86.5 N/A driveshaft and spark plug problem

[eps]

I’m thinking of buying a 1986.5 MkIII N/A with 150k miles for $1,000. I took the car into the shop today to get it checked out before I buy it, and they said it’s going to need a new driveshaft center bearing, and that the #3 cylinder is missing. There may be other problems but these are the ones I noticed when I drove the car.

They said the only place that has a center bearing is a Toyota dealership and they want $200 for it. The shop thinks that’s a rip off and is going to try and find one for less.

They said the #3 cylinder is missing. The guy who is selling it said it ran great before he steam cleaned the engine. The shop said that could be legitimate. There is also a spark plug wire that looks like a rodent has been chewing on. So they said it’s going to be 2 hours labor to fix that, because of where the throttle body is placed.

All that fixed and a tune up is going to run between $600 and $700 they said. So I’ve been contemplating on doing the work myself, but I don’t know how hard it would be. I’ve got a few friends who could help me. We are all very limited on our mechanic skills. One of my friend’s dad is good with cars and he said he can help us, and my dad could help with it.

How hard would it be to do these things? I don’t imagine the spark plugs would be too tough, but I don’t know about the driveshaft. I was thinking I could probably find a center bearing for cheap at a pick ‘n’ pull, and spark plugs and wires don’t cost much. Then after I get that done I can get it tuned, and I would probably save a lot of money by doing the work myself.

What do you guys think?

[projectsupramk3]

Center carriers go bad all the time, and most likely if you get another used one it will go bad in the near future since it's just as old. You should either get a whole used DS ($50-$75). It has to be from the same type of car, if your is manual then it has to come from a n/a manual. Either that or buy a brand new aluminum DS, it's $350 if you go to the right place, is one peice eliminating the center carrier problem completely, and has less rotating mass as a bonus. Do it all yourself, 2 hours to pull the plugs and wires is a rip off, I've done it in five minutes before with no rush. The throttle body has to come off but it's only six bolts, very simple.

[LordLo]

It's no big deal. Just pull them out and remember 99% of the bolts must be unscrewed counter-clockwise. I broke my first bolt thinking it was clockwise.