What parts should I stock up on for a 1990 Mighty Max

[Sunday Mornin]

Well guys its been quite some time since I have been back on this forum, and I am finally getting back to working on my Max. It has been sitting for quite a few years now, based on the last time I posted its been about 4 years. Its got a few things that need addressed like locating the leaking wheel cylinder, putting the new master cylinder I bought for it onto the truck, and getting a new battery for starters so I can get it cranked up again. Still havent pulled that steering wheel off to remove the column lock on it but I will also get to that as well.

I looked at my local pull-a-part and there are currently 2 trucks there, ones in rough shape, but the other looks like its got most of the parts on it. I was wondering what you guys would recommend for parts that I could get off of them on the cheap that would be nice to stock up on while I still have what looks to be a mostly complete truck close by. For now I want the grill thats on it because it looks cool and is in decent condition, not that mine isnt but would be a cool swap. Just looking for some opinions here from the best of the best so I can finally get this thing truly road worth again and start making some upgrades on it so I can do my best to get it back to how it used to look like back in the day. Hopefully i can find better photos of it from WAAAY back in the day when it looked absolutely sick straight from the factory with its full body kit on it and the rear window extender with the scoop.

Thanks everyone for any time you put into replies and I hope to share my journey getting this thing up and running again and maybe some cool after market stuff thrown on it too. the two trucks they have at the yard are a 93 and 94 but as far as i know the parts should be interchangeable.

[royster]

Hey, Sunday Mornin...welcome back!

Take a look at the gas tank, and see what shape it's in. You might do well to snag that and save it for a leaky day. Be sure the salvage truck has the same engine as yours'...the fuel injected models have a different tank than the 2.0's.

Best of luck!

[Sunday Mornin]

Thats not a bad idea. I definitely want to snag the grill since mine has the black plastic one and the truck at the yard has the cooler chrome grill which I wouldnt mind having. Might try to snag the sun visors too and maybe the radio harness if its got the stock radio in it since mine didnt have that out of the factory due to it getting an at the time upgraded cassette deck in it, the wiring in there was a total mess when I pulled it apart. The good thing is both are listed as the 2.4L which I believe mine has as well but ill go take a look here in a minute. If theres any other pieces you would recommend me to grab ill definitely try to snag them but besides those I am not really sure what to try to snag since these things are pretty barebones. Maybe the fuel pump too if its in ok condition but Id guess that it probably isnt worth taking. I kinda want to take the rims and caps since it looks like it has all 4 in the picture and I dont know where mine went. We probably took them off back in like 2014 when I had first worked on the car with my grandad getting it back up and running again.

[EL.95MAX]

If you leaving the motor stock
ECU
Mass air sensor
Auto control valve
Exhaust manifold
Dimmer switch
Blinker switch
Door panels
Power steering lines

[Sunday Mornin]

Definitely want the ECU, luckily (or unluckily) no power steering. I actually still have a couple of MAFs at my grandads house when we first worked on it again back in 2011 so those should still be there. Exhaust manifold is a good one and I did actually pickup a new steering column switch assembly (blinkers, wipers, etc) about a year and a half ago along with a new ignition wiring harness. I see a bunch of people with upgraded instrument clusters with the oil pressure and tach built in. I am trying to figure out what vehicles those came in so I can locate one because that would be a really nice upgrade over the bare bones stock cluster that I currently have. I want the rims and tires because mine on the back are done-zo, plus they have the center covers on them. Plus the metal grill.

[Sunday Mornin]

Also I want the radio wiring harness as well. Wouldnt mine redoing the a good amount of the wiring in the truck under the dash for that since I would guess that its probably not in the best shape these days.

[ostlar]

Heater core for my 1st gen was a pain to get ahold of, ended up having someone make a new one for me.

Might be a good idea to save? Could yank out the whole assembly with the fan, resistor, heater core and everything.

[85Ram50]

Heater core for my 1st gen was a pain to get ahold of, ended up having someone make a new one for me.

Might be a good idea to save? Could yank out the whole assembly with the fan, resistor, heater core and everything.

Do you know if there are heater core resistors available? I have a whole heater unit but the resistor is gone. I just replaced the resistor on my Dakota and started wondering if I could mod it to work on that heater unit. OE was a poor design imo. I do have a working heater in my truck. I got that whole unit cheap to cannibalise the resistor from it.

