1991 Toyota Deliboy

29 years ago, I received a Higher Grade qualification in Physics, and another in Technological Studies. Since then, I haven't troubled myself with witchcraft, sorry, electrical systems. Fortunately, some people on the internet have, so I've copied their homework.

The reason for doing this is to make the Main Beam warning light functional with the new LED headlights. These headlights only connect to one of the vehicle harness H4 connectors to get a switching signal (on the passenger side), and there is not enough resistance in the circuit to trigger operation of the warning light.

According to a young man on Custom Tacos (disappointingly, this is a forum for owners of Toyota Tacoma pickups, and not related to tasty Mexican food), he calculated that he needed a 10w 50ohm resistor bridged across two terminals of the H4 connector. The following link is for my records, you really don't need to read it:

www.customtacos.com/threads/hi-beam-indicator-fix.156849/

Having purchased such a resistor, it was time for a series of experiments...



The black box at the bottom is the load resistor relay that I purchased online. It's not set up for a switched ground circuit, so plugging it in did nothing.

Next, I plugged in the old Halogen bulb to the empty connector on the Driver's side vehicle harness. The main beam indicator worked as normal. That's fine, but having a hot, fragile and unprotected bulb waving around in the engine bay didn't fill me with confidence.

The old LED bulb (with it's little link harness) lit up, but doesn't have sufficient resistance to trigger the indicator.

So, that left the ceramic resistor to try, with the aid of some spare wires and spade connectors from the Headlight kits.



It works! Kind of... 50 ohms is actually a lot of resistance, and I kind of regret not reading this more detailed post first:

www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/Headlights.shtml

There are a lot of words and diagrams and calculations, but the important part is here:


So, while the main beam indicator comes on, it is very dim indeed. It might be visible in the dash at night, but it's not going to be very noticeable compared to the other lighting, and warning lights generally should be fairly easy to notice. Maybe the Taco guy has a very different system in his truck (or he should have spent more time on his studies).

After a bit more reading (slowly, to avoid frying my brain), I got to this bit:


As I don't want to risk the resistor burning out prematurely (not that I flash people a lot, but just to be on the safe side), I decided to skip whatever other complicated recommendations he made and go straight to a 20w 10ohm resistor, which will look the same as the one I currently have, but allows the indicator to be visible.

Now I have to put the van in the garage for a month to take care of important family matters, but hopefully when I go back to it I'll remember to look at this thread and remind myself what I'm supposed to be doing...

The 20W 10ohm resistor turned up, and it's a lot bigger than the 50ohm one was. Anyway, last weekend I soldered it really badly to some off-cut spare wires with spade connectors already installed, and covered my shoddy workmanship in heatshrink.



Then all I needed to do was install it into the correct slots on the vehicle wiring harness connector, and secure it so it wouldn't swing around in the engine bay.



Lo and behold, normal warning lamp service has been resumed. Easy peasy...

Cheers Grizz!

I think you may be right, but most of the time I'm the one who needs a carer... 

In completely unrelated news, I've changed back to the glow-in-the-dark gearknob. The faux carbonfibre one is cool, but being a solid ball of aluminium means that it's a little too heavy, and exaggerates the rattles from the column shift. The glowy one is larger, but plastic and hence lighter. 

Production of the Deliboy was never in big quantities, and finished in 1995, but there is still a small group of enthusiasts in Japan who modify them and look to produce new parts and accessories. My new friend Takuya works at a custom shop near Nagasaki, and he decided that a new Deliboy-inspired leather keyring was required to promote the business and sell to like-minded Deliboy fans across Japan. A small batch was made up and started selling quickly. Of course, as soon as I saw it on Instagram I had to get in touch. I persuaded Tak to get a Paypal account so I could pay him, and then just had to wait...

On Saturday, a small parcel arrived, and these were the contents:



Tak was kind enough to include a bonus keyring and a sticker in Japanese, which he thought was very funny. I knew what it was for, but I still used Google Lens to translate it:



With my Deliboy key attached, I took the van out to the Daikoku Weekender Japanese-themed event at Caffeine & Machine yesterday, and got to watch the confused people trying to figure out what it was.







