A big thanx to Dave et al who have helped in the past. I think I have traced the problem of getting into and out of 4wd down to the vacuum. After the van has been running for a while I stop and switch the switch it goes into 4wd but wont turn off again but if i rev the engine to about 3000-3500rpm and then press the switch it will turn off (the light on the dash that is) I just need to find someone or somewhere that will be able to help me trace the fault.Any ideas anyone, I live in Southampton.

Secondly anyone know where I can get hold of an aerial?

- (#3330) Marc Hamilton, 12 Jun 02

Marc,
Do your brakes work OK, the vacuum on the diesel models (I'm assuming yours is diesel not petrol) is created by a vacuum (Toyota call it a vane pump) which is bolted on the alternator shaft & therefore run by the same belt, this then creates a vacuum to run the brake servo, plus all the ancilliaries that use vacuum, such as the aircon/idle up switch pluger on the throttle, and of course the valves that pull the 4WD in & out, when I got ours, the idle up/air con idle up wouldn't work, but the brakes seemed OK, I eventually traced the vacuum leak back to the fact that one of the vacuum hoses was disconnected from under the air filter pipe, reconnected & all worked fine, and the brakes were very slightly better, these hoses are so thin that a leak from them will not result in absolute brake failure, but will result in the ancilliary item not working. I suggest that you check all the vacuum pipes to see if you have any leaks or disconnected pipes, if you need to rev up the engine, then it obviously needs more vacuum from the pump to keep up with what's being lost in the way of vacuum to operate the 4WD valve, stop the loss of vacuum & it will work at tickover as it should. You could try purchasing a cheap vacuum gauge & measure if you have a vacuum at the various valves to see exactly where your apparant loss of vacuum is occuring. HTH Regards Rob.

- (#3338) Rob Drinkwater, 12 Jun 02

My guess is the feed the one of the idle-up solenoids is disconnected...

- (#3339) david miller, 13 Jun 02

Thanx guys especially Rob I will now go through everything and check the pipes, with 6 kids I definately do not want to experience Brake failure.

- (#3405) Marc Hamilton, 17 Jun 02

6 kids, bugger me, we thought we had our work cut out with 4 kids under seven, hence the Townie to transport them all around in. On the subject of brake failure, don't panic too much, the small bore hoses that run around all these units, such as the idle up & air con idle up solenoids as well as the 4WD actuators don't allow too much air to be sucked in, compared to the huge volume of vacuum created by the vacuum pump, so you are unlikely to lose all braking, however the difference was noticable when I reconnected the hose that was disconnected when we purchased our Townie, my wife even commented on the 'extra' braking & she didn't know what I had 'fixed' Hope you sort the prob, regards Rob.

- (#3406) Rob Drinkwater, 17 Jun 02