What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

Yes, the skid bolts into the gas tank strap so even if you removed the 3 bolts up front you will still have the tank held in place by the strap.

 

Cool, thanks.

 

It was pretty thin too not what I'd expect with 40 weight. It must have been mixed with a bit of gas but it didn't smell like gas as much as I would have expected but then again I can't smell for shit since covid.

Im not looking forward to inspecting the valve clearances. I'll check the cylinder compression as well once I find my guage, haven't used it in almost 15 years.

 

Aren't only two bolts attaching the skid so one gets left on the tank so something supports the front of the tank.

 

Ah shit you are right.

 

Correct. There are 3 bolts across the front. Leave the center bolt in, remove the outer bolts. The outer bolts are what is holding the front of the skid plate.

There ae the 2 back bolts that thread in to welded nuts on the strap. So removing those will not drop the tank.

 

Yea I figured that out.

Best I can tell tank was leaking (when it was more than half full) at the pinch weld next to my leaf spring keeper. I was flexed out pretty good recently, and the leaf spring must have kissed it. I took this photo after I had bent it up more out of the way. Didn't think of taking one before I started bending.


I bent it some more and cleaned it up. Then put some JB Weld putty on it.

 

I ran into that same thing with my previous OME leafs.
Didn't end up with a leak, but the nut came off and the bolt backed out & jammed up against the tank.

 

I literally found the same thing when I got to @jubei 's place in CO the day before we were going to start the Kokopelli. Had to run to an Ace to replace it.

 

I drove around the with my head stuck out the window trying to pinpoint where it was coming from. Was only happening when I went over a bump and the suspension would cycle. Was driving me crazy. Glad I found it before anything bad happened

 

I took these out of my old OME packs and tossed em in the trash, they flex out farther without em

 

Found out I got the last new diff mount nut in the U.S. so for those out there doing a 4x4 conversion and have a front diff that didn’t ship with any mounting hardware you are SOL for a while.

 

If that doesn't hold I've had good luck with jb water weld.

 

They also make a jb tank weld made for gas tanks

 

Still shows as in stock at TPD and a few other sites.
https://www.toyotapartsdeal.com/oem/toyota~nut~front~differential~mount~no~1~41655-35010.html
https://parts.lakelandtoyota.com/p/__/Nut--Differential-MO/3924720/4165535010.html

partsouq is out of them.

 

Dude shoulda brought an umbrella to his parade

 

I should have known to ask here first. I wasted so much time trying to figure out what that part even was. It is just a grainy blob on my FSM and I didn’t see it come up in any 4x4 swap posts.

 

Why you need to plug in the VIN for your truck at one of the part sites (partsouq is very detailed in their diagrams and DB). You'll be able to drill down to each part in whichever section. Since you're doing a conversion, it's a good idea to keep the VIN number from the donor truck of the trans, transfer case, front diff as diagrams may differ.

Glad you scored the part.

 

Yeah I don't have keep bolts in mine franken packs either. Mostly because they don't fit..but still. Whatever.

 

One step closer to being ready to mount the new bumper. Decided I wanted some proper fog lights (Diode Dynamics SS3 pro) set inside the plate bumper. (Thanks Colton at Hotshot Offroad). The factory mount bracket with wasn't going to work for this application, so I cut some tabs out of some scrap 2" x 1/8" steel. Pondered how I would hold them in position while getting the tack welds in, then remembered my super strong sheet metal magnets. Stuck two to the side of each bracket, they give enough holding power to hang each bracket from the plate steel above while I fine tune the position for best light aiming.