What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

We still talking bout trucks?

 

don't remove it... my sway bar end link snapped while wheeling last week and it was sketchy as hell on the drive home.
they are only $23 for a set on Amazon and it took me less than 15 min for both sides.

the one side on mine was rusted on solid and would only spin so I just used a sawzall on it after rounding out the allen socket trying to loosen it...

 

Weekend surf/camp trip + new (to me) 3rd gen trdor rims take offs from CL.

 

I was thinking about it, but there are a number of people in opposition to taking it off, so I idk.

So you have to use an allen to do it? WHY. I cannot stand allens. It's why I can't actually drain my front diff. I have to pump it out the fill hole. The allen is stripped on the front diff's drain. Now I have more to deal with, in addition to nuts? Idiocy. And then the bolts that hold the sway bar in place are hidden behind the metal bracket or w/e it is that they are attached to. The tack nut is exposed. Wtf. It should be the opposite. These decisions rival the choices made by Chrysler on some parts of my LeBaron.

 

Super common for things like this where you cannot capture the other side. Think about it though, allens are plenty strong, after all it's just and inverted bolt head right.... The reason they are problematic is people often choose one size too small and round the inside up, a correctly sized allen cannot round the fastener. That's why I keep an assload of ways to remove them (some are on loan to a friend rebuilding a subie)


^^^The Superlube is for your bum before/after your front diff drain plug fucks you^^^

But since you bring up others not using this method.... look up how many bolts on Fords and Chryslers use an E-Torx head.... now that is a stupid fastener, very dainty. Sway bar links in particular use this allen method on many makes, even my buddy's Hyundai use this method. Since you have a salt belt truck I would recommend you become familiar with the old fashioned heat wrench

That can be your best friend when working with stuck fasteners....

Here's an Eric the Car Guy vid that shows how to remove one of these sway bar links too, I don't normally link to this guy as I believe him to be a cut corner hack but he does this well and the video is super relevant. Around 7:00 minutes is where he starts removing the link...
https://youtu.be/iSMw9mwpsr0

 

I'm at work right now but I'll check this video out later and five your post a second read as well. But what I get from it is there are even more tools I need to buy, in addition to the ones I still haven't purchased. I need to forego modding indefinitely. Between tools and maintenance, mods are out of the question at this point =/

 

And just put a new swaybar link on, don't take it off until you have stiffer aftermarket suspension. Stock would be scary without it.

 

Need for OEM? Doesn't seem OEM is necessary for a part like that.

 

Nah, just get whatever is in your price range on RockAuto

 

I miss buying from RockAuto. I used to always buy pretty much the cheapest stuff from there. I still don't buy all OEM but since I bought my truck, I have bought considerably more. It'll be nice to pay a decent price again lol

 

Theres some stuff where OEM is nice and some stuff where it just doesn't matter... because OEM is just aftermarket that's been approved by the OEM on vehicles this old. Most of the stuff you'll find at the dealer isn't from the same manufacturer who sold it to them when the truck was made.

 

Looks like we're back in commission! No leaks, no issues. Started her up, took it a bit to cycle through but now starts up fine. I took the end piece of the hose and electrical taped it back around the existing hose as a cushion to prevent another chaffing incident. No more corolla duty for a while

 

You should be able to pull it out once you get the hose clamp off. Probably gonna have to use a whole lot of force by the way your having trouble with it.

That's good to hear. My passenger side busted and have a aftermarket CV. Still got the OEM cv just really need to buy better boots for them so I can put them back.

 

Good to hear. Right when I replyed lol But I actually cycle on the accessories and on for 5 seconds for the gas to cycle and my truck started right up when I installed the 7th injector.

 

Understand I know OEM isn't cheap but I still do that the OEM corner lights somewhere laying around my house.

 

I'm going to guess that was the source of your occasional tough start

 

If it's any consolation my truck has lived its whole life in Colorado and when I went to remove the end link so I can swap my CV axle, the end link shattered and disintegrated into a rusty powder mess.

Your '04 should look something like this. Those flattened out/cracked bushings are what you're probably dealing with.




The colored bushings are pretty much everything you should replace. Also... you might end up having to replace the actual end links because they are probably going to snap.

 

Your end links are like all the parts diagrams I see. Mine don't look like that. I'll have to get a picture. Mine don't have bushings and nuts like yours. Mine are like booted ball joints from the looks of it. And it has two ends, not one and a straight stud on the other. Maybe it's a year thing? No clue.

 

Well like I said I haven't started the truck in 2 days, and the gash has been sitting there open.

More than likely not, I mentioned that it doesn't occur every start up, cold or not. It's very intermittent. The truck would've started up had I fixed this issue or not it just would've leaked a lot of fuel.