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

I was happy that my screw came right out without the need for a impact driver. I was dreading trying to remove that screw.

 

Long post and formatting was being weird so hopefully this all comes through okay.

Nice good mod/maint weekend, cleared up a few long bothering me issues finally In preparation for an upcoming trip.

Not pictured re-routing my rear camera wire in the cab and reinstalling the trim that's been rattling in the back for weeks.

Pulled the bed bolts so I could left the bed, change out my fuel filler neck and clean the purge canister and lines hopefully this fixes my CEL issues, P2401 P2402 P2419 P043E P043F that have been popping up on occasion since I got the truck.




Putting a new gas cap on fixed it for a while before but they usually come back when it's cold so taking a closer look at the mouth of the filler neck it seemed a little scared from hitting it with gas pumps and possibly a hair out of round from over tightening the gas cap as well as I had some concern about the vent that is contained in the plastic collar just below the mouth of the filler neck could have been plugged up from off-roading so I just changed it, may still need a new charcoal canister and purge valve pump/filter.

Cleaned the lines with compressed air and reinstalled with super tacky bushings grease to hopefully help seal. I sprayed a few quick air bursts into the openings of the pump first and second time was like spraying into a blind hole, third time sounded like I got some movement out of the valve so maybe it was just stuck up, uninstalled it and the charcoal canister and sprayed them out with compressed air, used a little electronic sensor safe cleaner on the purge valve assembly and followed that with deoxit shield. Hopefully they lights stay off but will update.







Side note "cowboy's" as they're refered to by my ironworker buddy are great for removing those pesky two tape child tamper resistant safe evap and fuel lines. Screw the $85 sst!








Decided to make some 1/2 bed lift spacers as I had the stock lying around and since I did rhe cab mount inverted install the bed was noticeably lower than the cab, it's all even now.







Before:

After

But, my bed bolts were rusty and one of the frame nuts stripped out when attempting to toque with a torque wrench. Man I hate that righty tighty to rightly loosy feeling.

So I drilled and tapped the bed nuts from m12 to 1/2 13. I'm not worried about losing 1mm of the frame nuts, if they ever strip out again though (I doubt it) I'm just going to get longer half inch bolts and put nylocks on the bottom.







Put my camper shell back on for the first time in about 2 years, forgot how much it Impacts MPG POSITIVELY, that's nice, will probably leave it on until I get gears.

That said the 3rd brake light wasn't working so I made my own, foil tape in the void, drill some holes, some 194 bulb bases, 194 LED red bulbs, wrap the surrounding area in foil to protect the paint and took some plexi rough cut it, taped it in place and used a heat gun and gloves to hand shape it to where I could trim it up and put some 3M trim tape on it.



It works!



Will find out sooner or later if it leaks.

Drilled out and installed a 2 pin pass through for the cap taillight also so I didn't have a beat up gehtto pig tail sticking out of my left taillight gap it has a nice little weather cap for when I'm running topless. Which I mean who doesn't prefer going topless?



Installed the Total Chaos bed stiffeners beforehand but didn't get any pictures phone was overheated and shut off. Excellent idea if you wheel with a cap.



My cap window lock fell apart the last time I used it on a trip took it apart and realized the snap ring had broken and the play just let the rest of it work itself loose, lost a spacer of some kind so I replaced the snap ring and made a spacer now the lock and handle works great.







Also cleaned the back cab windows and the cap windows as well as vacuumed the cap, it's amazing how filthy it was from just sitting.

Adjusted my clutch pedal height a bit ago and was causing my cruise control to drop out at every pebble on the street so I did one of the things I hate the most; contorting myself up underneath the dash to fight small spaces, wires, being upsidedown, at an angle, one handed, surrounded by sharp lightly rusted stamped steel to adjust the cruise switch. Managed to fix that without too much swearing and blood and will be considerably grateful for it on the coming long drive.

This little bastard way up there at the top, unplugged it with a bent and sharpened screw driver then through trial and error learned the jam nut for the plunger switch is a 14mm with no room for throw.



I got Husky mats used from another member on here for a steal shortly after I bought the truck, they were for a 2012-15 but they fit the floor the same the difference being the attachment spots. I just threw them in and never had any issue but they would shift some especially when offroading, again never a problem but dirt would get under them, sometimes they would move forward enough that the gas pedal couldn't be fully depressed but that was the only issues.

