Spare Tire Hoist cable snapped (rusted out or got cut I can't tell)

1996 Toyota Tacoma 3.4L V6 M/T Ext. Cab.

Someone either stole my spare by cutting the braided cable, or it rusted and the tire dropped out. Ya know, it's actually really bizarre because I never found the tire. I retraced my drive (pretty gnarly road) and couldn't find it. So I lost my full size spare. SONOFA*****.

Anyway, I went to a pick n pull and pulled the spare tire assay off of a single cab 1997 and it looks like it should work. I had to put a fairly good sized dent in the bed of the truck to remove it. I am NOT looking to do that in order to replace mine. What am I missing? Is there an easier trick to getting these things in/out? Should be just 4 friggen bolts but there's about an inch between the bolt-head and the truck bed. Has anyone replaced one of these that could give me some tips? Other solutions like cutting the cable and using some kind of hardware to bolt the bottom piece to the braided cable itself? If I did that I would lost at least a foot of cable from the spool, and might not be able to get the spare on or off of it without struggle.

I see several cross-member beams that bolt to the frame, but it looks like I would be in over my head (literally and figuratively) to undo all of those bolts which are surely seized at 275k miles...

It's one of these:

 

The picture above was borrowed from another post about rust. Not my truck, but same problem.

 

Good Afternoon and sorry to hear that. I thought “maybe” it would be included in the recall from a couple of years ago but I don’t think it went that far back (‘96 Model).


https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/spare-tire-carrier-recall-before-and-after.481327/

 

Depending where you live In the rust belt I never had one that Worked.

Besides nothing like crawling in the mud to check the air all the time .

If I saw a full size wheel and tire in or along the road i would stop and grab it in fact I have a few times.

The fact you never felt it drop is strange

 

You've gotta pull the bed to "properly" access the spare hoist. You should be able to just remove the six bed bolts and then shove some 2x4s between the frame and bottom of the bed to lift it high enough to access the bolts you feel on top of the hoist; no need to remove the bed entirely.

The one catch can be if you've got a lot of rust, so hit the bed bolts with a bunch of penetrating oil before a day before you remove them, and slather on some anti-seize when you're done!