Hey guys. Brand new to the forum and to the Yota community although I have been a longtime fan of them. Purchased a 1988 Yota 4x4 pickup with a 5 speed manual. Also came with a flowmaster and a rear tube bumbper. 22re of course. Paid 2300. The guy said the engine was from a 96 but I dunno. Runs really good. A few quirks here and there but hey, it's older than I am. 170k on the odometer but it's a new engine supposedly.Gonna have some pics up tomorrow. I look forward to all the great advice and tips y'all can give me! I'm an automotive tech student so I have access to a good garage.

The build is gonna be pretty basic at first. I'm gonna be doing some engine and transmission work to get the thing in as good condition as possible as it is my daily driver. Then interior work, possibly a seat swap. The speedo and tach don't work but the fuel gauge does. As do the dash lights. Climate controls are done but it also came with new internals so it's just a matter of installing those. I had a budget of about 3800 for a new vehicle so I have the difference to spend on it. So here we go!

 

and so it begins...

my first yota was a 79 4x4 PU, been a yota guy ever since.

 

Here are some pictures for y'all.

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So I just took out both seats and cleaned up the interior a bit. The PO left the cab smelling like stale beer and mud. It wasn't a bad smell, in fact it's forever burned in my brain. Whenever I think back to those first few drives I'll remember that smell. Anyway, the seats are buckets from a 199-something idunnowhat. They are beat up for sure and they aren't fully mounted. The driver side has four bolts. But the front right corner of the bracket doesn't line up with the hole on the floor. And the rear right corner (the one that mounts the female end of the seatbelts under the seat bracket) has a bolt that won't screw in. Plus the adjustment slide is welded in place -_-. So I either need to get new brackets or cut the welds and drill new holes and get new bolts. I thinks I'll go with the latter option for now, in addition to some seat covers and a new carpet.

One issue I was hoping y'all can help me out with. The transmission is good. It shifts nice and the clutch engages and disengages very well. However, the front right wheel makes a grinding noise in reverse but only when I point the tires to the right. I'm almost positive it isn't the transmission itself because reverse gear is fine when I am going straight back or the wheels are pointing left. The sound is clearly coming from the wheel.

I picked a good time to purchase this truck as I am currently taking my Manual Transmissions and Trans-axles class in school. Along with my second Automotive Electronics class. So tonight I have Electronics and I will hopefully be able to find out where I stand regarding the wiring for the heater/ac, gauge cluster, dome light, and stereo. Then this weekend I will try and drop the transmission and get a list of things I'd like to replace in order to increase performance and reliability as well as peace of mind.

Again, I hope to hear from the more seasoned Yota-ites on the forum with advice. Hopefully this thread gets a lot of attention so I can make this truck something beautiful. I lurked for a bit and I know y'all are picture hounds like me so I will try and post as many as possible throughout the build.

 

@donomite Very nice. They leave a mark on all who drive/own them haha

 

put the new seats on the original yota brackets.

i don't know about a mark but a lasting impression for sure: happy happy happy!!

 

Nice ride and welcome!

It could be a ;96 long block, but the electronics are in no way compatible. It looks like the original though because the dirt is pretty even looking in the picture. I put a ;91 in an ;88 and its a lot of work to the chassis harness to integrate with the engine. Its no joke so I doubt what he told you. So anyway it looks like you can get another 100k miles out of it. So go enjoy the ride, they are very durable.

 

Welcome to Yotatech! I can't wait to see your progress on this truck!

 

Well, if the motor was out of a 96, it would be a 2/3RZ. 95 Was the last year of the 22RE. Not sure on that one, but the intake tube and TB look to be off a newer style 22re. Read - http://www.22reperformance.com/22RE_...ification.html

Have you looked into the wheel/hub at all to try and find the grinding noise? Turnstops maybe?

Welcome to the forum!

 

..."One issue I was hoping y'all can help me out with. The transmission is good. It shifts nice and the clutch engages and disengages very well. However, the front right wheel makes a grinding noise in reverse but only when I point the tires to the right. I'm almost positive it isn't the transmission itself because reverse gear is fine when I am going straight back or the wheels are pointing left. The sound is clearly coming from the wheel..."


Is it a sickening grinding sound when you cut the wheel hard? If so I think it's probably the steering stops. They are two bolts next to each wheel. You can do a search for pictures but a gob of grease on each of them should stop it. Your left ones must have been greased if they aren't grinding. A guy on eBay sells plastic caps for $40 so you wouldn't have to grease but it's easy enough at oil change time.

 

Okay so regarding the engine, I think it's a 92 after some alldata research and picture comparing. A quick search showed that there is, in fact, no way it can be a 96 haha. The wiring harness seems to be really jumbled. This weekend I'm gonna drop the transmission and clean the block to get a look at the numbers. Once I get all that information I'l have a place to start my part shopping.

