1997 Land cruiser - assistance? (1 Viewer)

[validol25]

Hello everyone, new here!
I've been going back and forth on this forum reading and now finally decided to make an account.

I've purchased a 1997 land cruiser 40th anniversary edition from my old boss over a year ago.

I'm the 3rd owner of it. My old bosses parents gave it to him when he went off to college. His parents were the 2nd owners purchased the vehicle at 26k miles and NEVER took it off roading. My boss and his parents were never car enthusiasts. I still have the title in their name showing the miles when they bought it.

(My old boss is a software engineer freak nerd business owner. So he was never into cars and but kept up with maintenance on it taking it into the shop having it serviced)

The car now has over 300k miles sitting in my garage for over a year untouched.
My old boss sold it because after 300k miles something happened to one of the cylinders, he took it into a shop, they "fixed" it - he drove more for sometime afterwards to have same issue happen again.
He instead purchased a newer 4 runner from his parents and sold his land cruiser to me to not deal with it.

I purched it because I thought I can play around with it in my garage and get it running.
Now I'm no mechanic but I do work on cars when it's more "simple" things (mostly cospemetic). I've never worked on an engine before, so this land cruiser is just sitting in my garage.

A couple weeks ago I put a brand new battery, I tried cranking it, but it BARLEY cranks.
I don't know if the engine is seized or its not supplying the enough power.
I tried jumping it from my ford e350 work van with the same results.
Maybe someone has some recommendations on what I can try doing?

But at this point I'm thinking it needs an engine rebuild or a replacement.

Like I said, I'm not a mechanic but I do want to get into it eventually.
At the moment I'm flooded with school, work and spending time with my wife.
We are planning to move out of state early of 2024 and I won't be able to take the car with me in this stage.

I'm having thoughts of just selling it instead.
The land cruiser has never been modified or off roaded.
There is no rust and it's a straight body with a couple minor fixable dents.
The paint is fading, the interior is decent, has 3rd row seats and still has good tires.
310k+ miles with original engine.

Anyone have have an idea what this car may be worth in this condition?
Or does anyone have an idea what can be done for it to run?

 

[Comet]

Bad engine, not a whole lot. Challenge is if you rebuild engine, you probably won’t get your money back out of it either. Wish I had a better answer.

 

[devo]

I don’t see any photos of the vehicle ?
Were is this 80 located?



devo

 

[ScottMac]

Whack the starter with a hammer a couple of times.

 

[validol25]

I don’t see any photos of the vehicle ?
Were is this 80 located?



devo

I will pull the cruiser out eventually to take some pictures. It's in a tight space at the moment due to my garage being smaller.

I'm located in Albuquerque New Mexico

 

[validol25]

I don’t see any photos of the vehicle ?
Were is this 80 located?



devo

I will pull the cruiser out eventually to take some pictures. It's in a tight space at the moment due to my garage being smaller.

I'm located in Albuquerque New

Whack the starter with a hammer a couple of times.

Starter seems to be working? Idk
Problem is, is that the engine has a hard time turning over.

 

[Malleus]

@validol25 Since you've said you're not a mechanic, I'm going to go step by step, don't get offended. I assume you don't have an air wrench; if you do, this job's much easier.

First: make sure your battery is at full charge.
Second: make sure your battery connections are clean; soak them in baking soda/water solution until the bubbles stop and then in clean water
---always disconnect the ground first and reconnect it last. If you lean on a grounded battery, and the ground, while you are connecting the positive terminal you'll know why really quick.
Third: if it still won't turn over, pull the starter off and bench test it. It's no use trying to guess what's wrong with the engine until it turns over. You can't do any compression testing or other troubleshooting, so take it one step at a time.

Remove the starter.
1) Disconnect the battery before you do any work on the starter. See above.
It's much easier to remove the starter with the driver's side front tire off, but it can be done with everything else in place. Your choice. If you decide to remove the wheel, block the opposite rear tire, at least, and put the axle on a jack stand. Don't trust your life to a jack.

2) Unplug the harness plug, it's on top of the starter. Remove the power lead. It's held on, under a rubber boot, with a 12mm nut. Put the nut back when you remove the lead or you'll spend an hour looking for it later.
You'll need a 14mm deep well socket, a couple of 6-8 inch long extensions and a breaker bar to remove the starter from the engine.
One bolt comes off the front side, the other comes out the rear. Loosen but don't remove the front bolt.
Then, reaching over the frame with a couple of extensions, the socket and breaker bar, and maybe a piece of pipe on the breaker bar for leverage, loosen and remove the rear bolt. Holding the starter with one hand, remove the front bolt. The starter will fall down into your waiting hand.

Every starter I've removed, that I didn't install, was a PITA to remove because the shop monkey that installed them used an air hammer to install them. That's why I suggested the breaker bar and pipe.

Now you're ready to "bench test" the starter. I always do this on the floor, so I can use my foot to clamp the starter, because I don't have a three hands. The procedure is in the attached FSM section (you only need to worry about the tests on ST-10 thru ST-11 right now). You also need to download a copy of the complete FSM for 1997. It's in the Resources section. In a pinch, you can get by with any year from 1995-1997, including the LX450, but it's best to have the FSM for your year.

If the starter checks out, and the engine hasn't spun freely, it's most likely seized. If the starter doesn't function as per the test below, it likely needs a new or rebuilt solenoid. Don't waste your money on a new starter; they're really easy to rebuild, it's takes about an hour, and cost less than $20. ASPW has everything you need for starter and alternator rebuilding.

HTH

 

[Comet]

@Malleus took the time to outline a procedure each of us should be able to do in the middle of the night, half asleep, in the rain, on the side of the road, while eating a cheeseburger. That was awesome. Thank you.

 

[Malleus]

I was bored.