My $1500 tundra lol

I bought this 2002 tundra for a dynamic deal.... Or so I thought lol. It has a starter problem..... Previous owner handed me a fuse and said if it's not removed the battery will drain. Ok whatever lol.

The starters bearing broke and the gear was stuck out. Ok new starter ( not denso oops) turns out previous owner while beating a hole in the top of the starter broke both knock sensors and wiring harnesses. Fixed that. I also decided it might be wise to change the timing belt so I did that. The truck started right up but was blowing water out of the exhaust after having both heads rebuilt resurfaced and head gasket. Started to write up and ran perfectly but the damn power steering pump was pouring out! Replaced that!

So then I go to drive it, almost no brakes! So the previous owner let the brake shoes get so low and ride on metal for so long that it elongated the brake drum holes not to mention that 5 out of the six wheel studs where cross thread and barely holding on. I'll replace all those parts. So it turns out that the rotor in the front is so worn that it overextended the caliper Pistons bent the caliber backwards and broke the lower mount bolt!

Then in the middle of all this it randomly starts not wanting to start. Damned if this brand new starter now doesn't work lol

 

Having fun yet?

 

Keep us updated. Check all of your ground connections......buy a 6 pack

 

Just a friendly reminder, as you're working on brakes... having a functional, un-frozen parking brake is vital to proper, firm braking on these trucks. If your parking brake isn't properly adjusted, and the bell cranks aren't adjusted by the book, soft brake pedal is a classic symptom. There's a sticky thread that covers this on the 1st gens.

 

Hey, did you get this in MA? On craigslist? I reached out to a guy with a remarkably similar truck going for 1500 a few weeks ago. After hearing about it more from him I passed.

 

If not rusted out that's a good deal here. Running or not.

 

Keep at it, you'll get there and love it!

 

Enjoy the Tundra. I think old VWs and 1st Gen Tundras are kindred spirits. They're relatively easy to work on, keep running forever and serve their purpose very well. Oh, and rust will take both of them out. My Tundra has 250K mikes and the Vanagon has 320K miles and I plan to keep running them for many more miles.

 

It gets better, I promise. Just went through a similar ordeal on a Tundra I bought last year. It took a lot of work to get it where it should be, but the work paid off (well, almost, it's drivable now, just working on swapping the muffler out, then I'll be done).

 

Well I spent about 4 hours diagnosing and non-start issue that ended up being a defective new starter.

 

During my extremely stressful starting issue diagnostic I added a new ground wire actually two new ground wires lol

 

Looking at the mechanism doesn't let it adjusts itself when you drive backwards and stop?

 

This is my replacement work truck for my 04 Tacoma 2.4 workhorse beast!
I have the tundra, the Tacoma, a first generation trooper, a VW caddy (Volkswagen's el Camino lol), a VW cabby (beach cruiser), a old bug, and a Corvette

 

I got free tires I'm excited!

 

Denso starter?

 

Those drum holes look drilled

 

Explain yourself. Those look mint

 

This is how you gotta try to do it. I don't know what your situation is but, it's great if it's not your primary vehicle and you aren't under the gun to get it running. Take your time, learn about the rig, do things right and you'll really love it when you get all the kinks worked out.

 

No

 

No it because only two lugs were tight rest cross thread and riding metal to metal long time

 

Found them at the dump they have 90% tread one has a nail in it but whatever

 

Date code?

 

My reading on the subject suggests that it adjusts every time the E brake is used. For trucks without a manual trans, this may be a rare occurance!

 

Nice score. As mentioned, have you checked the date code on the tires yet?

 

Shit. If they mount and balance and hold air. You are fucking winning. Go buy a lottery ticket

 

I want to know where that dump is........

 

X2.
Especially with the price of tires these days.

 

It’s in the good part of town you can’t afford to live. They even have a sales clerk to tell you about the “reconditioned” inventory.

 

those are actually great tires!