More before and after pics:
![Car Tire Wheel Vehicle Motor vehicle]()
![Car Vehicle Motor vehicle Hood Automotive design]()
![Car Motor vehicle Vehicle Hood Light]()
![Outerwear Product Textile Headgear Comfort]()
![Motor vehicle Automotive lighting Light Hood Automotive design]()
89 Pickup 4WD Beater Project
This forum has been an incredible resource. So with this beater now in my garage for past month and a half I figure it's time to start posting progress updates. I bought the truck as a project and have a steep learning curve ahead. I've already started a "4ZE1 tune up priorities" help request thread so I'll just pick up where I've off there.
![Automotive parking light Automotive side marker light Tire Wheel Vehicle]()
![Wheel Automotive parking light Automotive side marker light Tire Car]()
What is it?
Goal
I started out by trying to identify the source of the known fuel leak that the PO said, "happens after the truck sits a couple of days." It didn't leak when I test drove but dumped quite the puddle after it sat in my garage for 2.5 weeks. With help here the plan was to replace all fuel hoses and injector seals. More digging around and Shaggy's thread pointed me to Jim's Injector repair service. I'm glad I did! Jim let me know last night that one injector was bad. I'm replacing it and another reman injector (I believe/hope the source of the leak) with OEM remans from Car-ID.
I got the injectors on their way to Jim on 12/16. Jim will be sending them back to me today or tomorrow. I'm waiting to dig into anything else in the engine until I can start the truck again without a fuel leak. So the past couple weeks I've been focusing on the interior, collecting parts, learning about wiring, gauges, etc. Here's where I'm today on 1/1/21.
![Gesture Automotive tire Vehicle Auto part Gas]()
![Motor vehicle White Hood Light Automotive tire]()
![Wheel Tire Car Land vehicle Vehicle]()
What is it?
- 1989 Pickup 4WD 5sp[/*]
- ----Build plate----[/*]
- M.D. TFS7SC AH/IJ[/*]
- ENGINE RLJ -4ZE1 ENG[/*]
- GRADE RBA -INTERIOR BASIC [KB][/*]
- TIRE 9JG -FRT&RR 31X10.5R15 15X7JJ[/*]
- BODY TYPE ER8 -ISUZU BRAND PACKAGE[/*]
- B.COLOR 834 -BODY COLOR RED MAHOGANY[/*]
- B.TRIM 150 -INTERIOR COLOR GRAY[/*]
- ---- Options -----[/*]
- C41 -HEATER & DEFROSTER[/*]
- ED2 -MANUAL LOCKING HUB[/*]
- S1P -TAIL GATE CENTER PULL TYPE PLAIN[/*]
- S4K -DOOR MIRROR DRIVER & PASSENGER PLAIN[/*]
- S7R -RR BODY DOUBLE WALL CARGO 0.5 TON[/*]
- S9W -BENCH SEAT W/HEAD REST VINYL[/*]
- YM4 -LAMINATED TINTED GLASS [/*]
Goal
- Reliable and capable trail rig for bouncing around AZ backcountry [/*]
- Interior spruced up to point where wife will enter cab[/*]
I started out by trying to identify the source of the known fuel leak that the PO said, "happens after the truck sits a couple of days." It didn't leak when I test drove but dumped quite the puddle after it sat in my garage for 2.5 weeks. With help here the plan was to replace all fuel hoses and injector seals. More digging around and Shaggy's thread pointed me to Jim's Injector repair service. I'm glad I did! Jim let me know last night that one injector was bad. I'm replacing it and another reman injector (I believe/hope the source of the leak) with OEM remans from Car-ID.
I got the injectors on their way to Jim on 12/16. Jim will be sending them back to me today or tomorrow. I'm waiting to dig into anything else in the engine until I can start the truck again without a fuel leak. So the past couple weeks I've been focusing on the interior, collecting parts, learning about wiring, gauges, etc. Here's where I'm today on 1/1/21.
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Here's a G80 4.56 that I pulled from a '94 Trooper. Cleaned it up a bit and added it to the pile. First time I ever pulled a third member out of any vehicle and was happy to practice at the junkyard. I thought I was clever to use the driveshaft to try to soften the landing 
sort of worked but still landed on a dirty, fluid soaked floor mat.
![Automotive tire Wood Font Art Motor vehicle]()
![Metal Fashion accessory Electric blue Art Font]()
As I write this I'm about to head back out and degrease the engine and repair the many many exposed wires including the fat positive battery lead at the starter that was directly below the fuel leak! Yikes!
