1st Gen Lunchtable Thread - General Discussion

Ok the 4.0 is WAY worse to tear apart. Should be a $1000 job for be pipe on a 3.4

 

Is it like 6 hours of labor or so?

I want to say it took me 4-6 to pull and swap the upper intake manifolds on my 96 and 02 donor engine with hand tools

 

A neighbor asked me if I was a mechanic and I told him no and I asked why he was asking.

"You're always working on cars."

I laughed and told him "nah".

A year later I think there might be more truth to it than I originally thought. I might not be a mechanic by trade but I think I may in fact be a mechanic... The list of specialty tools I need/want is getting thin and the projects I have tackled go far beyond basic maintenance.


That doesn't mean I know what I'm doing, though. It just means I don't know what I'm doing but _faster_

 

@Running Board Man Pulled the upper and lower control arms on the 99. Nothing is wrong with the bushings. Think I was made aware of torquing those with the vehicle supporting it's own weight right before I installed them. My alignment issues are likely related to the puck spacers. I figured it wouldn't be an issue since my 04 was able to be aligned with OME 882s/nitrochargers (the taller Prado coils) with stock upper control arms. The 99 came to me with blocks, pucks, and fairly new no brand/part number longer rear shocks. I threw on my stock leaf springs from the 04 and stock strut/coils with ~110K and reused the pucks/blocks just because they were there.

Removing the front lift from the truck still leaves me with blocks and longer shocks in the rear. And if I'm already tearing into the front struts I might as well replace them. I have some unused 882 coils sitting in my garage. So technically I could buy nitrochargers, control arms, a diff drop, and just be done with this BS. But that would be $1000 in parts.

The smarter choice is probably putting stock height bilsteins all the way around and return to a suspension lift in the future.

 

Damn well I'll probably be dropping it off at a shop near my work tomorrow morning, I'll let you guys know what they say. Definitely don't have time to tackle this one with how fast it's losing coolant and work week starting tomorrow

 

Buddy drove me an hour from the camp site to go grab coolant from a store, didn't want to risk driving over the mountain pass running that low with it leaking like that.

Dealership was closed (Sunday) so had to get Peak brand stuff

 

The one on the right looks exactly like my mom's dog, Bella

 

Here's a video from our 100 Series Owners group meet in the Ozarks - Labor Day 2021.

We like the way Tacoma World member Cody @MedlinAround built this video.


https://youtu.be/3ySNNqw7b08

 

There's always Zerex red. I bet it wasn't at the store an hour from your campsite though.

 

I had a neighbor ask me if I was an electrician last week. Not sure why since they only ever see me working in my front yard. They were very very close though, as I basically have rewired half my house, wired my self-built shed/workshop, added circuits to the backyard, and am an electrical engineer... told her I wasn't licensed but could take a look.

Now that I think about it, I've had a couple people ask me to work on their cars before too.

 

Compared to the other crowd who can't even change the oil or brake pads we must seam like master mechanics. I don't think my older brother learned to change his oil until he was in his late 40's.

 

Might have been, the Peak Asian 50/50 red seems compatible though... Hopefully lol

 

Ah I'd never seen Peak red before. The dealer will tell you to run pink SLL as if your truck is any different from an 03 lol. Never understood that.

 

Got asked if I was a mechanic for the first time last weekend. Showed up to a local golf course in my lifted GX w/metal bumpers, sliders, RTT etc. Older guy next to me when I pulled in asked if it was cost me $60k or $70k. Told him I picked it up for $16k and did a bunch of work myself. He asked if I was a mechanic.

Funny that just knowing how to remove/install parts and a bit of welding thrown in makes one a "mechanic" in some peoples eyes...

 

It's insane how the other half lives.

I also had a guy who used to do body work tell me I did better on my raptor liner job than some of the professionals. Made my day lol

 

@eon_blue

Be curious to see how much coolant loss you've had.

 

I can help if you haven't already finished

 

I missed this, and didn’t read whatever was said after.

what was/ is the issue?

 

Vehicles like my 95 Tacoma and 01 4r were easily aligned no problems first try by reputable shops even with bastardized puck spacers, Billy's, second gen springs, and whatever else I tried in highschool

But my 98 4r always had a shit alignment since it was stock even after multiple shops, all 4 control arms, all suspention joints, still trying... I wish I knew why... And don't feel like taking it to a frame shop