Engine death strangeness

[Petros]

on one of the rescue cars I had bought in CA, it drove fine but was getting really bad fuel economy. I put the timing light on it and it was jumping all over the place. THe previous owner spent a lot of money to have a "new" distributor assembly installed, it was not new but rebuilt and it was junk. The plate that holds the sensor and ignition was all loose and rattling around. I brought a spare distributor assembly along for the trip and swapped it out. Economy returned to normal for Tercels after that.

A used factory distributor assembly if far better than a "new" re manufactured one any day.

[dlb]

just wanted to note that i realized i forgot to include setting the timing with the vacuum hoses disconnected and plugged in my last post. i edited it but wanted to give you a heads up in case you had already done the job so that you can go back and correctly reset the timing.

[St6fan]

I hate this.

Everything timing/dist related has always been a nightmare for me for some reason. You guys are so fabulous for the help, many thanks.

Two things:

1. There is a tiny amount of play in the shaft of the new unit. Is this going to be okay?

Also, are these points hosed or is this normal? I haven't been able to go out and pull the existing unit because it's pouring with rain.



And here's the unit - seems legit inside if the above is okay:

[St6fan]

I've never heard of pull-a-part in Oakland. Are you referring to pick and pull? If not please give me some more info. I hate when I can't find a part at pick and pull. It's also cool to know that there is another tercel 4wd owner I. The east bay. I'm in San leandro. Maybe I'll see you around.

Oops, you're right, it is a Pick-n-Pull!

Yeah, not many of around here. I've seen only one other T4WD in the East Bay and I think it was green. You?

I'm fully down to represent at a Toyota meet. The Asian teenagers with 700HP Supras won't know what hit them!

[dlb]

it's hard to really tell from the first photo but i think the cap looks fine. rotor looks almost new. when you say there is play in the dizzy shaft, i remember that there is a certain amount of spring-loaded play which is normal (i believe it's due to the vacuum advance mechanism). is that what you're talking about?

also, it's important to check the vac advance unit by putting a hose on each port, sucking on it, and then plugging the end of the hose with your tongue. if the diaphragms are good, you'll hear a click when you suck initially and it should hold until you remove your tongue from the hose. if they're bad, you'll be able to suck air. it's important to check because if it's connected but broken it will cause a vacuum leak. check them on both of your dizzy's and if both are good, keep one of them because they are hard to find used and ridiculously expensive to get new. if both vac advances have a bad diaphragm, just plug the appropriate vac lines. as long as the hoses to the broken diaphragms are plugged it's not a huge deal and you probably won't even notice. the lower port advances the timing during hwy cruising and the upper one advances it during idle and a little bit on hwy cruising. some (the federal models, i think) have a third port but i don't know what it's for. we don't have them up here in the northern tundra.

[andrewrenow]

I've never heard of pull-a-part in Oakland. Are you referring to pick and pull? If not please give me some more info. I hate when I can't find a part at pick and pull. It's also cool to know that there is another tercel 4wd owner I. The east bay. I'm in San leandro. Maybe I'll see you around.

Oops, you're right, it is a Pick-n-Pull!

Yeah, not many of around here. I've seen only one other T4WD in the East Bay and I think it was green. You?

I'm fully down to represent at a Toyota meet. The Asian teenagers with 700HP Supras won't know what hit them!

No not mine. Mine is silver. You might see me im in berekely a few times a month. Don't get frustrated with your tercel. When I got mine it was a pos. I did lots of repairs to it and now it runs perfect. If you need help I might be able to help you. I'm feeling more and more confident everyday with car repairs.

Btw what Toyota meet are you referring to?

[Petros]

rotational play is normal (part of the advance), but there should be NO side to side play at all, and little to no plung (up and down) play in the direction of the axis of the shaft.

If you have some lateral play, it can not be used. but, your old one might be good and you just need to swap the parts over.

Setting the timing not a big issue, set crank to TDC (verify number one cyl is on compression stroke), install distributor so rotor is pointing at number one postion (verify with dist. cap, which has to be off for this steP). Watch rotor turns a bit as it goes in (may take a few trys). Than assemble and it will run, now you set the timing.

[St6fan]

rotational play is normal (part of the advance), but there should be NO side to side play at all, and little to no plung (up and down) play in the direction of the axis of the shaft.

If you have some lateral play, it can not be used. but, your old one might be good and you just need to swap the parts over.

Setting the timing not a big issue, set crank to TDC (verify number one cyl is on compression stroke), install distributor so rotor is pointing at number one postion (verify with dist. cap, which has to be off for this steP). Watch rotor turns a bit as it goes in (may take a few trys). Than assemble and it will run, now you set the timing.

Ah Jeez.

There is some lateral play. As in, if I hold the unit and push the shaft left to right or up and down, it's not 100% solid. Wow, explaining directional shaft play is hard to do and sounds a bit masturbatory, huh?

Glad the cap's fine. When it stops megaraining, I'll be out in the yard and will report. Then, when the car's running, I'm going to detail it, drive it somewhere nice, photograph it and make y'all happy. Except a **** on a bicycle scraped a wing and I randomly got hammered in a parking lot by a cart. *hatred*

Anyway, will report and again, many thanks.

[Petros]

compare the movement to the shaft in your old distributor. You can return to picknpull and exchange it for another distributor. Or if the old one is better you can use the old housing and shaft, and swap over the electrical parts from the one from the wrecking yard. You can buy new bearings and seals for the bad unit and rebuild it yourself and keep it as a spare. There is a thread somewhere showing you how to rebuild the distributor.

[St6fan]

Btw what Toyota meet are you referring to?

Any of them!

[St6fan]

compare the movement to the shaft in your old distributor. You can return to picknpull and exchange it for another distributor. Or if the old one is better you can use the old housing and shaft, and swap over the electrical parts from the one from the wrecking yard. You can buy new bearings and seals for the bad unit and rebuild it yourself and keep it as a spare. There is a thread somewhere showing you how to rebuild the distributor.

Thank you sir. It's stopped raining so I'm headed out to the drive.

[St6fan]

Great success.

Fired and ran perfect first time of asking. Thank you everyone so much for the guidance and support!

Now I need to work out what the smoke is caused by when I start the car!

[dlb]

what colour is it? white = condensation/coolant, blue = oil, black = running rich or carbon buildup. white for the first few minutes of running when cold is normal, if it lasts longer it is usually a sign of a leaking head gasket. burning oil is usually due to worn rings and/or cylinders or valve seals. besides using jets that are too large, i'm not sure what would cause a carb to run rich. carbon buildup will usually sort of explode out the exhaust in puffs every now and then and can be cleaned out of the combustion chambers with seafoam or even just a steam cleaning using good ol' water.

[Petros]

If it is big puff of bluish smoke it most likely is the valve seals getting old. Not too bad to replace, but much easier to dump a can of "Restore" in with the motor oil. Stuff works great for that kind of quick fix.

[St6fan]

Restore it is!

Thanks guys!

I've loved tooling around in my car again. Seems that everywhere I park it gets a little dent or scratch though. Stupid Californians.