1st Gen Lunchtable Thread - General Discussion

Yeah, agree you can't expect it to last but using it (and it doing its job) is great and pays itself off after a job or two for sure.

The rags are a great freebie for wiping shit with acetone.

 

I wipe all those Stiffies and Stiff Ones down in acetone and HF rags

 

Well I meant to say I'm working full time now, so I can't whittle away a Tuesday afternoon tinkering with my shitbox.

I also frankly don't see why it's seen as such a sacrilege to take these trucks to a reputable shop for repairs. Everyone values their time/money differently.

Hell, even if I took my truck to a restoration place and handed them 30 grand to refurbish everything, it'd still be cheaper than a new TRD Pro..

 

I hit em with a bit of brake clean and set em in the sun to come up to temp, paint is baked on practically now

 

A grand in labor? Oof, that might be enough to convince me to DIY.

 

Hey, we all value our time (some more than others). I did so much I retired so trust me...I love my time off.

Back to your point, doing your own work builds the confidence to tackle bigger jobs much more efficiently.

You'll save tons learning to quickly diagnose your vehicle as well.

In the end you'll save quite a ton of money and the way I see it, saving money working on my vehicle means that money can be used on another day off to better enjoy it. Take the girlfriend out on a trip, nice dinner, something. But if you pay for a shop to do all your work, you'll be nickle and dimed to death and complain how unreliable you're very reliable truck is.

 

And unless you're making money on that "day off"...working on your vehicle to "save money" is the next best thing IMO.

You're only spending the day, not a week. And you'll feel so much better about getting it done yourself.

I don't know about you but I don't have money growing on trees.

 

Come to think of it, does anyone rebuild these racks?

 

Books out at 3.5hrs of labor on AllData and you're typically looking at $135-160 an hour plus the part (most shops don't like you bringing your own parts) and the part books out on AllData for $1271

So yeah.. about $1778 or so

AllData is an industry standard for quoting so I'm not just pulling numbers out of thin air.

 

I can't say, I know a few threads have come up though on the subject.

Again though the rack comes with OEM inners and those alone sell for a lot.

 

Rack replacement is not that hard... (maybe a surgeon would disagree)

 

@Speedytech7 how many hours does Alldata say it takes to replace a 1FZ steering pump?

I spent $100 for an oem pump (used), and $100 in the rebuild kit from Wit's End. Replaced that and a bunch of hoses and high pressure line for the grand total under $300.

 

1.8 for just a remove and replace and 3.1 for a remove, repair, reinstall

 

$1271 for the part is an insane markup; it better be OEM with all the bushings, hoses and outer TREs for that price. I could live with 3.5 hours of labor. There's one shop locally that doesn't complain about me bringing my own parts, so I might give them a quick call just to weigh my options.

 

Thank you

I know I spent over half hour rebuilding, closer to an hour so yeah sounds right

 

"Hey Brian, it's that Tacoma kid again..."

 

Yeah, markup is how they make money, gotta remember these guys are warrantying their work, that shit don't come free. Regardless when a service is included a parts price always goes up, if you can get it cheaper you can do it yourself... shops don't want to argue about that. You've deemed yourself incapable now its time to pay the pied piper since that's your only choice left.

 

I got a cheap ass Detroit Axle rack a few years ago for like 150 bucks and it's still going... on actual power steering fluid too not correct ATF... like they said, 4 hours. Just get new tie rods too.

 

Not bad really, did you flip the little vanes in the pump to reveal the new side to the pump body too?

 

Detroit axle.... that's like Amazons version of alibaba parts ain't it?