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

Installed my sway bar back on. Horrible noise after. Turns out my end links were crap.

$70 on Amazon. Now it’s quiet.

I have bilstein 6112 with 600lbs springs and putting the sway bar back on, made it nice on the road again. Think I’ll keep it on.

 

2 day project turned into a 2 week one.

Welded up spindle gussets, easy. Until 2 rusted caliper bolts sheared, break tube cracked, and another bolt rounded and needed to be drilled and tapped.

 

Got my new brake pedal mounted...now just gotta do my clutch pedal, which in theory should be easier since its not a dual master.

 

Thanks for the kind words. I am horrible to myself.

I was talking to the guy who built the bumper about bending those wings up, and its not possible without major surgery on the bumper but I like the idea of the filler panels!

 

You're bumper looks great, the lights make it look even better.

 

Now that I am actually awake it occurs to me that you might be able to get someone to 3d print new fillers. Take the stock ones out. Draw up new ones with the added gap dimensions. Then get new ones printed in the same color. Then put them in place of the original filler plates. No painting and no sheet metal. This would be something that the bumper manufacturer could get done to add to the bumper sales.

 

60k oil change and tire rotation yesterday afternoon. Checked the torque on my wheel spacers too.

Also did the filter drain hose mod. Still need to do plugs.

Started from the bottom:



Now we're here:




5/16" hose, two hose clamps, an old bolt and a couple zip ties.

 

I never considered doing that but given that I left a water bottle under the drain last month when I did my oil, I ought to. I did find the bottle on top of my skid plate, after I had a half a freak out that I was somehow leaking oil.

 

That would be freaking sick and waay cheaper than sheet metal fab or fiberglass! Im going to call around my area and see if someone can do it! Thanks!

 

Lol worry no more. I would always forget to remove the little rubber cap on the drain before taking the filter off. Same concept because you can really see/reach that oil that spills over.

 

7/10, got to take points off for leaving zip knifes

 

I have rolls of both color and clear 5/16" hose in my shop. Comes in handy for several applications including the filter drain, radiator drain and engine block coolant draining. I left an old oil catch can under one of mine 10 years ago. You only make that mistake 1 time hopefully. Every time I buy something that has a rubber nipple on it I save the nipple. I probably have 5 in my toolbox in case I ever lose the one on my filter drain.

 

Did the front brakes over the course of the last couple days. OEM pads lasted me 7.5 years/56k, there was maybe 1.5mm of pad material left, my own fault for letting them get that bad.



I knew the rotors were gonna be a bit rough thanks to New York and Nebraska winters (and every salt loving area in between along that I-90 drive), but I didn't anticipate 1) how friggin hard they would be to get off and 2) just how rusty they'd look



First time taking apart/rebuilding the calipers. Was a fun little project. Yes, that is in a spare bathroom tub...couldn't afford a house with a garage when I PCSed to the Baltimore 'burbs.



Shiny new Stoptech sport slotted rotors per crashnburn80's brake thread, and Powerstop Z36 pads. While not really sure if it mattered or not, I quickly realize that I had goofed the caliper pin orientation and reversed them after taking this photo.

 

Triggered.

 

I always just slip a hose on and off when I change my oil I don't bother leaving it on there.

 

Greased my Total Chaos upper control arms, ordered both inner CV boots, and bolted the e-brake cable to the leaf spring on both sides.

 

Finished the last of the sound dampenin for now. All 4 doors and the back wall. I still have an entire box so I may do the floor once the weather cooks some. From what I've read the ceiling is a bigger pain in the ass than I'm willing to endure.

 

Ceiling is only marginally more difficult than the rear wall, and only because you're putting it on over your head. Expect your shoulders to be sore no matter how many arm/back days you do in a week.

 

I am going to be ordering rear dumb breaks to replace mine soon. What is the best wheel cylinders to get? I am just going to replace everything back there since I think they are OG rears and I don't plan on taking them off again for a long time. There are plenty of options on Amazon but I don't know which is best or should I go Rockauto or OEM?

 

Got this oil catch can for free and installed it a while back. My guess is this is after about 500 miles. Now that I know there's a measurable amount of oil I get, I'll monitor the miles I do better and measure the volume of oil I catch to determine some rate. More for my info.

I don't feel any performance gain and I never did expect anything beyond catching oil. I understand that this is mainly for FI applications, but I do find it interesting how much oil I've caught.

Catch Can


After about 500 miles