85 Tercel rear drive shaft compatibility

[shambug]

I just bought a 85 tercel, after getting stuck on the sand and getting towed by a friendly cops (who didn't even care i didn't have a license). I started investigating why the 4wd wasn't working. come to find out there no rear drive shaft, just gone. What years are compatible and why would someone have removed it (what else should i check before replacing it). The transfer case switches to 4wd and appears to work. The 4wd light comes on and EL gear works to move the front tires

[irowiki]

Could be a bad rear diff, or the transmission was replaced with an 83-84 and they didn't have a rear diff that was compatible. The final drive ratios changed between 83-84 and 85-88 models.

As far as I know, all years of drive shafts should be compatible.

[Petros]

this is correct, all of the drive shafts are compatible/interchangeable across all model years. You are likely missing only the rear portion after the center carrier bearing. I might have an extra one I can sell you if you can not find one locally (where are you btw?)

It is possible a previous owner had used their Tercel4wd to tow behind a Motor home and removed the drive shaft to the trans would not rotate when towing it. Or possibly as Irowiki pointed out, some one swaped out the wrong year trans axle with a different final drive ratio. If you know who the previous owner is you might contact them to see if they still have the drive shaft somewhere, and why it was removed. Many of the wrecking yard listings will show all of the transaxles are interchangeable from '83 to '88 on the T4wd, but that is not entirely true. They will bolt up, but you either have to swap out if the front diff assembly on the main trans housing, or you have to swap out the rear diff asssembly to the front and rear diff ration match.

If you have mis matched front and rear diff ratios, DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT PUTTING IN 4wd once you get the driveshaft installed.

Swapping out the rear diff assembly (the "third member" of the axle assembly) is not difficult if that has to be done to make it match the front diff, if that is what it needs.

If you can not find the previous owner, here is the simple test: jack up one side of the car so both wheels on that side are off the ground, with your driveshaft installed, the parking brake off and the 4wd lever engaged, mark with chalk a point of both front and rear tires, than rotate one wheel ten times, and count how many the rear one rotates. it should match, if there are different diff ratios, one will turn nine times, the other ten times. ONe will have the 3.73:1 ring and pinon set, the other 4.1:1 ring and pinon. If that is the case, you have to know which is which and than find either the front or rear diff to match and change it out. IT is much easier to change out the rear diff to make it match.

Hopefully that will not be the case, you just need a new drive shaft.

[dlb]

i believe the rear driveshaft in the automatics was a different length so they would not work for you.

[rer233]

Front section of the rear shaft is different on a/t vs m/t - rear section is the same.