Anybody own one of them Toyota Vans from the mid 80s? (1 Viewer)

[Ken Garrison]

I do. Just had the engine rebuilt. It's in need for a new coil now. It misfires like hell when it's warmed up. But when it's acting right, I sure do love the way it drives. I love the way it'll make a U-turn without hitting the curb. The location of the front wheels are just right for me. You don't have the obstruction of a nose in the way. Parking is a breeze. The versatility it has is amazing. Someday, I'm gonna have some body work done to her, a new stereo system installed. Eventually have the cruise control fixed since those bastards that rebuilt the motor ruined it. Then later, I may have my transmission overhauled. It also gotta new torque convertor in the rebuild. But, when I put it in gear, it engages pretty roughly. I was able to make the shifting shift easier by adjusting the cable that daisy chains from the throttle back to the transmission. Anyway, I sure do love this van. I don't even want another vehicle. Hell, I may get another one of these as a spare.

 

[Bill Balcziak]

My neighbor had one until it caught fire on the freeway and burned up. From what I heard, it burned quite impressively, so you could consider that an endorsement of sorts.

 

[Ken Garrison]

God, I hope that don't happen to me. Before the engine was rebuilt, it did have some wiring that was going bad and the rear fan motor quit working. They did some rewiring under the dash and such and said there was some wiring shorting out. I don't think I'll have too much of a problem with it now. Now if I can just find a way to get that cruise to work again.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

By any chance does the parking brake warning light stay on all the time??

If so, the cruise won't work. If the park brake light stays on when the brake is released, check the brake master cyl reservoir (open driver's door and look at left end of dash for rubber cap). If the brake fluid is low, the light stays on and the cruise won't work.

If the brake and charge warning lights both stay on, check the fusible links off the positive battery terminal.

Don't let the power steering pump leak onto the alternator, it will ruin it.

Yours must be an 86-89 model, these had an auxiliary AC condenser with a fan under the front end that shared power source with the rear blower, after a few years the condenser fan motor would start to draw a bit too much current and cause the rear ac circuit breaker to blow a lot. Rewiring to put the condenser fan and rear blower on separate fusing cured the problem.

I work on Toyotas for a living, hate those mid-80s vans as they are so inaccessible for servicing, but the damn things run forever. We have customers with over 300k miles on these with the original engines.

Another thing to watch out for is the rubber ducting between the throttle body on top of the engine and the airflow meter on top of the air filter box. If this duct splits, engine will stall out when you mash the gas pedal, especially in gear.

Harsh 1-2 shift is fairly common on these, also.

 

[Ken Garrison]

I've checked the brake fluid. Everything's cool. It's an 84 model.

Another thing to watch out for is the rubber ducting between the throttle body on top of the engine and the airflow meter on top of the air filter box. If this duct splits, engine will stall out when you mash the gas pedal, especially in gear

BTW, this DID happen to me. I had NO IDEA WTF was wrong. But, everytime I put it in drive and sit, it would die on me. Reverse had no problem, because the engine would rotate toward the split and seal it up. I took it in the shop to find out what the problem was. Guy took it for a drive and knew EXACTLY what it was. So, later, I got some goop, sealed it up, wrapped it with electrical tape and reinstalled it. After that, it was still misfiring on the HW, but didn't have a problem when I stop at a stop sign. So, I had the fuel filter replaced. Noticed an increase in power, but still bucked and missed on the highway. So, when it decided it didn't wanna start after it was warm, I took one of the spark plug wires, hooked it to a lawn mower spark plug, grounded it to one of the clamps that holds the hatch down and cranked it. Guess what. Weak spark. VERY weak. So, I'm gonna take her in one of these days and get a new coil, hoping that'll fix it.

BTW, I got over 201,000 miles on mine. It had around 185,000 miles on it when the engine was rebuilt. It ended up being a rebuild after the water pump blew up. There was also a recall on these about the wrong bolts being used on the torque convertor. The guys who rebuilt the engine saw this, and went ahead and replaced it. Also, it does go into gear pretty rough, causing it to twitch back a couple feet if I don't hold the brake.

Anyway, can you tell me all about the cruise control system on this thing. How does it work on this and where is the control module? I think them bastards forgot to hook it up to the servo that controls the pedel when they put the engine back in. The little light comes on when I flip the switch. I twist the SET/Coast knob and nothing. So, if I can get an idea where the cruise system is on this thing, I might be able to fix it.

 

[Ken Garrison]

So, what do you think Steve? Any idea where the cruise control system is on this thing?

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Re the cruise control--will look this up at work tomorrow and get back at ya. Most common problem was bad actuator unit, but I don't remember off the top of my head where it is.

It could actually be under the dash with a cable going to the throttle linkage/pedal.

One thing I do know--if any individual component is bad, it's cheaper to have a new aftermarket cruise installed than to replace the actuator with a factory part.

