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

Who picked up this? Was that you?

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/sold-tacoma-rear-axle-sacramento-ca-sold.725153/

 

@BartMaster1234

would like to see a detailed pic of what you have mounted on the A Pillar of your truck. What's almost seen on the left side of this pic.

 

It's a ram mount. Awesome for holding a phone or tablet.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ram-iphone-a-pillar-mount-on-first-gen.497788/

 

I would probably sound smarter if I just blamed my issues on mixing Ft/lbs and In/lbs but i have a wrench for both.

Before I cracked that valve cover I replaced the spark plugs and they torqued down to around 148in/lbs (or about 12ft/lbs) and I was confident in the wrench clicking at what I felt was the correct amount of tension. When I was doing my valve covers I had a feeling it was going a little too tight but was putting my faith in the new torque wrench that I bought for this job specifically and made some mistakes along the way.

Thanks for checking to make sure I wasn't getting ft/lbs and in/lbs mixed it can be easy to do but not what happened here.

On a side note I'm thinking about getting a better torque wrench or two possibly a digital one. does anyone have any recommendations. I got my current one from O'Reillys and I don't like how easily it unlocks and adjusts

 

I WAS feeling pretty proud of myself for the work I did on my truck the past couple days, but then I saw photos of people pulling out engines and transmissions, so now I am super impressed with all of you and a bit less impressed with myself.

Nonetheless, I have to give myself a little pat on the back for doing the following:

1. Lower ball joint replacement.
2. Front shocks/springs replacement (OME)
3. Removed rear OME Dakar leaf springs to add an extra leaf and replace the anchor bolt at the front of the leaf springs with the correct bolt.
4. Installed new rear shocks (OME)

So now I have fully upgraded my suspension. The goal was to stiffen my ride quality since I have always gotten a bit more body roll and movement in the truck than I want when going down the road. I will be getting a feel for the improvement later today.

Happy to report that my lower ball joints were in excellent shape, probably didn't need to be replaced at all, but now I have peace of mind since I had no idea if those had ever been replaced and my truck has 242K miles.

Also happy to see that my upper ball joints appear to be in very good shape, so I am confident they will last until I get them replaced once I find the right cups to use for a press.

I learned a few little tricks in the process that might help others, will post photos and notes on all of that a bit later.

Keep wrenching and wheeling everyone, enjoy summer while it's here!

 

I’ve noticed on different years the e brake has some variation in how it’s ran and mounted. Something you might want to take note of.

 

My buddy got his Elocker rear, whole axle and harness at rancho Toyota for I want to say $750

 

Non E-locker axles like mine have the parking brake above the leafs.
E-lcokers axles have them lower like yours

 

ya, this is the wiring guide i used. i just made my own harness (with a relay) to use the factory switch, and ran that back to the locker. I left out the indicator light because i didnt want to deal with finding that in the dash




Top left is the locker end of the harness, bottom left is the in cab ground lead and where i tapped 15a 4wd fuse. Bottom right is the in dash factory switch, and the middle where it all runs together is the relay i tucked behind the kick panel


after doing all this work and having it for years..my opinion: buy an ARB, its just better in every way.

 

Not always... my truck is elocked, with parking brake over the leafs.

 

I have a non elocker with the brake cable below the springs.

 

It’s a RAM X-Grip. They’re good products, they put them in commercial aircrafts and motorcycles. I have it bolted to the grab handle.

 

I've bought so many cheap POS phone holders that don't last more than a few months, I should just get one of these.

 

I’ve seen them used on Boeings to hold chartplotters. Here’s one being used on a Cessna, same X-Grip.

 

oh weird. I thought thats how it was. i rescind my statement

 

my one complaint with that mounting location is that your phone blocks the air vent. The center air vents in my truck don't really do much, so I get pretty much all of my AC from that left vent

 

Well I installed my new radiator, hoses, thermostat, and external transmission cooler today. Not completely finished, but only have to fill up radiator, burp it, make the last connection for the cooler. My body hurts so bad, like I just finished 3 rounds with Mike Tyson. I'll post a pic maybe later tonight, or tomorrow.

Here's a couple of pics, and I'd like to give credit to Zero4 for his write up on mounting the external cooler. Also on the pic of just the fan shroud, am I missing a piece that goes on the bottom of the "half" circle.

Update, learned a lesson today. I purchased a 180 degree thermostat and gasket from Napa. It didn't fit as tight as the one in the truck. when I put the housing back on to the truck, the thermostat slipped out of its place, and the gasket got pinched, and leaked almost a gallon of anti freeze out. really pissed me off, and cost me $20.00 dollars. So I removed the "Napa" thermostat and re installed the one that fit like a glove. Only reason to change it, was I wanted the 180 degree to try and keep my overall temps down. Lesson learned, this is one of those "I should have bought OEM Parts".

 

pretty cool, thanks for the reply. I could only see the right two knobs, so it peaked my curiosity.

 

I mounted mine in the center. It works well for me.

 

I really like this, esp. for the USB. What's that base you used?