1984 Euro Tercel 4WD Wagon

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FRQ
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Re: 1984 Euro Tercel 4WD Wagon

Post by FRQ »

Well, the Tercel tinkering got a little bit sidetracked by my silly idea to "quickly" get my Alfa GTV6 back on the road after sitting for 5+ years.

No such thing with fickle Italian cars of course, but she's ready now:

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Put the Tercel up on the lift yesterday and changed all fluids, CV axles, suspension and steering balljoints along with the steering rack boots. It's about time to mount the MR2 wheels and the search for a set of summer tires led me to this:

Falken Sincera SN832 175/65R14. Tested best in class and at about 40€ a tire a no brainer, but before pulling the trigger I was wondering if someone here has experience with this tire size?

The recommended size seems to be 185/65R14 here, but the Falkens don't come in that size and since I don't have power steering, the 10mm less width might actually come in handy.
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
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Re: 1984 Euro Tercel 4WD Wagon

Post by Petros »

Falken is a decent tire, good for the money. but I found they wear out faster than more costly tires. I went to Micheline M and S tires, and found, despite the higher cost, the per mile cost was actually lower.

Nice car collection. Love the Alfa. I worked on one that belonged to my auto shop teacher in Highschool (40 years ago), it was early spider with the boat tail. I was the only student in the class he allowed to work on it. I loved that car and have always wanted one, but they are not very practical. One day perhaps, as a hobby car.
'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)
FRQ
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Re: 1984 Euro Tercel 4WD Wagon

Post by FRQ »

Durability was part of the test for the new Falkens, the predecessor was tested five years back and scored significantly worse. Falken seems to be one of those brands that continues to improve. These are annual tests held by the German ADAC, in my opinion the best independent tire reviews in Europe. I think I'll give them a go, it's more the 175 vs 185 width that held me back.

Love the boattail spiders, or "osso di seppia" as those of the espresso sipping ilk like to call them. If I wasn't almost 6'7", I'd probably own one, one of the prettiest 105 series Alfas. As a consolation prize, I do have another 2 door 105 series (same mechanics and underpinnings), a '68 GT 1300 Junior:

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i'm pretty confident I currently have the only garage in the world with a Tercel 4WD and GT Junior parked next to eachother. :lol:
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
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Re: 1984 Euro Tercel 4WD Wagon

Post by Petros »

That is just awesome! I love those old alfas. I worked for a owner that raced one of those, he some got the special edition with the aluminum body. It was almost a shame he turned it into a race car. That was about 1976. The street version of this car was called a GTV in the states. A really nice sport sedan, though as I recall, the rear seat was almost useless. It at least had a trunk in the back.

The guy that raced his alfa sedan had a factory racing manual. Supposedly detailed instructions on race preparing the engine. I spent time pouring over it, but kept finding a lot of odd stuff not found in other race preparation manuals. They said for example to balance all of the valves, the lifters (these were the "thimble" or cup type lifters), the springs and retainers. I scratch my head on that one, you used different thickness of shims under the lifters to adjust the clearance, and even if you could balance it all, all it means is the valves would all float at the same rpm, because there was no mass to match or balance, as you would on rotating parts. I just chalked it up to either overenthusiastic alfa mechanics, or they would make the average idiot follow their foolish instructions to make anyone that was going to compete against the factory go to a lot of extra effort.

The engines were really advanced, comparable to typical contemporary designs. all aluminum, twin cam shafts, flow through head, hemi combustion chamber, header type exhaust, etc.

But most of all, it was just sexy Italian design, even if frivolous, it was still cool. Those cars look fast just sitting in the driveway.
'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)
FRQ
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Re: 1984 Euro Tercel 4WD Wagon

Post by FRQ »

What I wouldn't give for one of those aluminium racing versions you describe, they were called the GTA and most were sold to customers with racing intentions. Preparation was largely done by Autodelta, Alfa Romeo's racing arm. Crazy setups with pop riveted aluminium bodies, magnesium engine castings and wheels, funky sliding block rear suspension, SPICA mechanical fuel injection and God knows what else. I recall seeing a GTAm that was using an oil driven supercharger repurposed from a cabine pressure pump from some Italian airplane.

