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

Yea, I could see the pitch forks and torches from here when all that went down

 

I went through a 32 oz. bottle just flushing the front when I did tundra brakes. You don’t need nearly as much to do the rears, but it couldn’t hurt to have extra on hand.

 

ill try to respond to pms quicker

 

Ahhh no worries man, I was probably gonna buy it anyway

 

Got my valve covers today, they look good for used valve covers. I'll be cleaning them up for sure. Also wondering if I will ever get my All Pro bumper after all that has gone down

 

I really like the look of Coastal Off-road bumpers although I would probably just do the grill tubing. DIY weld kits, prices in Canadian: coastaloffroad.com. Still looking for any member reviews.

 

It was on autoanything. 15% off and then an extra 50. I calculated it out and it's quite a bit cheaper than I would spend on Wet Okoles, but I think I might just wait. Sometimes when I buy something that's similar but not exactly what I want I end up regretting it haha

 

Was talking with some peeps who work at pelfrybilt and they are developing new shit for first gens. Never got to see some pics, im set with armor but always curious to see whats new and cool, have you ordered one for a first gen?

 

I pre-ordered (paid in full) their front steel bumper with half loop.

 

I had debated on of them, but wish they had more views of it. That and the out of country transactions I shy away from.

 

So I did my first mod on my tacoma today. Put in the billet grill insert. One day might go with a custom grill but for $65 off Amazon I couldn't beat it.

 

Yeah they have more views on other trucks but not on the 1st gen. They’re a 20 min drive from me so by far the most local bumper resource I have.

 

Are the just over the boarder? I would make the drive from Seattle, I still cant get into canaduh though.

 

Owner/manager said they’re just a few miles north of the Peace Arch crossing. Said he’d install sliders for me too when they come out for the 1st gen this spring.

 

Thanks Dan. I picked up two bottles.

 

HUGE update on why the hell my truck is still sitting in a shop's backlot broken.

Let me start from the beginning. About two weeks ago I had just finished my 4WD conversion, but lacked a rear driveshaft so I was driving the truck around in 4WD/4HI FWD with the front driveshaft delivering power instead of the rear in a traditional Tacoma. I drove it for two days and I noticed this strange 'pinging' or loud screeching was coming from the bellhousing. I ignored it after asking on here and was told it was the flexplate just rubbing on the inspection plates. Ignoring that sound was the biggest mistake I have ever made. After I got my answer, I decided to check it when I got home and hopefully fix it.

I never made it home.

I was driving at about 40 MPH when I noticed the noise went away, and suddenly the RPM's absolutely SKYROCKETED every couple seconds, followed by the worst noise I have ever heard in my life. It was a combination of grinding, screeching, and metal clanging as I noticed I was losing each of my four gears one by one. Once I lost first gear, I barely made it into a parking lot. I tried to start it to drive it onto the tow truck, but the starter just made grinding noises.

I bring it into the transmission shop and they tell me the flexplate/flywheel is cracked. I order a new one and they replace it - a week passes and they call me to let me know it's ready. Yesterday, Wednesday morning I went to go pick up the truck. I pulled it out of the shop and immediately noticed how badly the transmission was shifting with sudden jerking, high idle, and surprise surprise, the same pinging noise signaling ANOTHER broken flexplate. I parked it a block away from the shop and gave the keys to the tech who fixed it to test drive it. He said a mixture of profanities while driving it noting the symptoms I told him. The next morning, the shop's owner calls me back and let's me know what the hell happened. He confirmed my suspicions, the brand new Flexplate broke AGAIN. You guys will never guess what was causing it.

The torque converter mating surface was warped, specifically where the flexplate mounts to the torque converter. He told me he measured everything the AISIN manual gives a specification for, within reason, and told me all of the mounting pads were out of position and uneven. One was higher than the other. When the flexplate was torqued to spec, the uneven surface of the TC caused a lot of stress on the mating hub causing it to crack. I knew it was suspicious my original flexplate of 95,285 miles failed out of nowhere.

The owner was really nice about it, he ate the cost of a new flexplate and an additional transmission R&I. They're putting my A340E torque converter on to replace the A340F, even though the stall speed is different (200 RPM). Hopefully that solves the problem.

And that's my story. I could've sworn I did something wrong installing everything, but I did everything correctly. It's just a freak accident that the torque converter mating surface was warped, how often does that happen? General consensus says the truck the transmission originally came from was in a bad front end collision and it caused the torque converter to bend and warp like it did.

Lesson learned. Even though something as small as measuring the runout of your torque converter mating surface, it caused an expensive and stressful situation.

 

Good on that mechanic to eat the cost of the flex plate. By God that truck WILL be a 4X4!

Assuming all this works out I hope you’re leaving them a good review anywhere you can.

 

that would been the last thing i would of thought of. good on the shop and stay strong my friend

 

I'm not out of the water yet, there's still that weird shifting issue that makes the truck shift terribly. It has all the symptoms of a bad transmission.

The owner told me the new Flexplate and TC would solve the problem, but we'll see. Crazy thing is when I was driving it before the flexplate broke, it shifted and hanlded fine. It drove no differently than my original A340E.

 

I think the tranny itself is probably fine, uneven rotation and such like it was receiving can't be good for something that expects linearity.