Another Newbie here

[Polar Bear]

Hi, and greetings,
New guy from Finland here!

I’m so happy I found this site! The FSM has helped me out already, and I’ve owned my Terc only for 3 days
I bought it cheap, for general off-road use, say for fishing and hunting trips.

About the car, it’s a 1985 model, imported from Germany to Finland. I haven’t seen that front bumber on any other Terc yet, if you have info about this one, please share. Those horizontal black lines you see on the bumper, are actually rounded steel bars, like a mini "cattle bumper" or something. For what I can figure, they’re original stuff., as well as those extra lights, a pair of fog lights, and a pair of extra aux(?) lights. Also, I Love the inclinometer

She has 199 000 km:s on her clock, the engine is a bit worn.. and the carb needs a good cleaning/tuning too.The FSM gave me plenty of useful info about that subject. New plugs, plug wires, etc incoming as soon as I have the time. A little sad fact is, that this Toyota model is pretty rare here nowadays. So some of the parts are getting more and more hard to find…

The paint is dirty, some sticky black residue on it, doesn’t clean off. It doesn’t matter, I’ll probably paint her matte green anyways Not much rust anywhere. Oh, and 14 inch extra high profile wheels on her. Nice and plenty of clearance. Stock and original springs and shocks.

And here’s some crappy pics, they’re from the sales addy:

[dlb]

PB, you may now own my favourite tercel of all. that paint job is out of this world! there's another new member here who wants to do something similar with his, but in yellow/orange/red over the original blue. a little brighter but i LOVE the gradually thinning black lines between the two rearmost side windows. the foglights are rad too. another new member based in norway has a rear foglight (don't know if he has them on the front) so those must have been an option on the european models. what is the black bar that runs above the doors? it looks like a roof rack that sticks out sideways.

congrats, and welcome to the forum!

[ohcanada_00]

I want your grill and front bumper! That is soooo cool! Welcome to the boards and congrats on owning a VERY sweet looking ride!

[Petros]

welcome to the list!

Very cool car, I love those bumpers! I think they were only sold in Germany, likely the dealers got together and had a local company make them to sell as a dealer option. Send all you can find to us! You also have a different steering wheel than the North American imports.

Here is a German Tercel brochure that shows that bumper. Behind the license plate is a winch, is your equipped that way, or there just a place for the winch? See the brochure at the link below.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4540&p=33873&hilit= ... res#p33873

Is that a roof rack that wraps down the side of the "D" plilar? Very nice! Post some details pics of that roof rack please.

[ARCHINSTL]

Welcome to the Club!
Like all, I love that front bumper; with the newer headlights, the front end is much more integrated than ours in N. America!
I've seen that roof rack before, on some other European members' cars, but never the extension down the D-pillar as Petros mentions; surely one would not tie stuff across the rear window - right? Is there some sort of grille/grid across the rear window?
Tom M.

[dlb]

by d-pillar, are you guys referring to the area just behind the rearmost side window? it does look like the rack extends down there but i don't understand why. curious.

petros, i never looked at that german brochure before but after seeing it i would say that the germans were definitely privy to the raddest tercs. ours look so plain in comparison the the awesome paint, bumpers, bars, lights, rims, running boards, and winches of theirs! i remember barto talking about how much he hated the stock NA bumpers but i never really agreed until i started really looking at these european ones. my mind has been sufficiently blown for today.

[ohcanada_00]

wow! Diff armor, winches and awesome bumpers.... we really missed out in north America!

[Polar Bear]

Hi guys, I cant multiquote, so I'll try to answer all in one post;

-about that paint job/stripes, it's simply so 80's the movie "Back to the future", anyone? This baby should have been there instead of that De Lorean
Don't make me like the paint too much, since it's dirty, and even boat cleaner or similar didn't get that black residue off. I dunno what the heck it is. But like I said, since this one's going to be my "adventure mobile" I think that subdued green will do just fine. a can of paint and a brush or roller...maybe the stipes will stay on. we'll see. Luckily this is not my "daily driver" so I can pretty much do what i want with the paint. Semi-off roaders don't stay pretty for too long

-It does have rear foglight, it's european standard I guess.

