1989 4Runner

Few more things have been done. Upgraded the wiring from the starter to battery as well as a few of the grounds. Bigger gauge. Fixed a starting issue. Ran a new line between the fuse box and battery also. Replaced the cracked and rotted couplers on the intake with new silicone ones. And the biggest thing is I finally got it licensed, registered, and titled. First time it’s been street legal since 2010.

 

Popped the top off and been enjoying it. Just replaced the clutch master, slave, and rubber hose and gave it fresh fluid. Clutch feels way better. It was always good but now it’s firm and has some feel. Also, someone decided to red lock tite the fitting on the rubber line. What a pain that was to get free.


35 years, a 199,404 miles, still looks better than a Tesla.

 

Love 1st gens! Best friend in college had a 87 (and some others on and off) and we'd rally that thing all over the place. Old convertibles are so cool, makes up for how gutless they are.

 

The lack of power kills me but it gets up to 55 and holds it fairly well so I’m not gonna complain. Not even gonna attempt the 80mph speed limit on the toll road in it. I kinda wanna do a gm 4.3 v6 or a 4.8 LS swap into it just to give it some cajones but that’ll have to be after the 22re gives up the ghost.

 

Been a minute. Factory alternator gave up the ghost so I bought a new (not remand) ACdelco. It lasted less than 5 minutes before the bearings started to smoke. Rma’d it and got another and it lasted 10mins so guess it’s good.

Finally got not scorching weather to work on the AC on this thing. The AC conversion valves I got didn’t fit. I’ve got a funky 3/16 and 1/4 and had trouble finding some. I think I’ve got some and we’ll find out Monday.

I went ahead and bought a new compressor thinking it may come with the valves and it didn’t. Of course I got the model specific to my VIN but my compressor has the older compressor on it. Mid year change strikes again (look at where the allen heads are).

Went to pull the evaporator out to replace the expansion valve and found it packed full of crap along with the blower motor packed full of crap. So now I need to go get some cleaner and get the evaporator cleaned up.

Also found rust on the passenger floorboard. It’s not all the way through but there’s a couple of spots I’m not thrilled with. Gonna have to wire wheel it and go from there. Guess I got my excuse to order new carpet and pad now.

All the foam in this system is rotten and falling apart so I need to source some new stuff to seal it back up.

At least I’ve got all new seals and everything is apart so easy to replace all those.

Maybe one day I’ll drive this thing with AC.