Anthony y El Burrito Blanco

In the OC but won't be traveling out until winter break. Death Valley is my main stomping grounds during the fall, winter, and spring.

 

Right on, I have a lot of nearby spots I like to go to around DV. Lone Pine and Mojave Preserve are two of them - looks like I should get more familiar with DV after looking at your build thread if that's where you're taking pictures that are on there! I'm a returning student at CSULB so my schedule kind of works around the semester breaks also - maybe we can meet up to check out some spots out there then!

 

Nice attention to detail

 

Thanks! I'm just getting into suspension components and hopefully I can keep the same level of detail so that I don't run into issues where I could have saved myself time and money if I had been more careful. Oh yeah I like your rock music theme - I was just writing a metal song when I read your post. Good timing.

What are your plans for how you use your truck?

 

I'm mainly prepping my ride for work and to get down some dirt roads to camp on occasion

 

That's mainly where I'm at too - but I want to be able to get out into certain areas where upgraded suspension will most likely be a good thing - I've gotten to plenty of places with my stock setup though. Been planning upgrades for about a year now lol.

 

I like this truck!

Cheers!

 

Thank you!

Have a good day!

 

Hey man, love your truck so far, I have 1 pretty similar (2 door, white, putting black rims on it soon). I was curious how you have the center console though? I have a bench in mine so I was wondering if you bought it like that or if you somehow converted it. Also, what size tires are you running?

 

I think the bucket seats were an option until '08 or '09. They're compatible with any regular cab that has a bench I believe if you can find some at a junk yard or someone who would like to trade them to you.

I'm running 265/70/16's.

 

I appreciate it man, your Taco looks great. Keep it up.

 

Got the recall leaf springs - I know some people have rightfully been disappointed in these, but they replaced a 3 leaf pack that was clapped out big time plus my truck is a lot lighter than most AC and DC's. It's great not hitting my bump stops on every drainage dip in the streets around my house. At first they made me sit a little stink bug, but they settled in pretty nicely after a day trip to Anza-Borrego State Park in San Diego County.

 

Speaking from experience. After about 300-600 miles take your truck to a shop with a lift and check every single bolt on your rear end. I took mine in for a tire rotation and had them check it, the tech said my rear end was about 100 miles away from falling off.

 

Good looking truck!

 

Thanks. I drove a hundred miles or so already and after reading the great ubolt torque spec debate on here I went out and checked the torques on my ubolts. They were all different from less than 40 lbs to close to 70 lbs. Not sure how that happened if it was from loosening or if that's how they ended up after the install. I torqued them all to 73 lbs and checked the rest of the bolts.

 

Careless Toyota stealership. That's why I only take my truck to a dealer when it has to do with a recall

 

Thank you! From your avatar it looks like you enjoy driving around the desert too!

 

Their customer service is really good - we'll see what happens with the mechanic side of things - they installed an incorrect part for the spiral cable (air bag?) recall and now I have to return. I'll be asking about the leafs because they creak from the bushings I believe (doesn't sound like my old squeaky leafs that rubbed against each other and I fixed with some stuff between the leafs).

 

Got a set of Apex Fab fog light brackets for Cali Raised LED fog / ditch lights. Here's a how-to install guide for a novice like me. Disclaimer:
I chose not to test out the lights / wiring harness before I started working on this and that could have led to a lot of frustrating troubleshooting if something hadn't worked. Ideally you should test out the whole circuit before you install everything, but for my pre-made wiring harness that had to be modified and the fact that I had the lights already installed from the first day I worked on it (and too lazy to buy / find a 12v battery), I just went for it. Also if you choose to follow this guide, then you are doing so at your own risk.

Here's a quick and basic wiring diagram.



Everything you need (besides the lights lol):



From left to right

* Nitrile Gloves (didn't end up using them because most of the work is detail oriented)
*

MICTUNING LED Light Bar Wiring Harness Fuse 40Amp Relay ON-OFF spot light Rocker Switch Blue(2 Lead)

Pre-made Wiring Harness or DIY harness including switch (recommended if I was going to do this again)
*

$14 BUD Industries CU-3283 Plastic Style A Utility Box 6" L x 4" W x 2" D, Black

Hobby Box
*

$20 Littelfuse FHM200BP mini-fuse Add-A-Circuit Kit

Add-A-Circuit Fuse Adapter
* Ratchet Set - almost everything is 10mm and 12mm
* Ratchet Extensions
* Zip Ties
*

$8 SummitLink 415 Pcs Black Assorted Heat Shrink Tube 10 Sizes Tubing Wrap Sleeve Set Combo

Heat Shrink Tubes (at least a couple different sizes to double up on solders)
* Crescent Wrench (didn't use this a whole lot)
* Diagonal Cutters (Dikes)
*

$14 IRWIN VISE-GRIP Wire Stripper, 8", Cuts 10-22 AWG, Plier Style Nose, ProTouch Grip for Maximum Comfort (2078309)

Wire Strippers
* Screw Driver (philips)
* Razor Knife
* Split Wire Loom (I used 3/8" but you might be able to get away with a size smaller than that)
*

$14 alpha fry 24637 AM31406 Cookson Elect 40/60 Electrical Rosin Core Solder, Assorted

Solder (40/60 Rosin Core)
* Wet Sponge (I just use a wet rag in a yogurt container)
* Solder Iron (I use a cheap $4 Harbor Freight iron, but if you have the dough get a nicer one - the most important parts of this are good solder and a sponge to keep the tip clean)
* Drill and bits for mounting / modding the hobby box.

