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

One step forward two steps back, it seems.

Well off to Wal-Mart. I missed my window for Home Depot. And harbor freight.

It's going to be a long night...

 

Yea I had the spindle attached still when I did it. . Are you putting wd-40 on the tread of the ball join puller?

 

Yup. Tons.

 

UPDATE LIVE FROM WAL-MART:

My god it's a madhouse why did I come here - there's like 20 people ahead of me in line. Last minute Christmas shopping eh? I'll be damned if I'm not going to get those ball joints in tonight.

 

I NEED ONE OF THESE!!! Who has one?

 

The Corolla iM has a $750 rebate right now and it is fully capable of hauling lettuce home from Whole Foods or Trader Joes. Women love lettuce

 

...lol what?

 

Well the impact gun doesn't do anything. Wow. Didn't even move the shaft a little. I need a stronger impact gun... @Speedytech7

 

Yeah 250ft lb is kinda weak, the HF Earthquale is pretty strong, maybe not long for this world but you'll get a few uses out of it. Or you can cheat and ratchet strap the spindle and the stand you made around one of your tires on the truck so it cant move and then torque the shit out of it by hand. It's a strength game now, remember what I said.... Chuck Fuckin' Norris

I'm running out of ghetto ideas without seeing your workspace haha

 

For anyone running the bomb proof motor mounts, what did you torque the bolt that connects the mount to the engine bracket? I've read 13 ft-lb's on the stock ones, but that seems super low - are we just going goodn'tight like tight then half a turn on these?

@Blackdawg I know you run these...

 

I would just go tight and then a little tighter with some loctite. Vibration is gonna be your enemy.

 

loc'n load.

 

I'm in the same boat. Looks like buying a diff and selling your frankensteined parts as one after should do the trick.

 

Took me the longest time to get it this clean.



I'll figure something out. I'm determined to get this damn ball joint in.

 

What are you trying to do? Press it in? The issue is that it was cockeyed? TLDR sorry Edit: nm hope you get it finished!

 

Yup. For the better part of the last three hours I've been trying to press that ball joint in. Trust me I've lubed the shaft (no pun intended) before every attempt. It's just difficult to drive it in since I have it off the truck.

 

I have always read... shrink the insert and expand the opening.

In this case, freeze the insert. Really freeze it so it contracts in size. Might take a while. Then heat the top of the spindle so the opening expands.. Then press together.

 

It's getting there. I'm just muscling it at this point with my crescent wrench/conduit cheater bar. It's no longer crooked, that's good. It's getting there - slowly but surely.

 

I GOT IT!!! That asshole is finally in there good. I ended up using the garage door as leverage and my foot to provide counter momentum to turn the wrench.

Three hours later and I have... one ball joint done. Onto the next one!