Isuzu SUV Forum banner

Everything I've done to my '96 Rodeo

22K views 84 replies 6 participants last post by  Trail_Blazer71 
#1 ·
I bought this Rodeo from Craigslist a few weeks ago. It was a "there's something wrong with it and I don't want to deal with it" situation from the previous owner. I needed a vehicle, and I always liked Rodeos, Amigos and Vehicrosses, so I bought it for $825.

It ran fine, but would die after a few miles. Well, it turned out that it didn't have any coolant. So my first move was replacing those two O-rings, you know the ones, under the intake manifold. These:


(No, that isn't my Tesla in the background, get serious. I was working at a friend's house)

This was after I had cleaned the MAF sensor, before I knew it was a coolant issue. It wasn't reading hot, I only knew it was hot because I ran it once until it died, then checked the radiator and added coolant. At that point it boiled over. It was dry as a bone before that, no coolant to boil over. And no, it didn't crack the block or anything.

To get to those pipes required removing all these fasteners:\



Notice those four bolts at bottom left, this comes up later. Stay tuned...
 
See less See more
2
#2 ·
I almost forgot, here's the typical coolant in the valley situation: (it's hard to make out, but if you look close you'll see a bit of green under those crossover pipes.



While I had it apart, I wanted to clean my injectors. Here:



To do this, I needed some way to activate them while off the car. So I did this hillbilly-*** set-up:



Yes, that is a Morse code key. The idea is, you key the injector on with the nine-volt, then shoot some cleaner down the tube and then, uh, "force" it through the injector. Ideally you would have some kind of compressed air for this. I used a less ideal method that certainly wasn't blowing it through with my mouth. (It was blowing it through with my mouth) :oops:

Here's a random pic of the big pipe that either was about to come off or had just gone back on. This was *not* the leaky one, but the O-ring was hard as a rock. (Edit: This was at the end, notice mating surface is cleaner, also, new coolant hose and clamps on the little hose at the back of the engine)



And here is the little pipe, that was one of my problems(the other was the water pump, but I'll get to that):



Watch that knock sensor getting that stupid thing out of there.

To be continued...
 
#3 ·
While I was doing all this, I also put new NGK Platinum spark plugs in.

Then, after I put the new O-rings on those pipes pictured at the beginning, cleaned everything up as much as possible, put the new manifold gasket in place I put the intake back on: Well, ok, I don't have a picture of that, but you know what it looks like.

Now, here's the funny part. I always screw something up. I looked at all my fasteners. Remember those four bolts I pointed out at the beginning? Yeah, they hold the fuel rail on. I took them off to clean the injectors, then I put everything back together(which is a big pain, by the way, mostly because of that stupid EGR pipe. That thing is terrible, I have a heck of a time getting it on and off. Unmounting at the bottom is flat-out impossible, it's rusty and hard to reach, so i have to do a lot of pushing and pulling) without those bolts in place. I got done and said "what are those bolts?" And then stared really hard at the engine for a while. Ooooohhh... :idea:

That's not all, I had run the brake booster line off to the side, so it looked like it was connected, but it wasn't. I actually tried to drive it like that. "What happened to the brakes?" Brother. Also, there was a little confusion about the vacuum line that goes to a "T" and runs under the throttle body. I should have taken more pictures, but I eventually figured it out.

More to come...
 
#4 ·
So, after I had hurriedly and incorrectly put it together(I had to get it out of my friend's garage, it had been there two days, and I didn't want to leave it another day) I drove it home and saw that it still lost coolant and overheated. Just not on top of the engine anymore.

It seemed to be coming down onto the oil pan and dripping off the skid plate under the engine. So I figured maybe the water pump. When doing a water pump, obviously there's good reason to do the timing belt. Especially in my case, since when I bought the truck I asked the guy, "when did it last have a timing belt?" To which he replied, "Oh, I have no idea." (SIGH) I happen to know he had the truck at least six years, so...

Timing belt, tensioner, water pump time.

