Buying an '83 Troopie

I had a diesel 47series many years ago, and loved it.

The petrol motor (2F) will guzzle the fuel; but on the plus side, these are good honest motors are generally don't cost a lot to repair. And it will have power steering, which is a rarety on that series.

With lead petrol and LRP disappearing, there can be issues with the carby - you may need to use additives, or consider a gas conversion. Your fuel range on the standard 85l tank will be about 400k.

The 4 speed gearboxes can grumble a bit, but you can just put up with it, as they usually don't fail. Most other stuff is pretty reliable as long as its been serviced properly.

184k is very low, if its true - maybe previous owners got sick of paying for petrol.

Cheers
Phil

Hi micool_is,
We have just currently upgraded from a 1989 Toyota Troopy Carrier that had a 3f 4l petrol engine which we have had for approx 5 years to a 1995 4.5l petrol factory six seater which cost $20,000.

We had no real problems with THE 1989 vehicle other than your general day to day wear and tear on any vehicle of this age. When we purchased it it cost us $9000 at a action site unseen. The body was a little ruff but was able to fix ourselves. It was a factory 3 seater but we converted it to a six seater. We currently still own the 1989 Troopy its a little hard to let go because anywhere we wanted to go the old girl would take us.

The klm that is on the vehicle you are considering seems a little low for the age ,as our old troopy odometer was not accurate at the time we purchased it .We had a friend of ours go through the underbody to rebuild all running gear and then found out that the klms that were on the clock could not be accurate as we had to replace approx (parts only not labour) $2000.00 just on the running gear(which at that time the vehicle was only 10 years old. The klms on the clock was approx 128000. So even if the vehicle was honest on the klms they were very hard ones
as the friend who did the work was a Toyota mechanic.

The other factor is that the previous owner may not have kept they vehicle in good mechanical order either.

Troopytrek

cost at 1st sevice (if they need work it is a good tool to bargain the price down). After the flat out run leave it idling for 5 min then crawl under liooking for leaks that were steam cleaned (transfer case is a good place to look as are diffs). Take it onto dirt make sure it engages low range easily then do 2 circles on full lock each way listen for the cv joints clicking and any other untoward noises. Check accesories (where fitted work) check springs and hangers for cracks. check shockers after your drive making sure they dont leak (further testing is hard on leaf sprung vehicles) jack up front wheels one at a time checking for play in steering/bearings. check behind the wheels the "ball" the wheel ataches to should be dry or just a light film of grease leaking oil from here is expensive.
I have driven plenty of utes of this vintage (same driveline etc) they are very tough and reliable but can break in the suspension/brakes front end areas when used for mining rest is rock solid even when used for mining
I have driven

Darn it after numerous unseccessful attempts to cut and paste things to look out for when buying a tojo I will direct you to the post. Do a search on post 19621 (archive) 6k is way too much for a petrol maybe 4 if it is in good nick down to 2 and a half if not. My dieasal 93 camper (pictured, click on picture for list of extras) sold for 6