Crank no Start fuel issue- 1986 LE 2WD Auto

[Kokonoe]

Hello and thank you in advance for any help you can give regarding my new van!

I recently rescued a 1986 Toyota Van LE out of the junkyard. I have wanted one for a long time and had a Previa in the past but had to sell it pretty quickly due to some financial difficulties. I'm in a much better position now and stumbled into this van and am really looking forward to making it into somthing i can enjoy.

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I spent friday evening dropping the tank after getting no fuel pump hum after jumping the connector near the alternator hot connector in the engine bay. The pump and level sensor were covered in rust, the tank had approximately 8 gallons of vintage fuel in it, but the rubber parts were all supple and uncracked. My lovely wife had a similar situation on her 1986.5 supra and we have the tank, hanger, and sending unit fairly clean and ready to install when the proper fuel pump arrives. The underside was beautiful and most of the hardware came apart nicely.


Saturday, 11/1/25, i come back to the shop. I am able to get the van to run and run well off a bottle of starting fluid. I have a fuel pump and return line set up into a 1 gallon can. Im getting good circulation but have not checked fuel pressure. All fuses in the fusebox under the glovebox are good. I have a new group 27 battery installed. I am going to be installing a new filter under the passenger seat within the hour. Im waiting for a friend of mine with noids to check injectors but that is the extent of my diagnostics.


A little backstory. I am the second owner of this van. It was bought new in bozeman, MT, and spent 17 years and 183k miles in the Gallatin Valley. Sometime in 2003, the van got its last recorded oil change and a coolant flush. Between 8/2003 and 10/2025 the van went from 180k to 183k miles, i'd assume parked at an older persons home until it was donated to a charity and sold at an auction. I have sale paperwork from 1986 and registration from 2002 with the same last name, a couple other pieces of documentation from its life, and very little else. It has the ice maker, 2 sunroofs, aluminum "snowflake" wheels, and rear A/C.


Im really looking forward to this adventure with my new van and appreciate any advice that this forum can provide.

[Kokonoe]

Hello TVT!

I kept messing with the van throughout the afternoon. I wanted to put off doing the fuel filter, my rationale being that if im getting good pressure out the return then i must be getting fuel thru the rail. I also wanna do spark plugs and other passenger side maintenance if I'm going to go that far. I called up my father, he used to build a lot of xv10 Camry's when they were much newer and asked for advice.after some back and forth, he suggested clogged injectors, and given the state of the fuel i drained, i didnt think that was a bad diagnosis.

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Looking at the location of the fuel rail though, i didnt really feel like pulling the injectors. It looked like a nightmare so i decided to try and chemically clean the injectors with gasoline.

I hooked up my tester fuel pump to the battery and let the fuel circulate for about a half an hour as i read the fusible link thread and reviewed the basic info thread. The can of gas I was using might have gotten a little more yellow but it wasnt a drastic difference. I tried starting it at about the 30 minute mark and was getting 2 cylinders going but not enough to continue without assistance from the starter.

Another 15 minutes of letting fuel circulate and I gave it another go. It ran on 2 cylinders for about ten seconds, I plugged a broken vaccum line on the throttle body, then quickly 3 with a very slight intermittent miss at idle on the fourth hole. I let it idle for about a minute before i decided i should drop it on the ground, check the stubbornly stuck coolant cap, top off the power steering, and see if the low oil level indicator went away if the van was level. I knew the oil was ok on the dipstick from when i picked it up, but the light had me concerned.

One fuel line mishap later, the van was on the ground, and the power steering took about a pint of fluid, clearing up the Ford-esque whine from the pump. The oil level was fine and the picture below made me think i had lost the alternator fusible link. That will probably be a problem for next weekend however...

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With the coolant cap removed, a nasty sight awaited me. The cap was glued on with this crystalline green goop which formed a hard plug about 1 1/2" deep under the rad cap.

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I didnt get a picture of the nastiness intact but i do believe a radiator flush is in order. No matter, i busted through the revolting goober, popped about a cup of coolant into the system, and fired off the van again. It got up to temp, i left the cap off until i saw the level drop about 1/2 inch before recapping the system and watching the vitals as she happilly putted at an idle.

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Once it reached temp and kicked down to a low idle the miss was much more pronounced. I may have to get to that injector sooner than later, im hoping fresh fuel breaks it up and i can enjoy the van a bit before that job. As soon as the engine speed was above 800 rpm or so the miss went away, with no vibrations i could feel with a hand on the intake.

I think once the tank goes back in, the next step will be a full oil service, fuel filter, plugs, wires, cap and rotor, radiator flush (possible new radiator?) and transmission service. Really looking forward to driving my little van in the near future!

[Kokonoe]

Hello TVT!

Right after i made the previous post saturday evening, i took my wife down to show her the van for the first time. When i tired to start it, it absolutely refused again. After messing with it for a while we left and i hit it hard again sunday morning

A lot of reading, frustration, and helping a friend with a EP3 civic we have been building, i decided to do a once over of the vaccum system and noticed my temporary electrical tape fix of the intake tube between the MAF and Throttle body had slipped off, exposing a 1/4" crack on the throttle body side. Reading previously that these were NLA and not wanting to make any rash decisions regarding fixing the old tube, i set out to find a suitable replacement.

After 3 parts stores, i had 2 employees at O'Reily hunting through the catalog of intake tubes available in stock. We settled on Dorman 696-003, replacement for a 2007-2012 Nissan Sentra with the 2.0

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It wasnt cheap, and it wasnt exact, but it was damn close, coming in 3/16" larger on the throttle body side and having an extra port, with the bonus of an included cap for the unneeded orifice. Using this tube requires lengthening the largest line at the 4 way tee under the intake hose about 1', and the second largest line being extended maybe an inch or so. Everything stays under the level of the intake tube and should not interfere, despite its strange appearance. Im sure a flush mount cap and some time spent could improve this fitment to be a viable solution instead of cracking and aged NOS parts last cast in the Clinton administration.

With this fixed, the van once again ran as well as it had the prior afternoon, so i took a shot at getting my fuel tank prepped for the parts to show up tuesday. The acid treatment did wonders and will be good enough for me for the time being. All the small rust particles are gone, and the large ones on the bottom stayed in place after a thorough rinse with warm water. The tank hanger looks brand new, and i was able to loosten up the level sender. We fully dried the tank in front of a diesel heater and reassembled as much as we could without the proper pump.

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The van came from the junkyard with the radio in a box along with the bezel. Hoping to get this functional too, i reconnected the 3 harnesses from the eq to the main unit and plugged the whole mess in. I got scratchy static out when tunring some knobs, like the older hi-fi systems that have been sitting a while, but only "CH 7" on the display and a non functional AM/FM switch. My radio part number is 86120-14371 if anybody either has a spare or can point me in the right direction as far as fixing it. I also have access to a radio from a 1983 Celica labeled "Electronic Reciever #1422" if that will work with the OE EQ. I dont wanna tear the celica apart if i dont have to, 46k original miles, auto, Blue on Blue, but hammered by a hailstorm years ago.

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Thats all on the van for now, i will try and update again saturday when i am home. Hopefully with a short drive if everything goes well!

[Jan-Willem]

That intake hose is a nice find! Still a little cheaper than cobbling one together with silicone pieces, especially if you want the flexible middle bit as well.