At long last! My first tercel

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cromagmom
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Posts: 58
Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2014 3:52 pm
My tercel:: 84 Tercel 4wd
Location: Boise

At long last! My first tercel

Post by cromagmom »

I had some close calls when I was living out in Idaho. When I moved to NC a few months ago I thought I would have to be contracting a very understanding and patient friend to pick one up and hold it for me. Luckily, I finally managed to chase down my first tercel all the way in Charlotte, NC! I did pay a bit of a premium due to the rarity of them out here for what it is, but it runs pretty decently and seems to have been somewhat regularly maintained. ~147xxx on the odometer, which should probably be slightly higher. Still working on the moniker. The Biscuit is in the running due to my celebratory egg and cheese biscuit from Bonjangles (not pictured).

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Image
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Complementary hood ornament and factory rack from a minivan, maybe?

This will be the first car maintenance I've undertaken. Some things I want to address

-Master cylinder seems to be a tad leaky. Breaks are fine for now and previous owner never reported any issues
-Front passenger side axle has a boot that is leaking
-Bushings on sway bar end links could stand replacing
-Rough Idle in the cold, ~20 F.
-Pretty bad gas mileage. Coming in around 20 mpg with a mixture of city and highway driving. The odometer wasn't adjusted for the bigger wheels that the previous owner put on and reads ~5 mph below what a GPS says. I have the original wheels and will put those on soon.
-Pre-heater hose is ripped.
-No heat in the cab. I'm going to try flushing out the heater core this weekend.
-Thermostat never reaches middle of the gauge.

Everything I know about vehicle maintenance has been accumulated from lurking on this forum and watching ChrisFix videos on youtube. I'm excited to start working on this beast and getting it in top shape!
Last edited by cromagmom on Tue Mar 03, 2015 3:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Gogogordy
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Re: At long last! My first tercel

Post by Gogogordy »

Nice find. Enjoy.

Jealous...
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irowiki
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Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:02 am
Location: Farmington, NM

Re: At long last! My first tercel

Post by irowiki »

Rough idle when cold when it is -20F out is perfectly normal.

I'd replace the thermostat and put good coolant in before you worry about flushing the heater core.
Former Tercel Enthusiast (not a practical family car anymore but they still have a place in my heart)

Site administrator, if something is broken, PM me!

87 Corolla FX16, 105k
94 Jamboree RV (Ford E-350), 90k
95 Camry Wagon, 170k
97 4runner, 275k
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cromagmom
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Posts: 58
Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2014 3:52 pm
My tercel:: 84 Tercel 4wd
Location: Boise

Re: At long last! My first tercel

Post by cromagmom »

Thanks for the tip. That should be approximately +20˚ F, but the tilde does look like a bit like a minus sign. Would the rough idle still be somewhat normal in that range?
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irowiki
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Location: Farmington, NM

Re: At long last! My first tercel

Post by irowiki »

If started cold, it'll be rough idling probably below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure you put the gas to the floor twice before starting when cold this will ensure the choke engages.
Former Tercel Enthusiast (not a practical family car anymore but they still have a place in my heart)

Site administrator, if something is broken, PM me!

87 Corolla FX16, 105k
94 Jamboree RV (Ford E-350), 90k
95 Camry Wagon, 170k
97 4runner, 275k
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Gottolovem
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Posts: 1637
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2012 4:28 pm
My tercel:: 1985 SR5 with snow plow,1987 auto 1984 parts car,1987 FX-16 GTS
Location: Reno

Re: At long last! My first tercel

Post by Gottolovem »

Nice find :mrgreen:
Why stock rims? The one's on the car look cool and I bet they handle better than stock.
To get your spedo back to normal put a shorter tire on the taller black rims.
your shooting for same as stock overall diameter.
You picked a great car to learn how to swing a wrench.
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Sparkey
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Posts: 76
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:34 pm
My tercel:: 1985 Toyota Tercel Wagon, 4WD, Automtic, Barto lift in rear, 1" of lift in front with blocks, 1985 SR-5 Seats, 1983 SR-5 Instument Cluster, Headlights, Trailer hitch, set of roof racks, Lots of Spray Paint,
Location: Milwaukie, Oregon

Re: At long last! My first tercel

Post by Sparkey »

I too like the wheels! Thats a real Nice Looking Tercel I like the Roof Rack and the Rear Wing. :D
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dlb
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My tercel:: '87 sr5, '83 dlx parts car
Location: bc, canada

Re: At long last! My first tercel

Post by dlb »

i like the wheels. they look like a wider offset than stock, which i like. the roof rack is awesome, looks stylish and sturdy. it's easy to remove both the grill and license plate holder on the back so i would remove them and spray paint them since they are so faded in comparison to the rest of the car.

agreed with irowiki on the thermostat. if the temp gauge barely gets off the bottom, that's the first reason you're not getting any heat in the car -- there's no heat in the coolant. try that and just fill it with regular water to start with. if you still have lousy heat, than try a chemical flush.
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ARCHINSTL
Goldie Forever
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Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 1:52 pm
My tercel:: Goldie is a 1986 SR5 attualmente con Weber/also owned the first T4WD in STL in late '82
Location: Kirkwood, a 'burb of St. Louis

Re: At long last! My first tercel

Post by ARCHINSTL »

I removed the ATM and grill years ago and sprayed them with RustOleum Satin Black. Just sanded lightly with 600 wet paper, used RO Plastic Primer, and away we went. Obviously had to remove them, but no big deal.
The grill has stayed just fine, but after 5 or so years I had to remove the ATM and respray as, with no garage, the car's rear faces the sun 365. I did not use the Primer again, but did use the 600 wet paper before spraying again.
Tom M.
T4WD augury?
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: At long last! My first tercel

Post by Petros »

Welcome to the Forum!

