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Thread: 200s headlight works but not bright

  1. #16
    Fullsizechevy9 is offline At The Back Of The Pack Arm chair racerAt the back of the pack
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    Quote Originally Posted by ps2fixer View Post
    Yea, sadly when Toyota T100 became the Tundra, they went to electric 4x4 button. I don't think they are as problematic as like a chevy one, but still a failure point that basically was never a problem for manual shift transmissions. You could also "feel" if there was something going on, can't feel the button too easy and say humm somethings not right. Like when my uncle first got his Tundra we all went out in state land and off roaded a bit, he got off the ground on 3 wheels on a hill so he stopped and pressed the 4x4 button, but he didn't put it in neutral first, so the wheel off the ground was going like 20mph or so, so when it locked it it went ca thunk and he was like wtf was that. No damage or anything, he still drives the truck, been like 5 years now. I think he's around like 250k on it. His son's truck was at 300k, he was off roading beating the snot out of it and the radiator tank broke and he didn't notice the temp gauge, so he over heated the engine so bad that it stalled. My dad checked the engine out and AL from the pistons transferred to the cylinder walls, so correct fix would be to bore it to the next size, new pistons etc.

    Kind of funny his cooling system fail him, while my corolla's cooling system was amazing (made in USA just like the Tundra), I did a system48 treatment which requires a hot engine for 15 mins. Did the typical thing, let it idle to warm up, dump in the system48, then let it idle for another 15 mins. Well we got talking and it was out there for about an hour. Checked it and the temp gauge was in the red, scan gauge said peak temp was 278F. Didn't boil over, no head gasket issues, etc. Just drove the car to cool it down and put 80k miles on it. About 2 years later the radiator tank got a small crack in it so had to replace it.

    Pretty much all the Toyota trucks came with 4.10 gearing and the ones with big tire packages came with 4.56 gearing. Rare cases 4.88 was an option. 2wd pickups got higher geared rear ends, 3.48 to around 3.73. The old 4 speed trucks (no over drive) had around a 3.32 rear end to make up for the no overdrive. My 2wd 86 pickcup 2.4L 5 speed manual with 3.48 gearing and over sized tires (jeep stock tires) and a front caliper that was hanging up, and the carb float wasn't working (engine flooded at idle), I got around 30mpg. Great little truck, super simple, and nearly nothing that goes wrong with them, I just wanted 4x4, more power (v6), stick, extended cab which I got as a 96 Tacoma 3.4L 4x4 stick. Had it about a year the frame issue showed up, sold it for $1000 and got my $500 beater T100 fixed up. T100 has a bad injector now, probably my fault, I put the wrong computer in it and it took out the igniter, all 3 coil packs, so the injectors would make sense too. Live and learn. Good thing I have parts engines, parts vehicles etc.

    Cheapest I've seen land was around 6-7 years ago, north of me about an hour drive 40-80 acre lots were being sold for $600 per acre for vacant wooded land. I was so tempted to try to get a loan for it, but that area has nothing, probably be a 45 min drive to the nearest city. Nothing that a freezer and having some animals wouldn't fix. I wouldn't mind living off the grid, but I'd rather have the grid hooked up atleast for backup (like $7/month based on my bill). I guess generator backup would work too, just be a lot more expensive to deal with an outage/issue (fuel vs power grid prices).

    Toyota, Lexus, Nissan, Honda all have something in common.... Japanese companies. There really seems to be something to that, heck most of those brands are more American made than American branded vehicles. I'd have to find the chart again, but around 2012 or so, the Toyota Camry was one of the few vehicles that could be in the top 10 most american made cars list.... around that time the next year it was only a top 7 list because so few vehicles with 50%+ of the parts made in usa.
    Yea the manual 4x4 is the way to go the chevys with the button wont lock in on a hill or even flat ground somtimes you have to go backwards a little or forwarda somtimes for it to lock in my manual will lock in no matter what and locks in instantly no waiting to hear it engage and i would say 90% of the trucks with the 4x4 light on has the button engagement usually somthing electrical i have never had my light come on (knock on wood) i think ill keep this truck forever would love to lift it regear it for 35s put a axle in the front versus the independant suspension and make it purely a offroad hunting truck put a camper shell on it so i can sleep in it and haul more stuff maybe get a small enclosed trailer for,my bike and some,more things and drive around the country to hunt elk and other public lands louisiana public land is so pressured coonasses everywhere and most are if its brown its down they dont let anything walk if you kill a good buck on public land down here you did somthing not to mention its alot of bottomland swamp real hard to pattern deer in that i would love to have a tacoma they can get through some and last good little trucks i beleive toyota is made in texas right maybe they are just assembled there and parts made out the country like gm does those older tacomas are going 7 and 8g down here 4x4 of course they hold their value well

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  2. #17
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    Wait, on american 4x4 pickups the light is a bad thing? On a Toyota the 4x4 light shows it's in 4x4. Like my T100 has "ADD" which is a fancy front diff that disconnects one of the spider gears to automate the front end locking/unlocking. I hate that system, it's ran off vacuum and vacuum switches, my switches are rusty and restrict the air too much. Ran the lines direct down to the actuator to be locked all the time and installed OEM 84-95 4x4 Toyota manual hubs on it. Anyway, the 4x4 light ONLY comes on when the ADD system is locked in AND the transfercase is in 4x4, so I could visually see when the ADD system wasn't working.

    The Toyota transfercase is pretty neat, you can shift into 4x4 from 2wd going up to 50mph, and high to low and back upto 5mph. The older trucks it was 20mph for 2wd/4x4 and stopped for high/low. The chevy auto hubs takes something like 3/4 turn of the tires to lock in, the Toyota ones needs like 1/20th of a turn, basically enough for the spider gear to line up. Tundra is the same way, the automatic 4x4 is just a manual shift design with a motor inplace of where the shift lever normally goes. Pretty sure you can convert them back to manual using older parts and cutting a hole in the cab.

    Toyota is pretty neat about semi universal parts. Pretty much the transmissions are in series, like W56, W55, W46 G52 are all the same bell housing bolt pattern (G & W were the same, G is a lite duty W). The bell housing to engine bolt pattern is based on block, so a 3VZ and 5VZ uses the same "VZ" bell housing, and they both generally got the R150 Transmission (R series is heavy duty for v6, same trans series the Supra got). Sadly the Tundra and all the applications of the V8 engine (LS400, Tundra, 4Runner, Landcruiser, etc) were all paired with automatic transmissions (A340E) so no stock bolt on manual combo possible, all requires an adapter. Most people run the R150 or R151 (supra) trans though.

    They also had forward shift vs top shift for the transfer case, housing was the same, just where the lever was located changed. This was their solution for bench seat vs center console trucks and the transfercase can be converted with the right parts.


    Tacomas are made in Ohio, vin starts with 4T, Tundra is Texas, vin starts with 5T. Toyota also owns Hino trucks which is like semi and big buses. The Toyota Truck axles and Hino axles are made in the same plant in usa. My corolla is a 4T (ohio), same with Camry (we've had like 30 of them over the years, some were JT for Japanese built and imported on a ship). USA made vehicles have mainly USA sourced parts, some Japanese sourced parts, and sometimes they outsource to other countires for non-critical items for the cheaper labor rates. I've seen Vietnam parts from Honda. Never seen either of them with Chinese parts yet.

    First gen Tacoma (started in 1995, I think first gen ended around 1999) have frame rot problems up here. I was willing to pay upto $5000 for a good one, best condition one I could find was listed $3600 and bought it for $2000 because it wasn't as nice as the photos looked (rust starting on the body etc). A nice T100 runs around $1500-2500 up here, or a Tundra is $3000-7000 and once in a while a crazy person lists their truck for $10k+. Tacoma's generally ran around $3000ish unless you hit around 2001 and newer (2nd gen), then the prices jump up to like $5-7k. The older pickups (84-88 and 89-95) are hit or miss on the price, sometimes you can buy a drivable one for $1000, and the next minute, a parts vehicle is listed for $1000 lol. Really nice looking ones that's been decked out get listed for $10k+ (lift kit, 31-33in tires, perfect paint / repainted, etc). The 84-88 boxes rusted out BADLY here, nearly none exist in good shape. I have a truck from AZ so the box is still good.

