Luvmyalltrac
Member
Greetings to all.
Well, I am posting today about some poor luck that I have had with ole Night Fury. I have had to have her towed twice now, since she arrived in Texas. The first time was due to a flat tire. It was preventable and my my own damn fault. I had drove her to work on April 27th. On the ride home, I noticed something was off about how she was handeling, but failed to check it out when I got home. Next day, Friday April 28th I took Fury to go to work again, having forgot about the issue. I soon noticed the problem again, but instead of stopping, I kept going, not wanting to be late for work. I got 18miles into my 20 mile commute, when I might have been using some excessive acceleration to put another commuter in his place🙄. I did indeed get out in front of him. Briefly. After the next stop sign, my driver‘s rear tire blew out and he sailed by in the other lane, as I was forced to slow down and pull over into a parking lot😖. Totally self-inflicted. Now I had to call in to get a ride, and was forced to just lock Fury up and leave her there while I did my work-day. Fortunately, it was an area that I felt ok about leaving her for the day. Once done with work, I called my insurance agent. Fortunately, I had roadside assistance coverage and a flatbed towtruck was dispatched. I waited over two hours at my car for the driver to make his way from the other side of the city during afternoon rush hour. A line of severe Thunderstorms came through before he finally showed up.
Desite how it looks in the photo, the rim was not damaged at all! The car did not come with a spare at all, when I got it, thus the necessity of the tow. Had Fury towed home and ordered another Michelin Pilot sport. When I removed the wheel to get the new tire mounted, I found a screw that had punctured it and caused a leak. The low pressure and aggressive driving caused the poor handling and blowout. Lesson learned; “ pay attention and check it out, when your Dragon(Celica) Is trying to tell you something is not right”.
Fast forward to July 1st. Fury had been sitting undriven for a couple weeks due to working nights at a location that I refused to subject her to. The big red Dragon was my transport for that gig.
Anyway, it was a Saturday afternoon. I had to give my girlfriend a ride to pick her Forester that she had loaned to a friend who was temporarily carless. I decided this was a great opportunity to take Fury out for short ride to get some exercise. On the way to the friend’s place, I had to turn left to cross a highway with oncoming traffic onto the residential street. I was rolling in the center(multi-purpose turn) lane and down-shifted and punched the pedal to get across quickly. The street I was turning onto was slightly steep uphill for me. Fury bucked and stalled, but I was able to coast across and partway up the steep hill to clear the intersection. The fool driving the BMW behind me tried to follow right on my heels and Barely cleared it, but was right on my ass and started hitting his horn, since I had stopped only partway up the hill. I waved the dumbass to go around me and tried to restart Fury. No start, no crank. I have had an intermittent problem with this result previously when she had been driven, shut off, then restart tried shortly afterward. So, I pulled the ebrake and the two of us managed to push Fury up the short bit of uphill to the top which was followed by a decent little downhill. I got her rolling downhill and attempted to pop the clutch to start her in 3rd gear( this had previously worked in the no crank situation). No luck this time. I rolled over to a nice shady spot off the road and then tried the starter again. This time she cranked, but it sounded strange and no start. I did‘nt try anything further, just called for the tow truck again🙁. My girlfriend walked the rest of the way to get her Subaru(about a mile) while I stayed with my dog Frehley and Fury. The tow truck was going to be about 45 minutes, so she picked us up and we went home. I returned to wait for the tow in my 1st Gen 4Runner.
Have I ever mentioned that I have several Toyotas?!? Anyway, the driver was on time and did his job well.
I had called my mechanic friend Noah( see my post about AC system overhaul) and he told me to just get Fury towed straight to his shop. So I convinced the driver to change the destination, to which he readily agreed ( earned himself a nice tip) since it was about the same distance as my home. A week passed before I was able to meet with Noah to help roll Fury into a bay and investigate what had happened. I had my suspicions, which proved to be well founded. Fury’s timing belt had disintegrate, and it actually bunched up around the crankshaft pulley and blew out the bottom of the lower timing belt cover. Realizing that her 3SGTE powerplant is a non-interference engine, was a relief. But upon consulting this excellent forum, also realized that the timing belt replacement job is a PITA. Noah had also suspected the timing belt was gone, based on my description of the events, and done some research. He found a timing belt kit with everything needed for a gen 4-5 Caldina motor from Prime MR2! Having read a post or two that mentioned Prime MR2/Prime GT4 before, I promptly when to the site to order. To my great relief, they also hod the lower timing cover that I needed! Order was placed and parts along with a bunch of Prime swag received within a week.
I ordered the two other drive belts, Alt/AC and PS from another source and now all that I need is the time to do the job. I have been working 60-70 hours a week, with only Sundays off since before this all happened.
I am fortunate to have an agreement with Noah that allows me to have use of a bay in his shop (when one is open) and his supervision and advice on projects( such as the aforementioned AC System Ovehaul). The beauty of this is that I get all that at a much lower rate than if I have him do the work, plus the bonus of doing the work myself and learning about my vehicles without making costly mistakes. The tradeoff being, I get my hands/clothes dirty, injure myself, break bolts off, have to remove the broken off bolts, and other frustrations. In my opinion it is well worth it. I really enjoy working on my machines and other than my friend, don’t really trust most places that you gotta take your car to for repairs. Exceptions being, highly specialized and recommended places by someone I know. So right now, Fury is sitting under a car cover at Noah’s shop awaiting me to get started on the project. If anyone who has done the timing belt thing with the engine in the car has some tips or advice, please share!
Oh,also, I am considering installing a new starter while I am at it. Any recommendations regarding that and a source for a quality starter? Gonna check Rockauto for a Denso I guess.
Wish me good luck, make fun of my misfortune, share a photos of your All-Trac or other Toyota, or make your own post, just participate in this forum!!!!!