I actually have a partial GTA block in storage, but the cost of building it up into a little twin Weber oversquare 8000rpm screamer has become... exorbitant. Anything GTA is worth hundreds of thousands by now, even beat up examples. I'm about ready for this classic car bubble to pop, at the ripe old age of 34 I'm already complaining about how "back when I was 24 those could be had for next to nothing".

To inject a bit of Tercel into this post:

Spent the weekend give the Tercel a good clean and polish:

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I've decided to replace my front brake discs and if the calipers are off I always tend to rebuild those. So now I'm wondering if the MR2 caliper upgrade with vented '93+ Tercel discs is worthwhile without swapping out the booster and MC?

I don't feel like replacing good parts and I suspect a good MR2 brake booster will be relatively costly here in Europe anyway.
FRQ
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Re: 1984 Euro Tercel 4WD Wagon

Post by FRQ »

Might as well "update" this thread whilst lurking around the forums, MR2 wheels installed. :)

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travelbyota
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Re: 1984 Euro Tercel 4WD Wagon

Post by travelbyota »

Very nice looking Tercel, love the interior/exterior color combo, and what a gorgeous interior! First gen MR2 wheels are the perfect era-correct upgrade, IMO. Also dig the stickers on the Land Cruiser, the sea blue/white 21w in the background...I have owned around 50 split windows in my day ;). My first bus was an original paint in that color combo, but a 13w. Cheers,
K
79 Subaru Brat 4WD, 84+85 Toyota Tercel SR5 4WD, 85 Toyota Xtra cab 4WD, 07 Subaru WRX AWD turbo
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: 1984 Euro Tercel 4WD Wagon

Post by Petros »

very nice. what did you do with your brakes?

FYI, you can up grade the rotors and caliper without changing the booster and master cyl. the braking ratio is the same so you will not find any difference at the pedal, but better warp resistances.
'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)
FRQ
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Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2017 8:05 pm

Re: 1984 Euro Tercel 4WD Wagon

Post by FRQ »

travelbyota wrote: Fri Jul 06, 2018 6:29 pm Very nice looking Tercel, love the interior/exterior color combo, and what a gorgeous interior! First gen MR2 wheels are the perfect era-correct upgrade, IMO. Also dig the stickers on the Land Cruiser, the sea blue/white 21w in the background...I have owned around 50 split windows in my day ;). My first bus was an original paint in that color combo, but a 13w. Cheers,
K
Thanks. I actually kind of prefer the larger checker pattern of the US interiors like yours, a bit quirkier, less traditional, suits the car. The grass is always greener I suppose. The 21w is a buddy's, never managed to get into the aircooled VW stuff. Should've hung on to those 50 buses though, you'd be a billionaire in today's crazy market!
Petros wrote: Fri Jul 06, 2018 7:06 pm very nice. what did you do with your brakes?

FYI, you can up grade the rotors and caliper without changing the booster and master cyl. the braking ratio is the same so you will not find any difference at the pedal, but better warp resistances.
Still rolling around on the stock setup. Could do with a refresh but they have some life in them yet given my limited mileage. Still unsure how to proceed. Warp resistance is nice but a problem I won't likely face, I don't tow or drive in hilly terrain. A bit more bite would be nice though to go along with the larger contact patch of the 14's.
FRQ
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Re: 1984 Euro Tercel 4WD Wagon

Post by FRQ »

I've been quietly lurking here, but not much to report. I do have a question with regards to the choke coil.

Earlier in this topic I posted about my choke not closing as it's supposed to. I bought a spare carb and rebuild kit, but in the meantime the problem sorted itself out, well kind of. I noticed it only happened on hot days (we've had an unusually hot summer here).

Could a fatigued choke coil be influenced by outside temperature in any way and hinder the choke butterfly closing mechanism? I have a US FSM that mentions the riveted shut choke coil. My euro spec one has screws and little markings on the housing, clearly meant for adjustment. I put it in the back of my mind thinking I would get a FSM for a euro spec Toyota with a 3AC in it, but no luck so far.

