84 T4WD Carb update

[NWMO]

David and Phatcat,

Very easy to remove axles, no need to mess with brake lines. I’ve replaced a few bearings, but I wouldn’t change them unless there was some play when you pull them out and feel them by hand. I’ve always chosen to pay a shop to cut off the old keepers and bearings and press the new one ons. I’m fortunate to have a good “farm” shop that will do them for $30 or so. I use a home-made slide hammer to pop the axles out, easy peasy, just an 8# sledge on a piece of metal with a couple of holes for pins.

[dlb]

Oh, I thought I remembered the brake drum plate had to come off but like I said, it's been years since I've done that job so I must be misremembering it (or maybe I needed to add that step for some other job I was also doing concurrently, who knows).

Chris, is there a seal in there that needs to be replaced when you do the bearings?

[Phatcat]

Interesting the rear u joints aren’t serviceable. Probably means they’re okay then. Worst case I could have a new driveshaft built for it. Yeah, pressure g the bearings in is the one hiccup I’d have to farm out. We’ll see. It’s tough to tell how much road noise is normal for this little car. They are old and didn’t come with all the fancy sound deadening goodies. So noise is normal to an extent. Here’s some pictures of my Tercel. I may swap the blind everyone lights out for something more original looking, at some point. I can see at night though. Since these images I removed the old gray and put in brown carpet on the rear cargo cover. It looks much better now. I was fortunate to get a car that was well kept and really only needed a list of small odds and ends to be much better.

[dlb]

Wow, it looks great. Everything is so shiny! Do you know what those wheels are from? What size are the tires?

Did the car come with those 'motor trend' rubber mats? I've never seen those, I love the custom fits for the rear seat floor and cargo area. Or did the cargo mat just require trimming? Either way, I want those.

[Phatcat]

Hey, yeah so the cargo mat and floor liners I got recently from Amazon fairly cheap. They are indeed cut to fit. Easy to do and make a big difference, I think. It rains 8-9 months out of the year here and is relentless, so water is just a part of life and having something for the floors is good. We’ll see how they hold up over time. They are thin, but kinda fit nicely because they aren’t super thick. They lay down well.

The wheels are off a 90’s Acura (Integra?) the PO had on there. I’ll check the tire size, but they’re definitely larger than the stock size. I’d like them better if they were flat black. Hopefully the link works below for the motor trend mats.

I was very lucky to find this car by chance. The PO was a coworker who retired and used it as a commuter. He’s a car guy oddly enough and cared for the car pretty well through its life. He’d had it since 1988. It wasn’t garage kept and there is some rust here and there, but nothing I’m ever gonna concern with fixing, probably. He overheard me looking for one of the T4WDs years back and stated that he actually has and uses one for commuting, and that he loved it. I tried to buy it immediately after seeing pictures (it was clean but not as good as it is now). He made me wait three years and finally called me up ready to sell. So, we picked it up and that was that. I’ve been updating him each step along the way to making it a better, cleaner rig. Small things though is all this gem needed. A dizzy advance, radiator, carb rebuild and adjustments, vacuum lines, thermostat, front brake upgrade to the MR2/Corolla setup, some paint on the front grill and rear hatch plastics, headlights, the windshield scratches buffed out, pedal rubbers/pads, all the tranny and diff fluids changed, a muffler, some LED signal and running lights, and we are almost there. Like I said earlier, I’ll be doing some sort of suspension upgrade and possibly air ride/coils setup, but that’s next year I believe. I have the factory wheels but they need some sand blast and coating to be worthy. I may get there eventually on the factory wheels.

