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

Replaced the bearing today 183K had some play in it and random vibrations at highway speeds

 

I’d call a welder the best investment you can make for this hobby. The time and money you save with it is awesome.

 

I'm a little jealous of the people who don't have to deal with rust, you're missing out on one of the joys of living in upstate NYS.

Anyhow, while I'm messing with learning bodywork with the bed off to cut out / weld and paint. While these are easily accessible I've been taking things off which are pretty rusty (like my rear proportioning valve, spare tire brackets, etc) and trying to sand/refresh or replace it.

I removed the rusted brackets, bent them a bit and stuffed a full size spare into the space. I think the distance from the exhaust is ok (what do you think?) my off road options here in Upstate NY are pretty limited so I think it's ok for the moment distance wise to the ground. have been thinking about a rear bumper replacement, may do the spare tire carrier that others have done to make it less of a pain to get to with cable hoist









At some point in the future I may go with a different tire / rim combo but since the tread's ok on these I'll roll them for a bit.

The Rear Tow hitch is next for assessing if it's to far gone to use, I think it's ok but I'll be wirebrushing /sanding that down, maybe beefing it up.


and it seems that breaking off bolts instead of trying to save them is far faster.


Grad school has slowed my progress on this project considerably...

 

I can't even count how many times I brought shit to friends with welders over the years. Pumped to not need to deal with that anymore.

 

I put YJ springs and Toyota axles under my Samurai, I could not imagine the cost if I had to pay someone to do all the welding. A welder is for sure the best investment I have made for my offroading habit.

 

Thanks! It's made by Rawhide, I guess it's Canadian

 

That is on my wish list.

 

That would only hold three beers - definitely need a 100L CFX3 for a proper amount of around-the-fire evening beer!

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Don’t fab a bracket at all. That’s more work than necessary... especially if the seats in his truck now are pretty beat up(suggesting you me that the resale is already shot to hell).

I removed the feet from my tacoma seats and welded them to the rails of my new seats. Simply bolt the makes taco fest into the floor pan and set the new seats on top of the rails. Line it all up and tack weld them in place. Remove from the truck and then weld it up solid. It’s super straight forward, but it definitely takes a bit of time to get everything all lined up and tacked on. You’ll have to do some prep work to ensure welding slag doesn’t burn any carpet while doing the initial tack welds in the truck. I didn’t care much during this step because I was replacing the carpet also. It would be a good idea to unbolt the center console and leave it sitting in place for the process of lining up the seats... then just move it out of the way for the tack welding.

 

THAT sounds like a very good plan


Thanks for the info.

 

Well, this is what the old Neutral Safety Switch looked like.




New one...




Problem solved. Thanks to those who pointed it out. We had just replaced the auto shifter bushings and I was tunnel visioned in to thinking we were putting the shifter assembly back in wrong somehow. Must have just been coincidentally that the nuetral safety switch went out at the same time.

 

Turning a bad into a useful trail repair.
Expensive ruined poly boots and some zip ties turned into a trail boot patch kit If I split a boot and need a quick fix on the go

 

Anybody know if 3rd gen 4runner 5100s will fit a Tacoma? Thought they were the same but they have different part numbers.

I was going to order some for my 4runner but use them on the taco first while I rebuild my coilovers.

 

do yourself a favor and add a piece of inch and a half pipe between bumper and spare tire cable hoist. Big help getting the handle in there, especially on a dark night.

 

Should be good to go

 

I figured coilovers meant for the front.

 

@JKO1998 is right I only meant the fronts. Just wanted to throw em on while I get my SAW's rebuilt. I shoulda been more clear but I'm all set in the rear and yeah they have different style mounting points back there. Thanks guys!

 

Thanks for the idea!

 

Thanks for the link. Just picked one up!

 

because LeapDay