1984 Blue Sr5 Asheville, NC. 500/OBO/Trade

[Henry]

Per my CL listing:

1984 Toyota Tercel Sr5 - $500 (Arden)

A beautiful baby blue 1984 Toyota Tercel Sr5 could be yours! Just think of how much fun a 6 speed, 4x4 station wagon could be! Never worry about getting to the grocery in the snow again! Explore those awesome back country forest service roads out by Pisgah! Convert it to CNG! The possibilities are endless. This car would be a great project to get running again, or to keep that treasured tercel you have now running. Lemme tell you all about it:

1984- Almost a classic! Almost.
Sr5- Toyota's highest trim package! You get features like blue plaid seats, built in compass, and a dashboard inclinometer. Yes, a dashboard inclinometer. How cool is that?
134,000 miles. Not bad for 25 years old.
3A inline 4 cylinder engine. And with those few miles, you'll have nothing to worry about with this motor. Its tight and will be for a long time.
Station Wagon- With seating for five, a fold down rear seat, and plenty of storage you'll never have to worry about having to leave the dog or a friend behind again!
6 speed- 6 exciting ways to have shifting fun with!
4x4- Yes. I'll say it again. Its a 6 speed station wagon that even has a low range. No pansy awd or crappy vacuum systems here. Its two sticks of four wheeling fun.

Here's the story behind this car:

I bought it about 8 months ago to fix and drive back and forth to work. The guy said it needed a new clutch, so I said great! I towed it home, pulled out the transmission, where I discovered it was bad. Great. So I went and bought a new transmission at a salvage yard in Brevard that shifted tight and looked great. Unfortuneatly, when I installed it, it got stuck in gear. You'll have to come see for yourself about the problem, but essentially, with the car stuck in neutral it moves forward, slowly. Like its stuck in 2nd. The only gear I can put it into is the 'extra low' (or EL on the shifter), which makes it stalls out. I think that EL turned into 5th somehow...

Now, the transmission is a direct drive with no linkage. I've done some more research and I'd just about bet next weeks paycheck on it that all you have to do is pull the transmission back out and reinstall it, just ensuring the gears mesh up right when you do. If you've done any transmission work before, this is half a day of work. If you haven't just grab a buddy and a case of beer and follow the service manual I'm going to give you.

In short: The transmission is a good transmission. It just needs to be pulled and put back in.

The only reason I'm selling it is because I've lost the time, money, and downright energy for this project. So its my loss, your gain.

NEW PARTS!!

While I had the tranny out the first time, I installed a new rear main seal, had the flywheel machined, and put a new clutch it while i was at it.

EXTRA PARTS!!

I'm going to throw in the old transmission with the car, too. You can combine it with another transmission to make a spare for your sweet new tercel, or you can scrap it. Its already in pieces. The old transmission's main shaft ended up stripping out and little pieces got stuck in the main cluster, too. Evidentily, this is not common for these transmissions to break in this fashion so it could have lots of good gears left over still. The cases are all in great shape.

I also have a toyota service manual to include. It cost me 110 dollars to print this sucker out. That's how good it is. 700 pages that shows you have to take your tercel apart and put it back together again, just like they would do at the dealership.

500 dollars, best offer, or i'll trade for just about anything cool. That is a steal for a car that just needs a little elbow grease to get running or to have your own person parts collection for your current tercel. And about trading.. have a trailer you want to get rid of? Lets talk. Old motorcylce sitting around? Lemme see it. Crummy old pickup truck that runs? Awesome. Hot girl friend? I may just end up paying you.

Email me at cbhenry@bell[[[BELLSOUTHISONEWORD]]south[[[[REMOVEBECAUSSPAMSUCKSANDISSTUPID]]].com

[Jonesy]

Purchased! Sadly, no hot girlfriend to trade..

Hopefully I'll have a bit more luck with this apparently fickle transmission.

Good doing business Chris - I've been looking for one of these babies for a long time!


Woohoo!

[ARCHINSTL]

Welcome to the Club - and the Journey!
Tom M.

[buffalomesa]

I really like those 2-tone blue Tercels, I had one just like it several years ago.

[Mattel]

nice looking rides.. what is that peice of american wagon goodness doing the towing?

good luck with the gearbox - hope it's just a simple realignment job. stay in touch

[Neu]

Welcome!

[Jonesy]

Thanks all, I'll hopefully be dropping the transmission on the 20th to check out its condition. I'm hoping it might be a linkage or fork issue, and won't need a complete rebuild/another transmission. Clutch seems to be fine, so I can't imagine what else it could be.

I'll try and post some pictures as I go along.

[edzomatic56]

Hi,
Do you still have the car and if so besides the tranny problem does she have any significant rust issues. I might be interested in coming down to purchase it.
Thanks,
Ed MacCormack

PS best email to reach me is emaccormack@maritime.edu

[Petros]

Welcome to the list. I hope you got it cheap. That trans problem sounds like it is a bad trans, if you get it out take it back to the yard it came from for a refund or another one. I have pulled and installed these trans at least 6 times, and I can not think of way to "mess up the linkage" to cause this, no combination of shift and 4wd lever positions would cause this, but a worn out trans (the shifter forks) will cause exactly this. That is how one of my trans failed, driving fine one day and than it got stuck in 2nd gear. It then trashed it self into metal shavings as I limped it home in 2nd.

Good luck.

[cz11@msn.com]

I also have replaced a transmission (that we thought shifted OK) and now if the shifter is in neutral the engine tries to move the car as if it were in 3rd gear. I can only shift to Extra Low in which case the engine can not turn the tranny at all (kills engine). Anyone solve this before? Thank you for any response.

[Petros]

when the shift forks internal to the trans wears out they can pop out of the linkage, leaving the trans in gear. The EL uses a different linkage, so it sound like it is stuck in 3rd gear without any way to pull it out of gear, but when you put in in EL it just locks up the gear cluster since it has two gears engaged at the same time. The trans has to come out of the car, the case split and the linkage or shifting forks replaced. Or just find another good trans all together.

Good luck.

[toughtercel]

Thanks all, I'll hopefully be dropping the transmission on the 20th to check out its condition. I'm hoping it might be a linkage or fork issue, and won't need a complete rebuild/another transmission. Clutch seems to be fine, so I can't imagine what else it could be.

I'll try and post some pictures as I go along.

how he doing so far .

[cz11@msn.com]

Thank you, Petros. I found a working tranny and now the old girl is running again. What a battle it was, but I am ecstatic now. I love this old car! -- Charles in Colorado