Terc delight

[KZ750]

Hello! New member to the forum!
I am so excited to own my "new to me" 1985 Sr5. Also glad to see that there's an underground for these cars.

My story. I always said that I just can't drive a car, I feel too trapped haha. Nevada allows off roading pretty much any where! I'm a jeeper, but it's to expensive to commute every day with a jeep. So I figured the Tercel would be the best of both worlds.

The Cars story. Bought it for $500. 245 thousand miles. Smoked like hell, and has no way of passing an emissions test in it's condition. I almost turned the car down right away, even with my offer of $500, I still wasn't sure if I wanted it.........I feel bad for thinking that way. So I left the guy, went and priced out the cost of a new motor, and came right back and bought it.
The ride home was scary! drove it almost straight to the dmv. ended up having to get it towed out of the road with my jeep, when it came to a screeching... something. (I grabbed the 4wd shifter instead of the gear shift.) oops. I drive autos regularly, not manuals. At that point I knew something was wrong. Did some research, jacked the car up, and found out that i have 3.73 up front and 4.10 final in the rear. Dang! wasn't fun trying to get the car out of 4wd either.
So I am currently awaiting money to purchase a bell housing and diff with 4.10s. there alot of tercels in the local yard right now!


Here are some pictures.

[img][IMG]http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z64/ ... 00a2cf.jpg[/img][/img]

[img][IMG]http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z64/ ... cc7702.jpg[/img][/img]

[img][IMG]http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z64/ ... 53e916.jpg[/img][/img]

[img][IMG]http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z64/ ... 01b805.jpg[/img][/img]
Called Jasper motors. Bought the last one. Sold as surplus with out warranty at a great price. $900 with like a $160 care charge. still beats the risk of Craigslist. I think I'm going to hold onto the motor and maybe change some seals and stuff. Accidentally bought a complete gasket set with guides and main seal not knowing that the jasper came with geaskets. Fingers crossed.

[ARCHINSTL]

Welcome to the Club!
Boy, you lucked out on the Jasper engine! And to think I just mentioned it in a thread a couple of days ago. When I had no luck penetrating its catalog, I actually thought about calling it; had I known about one being only $900, I would have been all over it!
Well - I've been happy with my Jasper Mitsu 2.6; no probs in 9 years.

Be sure to check the front sway bar for necked-down ends. Enter "swaybar rust" in the Search function here. Use the quotation marks - this will shorten the search.

We have a FSM available for download - see: https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8323
Tom M.

[Petros]

Welcome to the forum!

Great save for what sounds like a car that was headed for the crusher. I have rescued more than a few of these great little 4x4 cars, and made them into reliable daily drivers for someone to enjoy for many thousands of miles. Good call on the Jeep, unfortunately the great icon of American made 4wd vehicles has become an very unreliable and costly status symbol for those with testosterone poisoning. Many that I know that have owned jeeps and cherokees were afraid to drive them anywhere far becasue they were afraid to get stuck somewhere.

I fixed your picture postings so it will show up. You had the "

[dlb]

welcome, kz750. ditto on tom's comments about the sway bar ends. there's lots of typical stuff that you should inspect on such an old beast but the sway bar ends are less obvious and super crucial to avoiding carnage.

[rer233]

Ditto- welcome kz750- (motorcycle ref?) Have you considered changing the rear diff to match the tranny? Rear diff is easy to swap- i'd be afraid of letting the "magic" out of an otherwise good transaxle by swapping front diffs. Just a thought. Good luck- and good find on the engine!

[dlb]

just thought of it—is the subject line of this thread a reference to this?



if it this, then this reference would also be applicable:



i HATE both of those things, but still love the reference. if it was intentional, anyway.

[Petros]

that stuff is crap David, this is what I grew up with:



And actually this is the traditional stuff with pistachios:

[ARCHINSTL]

David - the names of those two confections could be the basis for some - uhh - jokes...

I've never heard of them before, and I have a daughter who is a middle manager at Nestlé here in STL, and occasionally she brings home some weird stuff that's not sold everywhere. Are they PacNWST specialties? Are they similar to taffy?
Tom M.

[dlb]

i dunno, they could be canadian or something. i know when i go to the US, i get pretty psyched on trying the US candy bars we don't see here. payday, zagnut, stuff like that. i couldn't tell you what turkish delight or big turk taste like because i haven't had them in years. i think i tried big turk when i was 10 or something, was disgusted, and that was that. i do remember that big turk is some kind of raspberry- or strawberry-flavoured jelly covered in chocolate. doesn't sound terrible, but i sure thought it was. my friends all hated it too.

sorry for the thread hijack, kz750. feel free to rein us in anytime.

[Petros]

it is kind of candy made from a gel of sugar and starch with nuts (usually flour, traditionally honey is used as the sugar), it is flavored with various different Mideastern spices, some are not very appealing to western tastes. Most common is rose water flavor (which taste very odd if you have not had it before), but other spices are also used instead. It was invented in Turkey in the 1700's, legend has it that some British nobleman or official had cases of it shipped to England labeled "Turkish Delight" (likely he could not pronounce or remember the Turkish name). It is similar in texture to Apple cottlets, a very sweet gel. It was always considered a kind of exotic sweet in the west (have you seen the movie "Lion, the witch and the wardrobe"? the witch lures the youngest brother with turkish delight). I grew up with them, they are popular throughout the middle east and in Greece, romania and a several other eastern european countries.

