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

Lol... I hear ya

I'm just glad you worked it out with them before you installed them so you didn't have to do everything twice. Lucky thing you are close to them.

 

Started rebuilding the drivelines (new U-joints and carrier bearing) for my 4x swap.

Let me just say... FUCK our U-joints are a pain in the ass. Worst U-joints I've ever done, hands down, bar none. (And no, I'm not messing with the Double Cardin... Just the regular U-joints).

 

Count yourself lucky that you've never done Nissan ujoints then, they're staked in

 

??? With A large socket, drift, ball peen, .25 metal chisel and c clamp i got front 1 and rear 2 done in a few hrs.
The worst part getting all the old grease off to find the inner c Clips.

Whats stone walling you?

 

Oh damn... Now that's dumb

 

These are boneyard drivelines so they are kind of rough.

I have all the clips out. And none of them wanted to budge with a drift/hammer. So I tried a ball joint press. The angle of the sides of the yokes make that a pain in the ass... But I can press the one side through to get the cap off, but then trying to press back the other way to get the other cap off is a f'n joke. I can't keep the shit lined up to get it to go right.

Maybe I'm just tired from a long day. I was about to throw that shit in the street and drive over it.

 

Bench vise and sockets (or the BJ press cups) usually help you keep things square and it makes a good press for this job

 

Instead of pressing it out try to seat the ujoint into the left over cap, support the yoke with cap on a metal edge and ping the actual center cross section aka joint with a drift. If the yoke ears are not square anymore due to age it will self center and not bind. Trying to press it out you can bind it due to age from the cap ears folding out.

 

Wait...in my mind the believe is the wheelers 8 pack J59 part was the way to go to have 1.5 rear lift and SMOOTh stock weight ride.... if Shortman5 let them go means there are something better than that ? Curious what the replacement for J59 8pack will be ?
https://www.tacomahq.com/515/tacoma-replacement-leaf-springs/

 

Maybe he will chime in, but I was under the impression that the wheelers were a little more lift than what he wanted, I don’t believe it had anything to do with the ride quality necessarily. Also, I’m fairly cartain I’ve gotten more than 1.5” of lift out of it. My CO are set exactly the way they came from the manufacturer, around 2.5”, and with the new pack I have a slight rake.

 

Would skip the e fans. Not as reliable and three times as loud.

It's weld and seam sealed.

This is why running a bar across the front is a good idea. Most bed racks just have small feet that sit on the bed rails. This just outs constant pressure on small areas and presses out.

On Frank's original bed rack setup I ran angle all the way around the bed and a cross the front. This helps fit the bed spread. But is also heavy..

 

I gave up last night, before I started wrecking shit. I'll have another go at it tonight.

 

This is exactly why I ran angle iron across the front with support bars.


The vertical bars also ended up being a good mounting location for a shovel and axe.


Now I need to figure out how to fabricate some bed side stiffeners at the tailgate. (The bed sides aren't splitting apart, but just for piece of mind).

 

Vertical bars aren't really needed. But handy for what you used them for for sure.

Since your bars run to the rear of the bed, could just be as simple as dropping it down from your rack to the floor of the bed. However the floor is very thin too so wouldn't expect much there. It bends pretty easy.

 

The vertical supports were to take a bit of the load off the actual legs because I made them /\. But in reality the amount of contact they make to the upper platform of the rack, there's really no chance of the weight pushing the /\ legs outward... So the supports turned in to a bit of an overbuild that turned in to a good spot to mount shit lol.

 

Love the rack. Nice job.
What size did you use for the angle iron?

 

I used 2x2 for the bed rails, full length.

And 1x1 for the rail that crosses the bed at the cab.


Necessity is the mother of invention. I wanted a RTT rack, but still wanted the side boxes to be able to secure items a bit more if needed. No one makes a rack like that... So I said f it and borrowed my buddies cheap welder and figured it out... That rack is the first thing I actually welded in my life.

The boxes also make a good place to mount shit... Lol

 

I think my rack actually pulls the sides in slightly, by design... But of course any stress (either direction) is likely to manifest itself in a similar fashion.

I sort of wonder if what I've got going on is from the bed flexing over rocks and ledges and whatnot - essentially the frame flexing more than the bed sides want to. Or, if it's from the contents of the bed smashing against the front of the bed on downhill sections (less likely).

At any rate, seems like the bed is coming of for a third time this winter. Yay!

 

I am oh so tired of getting the typical All-Pro run around... If I could weld and powder coat on my own I wouldn't have to deal with them any more

 

No way man. Think about how much your tent weighs and then think about how much that freaking thing gets thrown around side to side. Up and down. Back and forth.

The bed flexes sure as does the frame a lot. But the heavy ass thing that is being supported by like 18ga steel is whats causing it to rip apart. Not the bed/frame flex.

Just a weak design.