After owning the Cavalier for a few months, it was clear that it wasn’t the vehicle for me. I had the itch for a small truck, and, after parting with the Chevy, a little truck was found in my price range. It was to be a bumpy ride.
A local neighbour had it for sale. It was a 1986 Mazda B2000, regular cab 5 speed with a nice burgundy interior. It seemed to work OK, and I bought it. I was in grade 12 at the time, and wanted a truck for the winter so I could store my old Chevy truck. It seemed to fit the bill…good on fuel, looked acceptable to my 18-year old eyes.
Image via wikipedia.orgThe picture at the start of the post is my actual truck – the picture above is very similar to it. It hails from a time when Japanese interiors were really a step apart from their domestic competitors – the look and feel of it was really nice to my eyes. The knobs and controls were well labelled, everything felt solid. The inside had a nice mix of vinyl and cloth. Look at the cloth inserts on the doors! One thing these things shared with their American counterparts was the variety of colours available. Nowadays it seems like beige, black or grey are the only colours available. It makes me a bit sad.
The problems started showing up not long after I bought it. The engine used oil. A lot of oil. Something in the order of 2 to 3 litres for every tank of fuel. A fix of sorts was found – I got a deal on a 12-pack of Bardahl – it slowed down the oil consumption a lot. Once the cold weather arrived, the carburetor started icing up, and stranding me on the side of the road, and I would have to wait till it thawed out. Then the engine died totally – it got to the point it didn’t have enough compression to start. I should have given up on it at this point, honestly. I bought another car – a Pontiac Acadian – for $225 – for the winter – more on that next week.
Me, proud of my new acquisition circa 1994
Spring 1995 – I had graduated high school, and had a summer job refinishing wooden desks at a school in town. The Acadian was sent away for parts, and the 1970 Chevy was put back in service. I wanted to fix the Mazda for travelling to university in the winter. As it happened, one of the guys that worked for my father gave me a truck – an early ’80’s Datsun 720. The cab was absolutely rotten on it, but it had a good engine and transmission. I’d tried to source an engine for the Mazda, but it seemed this generation of truck had a fault with the rings or something – I can’t remember exactly – so, I decided to try and install the Datsun engine and transmission in the Mazda.
Image via ratsun.netThe Mazda engine and 5-speed was pulled out, and the Datsun 8-plug engine and 4-speed was put in place. To my surprise, the Datsun engine sat right on the Mazda’s mounts! I had to make a small plate to line the Datsun transmission mount to the Mazda’s crossmember. A driveshaft was made up, and the truck was mobile again. It was much peppier after the transplant, and quite reliable for the winter I used it. It was also quite hard on fuel, as there was now no overdrive gear. The box was also a bit worse for the wear, so the wooden box was removed from the Datsun, and put on the Mazda.
The trip back and forth to the university was too much for the tired 327 in the Chevy, so the B2000 was put back in service. It was surprisingly reliable for a somewhat random collection of parts. Once spring of 1996 rolled around, I put the truck up for sale – and a retired gent bought it for going fishing. A perfect end for a less than perfect truck.
LOL we had a runabout hack where I last worked with an almost identical red interior but encased in a Nissan Terrano, and of course the steering untensil was on the other side, amazing how all those Jap utes look the same inside, did on manufacturer supply them all?
It makes you wonder. They do look a bit like the Toyotas and Nissans I’ve been in of the same vintage.
I once theorized that many parts of a Japanese pickup would easily interchange from one brand to another. The boxes all looked fairly similar, certainly the doors looked easily interchangeable, while the fenders might be the most difficult…but not impossible. For some reason, I never gave much thought to the interchangeability (?) of the mechanical parts.
When these were new a female co-worker was looking at a small pickup to replace her tired CR-V. She didn’t care all that much for the Nissan, or was it the Toyota, and when I suggested that she look at this model Mazda she reported back a few days later that she had driven one and was in love. She bought one that was 2 tone white and maroon, with a red interior. I never heard of her having any problems, but living in Florida she wouldn’t be bothered by carburetor icing.
