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

Nother new toy
Ramsey 10k

 

Gotta love a winch on a reciever !! nice !

 

I went and got the 'el cheapo headlight polishing kit from Harbor Freight and did my headlights today.
I was completely surprised how well they turned out. They look almost brand new.

 

Now spray your headlights with a coat of clear coat and they'll stay that way a LOT longer.

 

Finished my steering rack install on my 2001.
The original one was leaking just a bit now and then, but progressed to needing to be filled up with ATF every trip. I noticed the leaking coming from behind the "D" shaped mounting bushing, afraid it would blow a major hole, I did not take it off until I had a replacement rack.

What I figure is the original bushing had been worn to the point that it allowed dirt and small rock particles to get in there and finally wear a hole in it.

Jorge from Camel Back hooked me up nicely on the Steering Rack. I went with a Energy Suspension bushing kit for the new rack (P/N 8.10103), I got this from Suspension Restoration Parts Co. (http://www.suspension.com/toyotapickups.htm) at a good price and cheap shipping.
The old rack was a pain to remove, especially the splined portion that fit into the intermediate steering shaft, but with a few days of PB soaking and a friend's help it was finally removed. Taking the Sway bar completely off helped with access.

The new rack during install:


The installation was straight forward with the exception of the hydraulic hoses. Those were difficult to access and they enter the rack at different angles. Looking at the old rack helped a lot here to visualize the entry angles. The pressure hose, the one with the large hex portion, goes in the bottom hole, with the return hose in the top hole.
A picture, before I removed them:


I have been driving around without the sway bar for a while now, and am in no big hurry to put it back on.

I should have taken measurements from tire edge to tire edge, for reference, before I started, but didn't think of it then. After the install, I trued my tires up to less than a 1/16" from to back. My steering wheel was slightly off center. With a few road tests and adjusting of the tie-rod adj nuts, the truck is tracking very straight. I will get a front end alignment done soon, but this will work until then.

 

Did you seal them afterwards?

If not they'll look yellow/hazed again in a few months

 

I see your white LEDs gives a bit of a yellowish/light green hue like mine. I thought it was just my white LEDs but it looks like the film on the gauges mixed with white output of the LEDs produces a yellowish pee color on all of our gauges. I think I'm going to forget turning my dash into a lexus and just switch to all green and call it a day. I'm just tired of fiddling with LEDs but thankfully it won't all go to waste cause these white 194's can still be used as corner or tail lights.

Here's my dash lights with the yellowish/light green, the light ring is more of a true white for comparison, that I plan to change out to all green:

 

Times are tough and I really hate to do this, but I'm putting this thing up for sale.






























































Smittybilt hawse fairlead with genuine rock damage! Functionally useless but would make a great paper weight or conversation piece! $100 shipped.

 

Gotcha...you didn't try and burn/melt out the old bushings like how it says to do on wheelers site?


And did you notice any sounds before you replaced the bushings? I have a drivers side "clunk" I am trying to track down. It happens when I go over potholes and uneven spots in the road. Its unrelated to turning.

I just put on my Uniball UCA's and new LBJ's, but haven't had a chance to really drive it yet.

 

Hmmm... If not for this site, I wouldn't of known to do that.
Thanks for the tip.

 

Agreed on Meguire's Plastic X. Works magic on headlights.

 

Some wheeling

 

I was just messing around under my truck and remembered that I didn't get the yearly frame inspection done last year. Is this a problem? I think the paper said you have to do it once a year for the replacement deal to stay valid. Anybody know? I might take it in, but it's a waste of my time. I have no rust.

 

Should wear the mud as a badge of honor for days... IMO

 

In cab snorkel! Total cost about $15-20.

 

isnt that loud?

 

I dint have a clunk sound but when I pressed the brakes at a speed past 45 my truck jerked to the left and then my steering wheel went off center but that is fixed now

And I didn't burn them out I got the big chunks of rubber off with a flathead and a hammer then I used a wire cup in a air drill to get the old rubber out much faster than burning the rubber out

 

Pretty sure this method hasn't been done before, and I have no brake lines right now so I guess we'll find out.

Others that run similar in cab snorkels have said that it's not bad at all though.

 

Waiting for someone to make a reference to it being a CAI while running the AC and how many HP will it add...:sly: