Oldiesel

The best thing we found to clean the outside of our Mini Cruiser which i believe is the same exterior as your Dolphin was "Clorox clean-up" in a spray bottle. Just amazing how quickly it worked and once cleaned the fiberglass strands that showed so clearly when dirty we barely visible if you looked hard for them.Its a great product but it does contain bleach so dont get it on your clothes as i did!

For years i have used the Cole Hersee 24059 solenoid as an isolator in marine applications,its rated for 80amps continous duty and is for 12v systems on my own boat there were three of them that lasted the twenty odd years that i owned the boat and have installed many in customer boats and i cannot recall a single failure. Any NAPA store can order them and might even have them on stock.

Had the same thing happen recently while we were in Alaska,Hindsight is always better,if you are going up there put plywood over the window before it gets broken,second benefit it helps darken the bed area for sleeping as i never gets really dark in the summer.As you can see in the photo we had aluminum foil in there to darken it and that helped keep some of the glass fragments out of the bed but it was still a big mess to clean up.Later the 1/4" plywood warped and pulled the duct tape away and rain got in(should have covered all the wood with duct tape) Drying the mattress in place is not easy!

Ihave 2 or 3 of the left thread lugs and nuts that you can have. Depends on how soon you you need them we are currently traveling and will probably not be home until around the end of september and thats where they are, I had an 86 and some of the bolts were broken off so i changed them all to right hand and the old left hand ones are lying on on my bench.

Looks like you are getting normal fuel consumption so you probably dont need to change anything,but one thing that is often overlooked on these engines is the temperature sensor for the ECM, it is a separate sensor from the one for the temp gauge and gets old and slow response often replaceing it will give some improvement in mileage

Having recently purchased a 93 Itaska v6 with 122,xxxx miles i did get a ton of paperwork with it and went thru it all and found the work order for the headgasket recall but none for the valve adjustment which by that time should have been done twice! The timing belt had been done once so it was also past due as the maint schedule calls for a new belt ect every 60K miles.The nearest dealer wanted about $1200 to do the 2 jobs combined. I decided to tackle it myself (been a mechanic all my life,no toyota experience) ordered 1 special tool to compress the valve spring for about $15. It was a real pain in the neck & back to do. I found all the exaust valve clearances were at the minimum or slightly below,#6 was the worst.All the intakes were fine at mid range in the spec.The dealer did not have any shims and wanted just over $100 for the 6 that i needed and for me to drive 80 mile round trip to pay before he would order them and then again when they come in "in about a week". I was able to order them from an online seller of genuine toyota parts for about half thet amount including shipping. I ended up spending less than $300 dollars to do the valve adjustment and the timing belt & waterpump and all the rollers and tensioner.It is a big job i do not reccomend you try unless you have a pretty extensive mechanical background,i also do not advise skipping it as i feel sure that #6 ex valve would have been burnt before i got back from our upcoming long trip.I had to do it outdoors as it is too tall to fit in my little shop which made it worse but i did get lots of exercise walking to and from the shop a couple of hundred times.

You can borrow the spring compressor at most Autozone or Advance auto parts. You actually pay for the tool and they refund your money when you return the tool and most of their tools are pretty decent quality.

If you are mechanically capable this link may help you. personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-buchanan/93fsm/

First thought that comes to mind is possibly the switch is bad.Try having someone hold the switch in while you are driving and see if that causes the trans to upshift at a higher than normal rpm.All that switch does is hold the up shifts longer to allow the engine rpm to get higher up in its horsepower range before it shifts up to the next gear. If that makes no difference then you could take the switch out and connect the wires on the back of the switch together and see what that does if it can be made to work by either of those methods i would replace the switch,beyond that you will get into some diagnostics that will depend on your mech/electrical abilities or you may have to take it to someone who understands the older Toyotas.Personally i would avoid the national chain transmission shops and any transmission shop that tells you the problem requires a trans overhaul!

One can do the test for the certification on line basically open book ,i think the cost is around $15. Around here the price is down,the place i used to buy it has stopped handling it because of lack of demand,most cars that old the A/C just does not get repaired.

Ask the Mechanic if he has the tool to remove the shims,if he claims he has ask to see it there are a couple of types,it will have one or more "J" shaped leg,if he has the tool its probably a safe bet he has done the job at least once before. My guess would be that since the newest of these rigs are 20 yrs old there may not be a tech in the dealership that has ever done one either. I just 2 weeks ago did my timing belt and valve adjustment on our 93 Itasca and it is NOT a DIY for the average owner.

The OD is controlled by a relay that's mounted on the brake pedal support bracket, if i remember correctly the relay is blue and may even say overdrive on it. I am not sure there is a separate altitude switch i think the altitude control is part of the engine ECM as it is a necessary condition for the ECM to control the fuel injection system. To enable the OD you could install a switch to bypass the relay but if your main concern is operating at high altitudes i doubt it would be worth the effort as the higher you go the less power your engine develops and it does not have any excess of power even at sea level. When we had a 4cyl 86 mini cruiser in areas that were pretty much level or near level roads and not much above sea level i found the overdrive to be useful and used it a lot. I had installed an aftermarket oil cooler and a trans temp gauge and never saw temps above 190f and most of the time it ran at 180f. With everything as it should, be trans cable adjusted properly, relay functional, etc; the computer is smart enough to shift to 3rd when the load is too great for the OD. When operating in an area that causes frequent in and out of OD you just switch it off and run in 3rd. A change to 4.56 or even 4.88 rear gear as suggested by WME would be a real benefit if you will be operating primarily at high altitudes and will make the OD much more useful at lower altitudes as well.

