Run to the Hills! - Jason's Glacial Pace Colorado GTFO Build

This is how bad I am. I get tagged in a post and finally find your build thread. NICE!

 

How'd that camping trip go? More so, how did the rig do?!

Sorry for the late response bud! It's been crazy down here with moving and all. Finally getting into the new place tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll be by your place in the near future to shoot the shit.

I can't say I've been on Leavenworth Creek Road specifically, but I've been up Guanella Pass before. You were in a great place to catch the Colorado golden hour!

 

There's something right about a first gen on 35s. The proportions are just so sexy looking.

108th and Simms right here. Howdy neighbor!

 

This makes me sad I didn't get a first gen. That is what originally got me excited about Tacomas and when I couldn't find one in good condition with low miles I ended up with a second gen. Not that I dislike the second gen, I just really like the first gen. Truck looks awesome.

 

Oh man, it was glorious up there. Perfect weather, good food and good people. It was a great shakedown run for the truck, too. I learned a lot, and I'll have plenty to do this winter to make sure she's bomber for the spring!

If you're in the neighborhood, definitely stop by and say hey. I've only met @BDN so far from the Colorado contingent, but y'all seem like good people! Besides, I wanna see Putt-Putt in person. Such a nice ride!

Hey! You're not kidding! Sounds like you're in the northwest corner of the neighborhood, and I'm in the southwest! I'll keep an eye out for that 2nd Gen of yours!

Thanks, man! My buddy has an '11, and it's a great truck, but I love my Gen 1. They're quirky, but I feel like they are a perfect mix between the old pickups and the new generations. The fact that I can still wrench on most of the truck is a big part of what sold me.

By the way, I miss the hell out of SLC. Especially this time of year.

 

60,000 mile Service

Cross-posted from the 1st Gen thread. Looking for input from people smarter than myself!

Looking for some additional info regarding the 60,000 mile regular maintenance interval for my 2002 3.4L V6 4x4 5MT extended cab.

Any thoughts?

- For the coolant, I'm planning on going OEM.
- I'm planning on using the OEM oil filter, and synthetic 5W-30 oil. Also going to be installing a Fumoto valve and lock.
- Diff oil has been replaced recently after regearing. Using Lucas 85W-140, per ECGS recommendation.
- New tires were installed recently enough to start rotation at next oil change.
- Currently running a K&N CAI until it gets replaced with a stock air box and snorkel.
- How does one know if one is running a non-platinum spark plug? I'm planning on replacing with OEM if they need to be changed.
- Can I run an NLGI-2 grease such as

$31 Lucas Oil 14.5 Ounce 10301 Heavy Duty Grease, 14.5 oz,Green

Lucas X-Tra Heavy Duty grease for all of my chassis zerks?
- What are your recommendations for transmission and transfer case oil(s)?
- What are your recommendations for belts? OEM? I'm using this as somewhat of a baseline service since this is the first major service since I bought the truck and I have no idea if the PO took care of anything more than oil changes.
- When the owners manual references the 'propeller shaft bolt', are these the bolts connecting the driveshafts to the pinion flanges, or are they specifying the pinion but itself?

Thanks in advance, you guys!

 

You're doing more than I did.

 

It's the OCD, Brett! I can't help it!

 

I use Zerex Asian coolant.
Bando serpentine belts.
NLGI 2 grease is good all the way around.

Yes propeller bolts are drive shaft bolts at axle and xfer case.

 

Thanks, Nick! That's great info.

I'm actually really looking forward to doing all of this. It'll be the foundation for the rest of the life of the truck, and I dig that I'm going to be doing as much of this as possible on my own.

 

This thing only has 60K on it?

You don't need to work on it, you only need to drive it.

Hit 267K on mine today.

 

Haha! It's true. I got really lucky and found it with 55k. No leaks, no rust, and she runs great!

 

60,000 mile Service, Front Diff Oil Replacement, and LBJ Torque Check

Nothing too crazy today, but any progress is still good progress, right?

The focus for the truck right now is still to finish up the eternal tubbing job. But because that entails meshing my schedule with my buddy's who isn't a bachelor like myself, I'm still chewing through other projects while we chip away at that.

One of the big ones is my 60,000 mile service. Because I bought this thing when it had 55,000 on it, this is the first major service interval for me, and it happens to coincide with stuff like new tires, new gears, etc., so it makes future maintenance really convenient as far as timing goes.

Last night was focused on pulling the temporarily mounted skids to gain access to all of the various drain and fill plugs. Pretty straightforward stuff. Once the skids were out of the way, I pulled the front diff fill plug and then started to pull the drain plug. When I did, I damn near stripped the Allen key on the plug when I got sloppy with the ratchet. Thankfully, I felt it going, and I repositioned and things were good. I believe I'll be buying a new drain plug to have on hand for the next oil change...

