I've been offered a 5-speed liftback '86 Celica GT with ~130K miles, basically free of charge (but it will cost me about $900 per year to insure where I live). It has been garaged for a year since the previous owner passed away.
It's known to have a slight clutch leak, presumably in the slave cylinder, requiring top-off once every couple of months. Apart from that it was known to be running perfectly when garaged, however the current owner tells me he started it recently and it stalls after moving a short distance when he puts it in gear. I'm hoping that changing the battery and fluids (including siphoning out old gasoline), replacing the fuel and air filters, and generally TLC'ing the vehicle might cure that.
I'm considering taking this car to teach my wife how to drive stick, and then to use as a beater on my 25-mile commute.
Are there any known, common problems with this breed of vehicle? The reviews I can find about the North American version mostly talk about how good it is for street racing :/
What's the difficulty level of replacing/rebuilding the clutch slave cylinder on this car - how much equipment do I need?