    Toyota's 4x4 system is defo good, their axles are balanced well so all 4 tires spin on flat ground really well. My Lexus has an open rear end, and if I goose it too much in the rain around a corner the back end skids out. Sadly lockers mainly existed on the Land Cruiser, best axle combo I know of for off roading is the 93-98 era land cruisers, electronic lockers front + rear. Tacoma had electric locker for the rear, but mine didn't work (they need to be used a couple times a year or the grease gets dried up, makes it sound like a GM product >,<).

    A friend I know bought a high milage 4runner, I think he said he bought it with 400k miles, his buddy bought one too before him. His went to the scrap yard with 780k miles and his buddies was like 750k and that was with the "unreliable" 3.slow that's known for blown head gaskets (both trucks had it replaced once). I have a 93 pickup 2wd with the 3.0 and a manual, 517k miles, body is pretty rusty and it's defo lacking power but still fires right up and can burn off the tires (has a "click" locker in the rear end so it's posi), just missing some of the low end grunt that engines with less mileage have.

    The 1987 S-15 I have did really well spinning all 4 tires too on flat ground. My dad's 1986 F350 in the same spot was only spinning 2 tires and hopping like crazy. We were trying to pull a school bus out of a muddy area to scrap it. Had to dig out the 1953 case tractor to pull it.

  3. #18
    Fullsizechevy9 is offline At The Back Of The Pack Arm chair racerAt the back of the pack
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    Quote Originally Posted by ps2fixer View Post
    Wait, on american 4x4 pickups the light is a bad thing? On a Toyota the 4x4 light shows it's in 4x4. Like my T100 has "ADD" which is a fancy front diff that disconnects one of the spider gears to automate the front end locking/unlocking. I hate that system, it's ran off vacuum and vacuum switches, my switches are rusty and restrict the air too much. Ran the lines direct down to the actuator to be locked all the time and installed OEM 84-95 4x4 Toyota manual hubs on it. Anyway, the 4x4 light ONLY comes on when the ADD system is locked in AND the transfercase is in 4x4, so I could visually see when the ADD system wasn't working.

    The Toyota transfercase is pretty neat, you can shift into 4x4 from 2wd going up to 50mph, and high to low and back upto 5mph. The older trucks it was 20mph for 2wd/4x4 and stopped for high/low. The chevy auto hubs takes something like 3/4 turn of the tires to lock in, the Toyota ones needs like 1/20th of a turn, basically enough for the spider gear to line up. Tundra is the same way, the automatic 4x4 is just a manual shift design with a motor inplace of where the shift lever normally goes. Pretty sure you can convert them back to manual using older parts and cutting a hole in the cab.

    Toyota is pretty neat about semi universal parts. Pretty much the transmissions are in series, like W56, W55, W46 G52 are all the same bell housing bolt pattern (G & W were the same, G is a lite duty W). The bell housing to engine bolt pattern is based on block, so a 3VZ and 5VZ uses the same "VZ" bell housing, and they both generally got the R150 Transmission (R series is heavy duty for v6, same trans series the Supra got). Sadly the Tundra and all the applications of the V8 engine (LS400, Tundra, 4Runner, Landcruiser, etc) were all paired with automatic transmissions (A340E) so no stock bolt on manual combo possible, all requires an adapter. Most people run the R150 or R151 (supra) trans though.

    They also had forward shift vs top shift for the transfer case, housing was the same, just where the lever was located changed. This was their solution for bench seat vs center console trucks and the transfercase can be converted with the right parts.


    Tacomas are made in Ohio, vin starts with 4T, Tundra is Texas, vin starts with 5T. Toyota also owns Hino trucks which is like semi and big buses. The Toyota Truck axles and Hino axles are made in the same plant in usa. My corolla is a 4T (ohio), same with Camry (we've had like 30 of them over the years, some were JT for Japanese built and imported on a ship). USA made vehicles have mainly USA sourced parts, some Japanese sourced parts, and sometimes they outsource to other countires for non-critical items for the cheaper labor rates. I've seen Vietnam parts from Honda. Never seen either of them with Chinese parts yet.

    First gen Tacoma (started in 1995, I think first gen ended around 1999) have frame rot problems up here. I was willing to pay upto $5000 for a good one, best condition one I could find was listed $3600 and bought it for $2000 because it wasn't as nice as the photos looked (rust starting on the body etc). A nice T100 runs around $1500-2500 up here, or a Tundra is $3000-7000 and once in a while a crazy person lists their truck for $10k+. Tacoma's generally ran around $3000ish unless you hit around 2001 and newer (2nd gen), then the prices jump up to like $5-7k. The older pickups (84-88 and 89-95) are hit or miss on the price, sometimes you can buy a drivable one for $1000, and the next minute, a parts vehicle is listed for $1000 lol. Really nice looking ones that's been decked out get listed for $10k+ (lift kit, 31-33in tires, perfect paint / repainted, etc). The 84-88 boxes rusted out BADLY here, nearly none exist in good shape. I have a truck from AZ so the box is still good.

    Toyota's 4x4 system is defo good, their axles are balanced well so all 4 tires spin on flat ground really well. My Lexus has an open rear end, and if I goose it too much in the rain around a corner the back end skids out. Sadly lockers mainly existed on the Land Cruiser, best axle combo I know of for off roading is the 93-98 era land cruisers, electronic lockers front + rear. Tacoma had electric locker for the rear, but mine didn't work (they need to be used a couple times a year or the grease gets dried up, makes it sound like a GM product >,<).

    A friend I know bought a high milage 4runner, I think he said he bought it with 400k miles, his buddy bought one too before him. His went to the scrap yard with 780k miles and his buddies was like 750k and that was with the "unreliable" 3.slow that's known for blown head gaskets (both trucks had it replaced once). I have a 93 pickup 2wd with the 3.0 and a manual, 517k miles, body is pretty rusty and it's defo lacking power but still fires right up and can burn off the tires (has a "click" locker in the rear end so it's posi), just missing some of the low end grunt that engines with less mileage have.

    The 1987 S-15 I have did really well spinning all 4 tires too on flat ground. My dad's 1986 F350 in the same spot was only spinning 2 tires and hopping like crazy. We were trying to pull a school bus out of a muddy area to scrap it. Had to dig out the 1953 case tractor to pull it.
    Yes it takes about 3/4 turn for my rear end to lock or about 120rpm difference between the 2 tires is what eaton claims i have the eaton g80 autolocker i havnt ever haf any problems with it locking usually by time i notice a tire slipping its locked in personally i have seen more issues with the vacuum 4wd systems versus what i have mainly in fords havnt heard of any real problems with toyotas system only issue i have seen with chevys system is somtimes only 1 tire will lock in the front but i dont know if they had any other underlying issues because i havnt had that problem with my manual 4wd now that i mention that the only ones i seen do that was the push button engagement so maybe thats where the problem lies i can lock my 4wd high in up to about 55mph safely i have done it many times in rain or ice the 4 low i have to be stopped and in neutral but only time i need low is offroad so it isnt an issue for me to stop and engage it when i know i will need it

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  4. #19
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    Yea, the automatic systems are the only ones that really have issues for any brand. Ford exploerer like mid 90's had issues if I recall correctly as well. Chevy's the front axle is locked in via electric motor and the motor fails. Don't know the ford system too well, but I suspect they are electric too. OLD GMs (Chevy, GMC etc) liked to use vacuum, that's how my 85 GMC S-15 with an 87 engine for the front axle. The transfer case is a fight to lock it in, have to press the button super hard for like 30 seconds for it to slowly creep down before the shift arm moves. My dad's F250, F350, and a friend of our's F250 all are very stiff shifting too (linkage based I think). The Toyota ones are directly on the transfer case/transmission, and move super easy, like I've never seen a 4x4 system easier to shift than the Toyota's, but I also don't touch newer vehicles, not sure if any newer ones run manual shifters.

