I Present You With.....My All-trac.

Okay , well i think it is time i start a project thread. I have too many questions and too many problems to be scatteredall over this website.

What i hope to get out of this thread is advice. I am open to anything that people have to offer.


I have so many questions i dont know where to start...... so instead i will introduce my baby.

I purchased my 1990 alltrac last month and have not regret doing so.

Currently the car is not driving due to some basic maintence i must perform.

Wow. i dont really know how to put pictures up. well anyways.


Right now i need to get the car inspection and daily driver ready.
i think this is the best place to start so i can have a good base for upgrading.
i have ordered new VC gasket, spark plugs, Oil filter, Plug wires, Distributor cap, timing belt, air filter, and water pump.

Currently the valve cover is off. when i first removed the cover there was a large amount of oil in the spark plug tubes. in cylinder 2, 3, 4. so hopefully replacing the gaskets will solve that issue.

when the car was running, it was running alright something just seemed off. ( i dont think the oil in my spark plugs was helping haha)

After i get the car rolling and ready i want to get it to be inspected.
when i got the car the airbag light was on.....me being the cheap bastard i wanted to find a cheap solution. after doing some searching and some friendly help from the owner i found the link to the ST185 air bag tool. this tool was rather useful and indeed did remove the air bag light. check. (ill post pics of the invention as soon as i figure out how to properly upload pictures.

I ordered the Repair manual off of ebay on april 11th.... and still havent recieved the damn thing. so i feel a tad bit helpless seeing how i hate using the PDF version on my cell.

My fog light on the left side is out. i dont think this will pass inspection. i havent removed the bumper cover and i hear you can actually replace the foglights without taking the cover off. (if anyone can send me some help id greatly appreciate)

other then that i dont think i have anything else really holding me back from getting this thing on the road. I did start a thread on the turning noise in the right tire well. but pictures would greatly help....but i am challenged and have not been able to post. The problem is the spring on my strut assemby is rubbing my tire well when i turn the wheel. im not sure if this is from bad allignment or what..FURTHER RESEARCH IS NEEDED.

The fog light should not effect your safety inspection......unless it's different rules where your at.

Did you get a tracking number for your purchase on the manual?

And the one pic makes her look like a good start.

well the body is not very nice at all. i just dont know what i should do first. my turbo seems to be working somewhat. but i cant really tell untill i get her rolling again. i just dont know what mods are the best and what direction i should really go in.

i have a list of mods that seem to be important. but i dont want to get too far ahead of myself. part of me whats to get her looking nice before i upgrade much performance wise but part of me wants to jump in and do cosmetics as i go...but im still undecided.

Honestly I would say get her running first and take care of all maintenance. Odds are there will be alot of suspension work needed with worn bushings and such.

Key thing, get what is needed first, then worry about body and going faster

Fog light should be easy as I think yours is the same as my GT-S. Carefully pop off the grilles in front of the lights (they're separate from the main bumper) and you'll see the screws holding a metal frame around the light. Pop those out and the light some come forward, then I think there's a rubber boot covering up a screw that's holding in a retaining clip that holds in the bulb (it's bee a while since I've done this).

Do the reach around (no tools needed)

Pull the bout he speaks of off. Then the clip is holding it find the small loop and push and move like most 9003 style bulbs. Should take less than 2 mins.
-jr

I did the reach around but the rubber boot doesn't want to cooperate with me.. I'll try it again tomorrow when I replace the vc gasket and timing. Belt and water pump.. Hopefully da parts come in.. I'll also tale more pictures to show you all what I'm working with.. Is there a how to of putting pictures on thread instead of attachments?

Get a photo bucket account. That will help a bunch.
When you upload there it's easier to post because they give you the link to copy into your post.
-jr

^^I'll give that a whirl and come Thursday or Friday I'll upload the pictures I take tomorrow.. All the parts I ordered arrived today

im awaiting the arrival of both my suspentions.........still waiting. awesome.

-jr

It's been a while. Since I posted anything.. I have not fallen off the face of the Earth. Just been working on the track.. I was able to change the spark plugs, wires and distributor cap.. Drove the car for about 20 minutes and it was beautiful.. As soon as I came to a stop the idle was rough and it seemed to dance.. Open the hood and notice a hose to egr came. Undone.. After fixing that it still has the same issue.. I'm thinkinging its a bad sensor or a vacuum leak.. I have pictures of three hoses that are not connected to anything. But they are not pulling. Anything? I but I can't seem to find where they go

yeah still not having any luck with the idle issue. I removed the timing belt cover to see what the belt looks like. There is obvious gashes in the belt. As soon as i get the cash i will go ahead and replace that. I still hvent purchased the repair manual. I ordered the 1990 toyota celica manual thinking it was the right one, but to my surprise there is a completely seperate book for the AWD st185 model... if anyone knows the link to the PDF version i would be very thankful.

I believe you bought Inshan's red trac ? If so, it ran fine up here in MD although it did have the
stumble in the idle. My advice to Inshan was to leave it stock since major components (turbo and
the clutch, tranny) seemed to be in good shape. The rust in quarters and the front swaybar needs
to be addressed. Replacing the timing belt/water pump is NOT a trivial matter in this car

yeah the rust will be taken care of shortly. Unfortunately my all trac is pretty busted. im just trying to get it running wll stock until i dodecide to upgrade. I dont know what wrong with thestrut assembly either. when you turn the wheel the spring rubs the tire well maybe a bad alignment or this car has a bent frame. idk....lol

It has been a while since i have been on here, and even longer since i have worked on the car. I finally got it transported to my new house. I get so overwhelmed and stressed with all te problems with this car and the lack of funds there are to fix this car. So i have decided to stick with getting some of these dents taken care of and figure out if anyone could give me advice on rust. I have 2 rust holes, both are on the rear panels bottom of tire well. I was wondering if there is any replacement panels or is it a pain in the ass to doit that way? I have ever personally done body work, but i have been watching some videos and thinking of how im going to approach the situation.

went out today and did a bit of inspection of the car.
My front bumper is completely destroyed... will be replacing with rc bumper cover
As far as i can tell i have 8 areas n the car which are dented and need to be sanded down and filled,
I have 2 rust holes on the rear tire wells (ironically the same place as my 88' gts...) one is much larger then the other and im not sure how rotted it is.

What i would like to get out of this post is, should i consider replacing panels (if its possible,and not harder then welding) or should i fill each individual dent with body filler an figure some kind of fix for the rust holes. I would post pictures but, this website makes it far too diffcult to attempt that.
thanks all.

You need to cut the panels back to good metal. Body filler doesnt make the rust
go away and it wont (ie.. rust never sleeps). If you have a limited budget you should
make sure the suspension is good (or is fixable) and then fix that front swaybar mount location for rust. You dont want that to be broken free.

I dont know if i have a problem with my sway bar... unless i dont know what a sway bar is..