My Big Can of Worms Build

it's driving me nuts but it's great
Working to transfer to csulb to get a bachelor's in business admin... Thinking about being crazy and dual majoring

 

What would be your other major?

 

Just took apart my hvac over the last couple days - look what I found:



I'm not sure if it's just my truck, but Toyota missed a good idea by not putting a cabin air filter in the HVAC. I got to this by just doing some general cleaning since I was tracing wires from the cruise control that I wanted to uninstall. It seems likely this stuff is restricting airflow. It sits right where the fan blows into.

To get to this point I already had the main dash panel off and removed the blower motor housing. It might be possible to do even with the main dash in the truck.



I also redid the weak foam seals with this stuff. It's advertised as holding up to extreme cold no problem; I hope it can handle heat...



It fit the seams well width wise and made a much tighter seal.



The foam in the blend door was falling apart so I hosed it off. I started to cut out some new foam to coat it, but it sealed pretty tightly and since I live in sunny Southern California I don't have to worry about a lot of cold air getting in when I don't want it to and I almost never use AC...

I washed the blower motor with a powerful spray bottle and piping hot water making it rotate like a water wheel while I held a big tray under it. Came out pretty clean. I anticipate some better airflow and hopefully quieter operation.



I went from this:



to this. The red and green ovals mark a connector and a brass colored bracket that I removed when re-installing the blower housing. If I did it again I'd remove them before removing it to make it way easier to get out. The plastic that holds the connecter had a plastic plug that goes into the sheet metal that wouldn't come out without too much of a fight so I cut it with a razor knife so there was still a hole in it I could zip tie it through to the sheet metal...



On a side note - I found where some of the wires that match the colors of the cruise control actuator in the engine bay seem to terminate in the ECU.

There's 12 coming from the engine control module and I seem to be able to account for roughly eight of them inside the cab at the ECU. There's a few junctions where the wires join together and are taped up with other wires. I'm not sure how much time I want to put into this, but ideally I would de-pin all of the wires and yank them back through the grommet in the firewall and keep the cruise control engine module control harness intact.

These are what I think are some of the wires from the engine control module - I can visually trace them coming in from the same grommet that the cruise control harness goes through. Not all of them are accounted for - there's only 8 here at the ECU and 12 outside at the cruise control module.




And these are some of the shenanigans the po's were pulling lol

 

@Bonzen made my day today - he worked some magic to make these motor mount brackets square again and said he'd add some gussets so they're durable enough for my truck. Brought these things back to life!

These were the brackets that were from my donor motor that had been in a truck with a frame twist impact in the front...




Now they're ready to be made into solid mounts...




This is what they'll look like when they're finished...



https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/1995-2004-3-4l-v6-fabricated-solid-motor-mounts-for-sale.395587/

 

I am root

 

I'm out - good luck with your Taco-loving bros.

Post April Fools: FYI - these are pics I found online lol

 

Had a good time getting the uniballs pressed into my spindles and lcas at Solo. BS'd for awhile while Carl chased threads etc. to make sure the kit was ready to go when it's time to install it. I like it over there - I mentioned that being a teacher, I may be looking for work this summer and he made it sound like they might need some help. So we'll see how that goes! Either way, stoked on their level of customer service.

Some customer and employee's trucks:




Just need to rip out my front drivetrain and put in the new diff before I get to put this stuff on

 

Got these in the mail last night - nice and beefy.



Notice the extra gusset he threw on to help the passenger (left) mount that was all bent up before I dropped it off with him. Bolted up to my engine fine, but there's a gap between the AC condenser bracket and the new motor mount bracket since the condenser bracket was made to work with the thicker cast mounts - he said a few washers should be fine.

 

Hummm..... interesting, I didn't think about the mounts on the block bending. I'm going to need to check mine. I made all new solid perches and running the bomb proof ones. But I have the stock ones on the block it self.

 

Yes, the truck that I got the motor from took a good hit right in the passenger wheel well and the motor mounts took the brunt of the hit once the frame bent - it's kind of like an upper cross member. The one on the passenger side was pretty messed up and the driver's side was still a little bent. I was wondering what would happen in a similar situation if the mounts and frame perches were all gusseted, but they would still probably be the weak point compared to a cast iron engine block.

 

Good point. If mine look fine I'll just keep them that way. This is just one of those things now I know that's now the weak point and to keep an eye on them. good info.

 

Throwing more parts into the pile...

 

I'll trade for a sweet PVC bedcage

 

Deal.

 

Toss a couple more parts in the stack. Ended up paying $160 since he forgot to put a price for the shackles - I dare say it's a darn good bargain



Drove around San Jacinto and left the urban sprawl for the first time in a couple months:

 

School's out!

 

Looks like school's back in session lol

 

What meth kit did you go with?