    Here's a guy shifting a 4runner. He's not exactly a gear head, 4 high and 4 low doesn't effect traction, only the tires do, it's only changing the gear ratio lol. Anyway, no brake requires or any silly stuff like he was saying, he's just used to american made 4x4's for the high/low he hasn't read his owners manual. This 4runner has the ADD system like my T100, likely Vacuum based too. Only difference without ADD is the step of going outside and manually locking in the hubs.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWHE_HzaXMU

    OLD Mazda pickups where pretty neat, my dad had an 89 before Ford bought them and turned them into a Ford Ranger. The mazda is effectively a lower powered, worse mpg Toyota pickup, very very similar design. The 4x4 on my dad's mazda uses electric auto hubs and they always worked great on his truck. If I recall correctly it was around 260k miles and the engine was replaced around 200k. 2.6L I4 but the 2.4L toyota engine had more power, torque, and mpg. It still hauled a load of wood just fine though. If you look in the background of the 1st pic, you can see my dad's brother's F150 loaded up similar to the Mazda, just not quite as high. Can't remember if he had side racks back then or not. That F150 had a 1969 Olds 350 Rocket engine in it with a 350 turbo trans (2wd).

    My dad had a 1982 Toyota pickup 2wd, and he's had 4 ton in it before going to the scrap yard. My dad put about 4 ton in the back of his F250 power stroke diesel, and you could see the frame flex (bottom of box line vs top was about an inch vs almost touching), he opted to throw it on the trailer instead. Have to love scrapping engine blocks, they add up in weight FAST (1970's era engines, all cast iron).
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails DSCN0708.jpg   DSCN0707.jpg   DSCN0706.jpg  

  5. #20
    Fullsizechevy9 is offline At The Back Of The Pack Arm chair racerAt the back of the pack
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    Quote Originally Posted by ps2fixer View Post
    Yea, the automatic systems are the only ones that really have issues for any brand. Ford exploerer like mid 90's had issues if I recall correctly as well. Chevy's the front axle is locked in via electric motor and the motor fails. Don't know the ford system too well, but I suspect they are electric too. OLD GMs (Chevy, GMC etc) liked to use vacuum, that's how my 85 GMC S-15 with an 87 engine for the front axle. The transfer case is a fight to lock it in, have to press the button super hard for like 30 seconds for it to slowly creep down before the shift arm moves. My dad's F250, F350, and a friend of our's F250 all are very stiff shifting too (linkage based I think). The Toyota ones are directly on the transfer case/transmission, and move super easy, like I've never seen a 4x4 system easier to shift than the Toyota's, but I also don't touch newer vehicles, not sure if any newer ones run manual shifters.

    Here's a guy shifting a 4runner. He's not exactly a gear head, 4 high and 4 low doesn't effect traction, only the tires do, it's only changing the gear ratio lol. Anyway, no brake requires or any silly stuff like he was saying, he's just used to american made 4x4's for the high/low he hasn't read his owners manual. This 4runner has the ADD system like my T100, likely Vacuum based too. Only difference without ADD is the step of going outside and manually locking in the hubs.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWHE_HzaXMU

    OLD Mazda pickups where pretty neat, my dad had an 89 before Ford bought them and turned them into a Ford Ranger. The mazda is effectively a lower powered, worse mpg Toyota pickup, very very similar design. The 4x4 on my dad's mazda uses electric auto hubs and they always worked great on his truck. If I recall correctly it was around 260k miles and the engine was replaced around 200k. 2.6L I4 but the 2.4L toyota engine had more power, torque, and mpg. It still hauled a load of wood just fine though. If you look in the background of the 1st pic, you can see my dad's brother's F150 loaded up similar to the Mazda, just not quite as high. Can't remember if he had side racks back then or not. That F150 had a 1969 Olds 350 Rocket engine in it with a 350 turbo trans (2wd).

    My dad had a 1982 Toyota pickup 2wd, and he's had 4 ton in it before going to the scrap yard. My dad put about 4 ton in the back of his F250 power stroke diesel, and you could see the frame flex (bottom of box line vs top was about an inch vs almost touching), he opted to throw it on the trailer instead. Have to love scrapping engine blocks, they add up in weight FAST (1970's era engines, all cast iron).
    Looks like the whole tree in that truck lol i know the f 150s were vacuum at some point i remember my dad had one of the older tacomas and he always had to get out to lock the hubs in was a good truck lasted forever towed good to for its size i cant lie i like the new f250s 4wd system they have electric but also if that fails you can get out and lock the hubs so no matter what you can lock it in i dont think the newer duramaxs have a backup i could be wrong but i dont think they do plus ford had more options and a nicer interior i do like that about them and i hear if you bulletproof them take all the restrictive emissions bs off them they last the new duramax gm made it so hard to crack the ecm/ecu so it cost alot more to take all that stuff off of it took awhile for someone to finally crack it i beleive you have to buy a whole new ecm/ecu in order to do it cant just reprogram it gm made it so hard to do it cost way more to do than a ford and i like the way the new powerstroke looks versus the duramax im,still a gm fan though lol the feds are cracking down on emissions but it chokes the diesels out wont get 500k out of them like the older ones without all that restrictive emission control bs i would love a ext cab 06 duramax or even a single cab and chop the frame in the back and relocate the rear end and make it a short bed they didnt make a short bed duramax i have seen some conversions they are some bad mofos

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  6. #21
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    Yea, my family has pretty much converted to Toyota by now, just so few problems with them vs GM/Ford. However, if you're going to haul a big load, get a Ford, if you're going trail riding, normal driving, smaller loads, get a Toyota. My dad's replaced more Chevy engines than I can count in his old pickups. He said forget it and started to always run the Olds 350 from the Oldsmobile Cutlass and I think he only had one fail. In the 90's he lived on scrape metal at a big $25/ton. His dad sold his house around that era and had to haull all that junk off the property for the new owner. He had a GMC full sized 2wd pickup with a tire 350 olds engine and it was knocking. They spent something like a week hauling all the garbage from that house to his and the knocking was so loud it would about make you deaf. I don't think it ever threw the rod, but it was very bad. He threw another 350 in and continued hauling with it lol. His "Catruck" short for Car Truck that he built had a 455 olds with a 400 turbo trans and devorsed transfer case. 1973 Chevy 4x4 frame, Chevy wagon body cut down with a chevy cab rivited on the back of it (and bondoed over to smooth it out) and he had a home made box on the back that was super heavy duty diamon plate. Front bumper was 6in thick walled pipe with ~2in thick walled pipe for the up rights and smaller for the cross braces. All in all a very heavy truck and it had plenty of power with 4.10 gearing. He wouldn't pull vehicles to move them in the yard, he'd run into them and push them, front or rear bumper didn't matter. He killed the truck beating it through the woods like 70mph drunk on private property and he hit a huge pine tree. The pine tree didn't survive, but neither did his truck. Front bumper bent a tiny bit, but the frame broke and the front axle snapped off at the pumpkin. My dad's currently eyeing at building the same type of truck again using a Tundra cab, olds 455 with C heads he milled down himself roller cam, dually axle from a ford motorhome which has to be regeared to 4.10, 400 turbo trans again, with another divorced transfer case out of a 79 ford. The Toyota frame isn't heavy enough for him, so he plans to cut it off before the front suspension and use the ford frame for the mid to back half of the truck. Also planning to add a hydro dump box, deer catcher bumper, lift/wench in the corner of the bed for living heavy stuff, some sort of telescoping pole with LED lights on it and a secondary battery with a cut off switch so it can charge off the engine, but not drain the starting battery while in use. He has basically everything to make it happen including the Tundra with a bad engine.