On the other hand, another co-worker inherited a Datsun/Nissan pickup, similar to your parts donor. His truck gave him a few fuel problems. It started with a bad relay to the fuel pump, and then there were near constant problems with the carburetor. Though I think the problem with the carburetor was exasperated by his constant tinkering with it.
I also bemoan the lack of interior color choices. It is difficult to believe that as late as 1994-95 you could get a small truck with your choice of a red, blue, tan, or black interior, and in rare cases after that black/grey or black/red two tones….at least on some Rangers.
BTW, it’s just my opinion, but in cases like your truck, the brand of the vehicle should have first billing with the engine getting second billing. Therefore: MazDat or MazSun would be appropriate.
I don’t know about compact pickups, but in full-size pickups, I think (but am not 100% sure) that the last models with an interior color choice besides gray, black, or tan were the 1997/98 F-150/250LDs. Besides “Medium Graphite” and “Prairie Tan,” the base, XL, and XLT trims had the choice of Willow Green and Cordovan (dark red). Willow Green was also an option on 1997/98 Expeditions. Naturally, you were limited as to what exterior colors you could chose with the colored interior, and they weren’t very popular by that time. I’ve only seen one Willow Green F-150, my grandpa’s ’97, no Cordovans, and no Willow Green Expeditions.
I think you’re right. Chevy still offered colors in the 1500/Tahoe/Sub around that time too. I think it was all over around 2000.
(1997 Chevy 1500 pictured)
Wow, the two pictures above look weird with the coloured interiors and the grey wheel and column.
Wow, I salute the bravery of youth. The Datsun powertrain into the Mazda pickup is impressive. All of the hassle and backyard engineering of a V8 swap but with none of the performance enhancement. But salvaging a running truck from two junkers is no small accomplishment.
It was a function of having the time and parts, but no money. I guess necessity is the mother of invention!
In the mid 80s I had a 76 Ford Courier, which was a badge engineered version of this truck’s predecessor. Other than rust – it had spray foam rocker panels and a Kydex cab floor – the carburator was definitely the weak spot. But it never stranded me and it always started in winter even at -10° or -20° in extreme northern New York.
Besides the carb icing (usually at about 35° and damp) it also had a solenoid in the carb fail one summer (part of the emission control I think) and that made it backfire really loudly when you’d lift. It actually blew out the gasket between the manifold and the exhaust pipe. First time it happened it scared the heck out of my friend who was riding in the bed on a road trip to WV (you could get away with that in 1983). Eventually I had the carb fully rebuilt but it was never quite right.
Ironically Down Here tha Mazda pick up from(1978_1984) is still in production and since 2010 is coming with 2000 cc engine and gearbox from Mitsubishi.
Hopefully the Mitsubishi engine was a little more durable than the Mazda units. The truck was 8 years old but I couldn’t get a good engine locally at all.
It doesn’t really surprised me that a Datsun mill would be a semi-bolt in. Up until a few years ago I didn’t know that the B2600 had a Mitsubishi engine. A buddy’s dad had one and he wound up swapping a 2.0 in when the 2.6 bit the dust. It was barely an afternoon project in the driveway.
That Interior. Mazda used the same layout for a long long time. It was very well laid out. nice that you could run recirculated cabin air to the windshield. most J-cars prevented that. allowed you to warm up the cab faster while clearing the glass. yeah, you had to be awake and switch it back over… Sean, I have heard the Mitsu engine story, but my 89 B2600i was not their mill. Instead, a nearly unique mazda mill- the G6 was a 12 valve 4 cyl. The mitsu was called Mazda G54B and used in the 86-88 b-series 4wd. my 89 seemed to be a 1 year design shared only with the 89MPV. had a mechanical distributor. tho the G6 was produced until 2006, the later ones did not use the same gear driven distributor. I had exactly 2 engine issues with my truck in 17 years. one day, it just died. no spark. turned out to be an obscure (to me) bit of electronics attached to that distributor called an ignitor and it was unobtanium anywhere but the Dealer parts counter. No engines to harvest from in the scrap yards. as 89 4wd mazdas didnt seem to die young or rot fast. the little black plastic component listed for over $300+ they “let me have it” for $160. I paid up, installed and it started right up. Buncha years later, the truck started to very occasionally sputter at speed. took a while to figure out, but as it got worse, I found the problem in the dark. insulation break in a plug wire, spark visibly shorting to the engine. Easy fix. that 4wd B2600 was the right truck for a long long time. & G6 was a great engine. smooth, efficient and tight.
