New England B.S. Thread

Well @nickonfire700 It was quite a battle but I got the A/C clutch face off and replaced with the new one from you...I also did my serpentine belt while I was in there...What a pain in the ass on the 4 cylinder...There was zero room to work. I had to loosen the fan guard and remove the fan blades...and then the stupid clutch too from Autozone was too big...and incidentally the factory clutch doesn't have any holes in it for the tool to grip...
But my A/C is working again...$40 fix beats a $1100 part replacement any day...

Look at all that room !

 

The truck is about to hit 110k. I guess it's getting to that age where I can start a repair/needs attention list.

To repair:
- Carrier Bearing
- Passenger foglight harness
- overhead compass

Needs Attention:
- Both CV axles
- Front brakes
- e-brake
- Serpentine Belt

Might be other things I can't think of at the moment.

 

Truck looks totally different. Love the new look. How was the ride with the new Falkens? Balanced out nice?

 

Perfection! So you're buying a set right so we can match?

 

Might as well.....lol. Just bought new tires to replace the new tires that are on the truck now. May as well get rims too. I mentioned it to the wife and one eyeball popped out of her head. “What?????” , “you’re playing, right? ..... RIGHT ?????” Haha, just kidding. I really like my Fuel Wheels. But I have to admit, I think the grey matches my truck better. It’s got me thinking to re-shoot the dark bronze portion with grey, maybe like gunmetal grey.

 

And I thought we would be twins

 

I love the looks of those sliders!

 

Can barely tell them apart

 

Those actually look close to what I have. My factory ones look like they are halfway between those and the LTX AT2. My hesitatation with any of the Michelin tires is they don't have the severe snow certification. Coming from dedicated snow tires, I think that would be a big sacrifice for me. I drove through snow once with the Michelins I have now and get how people do it but they don't compare at all to even the Dynapro ATMs I had.

 

I think I know what's missing........ And I'm sure you know where I'm going with this

 

Michelin Primacy aren’t going to be anywhere near as good as the Michelin MS2 or Michelin AT2s. I went from Cooper AT3s to the Michelin AT2 and didn’t feel like I didn’t sacrifice anything except for extra road noise.

 

I’m in the same boat, probably wait until spring at this point to do it.

 

I just keep being amazed by all the comradery between the TW community.

 

I know...........roof racks

 

The fill plates are an awesome option, makes them more like a step which makes the wife happy.

 

If you have the V6 apparently there is room to do it via the tire well...My left forearm looks like i dry shaved it with a chainsaw...all red from rubbing the stupid fan guard over..and over...and over...

But once i had the fan blades off the serpentine took literally 3 min to do..

I have a great time in the snow. I have yet to find my limit on roads with these tires....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHB1t9P6KP0

 

Good to know. How much of a PITA was it to get the clutch assembly off?

Edit: I do have the v6, so I have that going for me.

 

The Dynapros ATMs I had on the Tacoma had the severe snow mountain snowflake rating on them. I typically didn't run them in the winter but had them in a couple late and early storms. They were good enough where I could have lived with them, the main downside over my dedicated snows was braking. Wouldn't want anything at all worse though.

The Michelins don't have that rating. I would think if Michelin thought they could pass, they would have gone through the tests and gotten it.

 

Ok issues were...
1. The stock clutch face has NO grip holes in it for that clutch tool.
2. Get the PB Blaster into the bolt head and let it sit...the actual bolt when it came out was in very good shape and even seemed to be the only original part I have found with a blue loc-tite substance on the threads...
3. If you have to pop the fan guard/fan blades off it's only 2 bolts at the top and 4 clips..Don't break the clips.
4. Channel locks will be your best friend...Push them hard into the rubber on the inner ring and clamp down...and then hope they aren't in the way of the socket or your hand...
5. I had NO way of torquing the plate back on...zero...The clutch tool didn't fit (It's the one OEM 27000 from autozone) it's too big so you are supposed to only screw down one? pin thingy and jam that in the hole?

I put a nail in the hole and held it with a pair of pliers and then braced my hand while keeping my thumb on the back of the socket so I could push with my hand...Yeah..When I started it up I went and got my wife to push the A/C button while I watched...I knew it would either burn up, fly off, or work...I think my pulse was 150 waiting for her to hit the button...
6. There are 3 shims on the original screw, pull it out slow and tip the bolt up to retain them. They are all different sizes, but all 3 together were the same thickness as the 4 washers that came with the replacement.
7. I used brake cleaner and a nail to clean the blue goop out of the original bolt and then hit it with blue loctite...

Still don't like that I couldn't torque the bolt....but it's only 10ft/lb

 

BTW I think my engine sounds like it has more oomf with the brand new belt...It also had a weird "Turbo woosh" sound when I first started it up...