    Emission control systems seem to be problematic for most engines. I haven't really had any problems with them on the Toyota's though. Worst case I've had a bad O2 sensor. EGR etc has never given me a fit (I have around 170k miles in Toyota's so far). Heck I don't even have window regulator problems like GM's are plagued with. I've had to change one and it's because the plastic cable keeper broke, everything worked besides that, and that's out of our whole family. Toyota's aren't perfect of course, they have a few small issues, like the 22r/re engine is known to eat up timing chain covers, the chain gets sloppy and if not changed it eats the cover and it has to be replaced. 3.4L I've read is known for injectors going bad which I think is the issue with my T100 missing. Computers go bad up here once in a while, not a part design fault though, it's from the wheel well rusted out and salt water getting into the computer. I think I've had 3 bad ones total (the T100 had a bad computer when I bought it, same with the 517k miles truck, and a friend of my dad's Camry which was high mileage like 300-350k. My Lexus has some interior issues, LED speedometer tends to burn out (mine was rebuilt before I got it), heater control LCD goes bad where you can't read it (I replace it in mine), and if I recall correctly the fuel pump controller commonly goes bad on the newer model 93-94, mine's a simple high/low controller, the newer one has more power level specs. Luxury.... they want the pump as quite as possible. It's common to bypass the controller and run the pump at full 12v which removes the small delay when you stomp on it. Besides that the kick up valve that went bad on my car is common, part is cheap but I'd rather block it off. Alternator goes bad if the power steering pump leaks (none of the 3 I have leak). Valve covers tend to leak, but seems to be common for Toyota's, they use a huge O-ring style seal and it shrinks over time, just tightening the bolts makes it stop leaking. For the most part not really major issues.

    I kind of miss my old 1990 Olds cutlass with the 3300 engine, it cruised pretty nicely (only 100k miles on the one I had, died due to rust). I just couldn't drive one again, I know they rust out too badly and the rear ends come apart, my dad's Buick (same body style) did exactly the same thing. I also remember my feet always being cold in winter from all the air leaks. Same with the grand am I had and 85 GMC. Can't remember if the ford ranger was pretty air tight or not. Astro van was fine, just a lot of air in there to heat up, I remember after getting off the high way and hitting the brakes I could feel the cold air from the back of the van blowing forward lol, first and only Van I drove.

    My dad has 80 acres he lives next to we have full permission to ride on and such. When we get a junker vehicle, a lot of the times it gets beat on in the trails. That land has kills many many vehicles that were on their last leg. There's only a few I can recall that weren't totally junked out. One was a 70's ford grand marquis, an AMC eagle (2wd) which was called "The Valleybeater" because it lasted so long being beat on, like a whole summer. The land we call the valley. And the latest one was a 1992 Toyota Corolla that was rolled into the ditch and everything body wise was pretty trashed. I beat on it every day for a week before I got in the mud and over rev'ed the engine and the time belt went. Could have replaced the timing belt and probably had a lot more fun with it. I liked that car so much I bought another one just to make into a woods buggy that I nick named the "Truckola" because I cut the back half top of the car off so I can haul wood and such in the back. I've had it for about 3 years now beating it around my property, not 1 problem yet except right now a fuel line is leaking (it runs out of gas after I run it and it sits). I have some 30in tractor tires I want to throw on it to see if it could turn them lol. Paid $350 for it with a blown head gasket, head gasket job was stupid easy to do. found the timing belt isn't long for the world too, so have half of the stuff still off the engine waiting for the timing belt to go. Oh the car hs 250k miles and the front end has a really back thunking noise on bumps, probably a lower control arm bushing or something like that. It's just a woods beater, so no point in spending money till it breaks. It also needs new shocks in the back really bad, they are completely blown out xD.

    Anyway, I try not to bash the American made stuff too bad, but they don't exactly hold a reputation of being ultra reliable, too many electrical related problems. I've seen easily 100+ vehicles scrapped, probably closer to 150-200 that between myself and my dad have owned. Very few of those were Toyota. Lately the Toyota numbers are up, but that's just because I'm targeting Toyota directly and there's enough people buying scrap vehicles it's hard to find a deal where you can make money scrapping them. For the 70's and older stuff, I do like the Oldsmobile made engines, they held up really well, had the best torque (not best HP), and their engine was super heavy duty. Heavy as in thick, I think it is 3 v8 olds engines is 1 ton or 4 bare blocks. My Lexus engine is probably 1/4 the weight of the olds v8's lol, but it's also a 6 bolt main vs 2 bolt.

  7. #22
    Fullsizechevy9 is offline At The Back Of The Pack Arm chair racerAt the back of the pack
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    Quote Originally Posted by ps2fixer View Post
    Yea, my family has pretty much converted to Toyota by now, just so few problems with them vs GM/Ford. However, if you're going to haul a big load, get a Ford, if you're going trail riding, normal driving, smaller loads, get a Toyota. My dad's replaced more Chevy engines than I can count in his old pickups. He said forget it and started to always run the Olds 350 from the Oldsmobile Cutlass and I think he only had one fail. In the 90's he lived on scrape metal at a big $25/ton. His dad sold his house around that era and had to haull all that junk off the property for the new owner. He had a GMC full sized 2wd pickup with a tire 350 olds engine and it was knocking. They spent something like a week hauling all the garbage from that house to his and the knocking was so loud it would about make you deaf. I don't think it ever threw the rod, but it was very bad. He threw another 350 in and continued hauling with it lol. His "Catruck" short for Car Truck that he built had a 455 olds with a 400 turbo trans and devorsed transfer case. 1973 Chevy 4x4 frame, Chevy wagon body cut down with a chevy cab rivited on the back of it (and bondoed over to smooth it out) and he had a home made box on the back that was super heavy duty diamon plate. Front bumper was 6in thick walled pipe with ~2in thick walled pipe for the up rights and smaller for the cross braces. All in all a very heavy truck and it had plenty of power with 4.10 gearing. He wouldn't pull vehicles to move them in the yard, he'd run into them and push them, front or rear bumper didn't matter. He killed the truck beating it through the woods like 70mph drunk on private property and he hit a huge pine tree. The pine tree didn't survive, but neither did his truck. Front bumper bent a tiny bit, but the frame broke and the front axle snapped off at the pumpkin. My dad's currently eyeing at building the same type of truck again using a Tundra cab, olds 455 with C heads he milled down himself roller cam, dually axle from a ford motorhome which has to be regeared to 4.10, 400 turbo trans again, with another divorced transfer case out of a 79 ford. The Toyota frame isn't heavy enough for him, so he plans to cut it off before the front suspension and use the ford frame for the mid to back half of the truck. Also planning to add a hydro dump box, deer catcher bumper, lift/wench in the corner of the bed for living heavy stuff, some sort of telescoping pole with LED lights on it and a secondary battery with a cut off switch so it can charge off the engine, but not drain the starting battery while in use. He has basically everything to make it happen including the Tundra with a bad engine.

