I'm the beaming new owner of a 1984 4x4 SR5 (166k miles). It just showed up today, and I've taken her for a spin around the burbs, including some hills and highways. It's my first time with a carburated engine and certainly with driving a car this old, so I'm adjusting to the handling, but loving it so far. I bought myself a hobby, and it's time to dive in with some introductory work and maintenance.
I have zero mechanical background, but the time and inclination to get started (and a car that'll likely demand it before long). According to the FAQ, here's what I'm thinking for my introductory shotlist. If any of this stuff's been done super recently by the previous owner, with whom I'm still shoring up the sale, I may skip over it, but I think it's best that I go through the litany of basic mechanical work to learn by doing.
What I'm doing to develop basic familiarity:
- I've got the owner's manual, which I'll be working through as some bedtime / bus-time reading over the next little while
- I've got a big list of ChrisFix videos to slowly digest to help start to understand how the gnarly assemblage of parts that is A Car even comes together and works
- Replace air and fuel filters
- Change oil / oil filter
- Change coolant
- Change spark plugs
- Change transmission / differential oils
- Inspect brake hoses
- I hold the gas pedal down for a couple of seconds with the car in neutral, then start it without a single foot on a pedal--was told this is the way you choke or prime a carburated engine, and that you don't need to have the clutch down. Seems to be working out. An afternoon's driving reveals the start to be anywhere from pretty quick to 3-4 seconds of chugging before it finally flips over. Is this about in the normal range or something worth checking out via replacing spark plugs or the like?
- I really need a running start onto the highway and up hills in this guy! Spending a lot of time in 2nd / 3rd gear with my foot to the floor to approximate driving the way everyone else does around here and to keep pace with traffic. I know these cars aren't super powerful, and I'm okay with how it runs, but it's a little scary to have your foot to the floor in 3rd and the speedometer / RPM gauge going down as you head up a hill. Checking the threads around here tells me this is something I could probably tweak with adjusting timings and/or eventually a Weber carburator swap (which I'll save until I know what the fuck I'm doing)
- The trip-ometer doesn't stick. Pushing the button resets it to 0, but it quickly rolls back to 4444 after a little bit of driving and doesn't work properly. Is this a tough mechanical fix to diagnose?
- The brakes aren't really as snappy as I'd like.
Are part numbers for all of these pretty reasonably available on the forums? I'll admit to having not looked for them yet as I'm just starting the shopping list, so feel free to roast me there. Does this seem about right? Besides a compression kit (checking Amazon) and, I guess, some means of jacking the car up (which I don't have), I'm guessing I need a basic socket set to get started. Any recommendations?
Sorry for the really long post! Any help you guys can give is appreciated as I start down the roar with a car as old as I am..