1986 SR5 4x4 Truckee, CA

[jttruckee]

1986 SR5 4x4 176,000k 3AC Runs well. Oil leak.
6 speed manual
Good interior.
Beige exterior. Tan interior.
Brand new summer tires and studded snow tires both sets mounted on rims
New distributor cap
Just sits on side of house. Would like it to go to someone who can appreciate what it is...
Current Idaho registration and title. Not sure if it will smog in CA. I don't have the time or funds...
$300

[Petros]

I might be interested. Does it drive okay, what does it need to make it road worthy? please send me a private message with your phone number so we can talk.

[jensenauto]

i'm very interested if car has a/c ,thx rj

[jttruckee]

Has A/C. Needs to be recharged.
Drives well. Is road worthy already.

[linne]

Do you still have the car. Dan 775-379 9609

[Petros]

I bought this car last week, and it turned out not to be such a good deal even if the seller did not realize it at the time.

I attempted to drive it from Tahoe area back to washington and had serious problems. It was getting really poor fuel economy, even driving down from the mountains, so I stopped in Corvalis at list member Teranfirbt's place to look it over. The timing would jump all over so I took out the "new" remanufactured distributor and found the backing plate loose, so I swapped out a spare used one I carry as a spare on trips. In doing so I put the car in gear to bump the engine to TDC to install the replacement, in pulling it out of gear something went "pop" in the trans and it stayed in 2nd gear and put the lever in neutral. This means I only had 2nd gear with not way to shift it.

I returned home by Greyhound bus and plan to return this fri/sat with another transmission. I hope to swap out the trans and than drive it home this weekend. I think the shift forks in the trans get worn and it eventually will jump out of its groove on the shift sleeve on the gear cluster. I do not know of anyway to fix this without removing the transaxle, disassemble it, and replacing the worn parts. Even if there was a way to pop the forks back into their proper position it is just a matter of time before this happens again to me or the next owner.

you just never know what can go wrong when you drive an old car cross country, fortunately for me I have the parts I need to repair it and it was not too far from home (about 5.5 hours drive). So this car did not turn out to be such a great buy.

[deejay1272]

Bummer, Petros. I often fantasize about buying old T4WDs and driving them home to fix them up, but always weenie out at the risk of something like this. Hope the new tranny brings better luck!

[Petros]

I have driven old car I purchased cross country several times. Usually it works out okay, or even sometimes something unrelated to the car occurs (I hit a deer once in Tercel4wd I was driving home from out of state). You can take a reliable tow vehicle out and tow the car home but you will spend more than twice as much in fuel getting it home. So i take my tools and take my chances. The ones I buy have been cheap enough that even if I have to abandon it and fly home I will not create a financial hardship. But I have not had to do that yet, but several have taken more than one trip to get home.

This particular car had to be sold out of CA since it was a federal model and would not meet CA emissions. Had someone actually taken it to a mechanic they would have had to replace the distributor ($400-600 in a repair shop), and than eventually have to pay $2000+ for a trans overhaul, along with a bunch of other minor issues I am going to fix (things many old cars have). I can fix these things for $200-300 in out of pocket expenses, so I will come out okay. If I paid any more for it than I did I would not be happy about it at all. It would have been nice if it waited until I got home to break.

[dlb]

wowee, that sucks, peter! best of luck with it.

this reminds me though: what finally happened with your daughter's CRX, and also the aforementioned T4 that hit the deer?

[Petros]

The CRX has to have I think either a new carb (or more likely the fuel cut-off solenoid) and thanks to Danzo the Tercel is back in Austin in the driveway of my daughters place. New hood, radiator and water pump (shaft was bent) was all it needed to get it back on the road, so I will be going back next month to fix the CRX once and for all, and drive Hermes back to WA (the Previous owner painted wings on the side doors so we named it Hermes).

[dlb]

no rest for the wicked, i guess!

[emmahumpfritter]

I've flown into so many places and driven econo-boxes home I've lost count. I did have a metro start dying on me headed home from NC one blistery winter trip. The highlight was, I couldn't turn it off (charging system upon many other issues. It's a metro for Pete's sake!) It's snowing like mad, I'm standing there at a gas pump, snow machines are doing laps around the parking lot, snow is covering the prompt screen on the pump. I slid my card though and nothing was happening. I kept waiting and waiting, it's freezing and the metro is wanting to die. I finally wipe away the snow from the screen: "Would you like a car wash?"

Now I avoid all gas stations with pre-economy collapse mega-washes they're desperately trying to pay for by pushing it on everyone that stops. The poor lowlys at my local food-plex are MADE to ask. "Would you like a car wash?" I usually respond, "Even if I walked here?" or sign the box on the credit machine "No I don't want a car wash" all in fun of course.

I might wash my vehicles twice a year.

I change the oil a lot though.

[Petros]

Drove back to Corvallis Sat with a friend, another transmission, more tools and some other parts. Went at all weekend, replaced the clutch while were had the trans out, check the rear diff oil level, new gear oil in the replacement trans, got it back down on its wheels late sunday and drove both cars home last night. Replacement trans worked fine but now there is a slight vibration at fwy speeds that was not there before, I will have to track that down this week. Might just be loose lug nuts. That was a long weekend. The most troublesome part was the back of the engine would not drop down far enough to allow enough clearance to remove the old trans and than install the new one. It added a lot of extra work to reaching the bolts and fight the unit out. So we also removed the exhaust pipe, the top radiator hose and a few other items that might cause it to hang up and it worked, put the replacement back in was far less troublesome.

So beside the vibration there is also a list of other minor annoying issues I will have sort out before this will make a good daily driver.