    Emission control systems seem to be problematic for most engines. I haven't really had any problems with them on the Toyota's though. Worst case I've had a bad O2 sensor. EGR etc has never given me a fit (I have around 170k miles in Toyota's so far). Heck I don't even have window regulator problems like GM's are plagued with. I've had to change one and it's because the plastic cable keeper broke, everything worked besides that, and that's out of our whole family. Toyota's aren't perfect of course, they have a few small issues, like the 22r/re engine is known to eat up timing chain covers, the chain gets sloppy and if not changed it eats the cover and it has to be replaced. 3.4L I've read is known for injectors going bad which I think is the issue with my T100 missing. Computers go bad up here once in a while, not a part design fault though, it's from the wheel well rusted out and salt water getting into the computer. I think I've had 3 bad ones total (the T100 had a bad computer when I bought it, same with the 517k miles truck, and a friend of my dad's Camry which was high mileage like 300-350k. My Lexus has some interior issues, LED speedometer tends to burn out (mine was rebuilt before I got it), heater control LCD goes bad where you can't read it (I replace it in mine), and if I recall correctly the fuel pump controller commonly goes bad on the newer model 93-94, mine's a simple high/low controller, the newer one has more power level specs. Luxury.... they want the pump as quite as possible. It's common to bypass the controller and run the pump at full 12v which removes the small delay when you stomp on it. Besides that the kick up valve that went bad on my car is common, part is cheap but I'd rather block it off. Alternator goes bad if the power steering pump leaks (none of the 3 I have leak). Valve covers tend to leak, but seems to be common for Toyota's, they use a huge O-ring style seal and it shrinks over time, just tightening the bolts makes it stop leaking. For the most part not really major issues.

    I kind of miss my old 1990 Olds cutlass with the 3300 engine, it cruised pretty nicely (only 100k miles on the one I had, died due to rust). I just couldn't drive one again, I know they rust out too badly and the rear ends come apart, my dad's Buick (same body style) did exactly the same thing. I also remember my feet always being cold in winter from all the air leaks. Same with the grand am I had and 85 GMC. Can't remember if the ford ranger was pretty air tight or not. Astro van was fine, just a lot of air in there to heat up, I remember after getting off the high way and hitting the brakes I could feel the cold air from the back of the van blowing forward lol, first and only Van I drove.

    My dad has 80 acres he lives next to we have full permission to ride on and such. When we get a junker vehicle, a lot of the times it gets beat on in the trails. That land has kills many many vehicles that were on their last leg. There's only a few I can recall that weren't totally junked out. One was a 70's ford grand marquis, an AMC eagle (2wd) which was called "The Valleybeater" because it lasted so long being beat on, like a whole summer. The land we call the valley. And the latest one was a 1992 Toyota Corolla that was rolled into the ditch and everything body wise was pretty trashed. I beat on it every day for a week before I got in the mud and over rev'ed the engine and the time belt went. Could have replaced the timing belt and probably had a lot more fun with it. I liked that car so much I bought another one just to make into a woods buggy that I nick named the "Truckola" because I cut the back half top of the car off so I can haul wood and such in the back. I've had it for about 3 years now beating it around my property, not 1 problem yet except right now a fuel line is leaking (it runs out of gas after I run it and it sits). I have some 30in tractor tires I want to throw on it to see if it could turn them lol. Paid $350 for it with a blown head gasket, head gasket job was stupid easy to do. found the timing belt isn't long for the world too, so have half of the stuff still off the engine waiting for the timing belt to go. Oh the car hs 250k miles and the front end has a really back thunking noise on bumps, probably a lower control arm bushing or something like that. It's just a woods beater, so no point in spending money till it breaks. It also needs new shocks in the back really bad, they are completely blown out xD.

    Anyway, I try not to bash the American made stuff too bad, but they don't exactly hold a reputation of being ultra reliable, too many electrical related problems. I've seen easily 100+ vehicles scrapped, probably closer to 150-200 that between myself and my dad have owned. Very few of those were Toyota. Lately the Toyota numbers are up, but that's just because I'm targeting Toyota directly and there's enough people buying scrap vehicles it's hard to find a deal where you can make money scrapping them. For the 70's and older stuff, I do like the Oldsmobile made engines, they held up really well, had the best torque (not best HP), and their engine was super heavy duty. Heavy as in thick, I think it is 3 v8 olds engines is 1 ton or 4 bare blocks. My Lexus engine is probably 1/4 the weight of the olds v8's lol, but it's also a 6 bolt main vs 2 bolt.
    One of the coolest toyotas i ever saw was a mid 1990s tacoma the guy made it a duelly with custom fenders and it was painted seafoam greenish they also have a guy around here with about a 2000 model tacoma he put a real nice metal flat bed on it like the welding rigs use it looks nice love the look of it it has 33s mud grips on it i dont have alot of experiance owning older vehicles all i have ever had was late 90s early 2000s but all the chevys i have had i never had engine problems other than the knock sensors getting wet but put silicone around them and problem solved all the ones i had ran to around 300k with no major issues other than alternators or ac compressors now i have had transmission issues but i cant fully blame gm for that because they werent exactly babied the toyotas can take some abuse though my friemd had a tacoma he beat to sh!t and never had any issues with it tough little trucks it was like 280k and still going strong i have had pretty goos luck with chevy but they all have their pros and cons i think the tacoma takes the cake for mid size truck though if you want long reliable service i had a 99 chevy silverado i regret getting rid of though it was about to hit 300k and never a lick of trouble still running strong it would smoke the tires from a dead stop still

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  8. #23
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
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    USA
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    Maybe it's a product of where you live vs where I live. Salt belt, and salt + water causes electrical problems if the connections aren't sealed up well and such. My dad has had countless usa made vehicles that had electrical problems, we were pretty hard core USA only products too. Like my dad still uses a OLD no safety junk grinder made by black n decker when it was USA built, that thing is a monster, takes up to a 14in grinding wheel and when it has a new disk on it, you better hold on to it like you mean it or it's going to jerk out of your arms. All metal housing etc, might not be light, but you can use it all day every day with no problems, first thing to wear out on it will likely be the brushes.

    Tacoma started in 1995, before that it was just Toyota Truck, no name. Some said T100 on the titles but was never on the truck. The Toyota's did make a 1 ton pickup 2wd, most were converted to motorhomes, but a few trucks came out as a truck. The box had to be custom built as they came from Japan with no box, so fiberglass fenders and I think a stock or USA made box was used most of the time. The OLD 1 tons were just the standard 2wd axle with the v6 3rd member (8in ring gear vs 7.5in), later models it became a semi floater axle and if I recall correctly, it accepted duals with no adapter. Yes.. motor homes were sold that had single tire axle with an adapter to add a 2nd tire. If the axle bearing failed, the tire and axle would come out of the housing. Semi floater has 2 bearings to hold the hub on and the axle inside the housing isn't load bearing. Land cruiser axles are designed like that too, but they use a 9.5in ring gear. The first gen Tundra only had a "heavy 8in" ring gear, same size 8in ring gear as the older trucks, but the bearing caps were beefed up and cross membered. Newer tundras I think run a 10in ring gear, but don't know much about them, they had to update stuff because their 5.7L puts out some pretty nice power at the expense of old school v8 mileage.

    Anyway, on the chevy's it really depends on which motor you get. Like the chevy designed 2.5L motor used in the pontiac grand am in the early 90's was vin "U" and people liked to nick name them the useless engine or just call them junk. Had an internal oil filter instead of external, easy way to identify them. The one I had was problematic, module went bad, and shortly after the head gasket blew. Car wasn't worth sinking money into so just switched vehicles. My dad has a 1990 Grand Am with the2.4L quad 4 engine, pretty sure that was an oldsmobile design. Great powerful little 2.3L 4 cyl, but they were known for blowing head gaskets (the burping process for anti freeze is very critical to do right). The other thing they were known for were electrical problems. The death of that machine was some electrical gremlin that while idleing the car would raise and lower the rpm over and over like you're wanting to race someone. If you stomped on the gas, it would light up and go though. It was so annoying and my dad threw a lot of money at it trying to fix it that he gave up on it. I got to beat it through the woods some, and when I checked the air filter.. a mouse ate a hole in it, so I deemed the engine junk and really beat it. Kind of nice hitting 70mph in 2nd gear though and getting around 31mpg beating the snot out of it. I can't recall for sure, but I think the 3300/3800 engine was designed by Chevy, one of the best engines for that era of GM. The 3100 was really good too, but I think they had intake gasket problems, just had to throw in a "job saver" gasket that was metal instead of plastic and you was good to go. Not sure of those cars were known for electrical problems, but I had a 89 olds that suddenly lost spark, and a 94 Buick lesabre do the same exact thing, both with 3800 engines.

