My Nightmare.... Does it ever end?

[Typrus]

She hates me right now... One thing after another after another.... sigh....

The fan temp switch was leaking, so I went to tighten it. SNAP! The bung came off. I didn't even put much force on it. GREAT.... My Propylene Glycol going every which way....

I tried to solder it but i'm not confident I did a good job.... Its one of the old non-HE spaced fins, 2-row, bronze/copper tank and core... Its in bad shape to start to be honest.

So now for it I'm at a dead end... I might just have to go with a new rad. The Ready-Rad Radiator looks alright. $122.88, 2-core HE fin, bronze/copper core with plastic tanks. Anyone know much about Ready-Rad?


My tie-rod, inner, on the pass side is so worn the wheel is castoring slightly. Yay. I have to get new boots and find a wrench that'll work to get them off. More parts.

My steering u-joint has started binding. A little Silicone spray has helped, but not solved. Wonderful.

My rear wheel bearings are moaning. More lovely.

My sparker wires are dying. More parts.

My exhaust is leaking at every joint it has. Fumes, and more parts.

My springs are all shot, and really ought be replaced before they screw everything else I've replaced up.

Where's my engine oil going??? No blue smoke, no massively visible leaks.... (sigh)



I'm feeling slightly down if you can't tell.

[tonythayer]

I know the feeling.
Here's my list:
Front window hangers are broken
shocks and springs
clutch and/or rear main seal
suspension bushings
left and right CV's rattle and creak
tires balding
stereo puts 90% of volume to the left speaker
ignition switch sticks so I have to turn the key back to keep it from cranking
key falls out and isn't even necessary to start the car
carb is impossible to tune even after partial rebuild
eats a quart of oil every 2 weeks, but no puddles under car
very poor milage

But! the heat works, it does still go in a mostly straight line without too much wrestling, and the AC and sunroof work perfectly. It's hard to ask more from a 24 year old car that cost me $350. Even with the $150 in parts it's still worth it. The labor investment is what gives me reason to pause from time to time.

A weber carb is equivalent to one monthly payment on a new car w/ insurance...

[thebigbread]

ouch, i thought my cel had problems... the only actual prob i have is a large dent around the rear drivers side fender, theres no way I can fix it, ill have to take it to a body shop. about those springs, i still have my originals.. the rear wheels sometimes hit the inner fender, scary. I definitely would not drive mine on the road yet, i have rust holes in the rotors, the pads are bare metal...

[GTSSportCoupe]

My problems:

Rust
Internal Brake light stays on all the time
Car diesels every time I shut it off
Synchros have seen better days
Clunks from underneath front (bushings, tie rods?)
Other then that it runs like a champ. Some day I'll get around to fixing these problems.

[Typrus]

Check the adjustment on your brake light switch. Its pretty easy to see underneath and is very sensitive to small adjustments in the pedal.

The clunks could be the tie-rods (check the inner one's ball socket, which is under the boot, for play. Mine is HUGE! and makes lots of noise. Tire moves 1/4-1/2 inch just from that play) maybe lateral link bushings on the swaybar.

Check your mixture. Get a vacuum gauge and tune it until your vacuum is maximized. That'll gt it very close to right. Mine diesels less when in tune. Remember, it is a carb and if you adjust it on a 40F day, it'll be quite different on a 75F day.

Thicker gear lube?

Rust? STOP IT NOW! Cancer is evil... At least keep it coated in something that'll block further oxygen reaction. Also, a car with areas sanded and primed looks better than a car with rust bleeding through the paint everywhere.




Get new springs. Your car will love you for it. Bad springs hurt more than you might think.

How do you get HOLES in your rotors?? Thats bloody thick cast iron!



Window hangers? The Regulators you mean? Get a junkyard set and keep them well lubed.

Do the springs before you do shocks or struts. Bad springs will make you chew through dampeners.

Clutch and rear main can be done simultaneously. Rear main is pretty easy as well. Doesn't usually go bad though, from what I understand from some members here.

Bushings? Replace what you can. Your ride will be much better and handling will improve greatly.

Rattle and Creak? No popping yet? Take them off, remove the boots, clean them, and re-pack them with good lube. That might fix the problem.

I too need new tires. Not much you can do here.

Bad connections at the head unit and/or speakers, unless the speakers themselves are bad. Only thing to do is remove panels and take a look. Is your fader and balance adjusted?