Skipping to everything being out of the way and the old belt off(don't take yours off until you have the marks lined up):



My other belts were looking very bad as well, especially the v-belt, which is power steering, I think. So I tossed the old ones. I didn't do any pulleys, time will tell if that was a bad idea, but I only have so much money. Anyway...

By the way, I did use the famous "starter bump" to get that crank pulley off. There's just no easier way. If you do it, just think about it for a minute, put your breaker bar in a position where the frame or some other heavy structure will hold it in place. Make sure you understand which way the motor turns and that lefty=loosey :wink:

Here is the worst part of this job, getting that mating surface clean. Oh, the lower part looks really oily here, I think that's an illusion, I had just sprayed some cleaner on here before the picture. It's still wet here, I think. You can see in the other pics that it isn't that bad. But I do wish I'd had that crank seal on hand to replace it while stuff was apart. Live and learn.



Here's the new water pump in place. You can see it doesn't look so nasty below it anymore, that is more what it really looked like, my phone camera is not that great. I was a little worried, as I didn't see any obvious signs that my old one was shot. It still turned freely(a little more freely than the new one, really) and other than the greasy look shown above, no real moisture around it. I will tell you though, that gasket was imbedded into the engine. I tried everything cleaning that surface. Knives, dremels, chemicals, water, emery boards. I got it as shown above, coated both sides of the new gasket with permatex something or other, and called it good. Anyway it doesn't seem to leak now.



Okay, timing belt time. I've paid shops thousands of dollars over the years for this, so I was looking forward to doing it myself. I imagine this one is a little easier than my old Prelude with the dual cams and whatnot, but still.

The clips to hold it in place are a lifesaver:



Not shown but there is the new timing belt tensioner. Oh, and that's a Gates timing belt.

And here it is all lined up and snug:



Edit: I forgot to note that yes, the water pump was for sure the issue. Or maybe the tensioner. I noticed when I took the covers off the belt wasn't putting any force on the pump pulley, I could just turn it by hand, which seemed weird. Then after banging the covers around getting them off, all the sudden there was tension on it, so maybe tensioner was stuck. But then again, I never had the failing tensioner noises. Oh well, long story short, it doesn't overheat or puke out all its coolant anymore. And the heater works now, so I'd say the pump was a big problem.

I don't have a good pic of it put back together, I had to take the intake off right after this to un-f@&k what I did before with leaving those fuel rail bolts off. Also, remember how I said I always screw something up? This job is no exception. One minor one is I ended up with one extra bolt. That's a real mystery, I know it doesn't go on the water pump, but I was already missing a long bolt that goes into one of the timing covers on the right top. So it's weird that I ended up with an extra short one.

Anyway, it's not vital so I'm not gonna sweat it. No, the big screw-up was cracking the plastic top on the radiator. I've broken several of those, and I hate them, because you can't really repair them. Long story, but basically I pulled off that left hand mount at the top, for the fan shroud. The damn thing kept catching the sleeve of my overalls and finally I snapped and jerked my arm free. I guess I thought my sleeve would give first :oops:
Still more...
 
#5 ·
Not included earlier, but one of the first things I did, was new thermostat. Also the aforementioned alternator, power steering and AC belts. I also had the flat spare on the back repaired for free at the place that sold him the tires. The previous owner must not have known about free flat repair.

I've done a few things I need to take picture of yet. A couple that aren't photogenic are new air filter and running some Seafoam through it. Oh, and some Lucas oil stabilizer to take down the knocking a little. It still has 1,000 miles till the next oil change according to the sticker inside. But I'm gonna try some synthetic when it does need oil.

Replaced the passenger side door lock and handle. Truck came with these parts, old one had been jimmied, or attempted to be jimmied open and the lock was shot. Too bad he didn't get a lock that matched the other keys, sheesh. Oh, and put a pair of Pioneer speakers in the doors, since one of the door speakers was dead.

More later...
 
