Just picked up a super clean 96 4x4! Hello fellow Tacowners!

I'm just going to rattle off a list of features to make you jelly:

-Model Year 1996
-3.4 litre v6
-4x4
-Automatic transmission (I prefer manual transmissions, but it was a great deal)
-Sweet, straight, rust-free frame and body
-spray-in bed liner
-toolbox
-cb radio
-super clean interior with power windows and locks and everything works
-120,000 miles
-Fresh oil and brakes
-factory sunroof (!)
-nice clean paint and wheels
-plenty of life left in the tires
-spare steelies with studded tires

The previous owner had it since brand new, and admitted to being rough on it when he was younger, but promised it had been maintained well in recent years. He was a friend of a friend and couldn't take it with him when he moved away, so sold it to me for $2500 as long as I promised to take good care of it and take it in the woods and get it dirty and send him pictures.

DEAL!

jelly yet?

I'll attach some pictures to get you all jellied up.

I have a lot of questions, but first you might like to hear about some repairs I did.

I repaired the leaking windshield washer fluid reservoir. I removed the reservoir and found that it had a cracked fill neck and a cracked rubber elbow leading from the pump so I repaired both of those with a tube of cheap sealer from home depot called "seal-all" I recommend the stuff. It dries in a few minutes and cures in a few hours. It was cheap and I will use it for all kinds of stuff from now on. A few weeks on and it seems to be holding just fine.

I also glued down the drivers door weather gasket and cleared my sunroof drain to try to clear up a leak that comes from under the trim by the driver's door. It hasn't been too rainy and I can't replicate the conditions under which it leaks when I wash it, so maybe this is fixed.

The parking brake dash-light would stay on when the parking brake was off. I fixed it by making a little hat for the button out of a bicycle tube presta-valve cap. I made it with a pocket knife and just slipped the little cap on the button under the steering wheel. I didn't even glue it or anything and it seems to be stuck on there OK. First I tried to adjust the parking brake at the barrel adjuster under the driver's door area but the one nut is stuck or coated with under-coat stuff. It works fine so I'm not going to mess with it. I can make a write-up for this repair if other people have this problem.

I've almost driven two tanks of gas through it. Getting about 12mpg in the city and about 20mpg on route 22 from Pittsburgh to Johnstown and back. Pretty good - if you ask me - considering the suspension, tires, and powerful engine.

I've given my Tacoma two baths. I've used it to haul dogs, dog food, laundry, furniture, tools, motorcycle parts, and piles of garden stuff so far.

This truck has pretty much changed my life. I needed a truck to keep up my other hobbies of fussing over my broken motorcycles, gardening, camping, screwing around with my wife and dogs, light metalworking like knife making and jewelry making.

It is my most reliable transportation. My other car is a slammed mk4 vw gti vr6. The engine, transmission, and clutch on my gti are SWEET but the thing is slammed and the suspension bottoms out on everything. I just wasn't comfortable hopping in the thing to go pick up tools from a craigslist deal or take advantage of some opportunity outside my neighborhood.

I have been lurking and sprinkled a few posts here and there, but I thought I would introduce myself. Anyone in the Pittsburgh or SWPA area want to meet up to wrench or wheel or drink beer let me know.

I love these trucks and the culture we Tacowners have. It's a very practical truck and attracts and more refined, mature truck owner, but the thing is also a serious 4x4 with 220 ftlbs of torque! It's the most powerful vehicle I've ever owned, although not the fastest.

I intend to be my trucks last owner.

Did anyone read all that?

 

Very nice!

Welcome to TW

 

Good find! Welcome.

In case you haven't found this how-to goldmine yet:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/1s...y-how-thread-compiled-list-helpful-links.html

 

Love the white! Welcome aboard

 

Welcome & thank you for making us all Jelly !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Congrats on the great deal and welcome to TW

 

Who owns the black truck in the 2nd pic?

 

Pittsburgh is filled with undeveloped hillsides that are covered in scrubby stuff like Japanese Knotweed and Crabapple trees. I am lucky to live alongside one in the "bottom" corner of a neighborhood. The city owns them, including the flat spot across the street from my house that normally provides free, quasi-legal parking for a dozen or more cars. This includes some guys who do concrete work and own a garage a few doors down where they keep their big trucks and excavators and trailers and tools and stuff. These three guys all drive full size Fords. I think their dump trucks are F-650s as well. Maybe one is an International or something.