    From my understanding, the F250 power stroke diesels had electrical problems for their transmissions too. My dad's 96 has been sitting with electrical gremlins for the last shoot 12 years? He paid $14,000 for the truck used and only has 100k on it. I drove the truck in 2006 when I got my license, and it had problems a year or two after that. I think we might have it narrowed down to shift solenoid pack inside the transmission, need to get under the truck some day and ohm it out. He had to replace the glow plug controller too, was a new problem since the trans acted up, it would blow a fuse as soon as you turned the ignition switch on. At first it had 1st and 2nd gear only, then the fuse problem, fixed that and currently it won't move at all (full of fluid, smells good etc). Trans plug is good (common failure as well from what I've read, my uncle's 97 had that problem with a gas engine, same trans though).

    For most of the usa made stuff up here, you're pretty lucky to hit 200k miles, beyond that is like a gamble of what will fail first and when. For the Toyota's, almost every one of them I buy is 200k+ miles. Around 300k-350k miles their compression seems to start to drop. The 517k mile truck doesn't even smoke, but it defo feels like the timing is a little slow, it's not nearly as peppy as the one I have with 104k miles.

    I probably need to start going south to buy my vehicles, I don't mind long trips, but sounds like the prices are higher as well. Maybe I need to just buy vehicles with blown engines since heat is a problem down south and swap a northern engine in it and have the best of both worlds. Only down side is wiring don't last down there from the heat, atleast the Camry my dad bought that's from Florida the wiring is super stiff and basically falling apart, all the connectors and a nightmare to release because they are all stiff/brittle. Maybe it was in a flood or something and salt water has that effect on the connectors? Same story for my 86 pickup, it has some wiring problems due to age/heat, but the trucks I bought that lived their lives in michigan were rusty but good wiring when no one was in the wiring hacking it up (almost every one of them).

    It seems like the 80's era usa made stuff was more or less junk, and around 90's to mid 90's they started building better engines and stuff but their bodies tended to rust out and the electrical problems. 2000+ vehicles are so much plastic and just fold up in wrecks, I've seen quite a few electrical problems on them too. I know a lady with a chevy cruiz and the mirror control has already failed, I think she said it's a 2014 car. I've never seen mirror controls fail on a vehicle before, and on that car the window switches are on the same circuit board, so it's like a $170 part + labor.

    Really, the Japanese 80's era stuff wasn't super great either, they were known to rust out super fast up here. around mid 80's into early 90's they changed gears and all of a sudden their vehicles don't rust out... like at all. My 1992 camry is effectively rust free and it's from northern michigan, 300k miles. The first 2 parts camrys I bought had 350k and 378k miles and both were rust free except the driver's side fender on both which was dented and rusted from a fender bender. My lexus is similar, and I can see where the rear end is bondo'ed a bit, other side has a little rust just starting right above the rear wheels. Under belly and such is basically rust free though. Switch gears to my 96 tacoma, cab was perfect, box has bubbled up spots above the wheels. After a year the box had ~2in holes in it and the running boards on both side were rusting out from the inside out. My T100's running boards are basically gone, I can see the ground through them and it's cab corners are shot like the typical ford rust, same with the box wheel well rust just like a ford. I have yet to run a road worthy Toyota into the ground till the engine blows up, trans goes out, etc, rust always kills them long before then. That one corolla is the only one I had the engine die in a way that I was stranded (had to walk to the house from the woods). Every other one has had problems where I could still limp home, even when I hit a deer going 70mph and the front end was wiped off my camry, it still ran and drove, but the radiator was broken. Welded in core support from a parts car and a hood from the same car and was good to go, fixed in 1 day (hit it going to work, midnight, had work the next night lol).

  9. #24
    Fullsizechevy9 is offline At The Back Of The Pack Arm chair racerAt the back of the pack
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    Quote Originally Posted by ps2fixer View Post
    Maybe it's a product of where you live vs where I live. Salt belt, and salt + water causes electrical problems if the connections aren't sealed up well and such. My dad has had countless usa made vehicles that had electrical problems, we were pretty hard core USA only products too. Like my dad still uses a OLD no safety junk grinder made by black n decker when it was USA built, that thing is a monster, takes up to a 14in grinding wheel and when it has a new disk on it, you better hold on to it like you mean it or it's going to jerk out of your arms. All metal housing etc, might not be light, but you can use it all day every day with no problems, first thing to wear out on it will likely be the brushes.

    Tacoma started in 1995, before that it was just Toyota Truck, no name. Some said T100 on the titles but was never on the truck. The Toyota's did make a 1 ton pickup 2wd, most were converted to motorhomes, but a few trucks came out as a truck. The box had to be custom built as they came from Japan with no box, so fiberglass fenders and I think a stock or USA made box was used most of the time. The OLD 1 tons were just the standard 2wd axle with the v6 3rd member (8in ring gear vs 7.5in), later models it became a semi floater axle and if I recall correctly, it accepted duals with no adapter. Yes.. motor homes were sold that had single tire axle with an adapter to add a 2nd tire. If the axle bearing failed, the tire and axle would come out of the housing. Semi floater has 2 bearings to hold the hub on and the axle inside the housing isn't load bearing. Land cruiser axles are designed like that too, but they use a 9.5in ring gear. The first gen Tundra only had a "heavy 8in" ring gear, same size 8in ring gear as the older trucks, but the bearing caps were beefed up and cross membered. Newer tundras I think run a 10in ring gear, but don't know much about them, they had to update stuff because their 5.7L puts out some pretty nice power at the expense of old school v8 mileage.

    Anyway, on the chevy's it really depends on which motor you get. Like the chevy designed 2.5L motor used in the pontiac grand am in the early 90's was vin "U" and people liked to nick name them the useless engine or just call them junk. Had an internal oil filter instead of external, easy way to identify them. The one I had was problematic, module went bad, and shortly after the head gasket blew. Car wasn't worth sinking money into so just switched vehicles. My dad has a 1990 Grand Am with the2.4L quad 4 engine, pretty sure that was an oldsmobile design. Great powerful little 2.3L 4 cyl, but they were known for blowing head gaskets (the burping process for anti freeze is very critical to do right). The other thing they were known for were electrical problems. The death of that machine was some electrical gremlin that while idleing the car would raise and lower the rpm over and over like you're wanting to race someone. If you stomped on the gas, it would light up and go though. It was so annoying and my dad threw a lot of money at it trying to fix it that he gave up on it. I got to beat it through the woods some, and when I checked the air filter.. a mouse ate a hole in it, so I deemed the engine junk and really beat it. Kind of nice hitting 70mph in 2nd gear though and getting around 31mpg beating the snot out of it. I can't recall for sure, but I think the 3300/3800 engine was designed by Chevy, one of the best engines for that era of GM. The 3100 was really good too, but I think they had intake gasket problems, just had to throw in a "job saver" gasket that was metal instead of plastic and you was good to go. Not sure of those cars were known for electrical problems, but I had a 89 olds that suddenly lost spark, and a 94 Buick lesabre do the same exact thing, both with 3800 engines.

