Posted by Scott Korb at 12:05 AM | Permalink

Posted by Scott Korb at 10:39 PM | Permalink

Have I ever mentioned my contempt for electronic carburetors? No? Just my lack of enthusiasm for carbs in general, i suppose. They are a miracle of technology, but complications are many... especially when you combine the old carb tech with computer tech.

So I thought this Tercel was done, as you might recall. I was given the wrong carb, but i made it work. I didn't like the way it worked, but it worked.

BUT then weeks later suddenly the car wouldn't start.
I of course blamed the "wrong" carb. I searched for the correct one. FOUND. I got all the eleventyhundred vacuum hoses routed right. Still no start.

It turns out the distributor crapped out. I had no spark. I changed the distributor and it fired right up. Add new plugs and it runs smooth. An extra bonus is that with the correct carb it actually runs right cold and hot. Higher RPM cold, lower RPM hot... as opposed to opposite or random RPMs with the carb I was provided to install.

I also replaced the thermostat. The engine had been running cold/rich. The 'puter needs to know it's warm to quit throwing buckets of fuel down the intake throat.

So I'm driving this car this week to make sure it's good. Once i'm confident it is (and I am, but I'll give it a week)... it goes back to Celina with no extra charge.... on the condition that it never darken my doors again.

Jump for some tech pics of what I was dealing with.

Above is the ""extremely helpful"" Toyota dealer picture.

Below is from some poor genius schmuck in Canada working with an emissions problem... It's the best one i could find, but it is for an auto-trans. The vehicle I have in limbo is a 5spd and has a few more tubing connections (note the tubes which terminate with a plug).
Also remember they are not actually spread out like in the pic. Fold the pic in half to pile one layer on top and figure out ported vs constant vacuum. (the air cleaner fits on top of the carb)
Ick. it's worse than Jr high Algebra.

Also I'd like to mention the many vacuum HVAC tubes included but not mentioned in either picture. (heat/vent/a/c)

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." Hanlon's Razor

Posted by Scott Korb at 10:30 PM | Permalink