Hey everyone, I'm new to these old Toyotas but I happened to drive past one on the side of the road the other day and couldn't resist picking it up as a backup vehicle. In fact I am going to be using it as my daily driver for a little while as well. It is an '83, 106k miles, 2wd, auto w/ overdrive... The VIN seems to indicate that it is an SR5 and I've even had it traced back to tell me it's a Mojave from 2 different sources. I have serious doubts that it's a Mojave as everything on it seems original and is missing some of the necessary upgrades that the Mojave trucks had.

A little about the vehicle - The previous owner stated to me that it has low compression in the #3 cylinder. This was indicated during a dry compression test. After squirting some oil in the cylinder, the compression came up. I'm thinking it's a stuck ring, and hoping it will work its way out after some driving. I will be doing some tests on it myself to learn more about the problem as it does run rough at idle but smooths out when it's given some gas. Distributor has been changed as well as coil and a full tuneup has been in order. I am not convinced the valves have been adjusted correctly though and is on the top of the list of things to look at it. A friend of mine believes it is running quite rich. I'm fairly mechanical but I have much more experience working on industrial machines than I do on 22R motors. Oh well, the truck came with a Clymer service manual that should serve me well.

Let me know if you guys see something funny about the vehicle that seems out of place to your discerning eyes. As I said I think everything is stock and would like to keep it that way. I may work on cleaning it up a little bit, but it is unbelievably clean now. It was a truck originally from Washington and is now living in Michigan. If you have any questions about it, I will do my best to answer!

Thanks and I'm very glad there's a resource like this to look at when I have questions!

 

Welcome to YT and your truck looks very good!

 

Holy schnikes - that thing is clean!

Welcome and I can't wait to see more of this thing!

Fink

 

nice truck man! what a find! take care of that beauty!

 

it's absolutly NOT a Mojave - no question- there are just not the options the Mojave had
nice truck , not a fan of the auto trany .. as it's a bit of a dog ..
what are your plans for the truck ?



.

 

WOW! Nice looking truck, interior is really clean. Welcome!

 

I'd DD it. thats for sure.

 

welcome to YT...
I edited your post for clarity..hit return next time when posting pics

 

Thanks for the tip, OC! As well as the edit! Also, thank you all for the warm welcome! I am unsure of my plans for the truck so far. I do have to get this compression issue licked as she shakes like Marty McFly whenever I'm at a stoplight... However as of right now I'm going to DD her until I get the issue with my other DD figured out. I purchased a 2009 Scion xB that turned out to have some fraudulent details to it a couple of months ago. As I had been advised to discontinue driving it for a little while, the '83 pickup seemed like the perfect remedy. I agree that I'm less than enthused about the automatic in it, but it seems to shift pretty darn good. I couldn't complain with how clean the truck was either. In fact the only bit of rust is below the tailgate... The frame looks like it's been in a desert most of its life.

I have always loved the look of the old 4WD toyota pickups and might be interested in working out a trade with someone in the future if they wanted to downgrade to the 2WD... You know, maybe some old farmer who loves toyotas but is getting beat up having to throw the clutch in on his old 4 wheeler.

I'm going to adjust the valves first as the truck has already received new plugs/wires/distributor/coil since those pics were taken. All NGK stuff so far. She is a bit bouncy so i may be looking into doing some suspension work here soon too. For now, I just want her to run even and make me feel a little less nervous about being a DD. Studying these forums has definitely given me an appreciation for this era of toyotas that I never knew about before. I was always an old GM guy and grew up with mostly domestics. This has been a real eye-opener.

 

Edit - Please excuse my newness to this forum as I learn to navigate it more efficiently. I also posted a few more details on the truck on the page in the link below that I didn't include in this thread. Bear with me, I'll catch on quick!

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f114...l#post51760824

 

Very nice! Incredibly clean. I'm very jealous of that interior as the desert sun really destroys them here.

 

Yeah...I've looked at buying a couple 2wd's just for the interior...but they usually aren't better than mine.

Very nice truck. Please DO NOT cut that dash if you go and install an aftermarket stereo. Uncut bezels, especially the fake wood grain kind, are getting real hard to find, and people will pay you good money for it. There are multiple ways to get a modern stereo in there without any cutting.

 

That is a GOOD lookin' 'Yota!! Take care of it and welcome to the forum, Rigor!

 

Wow, thanks guys! Maybe I found a diamond in the rough, eh? I don't intend on going aftermarket stereo or cutting the dash in any way. I really like the fact that everything is stock and it is in great working order. In fact there's only two complaints that I have right now as far as the stock stuff not working... Dome light is out (obviously an easy fix) and the fact that my left front marker illuminates when I use the right turn signal. Also the right turn signal stays constant on whenever I turn the headlights/parking lights on. I will have to do some excavation work on the electrical so that I can regain my right blinker with the headlights on, but shouldn't be a tough job. Thank god it's the weekend.

My only concern right now is getting her to run a little more even. As I stated before, she runs rough at idle... but I found something new out today. She only runs rough at idle when she's in gear. Put her in park and she calms right down. I know most of you guys run 5 speeds around here, but this makes me think that perhaps I have a bad trans mount that is making it vibrate at idle, rather than having something to do with the compression problem. Or perhaps a U-joint? Anyone have any possible insight on this? I will check the ujoint situation tomorrow and see if I can figure anything else out. Everything is so archaeological right now that it's very fun, but I need to make sure this little truck is a suitable DD. I've been too spoiled with vehicles with warranties lately that it's a bit refreshing to work on something that's been around almost as long as I have.

Again, thanks for the welcome guys... I've been a part of forums in the past with different vehicles and this one seems to have a friendly feel to it that I really appreciate.

 

Hmm...I know what you mean about it running rough once it's in gear...not sure what would cause it, though. I've never owned an automatic. At least not since I was in high school and I wasn't even concerned about changing the oil, as long as it started & ran.

Obviously putting it in gear puts more of a load on the engine than sitting in neutral, so a drop in rpms at least would make sense...but I can't connect the dots just yet. Never a bad idea, especially on a new-to-you vehicle, to make sure the plugs, wires, cap & rotor are all good, and maybe check the timing, spray some carb cleaner down the throat, etc.

 

The wires and plugs have all been replaced so far... as well as the cap and rotor. Ignition coil looks new as well. I have been driving this thing for almost a week and have put about 400 miles on it in hopes that the "stuck ring" would right itself. It hasn't yet unfortunately... I am getting closer and closer to the belief that I am going to have to pull the piston to find out just what is going on with this for sure. I will try the carb cleaner route, the easy fixes at this point are worth looking into. As this is my DD right now, I would like to avoid having to have it down for longer than a day.

 

Sharp truck, good luck getting the idle problem figured out, and let us know what caused it!

 

sweet truck!! welcome to YT

 

Thanks everyone! I actually tried pulling the spark plugs today while it was running and I noticed a change in how it ran with _every_ spark plug I pulled. Apparently the "bad compression" cylinder is still getting enough compression that it is firing.... I purchased a compression tester today as well as ordered a new head gasket and valve cover gasket. I'm going to confirm the PO's claim of bad compression and then get in there and readjust the valves. I figure if it was just a stuck ring problem, it would have loosened up now that I've put over 700 miles on the truck. Will know more soon...

 

Great Looking Ole Yota. My neighbor had the exact same truck, same color and all. I still see sometimes but the rust is real bad on it. I love the 79-83 bodies. I put those SR5 rims on my 88 as I prefer them to the ones that came on mine. Take care of it.

22R88