On the way home, I stopped for another photo in an appropriate location (an industrial estate in Wellingborough).



A successful weekend, by all accounts.

This morning, my friendly local Parcel Force delivery driver dropped off a large box from Japan. I had been idly browsing the Yahoo Japan Auctions site for Deliboy bits, and found a couple of useful items. As you may remember, the wiper arms on the Deliboy are a bit of a mixture, and original Toyota items are NLA. I found a used pair on Yahoo which had received a rattle-can restoration, so quickly decided to snap them up. In addition, I wanted an instrument hood, in case my installation of a rev counter (which I will get around to at some point in the future) makes a mess of the current one.

The sellers on Yahoo Japan Auctions aren't really set up for posting things out of the country, so I re-activated my From Japan membership. They are a forwarding company which buys items on behalf of foreigners/aliens, collates them and then posts overseas. Not very cheap, but extremely convenient.

The parts arrived today, and I'm pleased. The seller of the wiper arms was kind enough to include brand new 'View' wiper blades, and the instrument hood will be just fine for the job once it receives a little paint (it's a little blotchy and faded from exposure to the sun). I'll store that as it is for now.

The excitement almost never stops. I decided last week that it was about time I obtained a spare wheel, just in case. The cradle which should hold one is empty. I was trying to figure out how to solve this dilemma when I remembered that the steelies I bought for the van are from a Toyota Auris (same PCD, centre bore, and almost exactly the right offset). It therefore seemed reasonable to purchase a spare from the same vehicle. Onto eBay and before I knew it a second hand but unused spare was winging it's way to me from Shropshire. According to the advert, it could come in orange, black, blue or yellow. Purely by chance, it arrived in an appropriate colour:





Initially, I just slung it in the back, as there was just enough space for it:



On Sunday, I decided to find out whether the rusty-looking spare wheel carrier system was still operation. I assembled the lever and popped open the mystery hole in the side of the van to poke the hook into and start turning. Of course it still works! The chain which passed through the mechanism was a lot cleaner and more shiny that the part which was visible in a resting state, and the articulated arm lowered towards the ground.



It was then a case of placing the spring-loaded retainer through the centre hole on the wheel and winching it back up to the supporting plate on the underside of the body. Much easier than I was expecting. I'll have to occasionally check that it doesn't work free, but it feels pretty secure. Now I just have to hope that I never have to use it.



The other part of my preparedness exercise was to confirm if the bottle jack and other wheel-swapping onboard equipment is still operational. Of course it is. The cardboard box on the left is for the original equipment snowchains (which won't fit over the tyres, but I'm not ever getting rid of them).

Hi Rian, 

No parcels have arrived... for this vehicle. I need to switch attention to the Lexus, which needs a new timing belt and possible a couple of suspension parts to address some rattling from the front end. Hence I've been ordering bits from Rock Auto and Autodoc. The full timing belt kit with water pump, pulleys, tensioner, gaskets, etc. comes in a single box ('cos that's how they do things in the USA), and it only took 3 days to get to me from Kansas City, Missouri. That's without even paying extra for express delivery. I guess FedEx had space on the first available transportation device for each step of the journey, so just slung it on. I'm expecting the seals I've ordered from Germany to take a bit longer, but still slightly less time than from Japan. 

Ethan liked the penguin.


I saw that the Toyota century had pulled alongside your van before it left too, the owner presumably got a photo of his car next to yours.

Looking for another photo, I got to where I was looking at buying this, and the file of photos I had gathered of Deliboys and for a moment regretted not buying it at the time…..

Then instantly realised again, you got the right car, as did I with the S10.

I do hope to randomly be in the same space as your van, in my truck some time.

To me, a head to head or side by side pic would be cool.

As would be, sniffing around it.

As others put multiple cars in a single thread, I might as well join in...

After many months of playing second fiddle to the Deliboy, the Lexus has been working hard this week. On Sunday, I cruised down to the Thruxton Historic Festival to assist Mission Motorsport with the running of the 4x4 experience.