#6 ·
Just a quick note about my latest "mod." Since this is my "build thread" lol, more like a "minimum maintenance thread" really :blackeye:

Anywho, today, or yesterday, I mounted my power inverter. I've had this thing for years, it's not anything special, but as long as I got it might as well not have it rattling around the truck. So...I screwed it into the plastic on the center part of the console down by the passenger foot...well, here:



This way, I can hide the cord a little bit(even though that center panel in front of the shift boot won't actually stay on tight, I haven't figured out why). Also, I can see(if I lean over, lol) if the "power" l.e.d. is lit up, and I can plug things in from the driver seat, if I have to, but it's out of the way. I have run a soldering iron off of this without blowing a fuse, but Christmas lights seem to be too much for it :p
 
#7 ·
Nice work, Hope all your issues get worked out. Good job saving another Isuzu from the Junk yard!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Trail_Blazer71
#8 ·
One of the things I've done is get all the lights inside and out working. I mean ALL. See pics. Also, I have some info about replacing some of these.

This part involved just getting a standard bulb, I forget what size, but they are the same as the ones elsewhere on the truck, like in the courtesy lights in the doors. The trick is salvaging those little green "condoms" off the old bulbs, mine were pretty melted on there, but for the most part I got them:



Now, here is a trick. That tailgate switch takes two bulbs. And they are weird little buggers. According to Braley and Graham(the only dealership around here for Isuzu parts) the bulb for the part of the switch that tells you the gate is open is about twice as much as the other light that just lights up the switch. And they look different, different colored bases. But they aren't different. Just take the red condom off the old one, take the cheaper switch light and peel its green one off, and it will fit fine in that lower socket. It looks redder in reality, crappy phone pic.



Same deal over here, defrost now has two of the same bulb, just with the green thing off of the lower "on" light and the hazard is just running the same as all the other switch lights with no "condom" because it is red anyway.

Edit: I forgot something. Astute observers will note that my switches are not in their original locations. I put them back in in the way that made the most sense to me. This is a very easy "mod" on this dash. Each switch has its own box, and they are all the same, so put them in any old slot you want. I might still move cruise control, because I hit it all the time and I might put hazard at the bottom, because I never use that.



Now, this one was tricky. Once I realized the mirror controls even had a light, I had to figure out how to replace it. (by the time I went to the dealership to get these bulbs, he just gave them to me, he felt bad for all the money I spent on just bulbs, lol) So, same trick as before with using the "orange-socket" bulb in place of a "black-socket" bulb(look in your switches and it will make sense, they have these colored plastic bases) on the mirror heater switch...

BUT on the mirror adjustment control itself, you have a problem. It has a TINY little rubber thing with a bulb with long leads running through it. You can't buy that, at least I couldn't. So, I took one of the same bulbs as I put in the other switches, pulled its leads out of the plastic socket and painstakingly wound them through the little rubber base that plugs into the inside of this control unit. The bulb looks slightly bigger, but I got it in the hole the old one fit in:



Heater and lighter and ashtray as well. What a hassle that lighter is to get in and out. I couldn't even find the socket for the bulb at first. Then getting that base thing to thread on the back of it. Sheesh! And this stupid bulb is still unreliable, but for now it's working. I pulled out the cord that is usually plugged in, because the green ring wasn't showing up in pictures, so you can see it lit here: (Oh, I almost forgot, to get these bulbs the parts guy had to give me bulbs for the "visor mirror" even though mine doesn't even have lighted visors. So if you can't find these bulbs, try that)



(All these bulbs were burnt out, don't ask me why, the old owner must never have replaced anything, ever)

I had to do a couple of the door courtesy lights. This driver one just had bare wires sort of placed into the back of the fixture. I guess maybe somebody had the door card off and accidentally pulled the wires out? Anyway, they all work now:



I kind of wish, what with all the courtesy lights, that Japanese cars had a switch to turn the interior lights on. I remember my Thunderbird, if you turned the dimmer all the way to "bright" then the interior lights came on, and it had a LOT of lights, floor lights, back seat, door lights. But I've never had a Japanese car with any manual way to turn on the lights, except that one stupid switch on the actual dome light.

Last one of center area showing stereo as well:



That's it, I also replaced a back-up light, but no pic :)
So, until I do more stuff...
 