-can't see the German brochure, the system logs me out every time i try to open that link.. but no winch in mine. (yet)

-roof rack is pretty cool, hefty and sturdy, like the bumper. Those things at the back are some sort of air guides, they supposed to direct the dirt/snow away from the back window. They actually work I guess, since I've seen them in some vans too.

I'll try to post pics of this "lady" as soon as I have time to take them, this week i'm on the nightshift all week (as we skeak too), so no much time to fiddle with the car anyways. Shame, since I've only drove her home from the place I bought it. Can't wait to get out and try the 4x4 capabilities... we have plenty of snow and snowy back roads for that

.

[Petros]

Make sure you get a picture of the rear as well.

here are the pics from the German brochure:



Optional front bumper



Winch



Here is your paint job/trim options



Your roof rack options. See if you have those dealer option shocks shown here.

looks like someone switched the factory option allow wheels on you, because that model came with some nice wheels.

Funny those rear deflectors are not shown anywhere, might have been an accessory. They look like they were made for this car, but they could be an aftermarket item. Many large American station wagon in the '70s had those, they are supposed to keep dust off the rear window. You get some of the best equipped Tercels in the world I think. I wonder if they had a limited slip diff option too.

[Polar Bear]

Hi guys, just a quick update from work.
Thanks for those german model pics, I NEED to get me a winch now.. I bet the alloy wheels are loooong gone. but it's okay.
Hmm.. dealer option shocks.. slip diff..mmm donuts.. I don't know how to be sure, but I'll see when I clean the shocks, what they reveal.


I do have a few questions, I hope you guys can help me out.
what Toyota has similar distributor cap,( It seems that mine is a 1984/older model, since it has distributor with breakers and all)… and the local spareparts seller gave me a wrong part, twice. Apparently his books don’t know Tercel anymore, since they are so rare here.
Btw does the hex bolt "behind" the engine lock the distributor in place, or can I adjust the timing just by opening the one bolt holding the distributor?

If there would be a list of all the interchangeable Tercel / other Toyota parts, that would be “better than a hundred rabbits”, as the saying goes in my country
Also, I’m planning to ditch all the emission control systems, since this car is so old, that it doesn’t have to pass all the pollution tests on annual vehicle inspection . The engine is labeled 3A-U model, (and it seems it doesn’t have all the emission systems you US guys have to begin with, but I need to spend some time in the garage to sort out what it has and what it doesn’t have.) What does the 3A-U stand for? This is all I could find. Yet, I don’t have a catalysator: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_A_engine

The other day I had a few moments to take a few mobile phone camera shots. I know they’re crappy(SORRY), but didn’t find my camera at that time..

The hood. That black “tar” or dust is on the roof too.
I think I’ll go with Nato green with satin gloss, and paint bumpers and rocker panels black..


Bumper. Those steel bars need some rustoff/paint too. (and that's not oil under the car, it's engine cleaner drippings) :


Roof rack:

Rear deflectors:

Side, with tapes:

The rear end:

Engine (labeled 3A-U)


Ground clearance. I’d say that’s enough for now? About 27cm= 10.6 inches ( 0,5 litre light beer can posing)



Again, sorry for the poor pics, next week when(if) I paint her, I’ll take proper pics , I promise 

[dlb]

I do have a few questions, I hope you guys can help me out.
what Toyota has similar distributor cap,( It seems that mine is a 1984/older model, since it has distributor with breakers and all)… and the local spareparts seller gave me a wrong part, twice. Apparently his books don’t know Tercel anymore, since they are so rare here.
Btw does the hex bolt "behind" the engine lock the distributor in place, or can I adjust the timing just by opening the one bolt holding the distributor?

