What can go wrong with my truck - or RysiuM build

Started installing Redline hood strut kit. It is not going easy. What supposed to be 30 minutes job, this one is like a Duracell bunny - going and going.

First I tried to fit hood brackets (upper). On the picture in the instruction the hood frame is square matching the shape of Redline bracket. My hood has kind of round frame. Does not fit that nice. I positioned the bracket so the bottom surface is flush with the frame at holes and the side is just touching the side of the frame. Not perfect but should be good enough. Let's hope rivets will hold.

Then it came to riveting. I did not have riveting gun but just for six rivets to put I did not want to spend a lot of money. I bought a cheap rivet gun Topex brand (never heard of it). After putting 4 rivets the metal head bent to the point of destruction. So, screw it, cheap junk tool. I went to Castorama (European equivalent of Home Depot) and bough a mid level riveting gun MacAllister brand. It did pull one rivet, and than while trying to pull the lats rivet, the metal handle broke in half. That was unexpected from a brand name backed up by 5 years warranty.

Tomorrow another trip to store to get a better, stronger gun.

By the way, it might be and issue with two rivets supplied with Redline kit. The one, that bent Topex gun did not brake at the head. MacAllister broke it in the middle. I had to cut off this 4/3 inch of "nail" sticking out. I suspect that the last one will not brake off at the head either.

 

Just screw the supports on, you don't have to rivet them on,

 

To late for that . All rivets are already in, with one almost done (not broken of yet). Just to be sure it holds 100% I need to pull it till it brakes. The problem is the gun broke first.

Thanks for your pictures. Your hood has round frame same as mine. No issues with support brackets getting loose over time?

 

No issues at all,

 

I may be wrong but I think I read on here a few times that you must put something over fluid film as it is not supposed to be directly exposed to elements. Like I said may be wrong but I think I recall reading that in a few threads about fluid film application

 

I read a lot on manufacturers site as well as on Polish distributor site. You can't paint anything over the fluid film. Nothing will "stick to it" to create a solid barrier. While fluid film never dries it is not easy to wash out. For cleaning fluid film a pressure washer and detergent must be used. Splashing it from a puddle water will not do much harm. Actually the small layer of dust sticking to the sticky surface creates some kind of protection against the road debris. But saying all of that one must know that fluid film should be applied at least once a year as a 100% rust preventive measure.

I've seen many petrol based products used in Poland over years. Nothing worked - the rust was building up under the layer so from the outside all looked nice, but when poked, there was no metal under the paint.

Fluid film is quite clever material. It is lanolin based product containing no solvents so it never dries out. Solvent based products leave porous structure after the solvent evaporates. Fluid film does not. It's sticky but does not flow, so when it is covered by dust on the surface it becomes no sticky anymore, so it does not accumulate dust or mud. This stuff is used in heavy marine industry (big ships, barges, drydocks, offshore drill-rigs etc.) and that part sold it for me. It protects the metal the same way as Ford engine (leaking oil) is protecting the frame under it. Works the same, just does not drip oil on a driveway.

 

So, third riveting gun and the Redline Hood lift kit is installed. I'm so darn happy.

But before I show it, here is the story of the first riveting gun that cost about 3 dollars in local "Walmart type" store. I thought, for just 6 rivets to pull, I don't need a fancy tool. Man, I was so wrong.

After the first rivet the gun locked up and did not want to grab the "nail". I disassembled it, check all guts, and put together. It started grabbing again. It pulled the second rivet no problem. The third one was a bit of struggle as after each pull the gun did not want to release the nail that easy. But somehow I worked my way through third and fourth. When I started to pull the fifth rivet, the gun did not want to break the nail. It started to crumple instead. Up to the point that there was no useful "pump" movement anymore. Here is the picture of mangled 3-dollars gun.



As you can see the "pump" went into the handle and there was "no pump action" anymore.




