kakwvu's blazing blue waffle and beer thread!

Got caught having to buy some things for the place, but now it’s time to buy things for the garage.

 

I bought this one few weeks ago for $169 on sale..

 

I went with this more expensive one ( ) because I have used the same model at @hacklerjason garage and it’s seen enough jobs to know it’ll last.

I’ve had cheaper ones (<$100). Never again.

Edit : sooooo nice.

 

Me and @304_Taco took off the front bumper (watching through bolt washers snap in half as we removed them) and loaded up some HID retros.

Gotta work out some electrical stuff with the DRLs and turn signals on the driver side or playing nice, but good grief these lights otherwise are insanely bright and satisfying.

Loaded up the 27F while I was at it too in order to see if I have a weak source. Not the case, but it’s one less thing I have sitting around now

 

While my front end is off and garaged for a few days, I decided to check out what she described as her brakes squeaking. I’d automatically gone out and purchased front and rear pads, knowing she was likely due.

I take her to work yesterday, going to give it a listen for myself to hear this Subaru Outback’s swan song because I’ve been whispering ‘trade this piece of shit in’ for months now. Squeaking? Try grinding. Her brakes are toast.



After dropping the calipers and popping out the old pads, the interior pad on the passenger side is basically the metal plate where a pad used to be. I run my hand down the backside of the rotor and swear to god that LEGO’s have smoother surfaces than the this thing does.

Front Passenger:



Front Driver:



Guess who didn’t buy rotors? This guy. I make the call to a friend, he delivers fresh rotors. Thinking ‘hey I’m almost done.’ Hah.

Subaru decided to swap out to MY16 brakes for the Outback as a mid year update to the MY15 Outback. Guess who has the wrong pads now, too?



After getting the correct pads, click click done. Just like I planned it.

Drive safe out there, friends. You may pass my girlfriend.

 

It’s almost all back together under the hood. Waiting for another harness and then running a cable through the firewall.


Now I gotta drop the skids and pump this into the diffs, tcase, and trans. It’s not all MT-90, for anyone worried.

 

Get the new harness in to hook my fogs back up.. and now I keep blowing the fuse when I turn them on.

Wtf. I hate electrical. Guess I gotta pick some 15As up tomorrow and start testing for a short.

 

Is the foglight wiring all OEM or do you have a fuse-tap/add-a-circuit?

 

OEM. I’m going to check the harness out today and make sure it it’s not shredded from having the bumper off.

Driver side was working, but maybe:
1) something happened when we went off road
2) harness they sent me is messed up (polarity shouldn’t matter for LEDs)

If I can’t figure it out, just add a fkn switch pro to the list of things I can’t afford right now.

Edit // it was the cable. They sent me a harness for a Jeep that shorts out. New one on the way.

Still need to wire that light bar up inside the cab tho. The harness I got with it is pretty big and would leave a giant hole in my firewall when I remove it.

 

When Amazon ships you a loose bag of batteries and a tube of grease with no end cap on it

 

Somebody sell me on why I should buy LCAs instead of pressing in new rubber bushings to my current, and why TC Expeditions could possible be worth $500 more than Dirt Kings.

I’m not install 3.0s, or secondary shocks either. I just don’t want to spend $250+ getting bushings, bolts, etc. before dropping things and getting aligned to find I have regrets.

 

I've heard that LCA's absorb around 80% of the energy off road.

Also @Tretiak30 has a group buy for total chaos and that includes the LCA's.

 

Already contacted him for a quote. I’m just in a dilemma for what to do right now because they’re obviously significantly better than OEMs (poly or delrin bushings, they can be serviced and greased, and uniball), but that cost haha.

 

Yeah I know, real proud of that product. In all reality, if your LCA's aren't cracked or bent, it should be okay. I looked around and found a 1st and 2nd gen thread about em. They were saying unless you're beating on the truck ( yeah I see those ADS you might fall into this ) then oem are okay. Unless you see signs of issues. Try hitting up the threads on desert running or the one one of crawling.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...s-in-one-of-these.601673/page-4#post-21183807

This guy might be a good person to ask this to. Has a good thread on off roading.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-true-crawlin-thread.613915/page-18#post-21141461

The thread.

 

Looking at before the end of the year now, if not replacing rubber bushings, doing LCAs and getting the suspension rebuilt with 700# coils. Need new leafs, too.

I need to graduate engineering and be making the good money again.

 

Did I get back to you with numbers?

Pretty solid deal. Here are some of the benefits to an expedition LCA or just any of their LCAs.

They were the first and take the time to perfect every single detail, I mean, they're still making new updated versions of the same products released 10+ years ago.

Expedition arm is the strongest piece of beef on the market right now. It gives you the most protection and clearance, better turning radius, stronger uniball cup.
Then there's the poly bushings, much less if any binding issues, no more alignment bolts seizing up ruining your alignment and tire wear too. The expedition arms work with any coilover on the market now too.

Just a few points. Now give me your lettuce.

FYI, I don't just do TC, I can get it all.

 

Oooo I'd like to see your upgrades. What leafs are you leaning towards ?

 

It better be the icon multi rates!

Hands down one of the best out there right now. Running them on my Tacoma on option 2 and on my Raptor. I love the ride and they hold weight superbly.

 

Ideal setup is ADS with icon rxt and spc uca wheeler's bumpstops and no fucks given

 

I literally couldn't agree more. That's the best set up, and I've been selling a TON of that exact kit.