DaveT

I just bought a rust free one from CA to avoid that much rust repair. I'd rather rebuild the drive line than have to do that much sheet metal. If I had to, I'd just fabricate / replace / patch the bad parts. The suspension tube is a bolt on part, maybe try finding one in better condition?

Should not have harmed either diff. There is no center diff, this is 4WD, not AWD

There is no relay. It is usually one of 2 things when the intermittent start thing crops up. One of the contacts in the back of the starter solenoid is worn out. It can be replaced. The other is that one or more of the several connections in the wiring from the key - shift lockout - starter is slightly bad, causing just enough resistance to prevent the solenoid from pulling in all the way. This can be fixed by adding a relay so that the old wiring doesn't have to carry the high current required by the solenoid.

Fuses can just fracture from age , temperature cycles, vibration. The ones I've seen fail from these causes usually don't look bad. A blow from severe overload usually has dark / burnt marks . I should make sure I have spares in my cars....

Bleeding the 2 on the circuit should do it. If it doesn't , bleed the other 2. Probably wouldn't hurt to replace all the fluid anyway, unless you did so recently.

87 should be power steering. Good luck with the new car! Not sure what you mean about the clutch.

Just did a test drive with the transmission swap. Works great, and fixed the 4WD binding up problem also!

For my 87 - Swapping the 3AT from my 86 out for the 3AT from my 90. The 86 has slightly taller gears, making the car annoying to keep at a chosen speed at low speeds, and lacking in acceleration by comparison. The original reason the 87 has the 86 tranny, is that I converted it from 2WD to 4WD, and the 86 was the spare transmission at the time. I also was not aware of the different gearing.

I have managed to get my GLs / Loyales stuck ocasionally. Older snow that is not powdery light and fluffy will do it. Did see that show. Would have made sense to have the horse pull the car out. Not sure if the steam around the front was just snow on hot parts, or radiator leak...

I have managed to get my GLs / Loyales stuck ocasionally. Older snow that is not powdery light and fluffy will do it. Did see that show. Would have made sense to have the horse pull the car out. Not sure if the steam around the front was just snow on hot parts, or radiator leak...

I have managed to get my GLs / Loyales stuck ocasionally. Older snow that is not powdery light and fluffy will do it. Did see that show. Would have made sense to have the horse pull the car out. Not sure if the steam around the front was just snow on hot parts, or radiator leak...

I had a 5 speed where the clutch fork cracked and bent in a way that made it look ok from the outside, but it couldn't move the throw out bearing far enough to disengage the clutch.

I had a 5 speed where the clutch fork cracked and bent in a way that made it look ok from the outside, but it couldn't move the throw out bearing far enough to disengage the clutch.

There are relays that have polarity sensitive coils.

I've not seen the fan / lack of fan cause overheat. More than just a few bubbles of air in the cooling system will cause overheat. And in my experience, this means head gasket replacement. Sometimes very soon, sometimes in months. You might be able to limp it along for a bit by modding the radiator cap so the system cannot pressurize. A small piece of solid copper wire wrapped around the little valve in the cap does that. As long as you are not in desert temperatures, it should be ok. I've run them that way for quite a while without trouble. What it does is make whatever leak you have loose less coolant per minute, so enough may stay in to drive the car without overheating it. I managed to drive one of mine with a cracked head for months this way, while I rebuilt another engine for it. Eventually, the crack got bad enough so a bottle of water would drip through the crack while sitting in the parking lot in about 6 hours. I just had to add water all the time.

I understand, not having an EJ. You wouldn't need 4. Only 1 working one for what I suggested. Plus the harness & computer for the EJ, which, yes, would be stuff you have to find / buy. It depends on the end point of the project. If you want to make a 1 off custom, with stuff you have, I get that. If you want a big power increase, EJ. Both are big projects time wise. For experimental FI projects, look at Megasquirt. Open source FI engine control system.

From what I have read from MANY past threads about modding these engines for performance, the bottle neck is the intake port and size and lift of the valves. The best way to get a significant power increase is to adapt an EJ engine into the car. Similar amount of work, and something like 40% power boost, with all of the reliability of the EJ engine.

This may depend on the transmission you have. For a 3AT, if the seal/s between the Trans and differential fail, the atf will end up in the diff.

Getting ready to remove the transmission. The cart carries the 3AT as low to the ground as possible. With the car up on the solid concrete blocks, it can be rolled out from underneath.

Yes, check that power is supplied to the coil, as above. Other hints: Easy test for no fuel - 1 to 2 seconds of carb cleaner down the throat. Hold gas pedal down about half way. Crank. If it has spark, it will fire for a few seconds, or a burst. If it's very flooded, it may take a try or 2. Check for spark - take the wire from the center of the disty, [other end is connected to the coil] and arrange a spark gap with whatever piece of wire, etc. so you can see it while cranking. About 1/16" gap. You should see a healthy spark.

Nothing specific, but a few things I've dealt with that may be related. Nothing to loose replacing the filter. Check for water in the fuel line. I had an idle solenoid fail once. The engine would not idle. I had to hold the gas pedal down slightly to keep the car running until I got home. My 87 has an intermittent glitch that occasionally alters the idle speed, raising it occasionally. Have not been able to find the cause yet, as it is too infrequent. Once in a while, every one of my GLs / Loyales has glitched on start up - fired and died. Then cranking and cranking but no fire. Holding the gas full down while cranking clears the problem. Instead of pumping, try holding the gas part way down, and see what happens. Also try fully down. I use only 87 octane gas now. Back when they put MTBE in the gas, I had to use 93 to reduce pinging. As soon as they switched to ethanol, that went away. I also ran very stale gas for a while, and was surprised that it had little effect, until I got to the extremely stale gas. That I had to mix 50 / 50 with fresh. During this experiment is when I discovered the effect of water in the fuel. Loose power, run crummy.

I'd put the intake on and try it. It's not that much work. Redoing the head gaskets is a lot more than that, IF they are ok, you loose a lot more time / money than if it turns out they are bad. If you use the OEM intake gaskets, they may even survive and be re usable if you determine the head gaskets are bad fairly quickly.

Mscdirect.com or mcmaster.com. Order a centering drill bit. And a split point cobalt bit for the final size.

I can't say 100% for sure, but they look identical.

When I get one of these problems, I usually try a good second or 2 of carb cleaner in the carb, or throttle body, then crank. If it runs for a second or 2, it rules out a lot!