Wow, that looks like a pretty complex job, almost
like building a boat or something, nice work! Thanks for the heads
up on the tire size and fender well replacement, its something to look into
before I go crazy with tires and stuff. There's a lot of surface rust on the inside of my bed
and the outer rear seams are starting to rust on the back towards the
tailgate which isn't as bad as some ive seen
but it is bad enough thats why I think im just gonna try to clean it up the best
I can and use por10 on it, then eventually get a fiberglass bed when I can.
Its weird because the damn cab and engine bay are near perfect
,the guy actually put a seat cover on it when he bought it so the vinyl and interior
is still in great shape even know this must have been the ultra bare bones no frills
model but thats what gives it so much
character At least ive got AC and a radio!

Todd E

Doh! you've got A/C?
Mine didn't come with it.
I can imagine that you don't have much rust, it hasn't been drivin that much :-)
Have a look at my website to see the mods I've done.
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2dxnp/index.html
I don't have more recent pictures up yet, mainly because it's been cold out, so you won't see my suspension lift yet. I do have shots of my 1" body lift though. I wish I could go taller with the body lift, but the auto tranny limits it.
Enjoy!
Todd

Daniel

Thanks for the link, I would like to see your truck with the lift when you get pics!
My truck is definitely stereo challenged, it has the stock Toyota am fm cassette which
crackles like you wouldn't believe if you raise the volume over like 2! There is room behind the
seat for speaker boxes and under the seat for a power amp so it shouldn't be to hard to
put together a simple system. Yours looks baaaaaaaad!
Its good to know im not the only 2wd guy on here=)

Todd E

Is your's a extracab or regular cab?
If a regular cab, then you'll have to scoot the seat forward a bit to fit a 10" in there with a decent size box. I've done it before with my old Isuzu, but I prefer to have the seat back as faaaar as possible.
As you may have noticed, I have the sub, amp, changer, and capacitors all in the space where my tray was behind the seat. It's very helpful to have something inconspicuous in the city.
I have heard of people making boxes that wrap under the seat to get the interior volume needed for the sub, I haven't seen them though.
As far as the lift goes, I have the Fabtech 3" lift in the front with Sway-A-Way torsion bars, and I'm in process of getting things squared away for the All-Pro 5" lift rear springs (from a 4wd - turns out to be about 4" on a 2wd). I was running Downey 2" lift rear springs for a while, but I had one side breake on me (after about 5 years of use/abuse).
I also have a Roger Brown (4crawler) 1" body lift, which you may have seen on the bed build page.
E-mail me with any questions

Todd

Daniel

Mines a regular cab (bare bones)! Yea I would have to use
some kind of small boxes or something, nothing
real fancy. I dont want to lose too much space
back there and I definately want to be able to push the seat
back all the way.
Well at least the clutch is getting done yeay!!!
Hey Todd, do you know sells toppers for these trucks??
I havent been able to find them online anywhere

Todd E

My topper actually came with it when I bought it.
I'd say go to a local truck accessories place, they can usually order one for you. If you go with an online place, you're looking a truck freight for shipping, and that'd be $pendy.
What kind of seats do you have? (bench, split bench, etc)
If bench or split bench, you could make a thinner box and stretch it the width of the vehicle (for volume). I did something similar with my old isuzu for a while. Sounded decent, and the seat placement wasn't too bad
Todd

Daniel

Yea I did find a place that can get leer toppers, not
sure if im gonna go with a topper yet or a flat cover.
Yea my seat is the bench seat with built in headrests
that are surprisingly perfect height for my head, is it just me
or are those non adjustable headrest's the perfect height?
That thin box sounds like a good idea, now to find the time
to build it among other things:rockband:

Daniel

Well, the clutch is done and this little 22r pulls really really well.
My mechanic said drive train is like new which I already knew,
since I do a lot of my own mechanical work but it was nice to hear.
She pulls better off the line than any other 4 banger ive owned
and extremely easy to drive compared to my stang where my left
leg is built up twice the size as my right from the stiff centerforce clutch.
Now to start on the body and fix or attempt to fix the rust

Todd E

Good to hear!
Should be a fun little truck for ya.
I finally got some pictures of my truck yesterday.
Unfortunatly, my bell atlantic website isn't responding for some reason (gonna have to call them on that one), but you can see it on this website .

So you know, I've got 27" tires on it now (on 17" wheels), but I think I could easily fit 30" tires now (with appropriate gearing).
Enjoy!
Todd