Interesting chart on Hankook`s website lists tire weight capacity at different pressures for the 185 "D" rated tire. 40 psi _ 1400 lbs 47 psi _ 1532 lbs 58 psi _ 1731 lbs 65 psi _ 1874 lbs for dual use 65 psi 1764 lbs. They dont say much more about it,perhaps thats the best weight/pressure combo for max tire contact patch. A tire with more pressure than needed wears more in the middle of the tread and an under inflated wears more on the outside edges so perhaps these pressure would give longer tread life. Must be some reason they published this info????

Our 93 Winnebago Itasca has aluminum framing in the body in the few places where i have had to drill. Our previous 86 RBM Mini-Cruiser also had aluminum in the walls but not so in the roof where it was rotten 1x3 wood and rusted thru 3/4x3/4 square steel tube,both have aluminum skin under the floor which keeps any water that gets in from getting out!

there are several places you can purchase real Toyota parts other than dealers,one that i use is toyomotorparts.com they discount the parts a bit,a temp sensor i just ordered has a list price of $66.29 and they sell it for $49.37 a nice break that is of course then spent on shipping! That would be foolish if the dealers would sell the parts at list price,our nearest dealer just about doubles the list price and then of course adds sales tax so in this case their markup makes paying the shipping worthwhile. Just have your vin number handy when you go to the web site.

It has been a long time since i have seen a battery at Walmart that says "made by Johnson controls" the ones i am seeing now say "distributed by Johnson controls"! Being the suspicious guy that i am i wonder about the source. The very small like scooter batteries Everstarts are labeled made in Taiwan ,makes me wonder where the big ones come from.

We recently bought a very nice 93 Itasca 21.5, however it has no awning and we frequently used our awning on out last camper and enjoyed it. The roll up awnings are very expensive so we are considering purchasing a bag awning. My question is are these bag awnings user friendly? Or is it a pain in the neck to use/put away so that we probably would not use it frequently? I am 5'11" and my wife is 5' even. It looks to me that we would have to carry 2 of the folding step stools to be able to roll it up and "bag" it. I have looked around on the internet and have not found a video of someone taking one down and putting back in the bag. The ads all say one person can do it, but it seems to me that rolling up and putting away an 11ft awning would be a handful. So has anyone on this board had experience either good or bad if so please share your experience with us! TIA Don & Ellie

I have to replace the tires on our new 93 Itaska,so i have read alot of info on here and the general consensus seems to be that the RA08 is the right tire. Walmart has them online for $101 no shipping to your local store.Store however says they do not mount tires on any camper,go figure. My question is this they are available in both "c" and "d' rating, according to theWinnebago sticker the "c" is what the rig was originally equipped with so should be adequate. Will i get a better ride with the "c"rating or is the added weight rating of the "d" or is there really any difference in the ride quality since they are both pretty stiff.Our previous rig had all "d" rated and did ride hard,maybe they all do.Curious minds want to know. Don

Just brought home a new to us 93 Itaska Spirit 6cyl,in excellent condition. Home is in a tiny Florida town called Ortona,dont feel bad if you never heard of it! Our plan is to make a trip to Alaska this coming summer. It needs some tires and a timing belt (122k miles,last one done at 60k) and very little else.We made an error in judgement and sold our 86 Mini Cruiser and regreted selling so decided we needed another Toyhome,the cook is really happy with the new one. Don & Ellie

About a week ago i had the same scammer reply to an ad on CL for a toyota MH,i wrote back to him and told him that he could go ahead and have it shipped to me (ficticious address) right away as i had just got a large check from the prime minister of Nigeria and would have cash waiting when it arrived. I didnt hear from him so after a couple of days i sent him another email and told him not to quit his day job as he was too dumb to make it as a scammer,still havnt heard from him again. Don

Something to keep in mind.A neighbor of ours recently changed the tail and brake light/turn signal bulbs on his Airstream motor home to L.E.D.`s using the type that fit right into the existing bulb sockets and they were really much brighter than the old ones.He asked me for a little help as his cruise control was not working,the problem turned out to be that the LED bulbs did not create the ground that the CC needs to engage. Most CC units that i am familiar with use the stop light filament in the bulb as a ground connection so when you step on the brakes the 12v applied to the bulb causes the loss of that circuit as a ground and the CC disengages.On his Airstream he has 2 bulbs each side for brake lights so it was only necessary to put standard bulbs in one on each side to get the CC working. Your results may differ. Don

Right now Walmart has the RA08 tires on their website for $101 to order to your local store no shipping charge. If I remember right they mount tires they sell free and $5 or $8 each for balancing of course there is sales tax. The fact that about anywhere I expect to travel there will be a Walmart to stand behind them seems like real plus to me. Don

I expect to be installing cruise control on an 87 Toyota MH with the 22re sometime soon.Since this little engine is going to be working hard even on level ground will it develop enough vacuum on a moderate hill for the cruise to continue to function.I have a complete vacuum type aftermarket kit laying around,but if its not going to be functional maybe i should spring for the all electronic type $$$ Anyone with experience with a vacuum operated system? Your input would be apreciated ! Don

Same scam in Florida posted all over the state. I answered his email,told him to go ahead and ship the unit as i had just received a very large check from the prime minister of Nigera so by the time the camper gets to me i will have Cash.Of course he didnt answer so i waited a few days and sent him an email and told him to keep his day job as he was too dumb to be a succesful scammer. Don

Thanks for that info. Owner states it did have a leak in the roof near the back and he repaired the roof replaced the insulation, etc. Having done a complete replacement(carried the entire roof to the dump in 2 pieces) on my last one i will know where to look on this one. Don't really want to do that job again. Don