possible Rocky/Foreza/Sportrak purchase

Forum: 

I found a '92 Rocky for sale (US) that is in overall great shape. Original paint with no body work, interior is awesome, except for missing one piece of fender welting, all of the rubber is great. Is starts and runs good, but it has a couple of problems...

1) The check engine light is on, is there an easy way to get the codes?

2) The clutch pedal is very hard to press and because of that, it's hard to shift smoothly and pull away from stops smoothly. Is there a common fix here. By the way it feels, I suspect that the clutch springs or something are messed up, but if someone knows of a common/easy fix, I'd like to hear about it.

3) When I test drove it, after the engine warmed up, I opened the hood to look under the hood and smoke was coming from the engine. It appears that the valve cover is leaking and oil on the exhaust manifold is burning, causing the smoke. How common is this? Is there anything that makes swapping the gasket difficult?

4) It has a hard top, can the truck be setup to accept either the hard or soft top?

5) Right now the A/C doesn't work. The claim is that the freon keeps leaking out, but if it's charges, the compressor does work. Probably a or something, but I'll leave this and not worry about fixing it until spring.

This car was originally purchased and has spent it's life in Austin, Texas. I see no evidence of rust. (It has 100k miles). Overall it drives great.

Other than the A/C, everything else works, lights, wipers, rear wiper (can't tell on the rear defroster). It's seems tight (no rattles) and all panel gaps are reasonable.

Any other thoughts?

John S.

buying the rocky

Hi

1)If you look back through the forum I wrote a lengthy piece on the check light codes from the paper Daihatsu manual.
2) Not aware of any easy fix to this it could be a naffed up pressure plate which will entail gerabox and clutch rmoval or it could be a seized cable.
3)The valve cover gasket could have gone or worse the covers are made of Alloy and crack if over tightened the corners are the worst. I would check for cracks and where rthe oil is coming from by cleaning the engine and then looking when it is running for the leak. If the corners are cracked then the cover should be replaced along with a new seal.
4)The hard tops are normally made of plastic and can be removed as can the sunroof. You will find the bolts along the top of the wings and on the rollbar with domed plastc covers.
5) A/C is rare in Europe so I can't comment but it could be an expensive job.

I assume it is a good price as there could be quite a bit of work and expense involved if you want it all cured.

OLDMINIMAN

M J Young

buying the rocky

Found the post on engine codes, I might try and take a look at that tomorrow...

How tough of a job is the clutch? My biggest concern is that I don't have a centering tool, so I would have to figure something out for that.

Are soft top parts easy to find if I wanted to install one?

Air Con

One option is to open the windows, we do not have the hot summers over here so it will suffice.

Escaping freon is usually the seals gone, the gas acts as the lubricant in the air con, and lubricates the seals. If this is left off for periods of time, the shafts settle and the seals take their weight, this deforms them slightly and leaks occur.
Any air con system should be run for at least half an hour per week, this recentres the shafts and lubricates the system, and applies to "ALL" air con equipped vehicles.

Clutches are a doddle to fit, lining them up can be done with care, by eye; if not done correctly the gearbox input shaft will not enter the plate. I have never used anything but eyesight to line clutches up.

Soft top parts are a simple bolt on operation, it is important that you get the right model soft top.

clutch and ac

I'll want the A/C for the summer, when it's 40c, you can learn to appreciate A/C.

I assume "doddle" means it's easy :)... I'm going to take a quick look and make sure it's not something with the pedal/cable, and then order the clutch parts and do the swap...

How hard are factory parts to get? I need the spring that pops the petrol door open.

John