It was advertised as non-running and needing to be hauled away.  I knew it needed a battery and at least one tire that would hold air.  First thing I did was drop my extra battery in and try cranking it over.  It turned over nicely, but starting fluid in the carb did nothing.  A quick check showed no spark, with further checking finding nothing simple.  It would be over a week later before that was resolved--more details to come.

When I got there, the guy had the right rear jacked up and had tried to inflate the flat spare, but the bead was unseated.  I started getting my tires put on and at that point, I was committed.  The left front looked flat but wasn't on the ground.  It turned out there were a couple cinder blocks under the front axle.  Just to clarify, the guy selling this was not the original owner, but his girlfriend's  deceased brother was.  They had driven out from Michigan to settle his estate, and were wanting to head home that Tuesday.

I made the deal that Saturday, and had been in touch with my uncle who has a truck & trailer.  He promised to go after work on Monday to pick it up.  As it turned out, he got home earlier than expected on Sunday, so we headed up that evening and brought it home.



Actually brought it to work (auto shop) so I could work on it during free time.

I'd buy hundreds of those for $1700.. You can't find a running POS here for under $3000..

It is almost as good as a barn find, with the exception of the roof.  Sitting at 5700' elevation, the pine cones & snow wreaked a little havoc.



Engine compartment.



Some exterior pics.











The only thing that had been done at this point was getting a pair of better tires on the wheels, and cleaning up the wheels themselves.  I had done a quick cleaning with degreaser & the pressure washer, but they didn't look much better until one of the guys offer to go after it with wheel cleaner & steel wool.



I need another 6 lug nuts, because 2 have the cap portion broken off and I'm not putting the difficult wheel locks back on. :bang:

So in my attempts to get it running, I made a few errors.  First off, when checking for the ground signal to the ignition coil, I had something.  A test light would flash dimly, and a meter would read Hertz.  This made me assume the coil was the culprit, though it appeared the PO had put a newer one in at some point.  I decided to go with Napa instead of OEM, but there were some delays in getting it.

Finally, on Monday I had a new coil, but when I plugged it in and cranked the engine, there was still no spark.  In the meantime, I'd been researching on the forums, and found that coils rarely go out, but Igniters do.  With the 22R, you can substitute a GM ignition module from the early HEI systems, so Tuesday morning, I picked one up from Napa on the way to work.

On lunch break, I fashioned a quick set of wires with connectors and plugged them into the factory harness.





After doing this, cranking it over produced a nice spark on the tester at the coil wire.    Connected the coil wire to the distributor cap and started cranking and pumping the accelerator. After popping a few times, it started to fire, but ran pretty rough.  I'd read that the wires from the pickup coil in the distributor could be switched & cause problems, so I tried connecting them the other way.  All I got was backfiring, so the original way was right.  The next day was my day off, so I spent a little time making the GM module a more permanent part of the system.



De-soldered from the old board and soldered to the new.  Added a 1 K-ohm resistor to the tachometer circuit, which worked like a charm.



I tried to add a piece of aluminum inside to mount the module to, but there just wasn't enough room.  I ended up mounting it to the base plate instead, providing a good ground, but possibly less heat dissipation.





All put together!



After that, I celebrated by giving her a quick bath.  Looking better already.

Thanks. I know I've been in touch with a couple people on here about a used igniter, and I still am thinking I'll get one.  The GM setup will keep me running for now.

Still to come: The list of things to do, and parts are on order.

Added a poll, please vote and offer opinions.

Also got a couple videos on Youtube.

The first recording.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR9wjDRTXSk&feature=youtu.be

Success!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0igQ912moN0&feature=youtu.be

I still need to get a bigger memory card, and take some more.

Got a small pile of parts today.  Still need to source the belts and power steering pump seals, if anyone has the info on those.

I've been digging through my pile of ignitor ans haven't found the part number you asked for but I'm not done just yet.

As far as the poll it's hard for me to decide between #2 or #4. I say leave it just like it is body wise. Do the 3rz swap, w56, and rears up front with cross over steering. I absolutely love it. I personally get so angry that I am red in the face when I see something ad nice as that get cut up and turned into another beat up pile of junk when a "build" starts and ends up with it on its roof down the side of a mountain. But hey, just my 2 cents...

Thanks.  Would you also go with Chevy springs for the rear, and 4.7s in the transfer?  I agree that it is too nice to beat up.

To do list, with a couple items checked off already.



Accomplished a few things on lunch break today.  No picture, but hit the engine bay with degreaser and the pressure washer.

Got a genuine Toyota fuel filter.  The old Carquest one was a little hard to blow through.



New gas cap, as the old aftermarket one had a cracked seal.





Tried using the can of tan Rustoleum I had in the garage.  It's a little too light. 

I wish I could find some r12 to put in mine. Glad to see its running a little better. If you get a can of "jlg creme" paint it's almost perfect for touch up on that color toyota. It's what I used on my 81 like yours.

Nice find, and priced about right.  If you haven't already paid the fees, you shouldn't have had to pay anywhere near $600 in back fees, I have purchased a few rigs that were 3-8yrs past due, and have bever paid more than 2 times the last unpaid registration.

As for your plans, from the pics, I would do a "driver's" level restoration, i.e., fix everything that doesn't currently work or works poorly, get the seats re-upholstered in original color and pattern, and light body work with partial repaint if the rest of the paint polishes up well.  As a "driver" level restoration, you will make more money if/when you sell in the future, than with any of your other choices.  These rigs in unmolested condition are getting rare to find, and the older Toys in clean stock condition are starting to increase in price.  I could easily see you selling it for double or more for what you would have into it( somewhere between $5-7k range w/o mods), maybe more in a few years.  There is a growing market in the under 35 crowd for some of the older Japanese cars and trucks, seems they are after something more original, than the cookie cutter products everyone is making today, even though they don't have all the bells and whistles like the new stuff has.

The level of originality is pretty neat to discover. 



I'm thinking the valve cover has to have been off before, but these ties were still in place, etc.



Inside of the cover had some varnish, but most of it has already come off in the parts washer.



My coworker Hugo kept shining his flashlight when I was trying to focus on the valvetrain, so I took this out-of-focus pic of him.





Got to use my 13/16" spark plug socket that's sat in the toolbox for awhile.



The compression numbers don't look too bad after the valve adjustment.  Three of the exhaust valves were slightly tight, and a couple of the intake valves were slightly loose.

Yesterday's progress:

6 new lug nuts, not quite the right style, but the originals are no longer available from Mr. T.





Drained some fluids and shot some more underside pics.  Installing allen head drain plugs in everything.





Leaky knuckles, but found the front diff only about a pint low.





Also confirmed the distributor advance unit is faulty.  The inner diaphragm holds no vacuum, while the outer one will move the plate, but will not hold.  Ordered a replacement from LC Engineering to save a little.

I'm liking you attention to OE parts nice truck

Oem parts must be cheaper over there. I bought 2 of this pcv hoses, and 3 of the rubber elbows from the air cleaner lid to valve cover. Was over $100. I don't get oem unless it's only something that can be gotten from them.

so are there any issues with the status of the title if the owner is deceased?