Inspiration struck and I made a little bracket using a strip of stainless some nut-certs and stainless sidewalk bolts which were a perfect fit in the mat anchor points, covered it in 3M trim tape to keep it from wearing the cab floor and rusting it and to help it adhere in place. I placed the mat where I wanted it, marked the carpet with sharpie and then pulled it up put a board underneath for a drill stop then drilled through the carpet with a 1/2 bit which made a hole just barley big enough for the reversed nut-certs to fit through, you have to oversize some as drilling through carpet doesn't give a very clean hole.




Had to cut these down to about 3/8 to not go through the back of the nut-certs when tightened all the way.


That's pretty and works flawlessly, there's a lot of clamping force on it too I can't imagine it's going to move at all or waller out the carpet.


Lastly I got my SDHQ battery terminals on just now which is all I had really set out to do in the first place.



So side note SDHQ sells an additional ground strap as you're supposed to cut off your OEM terminal. I bought the strap as I wasn't sure if I needed it or not to be on the save side as I hate making and crimping my own cables, (I need to just buy a large lug crimper and stop using the bench vice) but turns out instead of cutting off the terminal you can just cut up the factory terminal and make it work just fine, I had already done that when I replaced my abused loose OE terminals with cheap "24k" ones, the "gold" ones with the rusty hardware. They were pretty crap and with adding a winch I really did need terminals with a good solid convenient hook ups. I decided to still use the SDHQ ground wire and ran it back to my blue sea accessories mount plate and fender bolt and back to the neg battery terminal side lug.

Maybe it's placebo effect but truck started stronger with the new terminals it seemed if nothing else.

Didn't have time to mess with the "big 3/4" though.

She's needs a bath so she can get dirty.

 

Drove it 1k miles road trip 19 hours straight

Averaged 70 mph and Ran great!

4 full ups getting 22 mpg per tank at 250+ miles

 

I remember the days when my truck didn't weigh 5200lbs with 34's.


That said putting the cap on has made a noticable increase in milage.

 

There's another factor involved other than mileage and that's a key ring that is heavy. A lot of people will have a dozen keys and then hang heavy trinkets on their key ring, excessive weight will kill lock tumblers quick. The chip has nothing to do with the key turning or not, either there is internal damage in the lock or the key is cut incorrectly.

 

Thanks... that's what I thought but was hoping for some verification. The original key doesn't look very worn, and the cylinder isn't loose at all, and if the original key was having a problem I could see the new key being a problem too. But the original key works perfectly. Just needed to know if the cylinder would turn with a properly cut key.

Still... when programming the new key I don't get the steady light I should verifying that the key is programmed. I guess a trip to the damn dealer is in my future.

 

Not a super technical day but I installed some handles on the roof rack.

 

Washed, clay bar, buffed n waxed !

 

Gave my wife's car some attention today. My daughter has moved up to a booster seat now so I bought one of those for my truck today too.

 

That's a lot work! Nice job

Luckily, my emissions code hasn't popped up in over a year or I might have had to follow your steps and whip out a 2x4.






And beat the hell out of the charcoal canister

 

Started fighting a Maestro RR into the thing. Anyone have a good writeup on the install?

 

I didn’t do too much. Tried a new foam gun and washed really good

 

Any audio upgrade suggestions? Still have the paper thin oem speakers on my access cab

 

ill be starting mine this coming up weekend. Going with Hertz components up front , Kenwood excelon head unit with sound dampening. Hadnt decided on amp yet but it’s a start.

 

I added the following to my access cab; Kicker speakers in door, Alpine tweeters, Kicker sub/amp under drivers seat, small Kicker amp under passenger seat for the door speakers. NICE !

 

budget?

 

Couple hundred bucks. Just looking for best quality for price

 

I think it's a JIS screw
Japanese Industrial Standard
which takes a different style of Philips tool

kind of resulting in a regular American philips tool tending to strip it

supposedly indicated by a dot on the head
I don't remember the screwdriver company for it. They're like $7/ea and come in different sizes/styles.
Haven't figured out if I need to buy any yet for owning/wrenching on the truck. Whether it be screwdrivers or bit inserts.
Haven't run into any more yet; hopefully I never do. Would hate to strip more screws.
IDK if they're used in more places on the truck to appear as another "fun surprise"
I heard there's one or more somewhere on the engine

 

what made you pick SDHQ and not just a random cheap $20 mil-spec style set of terminals?

 

Gave it it's first COVID vaccine...gonna probably need to do this a few times in a couple spots, wish it wasn't 15 bucks for one kit...
It kinda looks like the windshield got sandblasted at some point, will probably eventually just replace it.