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

Take your belt off and check the in/out of your steering pump and the overall play of your idler pulleys. Took me a while to chase down but that's what mine was

 

1 week, 4 states, 1 tornado while on trail, and lots of wheeling she’s gotten us home safely.

We were on a pretty basic trail in NC when the tornado hit. I had the option of turning around but noticed a jeep stuck on the trail with trees down in front of him. He had nothing to cut them, no recovery gear, no food or water and well.. a jeep lol. We cut/winched the trees down to free him up and had him follow us off the trail incase we found more down trees.. which we did. Fed him some bologna sandwiches and sent him on his way, hopefully learning a life lesson to be better prepared for the worst.




Now onto some of the fun pics of the trip.

 

Sold the grey Softopper and went with tan. I had to!!!

 

Took a chance on these headlights from Amazon with no reviews. After having to replace one that would not light, and I will say the seller was awesome with communicating, finally satisfied.

 

Second night with AJT Designs climate control knobs, and I remembered my phone camera. The light indicators, and great easy grip make these knobs a win. Installation is explained by Adam Turley. I put a finger over the top of the metal spring that is reused with the new knobs to control its extraction and avoid loss. https://youtu.be/lZHBtNRULsQ

 

Epic

 

I'll definitely check that out. I actually discovered my end links were super loose at the spindle. I got them tightened down and the noise went away. However, it's back again haha.

 

Definitely a fan of the two tone! The wheels, topper and matching letters... nicely done!

And dude, not for nothing... that's a nice pic! That belongs in the next TW calendar. That's the cover photo or January right there! Lol!

 

Finally pulled the trigger on some stuff for my rig.



Front: Bilstein 6112’s (2in lift set)
Rear: Bilstein 5160’s (will prob do a new leaf pack soon)
Wheels: Nomad 502 Argo’s (0 offset)
Tires: Toyo AT3’s 285

 

I bet he was mighty glad to see you

 

Yes, for sure. Their plan was to sit and wait until morning to hike down and try to get reception but that would have been a ways and not fun without water.

 

I made a rule that if there's even an inkling of fallen trees, the chainsaw comes with. Even if nothing else, it's loud

 

Scored some discounted oil! $26 a jug at advanced auto

 

The wide angle lense makes it look like an 8' bed.


Tan looks great!

 

Dash cam vid?

 

Hahaha! Thanks! You might be onto something!

 

Unfortunately that’s still on my to do list

 

Best perk of being a tech is getting to do your own oil with the lifts at the shop.


Frame is still rust free and no oil leaks.
Also ordered a warn low profile winch bumper from 4 wheel parts on Thursday and it got to my house today, but harbor freight hasn’t even shipped out the cut off wheels I need to install it yet. I ordered everything at the same time.

 

Not so much what I did today, but an issue that just recently arose. My 2011 base model was not prewired for cruise, so I bought the eBay wiring kit, as well as the factory stalk and clutch switch. When it was first installed it worked great but recently, especially when it’s been sitting for a while, the cruise light doesn’t come on when I hit the switch. This first happened when I was driving back to Vegas from Oregon, and out of frustration I kept hitting the switch and it eventually came on. Once it’s lit, cruise works as it should, but now I’m having to repeatedly press the switch to get cruise to activate. Any thoughts? My initial thought is the wire tap I had to put in near the interior junction block, but I haven’t had a chance to check it yet.

 

About 2 hours in the garage today. I was able to grease the shackles, clean the MAF, spark plug change and install my new oil catch can.

First time doing plugs on the Tacoma (myself).

The spark plugs themselves took about an hour and 20 minutes which includes cleaning the MAF. I started on the passenger side and worked around in order to build confidence. Worked out well.



Below, are what I believe to be, an absolute must have for the job. The tiny Milwaukee ratchet helped get the bracket off on the driver's side. The lower bolt is in a tough spot and points upward. The headlight/band is really nice. The DeWalt hood light bar is good but the headlight was a lifesaver.

Definitely recommend making sure you have enough extensions.



Having the print out in the garage made everything run smoothly. Highly recommend.

New oil catch can installation.

BEFORE:



AFTER:





https://www.jlosc.com/