1986 Toyota Pickup Base from North America - Comments

When I got it the truck had been parked for a year in an apartment lot after having a large (8" diameter) tree branch fall on it during an ice storm. A lot of water had gone down into the dash and it had many things wrong with it, but all were "little" things. A person at my office gave me the truck.

I cleaned out the dash and got all the water out. It seems to operate fine since it has been dry.

There was very little body damage and even still has very little rust.

I replaced the following myself to get a "rebuild" title and get it back on the road:

Windshield

1 wiper blade arm

both wiper blades

Bench seat

Plugs, cap, rotor button, and wires and set the timing

Front brakes complete - rotors, calipers, pads, front bearing seals.

Muffler and lead pipe (between muffler and CC) along with hangers

Stereo and speakers

Radiator hoses

Drive belt (only one standard V-belt for $3) which works the alternator and water pump

All the light bulbs in the truck since most were out.

My total expenses were about $950, including the taxes, title, and registration.

It is a great little truck and is my daily driver (60 miles per day round trip).

I consistently get 27 MPG! And it's only a 4 speed!

A little under-powered for a "truck" - I tend to overuse it on the farm - but it does pull my 16 foot dual axle trailer as long as there is only about 2800 lbs or less being hauled. I've had close to 4500 lbs being carried between the trailer and the short bed. The 4 speed helps here.

Seats are awful for longer distances - over an hour at a time hurts my back and legs. Original seat was worse since it was water-damaged, but even the replacement out of a 1994 is not very comfortable.

It uses quite a bit of oil (a quart in 500 miles - every other gas fill up) even when it only had 125000 miles that isn't what I expected from a Toyota.

It has never left me stranded, yet.

An update from the owner of this truck. At 149,800 (24k miles in a little over a year) it died on 11/26/05. Not exactly sure what happened. Driving home at 9:45 PM from a late night at work it just quit while going 65 on the freeway. I coasted it to the side and had to call my wife to come and pick me up - I'm thankful for cell phones. The next day I got my 16 foot trailer on the big van we have, loaded the pickup on the trailer, and took it to the junk yard. It was leaking oil at a rate of a quart in 200 miles and I had already spent $225 on getting the front seal replaced and that didn't fix it. To me it was worth getting the $50 from the junk yard rather than putting any more money in it. It was also going to need an exhaust again and had some other issues.

Heres a question for you, before it died, was the engine rattling? If so, It sounds like your bearings may have gone bad. Same thing happened to mine, (you can read the review on this site, its listed as 86 Toyota pickup short bed), and I replaced it with a 22R Engine from a junkyard for around $750. Runs fine since then.

Update again-> No the engine did not rattle. It just lost all power after I heard a snapping noise. From what the junk yard told me when I dropped it off it sounded like the crankshaft or the camshaft snapped. I just junked it instead of putting more money in it and got a $700 '89 Camry.