Had a Previa. Want a Tercel4WD!

[Petros]

I have made road trips like that perhaps a dozen times, mostly to rescue T4wd that might other wise go to a wrecker. I usually have to do repairs before I get on the road. But they are always adventures, just plan an extra day in case you have to make repair stops along the way, or wait for a tire store to open in the morning or something. I love road trips, especially with a 2000 mile plus "test drive" of a new car I purchased. consider it an adventure, you just do not know what surprises each day will bring.

If you have extra tires, than I would not even worry about it, I have driven lots of very old tires. Usually they hold up fine, sometimes they do not. with more than one spare, you should make it. I drove one back from Texas, had nice alloys but old tires, one of them just a day away from home delaminated, and another was thin and leaking, so we bought some tires the next morning from a tire store chain that had stores in our home area. It needed them anyway, I do not think there were two the same brand, and at least two different sizes on it.

One time I had to leave the muffler in the trash can at a Subway sandwich shop in Yuma AZ, it was well over 100 deg F, when I got gas and something to eat I noticed the muffler hanging at an odd angle, the pipe has rusted through so I pulled it off the hanger. It was so rusted out there was no point in saving it, in the trash it went, I drove the rest of the way with just the old cat, and the pipe ending around the rear axle.

Good luck, have fun. take pictures of the trip too.

[helipilot77]

This sounds like fun! Keep us in the loop as things progress.

[loess]

I got a little more info on the wheel and tire sizes that are currently on the vehicle. All four wheels are 13". The two matching front tires are 155r13. Rear has a 180/70r13 and a 175/70r13. I'll have to double check the actual condition of the rubber/tread/sidewalls on those tires themselves, but as far as the varying sizes, do those seem close enough? Just want to ensure that I'm not going to put any stress on the drivetrain. Long as I don't drive in 4WD at all, I'm OK, correct?

This sounds like fun! Keep us in the loop as things progress.

You bet. Looking at heading out there around the third weekend in November.

[Petros]

I do not see a problem with it, as long as there is no delamination or strucural problems with any of the tires. It will not harm a thing when driving in front wheeldrive.

The rolling dia is the important thing, you can carefully measure the distance from the ground to the center of the hub, and run one tire 36 psi, and the other at 28 psi to get the same rolling dia. Make sure the rear diff is topped up with gear oil, because the spider gears will be turning. But there will be no load on the rear drive train at all when in 2wd.

You will not even feel the difference. I once drive a Tercel4wd 4000 miles with four very old, sidewall cracked tires, no two tires were the same size. I had 3 spares, but never needed them. It drove fine, even with all four struts and shocks completely worn out, I only noticed that on rough roads, most interstates are smooth and well maintained, so the non-existent damping was not even an issue either.

An important visual check you can do is jack each tire up in turn so it will spin freely on the car, and carefully inspect the tread while turning it. Turn it as fast as you can by hand, carefully inspect the tread as you are turning it. They should all be running straight, no waviness, or irregular changes, etc. Watching the gap between the tread and the ground as you turn it, verify the tread is all even, This will indicates if there is any internal decontamination, bulges or similar defects. if you find any unevenness or irregularity, replace it, likely it will not make it home. Seldom will it jsut blow out, so you get warning, but it can blow out if it is delaminating and you are not paying attention. Usually what happens is you first feel a slight vibration, that gets worse as the delamination enlarges and distorts the tire shape as you drive it. If you keep driving it that way, it will blow out. however, If you start with four tires that have no defects, even if older, they should make it home.

BTW, running the tires above the tire pressure indicated for the car (which is well below the max allowable tire pressure), will keep the tire temperature down since there is less flex in the tread and tire as it rolls down the road. You should also get slightly better fuel economy, but the ride will suffer slightly as well. More road noise and rough ride. On a smoother hwy it will not be much different.

[marlinh]

That car looks like a good deal. Good luck with it!

[loess]

Picking this baby up next weekend! A friend and I are driving out - we're leaving Omaha on Thursday, taking I-80 to Salt Lake, then north on I-84. I'll be in Boise on Saturday and Sunday, then heading back in the Tercel on that same route. Just checked the 10 day forecast along the way and at least as of now it looks like I won't run into any snow or other major precipitation or terribly cold temperatures. Thankful for that!

Have an order in to RockAuto for spare belts, plugs and wires to bring along. I was going to buy a spare distributor, but I found an ad on Boise CL for an '86 FWD Tercel hatchback for parts; might see if he'll let me pull the distributor/fuel pump/whatever else off of that before heading home. The transmission and drivetrain are obviously not compatible, but am I correct in thinking that I could use parts that are underneath the hood?

Petros, thanks for the tire chat up there. Knowing what to check for is going to me save some bucks; without your help here I would have otherwise played it ultra conservative and just bought new tires regardless. I'll check 'em for sure but now I feel pretty confident that they'll make it home fine.

[Petros]

I would advise against buying a remanufactured distributor, most of them are junk. several times I was trying to find the source of a rough running/poor fuel economy problem on a Tercel4wd, they had remanufactured distributors. After ruling everything else out I swapped out the "new" (reman) distributor with the old one and the problem went away.

A used one that came out of a running car is a far more reliable, so yes, find one at a wrecking yard or off a parts car. And yes, the fwd and 4wd engine are almost identical, distributor should work just fine. I have swapped them back and forth, no issues.

have a fun trip. This time of year usually is not a problem, but make sure you bring extra warm clothes because early season heavy snow can occur. You might stop my a GoodWill or other second hand store and buy a blanket or sleeping bag to take with you on the return drive if it appears the weather might change. it might be the only way to stay warm if you get stuck in a snow storm far from a hotel or other buildings.

good luck

[helipilot77]

My distributor mechanical advance was seized in my Tercel. In order to be able to keep driving it I bought a replacement from a local wrecking yard. After I replaced the distributor I pulled apart my original distributor and fixed it, however I don't need it anymore. If you want it I'll send it to you. Just PM me your address and I'll get it headed to you in a flat rate box.