Not Pictured:
* A

$13 SE 4X Magnifying Glass with Helping Hand - 2-1/2" Lens, 360 Degrees Rotatable Clips for Soldering, Jewelry Making, and Detailed Work -MZ101B

Helping Hand - I put one on Amazon so you can see what it is, but I got one at Harbor Freight for $3 I believe.
* Patience

Some items are linked to the ones I bought for this. My friend hooked me up with a $100 amazon gift card for dj'ing his wedding so all of the links are to good ol' amazon.

I did this installation in two consecutive Saturdays. The first day I just installed the lights / brackets in the bumper and then my neighbor with a built jeep drove up and asked me to suss out a noise (rear diff leaking - think that's where the sound was coming from), then my roommate got home with a bunch of boxes wine for his wedding and needed help unloading it, and finally another neighbor couldn't get his spare tire with the impossible to find slot like our setup in Tacomas and I spent a few minutes helping him get that too.

So that day was shot and I finished in the dark. Most of the directions for this come with the APEX brackets (with pics) so I took minimal pictures. Here's what it looks like. The key to this is trying to keep the lights straight up and down in the holes while tightening the nut in back. I had to put my bumper on a few times and size up whether I had them in straight.



Taking off the bumper requires (in my opinion) a screw driver and a

$10 Lisle 35260 Plastic Fastener Remover

plastic fastener removal tool. It's pretty straightforward and can be done by taking off the grill, body panels under the headlights, and then taking off the screws and plastic fasteners that hold on the bumper if you aren't already wired up for fog lights like me. You might have a couple of wire connectors if you are.

If this is the first time you've wired anything up on your vehicle then I strongly suggest watching these videos:

Great DIY Wiring Harness Tutorial - also shows the basics of what wiring looks like in this kind of install:


A Comprehensive Video on DIY Wiring with Install Shown - great soldering info:


I found this video helpful as well for wire loom and other odds and ends:


Make sure you know how to solder moderately well. Not everything is plug and play with pre-made wiring kits and sometimes you want to make it a little more custom and soldering makes this easy. Practice with soldering and heat shrinking wire on extra wire if you don't have any experience - it will save you problems later and you'll learn a few lessons to make things go quickly.

Now for the wiring:

Step 1 - Disconnect negative terminal from battery



Step 2 - Remove interior panels - I forgot to show this so after the install I snapped some pics for it - that's why it's dark and my hands are dirty lol.

Begin with driver's side door trim - just pull up on it and it will come unsnapped (it may feel like you're breaking it, but you're fine)



Remove dead pedal - again it's just held with clips and can be pulled off.



A little plastic screw that can be unscrewed by hand.



And finally the plastic panel in the footwell - it comes out pretty easily.



Remove coin tray - it just comes out with a pull. (Pic coming)

Now it's time to get out your wiring harness and see how you want to run it and make sure that you have enough length for everything. I ended up having more than enough length for all the runs except for the wires going to the positive terminal of the battery and the engine bay ground. I had to add lengths of wire that I had as spares from the connectors that come with APEX fab kit that are meant to connect to the OEM wiring I believe. Anyway I had to extend each about one foot so I could comfortably make it to the battery and the ground like I said so I started with extending these with some soldering and heat shrink practice:

Soldering Techniques:

Step 1 - Strip wire and fray the ends. I suggest that you put heat shrink on before stripping - it goes on a little easier. Wire strippers will save you a ton of time - I just bought some after 8+ years of working on guitars and stripping wire with a razor blade. There is no comparison




Step 2 - Twist wire and solder. If you have any doubts about this, check out the second two videos above this - they're great at explaining soldering. Use the sponge / rag to clean off your soldering iron each time before and after you make a solder joint.



Step 3 - Apply Heat Shrink - "Hot" Tip - wait until solder joint is cool to the touch before sliding heat shrink onto the joint. I messed this up once the first time and had to use a bigger piece that would go over the goof. After this I just started to double heat shrink everything just for fun lol.



Now once you have extended the wires that go from the relay to the ground and positive battery terminal, you are ready to start running your wire through the engine bay. Sorry for the blurry pic - phone had a hard time focusing on the completely black wire.

I chose to install my relay and in-line fuse in the project box next to the fuse box where there are two threaded holes in the core support. The Cali-Raised lights come with bolts that fit these holes perfectly. I threw on a couple of washers and drilled a hole / slot next near the bottom corner closest to the battery for all of the wires to come out of.