#9 ·
Looking good man! I did the same thing on my Rodeo, removed all the little green "condoms" on the bulbs and voila! Brighter dash lights. Eventually, I plan on redoing all the interior bulbs with super bright LED's.
 
#10 ·
Went to the pick-n-pull to grab whatever I could think of off of the two Rodeos and one Passport they have there. I pulled a passenger side grab handle off of a '92 I think it was:



So I could do the driver's side handle "mod." As you probably know, there are three handles in a Rodeo, and two "plugs" in the holes where a handle could go(for the right-hand drive models, I guess) on the driver side:



The only hard part of this is pulling those out, I used vice grips. But then you have two holes:



So, you take your extra handle you just got and put it in, that's it:



Never mind the barbed-wire fence in the background, I was still at the junk yard. :p

Here's a farther out shot, I like this one because you can see the street car in the driver's side mirror, I just noticed:



Ignore that crappy building/car in the background, this is a nice area, just not this block. :roll:
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dudebra84 and Loser
#11 ·
Okay, I park on the street, so I get paranoid about somebody seeing some stuff in the back and getting the urge to break in. :evil: (I've caught a car-prowler in the act, I mean *caught* as in put my hands on him, I cannot abide being ripped off)

So, I needed a cargo cover, as I want to leave some stuff in the back most the time. Currently my tools are there, that's dumb, but even when they're not I'll have various stuff I need all the time back there.

I did some farting around with cardboard, which isn't easy because it's floppy, to get a template:



Then after some tweaking I had this:



Took it to Home Depot and the best they could seem to do for material was some particle-board type plywood. So I traced it out on that and the guy put it up on the big plywood saw. The corners can't be square because of the pillars in back, but they can't do miter cuts. So, I had to carry my square piece and use the "U-cut" station and lop two of the corners off. Anyway:



That's a bunch of my junk under there. Here's the tail gate up:



Here's one farther back:



I plan to carpet it at some point, but for right now it's good enough. It also needs just a little trimming, it's really jammed into the back pillars, even with the corners cut off, need to sand a bit of a curve into the straight corner cuts so it's not jamming it forward into the seat.
 
#12 ·
So, had an hour or so to kill this afternoon, decided to carpet my cargo cover/sheet of plywood.



Used my staple gun and some spray adhesive I already had lying around. (carpet is from Wal-Mart, like $8.95) Still needs a little adjusting, I think, still kinda loose in one area, didn't leave myself enough to wrap around to back side in another spot, but this is the general idea I was going for:



Inside:



With gate open showing my junk:



Bad cell phone pics. Anyway, the only problem with this set-up, really, is access. I can't just lift this cover(which is good for security reasons) because the fit is so snug, you have to open the tailgate to get to stuff. And you can't budge that cover unless you lower the seats, lol. I might put a hinge or something in it at some point, or some kind of door. :idea: Or not, I'll see if I really care that I have to take an extra step throwing things in and out of the back.

One thing is for sure, I feel better knowing thieves will see nothing but black when they look in the back. :x They tend to "smash and grab" around here. If they can pull it out a window, they'll do it, if not...They'd literally have to break in, move the tire carrier, open the gate and reach to get stuff the way it is now. My friend lost her massage table out the back of her Beetle because all they had to do was break a window. I've had two cars have windows broken and at least once NOTHING was stolen. And they didn't get the stereo because it was hard to remove I guess, they just put a hole in the dash next to it. I figure anything that slows them down, they'll just pick an easier target.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Loser
#13 ·
So, the other day I was at the junkyard. Saw this different style knob for the transfer case on an older Rodeo.(more of a ball style, not the "grip" type in mine) It looked better than mine, I thought, but I think the shift boot on my year Rodeo makes it look too small. The older "accordion" style boot didn't come up as far, I don't think.

Anyway...I put it on, what the heck, then, for fun I got this light-up one for the actual shifter. (it's round too, so they match a little better) It's almost impossible to take a picture of, but here are some.

The last one is with the old shift knobs lying on carpet in front of levers, so you can see comparison.







