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

Has the rack been sliding in the D bushing? Mine has and I'm pretty sure that's causing the pop I hear. I need to crawl under there while someone turns the wheel to confirm.

 

New brakes today

 

New ditch lights and switch panel installed in lieu of the ashtray.

 

Rotated my tires tonight in the driveway and increased the preload on the drivers side Kings by 2 more threads to hopefully get rid of the rear lean I have going on from the back...bought a 1/2" block to install there but figured I'd try this first and see if it works. Front was pretty even side to side but the rear leaned pretty bad especially with a full tank. So far seems good but hard to tell when initially taking it off jack stands.

 

What brand are these?
I have same looking demelo sliders and dont remember having any fitment issues

 

DIY

 

Replaced my fuel filter. The old one looks like it had a date from 2013.

 

The bushings are brand new. The rack moves very little which is normal. But I didnt gease them and the poly bushings are howling at the moon.

 

Mine are too. Less than 5k on them but the first trip with them was wheeling and noticed it moved after I'd hopped back on to the highway and my steering wheel was clocked more when going straight.

Im not convinced they need greased, at least not to stop the pop that I'm hearing which I believe is the rack sliding in the D bushing. I don't mind the little bit of squeaking I hear.

 

How do I separate this ball joint from the stock UCA? BFH doesn’t seem to be working.

 

Pitman arm puller or a pickle fork should be good. If not you can always cut it since you're getting new upper ball joints

Edit:

Or whatever this thing is. I've used this so many times it's probably paid for itself in frustration savings

 

@SwampYota - put the castlenut back on - upside down is fine also, give it a turn or two just to get it back onto the threads. Use the puller. When it pops, nothing will go flying loose

good practice for any of them (UBJ, LBJ, Outer Ties)

 

I’ve got the jack under the LCA just snug to hopefully prevent that too. Going to pick up a tool.

 

Mine have less than 500 miles on them lol mine sounds terrible, I have a pop too. Im going to grease them and see if that fixes the issue. If not, Im going to go back to OEM bushings.

As for your wheel being clocked wrong, that sounds like your alignment.

 

I know many seem to say nope, don't need to lube the rack bushings at all. I think the difference here is with the OE bushings that may be the case but with poly bushings maybe not so. When I did mine, I had used tim's vid as well as another as a reference before starting the job (I opted to leave the rack on). I too used ES bushings for the rack. I also used the silicone paste tim mentions here:

https://youtu.be/YywcR0E9bM4?t=1126


So far, no issues - no squeaks. Close to a year since I swapped out the bushings and about 5k miles.

Dielectric Grease / Silicone Paste / Waterproof Marine Grease (8 Oz.) Made in USA

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016E5E59G

 

Think about how your tires would react to the rack moving to the left or right an inch. It's going to push one and pull on the other an equal amount so they will still be parallel just the steering wheel will be off. I will be checking my toe today just to make sure but I'm pretty sure it's the rack moving.

 

Im hoping grease solves my issues.

 

and you used ES bushings? New bushing should not move an inch. My stock bushings that had 80k on them didnt even move an inch.

 

I'm not saying it's moved that far, just using it as an example to help visualize it a little easier. Yes, the are energy suspension bushings.

I was thinking about using two band clamps and cutting the old bushing in half. Then clamping it on both sides of the D but I'm a little worried the outside one might shear off the pressure line if it continues to move.

 

The ashtray panel makes for such a clean install.




Free 1st gen ashtray for anyone that wants it!