With the tiny amount of info provided and the urgency to use the trailer tomorrow, I suggest you take the whole thing to a local service garage or u-haul place or something similar that will install it for you. You never posted the year or model, but you can buy adapter kits for most newer vehicles that just plug into a an existing splice or hidden outlet.

And I thought I had it bad! Here's the beginning of my rock garden ten years ago. It's due for a major renovation this winter. The rocks are fine, but it has gotten overgrown over the years. Mike

I don't know anything about the seal problems, but a Toyota with only 76K miles could have a lot of life left. As for $3K, I again say look at the "book value" to see what it should sell for and look at the private sale value, that should be less than what you'd have to pay at a dealer. Again, I'd look at the book on Chevy and Ford (S10 and Ranger to be in the same size range as the Toyota) and see if it is possible to get one a couple of years newer and a few miles less used for the same money. I was talking to a fisherman I "bumped" into a couple of days back. He had noted my Chevy Colorado and asked how I like it. He had a Chevy S10 of some years, don't remember, but I do remember he said he had about 300,000 on it. Yes he had replace a number of things, but he engine/transmission/drive-train was original equipment. My 1988 Dodge Ram 50, similar size, had about 100,000 on it when I traded it in (gave away) on the Chevy and the only problems I had were: Head Gasket and Carb. It was a 4WD and the drive train/clutch seemed to be in "perfect" shape. A mechanic at the dealer bought the truck, and I see it from time to time, he's still driving it to work. He said he replaced the carb, I don't know if anything else has gone. Point? 76K miles isn't a lot of miles on a vehicle if it has been maintained (mostly just oil change/filter change).

Hi Timgren Yes there are still real mechanics, although we think of ourselves as Automotive Technicians these days. As has been said by others, you need to find a good shop, with a strong diagnostic technician, and then stick with them even if they don't nail this the first time. However, after what I write here, if I don't skip anything I should be able to give them all the ammo they need to get this one. One of the things that I have preached for the last 5 odd years that I have posted here is for people to test, and not just throw parts at someones car problem "because that is what was wrong with their neighbors, or relative, or whoevers car" when it was doing the same thing. Todays cars simply have so many ways to produce the same symptoms that nothing but solid diagnostic routines will provide accurate answers. Sadly, the industry still tries to compete between shops by price, and consumers reward this by trying to go to the cheapest place, and hopefully for them the cheapest fix first. Thats why you have had plugs thrown in, filters, a fuel pump ect. Most of the time the symptoms you describe can be caused by these components, but not always. One of the most telling parts though was the convertor replacement. That is something that has two possible causes for the failure, either a missfire was occuring and or the convertor overworking, or quite commonly insulation between the double walled pipe in front of the convertor is coming out of place and blocking the convertor. Without knowing first hand, I'd have to rely on seeing your truck to know, but I suspect you have more than one convertor. One of the things that need to be done is a road test with a good scan tool, (GM's Tech II) not some $300.00 code reader and a snapshot of scan data saved to be looked at to analyze the failure. Basically if the engine is losing power something is affecting either, fuel delivery, spark timing, spark strength, engine displacement, or some combination of those. Scan data has the ability to show a trained technician almost all of that except for strength of the spark. What I would do if your truck came here is first road test the truck under the conditions that display the loss of power and capture a snapshot of the scan data. When I got back to the shop I would concentrate on; mass airflow sensor readings in grams per second, MAP sensor voltage if used, engine RPM, throttle position, spark timing, knock sensor, timing retard, fuel trims, and O2 sensor voltages. One of the things that I can do back at the shop is calculate the volumetric efficiency of the engine using the MAF sensor reading at a given rpm. This would tell me right away if the engine is breathing correctly. I would compare MAF readings while the problem is occuring to TPS and MAP readings. BTW during the symptom event, I would purposely move the throttle around a bit, while keeping the truck acting up and then examine the results on the scan data. Fuel trims and O2 sensor voltages would tell me if we are dealing with a fuel pressure, fuel volume problem. Knock sensor, spark timing, and spark retard could help me identify everything from simply a bad knock sensor, to mechanical engine trouble, to even something loose on the truck rattling and making the knock sensor send a signal that the computer see's as the engine pinging. Lastly while back in the shop, I would go back over secondary ignition and ensure strength of spark, and other normal issues. Off hand I expect you have an individual coil for each plug. That pretty much in itself rules out a number of potential problems that could occur with other designs that could cause your symptoms. This testing that I have outlined would take very little time and would either have me already knowing what is wrong, or it would have me narrowing the investigation to only a few points having ruled out a large portion of the operating system. One thing that is mandatory is to forget anything else has been done to the truck, and test exactly as it is presented, and allow the results to lead me to the problem as it exists today. Feel free to contact me by e-mail once you have this back to a shop if they have trouble figuring it out. I will give you contact information for them and can help them analyze this via live chat on the net if they want. John G. ASE CMAT L1 BTW, thanks Akthy. Take care, we got to get together one of these days. Maybe Arts up for another party....