1999 Tacoma Rebuild Over the Years

I got the rear shock bushings installed and shocks installed. Nearly a 60/40 split.

I cut a notch on the OEM bushing and pressed it out with my vise. Used a large socket and a couple of adapters.



Once it reaches this point the bushing pretty much pops out on its own.


Once the new one get this far in it pretty much pops in on its own.


New vs old.




Droop on the new one. Once installed, there is still over a hand’s width of shaft to compress.

 

And the handiest vise ever.

 

I lost my sketchy coil spring compressors and ordered a new set off of Amazon. They showed up yesterday and I tackled the project today of the GX and my Tacoma. Lexus struts are different. Obviously. So I moved the clip up another 1/2” to level it out. Looks good.

Obviously.


On to the Tacoma then. Pulled the first one and tore it down. The strut wouldn’t pass the compressors with them side by side. So I backed them off and moved them. Tightened up and even staggered 1 coil wasn’t far enough. Redo it and finally get the strut out. 3 times working those damned things. Swapped both sides and added 1/2” to level this one out, too.

Externally the Tundra struts have beefier bushings. The lengths are the same standing up on my garage floor. It’s only as short as the difference in bushing.

 

I want to see what the ride difference is, if there is. I also want to know how it rides.

My 04 rides like shit.

 

I thought I had that in there. It feels better on the little 4 mile loop around the block. But, the old set was about 10 years old, too. So I don't know if it was placebo or if they're that much better. When I had the springs off of the old one and next to the new one I compressed them against the concrete floor and they felt smooth going down and nearly even. The rebound was about the same as well. I also preloaded another notch, too. So there is a 'stiffer feeling' spring rate also.

 

I didn't measure these from the end to the notches. Looking back at my pic I should have because it looks like the lowest notch is lower than the lowest/stock notch on the Tacoma 5100s. Just thinking out loud, but you could run a stiffer and longer spring with these on the lowest setting if you wanted. Say, maybe 884/885/886 with a heavy bumper, winch, v6 or v8 swap. Just a thought.

 

The current exhaust has gotten embarrassingly loud. The plugged cat was removed and then a glasspack put in it's place. The muffler was rusted out and replaced with one of those Magnaflow style Flowmaster angled straight through types. At first it was OK but after several 15 hour long journeys down i20 across Texas it apparently blew out the fiberglass...from both. So I looked and looked for something I could do in my yard by myself. There are several sizes it seems for the Tacoma depending on what you have. 2rz-2", 3rz-2.25", and 5vz-2.5" as best I could google. Me, having the 3rz, figured that a 'stock' 5vz exhaust would be a cheap 'upgrade'. I decided on getting a Walker brand because of the price of their stainless vs others and I wanted it quiet now. Having ordered a stock replacement cat back for a extended cab 4x4 5vz it arrives and is nearly spot on. Being that mine is lifted with shackles and springs, the tailpipe won't go under the leaves anymore. So I had to tweak it some. I don't have a bender but I have an oak tree with just the right small forks in the right places. So I ended up tweaking every bend just a little bit and removing the rear hanger (to be added back later). Center hangers were spot on.





Being catless, I had to get a cat flange welded to the end of my test pipe. I did have enough sense that day to get the guy to cut those off for me to possibly use later on. Sized it all up and cut to length I had a small body shop man tig the flange on and it fit just right. After firing up the truck it is a lot quieter. So quiet that I was able to hear an exhaust leak. Tracked it down to the stainless Chinese fleaBay header I was so proud of scoring. It looks like the OBX one but for $100. It uses a donut gasket where the collector meets the downpipe, I guess that's what it's called, and the ball socket type connection there was cracked and washed. It looks like I may have cracked it when cinching down on a gasket and it finally had enough.



Being a problem solver and the fact the OEM mini headers are now pushing $300 I concluded that I will cut off the thin, bad stainless. Then have the body shop guy weld the flange onto the pipe. This will give it a standard 2.5" 3 bolt collector connection and hopefully many years of use. I'll need to mark this perfectly or it won't fit and my quick easy fix will lead to many failures to come.

 

Got it welded up after lunch and it bolted up pretty close. The side to side is off a little bit but it’s flush. I mounted it to the rest of the exhaust and it went together fairly nice.

 

Got the Jones M80 style installed. It took the raspberry in a bucket sound away. I can tell but I listen to it all the time.

What I’m working with versus a test pipe.