I left the truck with the nail sticking out under the hood and drove to hardware store to buy some better riveter. In "Home Depot like" store I got 15 dollars heavy duty riveting gun MacAllister brand. When I used it to pull this stubborn rivet the nail broke in the place where the jaws grabbed it. It could be because the nail was not "notched" at the head correctly or maybe it was to much mangled by the previous gun. Anyway I took my dremel and cut of the nail flush with the rivet (the upper rivet on this picture)




Good, only one left. The last rivet started OK, but just before it supposed to break, the handle of riveter snapped. That was it. MacAllister is no more. Out of 5 years warranty it lasted just 2 minutes.



It was late and I had to goo to work so next day I drove back to store, returned broken gun and there I found a little more robust looking riveter "Rapid" brand. It supposed to be top shelf quality of hobby type and cost me 25 bucks. If this one brakes, they have a heavy duty model of it for 45 dollars.

I drove back home and put this new gun against the last rivet. I squeezed it hard with quite force and suddenly something snapped with loud "bang". I checked the gun, still in one piece, the nail snapped by the head. I don't know where Redline gets rivets for their kits, but they are for sure military grade. You can rivet tanks with it.

Anyway after that the remaining work was as easy as it is described in provided instruction. As I mentioned before the upper bracket does not follow the shape of the hood's frame, but still feels solid there. You can see it on the picture below:




There is a visible gap between the bracket and the side of the frame as the ball stud is sticking out of the bracket on the other side.




On the other hand the bottom bracket is fine. It lays flat on the inner fender mount and feels solid as well. The car's body has enough meat there to support self tapping screw provided with the kit. Just one note - the instruction says that impact driver is recommended. I can't even imagine how difficult it would be without it. I have DeWalt driver, so the job was super easy.



I was worried a little about the clearance on both sides. I have California Emission truck with charcoal evap canister under the hood just on the fender next to the brake pump. On the other side there is windshield washer piping. I'm happy to report, that neither one is an issue.



Also following the instruction regarding brackets' location I found that the hod now opens about 3/4 inch higher than it was with stock support rod. As you can see on the picture below, when the hood is supported by Redline gas springs the top of the rod is almost touching the hole where it originally hooked up.



So the bottom line, I love this kit. Pricey (I paid for stainless version) but very functional. I will keep the stock rod just in case Redline quality turns up to not be as they say however I don't believe will ever use it, but it is easier to store it under the hood instead of on some shelf in my basement.

 

Haha, I like the analogy to the 'built in' rust protection offered by that domestic manufacturer. Could be applicable to any. Especially land rovers and vw beetles.

 

Here is the next project I started. Under hood lights. There are different home made solutions and commercially available kits, but none of them fit exactly the requirements I drew:
1. No "pin-type" switch. Rather something waterproof or at least splash proof
2. No sticky tape led strips. I don't want the light to wrap eround my fan or belts because the glue heated up
3. No "direct" battery connection. I have already camper shell light connected to battery (via fuse) bu the PO and it bugs me since the day one. I need additional fuse box for all additional stuff.
4. It must not look like "aftermarket". It has to be like OEM, so even the dealer will not notice that something is off.

That is not easy in my truck. Right now the major issue is the fuse box location. I have plenty of room on pass side where ABS would be if I had it, but it is a long way from the battery and and from driver side panel, where all electrical switches should be. So I should place it on the driver side, but that part is already crowded. That charcoal canister, what a waste of space.

I have nice waterproof dual row 5050 led strip (it is normal strip but in some kind of "condom"). I need to figure out what kind of clips I can use or may need to print on my 3D printer.

For now I manufactured a custom switch which idea came from "EZ-Switch"




I wanted something like that, but a bit smaller with longer wire. I had a micro switch capable of 3A for which I designed the whole case (OpenSCAD).



Then run through slicer and I had ready for 3DPrinting




After cleanup I test fitted the micro switch in the case. Actually was not bad - it was first attempt and I did not make any mistakes in my design.




After everything fit I soldered wires for NC (normally closed) contacts




After bolting both halfs together I got a sandwich with the micro switch inside.




Then just bolting a cup which will hold the switch to gas spring rod and I got fully functional under the hood light switch.





Maybe it is not as pretty as the 15 dollars one, but for sure is smaller and gave me more satisfaction. And what is more important, it fits the Redline gas spring like a glove.

