Cool, LT. One of these days I'll get one or both of mine back on the road and head up your way.
Looks like the flex plate I ordered for my 87 got pulled today. The seller says he's shipping it tomorrow, so I'll have to play the shuffle game with non-running trucks in my driveway again. Right now I have my 95 up front awaiting a new front main seal, Jose's 90 auto with an almost complete transmission fluid change job and Jorge's 86 that's probably sold and will be picked up tomorrow or Tuesday. Funny how you can get somebody so fired up over a plain, base 86 Montero that they'll give up $2K and a $750 firearm (yeah, it's clean and has a receipt). The buyer is even taking the straight-south-of-the-border wheels with the super old tires on them and we swapped auto hubs on and kept the Aisins. He does get a bouncy seat though, simply because we are pretty full-up on them in all the other Gen 1's.
I'll probably put my 87 in the front of the driveway since the engine is coming out of it again to change the flex plate. It needs still more work to get it running, too, plus all the cosmetic stuff that drives me nuts when it's not done. The headliner fell out of it while it was in storage; anybody know how to put one in cleanly? I'll be installing my stereo, too. I'm thinking of trying to see if the mid-panel 6 1/2" speaker box from 88+ models will work to let me install bigger door speakers than the 5 1/4" ones the metal is cut for from the factory. The door panels on this truck haven't been cut into yet for speakers and if I can stand the couple of inches of intrusion that the mounting boxes require, it would probably be worth it sound-wise. Speaking of car stereos, it astounds me how feature-rich a sub-$100 in dash unit without a CD player in it can be. Bluetooth, both for hands free phone and music streaming, aux and USB inputs, sound tailoring options, display color options and high power are all there from multiple brands and Crutchfield still supplies the adapters so you don't end up cutting your stock stereo plugs off. I already have a unit I could put in there but it doesn't have the Bluetooth and the USB doesn't utilize the full 32 GB of my big thumb drives so it doesn't see all the music on them.
Still don't know whether or not to pull the 3.5 out of my 95 to replace that devil seal that popped. Some of you say to do it and some of you dudes say it can be done properly without doing it. Obviously I'm a bit untrusting of the seal staying in place at this point. It didn't leak a drop for 3,000 miles then let go spectacularly. I have a Speedy Sleeve for the crank snout, too. Wonder if it's a good idea to put it on for insurance in case the crank is grooved a bit...
John B.