Fix, Sell Or Donate???

[LoveMyTercel]

Hello Tercel Forum,

I have a 1984 Tercel 4WD SR5 wagon with 190K miles sitting in the garage of our vacation cabin in Minnesota in an undriveable condition. My brother and a neighbor boy were attempting to replace the carburetor as a favor and the neighbor said he knew how to do it. He wound up taking apart the throttle body linkage (or that is what he said) and has no idea how to put it back together. The parts are sitting in a bucket and the car has not been worked on for two years. It is just taking up space in the garage. I am not a mechanic and there is no one in the area who knows how to put the linkage back together. I am the original owner and I love the car so much! I drove it for 26 years in Colorado and then moved it to Minnesota as a backup car. But it doesn't run well in the humidity of Minnesota and is certainly not useful at all now. I hate the thought of getting rid of it, but don't think there is anyone nearby who could fix it. The car does have some rust around the wheel wells and on the back gate, but overall is in pretty good shape. Does anyone know a good mechanic in central Minnesota? I am contemplating donating it to a charity, but I can't stand the thought of it going to the crusher!

Any thoughts folks?
Thanks

[xirdneh]

there is a carb video on youtube for these tercels

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCzFuPqssfE

it might help ya

[splatterdog]

I have a complete carb you can use for reference, or if you are really bold, bolt it on. I cannot guarantee it is a working carb though.

My spare time is in short supply this summer, so making a house call to try and fix it is pretty much out of the question. I can bring the carb to Aitkin county though.

[Petros]

Welcome to the forum,

Your Tercel is well worth fixing. it is an easy fix for anyone familiar with this car, or you can just replace the whole carburetor assembly. I have several spare carbs, for a reasonable fee I could install one in my daily driver and verify it is a good running carb, than clean it up and ship it to you as a complete assembly.

It only takes about 20-30 min to swap out the carb, and connect all of the vacuum lines and connectors (just mark them all with tags to make sure you get them back on in the same place.

BTW, I have to add, it is foolish to disassemble something that you know nothing about, particularly since it is not likely the problem was in the carb (they are fairly reliable devices despite their complexity). Drivablity problems are usually cause by a leaky vac line or some other component, easy to fix once you locate the problem.

That is always why I always recommend to diagnose the problem BEFORE you try and fix it.

If I lived nearby I would be happy to help you out with it, but I have no plans to travel there soon (I was in your area last April, but no plans this year).

Good luck.

[LowBuckCanuck]

Watch some youtube videos, even without any mechanical experience, replacing a carb is fairly easy. You just have to believe in your own abilities, and make sure everything goes back in the right spot.

[LoveMyTercel]

Thanks Everyone for your helpful comments and encouragement!