 

[Ken Garrison]

I noticed there's a black box where the gas pedel attaches to and there's a cable going through the top then through the floor to the throttle on the TB and the another cable going from the box straight through the floor and back somewhere under behind the engine where I can't see. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Ken Garrison]

Did I mention that these things are a regular chick magnet? One time, my brother took it to school, because he needed it to take half of his classmates, while the teacher took the other half, somewhere to interview someone. Anyway, it was mostly girls that went with my brother. And they complimented, "Oh this is nice" "I wanna drive damnit" "I GOT SHOTGUN" "I LOVE this thing!" and lots of other comments. I also had some empty water jugs in there I forgot about. My brother says, "nevermind the jugs, put your feet on the engine. "Uh, where's that?" "I'm SITTING ON IT!!" I guess that was kinda cool. Although, one of my brother's friends, a regular joe six pack, won't get near this thing. He don't like the fact that the engine is not in the front. These things actually do have a pretty strong front end so you don't get mashed in a front end accident. But hey, I like it because of the location of the front wheels. Kinda like a bus. I like it like that because of manuverability. I can turn way tighter than my Dad's lumina. I can even make tight U-turns without hitting the curb while some cars have to do a 3 point turnabout. Before I had my license and when my dad was driving this thing before the engine rebuild, it would lag pretty badly on the 70 MPH freeway up a slight hill. After the waterpump blew and had the engine rebuilt, it can now MAINTAIN 70 MPH very easily on the freeway and still go up that same hill it always lagged on. It's also fun to drive it on the rural highways we have around here. It feels the van is a part of me and I'm zipping through the road. I took it around a corner a little too fast one time and made the tires squeal. I was like, "YES!!!" Well, I pretty much miss driving this thing like I used to now that the coil has gone bad. I'm looking forward to getting it replaced so I can drive from point A to point B without getting bucked and jerked in the process.

 

[Ken Garrison]

Well, we bought a new coil. We're in the process in replacing it. We hadda remove the passenger seat and some bolts to this panel and slide it to one side. That gave us better access to the distrubutor. Now it's dark. Gotta wait 'til tomorrow to finish up.

 

[Ken Garrison]

Well, we got the new coil in. It's still bucking and kicking when it's warmed up. I got the shit zapped outta me when I was trying to rotate the distubutor to retime it. So, maybe I have bad plug wires. Well, we're gonna replace the cap and the plug wires and see if that fixes it. If that clears up that problem totally, then we'll run it into the shop and have it retimed properly. It was too advanced when I took it out on the road. On the way into town, it ran great, with the exception of having my timing to advanced. Then, on the way back, almost home, it starts jerking and kicking. When I got it home, it was only running on 3 cylinders. I started it later, and it was still misfiring, but all 4 cylinders got fire. Just a little intermediate. We probably should've just got a new distributor unit. But, we'll try a new cap and plug wires and see if that helps. If not, we'll get a new module unit that also sits under the cap. Guess if THAT don't help, we'll take it into the shop and have it put on the scope.

 

[Ken Garrison]

I pulled wire number 4 to cylinder number 4 and it didn't make any difference in the idling when I got back from an errand today. I go into town, 7 miles away, it runs great. I have it turned off for a while, it's still warm after that, then I go back home. Halfway home, it starts misfiring and bucking. Then when I park it home, it's only running on 3. So, it's #4 that's not firing. Well, since the distributor cap/wires shocked me yesterday, that much mean I need new wires. I'm gonna get a new cap also. I noticed the contacts were showing some age. I did clean them. Oh well. Another possibilty is the module, which sits under the cap. Although smaller, they cost about 3 times as much as a new coil does. $31.49 was the price of a new coil and around $5 bucks for a new rotor. Caps around $25 and a new set of 4 plug wires are around $20-30. I wonder how much money we're saving buy doing these repairs ourselves. We usually have the shop fix it. I had them replace a $20 fuel filter a few weeks ago, and the bill, including the filter, was around $70. On a Toyota Van, there's much more you have to do if you wanna gain more access to the engine. Once we figured out how to remove the passenger seat and the panel underneath it, future repair will be easier. Hell, if I decide to let the shop do anymore repairs on it, I'm gonna unbolt that seat and that panel and drive it in there. That way, I'd save on labor, so they don't have to remove it. LOL All they would have to do is lift the panel out of the way and they're in.

 

[Ken Garrison]

Well, we did it. We replaced the distributor cap, plug wires, and the spark plugs today. Took it for a long 18 mile test drive. That's longer than I usually go almost everyday anyway. I took it for that test drive and I didn't feel ONE misfire at all. When I stomp on the gas, the ROAR is much smoother and quieter with a tad more power. We got a set of AUTOLITE Plug Wires, and a set of BOSCH Platinum spark plugs. The old plugs were a set of DENONs or something. And they were NOT platinum. Anyway. I can tell a difference and I'm glad the misfire is taken care of.