mustangstephen's 2002 Tacoma TRD

I guess it's about time for me to make a build thread. I've only had the taco since early 2009... I do mods occasionally and in spurts. I have a few other hobbies I can barely afford and usually just hop back and forth between them.

How it currently sits currently with 205kmiles:


Current specs:

Vehicle:
2002 Tacoma TRD
3.4L V6
4x4 5sp manual
stock 4.10 gears

Performance:
K&N cold air intake with AFE Pro Dry filter(installed by PO)
glass pack muffler

Front suspension:
Eibach coils and 5100s

Rear Suspension:
homeade leaf pack (help here) and cheap autozone shocks (about 23" extended length)

Tires/wheels:
Wheelers type B 16x8s with 4" backspacing
285/75R16 Goodyear MTRs

Lights:
Nilight LED light bar off Amazon.
Nilight LED flat cube thing in the headache rack wired into the reverse lights.

Exterior:
Homebrew headache rack
Homebrew sliders
Homebrew front bumper
Homebrew rear bumper

Misc:
Diff breather relocated to gas cap
CL tool box
CB
gray wire mod
2wd low mod (J case: push button: here )
no daytime running lights: here
disabled the feature that makes the blinkers blink faster when a bulb is out (here)

Short term (possible year or 10) wish list:
skid plates. I think I'm going to buy these instead of bending since I don't have access to anthing that will bend metal thick enough to be effective.
Dual cases. As long as I'm running 33s I think I'd rather keep the 4.10 gears and just get duals. If I go 35s then a regear will be mandatory.



How it sat in the lot when I found it:


Camper shell made it for a few hours after I got it.


Existing modifications when bought at 92.5k miles:
K&N intake missing some bracing and shields
front coil and top plate spacer lift
rear lift shackles
255/85r16 BFG KM1s
Exhaust tail pipe modified to hang too low

 

I'm going to go through the mod list from memory. It may or may not be in the exact order. I'll probably edit later and include some links where I found mods.

First mods/maintenance: After camper shell removal got new front brake pads and a louder muffler Modified the tail pipe a little but still exited below spring. After a few months of ownership I took it to the dealership for a timing belt and full service. Got an alignment and paid firestone to do the front half shafts. After paying them to do it a few times I figured I better learn to do it and save some money. Found out Napa shafts last pretty good being that I'm still on them with probably over 50k miles. Had a boot failure on one of the first remans but bought new after that and have been doing good.

I put a cb and pa speaker in sometime. Bought the cheapo offroad lights from auto zone and put them in the holes in the factory front bumper that the PO had for some reason.

I really didn't do much with the truck for a long time. Was in college and rode 4 wheelers a lot. Met a crazy old man that basically gave me a pair of 31-15.5 AG tires. Didn't use them anymore and wanted to see them go to someone who would use them. Since I was big in the mud then I thought it was great until I smoked my clutch pretty good with them. Also found out why you need to relocate the differential breather. Had to get a new pumpkin when the pinion bearings went out. Needless to say I did the diff breather relocation after that.

dat ass


Everyone plastic dips or sprays their wheels black, I went with mud


Met a girl (that became the wife) that told me about their family trips to Colorado and wheeling there... Did a little googling and apparently I have a great platform to build a wheeling rig to take her out there one day. And so it began

Did a grey wire mod and removed the front sway bar at some point in time. Built a headache rack because I have some perfect chain links etched into my passenger rear window. Put some no name fog lights on the rack and wired them in with the reverse so I had some extra light when backing up at night. Lets just say the window tint made things difficult before. Went to 265/75r16 Kelly safari TSRs when the KM1s wore out.

Got tired of the low hanging exhaust and moved it between the axle and frame.


Wasn't doing major wheeling yet but the stock leafs suck so added two leafs out of the original pack from my 67 Mustang (hence the username)



Build some sliders:




Then a front bumper:




Figured the bumper needed some more work.


Got some eibachs and 5100s here the beginning of 2014.






Redid the rear leafs. Ditched the lift shackle and went back to stock shackle. Found out the bushings were different and decided to press out the studs on the factory shackles and run the greasable bolts from the lift shackles. The extra leafs came this time from a late 80s 1 ton ford overload leaf pack. I think the pack could really use one more leaf somewhere but I'm out of spare packs so this will be a future project one Saturday.


