1988 Toyota

EFI Pickup truck

4 - Cyl.

Manual

JT4RN63A3J8006121

Clear

Gasoline

The vehicle for sale is a 1988 1/2 Ton Toyota pickup. I bought it in the Summer of 2006 with around 133,000 miles on it from an acquaintance who had used it for his work truck. He had hit a deer while driving it and his boss decided to sell it instead of fixing it up. I believe I am the third owner - I believe the original owner sold it to my friend's boss, who bought it for his daughter. When she got a different vehicle, they decided to use it for the company, and it was assigned to my friend. My brother and I did the repair work. We didn't get everything lined up perfect, but it was good enough for me to use. When you make tight turns, like cranking the wheel totally to one side or the other, something in the front will squeak - I was never able to find what it was, and my friend had driven it like that for some time with no ensuing problems, and I never could see any problems with the tires or handling, so I didn't bother to replace it. If I remember right they had some work done on it before I bought it (before the deer), I believe on the 4WD and replacing the muffler, maybe replacing the clutch. I drove it from Wyoming to North Dakota and used if for my daily driver. I took several trips to Kansas and one back to Wyoming over the next 4 years. Over those years I replaced the water pump, the rear universal joint, and had work done on the 4WD front drivers side. It was a reliable little truck, with little things going wrong here and there over time (see list below). I moved down to Kansas, and drove it here until November of 2010 when something went wrong in the engine. In hindsight, I think it overheated at some point (perhaps due to a blown headgasket?), as it was running rough for several months. One day I was driving home from the gas station and I heard one "Thunk" in the engine, and everything almost immediately died. When my dad heard how it was turning over, he immediately said it was a broken timing chain. We took it all apart, found the timing chain broken, and found oil AND water in the head on the pistons. We put it all back together and it didn't want to start. We came back the next day after charging the battery, and it started. We were so excited that we didn't let it run very long at that point, but later we found out it didn't run right. Over the course of a minute it would run worse and worse until it would finally die. When we tried to re-start it, it only got worse until it wouldn't start again. We messed around with the distributor to see if advancing or declining it would help. From the first time we started it, it seemed that there was smoke blowing out the back of the engine. We replaced all the gaskets relevant to working on the timing chain and head though, so we are all a little dumbfounded as to what the problem is. I don't really want to sell it as it has served me well, but I don't have the time, money, or talent to figure out and fix the engine problems. Here are a few other things that are wrong with it: The window mechanism for the drivers side window went bad, so my dad replaced it. The The heater linkages broke somewhere along the line from the cab to the engine compartment, but you can open the hood and adjust the heat by hand (not handy, but it beats freezing). In cold weather the speedometer whines and bounces a bit. The muffler is bad, and I bought a new one to replace it right before the timing chain broke. Someone along the line replaced the seats with a newer model of Toyota, but there is a rip on the drivers side. I bought it w/o an antenna, so it doesn't pick up too many radio stations (though see note below). The bed is rusting out with a couple of serious holes (I was told the cabs were shipped over from Japan, and beds were put on in the States, and the beds rust out first because they used a cheaper metal, or different manufacturing process). I'm pretty sure the truck was repainted before I purchased it. There is a crack in the dash on the right hand side. A few perks: I bought some Goodyear 40k tires in 2007 or 2008, and they have a fair amount of wear on them still. It has a Pioneer CD player, and some fairly substantial speakers behind the seats. The toolbox comes with the truck. I think it could make a good little hunting vehicle or around the farm vehicle, due to the 4WD if they engine was replaced or fixed.