Canada Takes Home A Rust Free '87

[TURTCEL]

Keep us post marlinh...I am interested to see what you find out with that carb. It was sure an interesting issues that it had when we initially looked at it.

Peace

[marlinh]

I will! I wish I could find the piece that was in the carb, but I lost it. It was even on a bench over a rag. Once the weather warms up I will try it out and let you know.

[marlinh]

Well, spring is in the air and I was encouraged to try out this carb. I bolted it on this morning and I am happy to say that it idled fine. No racing like before, so that elusive little piece that I saw was the culprit. I just wish I hadn't lost it.

[marlinh]

Update: After five months, most of that waiting for the snow to melt, I am happy to say that Everett passed inspection here in BC. The shop I went to was very particular and wanted every bushing replaced because they had tiny cracks in them. Had to pay dealer prices for the front sway bar bushings, ($160 ouch!). Rear sway bar bushings had miniscule play as well and I fixed that with inner tubes. They also snagged all the axle boots for tiny cracks as well, but I argued that they are not torn and they let it go. New brakes all around, calipers, rotors, wheel cylinders, etc...Rear shocks replaced, new belts. He also snagged the driver's door pins. They were the tightest ones I have ever had. Hardly 1/4" play at the end of the door. I took the door off and beat on the hinges with a center punch until it took up the play. He even wanted the engine bay washed! Anyway, after all said, she passed with flying colours and I now have an awesome summer car!

[dlb]

congrats, marlene! i'm glad to hear everett was finally able to live up to that guy's expectations.

[ARCHINSTL]

Congratulations!
But Geez - are individual inspection stations allowed to set the standards? Or are the standards in Canada (or your province) that high? I presume that the shop that did the inspections also do (or is required to do) the repairs? That would hardly lead to objectivity on the part of the shop.
This would lead some shops to lick their chops when an old, but beloved or special-interest, car would enter their bay; instant payment on the boat!

Missouri went through several instances of this many years ago (perhaps 35 years ago?) when safety inspections were initiated. People having older cars as DD's - then, cars made in the late '50s/early '60s - were being rejected at several stations because of nitpicking way beyond what the state's statutes called for. It caused quite a scandal when newspapers finally picked up on it.
I ran into a form of this with my POS '69 VW Bus around 1979 or so. The rules call for an operable horn and mine had long-since bitten the dust; the clever German engineers had placed the horn just inside the left front wheel where it eventually succumbed to road salt and debris. The tech flunked the bus, so I attached a bicycle horn to the DS o/s mirror and resubmitted it. He again flunked it, but in a rare instance of moi thinking, I'd gotten a copy of the statute, which just called for "an operable horn;" it did not state the nature of the horn nor its method of operation. He passed the car, and it continued to pass for the next 6 years. It was used sparingly then, as I'd gotten my first T4WD in late '82.
Tom M.

[Petros]

Congrats on the approval, now your Tercel is officially a Canadian citizen with papers and everything. Immigration for Everett has been approved! Did you have a little celebration? that is usually traditional.

When I first heard of the level of inspection I though it was way overboard. It is one thing to look for saftey issues, but another thing to reject it because of minor cracks in a boot on the steering or cv axle. These have NOTHING to do with safety, completely bogus. Many early rack and pinion cars, and even cv axle cars, did not have boots at all. they just needed frequent replacing when the seals gave out. I suspect the whole law was lobbied for by the car dealers in Canada, they did not want Canadians flooding to the US to buy cheap and rust free used cars and bring them up to Canada, it might harm their income, they would have to lower their rip-off prices for their rust bucket jalopies.

When I bring a car in for registration that has a salvaged title it must be safety inspected. All they check for is if the all lights work, the windshield is not full of cracks and bullseyes (they will approve those too if they are not in the line of sight of the driver) and the brakes work, they may wiggle the steering wheel too. They do not even lift the hood, nor look under the car. It costs $80 last time I had to do it.

Looks like the Canadian inspection stations are on "fishing" expeditions to look for reason to charge more money.

[TURTCEL]

Heck Yeah!!!! Glad to hear that Everett is an official Maple Leaf now. Sometimes inspectors can be overly nitpicky...as well as completely blind to other things.

Peace

[marlinh]

Well, if this shop was on a fishing expedition to make money they were sadly disappointed that I promptly took it home and did the work myself. I was not giving them an extra dime and was pretty choked that they were so anal!

I took out my frustration with the first failed inspection by beating on those hinge pins with expletives after every whack. I am a licensed automotive technician and know what is safe or not. This guys attitude really sent me for a loop but I didn't want to go to another shop and find they were going to make me repair more stuff since we 'discussed' the axles etc, and if he changed his mind on the second try, it wasn't going to be pretty!

It has jaded me about bringing home any other cars because of the pain this one was to certify. So, I no longer look at the cars for sale in Washington and think...hmmm, maybe I can bring that one home too...Unless...,I find another place that won't be such an ass. This shop was close to home etc, and I wasn't bringing them a POS to slip through the cracks. It was (and is) a solid safe vehicle!

[Petros]

Marlinh,

If you ever get the urge to try again, you are welcome to stay in our guest room and use my shop and tools to bring any Tercels up to "anal inspector standards" before you go home. We just have to plan ahead because often my schedule is pretty heavy too. Parts are a lot cheaper here, and plentiful, and usually there are several Tercels in the local self service wrecking yards.

If we clean off the cracked boots, and than coat them with tire black or something similar, it would make the boots look near new.

[marlinh]

Gee Petros, THANK YOU for your generous offer. That is very kind!

I was very surprised at the attitude of the shop owner when I brought the car in the first time. He said there is a regional inspector that drives around and drops in to inspection facilities and checks up on them, especially when they see an 'old' car entered into the computer...blah, blah, blah,... I thought it was a lot of hogwash, and besides they are usually done when they are at that stage. This shop is in the middle of nowhere, and not a quick 10 minute drive from where this guy would normally be. But he could have been a bigger ass and entered my 'failure' into the system and screwed me from trying to get it to pass at another shop. He said he was doing me a favour by not doing that.

I will never go back there again. There is one other place I had considered using but they were booked the day I wanted to do the inspection and also 45 minutes away, so this other place was convenient. I have learned my lesson never to go there again!