It was nice, and some other Japanese cars were in attendance on the race circuit.





And some non-Japanese vehicles, including a fabulous tow vehicle or two:





And some more Italian cars:





On Sunday evening, I trundled over to Billingshurst, and the fabulous Five Oaks Travelodge, which is next to a greasy spoon cafe. This meant that Monday's breakfast looked like this:



The main focus of the day was to take the LS to ACE Engineering, so Gareth could engage in some well-needed maintenance. I wanted to take it to someone skilled and trustworthy, and it was convenient as I was down South anyway. Gareth in return trusted me to acquire the necessary parts, which was almost entirely successful.

I ordered a new timing belt kit from Rock Auto in the US, as it was far cheaper than any UK or European sources, and included all the necessary parts. I didn't pay extra for fast shipping, but it still took only 3 days for a large box to arrive from Kansas City, Missouri. Inside was the belt, a new water pump in a large aluminium housing, the belt tensioner, idler pulleys, gaskets and O-rings. All for £175. Bargain, frankly.



The disassembly was not without it's complications, mainly due to the fact that it's a 23 year old unit which hasn't been taken apart very much. The water circuit on the front of the engine includes a cast aluminium parts which fits tightly into another cast aluminium part with an O-ring between them. The round hole top left of the below image is the socket in question. The tightness of the fit combined with the hardness of an old O-ring made this quite a challenge to remove, particularly as thin-section aluminium castings aren't the most robust of parts. Gareth even got a sweat on, while I stayed at a safe distance (I've found that things can break if I even look at them too intensely). After a long and careful struggle, it was free.



There were still parts to remove after I took the photo, and Gareth also cleaned the throttle body while he was there.

The rest of that particular job went so well that when I returned from a leisurely lunch (no photos of that) it was all back together and correctly timed up. Gareth finished off the re-assembly and topped up the coolant. I took charge of writing on the sticker and applied it over the previous mechanic's scribble on the engine cover from the last time it was changed.



I also wanted Gareth to take a look at the transmission sump and change the ATF filter. I'd ordered another part from Rock Auto for this, but it was the wrong one. I'm going to choose to blame them for this failure. However, as the filter is a stainless steel mesh, it's possible to clean and re-use the old one, and transfer across the new one's cork seals to improve it's fit. There was no visible evidence of anything untoward in the sump (e.g. no shiny shavings on the magnets), so it was thoroughly cleaned and re-assembled with a new gasket. The gearchanges have returned again to silken perfection (they were occasionally a bit snatchy before), so again a job well worth doing, and very much worth paying an expert to do for me. The AT sump is held in place by about 20 randomly-spaced bolts (only one of which snapped) and a large quantity of pink sealant/adhesive. Amateurs have been known to mangle the sump pan during removal and it never seals again. Having watched Gareth do it, I'm pretty sure that I would have turned it into a taco...

After leaving Gareth with a supply of biscuits, I took the short trip towards Chichester for another Mission Motorsport event at Goodwood Circuit, taking over the place for the day to enable beneficiaries to get hot laps of the track in a variety of excellent vehicles. I was directing traffic around the paddock, while wearing a hat and Factor 50+ sunscreen and drinking litres of water. It was a bit hot, but a brilliant day.











I didn't get out on track (I probably could have, but I didn't really want to jump into a tin box in that heat and sweat on everything), but I did briefly get the chance to drive Alex Goy's Morgan 3-wheeler. Hilarious thing, although the braking performance is a little scary. Here's Ben and Jack checking it out:



Once the day was over, I needed to stop by at Halfords in Chichester, as while at Gareth's I noticed that the rubbers holding the exhaust onto the car weren't looking too clever...



With a temporary hanger solution applied (I'll have to replace all the rubbers holding the exhaust on when I can get the bits), it was time to cruise home. 2.5 hours passes easily when travelling in the Lexus, and the 300 lb ft of torque came in handy when I needed to overtake a line of traffic following an old truck doing 15mph uphill on a rural road. The Deliboy definitely can't do that...