1979 toyota hiace

[uk shaun]

Hi everyone,

I recently bought a 1979 hiace, 1.6litre manual. 326,000km. Firstly i know that is high mileage, but i'm from the uk and here to do some travelling and this fitted my budget(paid 2400), It does have a few issues, tracking is out, brakes seem to pull to the left only when cold?? engine was not idling properly, but have since had that fixed by a garage who adjusted the tappets/valves, although in the back of my mind i do think they maybe just chucked a load of oil in the engine as a short fix, as the repair work took less than an hr!! Can anyone tell me if i might be right in my thinking??

Also i had a look over the owners manual, still has the original, to find where i can top up the clutch fluid, cant seem to find anywhere for it to go??!! the brake fluid was no problem as its on the dash board.

I'm due to go travelling on monday( melbourne-cairns) and just want to make sure the van is in as best possible shape as i can before i leave, Any tips or suggestions to keep the van running smoothly would be great appreciated, many thanks, shaun.

P.s, thinking about shipping it over to the uk when i finish, had a quote for around 3000dollars, which dont seem bad?? they are almost non exsistent back home, vw's seem to be most people's choice, i went along that route and bought an early t25, never again!! cost me a small fortune in running cost's/repairs. Hoping the hiace will serve me well and convince me its worth trying to get it home :-)