Not much to do about the ign. My key comes out, but you have to pull it. Its actually kind of nice, because I can unlock the rear hatch without shutting it off.

New carb! The Weber would be worth it, I'm sure.

Re-ring the sucker. It's not too hard to do, just pay attention to torque specs and item placement. Don't lose any bolts! You should be able to do this in-car. If not, you might be able to source a reman one. I can get them locally for $1200, and they are very well done.

Mileage and carb are very likely related.


SeaFoam the thing. Your rings might un-stick, supposing they are stuck.





I'm going to have to beg my folks for money...

[ARCHINSTL]

For Typrus - and a few others as well...

When frustrated by assorted situations, I always recall what Calvin said to Hobbes:

"You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help. "

Tom M.

P.S. I just realized that when this strip ended, you were what - 6 ?

[takza]

I paid about $1200 for my car...I have over $1200 worth of parts in it. The word here is.....PARTS?

Typrus...

If you keep that univ lubed with light oil...you can avoid replacing it indefinitely...if it isn't sloppy. Even used they aren't that cheap.

I'd fix the most important stuff first...tie rod end and maybe the wheel bearings?

Springs? 2 donuts per wheel...call somebody in the morning.

As far as tires...check around for a recycler that handles of lot of newer wrecked vehicles (rebuildables)...I can get tires for $10 each that have around 2/3s tread left....usually in pairs. Probably need to check their tire rack several times.

Life sucks....till it doesn't?

[waynehoc]

I paid about $1200 for my car...I have over $1200 worth of parts in it. The word here is.....PARTS?

takza says it all, and it's been said before on the forum - our wagons are OLD, and require (a lot of?) tlc, parts, $$$ and work. The good news is they are relatively easy to work on, a lot of fun to own and drive, and easy on gas - a plus at today's high prices at the pumps.

Bought my wagon with 80k kilometers on it in early '93 and it was our family car/truck/vacation wagon for years, and we always paid Toyoyta and, later, other mechanics to maintain it. Still, when I decided to keep it in June 2005, I found that the mechanics we had paid over the years had many necessary things undone or wrongly done. The result is I've spent hundreds of hours since then getting it fixed up and running pretty well, but it still has much to be done. Probably have sunk about $2000 in parts in it since then, but I'd do it all over again without hesitating.

[Typrus]

I'd sink $10000 in it if I could afford to. In fact, by the time I'm totally done with it it'll tally higher than that (professional paint is expensive... but at least they warranty their work for 8 years up here)
But my issue is that I can't afford it. Again, I'm supposed to be finishing out high school before getting a job, but I can't wait for 2-3 months of having things that could end up killing me going wrong. If that tie-rod end fails at high speed.... If my sub-par brakes, rotors in particular, were to crack and bind?

I read Calvin and Hobbes from age 4 to age 10. My dad has a library. Heh... I have one strip in mind about supply and demand... Quite funny....
http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org ... demand.jpg

Yes they are old. Older than me. Actually, my wagon is exactly as old as my oldest sister (April 1984). I expect there to be maintenance. Especially with me at the wheel. But that doesn't make it one once less frustrating.

I want my springs to be new, not boosted. Just preference. And I'm tired of blowing struts. I don't feel like bankrupting Monroe with all these freebies (yeah, I know, exaggeration, but still)


Its just so overwhelming at times... I know, thats the sacrifice I make for loving a 23-years-old-tomorrow car, and I'm not ashamed of her, but man is she expensive... Women.... Lol.

My folks and I are trying to work something out. Some of this stuff just has to get done, no argument.

[tercel4wdrules]

Quite a few things have given out on your car... this sucks. Sorry to hear about it. This is the reason why I no longer have the '83 with me; just too many things went wrong. I could have spent as much money as necessary to get it running again, but I just didn't have the $$$. In fact, that's the same reason my car has been sitting all of this time as well. But in your case there are safety issues with the parts that are going out, like you said.

My car has some clunking up in the front when you back out of a parking space and then as you straighten the car out, it clunks on the left (driver's) side. Could it be the tie-rods that are worn out on my car as well?

I wish I could get some body work done on it and perhaps a paint job, but it's just too darn expensive for me. Besides painting the car, I would have to find a donor Tercel with the blue plaid interior to get a decent interior because the interior on my car is falling apart.

Eventually, I'll have to worry about the CV joints because they click when you turn the wheels, but only when stopped or going slow (< 5 mph).

