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

Actually seen a couple of them at the LeMay auto museum here in WA, dude has a few of the odd ball electric vehicles that tried to do their thing throughout the generations.

 

I’m getting used knuckles hubs and CVs (and maybe even the jack shaft) this week, just kinda was thinking of doing the ball joints wile they were apart

 

Ditto

 

I still gotta do that backlighting mod. It's been sitting on my desk for months!

 

Doing ball joints off the truck is definitely not for the faint of heart.

 

Is it eaiser on the truck?
Idk these things I only fell into a first gen a few weeks ago. I speak 2nd gen fluently

 

lol that's how I was a year ago - you seem to be doing great so far.

 

100x harder. With them on the truck you can use the 3,000 pound truck as leverage. With them off the truck... well... you're screwed to put it eloquently. I had to make a custom wood mount to affix the knuckle too and exert incredible pressure to the screw clamp to get it out. I don't know how the hell I did it.

Do yourself a favor and buy a hydraulic press.

 

It's Steering Knuckle rebuilding night. The paint on these turned out really nice.

 

So ball joints after it’s installed on the truck and unit bearings buy a press? Or should I run the current bearings until they go bad (I don’t know how many miles they have on them)

 

Bearings you cannot replace without a hydraulic press, someone correct me if I'm wrong. UBJ can be done on the truck, LBJ is a couple bolts.

 

You can do bearings more easily with a OTC hub tamer/grappler than with a hydro press. Hydro press really isn't the right tool for the job

 

Have you ever used one? They don't look strong enough to me to change our bearings.

 

Yeah, and I've got good vids of people using them on more robust units. Haven't had to change my own yet. There was a user on here a while ago that brought it up, bought one then did his bearings in his garage successfully. I can probably dig up that post if you like.

 

No need I believe ya.

 

Both Steering Knuckles all done and rebuilt. Man those ball joints are an absolute pain in the ass.

Next is actually putting everything on the truck. I gotta fix the Civic first though, I can't go without a car for a couple days.

Anyone have experience with replacing individual cells on a Hybrid battery? No way in hell im paying for a $2k reman battery.

 

There's just about everything I need for the 4WD swap. This is going to be fun.

 

Lots of youtube videos about it.

 

Debating on if I should find some used one from a yard or try to repair it myself. If most of the cells are dead I might just get a new battery.

 

Is this a Zerk fitting on the rear driveshaft?