The front right shock seems to be shot so I'm gonna get a new pair for the front. Would that make the noise? CV problems maybe? The noise is pretty unbearable but it's only in reverse. I've made full circle turns in both directions going forward and it's fine. It seems to be just in one direction in reverse.

The wiring is my primary concern at the moment. I'll post some pictures in a bit. The diagnosis connector threw me off for a bit. I've read that the harness is a pain to get settled with a swap like this.

The seats issue. I'll post pictures of the brackets. I'm not sure if they are the original.

Y'all have been extremely kind and helpful and that only furthers my enthusiasm to be a part of the community.

 

Not a whole lot of people can hot wire an ecu into an older car. There are things that cross the chassis harness to the ecu that if not present, you go nowhere. So if someone did put a 92 engine it, with an ecu. At worst its a fragile wiring job.

Reverse is probably a CV joint full of mud.

 

Okay so here you can see the welds and the seat bracket. I can cut the welds to free the slide. Then you can see another angle of the engine bay and the connector. I'm getting a little nervous about the wiring situation haha. Is it a big deal if the wiring isn't perfect? What kind of problems should I expect? Anything I can do to improve the situation?

I also thing that the truck was originally an automatic. SO the gauge cluster doesn't have a tach. Can I swap in a newer cluster with a tach? Say a 92?

I'm about to inspect and take pictures of the right wheel to further look into the grinding noise.

 

Nope; it was always a stick, resistor is right there on the firewall. Actually it doesn't look that bad. His claim of an engine swap looks to be BS. Even has the OBD1 diag port. Stupid simple setup. ECU is in passenger side kick panel. Vacuum canister from the gas tank is missing. Probably created a vacuum leak to go with it. Truck had A/C from the dealer when new. It also had a bench seat originally. Is the A/C compressor still there?

 

I really like the paint job. Mad 80s. Btw Congratulations dude.

 

@skyI figured it was BS. 92 is still possible no? Since OBD1 lasted until 96. The ECU (as I found yesterday) is in the kick panel. I was wondering what that bracket was for. I'll be doing compression test, vacuum leak tests, etc soon. It seem to have a misfire so I'll look into that. I knew about the bench seat thing as well. I think I'll just drill the one hole that's not lined up for the driver and get seat covers for now. Yes the compressor is there it's just sans belt. Being winter I'm okay with that. About the cluster, what can I swap it with?

@boots I like it too! Enough to where I'm not dying to paint it anytime soon. But I will. Matte black is always an option but blue is my thing so I wanna find a nice shade. Grabber? Hmmmmm....

My final product isn't going to be a die hard rock crawler or mudding rig. Daily driver with decent offroad capabilities is perfect.

As for the grinding noise here are some pics of the wheel. I'll be doing some serious cleaning this weekend. Filthy.

 

nice truck gots some work to do but nice shape

 

@Jbusche Thank you! I know but I look forward to it. I've needed an outlet for my time and passion. I have a "good" chunk of money to throw into it. We'll say around 2000 more or less. At least that's "good" to me But that's without the cost of labor as I have access to several bomb ass garages (technical terms ftw) and also have access to capable hands who are hopefully as willing as they are capable. So that 2000 should make a big difference.

I envy the lot of y'all that can simply look at a picture and ascertain all kinds of information. Being a car guy I look forward to learning all kinds of sh....stuff from you.

 

Looks like you got a solid truck to start with. You will need to stay with 89 runner/88 pickup cluster gauge. Also do not hook up the oil pressure gauge unless you have the correct sender. SR5 has one style and non SR5 has another style. There is a thread on adding the cluster gauge on here.

As hacked up as your fuse box wiring is, I would just replace that section of the harness. It is easy, just find the correct year. It just unplugs. I think rebuilt CV shafts are only about $60 if I recall right if you are suspecting your shafts. Welcome to Yotatech.

 

Okay. Just a quick update/picture post for y'all. I dropped the transmission today at school and drained and filled the front diff. The tranny is absolutely CAKED with an oil/mud mixture. It's such a thick layer that it messed with us because it added an extra size to a lot of the bolts. So what we thought was an 18mm was really a 17mm with 1mm of crap. I went to town with a wire brush on some of the surfaces and ended up with a pile of crap the width of a basketball and about 2-3 inches high. The good news is that I didn't even get 10% of it off :/ So I'm gonna take the tranny apart and go at it with some serious cleaning tools as well as stick it in the parts washer. I expect it to be in good condition despite it's appearance. But upgrades never hurt anybody.

The right CV axel is bad (torn boot) so I'm about to buy a new pair. I decided to nickname my truck Ghost Bolt. Since almost every part I've encountered is missing a bolt haha. Shifter plate, the 4wd shifter, tranny mount, rear driveshaft, tranny cradle, driver seat, passenger seat...all missing one bolt. So I'm buying/finding/making new bolts for those too.











Quick question for my own satisfaction. That's the W56 right? Looks like it to me but I'd like some reassurance.