85 tercel won't start

Hi everyone, Hope you can help me with this problem. I left my 1985 tercel (3AC) with my brother and he didn't start it up for 4 months. The gas line was dry and it took many cranks with starter spray to finally get gas to the carb. On the final try, it caught but then stalled out after about 20 seconds. Now it just cranks and won't catch even with starter spray.

Here is what I've done so far:

New plugs and wires.

Tested ignition coil. (primaries gave 0 ohms but guy at auto parts store said that was ok and we tested a new one which also had 0 at the primaries) secondary within spec.

Distributor cap and rotor look fine ( didn't replace yet because store was out of the parts)

Checked spark at first plug and it seemed weak.

Battery not 100% but good enough under normal circumstances.

Pickup coil has continuity.

Fuel pump is ok.

I suspected ignition module but I have spark on the first plug, and I thought a bad module would mean no spark at all. To recap, the carb is getting fuel and it seems like I have weak spark, but the engine just cranks w/o catching. Garage wants 500 dollars to replace the distributor and can't afford that right now. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Reply to
tom.rosenmolina
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Forgot to say that I had timing belt replaced 2 years ago.

Reply to
tom.rosenmolina

What do you mean when you say "Battery not 100% but good enough under normal circumstances" ?? If the battery is low it may be the cause of your weak spark.

Also, how long did the car sit ?? If the car was sitting for a long time the gas might have gone bad and will no longer support combustion. It is also possible that the carb may be flooding over since it sat so long without fuel.

Reply to
Mike

That car was about toyota's worst year for emission controls. It has the logical complexity of an ECU system, but it was all odne with vacuum lines. I had such a car and IIRC, there were about >100 vacuum lines, a diagram that looked like a 15 transistor radio, and no fewer than 5 vacuum lines going to two vacuum chambers just for the vacuum advance. There was also a lovely thermovalve with about 10 vacuum lines. Many of the vacuum chambers had developed leaks. For example, the two distributor VA chambers leaked from one to the other. I took the primary function and sent it to a t connector to both chambers and plugged off the less needed warmup function.

You should seriously consider getting rid of the junker. In the meantime see if you can do what I did which is find it's evil twin at some junkyard so you can buy emission controls parts for $1-2 instead of toyoto's $30-100.

Reply to
AZ Nomad

I mean that before leaving it with my brother, the car used to start fine when the battery was lower and cranked a lot slower.

The car sat for 9 months. The gas probably is bad, but the engine caught when I just used starting spray earlier. (I also poured some gas into the carb). Now neither of those work anymore. At first I thought the carb was flooded so I held down gas pedal etc., then tried waiting overnight. Still no luck in the morning.

Reply to
tom.rosenmolina

I would next pull the spark plugs and clean the goop off them. The gas you poured down usually washes all the crud off the cylinder and intake which will goop up the plug if you don't get a successful start.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's - Gone to the rust pile...
Reply to
Mike Romain

Also check for vacuum leaks, including via defective vacuum control valves. Check timing and understand that the vacuum system will have different timing depending on temperature.

Reply to
AZ Nomad

on second thought, that tercel I owned was an '82.

Did the tercel get a real ECU by '85?

Reply to
AZ Nomad

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