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This may ramble a bit. Sorry in advance.
I found it on Craigslist advertised for 500 and I couldn't resist. The guy said that he was given the car as payment for some work he had done for a neighbor who couldn't afford to pay him in cash. At that time the car had been sitting undriven for about 4 1/2 years due to "transmission problems" it then sat in guy's driveway for 6 months before he decided to list it.
It didn't run at the time I bought it. I turned the engine over by hand and could feel heavy compression on all cylinders. Hooked up to jumpers to get a look at the electrical system. The instrument cluster has lights out disease. All the accessories work; door locks, windows, power steering wheel, air con, sunroof, lights etc. I turn the key to ON and I don't hear fuel pump, probably due to Lexus sound proofing, or other thing. Guy says he "had it running on propane" when he got it from the prior owner which probably means the fuel pump doesn't work (Spoiler: I'm right). I turn the key to START to see if it'll crank over, nothing but a light click from the starter relay. I take a look under the hood, at a glance looks fine, closer inspection revealed a large rodent's nest under the intake manifold comprised of whatever random stuff the thing found useful and the insulation from the underside of the hood and the firewall. Also, I notice that the cruise control/throttle cable cover is bubbly in a spot like it had been on fire. Then I notice that there is black soot on the firewall at the VIN stamp and the underside of the hood above that. Closer inspection reveals minor melting on the fuel injector plugs on that side of the engine. Also the fuel rail at the regulator is very greasy from dried fuel from an apparent leak. The interior is trashed from sun damage, chucking it anyway.
And I still bought the car anyway. I must be nuts!
I checked everything related to the starting system and decided that the starter was the first thing that I was going to tackle. A few hours late at night after work and a nearly full shop-vac filled with rodent bedding and I have the starter out. It looks like it has been on fire, and it is almost completely seized. New gaskets and starter are in the mail. Also I'll replace the injector seals and o-rings. The rodent chewed some of the wiring to the injectors and starter and knock sensors. So I get to break out the soldering iron. Here's what the starter looks like. Mmmm...Toasty. More to come.
I cleaned out most of the rodent garbage and got a better look at the fire damage. Here are pictures of the fuel rail, injector plugs melted and the plug wire/timing cover.
i got it back together enough to start it after changing the starter and fuel pump. It sounds like it's running on 5 cylinders. Checking the ignition system comes next. It does nothing in any gear fwd or reverse, transmission diagnosis yaaay!
If it's missing that bad, might be a failed coil or igniter. Had my coils fail within 10 minutes of each other, so replaced the one, drove around the block, bam next one died.
Thanks g4ebguy90. I'll definitely be checking those soon, and reporting the results. Almost wishing one will be bad as to be a good excuse for upgrades.
It does sound bad but I'm just glad it didn't shoot out a rod.
BlueJ
You would have loved my post, that got deleted, with that same picture. I noticed a LOT of write ups about fixing various types of SC door panel problems when I first joined CL. I thought I would write an inside joke for SC owners. I posted a "$0 SC400 Door Panel Fix" write up, only I wrote all the steps of removing the door panels and then I posted that picture for the final step of: the door panels must be turned 90 degrees in either direction in order to fit into your local municipal refuse disposal container. Apparently, humor escapes admin, and it was deleted for being "useless".
I continued my ignition system inspection and found a possible source of misfiring/rough idle problem. Ordered a new set of caps/rotors.
I also replaced the ignition coils because they were cheap, and so am I, at about $11 each; and cheaper than going COP. It runs better with the new coils, but still missing a few here and there, I'll update after the new caps and rotors go in.
To satisfy my own curiosity over what sort of carnage sits inside the transmission pan, I drained the fluid and dropped the pan. I was surprised to find nothing out of the ordinary. The fluid was very dark and stinky, indicating a flush was needed. There were no chunks of metal, ferrous or otherwise, in the pan. There was some VERY fine metal on the magnets in the pan. The filter was clogged with a thin layer of sediment of some kind, probably clutch material. I decided to see if the clogged filter was the reason it would not move in any direction. I cleaned the filter with some bottle brushes and gasoline, and cleaned the pan. I put the filter back in, bolted the pan in place, reusing the old gasket and filled the pan with fresh fluid. Then I disconnected the trans lines at the radiator to flush out the old fluid. Refilled the pan with fresh fluid. Lo and behold, the rear wheel (driver side lol)moved when I put it in drive AND reverse.
02-25-17, 05:04 PM
I bought a 92 SC400 for $300.
and filled the pan with fresh fluid. Then I disconnected the trans lines at the radiator to flush out the old fluid. Refilled the pan with fresh fluid. Lo and behold, the rear wheel (driver side lol)moved when I put it in drive AND reverse. 