Anyway, the gear oil looked exactly as expected; grayish, not black or gold, and with a fair amount of very fine metal content. The following pics are terrible, but that just means I need to save for a decent DSLR



The drain plug had about as much metal filing build up as the rear did after its break in. Again, no big metal fragments, just fine particles. Here are a couple more mediocre shots of the drain plug right out of the diff, and after blotting away some of the oil to reveal the particle build up.





This is what the plug looks like when it's clean.




After cleaning up the drain plug, I very carefully reinstalled it and torqued it to 48 ft-lb, using an H10 socket (10mm Allen). Then it was time to hook up the fluid pump to a fresh bottle of Lucas 85W-140 and start pumping. Just like last time, it took just under a quart before dripping out of the filler hole. I'll top it off again after a few days. I torqued the filler plug to 29 ft-lb, again using the H10 socket, wiped off the diff, and moved on to the LBJ bolts.

 

60,000 mile Service, Front Diff Oil Replacement, and LBJ Torque Check

Next up was a check of the lower ball joint bolts which mate the LBJ assembly to the spindle from the bottom. I put those words in italics because on the 1st Gens, if you lose those bolts for any reason, you and your beautiful truck are going to have a very bad day.

With that in mind, I decided that along with stuff like rotating the tires, I'm going to verify torque on those bolts every time I change the oil (5000 miles).

I need to dig around my FSM a bit to find the actual replacement interval for the LBJs themselves, but I'm fairly certain that the OEM joints come with new mounting bolts. And I will most definitely be going OEM when the time comes.

So, long story short, I broke out my torque wrench, a 3" extension, and a 14mm socket and verified that they are torqued at least to 59 ft-lb. I say at least because I got a little lazy and didn't back them out first. I do however know the guy who torqued the last time (me), and I know that he did them per the FSM. Today, I'll go back and apply a little bit of torque seal so that I can easily check the bolts visually.

Anyway, it was an easy ten minute job to check a critical torque on these trucks. Totally worth it.

 

I dig it! Cool build thread.

 

Hello build thread, my old friend. It's been awhile.

Lots of stuff has happened since I last posted up in here, most of which is what I like to call 'life shit'. That basically covers all of the mundane stuff that can easily dominate one's life if one allows it. Basically, all of the things that I try to escape with this truck, if you will.

Anyway, I did get some windshield time in what I have now christened "The Yeti". (I know it's not terribly original, but it damn sure fits, so I'm rolling with it!). Over the week of Thanksgiving, I drove from Colorado out to my hometown of St. George, Utah. On the way out, I camped two nights, and on the way back, one. It was a blast, and the truck and my gear performed beautifully. I did a short trip report in the EAF thread here.

I'm actually kind of proud that even though the truck is far from complete, I still got out and used it for what it's intended for.

 

So today I wanted to get my UCAs lubed up as part of an effort to chase down some squeaks. Turns out that that is not a terribly hard job, but it's definitely messy. But the real treat was what I discovered while I was getting set up.

As I was breaking loose the lugs on the driver side, I noticed a film of oily junk on the inside of the fender well. My first thought was that the CV boot had split and spewed grease everywhere, but upon further inspection, it looked more like a fluid. It was only present from the coil bucket aft, and it was present above the frame on the aft side of the bucket itself. Turns out that the two breathers for (I believe) the front diff and the transmission are located right there, and the aft breather was definitely wet. So my best guess is that the breather spewed fluid which then coated everything behind it and left a small pool on the transmission skid.

Here are some terrible pics, since it was after dark. I'll try to shoot a few tomorrow and replace these.





Anyway, I'm gonna hit up the big brains in the 1st Gen thread to see what they think. I'm not sure if it's really the breather freaking out, and if it even is, why it's doing that.

 

Those lines are off the front diff. You probably overfilled it and it burped out. Clean up the mess, check that there is still fluid in the diff and don't worry about it too much.

 

Thanks, Tim!

I'm almost positive I over filled it, and then proceeded to do a bunch of interstate driving, as well as some high speed stuff in 4H.

I'm gonna do exactly like you said. Gotta pull my skids to clean up the damn mess, so I'll verify the fill and clean everything up and keep an eye on things.

 

Saw you posting up in Brett's thread. If your interested in finding out more about LT. You could swing by my work today. I'm just hanging out today. I'm not for from ya. That's if your available. I can also go over some rear set ups with you. Pm me if you want to and I'll give you the address.