Well, I am posting today about some poor luck that I have had with ole Night Fury. I have had to have her towed twice now, since she arrived in Texas. The first time was due to a flat tire. It was preventable and my my own damn fault. I had drove her to work on April 27th. On the ride home, I noticed something was off about how she was handeling, but failed to check it out when I got home. Next day, Friday April 28th I took Fury to go to work again, having forgot about the issue. I soon noticed the problem again, but instead of stopping, I kept going, not wanting to be late for work. I got 18miles into my 20 mile commute, when I might have been using some excessive acceleration to put another commuter in his place🙄. I did indeed get out in front of him. Briefly. After the next stop sign, my driver‘s rear tire blew out and he sailed by in the other lane, as I was forced to slow down and pull over into a parking lot😖. Totally self-inflicted. Now I had to call in to get a ride, and was forced to just lock Fury up and leave her there while I did my work-day. Fortunately, it was an area that I felt ok about leaving her for the day. Once done with work, I called my insurance agent. Fortunately, I had roadside assistance coverage and a flatbed towtruck was dispatched. I waited over two hours at my car for the driver to make his way from the other side of the city during afternoon rush hour. A line of severe Thunderstorms came through before he finally showed up.
Desite how it looks in the photo, the rim was not damaged at all! The car did not come with a spare at all, when I got it, thus the necessity of the tow. Had Fury towed home and ordered another Michelin Pilot sport. When I removed the wheel to get the new tire mounted, I found a screw that had punctured it and caused a leak. The low pressure and aggressive driving caused the poor handling and blowout. Lesson learned; “ pay attention and check it out, when your Dragon(Celica) Is trying to tell you something is not right”.
Fast forward to July 1st. Fury had been sitting undriven for a couple weeks due to working nights at a location that I refused to subject her to. The big red Dragon was my transport for that gig.
Anyway, it was a Saturday afternoon. I had to give my girlfriend a ride to pick her Forester that she had loaned to a friend who was temporarily carless. I decided this was a great opportunity to take Fury out for short ride to get some exercise. On the way to the friend’s place, I had to turn left to cross a highway with oncoming traffic onto the residential street. I was rolling in the center(multi-purpose turn) lane and down-shifted and punched the pedal to get across quickly. The street I was turning onto was slightly steep uphill for me. Fury bucked and stalled, but I was able to coast across and partway up the steep hill to clear the intersection. The fool driving the BMW behind me tried to follow right on my heels and Barely cleared it, but was right on my ass and started hitting his horn, since I had stopped only partway up the hill. I waved the dumbass to go around me and tried to restart Fury. No start, no crank. I have had an intermittent problem with this result previously when she had been driven, shut off, then restart tried shortly afterward. So, I pulled the ebrake and the two of us managed to push Fury up the short bit of uphill to the top which was followed by a decent little downhill. I got her rolling downhill and attempted to pop the clutch to start her in 3rd gear( this had previously worked in the no crank situation). No luck this time. I rolled over to a nice shady spot off the road and then tried the starter again. This time she cranked, but it sounded strange and no start. I did‘nt try anything further, just called for the tow truck again🙁. My girlfriend walked the rest of the way to get her Subaru(about a mile) while I stayed with my dog Frehley and Fury. The tow truck was going to be about 45 minutes, so she picked us up and we went home. I returned to wait for the tow in my 1st Gen 4Runner.
Have I ever mentioned that I have several Toyotas?!? Anyway, the driver was on time and did his job well.
I had called my mechanic friend Noah( see my post about AC system overhaul) and he told me to just get Fury towed straight to his shop. So I convinced the driver to change the destination, to which he readily agreed ( earned himself a nice tip) since it was about the same distance as my home. A week passed before I was able to meet with Noah to help roll Fury into a bay and investigate what had happened. I had my suspicions, which proved to be well founded. Fury’s timing belt had disintegrate, and it actually bunched up around the crankshaft pulley and blew out the bottom of the lower timing belt cover. Realizing that her 3SGTE powerplant is a non-interference engine, was a relief. But upon consulting this excellent forum, also realized that the timing belt replacement job is a PITA. Noah had also suspected the timing belt was gone, based on my description of the events, and done some research. He found a timing belt kit with everything needed for a gen 4-5 Caldina motor from Prime MR2! Having read a post or two that mentioned Prime MR2/Prime GT4 before, I promptly when to the site to order. To my great relief, they also hod the lower timing cover that I needed! Order was placed and parts along with a bunch of Prime swag received within a week.
I ordered the two other drive belts, Alt/AC and PS from another source and now all that I need is the time to do the job. I have been working 60-70 hours a week, with only Sundays off since before this all happened.
I am fortunate to have an agreement with Noah that allows me to have use of a bay in his shop (when one is open) and his supervision and advice on projects( such as the aforementioned AC System Ovehaul). The beauty of this is that I get all that at a much lower rate than if I have him do the work, plus the bonus of doing the work myself and learning about my vehicles without making costly mistakes. The tradeoff being, I get my hands/clothes dirty, injure myself, break bolts off, have to remove the broken off bolts, and other frustrations. In my opinion it is well worth it. I really enjoy working on my machines and other than my friend, don’t really trust most places that you gotta take your car to for repairs. Exceptions being, highly specialized and recommended places by someone I know. So right now, Fury is sitting under a car cover at Noah’s shop awaiting me to get started on the project. If anyone who has done the timing belt thing with the engine in the car has some tips or advice, please share!
Oh,also, I am considering installing a new starter while I am at it. Any recommendations regarding that and a source for a quality starter? Gonna check Rockauto for a Denso I guess.
Wish me good luck, make fun of my misfortune, share a photos of your All-Trac or other Toyota, or make your own post, just participate in this forum!!!!!
