Frank’s ‘98 Tacoma

Howdy!

Excited to join this forum. I’ve been avidly searching and reading for almost a month now, so I figured it was time to officially join and introduce myself and my new (to me) Tacoma.

a little about me:
I’ve been into cars for about 15ish years. Originally I was into euro/lowered car shenanigans. Had a few BMW’s. Eventually grew out of that, worked for a Toyota dealership, moved across the country to Colorado and discovered the fun of off-roading. Had a 2002 SC LB Tundra. After awhile I wanted to down size a little, so I found my way to this very nicely maintained Tacoma. the truck has a spacer lift, which I want to remove ASAP cuz the old suspension in there rides like garbage. From my searching, I’ve narrowed it down to OME Kit with 883 springs (as I plan to get a coastal off-road bumper for it down the road) and the Dakar leaf springs.
I ran 5100’s on the tundra and absolutely loved them, but I want to give OME a try.

current work I need to do is remove the steering column assembly (watched the budget mechanic video on YouTube) because I’ve got a ton of steering slop.
I want to do some induction servicing as the fuel mileage seems a little below what it should be (I realize city driving is what it is, but I’m getting ~12-13mpg).
I’m going to replace the headlight housings with new and grab some LED’s. Ran some in the tundra and they did a wonderful job (maybe save up for the retrofit headlights eventually).
The third brake light won’t stay in the mount anymore, so I ordered a new assembly to fix that and the DS license plate bulb socket tabs broke, so I ordered a new socket.

the big project is eventually building a pop up camper shell. Did a bunch of research and settled on the ripcord plans. Printed out the spreadsheet and carted all of the 80/20 rails and bits for the wedge. Currently the bed has no liner and the PO had a gang box mounted in it, so I need to close the mounting holes and then lined the bed. Picked up some patio carpet from Home Depot, just need to cut it to fit and then mount it.

As it gets older and if I wind up getting a second vehicle as a daily, my plans are to do something silly. The rabbit hole I fell into today led me to a thread on turbocharging the 5VZ and then I was redirected to 4BT swap threads. Realistic? Noooo, but a boy can dream. However the motor situation winds up, I’ll eventually go LT for real fun. For now I gotta keep myself in check and keep the truck as reliable as possible.

anywhosal, howdy y’all!

 

If you dont have any records of when the ball joints were replaced I’d replace em or get new control arms.

 

Luckily PO kept all of the records and I made sure to check that the LBJ’s were replaced under the recall. Also made sure to check records for the frame inspection LSC as I did that at the dealership I worked at. Appreciate ya looking out!

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Welcome to TacomaWorld

 

What year ?