So my brother just bought an '86 KingCab 4wd with an auto transmission. It's solid, needs tires & a muffler, but is in pretty decent shape for 220k. I have a transmission question. When you start from a dead stop with it in Drive, it's like it's starting from 2nd or 3rd gear. If you start with it in low gear and manually shift it up to Drive as you gain speed, all works fine. Is this a common problem with these? I hear about kick-down cables all the time, but I'm not super familiar with this. Can someone explain? Do I need to replace or adjust it? Is this a solenoid or valve body problem? The bushings in the shifter are shot, and the selector is a little sloppy, but I am confident this is unrelated. Advice and suggestions are much appreciated!
I must be sorely misinformed if there are no legit Toyota techs on here! 
you're posting in the middle of the night ... and then appear to be upset when no one answers within 36 min ???????
I'm giving you a "free bump" back to the top ...
your call is important to us, please hold and someone will be with you as soon as possible 
In reply to wbjones:
Look at his post again.........he waited 11 hours and 24 minutes.
The truck seems to be missing the prerequisite 3rd pedal.
DeadSkunk wrote:
In reply to wbjones:
Look at his post again.........he waited 11 hours and 24 minutes.
oops ... math used to be one of my strong points ... but continuing along .. I did get it bumped back to the forefront for him 
You're going to have better luck on a Toyota forum. You might even try pirate4x4.com which is an extreme rock crawling forum, but there are a lot of Toyota gurus there.
If you don't get what you need from this forum, just ask for a full refund from the desk.
If it don't have a 3rd pedal, I don't know nothin' 'bout it. However, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the transmission is coming out of that thing. Far as I understand, those slush box things control the shifting from magic parts inside. You might start looking for a used but good one, or get a book on how to rebuild that one.
twolittlebroncos wrote:
You're going to have better luck on a Toyota forum. You might even try pirate4x4.com which is an extreme rock crawling forum, but there are a lot of Toyota gurus there.
I'm not a member, but have ended up there many times looking for 22RE info for the Celica. There are some guys there who know Toyotas inside out. Probably a very good place to try.
Dr. Hess wrote:
If it don't have a 3rd pedal, I don't know nothin' 'bout it. However, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the transmission is coming out of that thing. Far as I understand, those slush box things control the shifting from magic parts inside. You might start looking for a used but good one, or get a book on how to rebuild that one.
I sorta had the same thought. Manual gear boxes look like some kind of steam-punk nightmare to me. Automatics might as well be pure voodoo.
But it would be worth finding out if there's some weird thing that can keep them from going into low. Sounds like it works if you shift it manually, so who knows. Hey, you can hope!
220k on the original build?!?!?! Just be lucky it still works that good. The box is worn out. It needs a proper rebuild or replaced with a lower mileage trans.
Fueled by Caffeine wrote:
The truck seems to be missing the prerequisite 3rd pedal.
Exactly, slushboxes run on witchcraft. I think some of the evil spirits that power it might have escaped.
No but seriously a lot of autos move off in 2nd or even 3rd unless you floor the gas for reasons I will never understand. You're right to check the kickdown system.
Haha, thanks for all the responses guys. I agree, a manual would be much better, but it's more practical for my bro to have the auto. Plus it's a pretty solid truck...well, apart from this trans thing. 
Oh, and wbjones, I was definitely not upset in my 2nd post. I guess my sarcasm didn't come across as well in Times New Roman as it did in my head...I hate it when that happens. 
I guess I'll see if anyone else comes out of the wood-work on here, but I'll check some Toyota forums too. It doesn't surprise me at all that it's still going with 220k...those old trucks were the definition of durable. Ever seen Top Gear's "Killing a Toyota" series? My Maxima tranny has 208k on it and works like a champ (except I'm sure that since I've just said that it will catastrophically fail on my next drive to work).
sethmeister4 wrote:
Oh, and wbjones, I was definitely not upset in my 2nd post. I guess my sarcasm didn't come across as well in Times New Roman as it did in my head...I hate it when that happens.
cool ... and like I said, I crossed up the order of the posts ... for some reason 12:24pm read ( in my head as 24 min past mid-night ... it still doesn't make sense ... so like I said ...old age is my excuse and I'm sticking with it
My dad, a 35+ year Toyota tech, said the first place he would look is the 1-2 shift solenoid, knowing that it shifts manually. He also said that he remembers there being an updated solenoid for those because of failures.
Yotatech.com. Good info. Less harsh than Pirate.
zipty842 wrote:
My dad, a 35+ year Toyota tech, said the first place he would look is the 1-2 shift solenoid, knowing that it shifts manually. He also said that he remembers there being an updated solenoid for those because of failures.
Awesome, thanks for the advice!
Knurled
UltraDork
3/17/13 3:40 p.m.
GameboyRMH wrote:
Fueled by Caffeine wrote:
The truck seems to be missing the prerequisite 3rd pedal.
Exactly, slushboxes run on witchcraft.
Nah, there's just this pump that makes pressure, and a governor (looks like a distributor's mechanical advance mechanism) is driven by the output shaft and changes how fluid is routed depending on engine speed. A vacuum- or cable-operated valve to determine load is also plumbed in there.
Bosch K-Jetronic runs on witchcraft. Air goes in, fuel comes out. You can't explain that.