Motor Trend FlexTough Contour... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3YBR9FP?re ... b_ap_share

[Phatcat]

And I went ahead and watched Robert’s repair video for the rear axle bearings. Not bad at all. Easy peasy for sure. I’ll probably make my own bearing puller just as Robert did. I’ll find somewhere to remove and install the bearings and keepers for me though. That part looked not terribly fun during the video. I could make up a press fairly easily and have daily access to a forklift and goodies, but it’s cheap just to have a shop do them. I’ll be sure to make sure to label each side and the dust covers with the weep holes so they don’t get mixed up, and have the shop not forget to put the covers on prior to installing the bearings and keepers. Installing the seals with PVC in the video is a great idea, I’ve done many seals the exact same way. PVC has just the right properties for that work and not damage the bearing.


I’d love to get together with some of the people here and to see other’s cars and talk T4WD. Colorado was a little too far out this year for me to wanna venture. Even if it’s just yourself I’d be interested in meeting up. If anyone is around the Seattle area and willing to meet up, just let me know.

I mentioned above the scratches in my windshield and buffing them out. Believe it or not, there’s a substance called cerium oxide that works. Use a smaller, focused buffing pad 2-4” a bit of water and/or spray wax and you’d be amazed how clear you can get a window. My windshield was so bad it was unsafe at night with the glare from headlights, and water on the roads made it exponentially worse. The cerium oxide saved me from having to buy a windshield and gasket. It takes some persistence and muscle, but the scratches will come out if you use the higher cut stuff.

[NWMO]

Hey David,

There is an axle seal in the ends of the axle housing (both sides). Easy to swap out once the axles are pulled. I just did mine and I have a tiny leak on the driver’s side. If it continues, I’ll pull the axle and tap the seal a little further in the housing.

Chris

[Phatcat]

Well, I ordered the rear wheel bearings and seals this evening from Oreilly’s. I love Rock Auto, Parts Geek, and prefer Amazon when possible for shipping cost and return ease, but the price difference here after considering shipping from Rock and Geek was negligible to me. I wanna get them done here before football and spawning season gets rolling, so that will be nice. I’m positive they’re shot. It’ll quiet up the ride in this thing tremendously, so thanks for pointing the right direction on this one prior to me caking the thing in butyl sheets and crap. This is the right thing here..

[Nordical25]

You have a very clean Tercel 4wd with some nice updates.

10% ethanol makes sense. I am glad that spark plug gap and carb. adjustment sorted out your idle issues.

[Phatcat]

Thanks Nordical. I’m having fun with it. Rear wheel bearings going in here this week sometime. Hopefully I can pop the axles out without making a puller, that would be ideal for time. It looked like Robert could’ve got his out on the video with a long pry bar and good mallet smack, but we’ll see.

[Phatcat]

New carpet for the cargo cover.

[Phatcat]

I ended up welding together a bearing puller similar to Robert’s. I only used two wheel studs and nuts to remove them, it went just fine. The rear drivers side bearing was totally due and in really bad shape. I should have the axles back from pressing the new bearings and collars on, and things reassembled here tomorrow.

[NWMO]

Good progress! I like to put a little grease on the new seals before putting the axles back in.

Chris

[Phatcat]

Absolutely, lube makes the world go around. I like to use a little slip plate graphite on the shafts and splines too. That slip plate is incredible and will make it so much easier to remove them in the future. It took some finagling to get them out past the brake backing plates, but only because the plates there have years of dirt and surface rust on the holes. I’ll sand some of that off and paint slip plate over them so they can never rust and repel dirt.

[Phatcat]

Well I’m inching along on this rear bearing project. The guy that was removing/installing the old/new bearings and collars/keepers had a tough time getting one side to cooperate. The axles are done now though and ready to be installed. I saw that there’s a very thin disintegrated ancient paper gasket in there. I don’t have any gasket material that thin and so I’m thinking of just putting a very thin amount of RTV in there during reassembly, any thoughts on that? They’d probably be just fine without anything just slapping them back in, but I’m guessing a little sealant from the puddles and outside elements won’t hurt. I’m also debating doing the axle seals, which the old weren’t leaking at all and appear just fine and are still installed. But against my better judgment I’ll probably try to put new seals in there for longevity. They’ll probably not seat corrected and leak..