PB, i'm not 100% positive but i'm pretty sure that you the '83-'87 corollas with 4A engine use the same distributor, at least there in north america. it may be been different in europe since your dizzy is different.

to adjust the timing there is just the one bolt below the dizzy that needs to be slightly loosened that allows you to turn the dizzy a an inch or so in either direction. be very careful not to overtighten that bolt when re-setting the timing!

If there would be a list of all the interchangeable Tercel / other Toyota parts, that would be “better than a hundred rabbits”, as the saying goes in my country

there aren't a any comprehensive lists of all tercel swap-able parts but a bunch of our members have found quite a few things that can be swapped with other vehicles parts. the slightly bigger (by .1 L) 4A bolts directly in, and the 4AFE and 4AGE can be made to fit. nissan pathfinder springs and ford t-bird shocks fit right in to the rear end to give you a 4" lift and stiffer ride, while corolla all-trac and camry front springs have been put in the strut assemblies. lots of different wheels fit our cars, just search 'wheels' or 'rims' and you'll find lots. those are the obvious swap items that come to my mind now.

What does the 3A-U stand for?

the -U probably stands for the type of emissions package that came on the engine. for example, the the 3A-C is the california model, which had stricter emissions rules than other places.

that black stuff is super weird, i wonder what caused it. did you ask the previous owner? i'm really sorry to see those stripes go but i'm sure the new look will be dope. take lots of pics! is that style of roof rack common over there? it seems weird to have them on the side of the vehicle since everything you're going to carry is going to be on top. to actually use yours, you need bars mounted cross-wise, whereas if the racks were on top of the car you wouldn't need to mount any more bars at all, which is what we often use here.

[Mattel]

If you had a standard distributor with points you can replace it with an electronic distributor from a wreckers from a corolla that has a 4ac around the same years. Good luck!

[rer233]

polar bear-- the black stuff looks like mold/ mildew to me- happens all the time to my cars (i wash them once every 2-3 years or so.) if so, scouring powder works wonders- the combination of the cholrine and mild abrasive cuts the crap quickly and easily (strips the wax off too, but that's another issue.) good luck!

[Petros]

It appears a lot of details are different than North American Tercels. You may have a different distributor, I think you have a separate coil, ours has the coil built into the distributorship. As stated though the same year Corollas with the 4ac use the same distributor. You may have to order one from Germany, but I would not think they would be any different in Norway than Germany.

You have very different emission controls too, there is not charcoal canister and a lot of the vacuum routing is different.

i love those bumpers, and the whole paint scheme is very different from what we see here. I could swear you have more ground clearance too, what size wheels and tires came on it?

As far as the mold goes, you can scrub it out with any bleach based cleanser. It will also buff out with polishing compound, but I would look for a cleaner that specifically is for removing mold.

[Polar Bear]

First,
thanks to you all of the good tips and comments. I've found a suitable dizzie, a common toyota corolla one. All good, she takes revs much better now. the old dizzie was busted...I adjusted the timing too.
I need to check out the 4A engine swap. She seeps out oil wrom behind the engine, and I can't see from where.
the racks, theyr're pretty much useless, unless you planning to lean against trees. Maybe they sold well to German customers, who wanted that off road-look..
the tyres are 14 inch el cheapo ones, but i like the clearance they give 48cm snow today on the track i drove, had to stop and measure. that's like 18,89 inches.
the black stuff, pervious owner didn't know what it was. Maybe it was mold, I dunno. I used sandpaper, and a sanding machine, and made all the surfaces clean and matte, next I took some olive green/army colour paint, and a brush and a paint roller...the green monster was born, ta-daa:

(a note, I STILL can't find my camera, so I used my cell phone. and yes, there's some cleaning up to do.During painting, temp in the carage about 13 celsius, 55 F. the paint was industrial heavy equipment paint.Ugly as hell, but does its purpose. ).