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

The stainless shocks come with the Elite. The Plus is the mid priced one that comes with black powdercoated brackets instead of the zinc plated. I have the Plus also, was $80 in the last GB.

 

Some testing.

 

Greased my shaft real good. Well, the rear slip yoke anyways. Liquid wrench night before and morning of lube job. 14mm bolts came off without much trouble using breaker bar. There was some green shit on the threads I assume Toyota put on there from the factory. Went with

$19 Ford XG-8 PTFE Lubricant - 3 oz.

Ford XG-8 grease which is supposed to fix the start-stop clunk from the rear due to the slip yoke splines binding. Getting the slip yoke in my hand made me appreciate how stupid that grease zerk at the bottom of it really is; I put a bunch of red tacky grease in there previously and it was all at the bottom. None of it had made its way up to splines where all the older factory grease was. Speaking of, there was actually plenty of factory grease on the splines, but I cleaned it all out anyways to replace with XG-8.

Match marks on the flange and shaft to keep everything lined up. Bungey cords to keep drive shaft from hitting the floor. Blue loctite on threads. Torqued to 56lbs. It actually wasn't that difficult to get a good torque CLICK as long as I rotated the drive shaft to a good position (used parking brake while applying torque). Quick test drive around the block and the drive was noticibly smoother while coming to a stop and starting again, but I'll need to drive it around a bit more to see if the blue teflon grease from Ford really does the trick.

 

A few months ago, I bought a wrecked 95. I have been mainly just getting it drive-able. Tonight, I began getting around to some neglected items the PO hadn't taken care of when he wrecked it. Just pulled the left rear spring due to one of the leafs being broken(like the plastic ties he added? ) .

What I wanted to pass on was what I found when I dropped the spare to access the rear shackle nut. The spare had been sucked up so tight, it ruined the tire. Just an FYI, apparently that little gear in the lifting wench can really withstand some torque!

 

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Was the tire worn from being loose? I feel like mine will only get so tight before it just turns.

 

I drove mine 5 miles for the first time in 3 months

 

I haven't seen anything other than a 35 or 36mm axle nut on parts store CVs. Even the Toyota OEM CVs used one or the other size.

 

Your story killed me

 

Have a pair of calipers handy? My Napa axle came with a 35mm

 

I've had Napa, FEQ and Duralast axles and they've all been 35mm

Edit - oops meant to quote @m3bassman

 

Looking for opinions on Pittsburgh brand jacks and jack stands. I know I could just start a thread but that will bring every mongoloid with an opinion out on TW. I trust the regulars on this thread for advice.

Am I taking my life in my hands crawling under a truck held up with Harbor Freight products?

 

A couple of the few things from Horrible Freight I would actually recommend. I've had the lo-pro/high lift 2 ton floor jack for years with zero complaints. Get the 6 ton jack stands to get your truck high enough, especially if it's lifted.

There's a whole thread or two on here for HF tools if you want more info.

 

Nope, they work fine. Kind of hard to fuck up a simple jack stand. The jacks are decent enough, just might need to check the oil level in it.

 

Thank you both. I got a Harbor Freight gift card for Christmas and wasn’t sure what Chinese junk to use it for.

 

I have a set of their 6 ton jack stands and a 3 ton, low profile-long reach (22"s I think) floor jack. Both items are great. Not all harbor freight stuff is junk and the price is usually right.

 

I think I'm up to 8 6-ton stands now. They're very sturdy.

 

I’m very happy with my 6-ton jackstands and my floorjack. Very good products for a great price.

 

8 seems like a lot, but

I have been thinking of getting another set of 6-tons the next time they are marked down.

 

I work on vehicles a lot, One of my vehicles is using 4 right now

 

The six tons are nice because they give you the height for lifted trucks. I used to use the 3-tons stacked on top of railroad ties, but the 6-tons are just so much better.