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lansisco

Toyota Advanced Member
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About lansisco

Previous Fields

  • My Toyota Motorhome
    1985 Toyota Escaper
  • Location
    Holland, Michigan

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Interests
    Fixing up my Motorhome, with the hopes of some day spending the night in it.

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  1. I think I better understand what is going on. Hamkid and I have 1984 Pickups re-titled as 1985 Escapers. Why this matters is it seems like those are the only ones where the RV company cut and welded like this. Mine looks exactly the same as Hamkids. I am going to cut at a 45 degree angle away from the area where the bag will go, and then box the area with some plate steel. I've spoken with an experienced welder about this and he's comfortable with the plan. Not to cut away enough to really weaken the frame, and also not to weld in a way that damages the integrity of the steel.
  2. I'm glad to see this thread continue. I've done the OME spring replacement and also Swayaway torsion bars. Every aspect of my steering and suspension is new. I have a ton of wind sway and I hate it. I'd like to put airbags in to hopefully reduce that. I have the same 1984 chassis hamkid does. Why not make the airbags work?
  3. The OMESB6 is indeed the way. I wish you’d seen my post on this from a year ago. OME does a poor job of explaining what goes with what. If you have the product catalog you can sift through it. Glad you found a solution.
  4. I apologize if this is off topic, but I just picked up an 85 Sunrader on an 84 chassis, and the windows are not wrap-around. They are two individual flat windows. What is the difference between mine, and the bubble ones? Thanks all!
  5. Thanks Hamkid for blazing the trail for me! I'm in the process or removing both my tanks as well. What are you replacing them with, and how are you going to install?
  6. Ordered June 1, 2021. Arrived Feb 5 2022. I called the office of Swayaway.com every other week for months. I spoke to the owner a few times and I was really patient with him. He told me because I was patient I'd get mine as soon as he had them in his hands.
  7. My Swayaway.com torsion bars arrived! I've installed them and I'm thrilled with the results. I was sitting on my bump stops and driving around with the front suspension fully compressed. I've yet to be able to drive my rig since there's plenty of snow here, but I can see that there has been a huge increase in height. Now my bump stops are 2/3 from the lower bushing, and 1/3 from the upper bushing. I'll measure the control arm bolt height when I get back out to the garage. The job of changing the torsion bars was a mixed bag of easy and difficult steps. Once I had the front suspension in the air I used a grinder to cut the jam nut off of each side so that I could remove the nuts that keep the torsion bar adjustment bolt in place. That meant ordering a new set from yotamasters.com for about $36 including shipping. I've read a bunch of posts that indicate the bolts get ruined in the process, so I just cut to the chase literally. Once I had the bolt in the rear removed it was pretty basic stuff to remove and reassemble the torsion bars and the accompanying hardware. This is a major improvement to my rig!
  8. I've done this exact thing. The bushings should push in by hand easily. No press required. The issue is that you will need to buy a separate set of bushings to match what is going on back there, just for 2 pair of bushings that match the eyes. I'll provide you with my parts list in a few. CS010R Old Man Emu Springs, Old Man Emu Greaseable Shackles ARB-OMEGS3, Toyota Leaf Spring Pin (two of them) 04482-35030 purchased at the toyota dealer. Old Man Emu by ARB OMESB6 Spring Bushing Kit for the extra bushings I needed to solve the problem of bushings not matching.
  9. I bought a sheet of automotive grade, pre-painted metal from Johnson's RV Surplus in White Pigeon Michigan for 50 bucks or so. I'd call them and ask about having it shipped to you.
  10. I've tried ordering from swayaway.com and they appear to be the best source for our rigs. My order has been on backorder since June 1 of this year. I know of no other options for us including stock replacements. I will let you know if I get mine sent to me. 5 months and waiting patiently.
  11. That's really interesting. As I think about my situation, I've completely done away with the stock charging system and am bypassing it entirely. The dash light doesn't come on so that isn't a concern, and I've removed everything related to the old system to keep it simple. My connections are direct to battery and don't involve anything from the stock system. I will likely be adding some gauges to the interior for voltage and oil pressure and maybe a tach.
