Arrrghhhhh...I have to shoot my horse!

Arrrrrrrrrggghhhhhhhhaaaaa.
My Old Horse (truck) just broke it’s leg, and I’m gunna have to put ‘er down.

As you might know from some of my previous posts I joined TW because I’m about to buy a new one. In fact I took a day off work next week to spend it on the phone with all the regional dealers.

My ’93 Toyota (purchased in 1992) has served me well all these years and the engine still runs great with full factory spec compression. I spent the first two years modifying it to exactly what I need. I’m sad to see her go.

A few months ago I put on new front calipers. About 3 weeks ago I replaced the clutch master and slave cylinders. And last weekend I spent 5 hours completely disassembling the rear parts of the parking brake mechanism, removing the rust and scale and relubing it all.

The day after I fixed the parking brake, I began to notice the brake fluid level slowly dropping. I feared that screwed something up. After another day I saw a small puddle under my truck at work, and the brake fluid level dropped again.

I went to test the brakes, which seemed to work fine except a little extra pedal travel, on the third hard pump the pedal went to the floor! I had to drive home without power brakes (slowly and cautiously). I could still stop with maximum pedal push. I could see the leaked fluid all over the mid right frame rail.

I dropped off the truck at my mechanic and he told me that I have bigger problems than a brake leak: my right leaf spring (forward) shackle was no longer attached to the frame!!! There was no frame left, only metastatic rust. I can no longer safely drive it. It’s toast.

I’m already missing all the good times we had together.

 

Time to pull the motor and buy a solid rolling chassis

 

I got enough grease on my hands right now.
I think I'll leave that to someone else with better wrenching skills and more time than money.

 

x2 ive heard about this somewhere too. its worth looking into. otherwise sorry to hear about ur loss but the new ones r NICE!!

 

only for tacomas, not pick ups.

 

This is a 1992. I think that's 10 years before the bad frames came out.
This cancer is the result of living in salty road country.

 

on tacomas only. And the truck can't even be more than 10 years old so im pretty sure they stopped buying them all together. Now they just replace frames on the newer ones.

edit: saw you got it lol

 

I found this article:

May 7, 2008, 1:33 pm Toyota Offers to Buy Back Rusty Tacomas

By CHRISTOPHER JENSEN In a program that covers 813,000 trucks and could cost almost $100 million, Toyota is offering to buy back 1995-2000 Tacoma pickups with frames so badly rusted that they cannot be repaired.
The automaker is also extending the warranty on those frames from the normal three years or 36,000 miles to 15 years (from the time they were new) and unlimited mileage.
On the buybacks, Toyota will pay 1.5 times the suggested retail price for a vehicle in excellent condition as calculated by Kelley Blue Book.
The program is good for consumers because Toyota is willing not just to buy back vehicles, but to pay much more than book value, said Clarence Ditlow, the executive director of the Center for Auto Safety. “Traditionally, when manufacturers have bought back older vehicles they have used the Kelley Blue Book straight price,” Mr. Ditlow said. “Taking care of customers is how Toyota gets to No. 1.”
Toyota began sending letters to Tacoma owners in March, and the mailings were expected to take several months. That letter says Toyota dealers will inspect the frame at no charge.
The Tacomas were built at the New United Motor Manufacturing plant in Fremont, Calif., which is a joint venture started in 1984 by Toyota and General Motors.


I guess it started earlier than I thought. But with US made Tacomas.
Mine was made in Japan.

 

I think that rust was a long time coming. Oh well, 19 years is a good life.

And some people complain about not getting 0W20 synthetic oil at the dealer... as if the engine is gonna die first.