Broken 4wd lever on 85' Tercel

[Sunburst96]

Searched the forums and couldn't find this issue reoccurring hah. So i bought a "rhino lined" 85' tercel a few months back and upon the $250 purchase i noticed there was no 4wd lever.... asked the local i was buying it from and he said it "broke" off or had to be taken off at some point. As well as the strut and shock assembly looked as if someone jumped it, not totally sure. Ive pulled a 4wd lever and a strut column assembly from the scrap yard. Believe i have the know how to replace these things but figured id ask for some help.

IMG_20150802_143744091_HDR (99x175).jpg

[dlb]

i've never seen either of those failures before. i agree that a PO must have been riding it extremely hard. i hate seeing cars trashed like that.

[Petros]

I have had the upper strut mounts fail like that on a couple of project cars. they were not particularity high mileage but they came from dessert areas with freezing winters. Normally they last the life of the car, so it is not common, but it does happen. the bond between the rubber part and the mount separates. I drove a rescue tercel across 3 states with it like that, it is captured and can not fall out, but hitting bumps causes the steering to want to jump out of your hands

If you are replacing the whole struts with a new upper mount, it is easy and straight forward. If you are just replacing the upper mount, you will need a spring compressor. You have to disassemble the strut, spring and upper mount using the spring compressor VERY CAREFULLY.

[Ridlbox]

I've had the upper strut mount break on to Trussell throughout the years one of them wasn't even mine it was my brother-in-law's easy fix doesn't take more than a few minutes if you have the whole strut if you don't have the whole strut but just a piece on the top there it takes quite a while yeah

[Gottolovem]

4wd lever broke off WOW
Torn off perhaps
Are their some serious scars under the car?
Or is the lever assembly removed?
If removed I would confirm gear ratio front to rear

[irowiki]

If you are replacing the whole struts with a new upper mount, it is easy and straight forward. If you are just replacing the upper mount, you will need a spring compressor. You have to disassemble the strut, spring and upper mount using the spring compressor VERY CAREFULLY.

Unless I'm missing something here, to replace the upper mount you'd need a spring compressor either way? Or is this a separate part from what I'm thinking of?

[dlb]

i think peter means that if you replace the entire strut as an assembly, like if you get a good one from a wrecker, then you do not need spring compressors. just and bolt the upper mount to the body and the lower to the knuckle, and it's in.

[4wdEconoBox]

If you are just replacing the upper mount, you will need a spring compressor. You have to disassemble the strut, spring and upper mount using the spring compressor VERY CAREFULLY.

I learned this the hard way, when I first got my Terc I drove it for a few weeks before noticing that the rubber had separated and the center part got wedged under the mount.... I was very new to all this stuff so I started removing the center nut and almost took off a foot, the upper mount went flying and the nut went even farther, I'm still not sure how I found it!!! Not a fun day for me haha, I ended up getting everything back together with ratchet straps....Also not fun. Since then I have bought a nice set of spring compressors from Harbor Freight, best $15 buck I've ever spent haha! I know nothing I said was helpful sunburst, but be careful, and good luck!

[Sunburst96]

4wd lever broke off WOW
Torn off perhaps
Are their some serious scars under the car?
Or is the lever assembly removed?
If removed I would confirm gear ratio front to rear

Let me rephrase what i said, it seems to me it was removed not broken for what reasons i cant tell. There isnt any significant damage if any at all that ive actually found underneath. Thats a good point you made, how would i go about checking the gear ratio if that is the case?

[Gottolovem]

1st = get all 4 wheels off the ground(so everything turns freely)

2nd= engage 4 wheel drive( with pliers from the bottom of the car if necessary)

3rd= mark the bottom of tires ( 6 o'clock position)

4th = turn the front 10 complete revolutions.

If the front and the rear differential match up the mark on the bottom of the rear tire will end at 6 o'clock again

You may need to immobilize one rear wheel to prevent the differential from splitting the rotations between tires

[Petros]

Good procedure except you should have only two wheels off the ground on the same side, not all four. if one of the brakes is dragging with all four wheels off the ground, or the friction is not even in all four wheels, it will throw off the count.

I wonder if someone put in a 2wd trans so removed the lever. Or perhaps it was removed during a clutch change and was not reinstalled for some reason (lost part or something).

I can not see how else anyone would remove or even damage it, it is tucked up in the tunnel, nothing can damage it without wrecking the whole trans, rear mount and floor/tunnel at the same time. It would be rather impossible I think to damage it from the pasanger compartment without a lot of other damage.

good luck.

[irowiki]

Petros brings up a good point. You might want to make sure it is actually a 4WD transmission!

[Sunburst96]

That honestly sounds easy enough petros, i looked under the car and found this.. was leaking oil and it looks like where the 4wd lever would connect

4wd conector arm to transmission(85' tercel) (1280x721).jpg

4wd lever and conector arm(85' tercel) (721x1280).jpg

Heres the 4wd assembly i bought at the scrap yard for $40

[Petros]

not sure what I am looking at there, lots of grease for sure. if that is where the 4wd selector lever is supposed to be, it looks like the shaft is missing. That means the tranfer case has to come apart to replace the selector assembly, not sure why it would be missing unless it broke and the end fell off.

It appears it is pointing straight down, the selector lever shaft is horizontal and stick out out the left side of the trans (driver's side for those on this side of the Atlantic). It might be the camera angle that is confusing me, if that is where the shaft goes it should be horizontal, not veritcal which is what it looks like to me in the pic. (more pictures from different angle might help, go steam clean it or use degreaser before you take more pics).

Xirdneh has take more of these apart than anyone else on the forum, perhaps he knows what to do if it is the shaft that is broken off. He might have a spare one for you too (he has lots of transmission parts). I think if you remove the rear cross member and the drive shaft you can take the transfer case part way apart and replace that part. If that is indeed what the problem is.

[xirdneh]

kinda hard to tell but hole looks like the linkage connection point
the arm is there but covered in mud
scrape it off an re-take picture