    From my understanding, the F250 power stroke diesels had electrical problems for their transmissions too. My dad's 96 has been sitting with electrical gremlins for the last shoot 12 years? He paid $14,000 for the truck used and only has 100k on it. I drove the truck in 2006 when I got my license, and it had problems a year or two after that. I think we might have it narrowed down to shift solenoid pack inside the transmission, need to get under the truck some day and ohm it out. He had to replace the glow plug controller too, was a new problem since the trans acted up, it would blow a fuse as soon as you turned the ignition switch on. At first it had 1st and 2nd gear only, then the fuse problem, fixed that and currently it won't move at all (full of fluid, smells good etc). Trans plug is good (common failure as well from what I've read, my uncle's 97 had that problem with a gas engine, same trans though).

    For most of the usa made stuff up here, you're pretty lucky to hit 200k miles, beyond that is like a gamble of what will fail first and when. For the Toyota's, almost every one of them I buy is 200k+ miles. Around 300k-350k miles their compression seems to start to drop. The 517k mile truck doesn't even smoke, but it defo feels like the timing is a little slow, it's not nearly as peppy as the one I have with 104k miles.

    I probably need to start going south to buy my vehicles, I don't mind long trips, but sounds like the prices are higher as well. Maybe I need to just buy vehicles with blown engines since heat is a problem down south and swap a northern engine in it and have the best of both worlds. Only down side is wiring don't last down there from the heat, atleast the Camry my dad bought that's from Florida the wiring is super stiff and basically falling apart, all the connectors and a nightmare to release because they are all stiff/brittle. Maybe it was in a flood or something and salt water has that effect on the connectors? Same story for my 86 pickup, it has some wiring problems due to age/heat, but the trucks I bought that lived their lives in michigan were rusty but good wiring when no one was in the wiring hacking it up (almost every one of them).

    It seems like the 80's era usa made stuff was more or less junk, and around 90's to mid 90's they started building better engines and stuff but their bodies tended to rust out and the electrical problems. 2000+ vehicles are so much plastic and just fold up in wrecks, I've seen quite a few electrical problems on them too. I know a lady with a chevy cruiz and the mirror control has already failed, I think she said it's a 2014 car. I've never seen mirror controls fail on a vehicle before, and on that car the window switches are on the same circuit board, so it's like a $170 part + labor.

    Really, the Japanese 80's era stuff wasn't super great either, they were known to rust out super fast up here. around mid 80's into early 90's they changed gears and all of a sudden their vehicles don't rust out... like at all. My 1992 camry is effectively rust free and it's from northern michigan, 300k miles. The first 2 parts camrys I bought had 350k and 378k miles and both were rust free except the driver's side fender on both which was dented and rusted from a fender bender. My lexus is similar, and I can see where the rear end is bondo'ed a bit, other side has a little rust just starting right above the rear wheels. Under belly and such is basically rust free though. Switch gears to my 96 tacoma, cab was perfect, box has bubbled up spots above the wheels. After a year the box had ~2in holes in it and the running boards on both side were rusting out from the inside out. My T100's running boards are basically gone, I can see the ground through them and it's cab corners are shot like the typical ford rust, same with the box wheel well rust just like a ford. I have yet to run a road worthy Toyota into the ground till the engine blows up, trans goes out, etc, rust always kills them long before then. That one corolla is the only one I had the engine die in a way that I was stranded (had to walk to the house from the woods). Every other one has had problems where I could still limp home, even when I hit a deer going 70mph and the front end was wiped off my camry, it still ran and drove, but the radiator was broken. Welded in core support from a parts car and a hood from the same car and was good to go, fixed in 1 day (hit it going to work, midnight, had work the next night lol).
    Yea stuff is high down here especially 3 wheelers and toyotas but we dont have the salt to rust them out so you can get some nice stuff you can find deals just like anywhere else just have to shop but the stuff i have seen advertised is high i have seen 350x for 3 and 4g and a 125m for 2500 but i also seen one in great shape for 800 so i giess if you shop enough you can find a deal most the 3 wheelers i have seen they wanted a fortune for i got lucky and found a deal 200$ and it fired up soon as i got it home they just didnt know how to work on stuff and gas tank was full of rust so of course it is going to not run long evem with new carb they put on it i could have got away without rebuilding top end but who doesnt want more power i ported the head myself port matched everything high comp piston had the cylinder bored and it runs way stronger than it did before really woke it up a cam and it will be good to go think the extra power is causing a bottom end problem thoughr i had it figured out but its still doing it think the output shaft gear is wearing out i have that 200e bottom i want to put on it for electric and pull start but trying to wait until after hunting season so it doesnt take from my hunting time im just going to ride it easy until then i have plenty spots i can just park and walk in also that are overlooked somtimes the best hunting spots are right by the road because everybody passes it up to go deeper

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  10. #25
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
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    Funny up here, the 350x is the same or more, the 125m though... $600-1000 unless it's the 86+ model, I never see those listed. Most of the 3 wheelers I bought I have $200-500 into each of them. Pretty much the same story for most of the Toyotas in my yard. Just a few parts and I'd have my money back, and Toyota parts sell really well on ebay. Same with 3 wheeler parts. There's a demand for them, probably because they have a rep of being reliable, people buying old stuff wants the "best of" so they go for what has the reputation. Like if an atv has a ton of electrical problems, fuel problems, and doesn't have anything special about it vs another model that doesn't have those problems, why would you want to spend a bunch of money to have a money pit. Kind of the benefit of running older vehicles, most of the junk ones have been junked already, and if you go for models known to be reliable, it's a nice cost savings (every brand has models that were better than all their others).

    What does the noise sound like in the 200s bottom end? I haven't had much experience with bad transmissions in Honda. I've had a bad primary clutch on a Yamaha, and bad 2nd and 3rd gear in an early 1970's kawasaki motorcycle (grumbling noise). Output shaft bearing being bad I'd assume would have somewhat of a growl sound to it or kind of a grumble.

    Ironically the hunting spots around here is pretty much anywhere, just have to find the deer trails and bait near them and you're pretty much guaranteed to see something. I have a 2nd drive that goes to the back 5 acres of my land, I've seen deer in that trail quite a few times.

    I really had to shop around to find my nice 350x for a reasonable price. Gave a jeep cherokee for it that I paid $800 for (we valued it at $1000 in the trade). Jeep was "wrecked" into a ditch and had a ugly dent in the rear quarter panel, besides that low miles etc. Transmission went out on the guy on the way home, but he said he didn't mind he was still happy to get a jeep to mod for the sand dunes. The 350x needs the carb cleaned and inspected, the float is sticking open and flooding/overflowing, and the timing chain is slapping so needs to be done. Pretty easy jobs, just it's the nice machine, if I fix it, I probably still won't ride it too much since it's probably worth $2000+ by now (aftermarket plastics and such so not perfect). My other 350x that's my go to was cheap "non running" aka out of gas buy. It's a bit ugly, but it has a solid running engine in it now bought from a 3ww member that upgraded to a NOS engine. Not sure if there's any mods on it, but I have to run a DG exhaust since the OEM one was welded together. The ugly one has a little more power than the pretty one so might have like a 10:1 piston or something. Oh yea the "pretty" 350x has a clutch issue, it get's hard to pull in when you ride it hard. I think the clutch basket is wearing in and needs filed to be flat again. Could just switch in a clutch basket from a 250es, pretty sure they were the same part number.

  11. #26
    Fullsizechevy9 is offline At The Back Of The Pack Arm chair racerAt the back of the pack
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    Quote Originally Posted by ps2fixer View Post
    Funny up here, the 350x is the same or more, the 125m though... $600-1000 unless it's the 86+ model, I never see those listed. Most of the 3 wheelers I bought I have $200-500 into each of them. Pretty much the same story for most of the Toyotas in my yard. Just a few parts and I'd have my money back, and Toyota parts sell really well on ebay. Same with 3 wheeler parts. There's a demand for them, probably because they have a rep of being reliable, people buying old stuff wants the "best of" so they go for what has the reputation. Like if an atv has a ton of electrical problems, fuel problems, and doesn't have anything special about it vs another model that doesn't have those problems, why would you want to spend a bunch of money to have a money pit. Kind of the benefit of running older vehicles, most of the junk ones have been junked already, and if you go for models known to be reliable, it's a nice cost savings (every brand has models that were better than all their others).