  12. I bought a GM One Wire Alternator Bracket from Summitracing.com for about $81 (TGI-120120-1-KIT) a Powermaster 100amp Alternator (PWM-7294)for $124, and a battery isolator kit off of amazon.com for $115, (KeyLine Chargers 12V 140 Amp Dual Battery Isolator Voltage Sensitive Relay (VSR) Pro Dual Battery Kit). This allowed me to remove ALL of the Toyota charging mechanisms and just start from scratch. I was in the process of replacing the alternator, water pump, all of the hoses, belts, and I adjusted the valves at the same time, so getting to the alternator was easy since I'd removed the radiator to get to the water pump etc.. I was really nervous about messing with the stock alternator bracket because it was integrated into the motor mounts. This turned out to be really easy. I placed a jack with a block of wood on it below the oil pan and lifted the engine slightly, enough to take some weight off of the mounts. I undid the 4 bolts that hold the stock bracket in place and wiggled the stock bracket loose. I then wiggled the new bracket into place and was surprised that it only took some light taps with a wrench to line it up with the holes. The stock bolts are used in 3 out of the 4 holes, and there is a bolt that is included with the kit for the 4th as it needs to be shorter since the new bracket is thinner at that point. Surprisingly again, the bolts went in easily. The stock bolts looked brand new and I'm thinking to myself wow, they were installed 38 years ago. Once the lower bracket was in place, I put the GM alternator in and it lined up easily. My only issue was that I needed a belt that was 1 inch longer than the stock one. Easy fix and I was going to do the belts anyway. I completed the alternator install in under an hour, and finished up the rest of the work over the course of the weekend. The battery isolator kit had about 20 feet of 7 gauge copper wire and was more than enough to run a wire from my alternator direct to the engine battery +, a wire from the engine battery + to the isolator, and a wire from the isolator to the coach battery +, with about 3 feet left over. There is a one foot, 4 gauge ground wire that I ran from the coach battery to the place the old voltage regulator was mounted under the hood. That spot was a nice thick bolt and made a great ground location. I used that ground for the wire from the battery isolator as well as the coach electrical system ground wire. Once I fired up the engine, I had 14.5v at both battery terminals. The headlights are very bright and the system is sound. I made it a point to use Toyota hoses, gaskets, and a water pump from 22reperformance.com. I replaced all of them and they were not cheap. But I value my vacation days highly and I avoid problems associated with maintenance whenever I can. Would I do this again? YES! Do I care that I lost function of the voltage warning light on the dashboard? No, not in the slightest. I may install a voltage gauge at some point, but I am not worried about that alternator or the related parts. I recommend the powermaster alternators because they are new, not rebuilt and American made from scratch. As a side note, adjusting the valves was far easier than I was imagining and I found 3 valves that were way too tight. In adjusting them I have increased acceleration noticeably. I had an old solid state battery isolator that I removed and replaced with the new kit.
  13. I agree with Linda, it sounds like your battery connections aren't the best. The alternator would have nothing to do with whether or not it starts, assuming the battery is charged. The alternator only keeps it charged. How about you put some pics of your engine compartment up for the forum to see. Maybe someone will see something weird. The 22re engine doesn't take a lot of energy to crank, so I'd focus on basic stuff like clean terminals and good grounds.
  14. The engine has 100,500 miles on it as of today. Are we getting to the point where I should just pull the motor and do a head gasket job as well as all new lower seals? I don't burn any oil over thousands of miles. It blows my mind actually. I am tempted to do a clutch job at the same time as this anyway. I also would like input on replacing my carb with a weber. My exhaust is toast so I planned on a header kit because they are the most cost effective way to replace the exhaust manifold.... Again, how far do I go at once?
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