![Automotive tire Automotive fuel system Motor vehicle Bumper Flash photography]()
That red wire is the starter solenoid control and bypasses the loom. It is connected to speaker wire which runs along the firewall, in to the cab and is spliced into the starter at the key. According to the book the only thing this seems to accomplish is bypassing the clutch neutral safety switch. Going to keep it as-is until I get the engine running again then circle back.
sort of worked but still landed on a dirty, fluid soaked floor mat.
As I write this I'm about to head back out and degrease the engine and repair the many many exposed wires including the fat positive battery lead at the starter that was directly below the fuel leak! Yikes!
That red wire is the starter solenoid control and bypasses the loom. It is connected to speaker wire which runs along the firewall, in to the cab and is spliced into the starter at the key. According to the book the only thing this seems to accomplish is bypassing the clutch neutral safety switch. Going to keep it as-is until I get the engine running again then circle back.
Jim sent the results of the testing. One fail on initial testing but then two more ended up leaking. So I have four OEM remans coming from Car-ID. Three (four?) weeks ago my original plan was replace injector seals. So glad I sent them in and hopefully dodged more fuel leaks down the road. Thanks again for the advice, all!
![injector-testing.png]()
Injectors should be here by Wednesday. Also have a replacement cluster arriving from Romania Tuesday. While endlessly scrolling eBay clusters I noticed it was mislabelled for a late model Rodeo and rolled the dice. I contacted them to ensure that the one in the listing is the one they ship. I confirmed my truck has the proper wiring in place with this post from Lowzone. However in the bay there's a dangling connector of what the book seems to describe as the the tach plug. Also have oil pressure sending unit on the way.
![Screen Shot 2021-01-02 at 8.58.28 AM.png]()
Injectors should be here by Wednesday. Also have a replacement cluster arriving from Romania Tuesday. While endlessly scrolling eBay clusters I noticed it was mislabelled for a late model Rodeo and rolled the dice. I contacted them to ensure that the one in the listing is the one they ship. I confirmed my truck has the proper wiring in place with this post from Lowzone. However in the bay there's a dangling connector of what the book seems to describe as the the tach plug. Also have oil pressure sending unit on the way.
Attachments
Yep, this cluster seems to have come off of a 3.2. I rolled the dice on it after I found this post which describes an adjustment pot inside the casing. I received and cleaned up the cluster yesterday and will be removing casing to locate the potentiometer in question and drill an access hole tonight. Actually calibrating will require tools that I don't have.DSUZU said:
The truck currently has a mechanical oil pressure gauge installed where the oil pressure switch installed. I'll keep that in and see how it squares with the oil pressure sender. All wiring on both ends of the loom appears to be present.
The "new" cluster was dirtier than the one I pulled off the pickup. An amazing feat considering the pickup's condition
Unrelated to the cluster but it was nice to roll the pickup out of the garage on Sunday for the first time since I parked it there while the boy and I deep cleaned the Trooper.
Happy to! It's a '73 Fox Thunderbolt. Back then they called it a "minicycle" - cross between a minibike and dirtbike. We upgraded it with Harbor Freight Predator engine (the Honda clone) and knockoff swingarm from Honda monkey bike. Also has a knockoff comet torque converter. The pickup is currently taking it's parking spot (and a bunch of other crap) in the garage so the bed is getting filled up.DSUZU said:
It rips pretty damn good. The shocks are shot so it's hilariously bouncy and weird. Still fun as hell tho.
Here's a better pic for scale. My son is around 6 foot:
Shoved in to the Trooper
Update: the squealing sound is gone. Maybe the harmonic balancer did work itself out?
On to the exhaust. Now that the truck is running again I'm heading to emissions testing. There's a really noisy rattle under the truck (presumably cat) and there's a 2nd, newer looking cat installed after the rattling cat. Any ideas why someone would do this? maybe to save costs on pipe? Here's a super weird stitched together pic of it.
![Water Vehicle Engineering Asphalt Metal]()
My plan is to roll the dice and see if it'll pass as-is. Then I'll make an attempt to replace it all later myself with 2.5 inch pipe. I've never done it before but greasemonkey makes it look soooo easy (just kidding - looks tough)
On to the exhaust. Now that the truck is running again I'm heading to emissions testing. There's a really noisy rattle under the truck (presumably cat) and there's a 2nd, newer looking cat installed after the rattling cat. Any ideas why someone would do this? maybe to save costs on pipe? Here's a super weird stitched together pic of it.
My plan is to roll the dice and see if it'll pass as-is. Then I'll make an attempt to replace it all later myself with 2.5 inch pipe. I've never done it before but greasemonkey makes it look soooo easy (just kidding - looks tough)
1 - 20 of 78 Posts
