Rebirth after 300K

[SynthDesign]

possibly could be a canada/us thing, i'm not sure. i think the new-ish, no sag springs would have something to do with it. did you happen to notice if your donor car was a 6-cylinder? that's what i'm leaning towards, as the bigger engine would likely require heavier springs.

Nope, mine were off a inline 4 from an 84. Toyota didn't put in a V-6 till 87 for the Camry, er.. October of 86..

[SynthDesign]

Well it's been an interesting week with the tecel. Just rolled a little over 2,200 on the new engine.

Thursday, last week I ran thru the back end of the General. Both shoe clips were rattling around the driver drum and had done a pretty good amount of damage which is what I was expecting. Two new pins and clips were all that was needed till I can replace the rear drums and shoes.

Saturday, I went out to the Olympic Peninsula for a short 200 mile road trip and manged to kill my brake master cylinder. It started off sounding like a squeaky toy and ended with complete loss of brakes. I managed to make it to the Kingston ferry by e-brake alone and home. I also managed to suck a good bit of brake fluid into the intake manifold and burn it through the engine. It left a nasty residue on the car behind me when I started my engine to get off the boat. Smelled horrible but hopefully didn't do any permanent damage.

Today I was forced to get the Tercel back on the road as the snow was here and a mid engine car does not fair well in icy conditions. I replaced the Tercel booster and master with the AW11 MR2 units as Petros has done. I must say it makes a noticeable difference. Ok, 200% noticeable difference. It took a bit of work to install, by no means just swap and done, but seems like another major Up-Grade worth the time.

So in celebration of the icy roads and 6 inches of snow, I decided to take the General out for a thorough rattle test. Probably wasn't the best idea, but it was so much fun. Right now the wheels and front of the car are packed with snow form our tandem gymkhana runs. I was able to keep up to my friends 83 corolla, which I thought was pretty impressive.

I'll post picks and video links when the camera thaws out.

[SynthDesign]

With great power comes a long list of replacement parts.

I decided the Camry springs were just too tall and swapped out to a set of springs from an 88 Toyota All-trac Corolla. Petros estimated them at around 270lbs. The make the car handle noticeably better. The firmer feel is so much nicer when driving around town and throwing around turns. No need to have a stiffer swaybar but I am still curious about a strut tower brace. My roommate got a bone stock 86SR5 and I've been comparing all my upgrades to his which is in great condition at 150k.

For a comparison, my tercel is 1.1" taller up front and 1.75" taller in back. Probably 25% stiffer in handling and has is least 50% more powerful.

At 306k the factory control arm bushings have given up the ghost. I couldn't press out the factory bushings out of a spare set so I had to drop them off at Toyota. Hopefully see them after Xmas when my new trans mount and engine mounts arrive. I ordered a set of heavy duty AE86 mounts which should be a fair bit stiffer than the factory tercel mounts. Petros had a set on his 4age swap engine and they look good for us to use on the T4WD.

Did a brake check and the front pads and rotors are wearing fine..

Still need to do the rack but at this point almost everything on the front end has been replaced.

[SynthDesign]

Pissed off and frustrated. A1 Cardone passenger side axle is fail. I now have clunks and pops constantly. I also managed to snap a key off in the rear hatch lock. Or let me rephrase that... only key.
(FYI , if you pull the passenger side lock out, there's a 5 digit code, 1 letter, 4 numbers, and any Toyota dealer can cut you a new key.)

I did a bit or research for NEW CV axles. I found 1 place in the USA that does em'.

DTA. Passenger side part # is TO-8702 Sku # is 879586006658

This is the first, non reman'd, NEW axle I've ever bought!

t4wd new axle.jpg

It looks good, feels great and even came with all the hardware including dust seals.

[deejay1272]

(FYI , if you pull the passenger side lock out, there's a 5 digit code, 1 letter, 4 numbers, and any Toyota dealer can cut you a new key.)

That's supremely useful information. I am down to one key for the Terjunken and it's only a matter of time before it snaps off in a lock and leaves me stranded (currently it looks every bit of 26 years old).

[ARCHINSTL]

Synth -
What is your sourcing and pricing for new, USA-made, axles? Is this EMPI? If not, make an entry into the Parts Forum. Also make a separate entry for the lock code info for that Forum and I'll make it a sticky.
Tom M.

[Neu]

t4wd award.jpg

Why is this picture not on facebook? Wow this is funny.

[Petros]

You know if you just make a few spare keys ahead of time you would not have this issue. Home Depot, Lowes, etc. all make keys for about $1.00-2.00 each. It saves a lot of hassles later.

How much did you have to pay for the new axle?

[SynthDesign]

@Petros... I lost the other key in the garage a year ago.. never got around to replacing.

@Chad.. Oh, it's on there . PSTOC on FB

@Arch, Nope not EMPI... The one I got from them before said re-manufacturer on the box that I got last year from PG. PartsGeek.com says it says new on the site. I'll post a link if it hold up..
I found this though.
http://www.drivetechamerica.com/Product-Axle.html
I got them from my machine shop. My price is between me and him but under $80.

[dlb]

synth, how long did your crappy reman CV last? i had a reman fail after about only 6 months so i took it back and got another but this one looks like it was made in soviet russia and i swear to god i heard a passenger side 'clunk' when i turned hard left yesterday. i was diligent to torque everything to factory specs but i'm going to check all of them just to be sure. if everything else checks out, this reman will have been bad from pretty much out of the box. i've put MAYBE 4 hours on it.

[SynthDesign]

@DLB, I got roughly 312 miles before it sounded unsafe to drive. There's about 3/8" movement between the axle and the hub spindle.

IMG_0030.JPG

The new one from DTA has much tighter tolerances. The A1Cardone had a bit of rock at the hub splines. Might of been one of the clunks.
Just got everything back together with a new control arm bushing. I'll drive it tomorrow morning and see how it goes.

[SynthDesign]

FIRST! time driving the General w/o horrible noises!
I still have a bit of clunk from the 4wd lever. I think that can be adjusted out.

[deejay1272]

Nice work, Synth!

I came across a T4WD in the boneyard yesterday that had 298k on it and thought of your project here. But the transmission shifted like shit in this one so I'm curious to know what you did to get around this. Did you shell out the money to have the original transmission in the General rebuilt or is it still going strong on it's own?

[SynthDesign]

@deejay1272,
I went the wrong way about my trans. I took three broken units to AAMCO in Bellevue WA. They assembled one working one out of the three for a extortionate amount of money. For $1300 I got a trans that leaks, grinds and has no warranty despite what I was sold and is labeled on the paperwork. It shifts good once warmed up but the humming noise from 3k to 7k and hard shifts will be the death of if for sure.

I decided to go the Petros method and start stock piling lower mile used ones now. Still looking for a good shop that knows how to rebuild them right.

[deejay1272]

I decided to go the Petros method and start stock piling lower mile used ones now. Still looking for a good shop that knows how to rebuild them right.

I heard of a place in northern Cali that knows a thing or two about these transmissions. Another Portland, OR member that is relatively inactive on this forum gave me some info on some shop, but it was verbal. Let me know if you need something more detailed and I'll see what I can do. (Sucks that it's way down in California though...)