Hi I am the proud owner of a 1079 Toyota Corolla wagon deluxe. It is a fun little car but has a few problems, other than being extremely slow haha. I have a few questions that some people may have the answer to. If not it’s okay!
First, my gas gauge is busted. I have ran out of gas twice which sucks. The needle stays limp and doesn’t do anything at all. What can I do to fix this? I cannot seem to find any fuel sending units for this specific vehicle, as parts are hard to come by, especially brand new ones.
Second, it is carbureted, and there is a little tube that pokes out the bottom of my little Weber 32/26 carb. Whenever try to fill the gas tank all the way, it spurts out a metric boat load of fuel. What the heck!? I am worried if I close this off it will pressurize or back up the system and pop something.
Lastly, all my tires have some poke to them. This was the previous owners decision, but I don’t know I kinda like it. What i DONT like is that the rear passenger tire pokes out about one and a half inches more than the drivers rear. There are no spacers, just a regular old axle that I suspect is not the original, hence the fact that it pokes out. Not sure what I can do to re center them so any tips would help me out a whole lot.
I do all of the work on this car myself but I am open to going to shops if it is beyond something I am capable of. Thank you for reading my post! I hope you all have a wonderful day!
First, the gas gauge. Just keep searching is about all I can say. The internet is a big place. Search vintage Toyota forums, Ebay, the works. There may also be another sender that can be adapted. Toyota or Corolla forums may help.
Second, I do not know what “tube” you are referring to… a picture would help. I’d suggest the carb’s needle and seat need replacing because they are likely leaking. Carb kits and rebuilt carbs are available on RockAuto.com.
Third, by poke, if you mean the tires stick out, then the wheels are not factory nor are they the proper offset to fit the car. You need a wheel with more backspacing… the measurement from the bolt face to the back of the wheel rim. As for the resr axle being offset, if has been replaced, the panhard bar is too long or too short or the car is too high or too low or the bar is bent or the car is bent. Again, pictures would help. You may have to fabricate something to fix it.
As far as the gas gauge, I had this problem with one car, I just filled it up by miles driven, every 150 miles or so.
I think Mustangman is correct, likely aftermarket rims with incorrect offset.
+1
Unless the trip odometer has also stopped working, this is the very simple way of making sure that one doesn’t run out of gas. Of course, it can also be done if the trip odometer is now dead, as long as the OP keeps a watchful eye on the odometer.
The fuel spurting out when filling the tank is likely from the charcoal canister and I suspect you are ‘packing’ your tank. And it’s unlikely that a Weber carburetor was original equipment on that Toyota so improper vacuum sourcing is likely. As for the odd wheel spacing, it might be a critical error to ever get the front wheel mismatched and while not so critical on the rear it can be a severe safety issue on wet or icy streets at anything above bicycle speed.
But all that is just my opinion based on seeing all manner of automotive Frakensteinisms in my past. Maybe Igor can find some proper pieces to make the car safer and if properly installed a correctly assembled Weber can be a much better operating carburetor than a patched up original.
Gas gauge: Probably gonna have to live with it. I don’t see the part on Rockauto so it’s probably not available anywhere unless you get lucky. Does the odometer still work? Fill up every 150 miles.
If the wheel on one side is sticking farther out than the wheel on the other side, and there are no spacers, then the guy who owned the car before you screwed up, and it’s not the aftermarket rims. Or at least, not entirely the rims, because if it were only the rims, they’d both stick out the same amount.
Be helpful if you could get us pics from under the car so we could see that rear axle.
