Genesis of the Tercel 4wd found!

General discussion about our beloved Tercel 4WD cars
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helipilot77
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My tercel:: 1984 SR5 wagon
Location: Seattle, WA

Genesis of the Tercel 4wd found!

Post by helipilot77 »

Went to my storage unit and saw this gem parked off to the side. These were a somewhat unsuccessful first attempt at a lightweight 4wd wagon. I remember seeing them around. They were first offered in 1979.

Image
. / TOYOTA
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splatterdog
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Re: Genesis of the Tercel 4wd found!

Post by splatterdog »

Junk, junk, junk! These were still around when I started wrenching and I worked on quite a few. Only worked on one T4 ever back then. Fortunately, other than "wagon" and "4wd" they share nothing in common. In typical Jeep fashion they would rust out even with all the oil leaking everywhere. Look at the spots, was the car rolled back for the photo. haha

AMC stood for either Aint My Car or American Made Crap..
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helipilot77
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My tercel:: 1984 SR5 wagon
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: Genesis of the Tercel 4wd found!

Post by helipilot77 »

It actually had been parked there for some time. There may be a reason for it sitting in storage.
. / TOYOTA
./_| |/|/ |]
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Ace
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My tercel:: '83 DLX 4WD Tercel wagon 3AC

Re: Genesis of the Tercel 4wd found!

Post by Ace »

In 1980-81 I drove a newer AMC Eagle for a few hundred miles, borrowed out of the company motor pool. I tried it out in some sand dunes near North Platte and got it stuck but dug it out myself. Another time I drove it across Nebraska when I-80 had bunches of snow, got over-confident and spun out driving too fast for the conditions, but no damage. It drove OK and was reasonably comfortable but I can't attest to long-term reliability. I liked the looks and the taller 4x4 stance but the fuel mileage was disappointing, only about 17mpg, which killed my possible interest in having one myself. As I recall it had a standard 258CID straight-six engine and auto trans. Haven't seen one on the road for a long time now.
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marlinh
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My tercel:: 'Everett' Blue 87 4WD Wagon (Rocky 86, recently retired)
Location: Kootenays

Re: Genesis of the Tercel 4wd found!

Post by marlinh »

A closer look at your roof racks please. Did you make them yourself?
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helipilot77
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My tercel:: 1984 SR5 wagon
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Re: Genesis of the Tercel 4wd found!

Post by helipilot77 »

marlinh wrote: Sun Sep 03, 2017 8:47 am A closer look at your roof racks please. Did you make them yourself?
Yeah, I made it myself. I wasn't sure how it would turn out when it was just an idea in my head but I've gotten several compliments on it, and it has proven to be very useful. I'll try to dig up some photos of it for you. I had one on my build thread but haven't fully switched over to Imgur from photobucket. It uses some Yakima rack towers that came with the car.
. / TOYOTA
./_| |/|/ |]
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marlinh
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My tercel:: 'Everett' Blue 87 4WD Wagon (Rocky 86, recently retired)
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Re: Genesis of the Tercel 4wd found!

Post by marlinh »

They look great! How are they attached to the towers?
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helipilot77
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My tercel:: 1984 SR5 wagon
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Re: Genesis of the Tercel 4wd found!

Post by helipilot77 »

With a carriage bolt

Image

Image
. / TOYOTA
./_| |/|/ |]
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marlinh
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My tercel:: 'Everett' Blue 87 4WD Wagon (Rocky 86, recently retired)
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Re: Genesis of the Tercel 4wd found!

Post by marlinh »

Cool, thanks for sharing.
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