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

Did this, not much to it but making it simpler to cut the locker on, & also put my dumped tip back on after the Flowmaster 40 install.

 

found out my ghetto muffler install finally failed lol. Time to bust out the welder and do it right this time.

 

How'd you have it done, clamps?

 

No I welded it, but my hanger was beyond ghetto the welds finally broke because they were too small so now the whole thing is hanging from the mounts about 4' further up the line. Im going to add more supports to it now.

here is a pic of my failed install using the stock hanger with "custom" adapters, lasted about 7k miles though.

 

^ Haha you should see how mine is hheld up back there right now

I would be embarrassed to even show a pic of it, the muffler is clamped to teh rest of the factory tubing and held in place back there by a clothes hanger! It wont be like that long though, im just trying to decide if i realy like the loudness before i weld it all up.

Just noticed your leaf pack was gone I had to do a double take on that one

 

working on finishing this up. just have so many ideas i wanna implement but not enough space!

 

Looks good, but kinda tall eh?

Heres what i have in mind for mine, it will be as tall as my toolbox so my lights will still go out past it.

Its just a drawing but you get the basic idea. The Hi-lift will be moutned up back there as well and a shovel and other stuff on the right side, the antenna would actually probably end up on the driver side whereas in the pic its ont eh pass. side.

 

naw its not to high and im mounting my spare underneath the rack to leave the top space for what ever. its only about 8-10 inches up from the bed rails. i wanted to be able to put stuff under it like my big cool and stuff. wait till i get mine finished you might like how i end up mounting my axe, shovel, and highlift. i have a few ideas floating around right now but im gonna make a decision tommorow. and throw up some more pics at the end of the day with my current progress.

 

awesome i have all the tools except the small hook. thanks man

 

Finally finished my engine bay lighting

 

This is really a cool and practical mod, especially if you don't have a big well-lit garage to work in.

Can you post some more pics of the details? Close up of the lights, wire routing, and connections/attachments?

 

I sort of imitated a couple other threads. These threads can explain it better than I can...
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/lighting/94024-diy-led-light-under-hood-engine-bay.html

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/lighting/95593-led-hood-lights.html

Mine is a little different.

I picked up a couple of L brackets about the width of the LEDs from Oznium.
I drilled holes and mounted the lights to the brackets (a small screw head is required because it will rub on the side of the led.
After mounting the lights with brackets, i took a hammer and bent the screws to prevent them from falling out.
Then I marked and drilled holes in the frame part of the hood.
Then I used a vice to bend the L brackets so the light shines downward.
Mounted the lights.



I drilled a hole in the hood frame to run the wires through like in the threads above.
I routed the wires between the hood and hood frame by drilling holes by the lights
I grounded the passenger side light with the red wire in the pic above (yeah, it should have been a black wire, but these leds seem to not care which way voltage flows through them. no harm, no foul I guess.)
I ran the other wire to a hole in my hood to let the wire hang out for the switch.



Instead of using a pin switch or mercury switch, I used a magnetic reed switch.

$26 Magnetic Switch, Standard Packaging,Black

http://www.amazon.com/Directed-Elec...UF08/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1304787548&sr=8-3
Mercurcy switches are great but then flicker on and flicker off. They are also subject to bumps, inertia and parking on inclines. Pin switches are great but most of them eventually rust and I couldn't set mine up properly. the hood was either too far from pushing them pin or it was crushing the pin. The reed switch seemed rust proof and it was easier to line up.

Here's the magnet


Here's the switch with wires attached



Here is how I added a fuse to the circuit
Ran one of those add a fuse things.
used a wire connector and attached it to the bolt on the positive wire of the fuse box.
Ran the other end of the wire through a small opening on the corner of the fuse box



That's pretty much it. Mine was a little different from the rest and a bit more expensive (2 lights vs 1, magnetic reed switch, L brackets) but I kinda like the process of modding things so I take my time and have fun with it.

 

You really should silicone those connections, here in MN we have shit loads of salt/ humidty and I know those would corrode fast. Just my 2cents

 

Or a swipe of dielectric grease (voltage isolating grease). Here in the Pac NW and the constant tsunami downpours,,it's needed or those gounds drop out.

Another good one for corrosion prevention of exposed elec connections is this stuff:
http://www.batterymart.com/p-cb104-brush-on-ncp-2-corrosion-preventative-4oz.html
Always have a can on the lube shelf.

 

Yeah, I definitely need to protect those. I was considering epoxy but something about epoxy raises a little red flag in my mind. I'll look into silicone or dialectric grease.

 

x2 seems to bit a bit tall for my taste but everything else looks good.

 

That's a good idea right there,much easier to reach now eh. Did they pop out easily?enough slack on the wires?

 

i didnt need a hook tool for anything just a philips screwdriver and a 10 mm ratchet

 

put new brake pads on the front rotors. oem ftw!!!

 

YEa i had them all out when i was putting LED's in my cluster and figured that would make things a bit easier, and there is plenty of slack but since the wires have been in one bend for some time it takes a little manuvering to get them to goto the other spots. Well worth it IMO though! Just having a little tough time getting used to it