Canada Takes Home A Rust Free '87

[TURTCEL]

Well, marlinh made it down here to the great state of Washington from North of the border to save an '87 DLX T4WD. Petros and I met her yesterday and took her to the seller. She made the deal and we went to work on her new ride.

The car is in really decent shape but needed a little TLC to make her road worthy for her trip home. Needed a carb, oil change, set timing, checked the brakes and topped off all the fluids. The car runs great and trans shifts fine.

We did the work at my place which was about 10 mins from the seller's house. Marlinh was able to pick up a bunch of extra parts from me and Petros to take back to her place up in the frozen North.

Today she will be swapping the thermostat at Petros' place up in Arlington...doesn't blow heat....not ok for driving in the winter with snow on the ground. She will also be scavenging the pick-n-pulls for some extra treats to return home with as well.

The trip has been great and it is always awesome to meet other forum members.

Her new purchase was a steal at $500 and just a few extra dollars to assure a safe trip. I know this was a really wanted car by other members as well but when the time is right we will all come across our gold at the end of the rainbow.

I will be keeping my eyes out for other Tercs for members.

Got an '87 on line right now as well for parts...$200.

Peace

[Mattel]

Great teamwork you guys! Great story!

[ARCHINSTL]

I second dlb's comment!
Camaraderie is great!
Tom M.

[Petros]

yes, after she scavenged all of the good tercel4wd parts from two local picknpulls, Marline made it up to my place last evening were we changed the t-stat, rad hoses and check a few other adjustments. the car was a great buy, running excellent and drives very nice. THe new t-state helped the heat a bit, but the heater core needs a good flush. WE considered doing it but the clamps and hoses look original on the heater, so they would likely get trashed pulling them off. Also it was hovering around freezing so we were not real motivated to get into flushing the heater. Marlin decided to drive to Spokane with just luke warm heat (better than it was before).

I had a set of blue SR5 seats in my garage that were perfect for replacing the cracked plastic DX seats that came with it, and I sold Marlin an extra rear bumper, and a few other spares, in addition to the two other fenders and door pick-up at the picknpulls (and an SR5 instrument cluster). We managed to get it all to fit in the back, after dinner Marlin returned to the hotel. By today I presume the car will be on its way to spokane, and than north to Canada.

[marlinh]

I don't know how to link to the photos I posted on the for sale posting, but I put up a few shots of the car for everyone, including a shot of the underside. All us Canadians who live in salt country can appreciate the lack of holes and rust.

The heat was virtually non existent on the highway, but at least it didn't blow super cold like it was before we did the t-stat. I took advantage of Harbor Freight deals and picked up a tiny heater that helped a bit. All in all it was a great trip home with the new terc. We have become fast friends.

[rer233]

Just had a similar no-heat situation with my "new" '87 2WD wagon. Flushed the heater core with water and compressed air with little or no improvement (core didn't really appear to be clogged.) I then emptied the glovebox, compressed the 2 plastic pins that limit the glovebox's travel, and dropped it all the way down. I could then see the diverter flap linkage and observed it's movement as i moved the temp control lever. It didn't move at all! I then moved the white plastic diverter flap lever by hand, and Viola- center air flap temp of 133 F. Turns out the cable coming off the temp control lever had come off the diverter flap linkage. Was a bit of a weasle job to get it back on, but now all is well. Man i love no-parts repairs! Truth be known, the no-heat situation is probably why the PO sold the car. Just a thought-hope this helps.

PS- congrats on your new "baby"- i know what you mean about preserving a rust-free t4- i don't plan on EVER driving my '87 4wd in the salt (which they use quite liberally here in MD) Guess it'll stay parked 'till spring.

Good Luck!

[marlinh]

rer233, is that the flap to the left and above the glove box? I stopped on the highway after I left Petros' place and checked it. Thought I had an aha moment, but it was moving correctly.

[rer233]

marlinh- The flap i'm speaking of is about 3" directly below the blower resistor pack. Should be a white lever operated by a steel wire with a springy-thing on the end of it. The lower part of the lever should move to the pass side of the car when the temp control lever is moved to the "hot" position.

hope this helps- Good Luck!

[marlinh]

Yeah, that is the one I checked. I disconnected it to make sure it was moving fully to the right and it was.

[rer233]

Guess you're not going to get lucky like i did. Flush next??

[marlinh]

'Everett's' first (?) blizzard.

[TURTCEL]

Love the name marlinh...totally fitting.

Peace

[marlinh]

I'll never forget where the car came from.

[yodasrus]

On the Thermostat:

Nearly everyone is bad on the Tercels and it is not only about a bad heater.
It hurts your engine severely to drive with a bad thermostat because it is driven too much
without true operating temperature. That causes severe premature wear.
We have a beautiful, semi low mileage car which will need an engine rebuilt due to bad piston rings caused
by a lot of driving with stuck thermostat.

Thermostat is for sure less expensive than engine rebuilt.
I now even replace them even if they seem to work.

[marlinh]

I finally got a chance to look at the original carb that came with Everett. The problem with it was it would not idle, only rev at the lowest 2000 rpm.

I flipped it over today and saw that both the primary and secondary throttle plates were partially open. There was something jammed in the secondary throttle plate, which was holding the primary open just slightly. That's why we couldn't get it to idle. Interesting. I will try this carb out again to see if it is ok now next time I have a chance.