The knobs are easy to switch back, so I'm not too worried about it. If I get tired of the gizmo knob or whatever. But I'm easily annoyed by the crappy texture of old worn out controls. Wish I could swap out the beat up steering wheel this easy.
 
#14 ·
When I got that shift knob, I also got this phone mount. It's just the typical kind, has a stick on mount and then a suction thing so you can remove the arm if you want. I got the "Torque" app for my phone and a Bluetooth OBDII dongle, so that in addition to using it for maps or music or whatever is handy. I'll take some Torque screen caps once I try it out, haven't had a chance yet.



You might say "Don't those mount on windshield?' Why yes, yes they can, but three things: 1. I like as clear a view as I can get out the windshield, this blocks almost nothing, being so low(maybe a view of my hood, lol) 2. I have a crack in my windshield, so it's gonna have to go at some point, and you can't detach the actual mount base piece (double stick tape, more or less) 3. There are some random ugly scratches on the dash right there, no idea why, but this covers them up nicely :lol:

 
#15 ·
So, at some point Isuzu decided to put some rinky-dink cup holders in the center console. That's bad enough, but they put this weird feature of the whole box opening up and another small box underneath, you know what I mean if you have one. Every single one i could find was broken(mine was held down with bungee cords to keep it from flopping open on acceleration) The stupid little plastic thing inside was missing, that is supposed to hold it down, here:

BOX UP:


I managed to find that thing at the junkyard, but messed it up getting it out of other truck. I "cold weld"ed the heck out of it(it's basically JB Weld by another name) so now it seems to hold the box down, but I'm still not thrilled with the design:

BOX DOWN, LID UP:


BOX DOWN, LID DOWN:


Anybody know a decent console that will swap into these trucks? That whole set-up is the worst. I also don't like the weird opening around the parking brake. I thought mine was missing something, so got that piece at the yard too. Nope, the trim piece I got also leaves a giant opening around the handle. Perfect for french fries to fall into, loose change, small dogs...
 
#16 ·
The previous owner "hit a deer." I swear. I didn't think that really happened, where I come from "hit a deer" is what you tell the insurance company when you let your teenager drive your car and they drive it off the road into a freeway sign. (okay, I was that teenager)

Anyway, even with the brush guard, the front end is kinda messed up. Including the grill, I don't have a before shot, but part of it was missing, and it was held on with wire ties(that seems to be a common thing, looking at the grills in the junkyard).

You can actually see one of the mounting points from the old grill in that "secret compartment" pic above. At least I assume that's what that is in there, the previous owner must have picked it up off the road and threw it in there. I have a grill to put in, but for now it's the "industrial look."

 
#17 ·
Done a bunch of stuff not on here yet. But one thing I got was the "Torque" app and the bluetooth OBD-II adapter.



It's pretty cool, lots of sensor info, you can clear check engine lights, and so forth. Shows your trips on GPS map, you can look at timing advance, intake temp, vacuum, too many things to list. Some generic screen caps:







 
  • Like
Reactions: ozfest
#18 ·
Oh man, I'm way behind on this thread. I don't even have the spotlight on here. Or the brakes, here's that thread:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=72076&p=637399#p637399 just to save some time. I replaced the front pads and then somehow that cause the rears to go crazy. Literally the same day I put new front brake pads one of the rear pads just fell right off, ground up my rear rotor and caliper piston something awful. Meh, oh well, fixed now.
 
#19 ·
So, even though I have an "LS" it still didn't come with a clock, I guess. I hate that. I know I can use the one on the stereo, but I spend a lot of time angrily pushing the "display" button to get the clock because it's busy showing me the station or volume level or whatever so...



Got this unit out of a Trooper, wish I could have figured out how to get the bezel out of the Troop's console, but no matter.
Then did some wiring, this thing needs four wires, and they are labelled. "+Batt" so it remembers the time when it's off "+ill" for "illumination" which dims it when you turn the lights on "+acc" which actually turns it on so you can see it and "-ear" or something like that, meaning "earth" or ground. I found a random wire that was hot when the key was on right where I needed it, so that was good:

It's the white with red stripes one there, I drilled a hole in that storage box thing that goes in the console, those other wires are some of mine


The other wires come from various switches. I think this is from the Hazard light switch, for the "BATT" wire, obviously your hazard lights have a wire that's hot all the time, since you don't need your key on to light them up, so it's a good place to wire a clock to. That's the blue wire that I spliced into one of the green and red wires.



