I bought another one! I shall call her MINT and she'll be FRESH

[Tercel__jon]

A few weeks ago, I made a trip into the blue ridge mountains. The trip was a nightmare. 23* No heat in the truck, gps got us lost going down "roads" that werent wide enough for 2 cars. Then after getting the car, got lost again, ended up 100 miles south of where we should have been...both me and the co-pilot got sick. He was throwing up out the window as Im navigating down the side of a freakin mountain towing a tercel on a dolly behind my 78 F150...it was a nightmare.

Was it worth it? Yes.







YES it came with the parcel shelf cover!



YES an automatic!



Lucky me, I have a spare backseat, same style too.



Thats actually rusted through. No matter, Ill make a patch and weld it in!



Hmmmm Ill give it a shot at fixing this. Not like I dont have the time and materials.



Might get interesting here, trying to re-skin a door. We'll see what happens when I dive in. This concludes the damage though.

On to the more interesting things!



Look...a button...that says CRUISE.



This is awesome. Factory cruise control AND Intermittent wipers!? LUXURY!



Poo, no tach. oh well. The 110mph speedo is hopefull. The gas light on the left side does work though. Which is nice.



No air conditioning button...huh. Lets go under the hood.



MMMMMMM power steering. Thats nice. You can also just see the cruise control actuator to the left.



There's the funky throttle setup for the cruise control.



And there is proof that its an actual non-AC ordered car.

If you made it this far, awesome. Ill fill you in on specifics.

1985 tercel 4wd automatic. 219k miles. original trans. Original motor. Motor runs like Poo. Needs exhaust, brakes, (hoping for bad wheel cylinder, PO said a line was blown) and Im going to throw another carb that I have on there, try to fix the dying when opening the throttle issue.

Work will not start immediately. I have to finish the 91 cressida, fix moms 84 delta 88, headgasket on a 89 colt, and then get a 72 ranchero running/driving. It also needs to stop being so darn cold at night.

Also...mods planned include a set of 15" wheels that I have, or the 14" miata daisys that are on my 83 after the 83 gets converted to 4x114.3. This car will never see offroad, and minimal snow so there are plans in store that might make several people here cringe.

[ARCHINSTL]

Project in the works!
Good story and pix!
Tom M.

[irowiki]

Just FYI, the factory cruise control cars used a special cluster, so if you want to swap a SR5 cluster in it'll need to be from an SR5 with factory cruise if you plan on keeping the cruise (if it even works).

[OLLIE86WAGON]

Great find! Congrats, can't wait to see the updates!

[marlinh]

Tercel__Jon, when you get a chance could you trace the wiring for the intermittent wiper? I have one I found from a wreck. I wanted the adjustable intermittent wiper option. It has an extra 2 wire plug on it. I assumed it was for cruise control, but I am wondering if it went to a resistor for the variable wipers. Can't find a wiring diagram that shows where those wires go.

BTW, nice looking car.

[ARCHINSTL]

@ marlinh - I checked our online FSM and also my real Toy paper '86 FSM and cruise and adjustable wipers are ignored.
When you and Tercel_Jon figger it out - collaborate on a post for the Repair Guides Forum.

►►► dlb has an installation guide on the adjustable wipers with pix! His stalk is from a p'up or 4Runner and required cutting the steering binnacle and yours is T4WD OE, but it shows pix of the connectors already present. It's lengthy, but starts on page 2 of this: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5623&hilit=wiper
Tom M.

[marlinh]

I've read the posts and searched Pick n Pull for parts. None in my area so I still would like to see if I can get this one to work.

[Tercel__jon]

Like I said, It will be a while before I can pull her into the shop and start The Teardown. But Im really excited about it.

Ill definitely trace those wires for you marlinh when I tear it apart.

Mission accepted, Archinstl. Ill find em. Just give me time. I had actually decided that I was actually going to follow DLB's writeup and install the intermittent wipers on this car before I even left home to get it. I was seriously pleasantly surprised when I saw it had them.

Irowiki, I wasnt planning on changing the cluster, but thanks for the information. Id LOVE to find an sr5 cluster for my 83. I know thats a plug and play swap.

Since the 83 is the battle wagon, Id like this 85 to be the complete opposite. The nice car. Im actually pretty disappointed that it doesnt have AC, but Ill live with it. I want to update it as much as possible while still remaining stockish.


A little quick question that Im curious about...are rebuild kits for this transmission still available? Wouldnt surprise me if they werent. Nothing is wrong "knock on wood" but I just want to be prepared. If there isnt one, Ill install a transmission temp gauge and add a larger trans cooler.

[Petros]

no kits that I can find, I think I bought the last one available $550. you can buy everything for the trans however, seals and major bearings, for less than the kit as individual items. the only thing we can not find are the synros, and a few forum members are working on having some made. contact list member Xirdneh if you need parts or even whole transmissions. he knows the most about getting trans parts.

[irowiki]

Peter, it is an automatic!

Do autos depend as much on a specific rebuild kit?

[marlinh]

That would be great Tercel__Jon. Does your intermittent wiper work? Bonus, if it does.

[Petros]

automatic would depend on the right trans, likely that trans main gear cluster and valve body was used in other models of toyotas, even if not the Tercel. so good chance you can find the parts for a rebuild. AS long as the housing, that would be unique to the Tercel, is in usable condition, the auto trans kit should be available.

[dlb]

the only thing we can not find are the synros,

has anyone asked toyota directly about the synchros?

[Petros]

yes, I have over a year ago. In all of north america all they could find was a single 2nd gear syncro. Now there are none from the dealer network, I should have bought that one ( think it was $27 at the time, seemed high). No kits.

Bearings and seals are available from after market suppliers, gaskets can either be hand made or use sealant, everything else is either junk yard parts, or having parts custom made Xirdneh has done a few, and looking into a production run of some syncros.

[Tercel__jon]

Ill have to go through my manuals and see what I can find about it. There's an automatic trans in the back of a wagon at my favorite yard. Ill have to buy it, tear it apart and figure it out then. On the few little runs around the neighborhood that Ive taken, Ive found that the trans DOES shift into all 3 gears. So thats awesome. Fluid is black though, need to change that ASAP. (like as soon as my taxes get here)

Yes marlinh, the intermittent wipers DO work!

I pulled her into the garage for a minute today to find the busted brake line, I narrowed it down quite a bit, and I MIGHT actually have a brake line for it here at the house. Good news is that she looks solid underneath, not scarily rusty like the PO feared. Just a little scabby here and there, mostly on the rear control arms and the axle. The rear bumper is rusted out though, makes me wish I didnt cut my old one up for the mounts. Thats fine, I know where to get another.

Also tried diagnosing the rough idle. She revs fine in the upper RPMs, but idles low and choppy. All plugs are firing, but #2 only made a slight difference when I pulled it off. Ill have to do a compression check later. Still need to pull and clean the carb as well, which I believe is the main culprit.

4wd works great! Drove her around the snow filled yard and down the street a bit. 0 problems. I just cruised up the side yard and through the front yard through the slushy snow and mud without a single slip of the wheels.

I am not a huge fan of the power steering though. I cant turn as fast as with the manual steering, the fluid slows the rack down.

Radio works great, as does the heater. Oh man....the heater in this car works better then the one in my 83!

I know I said this car was gonna wait...but I cant resist. Whenever Im not working on something else, Ill probably be messing with it.