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

That's something I really like about the full box section bumpers, they have a hell of a lot more resistance to torsion and bending than an open plate design. Don't look as good though.

I can stand on the end of my swingout with it fully open and the only thing that really deflects is the frame on that side of the truck.

 

I sure hope they hold up well. I'm using 2x4 .120 wall for the main body of mine

 

That would be very stiff for sure.

 

That should do it. Mine is 2x4x.1875, but it might be a bit overkill.

 

Well s.o.b it took me 3 hrs to dissasemble and re assemble the truck. It took 4 hrs to clean parts, bolts, chase threads, fix studs, flush and de muck it, all from a shitty paper gasket on the water pump. Alas new belt and pump is done sensors are cleaned misfires gone. The gates belt had skipped a tooth, stretched half a inch and was cracking and just slipping in general.

Just wish I had trusted my gut and got a LCE crank pulley ahead of time like I wanted. What a worthless boat anchor these oem ones are. Guess it can wait till I ditch that clutch fan, and recycled barbie doll radiator.

New vs old

 

What method were you using to remove it? I've seen success with a ball joint press or even a hammer.

 

Thanks I went with the rigid d2
https://www.rigidindustries.com/led-lighting/502313
I was able to find the pair online for 284$

I haven’t full on mounted and wired them yet just test fit them last night. Definitely a tight squeeze due to the mounting bolts on the side of the lights but they still fit pretty perfectly where my turn signals used to be.

 

A hammer and a socket is how I’ve done them all.

I got 2 of the caps off/out I just couldn’t get the other sides. The guy at the shop said he couldn’t get them either so he just cut them.
It was fine though, he didn’t charge me.


To bad it didn’t fix my issue...

 

Have you ruled it out to the front driveshaft only?

 

The way you worded that.

I both ujoints are fine in the driveshaft, so that’s not it.

Only happens in 4WD, isn’t a grinding noise and isn’t always there. Just when I’m not pushing the gas and even then it isnt always there.

 

Worked on my skid plate a little more last night. Got the two main pieces welded up.

Side not: with all these problems and people bitching about the 3rd gens, I sure am glad I did the 1st gen mod. Did first gens have these many problems when they first came out? I know the earlier 3.4s had HG problems and there was the lower BJ failures.

 

While I wasn’t there when they first came out I’d image there were problems with the best gens, maybe not as many with computer related problems but I’d image there were some problems.

I’ve always wanted to go find threads from 05-06 and see what they were like, or if there even still there, to see if those years were similar to 16-17

 

Every car has problems. It's like kids when there teething, annoying as hell, at the worse time and feels like forever to sort it out..... Probably a good thing I'm not a dad lol

 

as said already, dual swing out. Way less leverage.

there is already internal gussets by the spindle..3 of them.

 

Yes! Yes there are. Still starting to sag a bit tho.

IMG_8972 by mike digirat, on Flickr

IMG_8968 by mike digirat, on Flickr

 

Yea I was referring to flex while it’s all locked up. The latch is good and has a solid bed for the arm to rest in along with a double shear swingout hinge. Holds solid driving around without vibrating. I can just flex it a bit by placing my hand on top of the tire and pushing back and forth but figured that was normal.

 

Mine is very stiff when closed. There is some flex that occurs when both fuel cans are full compared to empty. That is about 65-70 lbs of weight difference. But I don't feel it flexes much at all just by pushing on it by hand.

 

I totally know what you're saying about the LCE pulley. My buddy mentioned doing a lightened pulley while we were pulling the OEM pulley off. I honestly had never even looked for one for this truck... did a search last night, and saw the LCE pulley.

Sucks I didn't do it when I had everything apart... but that is going on this list of things my wife will be disappointed when it shows up at the door without me telling her I ordered it.

 

What kind of hinge mechanism are you using? If you have a double thrust bearing setup like @Digiratus has above, you may just need to increase the preload on the bearings. Don't go ham, but that big 1-1/2" nut should be about 150 ft-lbs or so.

 

Maybe the flex is in the tire carrier itself rather than through the hinge? What does your support behind the tire look like?