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

anyone know where i can get a turn signal socket? my passenger socket fell off some how, so i have 2 wires hanging.

 

NOT GOOD!! Sand in the case now. time to split it and wash it out.

 

Impossible not to get some sand in the case with the jack shaft tube and shaft off.

 

I bought the cheapo Pitman puller from harbor freight when I needed to pull the front differential off of a 4Runner from the junkyard. Used it to get the tie rod and UCA/LCA out of the knuckle. I bought a three prong puller set too but I never used it.

 

What's a good way to wash it out? I assume water but that sounds like a terrible idea considering the bare metal exposed would rust.

 

Thanks! The grille badge came off of a 1990 4Runner actually! I wasn't too crazy about the FJ Cruiser one everyone uses with the dull gray color.

Sue me but I like Chrome...

 

I would soak it in a parts cleaner or spray with degreaser and pressure wash it, then cover it in gear oil.

 

I presume the clamshell is made from cast iron. Wouldn't it rust?

 

Return it now, haha. I'm kidding but but not kidding. Almost guarantee the firs time you use it either the prongs will break (not heat treated) or the forcing screw will marr up and get stuck. You can grease the forcing screw and that'll help but that set has never done me any good, something as simple as pulling bushings broke it once.

 

That's what the oil is for.

 

Stupid question but what do you use it for? I bought them intending to use it on the control arms and ball joint

 

The only thing that worked for me when popping the LBJ out of the control arm is either using my air hammer on the stud (with castle nut on upside down to make sure I don't pulverize the threads) or the pitman arm puller (works great but you have to position it just right). I tried to use the three jaw pullers from HF on the upper BJ stud to get it out of the UCA but I broke two of the pullers doing that, I needed to go wheeling about 3 days later and still had lots of truck to put together so I just used spindles and UCAs from the green truck. A quality three jaw puller or a better way to stabilize the upper are while I beat on it would have worked but my time was short and I couldn't screw around with that while I was 100% sure something else would work. A good set of 3 jaw pullers is on my list of shit to buy right now actually, there are tons of uses for them but there are zero uses for those HF ones they're the only HF tool that isn't even good for one use.

 

When I took the diff out of that 4Runner I managed to use the pitman puller to get both ball joints out - it was easier than I thought.

My issue on that care is I'm sure it spent time in a salt state because everything was rusted to hell. I basically broke the brake dust shield off getting to the knuckle. The cotter pin on the LCA castle nut was so rusted we couldn't get it out, so I ended up just unbolting the whole LCA from the knuckle.

 

The one I got from a Land Cruiser is chrome, thinking I’ll paint it white before I put it on. The way I procrastinate though they’ll be releasing the 7th gen Tacoma’s before that happens.

 

So I have the chance to pick up a 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid... for free. Has about 200k miles and only needs a new hybrid battery. Clean title and everything.

Its curb weight is about 2,875 pounds and a two wheel tow dolly is about 750 pounds. Together that would be 3,625 pounds combined.

Do you think my 4 cyl 2.7l can handle towing that? I know the towing capacity is 3,500 so it's only 125 pounds overweight. The trailer id be renting has surge brakes and my truck has Tundra brakes.

It's about a 50 mile drive, there will be some grades but not anything crazy. The Honda runs and drives just fine but it's not insured or registered so I can't drive it on a public road.

 

Have you checked the price of new hybrid batteries? My dad had to have the battery pack in his Insight replaced, it was around $6k

 

Turn overdrive off and go the back/slow route, if you have one.

 

Yeah I know they're crazy expensive, the gas engine still runs fine so even if I can never replace the hybrid battery I still have another car I can use.

 

Got a code for a throttle position sensor, cleaned the throttle body as it was pretty bad so hoping this helps if not fused I’ll be replacing the sensor

 

Yeah, you'll be fine. The 4cyl with auto is going to make the auto do all the work so it might get a little toasty and you'll be slow AF. I wouldn't bother with an old Hybrid, also in your case I'd figure out that P0171 before I think about loading my truck to its max.