Vanman

Our Toy is at the Toyota dealer getting much work done. Service manager says to use Mobil-1 5-30 wt for engine and red coolant,it's now green, and since we are getting all fluids changed, new ATF. He said there is no filter so all he wants to do is drain via the plug and re-fil. We have 85500 miles and if there is a filter I think it should be changed, which means dropping the pan. Is there a filter in this trans? is this the proper wt oil?? The original Toyota owners manual says Dexron II for ATF. I want to get this right as we're putting a lot of $ into this. John & Mary

I am getting promos for this and it seems like a good idea, what about this club and are there others?? What are any of you using?? I am hearing that with all the cut-backs in the Calif state park systems they are not as well patrolled and safe as in the past so it seems more campers are migrating to private campgrounds. John & Mary

I took one apart many years ago, it's a bunch of gears like a clock so if the 1/10's work it could be either a broken tooth or , if youre lucky a small piece of debris jamming it. Hard to get at thou, maybe take the cable loose from the tranny and run it backwards with an electric drill to see if that might?? clear it. BTW congrats on such low mileage on an '83. John EDIT: Ha, when did I become an advanced member, soo much still to learn...

Paul sounds like a really nice guy but, like many places around here isn't interested in doing any more dual wheel brake jobs. He gave us a nice price on the tires thou, I hope to pick them up Monday and coat them with the tire protectorant I got at Camping World. The Toyota dealer on Geary gave us a price of $ 1295 for everything parts and labor, they promise to turn the rotors and drums only enough to true 'em up if necessary. John & Mary

Roger that, wer'e gonna do all that and check for tail shaft play. Things I know about only because of this Board, thanks to all. We will be in site #65 at the American River Toy-In. John & Mary

Thanks, I'll go see them tomorrow. I ordered all the parts, including the seals from Toyota on Geary Blvd, but then one of them said "what about all the springs???" turns out there are 5 springs per drum and they are not sure about the availability of any of that, but are working on it. He gave me a printout of the parts page for the rear brakes which includes the Toyota numbers that may help me if ther'e no longer avaibable from Toyota. Whole lotta parts in there for a drum brake!! They seem knowleagable and caring with a very clean professional looking shop. I am getting an estimate from them for the labor, as I'm getting the parts anyway. Odd that they can't get any tires from their distributor, but will be happy to mount the RA08's if I supply them. Which tires did you put on yours?? Thanks, John & Mary

I have all 7 wheel stems from Toyota for the new tires, but would appreciate a trustworthy shop for the brake job, we have 86,000 on ouy 91 Dolphin. We are in San Francisco ,Calif and so far it seems not much familiarity with this Toyota dual rear end brakes. Any suggestions ???? Thanks Vanman...

Got our reservations today, few spots left. Lady said there are almost 10 Toy's so far. Vanman

<br /><br /><br /> On the Subaru Outback forums the stock Bridgestone Potenza RE92A tires are much despised, on mine they just push like mad and squeal, but I found going up 2#'s both front and rear makes a huge improvment in steering and roadholding with no ride changes. Higher than that rides harder with no further improvement. New tires soon as when they get over 10K miles they make a whole lotta noise on rough or irregular surfaces, just a really poor V rated tire. Yeah I was suprised when I saw those #'s on the sticker, they do seem low for tires that size hauling a 6K lbs load. vanman

I was told by old owner to use those pressures and we did to home and the Toy-in at Felton. I am not going anywhere except around the neighborhoood until we get all the new parts, so I dropped to 50# ft, 55# rear, 45# bags. I haven't tried those reccomended pressures yet, usually most cars and trucks I've owned I end up running higher that recommended. What do you run in yours?? vanman

. Somewhere I read about changing the seals in the valve stems. I couldn't find them, so I got 7 new stems from Toyota Part# 90942-05026. They look identical to the ones on ouy '91 Dolphin. I found a sticker on the wall behind the drivers seat with the VIN # and info from National RV it specks the tire pressures as 37# front, 45# rear. I was running 55 Ft, 65 rear and 90# in the bags amd it rides really, really hard, too hard. We are getting the Hankook RA08's, brakes, seals and thanks to this great group I know what to get for that!!!! Thank you all. Vanman

<br /><br /><br /> Our 91 Dolphin and others I've seen came with a relay type 3 wire isolator, which I prefer to the diode type. In this set-up Toyota is feeding the truck battery to the alternator as per stock, the left side big wire runs to the truck battery, the right side big wire to the coach battery, the center small wire to truck battery thru ignition switch so when it;s hot it energises the relay coil to connect the 2 big wires together. If this is the way yours was set up stock why not simply replace like for like with no re-wiring ? Vanman

<br /><br /><br /> I was getting 14.0 VDC on the fully charged coach battery when plugged into home 110 or on the generator. I rotated the trimpot on the ckt board 20 degrees CCW and now have 12.91VDC. Thought this was ok till I used the old manual battery charger I've had forever, (Schumacher model 60-PE) which has 4 modes; 50A,10A,Trickel, and Maintain. Maintain keeps it @ 12.60 V and Trickel holds @ 12.98 VDC. So my question is what should it be set to??? I would think less than trickel??, but all the way down to 12.60?? What are you running at?? John

Any reccomandations on pads/shoes???? I thought thter was a post saying the stock parts were less grabby, but I don't see that now. A whole system fluid flush will be done and mabye the master cyclinder..

<br /><br /><br /<br /> I used to road race motorcycles and back in that day it was SOP to strip down and clean out the disk brake systems, replace all the seals and refill with the silicone fluid. I don't know what is the hot set-up today.

<br /><br /><br />OK that new DOT 5.1 looks good, I had never heard about it before. BTW this is about the same age and mileage that I had to replace the master cyclinders in all my various vans, which were /are all american made. I was just gonna have everything replaced and flushed, just to be sure, are the Toy master, wheel cyclinders better than my old ones??? I live in San Francisco near the ocean so that may be a consideration. vanman

Our 91 V6 Dolphin needs brakes at 86k miles. Rotors look good, smooth with only a slight lip at edge of disk. I know our Toy's are somewhat brake challanged and am thinking there has been a lot or changes in brake tech since then. Like ceramic pads for the front ?? What are you running , or recomend ??? Also what about going to silicone brake fluid?? I am planning on doing all the braking components anyway. Vanman

My experience with the K&N's is to stick with a high quality pleated paper filter. Vanman

I found on our 91 Dolphin most of the out/dim clearance and other lites were dirty lenses, reflectors, and socket/lamp contacts. Just cleaning things up made a huge difference. I also used Plastic-X on all the exterior plastic, I've been using that stuff for years and now it seems several other companies are making a similar product. Vanman

Turn the water off, push down and hold flush pedal to open and hold the slide valve on toilet. Look into tank with a flashlite and if necessary a telescoping mirror. When I did this on our Dolphin I saw several inches of built-up crud !!! The chemicals we got at Camping World plus the cleaning wand hooked up to a hose got it all clean.