I can also pull out the key with the engine on as well. I couldn't do that with the '83.

I would replace those rear wheeling bearings ASAP. I saw a guy in a Jeep on the street with one of the rear axles 10 ft away from the vehicle and gear oil leaking out. I don't know if it was a bad wheel bearing, but my guess is that it was.

[tonythayer]

Oh yeah, my tie-rod boots are gone. That might be a problem...

[Typrus]

Close t4wdrules. Bad wheel seal, likely caused by or going to cause a bad wheel bearing.

Which boots? The ones on the outer ball socket, or the ones to the rack? In either case.... REPLACE THEM!

Clunk could be the CV's. Just depends on the sound.


My local body shop (Ozzie's) quoted me $8000-$9000 for- "stripping the car down, removing minor rust and dents, and repainting with multi-layer metallic silver, a shade darker than is on the car with emphasis on clear-coating the roof this time" I asked how much it'd drop if I did the stripping of the trim and interior goodies and they said it'd drop it by around $1-3grand depending on how much I did. Based on that, when the time comes, I'll be the one stripping it down. I'll also be getting the underbody, engine bay, and interior floor-pan (maybe entire interior that isn't visible?) Line-X or Rhino-Liner coated. Extra-thick on the bottom. Why? It offers better protection than standard undercoatings, lasts longer, and is an excellent sound dampener. I haven't gotten an "official" quote yet but I'd suspect it'd be close to a grand. It's $200 if I remember right to get our F-250 full-bed bedlined with Line-X, plus a 2-inch carry over on the sides. But thats all right there. Doing an under and inner body would be more labor intensive I'd imagine.
Heck... It might even stiffen the chassis a bit!


Yeah... I have big dreams for my baby, just no funding to back it up. At least not yet. Oh, I'll get there. Heck, I spent last Wednesday night for several hours talking with a multi-millionaire about the business I just got into. He got his multi-millionaire status from the same business btw. And in from the 27th to 29th I'll be in Louisville, KY for a huge convention regarding the same.


Time and patience... And money. I have tons of the first, am a little short on the 2nd, and have none of the 3rd. YET... Time. Its all time.


BTW... I'm toying with the thought of a new car. Getting a job to make payments and such would be needed. Keeping the Terc with my folks (I'd kill them if they got rid of it!) and using something more reliable until money is consistent. Why? My family has offered to give me a down payment as a graduation gift. They, however, seem very disinterested in giving the same money to fix up my baby. At any rate, I was considering something like a Volvo C30 (new car, comes out 08 model year) because I like the hatch and don't need huge passenger space. 4-year 50,000 mile warranty isn't bad either. But then I hit an issue.... What if I don't get to a point where I can keep up with both? It's an issue being tossed around in my head... I dunno what to think of it.

[coltarms]

Actually, the Jeep Dana 35C found under the rear of most Wranglers, are a c-clip retained axle. the Axle slides into the housing and a little c-clip is inserted over a button on the end to keep it from sliding back out. If this button breaks, or if the splines break, the entire tire/wheel/hub/brake/axle shaft come flying out and bounce merrily away. Seen it on a trail before.....kinda funny.

[keith]

Typrus, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Our Tercel was bought new by my late father. After he passed, my sister drove it until 2000 when she gave it to my son, with 192k miles on it. No one expected it to last another year, but 5 years later, with 306k miles, it finally burned a valve. I put in new valves, but all that did was increase the pressure on the rings and cause it to become a smoker.

I had the transmission rebuilt and a new clutch put in almost as soon as I got it home here in Tennessee. A couple years later, I put in a JDM transmission when the the original broke a fork inside. I still have it on the front porch. Other than that, it didn't give much trouble until the valve burned. I bought a junkyard engine and put it in with an Autozone clutch. A year later, that engine was giving up and I was about to junk the car.

The engine going bad for starters, the tail lights and front corner lights and front turn signals broken, the frame was bent where the drivers side control arm attaches to the frame due to an encounter with a curb avoiding a dumb-ass redneck driver. A couple of rims are bent. The reman axles aren't any good, used the free replacements once already but they aren't any better. The drivers window regulator wouldn't keep the window up. The radiator leaked, the clutch slipped, wheel bearings were shot, the visors rotted away, carpet all but gone, exhaust system almost completely rusted away and miscellaneous other problems, and the AC leaked too. My son bought a new car so the Tercel hardly got driven.