    What does the noise sound like in the 200s bottom end? I haven't had much experience with bad transmissions in Honda. I've had a bad primary clutch on a Yamaha, and bad 2nd and 3rd gear in an early 1970's kawasaki motorcycle (grumbling noise). Output shaft bearing being bad I'd assume would have somewhat of a growl sound to it or kind of a grumble.

    Ironically the hunting spots around here is pretty much anywhere, just have to find the deer trails and bait near them and you're pretty much guaranteed to see something. I have a 2nd drive that goes to the back 5 acres of my land, I've seen deer in that trail quite a few times.

    I really had to shop around to find my nice 350x for a reasonable price. Gave a jeep cherokee for it that I paid $800 for (we valued it at $1000 in the trade). Jeep was "wrecked" into a ditch and had a ugly dent in the rear quarter panel, besides that low miles etc. Transmission went out on the guy on the way home, but he said he didn't mind he was still happy to get a jeep to mod for the sand dunes. The 350x needs the carb cleaned and inspected, the float is sticking open and flooding/overflowing, and the timing chain is slapping so needs to be done. Pretty easy jobs, just it's the nice machine, if I fix it, I probably still won't ride it too much since it's probably worth $2000+ by now (aftermarket plastics and such so not perfect). My other 350x that's my go to was cheap "non running" aka out of gas buy. It's a bit ugly, but it has a solid running engine in it now bought from a 3ww member that upgraded to a NOS engine. Not sure if there's any mods on it, but I have to run a DG exhaust since the OEM one was welded together. The ugly one has a little more power than the pretty one so might have like a 10:1 piston or something. Oh yea the "pretty" 350x has a clutch issue, it get's hard to pull in when you ride it hard. I think the clutch basket is wearing in and needs filed to be flat again. Could just switch in a clutch basket from a 250es, pretty sure they were the same part number.
    It sounds like chain is slipping which i know it isnt must be a gear worn down slipping it does it in 4th and 3rd for sure havnt really heard it in other gears maybe 2nd not sure but when i get in a mud hole nothing serious just a dip in the ground that is a little muddy like on trails if i hit the throttle hard it will slip and make the noise and barely goes when i let off it will,catch again and go but in 1st amd 2nd if i gun it the bike will stand up and go or if i take off from a stop gunning it doesnt make the noise but i can feel the clutch slipping a little im wondering if its just the clutch slipping i have spare clutches in the 200e idk if they will work for the s

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  12. #27
    Fullsizechevy9 is offline At The Back Of The Pack Arm chair racerAt the back of the pack
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fullsizechevy9 View Post
    It sounds like chain is slipping which i know it isnt must be a gear worn down slipping it does it in 4th and 3rd for sure havnt really heard it in other gears maybe 2nd not sure but when i get in a mud hole nothing serious just a dip in the ground that is a little muddy like on trails if i hit the throttle hard it will slip and make the noise and barely goes when i let off it will,catch again and go but in 1st amd 2nd if i gun it the bike will stand up and go or if i take off from a stop gunning it doesnt make the noise but i can feel the clutch slipping a little im wondering if its just the clutch slipping i have spare clutches in the 200e idk if they will work for the s

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    Basically anywhere that the bike has resistance going forward when i hit the throttle in the higher gears hard it will make the noise

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  13. #28
    Fullsizechevy9 is offline At The Back Of The Pack Arm chair racerAt the back of the pack
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fullsizechevy9 View Post
    Basically anywhere that the bike has resistance going forward when i hit the throttle in the higher gears hard it will make the noise

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    Also here are some finds on craigslist give you an idea of the prices around here wish i had the money id love the little tri z 60 dont see many of them around

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    Yea the tri-zinger is kind of a neat machine, kind of like the ATC70. The Tri-z on the other hand was a 250cc like the atc250r, no relation besides both being yamaha and 2 stroke... unless the "Z" in tri-z actually stands for zinger. Never seen the two model names near enough to make that link before, so who knows.

    Kind of interesting no slip in 1st or 2nd gear, but 3rd and 4th it does. Kind of sounds like it's the primary gear set under the right side cover, same gear the clutch basket is part of. If you have a solid way to reseal the engine (gasket or attempt to reuse the old one with the chance of it leaking) I'd say drain the oil and pull that right cover and just visually inspect the gears, primary clutch and such. Can't remember if you can see the main clutch pads or not on that machine, I think you can though. The clutch basket is a pretty common part, just have to jump on partzilla and look up the part number to compare the two machines.

    What you're telling me makes me think the output shaft, and transmission internals should be fine, unless there's a common gear only used in 3rd & 4th but not in 1st/2nd. The 350 kawasaki bighorn 2 stroke bike I have makes it's bad noise in 2nd and 3rd, but all other gears are fine which tells me it's related directly to those two gears, so probably a common gear that's used for that range. The thing in common is harder to spin tires = more likely to make the noise, which the input shaft of the transmisson sees (the clutch basket is right on the input shaft), so my logic is something between crank shaft and trans input shaft.

    This is of course assuming the chain isn't slipping, sprocket isn't slipping on the output shaft, and the sprocket hub on the axle isn't slipping. Probably wouldn't be too hard to tell where it's comming from by holding the rear brake on and giving it some gas in say 3rd gear and listening where it's coming from, could do it with 2 people so you can move about and physically look at the sockets and such. Probably a good idea to be sure if it's in the engine or not before assuming it's in the engine and swapping the engine to find it's an axle problem.

    Oh also, the hubs the tires bolt to could skip too. Those hub splines are fairly common to go bad, the hubs should be bolted tight to the axle, I've seen so many that the castle nut is just like finger tire with a cotter pin to keep it from falling off.
    Last edited by ps2fixer; 10-09-2019 at 01:54 PM.

  15. #30
    Fullsizechevy9 is offline At The Back Of The Pack Arm chair racerAt the back of the pack
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    Quote Originally Posted by ps2fixer View Post
    Yea the tri-zinger is kind of a neat machine, kind of like the ATC70. The Tri-z on the other hand was a 250cc like the atc250r, no relation besides both being yamaha and 2 stroke... unless the "Z" in tri-z actually stands for zinger. Never seen the two model names near enough to make that link before, so who knows.

    Kind of interesting no slip in 1st or 2nd gear, but 3rd and 4th it does. Kind of sounds like it's the primary gear set under the right side cover, same gear the clutch basket is part of. If you have a solid way to reseal the engine (gasket or attempt to reuse the old one with the chance of it leaking) I'd say drain the oil and pull that right cover and just visually inspect the gears, primary clutch and such. Can't remember if you can see the main clutch pads or not on that machine, I think you can though. The clutch basket is a pretty common part, just have to jump on partzilla and look up the part number to compare the two machines.

    What you're telling me makes me think the output shaft, and transmission internals should be fine, unless there's a common gear only used in 3rd & 4th but not in 1st/2nd. The 350 kawasaki bighorn 2 stroke bike I have makes it's bad noise in 2nd and 3rd, but all other gears are fine which tells me it's related directly to those two gears, so probably a common gear that's used for that range. The thing in common is harder to spin tires = more likely to make the noise, which the input shaft of the transmisson sees (the clutch basket is right on the input shaft), so my logic is something between crank shaft and trans input shaft.
    Yea if i ride it easy it doesnt have any problems so im going to try an baby it until hunting season is over then im going to finishin rebuilding the 200e bottom end and put in it so ill have electric start and pull start for backup the 10:1 piston isnt as bad as people made it sound to pull i just make sure im on the right stroke and yank it and never have a problem starting it but it does start forst pull every time no matter how long it sits so im lucky

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