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

I saw some chatter about LCA bushings and have a couple of observations from having had the Whitelines the past two years.

1. With the Whitelines you may need to use a higher than OEM torque spec for the alignment cams. The Whitelines don't have teeth on the mating surface and I've had trouble holding alignment. Last time I lost alignment I had let down the front after putting on my winters and the cams made a pop sound and I was out of alignment. I just had an alignment this spring and occasionally I will hear a click sound while mounting curbs at the mall and I can tell the alignment is slowly slipping.

2. I have no problems with squeaks after I tore everything back down and cleaned all the mating surfaces and used SuperLube. It's been almost two years now. The Redline grease I used first squeaked from the first day but I hadn't really cleaned the surfaces well at first.

Next time I get an alignment I will go in and check the torque myself as I'm pretty sure the shop didn't torque the bolts behind the steering rack. I think the Whitelines should be fine with adequate torque. Still, looking back I might just go back to OEM if the need arises.

 

Getting new shocks today, went with something a little on the cheap side as I want to 'lift' my 5 lug in the near future.
Next week is ball joints and tie rods.

 

Ordered a timing belt kit that includes the water pump and engine seals. Should be diving into that at the beginning of August. I was just looking into the LCA bushings over the weekend and I'm stuck between Whitelines or OEM... I don't want to have to deal with alignment issues like @alphabravo stated. Any way you could use the OEM washers with teeth?

 

It is a leap of faith isn't it.

 

Brought the Taco camping in the Adirondacks

 

Loaded up

 

Haha the irony, the switch going to the most useless and possibly damage inducing feature of an 80 series cruiser can be put to good use in a Taco.

But seriously though the hoses going to that rear heater box love to burst.

 

What seats are those?

 

Beautiful old skool wheels !!!

Details on seats !!!

 

Looks like late model F series Ford seats

 

I had a 5 lug. Wanted to lift it. Totaled in a wreck. Got a 4x4. Don't even bother with all the trouble. Just sell it and get what you want.

 

Put a TRD shift knob on it from ebay. The glare coming in makes it look weird... but the knob is nice and black and leathery, just how I like it

 

I don't think so. The Whiteline washers and sleeves are thicker (possibly aluminum??) and don't actually snap together the way the OEM ones do. That's actually another possible source of the clicking if the alignment bolts or bolt sleeves can move around slightly around the sleeved cam.

I put in an inquiry to Whiteline in 2015 and they were supposed to have an official release for the first gens in spring 2016. I haven't heard anything about that though. With a few minor changes they could improve the design.

 

Cool to hear your feedback.

Id bet is is a torque thing though. I man, my LT kit has poly bushings as do others. One the big things is getting the Tab Cam gussets that everyone reports helps with thier alignment getting knocked out of spec.

 

2nd Tank has arrived!!! Looking much closer now

 

I agree. I give them the benefit of the doubt until I've torqued them myself. I've tried to think of a way to increase the friction or roughen the surface of the washers or the contact area between the washers and the sleeves but I suspect the softer aluminum wouldn't take well to this. Of course compression (torque) is the easiest way to increase friction as long as you don't yield the aluminum

As an aside. I did finally get some sweet alignment numbers with the Total Chaos UCAs once I put the bed back on and once I went to a shop that could enter my actual tire size into the machine instead of just using the OEM tire size LOL. I was basically zero toe, zero camber and like 3+ degrees of caster.

 

Checked one of my trucks and found this


So I got all the parts and found an easy way to torque the crank shaft bolt.

 

I changed my 3rd brake light today, first mod I've done, now I'm about to change my o2 sensor, I'm just waiting for the exhaust to cool down... But heres my 3rd brake light, my 03 was a bit more difficult than what I was reading but finally done!

Before


After

 

Is it possible to remove the timing belt on the 5vz without cutting it off?
I replaced the timing belt in my project 4runner and the crank is 1 tooth off of the cams, tensioner is already pulled and I can't remove the tensioner because of a bolt with a rounded head.

 

I wanted to do that but I heard you have to drop the headline and I didn't want to mess with that