Then I found you guys. You inspired me. I started with a 4ac reman off ebay, only $250 + shipping, then another $300 for a Weber, Add $200 more for a Toyota clutch and things started looking up.

Who knew a new muffler included everything from the cat back? I saw a picture of one on a web site and ordered it, but it was almost 4" too short and didn't match the angle of the cat, it was a federal muffler and the car is a Cal. But I got a local muffler shop to make me an adapter to match the two up. $10. I manufactured tail light lenses from the old taillights and a tail light lens making kit. Got corner lights and turn signals from someone here.

I made a jig from 2x12's and used a come-a-long to pull the lower control arm attachment point back into position. I would have used a bottle jack, it would have been easier, but the front differential gets in the way. I replaced the drivers side outer and inner tie rods because the old ones welded themselves together and I couldn't align the front end. The tie rod ends were ok if it hadn't been for that.

I fixed the window regulator myself, could not get a replacement anywhere. Got one EMPI axle and new struts for the front. Did some body work on the rear quarter panel that got hit. Just used some 2x4's between the wheel well and body panel to pry the body panel into place. Its a little rough but it passes for ok. Working from the inside keeps the paint from being damaged.

Now the car is in pretty good shape. My son drives it regularly instead of his new car. I'm going to put in the other axle this month. Maybe new shocks for the rear, dial in the Weber. Still working on a nagging brake issue, if I find the answer, I'll let you all know. I also need to work on the head lights, even with new bulbs, its pretty dim at night. May do the rewiring suggested here.

I am lucky that even though it has spent a lot of time at the beach in summer and in snow country in the winter (my sister is an avid skier), and 7 years on Tennessee roads (they do get salted occasionally), there is almost no rust on the car. The springs are good too.

My son is planning on getting 15" wheels and 195 50 15 Toyo Proxis 4 tires for it soon. I wouldn't do that, but if he wants to, ok. Personally I would have gone with 14" rims with 185 60 or 65 tires. I think his choice will have too much traction for the suspension.

Typrus, you're young yet. The end of the school year is not that far off. I hope you go on to college and not let the immediate need for money hold up you future. I hope you get a good summer job and can take care of some of the things your car needs, it would be a great car for a college student. But don't let the car's needs interfere with the rest of your life. The car will wait for you, life will not. If you go on to college, I will retire before you graduate, so I'm telling you, there is plenty of time. Money will come. As a general rule, education is the best investment you will ever make. No MBA, no BMW.

BTW, I blew the opportunity to get my college education at my parents expense. I later got my degree, but its a lot tougher when you are also supporting a family. I had a little college at my folks expense, but when I got serious and didn't want to see myself hanging sheetrock for the rest of my life, I went through a very tough 2.5 years working full time and taking a full schedule at school, but it was worth it

I have a nice job, with an office (that I don't spend a lot of time in because I'm out on the floor so much), I make almost twice what the guys on the floor make (only HS education required out there), and the floor jobs at this plant are considered the best in the area.

I hope to see you one day, a diploma on the wall, nice house with a 2 car garage, the Tercel, fully restored in one bay, a Beemer in the other, a trophy wife and two little soccer players. Make it happen. You have till your 30, lol.

[takza]

My folks and I are trying to work something out. Some of this stuff just has to get done, no argument.

Here you go? And I quote....

"Another real small project evolved around finding a vehicle that
would qualify as 'almost full size' and still achieve mileage comparable to the majority of the small cars now sold. We knew that the 3.1 GM engine had a good record and tryed a few 4drs to suit our needs. We settled on the Century, a nice 2000 model with mostly standard equipment and maintenance. This vehicle is normally rated at 31MPG Hiway from the factory. Prior to mod, average hiway was 28 MPG.

We changed the oil to 5W30.
Added 4 oz of energy release.
Reset the computer.
New tires, proper size.
Installed two Neo magnets on the fuel line. 1/4 x 3/4 South Pole
facing line.

It took about 200 miles of hiway driving to get a good result from these mods. Now getting a little over 36 on hiway.

We wanted to install the Neos before we added the Acetone/Colemans, which is next. I feel that just about anyone can get small car mileage with one of these GM vehicles if properly fitted. BTW, the Buick seems to achieve better mileage than the Chevy or Pontiac versions."

Big safe car. Good mpg.

You could STILL put 2 doughnuts per spring in it?