Ticked off with spare tire issue.

I should just hook a brushless RC motor with a 3/8" attachment on it to a remote. Bam, power spare. Lol.

 

You guys are overthinking it. I have repaired damage like this before by taking a tapered punch and opening up the hole by tapping the punch in until it is the proper shape. You might need a couple of punches with progressively sharper tapers to open it up to the size that fits the handle but it shouldn’t take longer than a few minutes to make it functional again.

 

Might be able to deflate the tire, push it up,and then wiggle the plate that holds it up out of the center bore and then let there tire down.

 

Man that sucks.....pretty obvious they didn't know how to properly lower the spare. Hope you can get it fixed soon.

 

Are you proposing to do this with 2-ft long punches, reaching through the cranking hole above the license plate? I agree this is a good way to fix it after dropping down the spare though.

There probably isn't enough wiggle room for that. I keep my spare deflated all the time (for better damage resistance off road), though it's with a 8" wide FN wheel instead of the 7" wide stock spare.

 

Yes I do. While you could probably buy a punch the proper size (think Harbor Freight pry bar), I have absolutely no problem fabricating a special tool if I have to in order to effect a repair. To do this I would take a piece of round stock 2-3 feet long and grind the proper shape into one end. After I got it repaired I would then have a piece of stock that I could use for other projects.

 

Iffen it was me, I would use a cutoff wheel and cut the lifting plate in a couple of pieces, get the tire down and start ordering parts.

 

I second this. Or cut the plate with a sawzall. Then you could make your own plate if needed and attach it to the chain. The hard part may be getting the damaged part fixed.

 

A new hoist is like $100-150 ish based on replacing one on my 4Runner. I’d just chop the retainer and be done with it.

I haven’t replaced the hoist on a Tacoma but on the 4Runner it wasn’t super fun unbolting then 4-6x 10mm head bolts in that tight space, since they thread in from the top.

 

Ouch. Good luck with this OP. Fill us all in with your repair/fix strategy.