What Have You Done To Your 2nd Gen Tacoma Today?

Loaded up and did a little work at my dad's house...

So he has an '02 Dakota, loaded with a V8. All stock except a K&N Cold Air.... He is real pleased with it.... I was not 'wowwed' at all. Made me love my Taco that much more.... Previously I was a bit jealous of the V8 status(when I was driving the Ranger), but not so much anymore! One quick ride changes everything! Good looking truck but IMHO..... That's all it does!

 

Took my rear mud flaps off this weekend. I left them on to be courteous to other drivers. But I noticed after it rained, I had a bunch of black water spots all over the back. Then when I was washing my truck I noticed black water running from them. When I took them off, all around the mounts had this clay like substance. I like the look without them, so I'll leave them off for now.

 

Installed my grill from ECG fabrication! And found out after replacing my spark plugs that I will need to replace my valve cover gasket.

 

But you have clearance, no?

 

What tires are those?

 

Way back in the day I used to work at a Dodge dealership. A guy had a then new Dakota R/T with CAI, Headers, Dynomax exhaust and it was still very underwhelming for what was supposed to be a high performance truck.

 

Radiator support bushings

At rest, I had 1/8" of bushing between my support and the frame. Everyone should do this.

 

Finally!!! So stoked.

 

Do the stock bushings degrade that badly?

 

Cleaned inside and outside of the truck
Reinstalled the Heretic Lightbar on the Roof Rack
Did Rear Diff Breather Mod
Build some Hi-Lift Jack Mounts to mount it on the side of the bed
Installed a Factor55 Hitchlink and a Smittybilt DRing and got a locking pin for it.

Pretty productive weekend if I do say so myself.

 

Oil change and added the Fumoto valve:



My OCD is kicking in though because the valve won't line up in a symmetrical way when correctly tightened.

 

Way worse than you think. Driver side showed signs of metal to metal contact from minor flexing and bumpy roads. I don't wheel hard at all. The truck is four years old.

 

I didnt use too much force at all. Used a handheld ratchet with a torx bit and it came right off.

 

I did same mod couple weeks ago. My truck will be 3 years old at the end of this month..

Here's what mine looked like

 

Cool. Gotta try again then I guess. Thanks!

 

His isn't the R/T model. He told me he had just installed the K&N then stepped on it. We were rolling about 40 mph or so... It just made a lot of noise and slowly sped up... Wasn't even pleasant noise. Lol! I just nodded.... Couldn't think of anything nice to say, so.... I didn't even offer a ride in the Taco! Maybe next time we get together.

 

Sitting still I have clearance. If my tire moves up at all with the wheel cranked, it will hit the cab mount.

 

I've been meaning to check mine.. truck is 7 years old.. im sure they are flattening out by now. probably why I have to compensate on the driver side so much for taco lean. My driver side King is cranked significantly more to compensate. this might just be the fix!

anybody have a link for those bushing?

 

Link is in the radiator support bushing thread. The thread is seeing a fair bit of action. It won't be far down the list. I just ordered the body kit as well, but used the stiffer universal bushing kit up front. You'll be in disbelief you didn't do this sooner.

 

thanks man. I will check that thread later. Need to get goin on this. how difficult was it to get to those radiator bushings?