87 MKIII Turbo - western NY (warning: long-winded post!)

[Hambone]

Hi everyone! Just wanted to drop a quick line to introduce myself... I've been lurking here for the past 2 months while I was waiting for my baby to get fixed, but now that I've got on the road I'm sure I'll be a little more active here

So she's a 1987 Supra Turbo, which I've wanted to own for 20 years and finally got the chance... I bought her on March 9th through eBay for what seemed like a decent price for how the car was represented... long story short, the seller was a total liar and seriously misrepresented the car's condition. The engine was blown (i.e. most of the seals not just the head gasket) and the head was warped beyond recovery, the turbo was shot, the steering rack needed to be replaced, the downpipe was completely clogged... the list goes on and on, but $3000 later she's on the road. Now to get some benchmarks and start the upgrades I'll post some pictures as soon as I get a chance to take some (gotta clean her up first)...

Of course, I have a few questions... this car seems to be a bit of an odd bird. It would appear that the anti-theft system has been at least partially bypassed - once in a while the start position on the ignition just doesn't work at all, and the previous owner apparently installed a starter switch under the dash near the hood release which I've had to use once or twice so far. Also, the main actuator and vacuum pump for the cruise control are completely missing, the speedometer doesn't work, and the oil pressure gague doesn't work.

So... the first questions are: anyone know where I can find the engine-compartment components for the cruise control? Also, the '87 TSRM so kindly posted at http://www.supra.co.nz/87tsrm/index.htm doesn't include the body sections and I haven't been able to locate them through Google - can anyone tell me if they exist and where to find them?

I downloaded the '90 TSRM from CygnusX1 (I think, it was a whole bunch of PDF's that I'm not seeing there now) and have gone through it, but there seem to be some discrepancies between the manual and my car. Thing is, I'm not sure if those are model discrepancies, or specific to my car
The one that comes to mind first and has me a little confused is tha, according to the '90 TSRM, the Canadian version of the car had a headlight cleaner system, while the US version did not. Mine seems to be somewhere in between - I have the headlight cleaner button on the dash, right next to the hazard light switch, and when I push the button, I hear a whirring as if a pump somewhere is running. However, looking at the headlights while pushing the button nothing seems to happen. Sooo... How does the headlight cleaner work, assuming the car has it? Does it just spray washer fluid across the lights, or is there actually supposed to be a mini wiper or something like that on the headlight also? In other words, what should I expect to happen when I push the button?

For that matter, can I tell what market the car started in from the VIN? What should I look for?

Finally, are there any other Supra people from western NY or northwestern PA? in a tiny little town called Jamestown NY... it's about an hour and a half south of Buffalo NY and 45 minutes east of Erie PA. I'd love to meet up with anyone nearby and trade war stories.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and help - Supramania seems to be a great community and I'm happy to finally be a part of the club!

John (aka Hambone)

[edited to clean up formatting a bit]

 

[shaeff]

welcome! you're about 6 hours from me.

-shaeff

 

[Dunckel]

welcome to the community hamster.

 

[starscream5000]

From your description your car does sound like it has headlight sprayers. Look on the little nose piece right above your front bumper. Right in front of each headlight light there should be a little black circular thing, that's the headlight sprayers. With your lights on and button pressed, when working properly, they will spray a high pressure stream of water right onto the headlight (You'd be surprised by how much pressure they have. I think the filler bottle is right beside the passenger side headlight when you pop the hood. These are also good for facing in front of your car and spraying unsuspecting people and slow ass cars in front of you .

http://www.cygnusx1.net/Supra/TechTips/vacuum_hose.aspx

 

[Hambone]

From your description your car does sound like it has headlight sprayers. Look on the little nose piece right above your front bumper. Right in front of each headlight light there should be a little black circular thing, that's the headlight sprayers. With your lights on and button pressed, when working properly, they will spray a high pressure stream of water right onto the headlight (You'd be surprised by how much pressure they have. I think the filler bottle is right beside the passenger side headlight when you pop the hood. These are also good for facing in front of your car and spraying unsuspecting people and slow ass cars in front of you .

http://www.cygnusx1.net/Supra/TechTips/vacuum_hose.aspx

Ok so I looked into the sprayer mystery a bit. There are the two normal windshield sprayers, but there is no evidence that there are (or ever were) any headlight sprayers. I had my brother push the button while I wached the front end, and no fluid came out anywhere, although every time the button was pushed, I heard a little whirr under the hood. Looking under the car after about 15 or so pushes of the button, I saw that there was a little pool of wiper fluid under the front end, but I'm not sure specifically where it came from. Kinda makes me wonder if the front end (or at least part of it) had been replaced at some point with a non-headlight-sprayer version and they just left the pump disconnected... oh well, moral of the story - don't push the button... maybe I should re-label it as the PANIC button :biglaugh:

 

[starscream5000]

Eh, you should really find the original (or one like it) and put it back on, they're lots of fun! Just search on some of the ppl's avatars on here that have a front pic of their supra, you'll see what I'm talking about, they're pretty obvious.

 

[Hambone]

Yeah I'm gonna look around and see what I can find for those - there's a crack under the passenger side fog light anyway that's bugging me anyway.
That's gotta wait until I get some of the more immediate problems taken care of though... I got an alignment and oil change yesterday, during which the tech pulled the EFI fuse and cranked the engine to prime the filter and get oil up to the top... however now the car idles cold at 2000rpm and warm at 1500rpm. I haven't checked any codes or done any troubleshooting yet - that's on the agenda for about 10 minutes from now (anything to avoid mowing the lawn LOL)

Oh and I found out the hard way last night that my anti-theft is still fully functional... managed to set it off at a convenience store... that was fun

This car is gonna be the death of me... but I sure do love it!

 

[gregzbutt]

Nice to see some supras in western NY. I was born and raised in Ellicottville, but now I'm finishing up school at OSU. As soon as I get enough money for a turbo and a clutch I'll be doing a turbo swap. Hope you get everything with your car squared away.

Greg