first off, thanks to 4crawler for his input. links you gave were very helpfull, & was able to eliminate 1 possible cause, but still have no fuel pressure (see previous post). I did tear dash apart & replace burned-out check engine bulb & pulled up a code #51 - throttle position sensor IDL circut-PNP circut-ECM. Problem is I don't know what a PNP circut is to check it out. posted a request on the electrical forum to find definitions for all the three letter named circuts etc.
any body have links that might help? I'm a pretty old school wrench, but given time & info can usually figure things out.
Thanks stormy76

 

I'm no expert on these things, but I have a 1987 4runner and a 1987 toyota service book. I had to put a custom fuel filter on my 4runner and learned a little about the system. You can "force" the fuel pump to come on to test whether it is OK or not. Put the ignition to the ON or RUN possition. Look near the battery, behind it is a fuse/breaker box, behind that is a small testing port. Flip open the lid of the port. Take a paper clip that you have turned into a "U" and short out the two spots closest to the fender/ furthest from the engine. NOTE: this short should be used carefully. If you are not sure which pin locations to short let me know. There are probably other posts with pictures on this subject. When you do the short, you'll hear the pump start to whine, if not you could access the fuel pump plug at the pump and check for voltage with the shorting clip in place. Good luck.