Tercel4WD.com

That's strange about the non-sealed bearings. Pretty much all generic bearings nowadays come with seals (usually metal ones for electric motors). If you want an unsealed bearing so it can be grease-able, you can always pry out the seal. It's almost like someone would have to go out of their way to u...

I'm not sure what the vapour pressure of gasoline + ethanol is at lets say 15 degrees C, but Since the pump is outside and above the level of the tank and drawing fuel through small lines/hoses (restrictions), the pressure in the line is less than atmospheric (slight vacuum). Given turbulence and sm...

Dumb question, but is your brake master cylinder reservoir low on fluid? The level switch in that reservoir is the other signal that will trigger the brake light to come on.

Since you have the feedback version of the carb like me, I wonder if you could put a volt meter on the oxygen sensor connection and see if your idle mix is rich or lean. If I remember right, the feedback system is disabled at idle, but the oxygen sensor should still be putting out its milivoltage. I...

I just double-checked the manual and if I'm reading it right, the Canadian manual trans version and the 3A have the smaller gap for some reason. Mine is a 3AC automatic.

According to the manual, the spark plug gap should be .043". I think the gap for my 6-volt ignition system 1st gen Tercel was .031".

Maybe the difference with my cars is that I never rebuilt any of the carbs. Many people seem to have some issues and decide to rebuild the whole carb and then it never runs right after that. On my '81 1st gen Tercel, it came stock with a 6-volt points-type distributor. I replaced it with a 2nd gen e...

As for the ethanol blended fuel, the idea is supposed to be that it has less energy, but atomizes better for a quicker and more complete burn so power output is at least the same. I haven't noticed any difference between straight gasoline and ethanol-blended gas in my cars. Pretty much everything fr...

I have a feedback carb on my '84 wagon. It idles rock steady as does my '81 Tercel, as did my '83 Tercel hatchback. The idle speed is as per the FSM for the automatic Tercels. The only time any of them idled a bit rough or occasionally stalled at idle was when they had vacuum leaks. Bumping up the f...

The automatic ones have a section on the bottom that is a transmission fluid cooler. It has small inlet and outlet pipes for hoses from the trans. If that is the only difference (eg, mounting points are the same), these pipes can just be left disconnected and it should be fine.

According to Wikipedia, there are several versions of the 3A engine, all with different horsepower at different rpms and different torques. I always assumed that the higher horsepower ones lacked the horsepower-killing emissions requirements of the North American ones, but maybe they have different ...

Years ago I got 2 new front tires from Canadian Tire for my Tercel. They installed them while I waited in the store. They made an announcement in the store PA for me to come to the auto service desk. When I got there they told me that my tie rods were worn out and ready to fail and needed to be repl...

At that highest temperature (above 89), when you factor in the pressure drop across the filter, that's probably hot enough to boil off water. Maybe this condition would apply if you were sitting at idle for an hour with a clogged air filter (so reduced air flow), in the sun, in Death Valley. Or mayb...

Looking at those temperatures, I wonder how often the air temperature in the air filter housing would ever get that high in our climate. 29 degrees C, I can see, but over 50 degrees? That's almost too hot to touch. I'd be curious to put a thermometer in the filter housing and see how hot it gets.

I don't think that system has any effect on the fuel-air mix or does anything to lean out the mix. According to the FSM diagram, it just acts as a switching valve to direct vacuum (or shut it off) to the flap diaphragm. When the HIC valve is open, the vacuum to the flap valve diaphragm should be dea...