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

I had a locking gas cap just never bothered to lock it because I thought thay didn’t happen anymore lol, guess i was wrong, now i lock it all the time

 

One nice thing about Amazon, you can go back through all your orders, here is the bulb that I used.

$10 Alla Lighting 31mm DE3021 DE3022 7065 LED Festoon Bulbs, 6000K Xenon White DE3175 CAN-Bus Interior Dome, Map, Trunk, Step Courtesy Lights Lamps

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014P06YSM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Just prior to that was an order for some cheaper non-CANBUS ones that were returned, and some days after the order of the CANBUS ones, was the order for the resistors. If memory serves, it was the dimming feature when you lock and unlock that required the resistor.

 

Fucking Dakars...the dreaded squeaking/creaking is real. Never had this issue with my stock leafs and 3 leaf AALs, but these Dakars are barely a month old and sound like a 100 year old rocking chair when I drive.

I've found that hitting them up close with the hose on 'stream' setting between the leaves gets rid of the squeak for a couple days but it comes right back. Anyone with 1st gen OME dakars figure out a long term solution to this? Driving me nuts.

I know they have greasable shackles available but I don't think it's coming from the shackles, given how it goes away for a short while when I blast between the leaves with high powered water

 

Oh I plan on being 100% straight up with whoever decides to buy it. These trucks are popular enough around here, I don't think I'll have any problem selling it.

I do plan on rebuilding the engine. Yeah I know it doesn't need it, but I've always wanted to tear one apart. Would look good to a buyer as well. I was very surprised the Blackstone same came back so positive, I had a feeling there was a head gasket leak somewhere.

 

what kind of grease did you use when you installed them?

 

Don't greasable shackles help? I heard the same thing about the AllPro leafs I bought, and the seller told me that they do squeak but there's nothing you can really do about it.

 

Alla Lighting also... weird how I never had to deal with resistors (and dimming works fine). Even though these have lasted 2 years, I shouldve ordered a couple of extra lol

 

They squeak, it's just what they do. Although mine don't do it a lot, I greased mine with some moly grease in between all the leafs and I have greasable shackles and a greasable main eye. Mine mostly only squeak when really compressing them a lot, otherwise they're quiet on the street.

 

I Just edited my post above about the greasable shackles...but given how it goes away when I hit them with water between the leaves, I don't think it's the shackles that are the issue. Might help some though.

Same grease I use with my grease gun on my zerk fittings for the driveline...forget exactly what its called, I'll have to look tomorrow.

 

Yeah that's what I used, the moly grease. Seems to be the general consensus that they just squeak...guess I'll learn to live with it lol. I'll get some greasable shackles eventually and hopefully that'll help some

 

You have to try pretty hard to hear leafs over engine, SC, intake, stereo, road noise, etc in my truck haha. Wheeling, well who cares then haha

 

I have my windows down 95% of the time I'm in my truck and since I lost the TRD tail pipe (got cut off to do my axle dump) its a lot easier to hear the squeaky bastards. Guess I'll have to upgrade the stock radio finally so I can have a better excuse to listen to loud music lol.

Speaking of which, I'll probably put the TRD tail pipe up for sale soon if anyone is interested. Would need to be welded on of course...though I'm not 100% sure, I might want to figure out a way to have it put back on and retain clearance. I miss my loud exhaust haha

 

You get used to the squeeking/creaking after a while, or at least I did. I do need to get those greasable bolts for the main eye, mine have been getting louder and louder lately

 

Yeah if anything I feel like it's coming from the front of the springs, near the eye and not the back by the shackles.

 

Hmm odd. Those should yield no issue. I wonder if there is too little resistance somewhere else in the circuit and so you have to add resistance at the end point? Totally guessing here. I know very little about electrical systems.
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Do your All-Pro leafs squeak? My Standards don't make any noise that I can hear. Well they did when I first installed them because I forgot to grease the bushings in the shackles. That was absurdly loud. I couldn't take it. Fixed that right quick. No noise since then from the shackles nor the leafs themselves.

 

I really want to do one on my corolla.. curious as to what they find with 700k on the engine

 

Damn... really? Post some pics.

 

I haven’t installed them yet, waiting for more money to come in so I can have my front coilovers rebuilt and I’ll intall the whole suspension lift. The guy I bought them from told me the leaf springs have issues with squeaking, but it’s a common issue with aftermarket leaf packs.

I do plan on taking it apart and greasing it. I might even get greasables at some point.

 

I see no potential problem from disassembling and greasing them so go for it. I didn't bother with it since I figured I'd be able to address it without disassembling later if I needed to. Just make sure you definitely grease the shackle bushings.

Side note about the leafs, I'd suggest coating them with something. Fluid film maybe. Wish I had. Haven't even had them a year and they are already rusting. I do live in NJ though, and this Winter had a lot of ice. This means lots of brine used on the roads. Still. Just one Winter and they are rusting even though they come painted. Not sure if this is common or not.
You probably have much less to worry about though, since you are in CA.

 

What the hell is rust?

I don’t have to worry much about rust unless I’m driving on the surf of the Pacific - rust is pretty nonexistent down here. I do have some extra POR15 I used to repaint my front differential with that I got from an absolute rust bucket 4Runner at the junkyard. I looked up the 4Runner’s VIN and it spent some time in New York, hence the rusty frame and probably why it was in a junkyard. I had to sandblast the differential with Garnet to get all the rust off.

I would say the only rust on my frame is on the exhaust hangars. Same for the 5-lug which spent its whole life in Nevada and California. The frames are absolutely pristine.

I noticed when I was in D.C. for the innaguration, you don’t see any compact or mid-size pickups. I made a game of counting how many 1st gens I could spot during my time there and I only counted less than 15. Every truck is a full size Tundra or F150. Bigger and beefier trucks are a way of life out there, can’t imagine older trucks like the 1st gen Tacoma would last very long in a Winter/Brine setting.

Meanwhile in California, 1 out of every 5 pickup trucks is a 1st Gen Tacoma 5-lug.