Hi I'm Chance, I have been a Toyota fiend since I was a teenager. I have been long time looker on this forum and have gotten a lot of great info to help me keep my trucks on the road, and am excited to finally introduce myself and begin contributing as I restore my mini!

A little backstory about myself, I have always loved Toyotas, my first truck was a 1995.5 tacoma (3.4L, manual) that I got with 300k+ miles and basically drove into the ground as a teenager, then I traded it straight across for an '85 (xcab, 22re, straight axle ) that I spent my early twenties building and destroying, I still own that truck, but it has taken a back burner for the last couple years as the off-roading habit started snowballing faster than my pocket book could support. A couple years ago, I bought a running-ish and driving-ish 1976 pickup from a not too mechanically inclined friend for $500 before he could send it to pick n pull. I have always loved the early "double round" headlight style Toyotas, and am stoked to have this one, but it is pretty rough! My goal is to make it a reliable daily driver, and make it handle somewhat decently since I live in the mountains and all the roads are windy.

Since I bought the 1976, I put in a new clutch, flywheel, master & slave cylinders, brake rotors, calipers, master cylinder, battery, alternator, regulator, and recently just did new vacuum lines. All of these things failed as I drove it, and I replaced them with oem (or as close to oem as I could find) stock replacements. The vacuum lines I did because I have been having idling troubles and they were all visibly brittle, so I figured I would start there as it was cheap and easy, and it definitely needed it anyway. That helped a little bit, but still wasn't running or idling great. Then it started to fall bad on power, so I checked the timing with a friend, and the timing was way off, so we adjusted the distributor, and that made it run a lot better. The distributor itself was also in pretty bad condition, so we cleaned up what we could with sandpaper, a file, and rags, and I ran it for a few more days, and it ran better than it had before... then it rained.

I drove it in the rain and it was mostly fine, but the day after that on the way back home from work, it started idling really rough, then not at all, then I couldn't even keep it going with the throttle. Felt like it was flooding itself basically. I was able to get it fired-up, albeit weakly, after a lot of cranking, and limped it into a nearby parking lot to get it towed to my house for some more tinkering. I pulled the cap off and there was clearly some moisture in there, and the points were pretty burnt up. My best guess is the distributor failed, so I am looking at getting a new one. Bear in mind, my knowledge base on this stuff is super limited (all my previous trucks have been fuel injected with electronic ignition).

I am pretty in to "buy once cry once" within reason, and have done some research on this forum and the rest of the internet. It seems like to me there are a few options 1.) stock replacement 2.)LCE pro distributor, with msd 6al and blaster coil 3.)Pertronix (I don't know much about this yet, but seems like it replaces the points guts with digital guts) 4.) I saw a post on here about 123ignition being really good, but I couldn't find much info on that.

Any info, help, feedback, tips, second thoughts, criticism, or encouragement is totally welcomed, stoked to join the community!!!

Thank you,
- Chance

 

Welcome Chance, sounds like you’ll fit in well here

 

Distributors of that generation usually don’t go bad. You have your points and condenser. Everything else is mechanical.
Your symptoms sound like a bad distributor cap and/or bad wires. It doesn’t take much moisture to cause misfiring. Try replacing all those things first if you want to keep the stock distributor. If looking at aftermarket, DUI makes a great product, but not cheap.

 

Yeah I would definitely prefer to keep it stock, as I'm not trying to maximize squirrel power here, just keep it reliable and considering stock has lasted almost 50 years, I would say it's pretty reliable.
Like I said I'm learning about distributors as I go, I took the cap off (just latched down), and looked in there. Definitely some corrosion, the little tab on the rotor was very corroded, and the little tab on the inside was hammered, the plastic ring behind it was all but completely disintegrated, and the contact with the "L" shaped plastic cover behind that was pretty corroded too, but moved freely. Not sure which parts are available for servicing or replacement.

 

You need some type of Haynes or Chiltons manual.
A points distributor is one of the least technical designs out there.
A minimum you want points & condenser (sold as a set), distributor cap and rotor, new ignition wire set and new spark plugs.

Access to a dwell/tach instrument would be a good investment. It doesn’t have to be high tech. You will need this for the final setup of the system. Try Amazon, their prices are fairly competitive.

 

Yeah a manual would be great! I'm gonna order one tonight if I can find one.
Thanks for the info on other stuff I'm gonna need too. I also just remembered, there was a little clear plastic cap that came straight up, just below where the cap latches on. That broke, and I can't figure out what it is, but pretty sure it's related to the running issues.

 

Probably an “octane selector”. Back in the early days some gasoline had lower octane ratings than others. That knob allowed you to fine tune the timing to match the octane. It isn’t needed with todays fuel.

Your Haynes manual should cover that also. The manual, and a dwell/tach meter is a must have with a points type distributor. Haynes will show you how it’s all supposed to work.

 

Sweet, thank you!

 

Such a nice looking truck from what i can see! have you made any progress since the last post? Also, any plans for it after you get it running right? I know you said "make it a reliable daily" but are you planning on lowering? changing out the mirrors? new wheels?