[Sunday Mornin]

They are doing a 50% off labor day thing so im going back tomorrow for a few things like the exhaust manifold. I managed to snag a computer from the 93 they had there, and honestly I wanted to buy the whole truck. It was in pretty good condition besides the bench seat and still had 90% of the parts in the engine minus the distributor. got a MAF and one of the cool silver grills from it which I really wanted the most. Just gotta crack open the ECU and see what the capacitors are looking like inside. I will probably just take a lot of photos and remove them all so I dont have any chance of them leaking more than they might already have. Then if I need a new ECU ill put a kit together and redo all the caps. Ill be honest I dont even know where the heater core is but I have a haynes manual around here somewhere so I will peep through it but if you point me in the right direction of where its supposed to be it might make things a bit faster. I appreciate all the suggestions here so far. Also dont know how to take the brake booster off but IDK if thats worth grabbing but my booster is in bad shape around the bolt on for the master cylinder so im tempted.

[Sunday Mornin]

Looked it up on google real quick and I might have done a good bit of the work already seeing as I removed the entire blower motor from, I think?, from next to the computer before realizing I did not need to do all that. Looks like ill have to take the dash off which wont be too bad unless I already did 90% of the work for it.

[SubGothius]

Do you know if there are heater core resistors available? I have a whole heater unit but the resistor is gone. I just replaced the resistor on my Dakota and started wondering if I could mod it to work on that heater unit. OE was a poor design imo. I do have a working heater in my truck. I got that whole unit cheap to cannibalise the resistor from it.

Reckon you mean the blower resistor, which is what reduces the HVAC fan speed for the various switch positions. Readily available for Gen 2 trucks (p/n MB438538), not finding anything for Gen 1s, not even a part number. I found p/n MB272517 for the '84-91 Montero (also Cordia and Tredia), looks pretty similar to the Gen 2 truck one. I'd be surprised if they differed in anything other than their housing shape and maybe terminal configuration. You might try getting a Gen 2 truck one (they're pretty cheap) and see if you could modify it to match your Gen 2 unit.

If you just want a working blower and don't mind it always running on max speed when on, you could prolly use a multimeter to figure out which terminal(s) get continuity with the switch in various positions and hotwire one of those to bypass the resistor. I'd reckon the switch works by completing a path to ground through the various resistor coils.

[Sunday Mornin]

Reckon you mean the blower resistor, which is what reduces the HVAC fan speed for the various switch positions. Readily available for Gen 2 trucks (p/n MB438538), not finding anything for Gen 1s, not even a part number. I found p/n MB272517 for the '84-91 Montero (also Cordia and Tredia), looks pretty similar to the Gen 2 truck one. I'd be surprised if they differed in anything other than their housing shape and maybe terminal configuration. You might try getting a Gen 2 truck one (they're pretty cheap) and see if you could modify it to match your Gen 2 unit.

If you just want a working blower and don't mind it always running on max speed when on, you could prolly use a multimeter to figure out which terminal(s) get continuity with the switch in various positions and hotwire one of those to bypass the resistor. I'd reckon the switch works by completing a path to ground through the various resistor coils.

Ah ok, he was speaking about the Gen 1 trucks. Looks like I took most of what I could get off of the truck I found yesterday. Ill be going back today for the exhaust manifold, but I might poke around under the dash and see what I can find. I wish I knew where my haynes manual was for my truck so I could just use that to locate the parts under the dash that I want. Need to stop by the parts store and grab some brake cleaner and the correct wrenches so I can get the brake lines off of it because I need those. Only problem I have now is IDK how to remove the brake booster because I do need one of those, and the one on the parts truck at the junkyard looks to be in pretty good shape.

[85Ram50]

Ah ok, he was speaking about the Gen 1 trucks. Looks like I took most of what I could get off of the truck I found yesterday. Ill be going back today for the exhaust manifold, but I might poke around under the dash and see what I can find. I wish I knew where my haynes manual was for my truck so I could just use that to locate the parts under the dash that I want. Need to stop by the parts store and grab some brake cleaner and the correct wrenches so I can get the brake lines off of it because I need those. Only problem I have now is IDK how to remove the brake booster because I do need one of those, and the one on the parts truck at the junkyard looks to be in pretty good shape.

I was hoping they were still available or someone had figured a work around. The reason I have the whole unit with no resistor is I bought the whole thing (it was cheap) to get that resistor. I tried just removing one and it broke apart on the ride home they are so delicate. Sorry about the Gen1-Gen2 mixup.

Thanks SubGothius. I'm just hoping to have a working spare. The ones that came up on searches yesterday sort of looked right but I have no reference since the broken one is gone and my truck is not apart enough to poke my head in to see. gettin old and can't move as easy as I used to as well.

[Sunday Mornin]

If you leaving the motor stock
ECU
Mass air sensor
Auto control valve
Exhaust manifold
Dimmer switch
Blinker switch
Door panels
Power steering lines

Wound up getting the MAF, ECU, Brake booster, and the exhaust manifold. I tried getting the brake lines off but i didnt have metric wrenches and my adjustable wrench just wasnt going to get the job done. Pretty much got most of what I needed.