tercel road trip, wish me luck!

Mac · Post by **Mac** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 1:43 pm

I made it back! finally.

long story short, got stuck in the snow in the back 40 at my gf house and the cheap POS rhinopack clutch burnt out near instantly.

long story:
using only box wrenches, a ratchet set, and a couple of needle nose pliars for tools. I lifted out the engine by hand with her brother. Then I got my friend to greyhound me my spare clutch (all the auto parts stores said I would have to wait a week). but wait, the fun dosn't stop there!!!

he sent the one for the SR5 corolla 4A-C which has a larger diameter. luckily he sent the SR5 pressure plate too so i can just bolt that on and no problems, right? wrong, its differant. so i ground the edges of the bigger disc to make it fit, checked it out, seems OK, installed the engine, no problems...
started right up, tried to put it in gear, nope. The clutch would not disengage. the fun just never stopped.

so, how did i get home? I started the car in 1st gear whenever i had to stop for gas and shifted with de revs for 1100KM and 15 hours. My gf dosn't know this technique so i had to do all the driving on my own. A real test of endurance for man and machine.

However, on a plus side i got awsome fuel milage due to the car being basically direct-drive. I also intend to buy a TRD disc or mabey a aftermarket equivelent and then using the larger corolla clutch in my tercel.

I got pictures i'll post later.

GTSSportCoupe · Post by **GTSSportCoupe** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 4:14 pm

Crap, thats insane!

I can't believe you drove that far without a clutch. I guess the highway would be ok, but stop and go traffic in cities would be pure hell.

I bought a cheap ass clutch at NAPA, and it's holding so far (about 50,000kms). It does slip if I try to push/pull someone/something. Does fine for regular driving and 4wding though. Doesn't stand up well if someone rides the clutch though (starts smoking).

Good luck. Hope things get better.

MootsMan · Post by **MootsMan** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 4:26 pm

Not to turn this into a clutch thread, but a buddy of mine and I recently replaced the transmission in my '86 ( current daily driver). This is the car I had bought with the intentions of selling it to a former member of the forum ( it is a rust free, one owner with 171K miles when i bought it ). Well, it wouldn't move when I bought it, and a mechanic friend said it just sounded like the clutch. So I had it towed to his shop, he replaced the clutch, and it still didn't work. He could never find another transmission ( unless we paid like $500 for it ) so it sat at his shop for a long time, then he finally hauled it out here to my house, where it sat for the better part of a year.

So we find a transmission at Pull-A-Part, make the swap,and it's fine for a week or two, then it starts not disengaging when you depressed the clutch pedal. Turns out the clutch my 'friend' had installed had flimsy rubber bushings in the disc as opposed to the heavier more substantial metal springs. Two trips to Auto Zone that day, and we finally get the right clutch ( $110

, my buddy had one stashed at the junkyard that we picked up later for $15). Now it runs and shifts like a champ !!

All that to say I understand your trial-and-error , Mac ! it can be frustrating for sure, esp. when the weather is cold !!

keith · Post by **keith** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 5:55 pm

Well that bothers me, I just put in a genuine Toyota clutch I bought at the dealer and it had rubber dampers instead of the metal spring ones.

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 6:28 pm

I'm standing by the NAPA Gold clutch. I spilled Marvel Mystery oil on it and its still gone for over 25,000 miles. Slips when it gets really hot out or when I try to pull something over my class (like pulling our Ford Excursion out of a ditch. That was fun) but I blame myself more than anything.

Wow. Hows your starter? Heh. Might want to replace your tranny lube after an ordeal like that.

Glad you made it safely home!

takza · Post by **takza** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 4:08 pm

I'm still running the same OEM clutch which I assume has some serious miles on it...at least the 42K I've put on it. Some heavy duty offroad included. I never felt it slip at all...just gets sort of grabby now and then.

Not sure why they can't make a decent aftermarket clutch for a 1.5L engine....what gives?

Mac · Post by **Mac** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 6:26 pm

well, the engine is out... again. I'm going to put in an OEM toyota clutch disc because I'm pretty weary of aftermarket clutches now, unless its Centerforce, which to my knowlege are the only guys making an aftermarket clutch for our cars. (my friend at Napa quoted me almost $500 for a dual friction and $300 for a Centerforce 1)

I also deciuded to tidy up the wiring harness while the engine is out, to my supprise, the wires going to the distributor have almost worn through completeley so my friend is coming by later and we are going to fix it all up.

heres some pics from the trip:

got stuck at our friends house in smithers (damn you, blizzaks!) when up north, swallow your pride and get a tow. Trust me! but this isn't where i burnt out the clutch, that was later.

heres the shed i did the clutch job in

4A-C powa (back 40 where i burnt the clutch, this is mere minuetes before it happened)

Bosch H4 conversion lights my GF bought me for christmass, yay! I put in some Hella 80/100W bulbs when i got home, can't wait to try them out when i get the clutch done.

Post by **ARCHINSTL** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:31 pm

After looking at your working "environment" - I think I would have bagged it until April and hitched back home.
But then I've forgotten almost-similar circumstances working on Morris Minors - 'course, I was your age (or less)
then and I sure ain't now...
Congrats!
Tom M.

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:46 am

Those bulbs are not going to last long. Why? Our wiring isn't beefy enough to deliver. You ought to really re-run it with much beefier wiring (its maybe 18 or 20 guage right now? Try 10 perhaps?) and a dual-relay setup.
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/tech.html

Otherwise... Cool! Whats up with the funky cage though?

I'll stand by the NAPA clutch simply because it still works as well as it does after spilling a good amount of oil on it. BTW, when you engine is out, and the dist is out, filling the filler cap with Marvel Mystery Oil will result in Marvel Mystery Oil running out the dist hole and all over your brand new clutch-pack.

Mac · Post by **Mac** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 5:31 pm

I leave the dist in because i had a problem with that before....

anyways, i got a new disc from toyota, the material in this disc looks much much better than the stuff in the rhinopac POS clutch i had before. the old clutch started stinking as soon as i put it in 4WD.

I fixed up the wiring harness, removed a couple of redundant plugs and ran some new 10 and 12 gauge wires to replace the stock wiring which was starting to rub through and probably 20 gauge as Typrus said. Tomorrow I'm going to replace the wires going to the headlights as they suck too. the funky cage are little headlight covers to protect from rocks and stuff, the dealer put them on there in 1983 as a bonus.

thanks for the link, doing a direct line from the alternator to the headlight relays sounds like a good idea...