It doesn't help that I keep stumbling across other projects. The little Tercel awakened my interest in metallic brown Toyota products or so it would seem. I've been having fun fixing the little niggles on this one owner, dealer maintained 1990 LS400:

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It's sort of spoiling me after daily driving my '86 Landcruiser for the last couple of years, especially with the optional air suspension.
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
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Re: 1984 Euro Tercel 4WD Wagon

Post by Petros »

I do not know if the autochoke is ambient temp compensated or not. on the US version, as I recall, the choke should always be fully closed on a cold start (you have to push the throttle pedal all the way to the floor before strart up to set the choke closed), and the heating coil always opens at the same rate. It does not take long to reach the fully open position. But I have also seen that the choke will not fully close unless the engine is completely stone cold on start up.

if you are having cold start problems than you should check everything with a systematic system check (should be in the FSM). Though keep in mind that all carburetors cars tend to be a bit baulky or trouble some right after a cold start. After only a min or two it should run fine.

On my own car, in winter on fully cold starts, particular below freezing mornings, I will pump the pedal to the floor three-four times, start the engine with the throttle half open, than gently rev the engine up to above 3-4,000 rpms for about 10 to 15 seconds. than I can start driving it gently for the next 2-4 min, being careful to feather the throttle and heel-toe it to keep it above about 1500-2000 rpms as I drive it. After than it is should run almost completely normal without issues from idle, even on icy cold mornings. if I do not rev the engine up several times right after start up it will usually stall out, but restart right away.
'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)
FRQ
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Re: 1984 Euro Tercel 4WD Wagon

Post by FRQ »

Thanks for the insight Petros. I'm not having any cold start issues at all after replacing all vacuum lines earlier this year. Now that the ambient temperature is in a "normal" range for my region (and the region where I bought the car) it fires up just fine. The problem lies strictly in closing the choke butterfly on hot days, it doesn't want to play along, has to be manually set by engaging the throttle on the carb and pushing it in place. Even then it won't always close all the way, which means having to press down the gas pedal more than usual when starting, which in turns immediately deactivates the cold idle high rpm mechanism, making it a bit of a hassle to keep the engine going for the first couple of minutes. No fun.

Looks like I'm going to have to do some detective work and see which common euro spec Toyota's came with the 3AC/Aisan combo and find a FSM.

You can see a setup similar to mine here, in case you're curious: https://youtu.be/I1IQhT2aPGU?t=64 :geek:
YakSr5
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Re: 1984 Euro Tercel 4WD Wagon

Post by YakSr5 »

Cool car! I like the MR2 wheels.

The LS400 is built like a tank, nice score. should last many more miles.
FRQ
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Re: 1984 Euro Tercel 4WD Wagon

Post by FRQ »

We've been having some colder weather lately so I set out to change the coolant. Not yet 5 minutes in the block drain petcock snapped clean off with what I can only describe as an impressive lack of torque for a Toyota product. I had to step back to confirm I wasn't wrenching on an Italian car.

Simple matter of replacing it (90910-09088) but I wanted to check here if this is a common issue. I really don't want to snap off the petcock body in the block.

Speaking of Italians, the little Tercel has been serving me well as a parts hauler while I'm doing some maintenance on my Land Cruiser. Two stray projects followed me home a few weeks back in the form of a 1970 Alfa Romeo Giulia Nuova and a 1961 Giulietta Spider. :? Lots of damp, moldy boxes to transport.

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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
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Re: 1984 Euro Tercel 4WD Wagon

Post by Petros »

oh man! I would love to have a project like that.

those used to be common in southern California when I was in high school and collage. I always thought it was a matter of time before I was able to find one at a good price in someone's back yard or side lot. than they stopped importing the alphas altogether, and all of the old stuff, even the junk, suddenly prices went through the roof. These were simple rugged little fun cars, one step up from a fiat, what changed? now they are considered valuable?
'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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