Growing the Tercel Family; 1983 4WD Butter Creme DLX

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Toyotise
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Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2021 9:16 pm
My tercel:: 1983 4WD DLX. 1986 4WD SR5
Location: Arizona

Growing the Tercel Family; 1983 4WD Butter Creme DLX

Post by Toyotise »

As many of you know one Tercel frequently turns into two Tercel’s. Last weekend I picked up another member for the family Toyota fleet!
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A nice Butter Creme colored 1983 Tercel 4WD base DLX. It’s got 144k miles, rust free, fairly clean. It came with next to nothing for documented service history. Basically all I know about it comes from oral history passed down, one solitary service receipt in the glove box, and some old window stickers left by previous owners. It was purchased new in Colorado. It had two owners there. Second owner had transmission rebuilt (unknown why). By early 2000’s it was in Prescott Arizona with a third owner and 114k miles. It was in use until about ~5 years ago where it sat with a fuel system issue. Was given to a fourth owner (Thilo Kass, Mercedes Unimog guy in Prescott http://www.mogsrus.com) who completely redid the fuel system and got it running and driving again.
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It’s quite Spartan compared to our 1986 SR5. Very little to nothing in the way of options. No tachometer, no rear speakers, not even a rear window wiper. It does have a cassette radio and factory AC that needs gone through.
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I am seriously impressed with how smoothly the transmission shifts. You can change gears with two fingers. Transmission runs completely quietly with no perceptible gear whine. No observable leakage coming from the differential CV output seals. Tiniest bit of weep-age from the 4WD selector seal. Engine needs new front engine seals (crankshaft/ camshaft) lots of oil weep-age with prolonged operation.

Got a set of MR2 Triangle alloys to welcome her to the family. They’re currently shoe’d with 185-60-14’s. That is identical in height to the stock 175-70-13’s. Would like to fit them with some kind of mild all terrain tire at some point. Maybe a 175-70-14, or a 185-70-14 for a touch more ground clearance. The tires that came on the MR2 rims are practically brand new and being frugally minded will probably just use them up first. If I can find some I’d love to put some good used studded 175-70-13’s on the stock rims to bring along for our mountain winter driving adventures.
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Looking forward to completely going through this one and using it as our fuel efficient (3.73 final drive geared) long distance out-of-state adventure wagon. We’d like to do some mountain adventure snowy winter drives, go skiing, see the Bristlecone pines etc.

So it looks like we have a proper breeding pair now! What do you get when you cross a Butter Creme Yellow 1983 base DLX with a Two Tone Blue 1986 all-options SR5? Im hoping a 1984-85 Two Tone Green with an inclinometer! 1+1=3? Oh dear...!
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Keep it Stock; Live Long.
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NWMO
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Re: Growing the Tercel Family; 1983 4WD Butter Creme DLX

Post by NWMO »

Congrats!
Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart"

In remembrance of my friend ARCHINSTL:

T4WD augury?
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit."
T.S. Eliot - "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

"Now and then we had a hope that, if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates."
Mark Twain
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dlb
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My tercel:: '87 sr5, '83 dlx parts car
Location: bc, canada

Re: Growing the Tercel Family; 1983 4WD Butter Creme DLX

Post by dlb »

Wow, awesome. Looks great. I'm jealous. No rear wiper, that's interesting and rare.
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