1986 Isuzu Trooper, 1986 4x4 Of The Year!

1986 Isuzu Trooper Description

1986 4x4 of the Year!
This former Washington State Trooper (joke :) came to my family with 195,000 miles, a head gasket leak, a burned valve and horrible grinding rear end noises. After my son & I got all that under control, changed all the fluids and did all the maintenance required, I gave it to my daughter (in Northern California) for her 19th birthday, but to this day she doesn't like manual transmissions. This Trooper had by far the absolute nicest, easiest, smoothest, lightest clutch I've ever used, but she didn't like it, so I got it back. I brought it to Minnesota in 2003 & used it to travel back and forth to California. I always got 19-21 mpg except for one trip hauling a box trailer, and then I averaged 21.8 mpg -- go figure. In 2006 my son took it off my hands and then two years ago, at about 309,000 miles, we swapped in a used engine from a '91 Isuzu pickup w/ 91,000 miles. It hasn't been used much since then -- he moved out of the country and didn't take it with him -- so it's just sitting here pretty much ready to go.
The heater blower isn't working, and I don't know what that's all about, but it has great flow-through ventilation once you get up to about 30 MPH. A year ago last July I got in and started it, and the Low Fuel, Brake, and Alternator idiot lights didn't turn off right away like they're supposed to. In later models of Troopers, that pretty much means the alternator isn't charging properly, so I just changed alternators with a professionally rebuilt one I had for my '88 Trooper, but the lights still didn't go out. I've used it for a few hundred miles since, and the alternator is working fine, the fuel gauge works perfectly and the e-brake works the way it's meant to as well (not rusted solid like so many Japanese vehicles from back then did). Then in September of this year, I got in to start it and it just plain wouldn't start. I had to replace the distributor and a installed an electric fuel pump and now it starts and runs great.
In the last few years the salt from Minnesota roads has started to attack the body. It had trim molding around the wheel wells and the salt got under that and started corroding it until the trim started coming off. It's kinda ugly, but maybe you could live with it. The worst rust is right behind the wheel wells, which you can see in the pictures. The frame is still in fantastic shape, the headlights, taillights, & turn signals work, but the dome lights are persnickety and usually don't work, and the reverse lights never did come on. Oh, and the trailer light converter corroded while it was sitting without much use, and made the taillights and rear turn signal fuses blow. I disconnected it so the fuse doesn't burn out. It's still disconnected, but the Trooper does have a 1&1/4" Rigid Hitch receiver type trailer hitch bolted to the frame.
It has an original '86 Isuzu radio/cassette player, which works fine when I play Neil Young REAL LOUD, but an after-market DIN size radio will fit right in. The front seats that it came to us with were not original, so my son put in some from an '87 Trooper. The herringbone tweed doesn't quite match the back seat or door panels, but if I didn't tell you, you might never notice. :) Oh, yeah, the aluminum rims are from an '87 as well.
This is not an exhaustive list of everything my son and I have done to it, but this description should give you a good idea of what is being offered. I'm not a vengeful guy, but if you bid, make sure you have the money. Ebay likes to get paid through PayPal, so I am requiring a $300 deposit to be paid through PayPal within 48 hours of the finish of the auction, the remainder to be paid in cash when you come to pick up the Trooper. Cash only, no checks, credit cards, Money Orders, Travelers Cheques, IOUs, Nigerian Promises to Pay, etc. If it is not paid in full within a week, and you haven't contacted me to make other arrangements, I'll just notify eBay and put it up for sale again. I know nothing about shipping an automobile, so you are on your own there, too.