Looks like a really nice Tercel4wd, I too would keep the wheels. When the over-sized tires wear out replace them with lower profile tires to get closer to the stock rolling dia. The factory steel wheels suck: they are noticable flexible and will harm both steering response and braking.

The way you tell if the master cylinder is bad is to pump up the brakes several times and hold the pedal down hard. If it slowly bleeds down, the master has to be replaced or rebuilt (buy only a new one, the re-manufactured ones are junk, or rebuild it yourself with a kit). If it does not bleed down, but the brakes are still mushy and you are loosing fluid, it is likely the rear wheel cylinders. Not a too difficult to replace, and you likely should replace the rear brake shoes while you are at it, get new parts (not rebuilt) from Rockauto.com (great prices, and you get a 5 percent discount from this forum, do a search for the current discount code). But before you pay for the parts, check shipping costs and compare with Autozone and Napa first, Autozone will do free shipping on orders over $50 (?), or to your local store. Sometimes the price pluse shipping cost from Rockauto.com is more than you can buy parts locally.

When you replace your thermostat buy only a good quality one, usually costs about $15 to $20 locally (usually much less from Rockauto, but buy only the good brands, made in USA or Japan, not china-rockauto will have some really cheap no-name parts made by communists, do not buy those either). Autozone and Napa both sell factory quality thermostats with lifetime warranties, and well worth it, or buy from an actual toyota dealer. Not worth damaging your engine to save $10 on a thermostat. The last cheap one I bought went bad in less than a year, was not worth the savings because I had to do it over again (fortunately it went bad slowly and I caught it before it caused damage). Never again, not worth it. When rockauto has a sale on Gates (usa) or Aisin (Japanese) thermostats I just buy 2 or 3 and save them. Replace about every two to three years, along with the antifreeze. You might also consider flushing out the heater core and the radiator if it looks corroded and scaled up inside the rad cap, but if your temp is very low there is plenty of cooling capacity and likely it is just a t-stat that opens too far/too fast. It could be the cause of the rough idle as well (engine not warm enough to break up the fuel completely).

As far as poor fuel econmy, likel related to rough idle, it may be running too rich, two possible common causes: the auxilary acceleration pump (AAP) is leaking into the vac system and allowing it leak into the intake manifold. Easy check: find the vac line going to the AAP (see the service manual chapert on fuel system), and pull it. If it is full of fuel the AAP needs to be replaced, it can be replaced without removing the carb. A quick fix is to just cap off the vac line at both ends, you only need the AAP when it is still cold, after it warms up it is cut out of the circuit. It will run fine with it capped off, and improve the fuel economy and low speed running. The other cause is flooding because of bad needle valve in the carb, also easy check: clean the site glass off the front of the carb (a small glass window), and look for the fuel level in the window. It should be somewhere in the middle of the window, if you can not see it it means it is over full and spilling into the engine, making run rich, idle rough and get poor fuel economy. You can also clean or replace the needle valve without removing the carb from the engine, but the top has to come off. You need to use care because there are a lot of tiny parts that you can drop into the engine bay, they all have to be present and in the correct place for it to run correctly. You can also clean out the gunk once you have top of the carb off, but you might consider just removing it (it does not take too long, about 15 min), and than rebuilding it with a kit. do this on a clean work table with paper spread over the surface, remove all the tiny parts carefully and lay them out in the order you remove them, using the service manual as your guide.

Good luck! and welcome again!

BTW, what is the origin of your screen name? Cromagum Mom?
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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cromagmom
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Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2014 3:52 pm
My tercel:: 84 Tercel 4wd
Location: Boise

Re: At long last! My first tercel

Post by cromagmom »

Awesome info, everyone. It's definitely helping me approach this all with a level head and learn to not assume the worst in diagnosing issues. Once I get around to them, hopefully this coming week, I'll post any improvements. And I think I've been convinced to keep the wheels. On that note, does anyone need some factory wheels??

The screen name is just a nonsense bad pun off of Cro-magnon. I don't even know if it can technically be called a pun, but if there ever needed to be a distinction for pre-historic mothers, there ya go...
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irowiki
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Location: Farmington, NM

Re: At long last! My first tercel

Post by irowiki »

Are the factory ones alloys? Post a picture!
Former Tercel Enthusiast (not a practical family car anymore but they still have a place in my heart)

Site administrator, if something is broken, PM me!

87 Corolla FX16, 105k
94 Jamboree RV (Ford E-350), 90k
95 Camry Wagon, 170k
97 4runner, 275k
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Gottolovem
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Posts: 1637
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2012 4:28 pm
My tercel:: 1985 SR5 with snow plow,1987 auto 1984 parts car,1987 FX-16 GTS
Location: Reno

Re: At long last! My first tercel

Post by Gottolovem »

Are the factory wheels alloy?
If so people from this form will buy them from you
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Gottolovem
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Posts: 1637
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2012 4:28 pm
My tercel:: 1985 SR5 with snow plow,1987 auto 1984 parts car,1987 FX-16 GTS
Location: Reno

Re: At long last! My first tercel

Post by Gottolovem »

Haha you just beat me to it Paul
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cromagmom
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Posts: 58
Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2014 3:52 pm
My tercel:: 84 Tercel 4wd
Location: Boise

Re: At long last! My first tercel

Post by cromagmom »

Image

Steel, for sure.
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