1980 Toyota Pickup SR5 2.2

Summary:

Best truck I ever owned!

Faults:

Since I have owned the truck, I have replaced the clutch. When I bought the truck, the guy I bought it from did not want to fork out $100.00 for a matched clutch set, so he installed a clutch out of another Toyota truck. Needless to say, it exploded one day on my way to work. No damage was done to the transmission or flywheel.

I spent a few hours, bought a NEW clutch kit and installed it.

The truck had weeds growing through it when I bought it for 200 dollars, and I replaced the clutch on the fan and rebuilt the carb, and have had it on the road since.

I will drive and maintain it till the engine goes IF EVER. Then I'll rebuild it and drive it another 300,000 miles.

I love this truck and plan on another Toyota "1985"; 4x4 is next.

This one is 2x2 5 speed manual (SR5). Toyota will have my business for life!

General Comments:

The truck drives like a 30 year old should.

Everything on it works, except the A/C; I removed the pump, don't need it, it's an Arizona truck... LOL.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 16th March, 2010

16th Mar 2010, 14:10

This is when Toyota made trucks. I'd like to see any domestic truck beat one of these in overall reliability. Not towing (this is a small truck, obviously it isn't going to tow as much as a Super Duty). Although the sad thing is, if you overloaded one of these and then overloaded a Super Duty, the Toyota would probably still be able to drive away after being unloaded.) And not power either (yeah these were slow as hell, but they more than beat that low point in how much abuse they could take.) I'm just talking about overall durability...you won't find it anywhere but here.

Wish Toyota still made them like they used to.

1980 Toyota Pickup long bed 20R

Summary:

For the Persistent, No Road is Impassable

Faults:

You name it, it has been replaced. The truck didn't run and it had set for about 9 years when I bought it. I got it running and then everything started breaking. The only things that are still original are the break booster and the seat.

The rings were about gone in the motor. It burnt exactly a quart of oil every time you put gas in it. After $1500 in parts and machine work, it had a new one.

General Comments:

The truck is a tank.

I will never sell it (knock no wood) because I have done so much to it.

It really is a very good truck. I'm kinda making it a wheeling truck. I go rock crawling and mudding in it all the time. It has made it down every trail and through every pit so far with out breaking anything.

It has stock suspension with 31 inch tires. they even have good approach angles stock!

But a lift is coming to the stud truck.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 25th November, 2004

1980 Toyota Pickup 22R

Summary:

I fully believe that this truck will outlive me!

Faults:

To start with, several things were wrong when I bought this car from a farmer's widow in central Texas. The most obvious of these was that the bed was completely rusted out. Well, not completely per se, but about %70 of the bed was gone, and the rest was badly rusted. Inquiring about this, I discovered that it had been sitting in a field for a year, and the bed had filled with rainwater...

This however, did not prevent the truck from being driven. What did was that, upon a test drive, I discovered that it would die every time the engine was allowed to idle. Constant pressure was required on the pedal in order to prevent the engine from shutting off. This turned out to be a twofold problem:

1: The choke was trashed. It just flopped around without actually doing its job, and.

2: The fuel pump was non-functional, having been installed on a circuit that lacked the juice to properly turn it on.

Both of these were relatively easy to fix. The choke simply had a spring mis-aligned, and a new circuit was run for the fuel pump.

The truck ran flawlessly for about a week until it decided to stop turning on at all. This was isolated to the severely corroded battery terminals. after much cleaning of the massively corroded electrical system, she once again ran fine.

As another poster has mentioned, I did have the clutch slave cylinder go bad and need replaced. Simultaneously, the main seal on the engine cracked, spewing oil everywhere. While an annoying breakdown, installation of a new seal was not amazingly difficult. Fault goes to the previous owner for setting the V belt far too tight, which pulled the crankshaft over and loosened the seal.

The next thing to go wrong was the tail lights. this, however, was the fault (as quite a few things have been) of the previous owner, who had wired them incorrectly after the installation of a third-party bumper. Easily fixed by running the correct wires.

The most recent failure was a bit more catastrophic. The bearings on the alternator seized, snapping the V belt and overheating the engine. Replacing said alternator was amazingly simple; it only took me 45 minutes!

Right now, the engine still runs a little rich, and she tends to vibrate between 50 and 65 mph, but, other than that, she's still trucking!

General Comments:

I love this truck! Although it has broken down a few times, the repair has been universally cheap and easy. It really is a dream to work on; it's like working on a toy! I have not yet had anything fail that cost more than $30 to fix, even the alternator was only $27. The most difficult was the main seal, and that only took a few hours.

I cannot be sure how many miles are on it. The tenths place on the odometer turns, but the rest of it has remained the same, despite driving it to school and work every day.

I've gotten about 20 mpg since I bought her, and, should I ever figure out exactly why the engine runs so rich (turning the mixture setting screw has been to no avail thus far), that number should improve.

As someone else said, the engine tops out around 80-85 mph, but it gets there fast. I wouldn't drive it there for long, though, in a four-speed. One can actually see the fuel needle go down.

She handles well, although, with the lack of mass rear of the cabin, care must be taken on sharp turns, as she tends to slide.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 1st November, 2004

5th Nov 2004, 12:09

Forgot to mention that, as someone else has said, it really is a truck for warm climates. Anything below about 60 degrees Fahrenheit and one will begin to notice a significant performance drop. Mine has never had any difficulty starting, even in freezing temperatures, but, at such a temperature, I have to floor it just to accelerate to forty miles per hour.

9th Feb 2005, 22:46

The truck didn't outlive me.

I hit a light pole at 35mph, crushing the front end of the truck. My girlfriend and I were in the hospital for two days; myself with a broken nose, and her with over 50 stitches worth of facial lacerations.

The faithful pickup protected us though. The police and ambulance crews took one look at the truck and thought that someone had died. But we were OK.

-Terry