[KZ750]

Oooh... I hope I didn't step on any toes buying that motor. I had no idea or any negative intentions.
Turkish delights! Yes! Got it Petros, I picture the scene in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe after each and every time some one types "terc" instead of Tercel.
I have never tried them before, I wonder what they would taste like. Rose water? hmm. I'm down to try new things.

Petros- Thank you for fixing my images, and for letting me know how to fix them. Hopefully I get it right this time. I actually drive a Cherokee. It's just a little under geared, but mpg aren't ever above 15. Today it shut off on the way to work. I'm afraid to leave the city. and highway just kills about every sensory mechanism in your body. I could never sell it, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night with the guilt of burdening someone else with it. hah. so I'll have it till it gives up. My love for it is so strong however.

rer233- It most defiantly is. I own a few older 1970's Kawasakis. I'm on the fence with what exactly I want to do with the car. The decision will determine the gearing I go for. If iI leave it stock, the rear will be changed out to 3.73s. better for highway travel. But if I go with these tires, http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp ... &tab=Sizes, (hopefully i didn't mess the link up) I'll want to have a 4.10 final. not sure what I want to do. The car came with brand new tires on it. I'd have to find some 14 inch rims. I really like the tear drop alloy rims my gf has on her mk1 rabbit. hehehe.

ARCHINSTL-dlb-I will be sure to check the sway bar ends today. I'm wondering why this is such a concern? do these cars depend on the sway bar for more then just handling? In the world of jeeps, or any straight front axel vehicle, we disable them temporally for off road use. It allows for more articulation, but I can see it being different on a ifs vehicle. I'll search.


Any thing else that I should replace while I have the motor out? I bought new CV axels, thermostat, and a water pump. I will be replacing the clutch and vacuum lines too when I get more money. When I bought the car, the rear bumper end was torn off, and the rear left taillight was cracked, So I replaced them. For any one looking to replace their rear bumper, your best bet might be to just take the whole thing instead of the bumper skin. Every bolt that pinched the flat sleel down on the rubber bumper skin snapped off due to rust. Even with pb blaster and time. Luckly the only bolt that I broke from dismantling the engine was one on the water pump housing. I also stripped out a nut on the exhaust joiner from the manifold. not too bad. I expected more to break.

[dlb]

ARCHINSTL-dlb-I will be sure to check the sway bar ends today. I'm wondering why this is such a concern? do these cars depend on the sway bar for more then just handling? In the world of jeeps, or any straight front axel vehicle, we disable them temporally for off road use. It allows for more articulation, but I can see it being different on a ifs vehicle. I'll search.

my concern is not about deleting the sway bar, it's about the ends of the sway bar snapping due to bottlenecking and rust. the design is such that moisture gets trapped where the sway bar meets the control arm, and can wear the bar ends down to the point that they finally snap while driving. one of the members on the forum actually had it happen to him and nearly bought the farm. i took pics of what to look for when inspecting sway bar ends a while back, here is the thread.

https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7481

i'm thinking out loud here but i don't think anyone should delete the front sway bar on a terc, for off-roading or otherwise. in addition to affecting steering and handling, the terc's front sway bar also controls any fore/aft movement of the steering knuckle, so removing it would really compromise the integrity of the entire front end. i think the control arm, its frame mount, and the strut mount would probably get damaged if you tried off-roading without the sway bar.

[marlinh]

You couldn't safely drive this car without that front sway bar. The fore and aft movement of the front wheels are scarey. I just had a few cars towed away with the bars removed. The front wheels are anything but stable.

[KZ750]

dlb- Marlinh- No kidding! I just looked at the pictures from that thread. That looks very scary. I also understand now why the sway bar is so important. It plays two roles under the front end. It's halfway a control arm if you look at it, while also preventing sway.

I'll get to the car today, it's in my friends garage right now. If the ends are anything interesting then I'll share on here. thanks for the advice guys. Safety is always a #1 priority.

[Petros]

you did not step on anyone's toes here, they were just razzing you. Great deal on the engine, it would cost you about that much to do it yourself. Of course when you do it yourself you can also include a few tweaks. There are some things you can consider even with fresh engine: Delta cams performance regrind, easy to install and only costs about $40 plus shipping, and you send your old cam to them. Set your spark timing at 10 or 12 deg BTDC instead of the factory 5 degs, and some have installed weber carbs, I think the stock carb is not bad if it is working properly, better livability in really cold or hot conditions, less chance of icing.

It would be possible to remove the sway bar if you make a trailing link that has a forward pivot to replace that function of the sway bar. Also, if you can find a sway bar from the lighter 2wd hatchback version of this car it might use a much lighter swab bar that would soften the roll (how ever it would greatly increase the under-steer on paved roads).