 

I held on putting lights till I figure out where and how I put the fuse box under the hood. I like the one I did in my 4Runner with Blue Sea Systems and custom 3D printed box. But 4Runner has plenty of room, where Tacoma has all it taken by charcoal canister. I need all connections done first (Master 60A Fuse and Fuse/relay box) before I get to lights.

Now I have to take care of the annoying noise from the steering rack that was confirmed during my first oil change here . The noise has been always there as long as I remember, but it started to annoy me even more after I saw a potential simple solution to it (I wish I knew that year ago while I still have access to spare parts of the shelf). After watching the video Steering Rack Guide Replacement that Timmah! put together I think I should do the same. Quite easy and straight forward. Just need a confirmation from TW community that part numbers I got from the video will fit my OEM 95.5 rack. It's about 100 dollars including shipping and no return, so I don't want to end up with some new parts not for my truck .

Local Toyota service unfortunately don't know this truck, so they offered me to rebuild the rack using OEM parts from the parts diagram, and quoted me close to $2500 for that. They did not even know, that I can fly in brand new OEM rack from USA for less than 1000 dollars, or have shipped aftermarket one for less than half of that. But my rack is in perfect condition, inner tie rods are solid, no leaks and runs smooth. Even bushings are like new. My bet is that "roller" in a rack guide developed sideways loose and that allows the rack to move up and down. Replacing it with new "bushing style" should cancel that slopenes and annoying knocking on a speed bumps and road holes. I just need a confirmation to my question posted here.

 

I agree with you on that roller to bushing swap being a very likely fix. I'd definitely try that first. I think I remember a post talking about the part numbers. I'll try and find it.
Loved your 3D printed light mount. Looks great.

 

The weather sucks today. It's raining on and off, no way I can lie down under the truck. So I did some work inside. Seat belts, which I ordered from Toyota dealer arrived yesterday, so I decided to put them on.




But before that a little background to the story. I was told that 95.5 Tacoma seat belts have explosive type belt tensioners. They are not connected to the airbag circuit but have some kind of internal design that would explode the charge and cause seat belt to pull back in case of accident. So instead of buying seat belts in USA and bringing them on a plane (airlines would not allow me to take explosive in check in bags) I ordered them locally. When they finally arrived and I opened the box (see part numbers on the picture above) I fount that it is all bullshit. They are passive type seat belts like in cars from 80-s. This is what was inside the box:



I don't complain about seat belts - this one part number comes with everything to replace the belt - only thing you need to save from the old seat belt is the floor mounting bolt and two plastic caps: one on the floor, one on the pillar mount. I just wanted to post that the seat belts are not explosive-type and they can be transported by air.



You see, it comes with retractor mounting bolt and pillar mounting bolt. So replacing either driver side or passenger side are as easy as unbolting old set from three places and putting the new one. I would say it took me less than 15 minutes to do one side. In a rain. Only easier job would be replacing windshield wipers.

As a guide you can use this video I found on youtube. Short and informative.

https://youtu.be/TqXy7lkNUj8

Here are the three bolts on my truck (no, it is not rust, it is dirt):



To access this bolt, push seat forward, remove the cap (pry it with flat head screwdriver put between the carpet an the cup starting from the center of the truck) and save the bolt. The bolt is 14mm socket. Easy to break with 12 inches long wrench. When put back torque it to 30ftlb.

The pillar bolt:



To access this bolt remove the cup (pry it with flat head screwdriver starting at the bottom). The bolt is 14mm socket. Easy to break with 12 inches long wrench. When put back torque it to 30ftlb.

Retractor mounting bolt:



To access this bolt you need to move the plastic trim away from the wall. But first remove four screws holding the door step trim and pull the trim up. Move seat forward and then work on the panel starting from the bottom. You don't need to remove the whole panel, just push it away from the side about 3-4 inches, so you have access to the bolt and enough space to slide out the retractor. The panel is held by the clips shown on the picture. In my 22 years old truck none of them broke. Finally remove the seat belt slot cover lifting it from the bottom (there a hooks at the top, so don't try to to lift it from the top). There are two claws at the bottom easy to undo as shown on the picture below:



But if you break it, no worries, the new one is included with new seat belts.