Here one for illumination or ground, I forget, but black is always ground and you can figure out the rest with a multi-meter.



Initial test, just sitting there, if I recall


Dash back together


On bright setting(daytime)


Dim(night)


Driver's view(I had to tilt it a little to be visible at that angle, it's basically glued in place at this point)

Okay, it's a little weird location wise, but what are you gonna do? There's only so many places to put things.

Last close-up
 
#20 ·
Here's the link to the cargo area cigarette lighter thing: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=71611
Mine didn't have one back there, so I pulled one from a second gen.
 
#21 ·
Was looking for the control box for keyless entry at the junkyard. Under the driver's seat of this red Passport, I think, I found an Alpine amp. What the heck? Says I, so I pulled it out and stuck it in the truck(which came pre-wired for an amp and sub, by the way).



It turns out a friend of mine has a big subwoofer he isn't using, so I'll have just a little bit of boom in this rig.
(oh, sorry about my filthy carpets, it's very wet and muddy here)
 
#22 ·
Other things I've done not pictured, replaced many lenses in turn signals, corner markers and so forth. Replaced one whole headlight unit because mine had a crack. I like the way of accessing the bulb in the one I put in. My original ones had that stupid wire you have to awkwardly get on and off, the replacement one just unscrews. I'll grab another one like it at some point, if I see one at the scrapyard.
 
#23 ·
A friend of mine had a sub-woofer he wasn't using. Funny thing is, he got it from some car thieves. His car got stolen and when it was recovered they had put a bunch of rice nonsense on it and also this big sub. So he got the stuff they put in his car, after going through whatever process is involved, so it's all legal.

Anyway, now it's in my truck. It's a 12 inch Infinity sub in a "Bass Bums" band-pass enclosure. This is a box that's sealed on one side and ported on the other, as you can see in the pic. Designed for maximum thump with little power. Which is good, since I have a small amp and also I don't want to draw too much power and strain the charging system. Downside is that this speaker/enclosure set-up is the most space consuming. But I can always pull it out of there if I really need storage.



Luckily, it just fits under my homemade cargo cover. Good thing, so it's stealth to discourage thievery. You can see here with the seat down and cover in place, once the seat is up you can't see it:



Conveniently, my head unit has separate sub volume:



And here is my amp again, just to show it in place. This is with the seat ALL the way forward, normally you can't see it at all.

 
#24 ·
It needed new front shocks when I bought it, just got around to it. (It needs rears too, one thing at a time) These are factory Isuzu shocks, truck was pretty bouncy :p



Yeah, just cheap Monroes, but beats what was in it:



I used a strap wrench at first to hold the old ones while wrenching, but switched to the vice grip method eventually.

 
#25 ·
Here's the thread: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=73887
I ran a wire to turn the corner markers into blinkers.



Wig-wag when lights are on, blinking together when off.
 
#26 ·
So, saw some people talking on here about Harbor Freight lights. I couldn't resist, as they are pretty much what I wanted to mount on my brush guard, size and shape-wise.

Only issue is, the tabs on the brush guard are really down low, like they wanted you to mount the lights on the bottom. Forget that. I got some hardware to lengthen the stubby little mounting bolts on the bottom of the lights, here:



And stuck them on the front to get an idea how they look. They mount fine, I'm still working on getting them super tight, those coupling nuts are kinda tricky. Not wired in yet, I'll do that in a couple days, probably. The weird angle is just to hide my plate, and show my sweet hood paint, lol. Not to mention my Honda grill. Couldn't find a decent Isuzu one, and I thought it was funny to put a red Honda grill in a black Isuzu. I've gotten parking tickets with the model listed as "Honda" :roll: Wonder if I could argue the ticket? :mrgreen:

 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top