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

What did you go with?

 

Its been awhile since Ive posted anything, did this July 2019.
It was long overdue, I didn't realize one side was broken until we did a scouting High Adventure and one of my boys
noticed. When I got into the project, most of em were broken, a tribute to Toyota's reliability. God Bless Toyota's !

 

Auxbeam

 

I rebuilt this tired 1998 3RZ-FE and in the process of reinstalling.

 

Swapped in new lower spherical bearings on my ADS coilovers today. There are 18,000 miles on this original set from brand new.



These had just started to squeak. I was surprised at just how loose they were. Upon closer inspection, these are not likely to be FK bearings and certainly not an "F1" fit. Pieces of the teflon sleeve liner were just falling out of the bearing.



I am having trouble getting one half of the misalignment spacer out of this old bearing. It seems to be fused in there. Should be reusable if I can get them apart. I am open to suggestions or ideas on how to separate the two pieces.



I am going to try something new. Got these new Fox misalignment spacers with an o-ring seal from @TMFF





Using new FK bearings with the tighter F1 spec. Hopefully I'll get more that 18K out of them.




The new o-ring fit should be interesting.

 

I've used a punch to knock them out. Then cleaned it up with a file. Maybe you have a tiny socket that could fit or grind down a bolt head until it barely fits through the bearing.

 

You can use some heat to un-fuse the misalignment from the spherical bearing. And penetrating oil obviously. Heat the spherical bearing to make it slightly larger, then pull out the misalignment.

And you'll like the FK-F1. Which FK did you go with? COM? FKS, or FKSSX?

Lastly - the Fox misalignments look like they are actually misaligned, unlike the ADS ones, which (at least for mine) centered the shock in the lower mount. Am I seeing that correctly, and if so, is there a benefit to either way? (besides the obvious benefit of the seals, if those work)

 

I'll try some heat along with Ryan's suggestion of a punch or maybe the perfectly sized socket to press it out.

The new ones are not stainless. They are FKS10T and man are they tight when new. Much much tighter than some new, A-1 brand COM10Ts I had on hand.

You are seeing correctly, these are misaligned. It should not make any difference in terms of performance. I installed them so the spacer pushes to bottom of the shock forward.

 

Nice on all counts. I agree that the -F1 is great (and very different). I wanted to try those FKS10T-F1's next, since they are a step up from the FK-COM10T-F1, and (at least a bit) cheaper than the SS ones. So I'll be watching closely to see how yours perform. And I'm very interested in those seals. I really hope they work for you so I can get them too, hahahaha. I guess the risk is that they could trap water in there. Please do keep us posted.

Edit: and I see the markings on the bearing now. Sorry for the dumb question earlier.

 

Yeah, this is a possibility. I guess we'll see.

I was a bit disappointed that ADS does not use a better bearing by default.

 

Man that's looks so clean. Love it.

Wow i like those rubber misalignments.

Hope they last longer!

Your's aren't misaligned? Mine are stock. Help keep the lower spring perch out of the CV axle.

 

I like that. My 2001's gauge lights are a little dim. Got any more info on the dash lighting upgrade?

 

Finally fixing to start doing shit to the taco again

 

All of the ADS COs that I've seen have all come with 'centered' misalignment spacers. Even the Kings I had came with centered ones. It has never been an issue. Hell, these fox ones only move the bottom of the shock a 1/4" so

 

Past couple of days I've installed a new JBA catback and Walker rear cat. Got everything back to bolt-on. Flange between the front cat and rear cat has a small leak, going to get a new gasket and maybe try some exhaust putty.

I've also been getting some hesitation/power loss at around 2000rpms after shifting into 2nd, just when first driving. I did the "pump the gas pedal 100 times" TPS temp fix and cleaned the MAF. Hopefully it goes away, if not I think I'll be pulling the throttle body.

 

Lol no consistency. My king's were offset.

I know it doesn't matter though. Just odd.

 

Installed a Tru Cool trans cooler this weekend. Super straight forward, just needed to get a few extra feet of 11/32 hose.

Took it on a test drive across town and back that would get my temps up to about 220 in the past. Didn’t even crack 185 the entire time.

Next up is full fluid change out and lca bushings at soem point in the near future

 

Wanna trick out my lil tacoma... he's looking too grandpa truck-esque. Don't know what the hell I'm doing tho so help a girl out. Mainly wanna focus on the exterior & aesthetics for now, send me ideas.

 

An interesting new thing to say the least