I ran the wires down through the hole under the driver's side headlight to the bumper. You can see a lot of stock wires there - I haven't ran the wire yet in the pic. You'll see where I put my horn after the satoshi grill mod and had to move it again for my project box to fit after this mod. I have to get a shorter bolt and get a nylock nut for it. I just used what I had on hand since I forgot I'd have to do this.



I put wire loom on everything in the engine bay. I found an easy way to make the wire go into the loom quickly by holding the wire between my fingers and sliding the loom on like this.



The wires come with crimp connectors at all ends where there's a connection needed. I don't have any experience with crimp connectors and the LED's needed to be soldered anyway, so I ended up cutting off all of the crimp connectors except for the ones going to the switch in the dash and just soldered connections. Working under the bumper was a little awkward, but you get a good ab workout from it



I double heat shrinked and wire loomed everything in the engine bay like I said. I ran the wire from one fog light to the other along the bottom of the bumper - you could try other ways - this way seemed to work pretty well as long as I don't get in an accident where the bumper is ripped off, but then again, the fog lights are going to be in rough shape anyway lol.





I zip tied everywhere I could to make sure the wire doesn't wander anywhere it can get damaged.

Up next it was time to put the relay activator wire from the switch through the firewall. In my wiring harness they had a giant connector that would have required me to drill a huge hole in the firewall and install a grommet and that wasn't going to happen (obviously) so I cut the wire running from the relay to the dash switch and ran it through the firewall with the hood latch cable. You can see where the cable passes through the firewall where the grey circle is.



I just taped it to a coat hanger and put some oil to make it slide through.



Now it was time to do the wiring in the cab - what a mess j/k



Since I forgot to put a picture of it earlier, this is the easiest place (any of the bottom three spaces for switches) to put your first switch when wiring. The blank switch piece will just pop out from the back once you've taken out the coin tray.



Behind the coin tray you'll find the interior fuse box. I chose to put the add-a-circuit in the spot where I'm pointing to the 7.5 A fuse in the top row, third from the right.



It was a little difficult to get out the stock fuse, but it came out with some pulls with the needle nosed pliers. The add-a-circuit is pretty cool - there are spaces for two fuses. The top space is for the light switch and the bottom space is for the fuse that was originally in the space that the add-a-circuit is occupying. The stock fuses won't fit in the add-a-fuse, but the one I linked comes with a 7.5 A fuse that will go in the bottom slot and a few others. I used the 3 A fuse for the light switch since it's only lighting up a LED in the switch and sending a small current to the relay to turn the lights on.

After that there's only two things left. First you need to find a ground for the switch and there's one already down by the footwell that I used for my ground as well.



It's the bolt holding on the white connector in the middle of the triangle formed by the three big wire harnesses. It's out of focus, but it's pretty easy to find - I had to hold the ground clip onto the bolt with one hand and use my ratchet with the other - probably one of the more difficult parts of this project. Basically just look down where your left foot would be when you drive.

Lastly you'll have to connect the switch to the wires that go to the fuse box, ground, and relay in the engine bay.



On the back of this switch there are three wires that come off. The two black wire that's connect the top two lugs connects to the ground. The red wire that connects the middle and lower right hand lug connects to the wire coming from the fuse panel. Finally the red wire that only connects to the lower left lug connects to the wire going to the relay in the engine bay.

Here's what the connector looked like in my wiring harness. You'll see why I had to cut the white wire that goes to the engine bay since that big plastic connector couldn't make it through any one of the holes in the firewall.



The red terminal was something I just cut off and then soldered the wire coming from the add-a-circuit to it - the add-a-circuit had a crimp end that I just cut off as well. Soldering FTW.

To make the switch fit I had to ream the heck out of the space for the switch with my dremel using a grinding tip. It was late because my neighbor and I had had an hour long conversation as I was finishing up this project and I just wanted to get it done. Otherwise I might have tried to make it cleaner - but functionally it works well - the switch is nice and snug in the hole.



I think OEM switches will fit without any reaming. Get one of those if you want to have a factory like install

Here's everything put back together - I think it came out pretty clean.





Notice the negative battery terminal is still disconnected - once I reconnected it, everything looked pretty clean. I had spent some time putting wire loom on everything and zip tying so everything is secure. I used the battery ground and the positive terminal for the ground and power for the lights - you can see my wires if you're good at spotting those things. Maybe I'll put a pic with some circles on it to replace this one eventually.

Now, let there be light

Switch with lights off, key in ACC or ON positions:



Switch with lights on:



Fogs:



Low Beams (lame eBay headlights - but who's complaining for $85 a pair lol):



High Beams:



High Beams and Fogs:



Now I can't wait to get out and drive in the countryside or on some dirt roads at night.


Big thanks to @GHOST SHIP for helping me figure out major details.
Go check out @MojaveMadman and @CaliRaisedLed for these great products.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/a-better-fog-light-led-mount-apex-fabworks.440114/

 

You sir, are very detailed!!!! Great write up and thanks for the great review. Love the single cab!!!!!