Hello to all. I am the proud owner of a 1981 Toyota Tercel. The car has been in the family since it was purchased new in 81 by my father. He drove the car for about 2 years and then sold it to me. I drove it until 88 when I sold it back to him after accepting a sales job and moving out of state, and he kept the car in the barn and only drove it for 2 months every summer. He passed away 4 years ago, and my Mother wanted to me to have it. I had it transported to ILL from NY and now I am in the process of restoring it to show condition. If anyone else owns or is familiar with this model, I would welcome a discussion with you.

Welcome aboard:)

I just bought one to these first gen 1981 tercels. I'm told it needs a water pump. Do you know if you have to work with the timeing blet to cange the water pump? I here on some models you do???

You should not have work on the belt itself, just the cover comes off.
Per the Robert Bentley manual:
To Remove:
1. Drain the coolant from the radiator and the engine block.
2. Loosen the belts for the alternator adjusting bracket. Loosen the alternator mounting bolts. Then push the alternator toward the engine and slip the Vbelt off the water pump pulley.
3. By taking out the bolts, remove the camshaft drive belt's upper cover.
4. Remove the 7 bolts that hold the water pump front part to the engine and to the water pump housing. Then remove the water pump front part.

Installation is the reverse of the removal. Use new gaskets during installtion and insert one mounting bolt through the pump front part and the gasket to keep the gasket aligned with the pump. Working diagonally. tourque the bolts to 9 to 10 Nm (7 to 7.5 ft Lb). Refill the cooling system and adjust the V belt.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Hey, I am glad to see there is somebody else beside me with an 81 tercel.The car has been in and out of my family since i was 4 years old.We sold it to our neighbor 6 years ago and now i just got it back a month ago.I was driving thirty miles a day in a 1967 chrysler newport custom, which didnt get the best gas mileage. That is why i am happy that i got this car back on the road. Whenmy family got the car in 1993 it had around 200,000 miles on it, and when we sold it six years ago it had around 750,000 miles on it. Our neighbor had the head rebuilt soon after. Whlie they were driving it 2 years ago the odometer rolled over, and is now back on 148,572 miles, which means that my little tercel has over 1 million miles on it and is still going strong. That is my toyota story an i hope that somebody writes back. Antone phillips.

I have been the proud owner of a Toyota Tercel 1981 for 27 years. It had almost 300,000 miles and it run perfectly, it did not burn an oz of oil. Last week a careless driver that run a red light (an almost killed me) caused so much damage to my old faithful friend that, with sadness, I decided to put it to rest. The car was priceless to me but the reality is that I have to settle with the insurance for an amount of money. I would appreciate if somebody has an idea of values for such a vehicle? Thanks, HAL