Devin Noel's truck 'n stuff

All good things must come to an end. So to has my ownership of my baby. In June '99 I sold it, rather that store it for a year (or more), as I am now living in the Marshall Islands. Private vehicles are prohibited here, and impractical as the island is only 3 miles by 1/2 a mile and the average commute is under 2 minutes by bike. I have plans to return to the wonderfull world of Toyota ownership with a newer truck when I return. Until then fairwell my Toyota friends.

I owned a relatively stock '86 Toyota 4x4 longbed.

It is a salvaged title, so was totaled at one time. I have found yellow paint on the back axle and transfer case, so they are junkyard replacements. There was some front end damage on the passenger side, causing a slightly misalign fender and some very minor mangling of the tow hooks and other stuff under the bumper. There was most likely some minor damage to the front passenger side suspension, but as with everything else it has was repaired to good working condition before I bought it. In reinstalling the engine during my rebuild, I had to pretzel the brand new engine mount as bad as the old one was. Apparently the frame is slightly tweaked on the passenger side, but it still drives perfectly.

Problems and maintenance issues I've had (chronological)

First day I got the truck and was driving back to college, front left tire shreds. Of course I had no jack or spare, but had my 2 hour old AAA card and the Les Schwab packet from the previous owner. Net cost to me, about 4 hours and no cash, AAA and Les Schwab have won me over as a customer
Patched a small hole in the radiator with some epoxy radiator patch, cost about $5.
Noticed one of the front CV boots was torn and throwing grease. Figured I wouldn't be on 4x4 for a while, so procrastinated.
Mechanic charged me a very reasonable $100 to replace the bad boot and corresponding bearings (due to my negligence). Received tune-up and new thermostat, due to some near overheating, at the same time, cost forgotten.
New SplitFire sparkplugs (nice, but not worth the extra $$$), cap, rotor, radiator cap. About $35
Klamath Falls winter finally killed off the battery. Got a replacement Truck Battery form Les Schwabs for about $60 and have been very pleased with it.
The door mounted rearview mirrors rusted out in a nice circle around the mounting post. The $20 (each) replacements I got from NAPA work, but are kind of flimsy and wobble a bit at higher speeds, not too bad though.
Blown head gasket. Net cost: $100, half of my spring break, some lost faith in my truck's reliability. Gonna blame the rebuild this summer on the whole affair too, but it will be more than just replacing a engine that's had 2 quarts of coolant in the oil pan. ;-)
Took truck into the shop because the tranny was making to much noise in 5th. Just got the truck back and a final bill of about $900. 5th gear was shot (2 actual gears) and cost $250 for hard parts.
Completed a complete rebuild of the engine. Unnecessary, but the shop had done a shoddy job in the tranny, and a bolt came loose and tore up the clutch. I decided to do a 20R head swap, and a rebuild, taking out the engine to get to the clutch.
Completed the rebuild and found some coolant on the passengers side floormat. Tore the dash apart and replaced the heater core, and delivered a badly needed cleaning (found over a cup of pine needles in the core itself). I bent the pipes on the engine side of the firewall a little and had to reconstruct them. One of the rubber hoses that connects to the brass pipe still leaks a little and may have been the source of the original leak (overtightened hose clamp, flimsy brass pipe may have already been crushed).

Modifications I've done, and other accessories

The truck had a rubber bed and tailgate mat when I bought it. Because of this the bed on the truck is PERFECT, only marks on it are from the nubs on the mat. I'd really recommend getting a bed mat or liner in some form or another.
Got the truck used, and it had no radio or speakers, so slowly started installing my current one, one piece at a time, over about a year.
The stock bench seat was fairly uncomfortable, especially for longer drives, so I replaced them with some buckets. I snagged the brown buckets out of a totaled newer (90 something maybe) Toyota truck. Installation was a breeze. Had to get some black sheepskin seat covers to cover up the brown and make them match the gray interior.
Wedged a gray Rubbermaid console in-between the 2 seats. Once it is properly contorted (it's Rubbermaid) it fits pretty well.
Installed a Cobra CB hanging directly under E-brake. Minor annoyance when you try to take the E-brake off, but I've gotten use to it.
Got some Les Schwab Wild Country tires. The Toyo's that came with the truck were passenger car tires and I had 2 blow outs with them, they sucked. Happy with the new tires and the superb Les Schwab service.
The most useful accessory I have purchased is the white fiberglass canopy from Raider. Being a college student I have to frequently move all my belongings around. The last time I went home for the summer it rained. All my possessions getting wet sucked, now I don't have to worry. It does cut down on vision a bit, and will probably be removed for the summers, but I like it.
Differential breathers and here. Hopefully to be installed in the next few weeks. Update: installed rear breather, with no problems. Update #2: Installed front breather while engine is pulled for rebuild.
K&N airfilter. Reusable, and they theoretically improve performance, defiantly loud. I can now always hear it sucking (not the 4 banger, the intake hiss =-)
Rebuilt the 22R with a 20R head, LC Eng. Street Performer cam, Webber 32/36 carb, Offenhauser intake, K&N14" circular filter.
Rewired a lot. Put in some relays, so now the headlights now turn off with the key. Put a on/off switch in the key in/out sensor, so I can turn off the annoying buzzer (had the door open sensor unhooked earlier, but that affects the dome light).

Stereo

JVC 120 watt tapedeck with built in CD changer controller.
JVC 12 disk CD changer, mounted behind the driver's seat.
150 watt amp mounted under the passenger's seat.
8" Pyle driver tube. Usually I leave it behind the passenger's seat, but this makes for somewhat cramped conditions for my passenger. On longer trips the tube gets relocated to in front of the seat, so the seat can get slid all the way back, or occasionally I just toss the tube in the back. I don't have too many passengers, so it is not too much of a problem for me, but it does illustrate why I'd get an Xtra-cab if I had it to do over again.
6" speakers in the doors, required some cutting of the door, as there are no stock cutouts.

Future planned modifications

New exhaust and headers, may wait until this summer and do them when I put the new engine in.... may not. Update: Decided to wait and benchmark them separately.

Please E-mail me if you have any suggestions or comments.

Hope to nab a camera and get some pix to scan in, or borrow a digital camera and get some pix on-line soon.

Always remember to , not enough people do.