Interesting story concerning drivetrain swapping between makes. I always liked Ford styling, but to this day prefer Chevy mechanicals.
I too, owned an ‘86 Mazda 2000. It was the first vehicle that lasted me four years.. I paid $2600 in late ‘91 for it, and I believe it had around 85k miles. I’m almost certain it was the SE-5 trim, as it had factory white spoke wheels, but it lacked the stripes. I’m almost certain it had been repainted, however. Bright red. It was also the first truck I owned that did not have a long bed, but I was in a bind, and it was the best I could find for my budget on short notice. I very much liked the styling, and the interior seemed to be light years ahead of my previous ‘83 Isuzu, which was much nicer than my ‘83 Toyota. I remember suffering through an AC system that barely blew. One day I decided to look at the core(?) under the passenger side dash. Somehow, I was able to view it only to find it was caked in grime. Incapable of properly accessing it, I got a toothbrush in there and cleaned the fins best I could. Man! That thing blew like a hurricane after that. The author mentions finding it hard to source that generation of motor, it being the 2.0L. Seems odd, those trucks were quite popular around here, and while ‘86 was the first year of that generation body, I do think it was the last year for that motor, it having previously served in the prior generation’s body. In ‘87 (maybe it was ‘88) they were renamed “B2200”, as the motor was now a 2.2L displacement. While my truck was very dependable, and strong enough to “chain-pull” a full-size Chevy truck 100 miles, it did always have an “annoying” problem. The truck always ran great and never used much oil in the 4-1/2 years and over 100k miles I drove it. But… if the air temperature dropped below 50 degrees (only a problem in the winter here in north Florida), and the motor hadn’t been started in a couple of hours; when started, it would begin to puff out white smoke, that would literally, and I’m not exaggerating, get thicker and thicker, until a cloud developed that you could barely see through. I mean…it was bad. It was embarrassing. And actually, it was funny. Once the motor warmed up within a few minutes, the smoking would subside, and I could drive it with nary a hint of smoke. I’m told the valve guide seals were bad, but my budget back then prevented me from repairing a motor that wasn’t broken, just annoying. For the amount of smoke generated, it didn’t seem to use much oil at all, no more than would be expected of a truck of its age. That truck was a very good truck.
I currently have ’86 B2000 Cab Plus, 169,000Km, running on LPG, no problems whatsoever. Really, haven’t noticed any oil issues.
Previous couple of owners kept the cabin in good shape, and mechanically it is fine, too. Not too much rust, to my surprise!
And if Mikuni carb ever starts playing up, there is well-known Weber conversion kit, which bolts right up and has maybe 2-3 vacuum lines in total!
No power anything (but I do miss AC…), manual choke, but few nice touches (adjustable steering column, TWO cabin lights, interminent wipers…all of which are non-existant on my ’90 Corolla). And Cab Plus has a lot of space behind the seats (I keep my spare tyre flat on the floor, behind driver’s seat).
RWD, but great clearance, with lowest 17cm below rear diff. Goes almost anywhere – when it’s dry!
I wonder if you hit a particularly hard used vehicle. The rental shop I worked at in the late 80s to early 90s had a pair of extended cab B series trucks used as parts runners and sales rep trucks and they were very reliable, Of course they were relatively new 86 & 87 model year and well maintained. That said even in 2018 I see a decent number of B2200 and the more desirable B2600 trucks in Oregon where rust is not an issue. For what it’s worth the Mitsubishi powered B2600i is the most desirable for both the larger balance shaft engine and fuel injection,