Before M80 and just a test pipe.
https://youtu.be/AL1MzM8nxoU

After M80. (fixed video as I had uploaded the same as with test pipe)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrfQKYe2I-U


Big difference to me between these two. Never would’ve thought it’d sound that much better. I could’ve kept my old straight through muffler and just added this single chamber in place of the previous glass pack.
Straight header.
https://youtu.be/crR-sEJOqog

M80 only.
https://youtu.be/Wn0_Rcs5PSM

 

Forgot this one.

 

I think I like the sound of the 2nd one the best.

 

Yes. That's where I'm at right now and will leave it that way. It took the raspberry rasp out and mellowed the overall sound. One cool thing about this muffler is it's the same length as the cat. So, if you have the right flanges you can weld them up and bolt it right in.

 

Figured I give this a bump for some of y’all. 1st gen Tacoma should be all the same fit. These are 3rd gen 4Runner mirrors. I opted for bare bones no electronics and they were about $60 to my house. 6 bolts later they’re on and looking back. These still have the breakaway like the full electric so they can be folded back in tight parking.

 

This is a good post. Thanks for that tip. My wife has those same mirrors on her 98. 1 is cracked and will need replaced .

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/130887585634

 

Had a little steering wheel shimmy and a slight pull to the left. Went for an alignment and the newish lower ball joints are toast. One CV boot has a hole skeeting grease. Slack in rack and pinion. Upper driver A arm bolt possibly needs retightening due to slack there.

 

I just fixed a plethora of issues in a couple hours time. The LBJ were Autozone specials and had lifetime warranties. Already replaced. Upper A arm on driver’s side was loose. I made about two rounds before it torqued to 110#. Then over to the passenger side it took 3/4 round to torque. So my perceived out of balance tires were in fact just slip in LBJs. Pretty wild but it’s smooth now. The slop in the rack and pinion that was recommended to be replaced was an easy fix also. Online folks have replaced the earlier 1st gen roller type guide with the latter 1st gen nonroller guide.

Don’t do as I do. I’m in a pinch and I saw how these guides were tightened which is like 18inch/pounds minus 1/8 turn or something crazy. I simply found a crescent wrench that would fit the large hex and used a hammer to tighten it up just over 1/8 turn. Bear in mind there is a jam nut also holding this preload cover in place. Slop in R&P is now gone. Slight pull to right is gone. Out of balance wheel hop is gone. Steering wheel shimmy is gone. Sometimes I amaze myself with what can be found online and done in the driveway.

 

My passenger brake pads were nearly gone the last time I rotated the tires. So I looked online at getting a set of better rotors this time since it's probably the 4th or 5th set of pads in it's lifetime. I finally settled on the cheap Detroit Axle drilled and slotted rotors and pads. Price point was ridiculous at $110 shipped as was comparable to the parts house cheap non drilled/slotted. So why not. Put them on this afternoon and put maybe 5 miles on them and some burning in. Anywho, they look good back behind the wagon wheels.

 

I purchased some Llumar CTX ceramic tint via fleaBay to redo the old gal. I got 10’ of 15% for the front doors and 20’ of 5% for the two side windows and topper windows. 10’ didn’t leave but one bad cut for a margin of error and I blew it by cutting 1/2” too short across the bottom of the window. Strike two came in the form of a rogue wind gust. Now not enough 15% left for the door windows. Move to the 5% and nailed it both doors. Now it’s a lot darker than I wanted but it is the highly acclaimed ceramic now. The previous 20% regular had faded enough that it just looked old.

So while the door panels were off I had an epiphany this morning when I went to put them back on. Howsabout a little bit of door insulation? I had some bubble type leftover from an attic project. I cut it in half and it was nearly enough to cover the entire door panel. Little bit of headliner spray and it’s mounted. Cut a handle hole, hand crank hole, and slits for the armrest screws. Everything buttoned up nicely and the couple of plastic brads that have pulled out over the years are the only indication of anything different.

 

This Chinese header rocked for a while. It blew a couple of donut gaskets so I cut off that section that holds the donut and had the 3 bolt flange welded straight to it. Now it was using the 2.5” aluminum collector gaskets and I went through 3 of those. They’d just overheat, I suppose, and ooze out. So today I had a V band welded in. It was laying around and I figured it’d be worth a shot. Going Wednesday to get a Flowmaster 50 DeltaFlow plumbed in with new pipe front to back. Hoping this will be the last I have to deal with exhaust for a long time.

Factory exhaust yanked with plugged cat blowing gaskets. Replaced with glass pack and Magnaflow that blew all the packing and ended up as a straight pipe. Came back and did a v6 OEM Walker and I think this turbo style muffler is starting to plug because it it’s blowing out around the inlet clamp and sounds quieter than it used to sound. Lesson learned: chambered mufflers for the win.