Got some 285/75r16 maxxis bighorns at 170k miles.






and removed some of the front fender after finally doing the pinch weld mod. ( )


built a rear bumper (inspired by the 4x innovations)




clutch from advance went out. Went back with a marlin:





made removable door hinges (still need to take the doors off) (here):




And there is about 5 years worth of ownership in one post.

 

Little off topic, got the wife a 01 4 runner 4wd sport December of 2011. It's been a great vehicle also aside from the tranny going out. Found out I should have been changing the fluid and filter ever 40k-ish so I guess it's partly my fault. When having it rebuilt we put a transgo shift kit in it. I also did an external tranny cooler the first week we owned it.

She won't let me lift it.

 

also saved

 

what the heck, one more time

 

Nice truck, didn't know you had a first gen

 

Simple, I cut a wire.













































I'm pretty sure I followed the insturctions here. It's the last email I emailed to myself about it.

http://www.yotatech.com/f2/tacoma-drl-mod-difinitive-solution-please-sticky-move-tech-133454/

 

On my 2001 4Runner it was as simple as cutting one wire. Yours should be the same.

 

Why not just take out the relay?

 

I Could be wrong but I the relay might control more than the dtrl. Plus sniping one wire is simple enough.

 

High lift mounted this weekend. Nothing fancy just needed to get it done.

 

Time for rock lights. From amazon.

 

Went wheeling at Brazos Valley Off Road Ranch the 13th. Had a blast. Tried a spot I knew I had no business in but got to test out the rear bumper.





Highlight of the day for me was this climb.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvOHbh5GuWc

And learned my rear tires were rubbing at full compression. So I made some extended bump stops. Should be able to easily extend them at a later date if need be. Still need to paint them and yes I got my nut on.



And in the near future I'm going to change up my rear leafs a little bit again. Mainly just add another leaf so the truck doesn't sit perfectly level and have a bro lean whenever I put a cooler of beer in the bed. While doing this I think I'm going to do a U bolt flip while at it so I can put a 2.5" wide spring in instead of being limited to the factory 2.375" width. Found this 9/16" kit at the local car quest for way to cheap. Top plate isn't wide enough but that's easy enough to make. Probably use a flat piece of 3/8 and drill it accordingly. I'll also make some shock mounts and just use the existing shocks. I hope to have this done by the end of the year.

 

PHP:

Made my top plates out of .5" flat bar. Little overkill but had it available. Only added the large leaf between the toy leaf with the alignment tabs and top two. Removed the factory plastic tabs and fit like a glove.



Made shock mounts or of .25 x 1.5" flat bar. Here is a drivers side pic after adding another leaf.





Flexes a little better I think. Need to step up to 26" extended 10" travel shocks.

 

Time for an update. Radio went out so time for an upgrade...

Kenwood DVD touchscreen and stuff. Wanted a trail camera I saw on Colinb17's taco ages ago. Also swapped out the vatozone off road lights for a cheap Amazon light bar. And upgraded the rear speakers while I was at it. Squeezed in some 6x9s in the 6x8 opening.

 

Looking good dude

 

Time for a update. No major mods but need to be noted.

First up is it was time for new rubbers. Decided to try MTRs this time. So far I like them. The old Maxxis Bighorns had 34k on them and 3/16-1/4" tread left when removed. Interesting note. These MTRs in the same 285/75r16 are 1/2-1" taller than my old bighorns.


And time for a trip to Big Bend Ranch State Park and National Park

Built an expo/utility trailer (4x8 with 2' sides)










fixed itself...


then there was this...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSpQUoqjSUs

All in all it was a great trip being out in the middle of nowhere.




Then because I hadn't seen enough rocks I hit up a local spot back home and needed to reinforce the gas tank skid. I've seen this done somewhere but don't remember where.

 

Time for another update...

At 245k ish the mtrs were pretty worn but the best had about 3/16th tread left so moved it to the spare and got another set of mtrs. Then the wife decided we needed to do a trip for our 10 year anniversary... Apparently I need to buy mtrs more often... Current plan is to ditch the kiddos with grandparents and go to new Mexico for a few days and camp out of the truck. Which will need a camper shell again...

So I got this until i can find a high rise one.



Now gotta do some building...




Also the 48" chest tool box from tractor supply fits like a glove. I know it'll be a little high for the sleeping platform coming but the shell will be off 98% of the time so just going to live with it for now.



And an inverter.


More coming shortly.