85 Toyota Tercel won't turn over

General discussion about our beloved Tercel 4WD cars
Tercel_Life
Newbie
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Feb 10, 2018 12:13 pm
My tercel:: 1985 Toyota Tercel Wagon

Re: 85 Toyota Tercel won't turn over

Post by Tercel_Life »

Hey everyone,
I want to start off by saying thank you sooooooo much for all the advice. It honestly helped me out a lot in this process. I did end up fixing it today! Turns out the ignition coil was bad. Please don't be mad at me I know I said I checked it, but today I just had a weird feeling that I should go back and check my work. So I pulled the dizzy out and took it to Autozone and had them check the ignition coil and they couldn't get a read on it. So I bought a new one for $30.00 and add a little starter fluid in the carburetor and it started right up. Afterwards, I dialed in the timing and she is running great now!
Jarf
Top Notch Member
Posts: 354
Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2008 9:20 pm
My tercel:: Currently without
Location: Ontario

Re: 85 Toyota Tercel won't turn over

Post by Jarf »

Champion indeed.
Never have liked them but B&S seems to stand by them.
NGK in there now :)

My point was more to highlight just how easy it is to skip over something obvious, because it looks okay.
If I had checked that spark plug with a meter instead of my eyes, I would have saved a lot of grief and effort.

Glad to see TL found his solution, though.
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Petros
Highest Ranking Member
Posts: 11930
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:31 pm
My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: 85 Toyota Tercel won't turn over

Post by Petros »

Congrats T.Life!

must feel good to have it fixed, and that you did it yourself too! that is usually the case, tracking down the cause takes more time and frustration than the actual fix.

As for spark plugs, NGK is all I use, cheap and indestructible. I drive them until my fuel economy drops off, usually about 60K to 75k miles.

I do not know how Champion spark plugs got such a good reputation. when I worked for the Nissan racing program, Champion was one of our sponsors, they poured a lot of money into marketing their image, they even sponsored races too, with big "Champion" banners all around the race track. I got all the spark plugs I could use for free to put them in my old Datsun 510 (L-16 motor). That was not a lot, because I could only use four at a time, but they kept failing. I never once made it through the normal tune up interval with all of the same Champion plus. one would start misfiring, so I would replace it, than another one the next month, and so fourth. Not one of the four plugs ever lasted until the next oil change. When I no longer worked there I started buy NGKs because they were Japanese and because they cost a bit less (though at the time, they were only about $.99 to $1.29 each, so the savings was not much). And I never had another spark plug failure. Sometimes I would just change them at 50k miles, they only cost 0.99 any way.

How many people are fooled by the all the race cars they sponsor? I do not know, but I do know once they proven unreliable I will never use them again. They fool people into buying their products because people seem to think that having a Champion sticker on your car means the stuff they can buy in the auto parts store must be good. If they actually made a better product, I might consider buying them.

Another data point: when we moved to the forested PNW, I had to own chain saws just to do yard work. Our five acres also needs powered lawn mowers, string trimmers, and even regularly use generators. Most of the tune up kits you get for these small motors come with Champion spark plugs. I would dutifly each spring give it a tune up from the kits from walmart or similar suppliers. I would also get frustrated with these simple small engines, how much effort I had to put into them to keep them running reliably during the summer after this tune ujp. I might fell a big tree, that is a hazzard so it has to be taken down. but before I can get it cut up and out of the way, the chain saw would be down on power and almost become impossible to start with out starter spray. I would rebuild the carbs, clean and gap the spark plug, check the magneto with my volt-olm meter, still it was a PIA to keep running. In frustration I stopped by the local small engine repair shop and asked if they had anything they could sell me, even a new carburetor, to make it run better and easier to start. These tiny carbs are are very simple little devices, takes about six min to take apart, clean, put back together and adjust the mixture. First thing he asked was what kind of spark plug I was using, so I told him. He said "those always do that, use Autolite plugs" I protested it was only about ten hours old, he said again "try the Autolite". Never had trouble starting the chain saw again, even after sitting in the shed for 10 months over the winter!
'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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ARCHINSTL
Goldie Forever
Posts: 6369
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: 85 Toyota Tercel won't turn over

Post by ARCHINSTL »

Ditto on Petros' experience with Champion plugs!
When I first got Goldie in '05. I installed Champions, as the ? brand had electrodes worn to zilch. After a bit, while trying to get her to pass MO's (then required) emission standards, I read about NGK here and the result was remarkable! Now granted, most of my probs in trying to pass the emissions were not related to the original plugs, but they did help.
Since then, I've also replaced the ? OE plugs in my 2-cycle Echo blower and whacker and again, the results are actually noticeable!
Tom M.
T4WD augury?
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit."
T.S. Eliot - "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
"Now and then we had a hope that, if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates."
Mark Twain
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