What Have You Done To Your 2nd Gen Tacoma Today?

Still trying to piece together the pillar mount mod to properly fit my new wireless-phone-charger-automatic-closing-arm-holder thing. I'm having trouble tracking down this pivet piece or something similar.



Super hard finding a A 9/16 to B 1" size part. Has anyone seen one? I looked through the ram mount website and google, found nada.

This is the part I'm trying to connect to a double socket B arm.

 

could do a 9/16 ball stud like the
RAM-A-237U that has a male 1/4 stud and then thread it into a 1” ball stud with 1/4 female thread like https://www.rammount.com/part/RAM-B-348U

 

Now they are ready to just be installed tomorrow morning.

 

Taking advantage of 60 degree weather and washing the winch line. *Don't tell my wife I'm using her drying rack.

 

Why? You scared of her? (I’m scared of mine )

 

Changed the rear end fluid last month. Had to do an emergency trip to Montana this week so Monday I was under the truck doing the front end and transfer case. Got them all done ok but broke a couple bolts on the skid plates.
Never ending.
We are currently in the snow in Montana and driving over the passes tomorrow back to Oregon. So far the truck has done great. Other than gas mileage that is...

 

New wheels the other day.
Back-up lights last week.
Running wire for bed lights, now.

 

My '15 DCLB SR5 V6 also consumes gasoline like a Frat kid doing a keg stand...

 

Yeppers. We could have taken the Lexus but the lady wanted to show off her new truck and we both wanted to take it on a drive so seemed like a good time. Very happy with the way it drove here. Now to see how it handles the snow on the way back.

 

TRD Ivan Stewarts? Alway liked those wheels, especially on the Ivan Stewart edition 1st Gen Tundra.

 

Picked up a 01 4Runner 2WD as a new daily. Already looking for mods.

 

Remove the sidesteps. Makes it look taller. Free mod lol

 

New tires this morning. 285/75r16 Yokahama Geolander MTs. Already did some trimming at the back of the front fender flares, but loks like I'll need to do a bit more tomorrow as it still rubs a rub. Tried to install my Caliraised pods on the front bumper, but the hardware I bought was too long. Also cleaning and reoiling the K&N air filter.

 

They're not 100% what I wanted, but they're about 96%.
In case anyone is wondering, they're running about $180-$190 online from Toyota with free shipping and they include caps and lug nuts.

 

Finally got around to swapping out the factory carpet for a factory all weather lining. Reason being is I had a mystery water leak in the cab for a while that made the carpet all smelly. I've since found said leak, got it all fixed up and cleaned the carpet. Just decided to pull the carpet anyways. Easier to maintain the interior with the all weather lining. Glad with the outcome.

 

New idlers all around and a new belt. #1 and the tensioner idler sound like the bearings are made of granola when I spin them in my hands... Annoying squeak gone.



I went with Gates pulleys from @RockAuto and was pleased with the quality. The parts were made in Canada and had good name brand dual-shielded bearings in them. I used

• 2 ea.
  $36 GATES 36173 DriveAlign Belt Drive Idler/Tensioner Pulley
  GATES 36173
• 2 ea.
  $45 GATES 36174 Idler Pulley
  GATES 36174
• 1 ea. OEM belt

If you're replacing one, might as well replace them all, and as far as the tension arm being bad, it's relatively rare for the actual arm to go bad as opposed to just the pulley.

In my case, I checked before ordering by getting under the truck with a 14mm socket on a short breaker bar and torqueing counter-clockwise on the idler pulley bolt to check the strength of the arm, and it was fine. It took two hands (at an awkward angle) to fully exercise the tensioner. I have no idea what the scientific numbers are for that, but I was satisfied that the actual arm was A-OK.

Beware that the tension arm idler pulley goes on with reverse threads, and also that the GATES 36174 has slightly different dimensions that the OEM tension arm idler pulley. You can source a longer reverse thread bolt if you want, but I (and many others) simply ended up taking the bushing that comes with the GATES 36174 and putting it into the front of the pulley, then re-using the factory bolt. This will center the bolt in the pulley bore correctly, and the factory tension arm mount point has a mating surface that meets the rear face of the bearing correctly for a mechanically sound mount.

Since the bearing is shielded on the back, it is not of serious concern to not use the supplied dust shield. If you do try to use it, or to put the bore spacer on the back, it moves the pulley farther forward than the OEM part relative to the path of the belt, which may cause issues with the edge of the belt running off the back of the pulley.

Torqueing it to the correct value was a bit of a pain since my torque wrench wouldn't fit in order to tighten to spec (since the threads are reversed and the tensioner moves clockwise, you're fighting against the travel of the tensioner while tightening), so I tightened with a socket just until the tensioner started moving CCW and then checked in "reverse" (CW) with the torque wrench. It took two tries to get it within 1 lb of spec, and I called that good.

 

On my to do list pretty soon.

 

It's not bad at all. It took about 2 hours for the 4 including getting the belt back on, and I've never done this job on the 1GR-FE before.

 

Installed the @BillieBars today. Had the brackets on but there was a gap on all sides of my tonneau cover so had to wait until a Home Depot trip to get these weather strips and now they fit perfect. Preordered a RTT for February to put on top of these beefy bars.