[loess]

What a trip. Four days, 2500 miles, new friends, countless blessings and a crucially deep well of coffee brought the old girl home with me safely...

*¯`•.☽☆☾¸.•´¯*¯`•.☽☆☾¸.•´¯*¯`•.☽☆☾¸.•´¯*¯`•.☽☆☾¸.•´¯*¯`•.☽☆☾¸.•´¯*

After a Tetris game of strategically packing tools, guitars, mandolins and other odds and ends into his Accord, my wingman Ben and I set out from Omaha at 4:00am heading toward the final flurries of a fairly massive storm system that had come through on I-80 the previous day. We caught the sunrise out near Kearney, NE a few hours later.

01sunrise.jpg

Thirteen hours later as we entered Utah, we were treated to another brilliant sun show, this time in reverse.

utahsunset.jpg

We rolled into Salt Lake just in time to catch fingerstyle guitarist Andy McKee at a venue called Urban Lounge. Pretty phenomenal. Check out this harp guitar he played on several tunes:

02andymckee.jpg

Grabbed a room after the show and crashed out. BTW I highly recommend utilizing BetterBidding.com and BiddingForTravel.com as resources for making informed Priceline bids. Saved me some dough on decent hotel rooms that I otherwise would have shied away from in favor of cheaper accommodations...

[loess]

We woke up the next morning, made a stop at Wells Fargo to withdraw cash for the car purchase, and pushed on up I-15 to I-84. Next stop: Nampa, ID and the T4! A nice shot that Ben took of our first glimpse and meeting Mark the seller.

markshouse.jpg

Did the obligatory look-sees under the hood...

hood-mark-adam.jpg

...under the chassis...

underneath.jpg

...took a moment to say hello to the goats...

goat.jpg

...checked out all the bells and whistles and set out for a test drive...

testdrive.jpg

[loess]

I have read a number of comments here and there about the Tercel4WD being an underpowered slowpoke...first impression upon getting behind the wheel was that compared to the Previa that was my daily driver for 4 years (and felt kind of like driving a big old tugboat), this car has plenty of torque and handle to keep me entertained. Everything felt solid, shifting was a breeze and I knew then that I'd take it home. Signed the deed, paid Mark, and took a moment to check out his '76 Toyota Chinook (we took no pictures unfortunately) before leaving in my new Tercel.

We stopped in downtown Nampa to lighten Ben's load, move some of the gear into the T4WD and double check that all the fluids were topped up. Ben went into a coffee shop and came out about 20 minutes later announcing his success at securing us a place to play a set of music. So we thusly drove into Boise and met up with our new friends The Oliphants, who were gracious enough to give us space to play our stuff during their setbreaks all night. The place is called Pengillys Saloon (one of the oldest bars in Boise at 113 years of age!). Here's the Oliphants doing their thing:

boise-oliphants.jpg

Crashed out after the gig late at Super8 south of downtown. The next morning I got in touch with Mad_Marx about meeting up for lunch with him and his lady friend. We had a really great time together, took a little walking tour of downtown Boise and got the Tercs side by side. Grateful for new friends!

boise-ben-mark-charlie-tercs.jpg

boise-adam-mark.jpg

boise-ben-adam-mark-charlie.jpg

[loess]

Mad_Marx took us to this amazing public art space in an alley:

boise-alley00.jpg

boise-alley01.jpg

boise-alley02.jpg

boise-alley-pano.jpg

boise-alley03.jpg

boise-alley05.jpg

boise-alley07.jpg

[loess]

And so we left Boise that afternoon and drove long into the night, running into some intense wind and rain in the mountains just northeast of SLC. Nothing too severe, but negotiating blowing tumbleweeds and wet weather with headlights in the T4 that weren't aimed well and aren't exactly the brightest little stars meant that I white knuckled it for a while there. But I made it through fine, and discovered along the way that the hood makes a fine prep area for coffee at 2 in the morning.

wyoming-return-coffee.jpeg

wyoming-return-coffee-hood.jpg

return-speedo.jpg

wyoming-return-ben-adam.jpg

We made it until about 4:00 am when our eyes began to burn with the need for sleep. Got a few hours of shut-eye while curled up in the back of the T4 at a truck stop, then woke up and traversed through a beautiful morning in Wyoming with various soundtracks to wide open spaces coming through my stereo; one favorite being Mojave 3's record "Spoon & Rafter".

wyoming-return01.jpg

wyoming-return02.jpg

wyoming-return03.jpg

wyoming-return-hangten.jpg

[loess]

Our journey began to draw to a close with another orchestra of the sky back in my home state.

ne-sunset01.jpg

ne-sunset02.jpg

And so we made it home a few hours later, weary but triumphant and feeling very blessed. Somewhere on our return trip the name of my car came to me. She is called Toyster ½shell (aka "Ter-shell" for short). Inspired in part by the oysters that Mad_Marx treated me to in Boise, and the oyster shell-like patina of the car.

So that's our trip. I'm loving this car so much. Thanks to everyone in this thread and on the forum who helped me feel confident about going for it. I got a set of Nokian Hakkapelitta R2 winter tires in the mail the other day which will be installed next week. Looking forward to trying out the 4WD, and doing some other maintenance soon (fluid changes, try to fix the cassette player, install new headlights...).

graveyard.jpeg

[ARCHINSTL]

Props - and Thanks for sharing your Odyssey!
And now the adventure begins!
Tom M.