The retractor mounting bolt is 14mm socket. Easy to break with 12 inches long wrench. When put back torque it to 30ftlb.

That is it. Like I said the easiest job on the planet. Not even worth the time to drive to a dealer for it.

Now comes the hard part. At the same time I decided to replace the buckles for driver side and pass side. These are part numbers for split bench front seat (grey).



Right side is just a buckle. It bolts straight to the right seat. But first you need to remove a plastic cover. It is pushed in at the front and there is a phillips screw at the back side. That SOB is positioned so even with the driver side seat pushed all the way forward and pass seat all the way to the back I could not see it. I had to take a picture with a phone just to see if it is a hex bolt or phillips screw.



With a combination of extension I was able to remove this screw. If you are doing the driver side too, just remove the driver side seat all together. It will be easier, and the driver side split bench has to be removed anyway. So under that cover there is a nut (I forgot is it was 14mm or 16mm wrench) holding the buckle. Don't damage the nut, it does not come with a buckle. I did not have exac spec for the torque, but the generic instruction that came with the buckle said 30ftlb unless says otherwise, so I torqued it to 30ftlb.



Now the driver side, let's fun begin. If you have split bench you are screwed like me. Whoever designed the split bench seat , he started from the buckle and then build the seat around it. What a SOB.

I was so frustrated with it that I stopped taking pictures. So let me describe it from the memory.

First remove the seat. This is easy part. First (IMPORTANT !!!) move seat forward and locate the seat belt indication wire (behind the seat close to the inner rail). In my truck the connector was tucked under the carpet wrapped in some plastic tube. Pull the connector out, undo the wrapping and disconnect the wire.

Two bolts mounting seat rails to the floor on the back (you need to pry up plastic cups to expose bolts), and two bolts on the front (exposed). They are 16mm socket easy to break with 12inch wrench. Again, no spec on torque so when putting it back I torqued these bolts to 30ftlb.

Now you can remove the seat. That sucker is actually not that heavy, but quite bulky. IMPORTANT: do not slide the seat on each rail while the seat is out. It will be a bitch to align rails back the way they should be.

I put the seat on my bench and started to figure out how to get into the buckle bolt which is inside the bench between the left seat and center seat (all one piece). The other problem is getting out the wire for seat belt indicator. The wire is also tucked inside the seat between seat frame parts. So I ended up doing the following:

Push the plastic pieces apart to make a gap wide enough to slide a ratcheting closed wrench (14mm) on the bolt (there is about 3/4 inch wiggly room. The bolt was easy to break with 20mm long wrench. Then work on the ratchet to unscrew the bolt (not much room there). Then wiggle out the buckle set - there are two buckles together: one for center seat belt the other for driver seat belt connected with the same bolt. But don't pull it out yet, there is a wire connected.

The wire has a white clip that holds it to the seat frame. Easy to push back. Then I found there is not enough space to pull the plug through the frame pieces. I ended up unbolting the right rail from the frame (three 12mm socket bolts). Actually the rail is holding the hinge for the back and some springs so I removed two bolts and loosen up the third one. I did not want the seat to explode in my shop. Having enough room I was able to push the clip and the plug between now spaced frame pieces.

Once the old buckle set it is out, the fun starts with putting the new one. I wiggled in the new buckle set (the bolt is included) and by feel started the thread. Then finished it with 14mm eye ratchet. I couldn't put a torque wrench in the so I went by the feel. 30ftlb but feel.

Then I fished the wire through the same way as the old one was, push a clip to the frame and then put back rail bolts I removed. No specs for the torque so I did it by the feel with 200mm long wrench.

The rest is easy: put the seat back in the car and bolt it in its place. Connect the seat belt indication wire, wrap it up like it was before and tuck the plug under the carpet. Oh, and put the back covers on the rail mounting bolts. The driver split bench seat belt buckle took me about two hours including trial and error figuring out how to do it. Now I could do it probably in 30-45 minutes.

So now my truck has all new seat belts (except the center one I never used) running smooth and clicking like in a new car. Love it. The bad news is that my Taco depreciated by 77 cents in the process. That much change I found inside the driver seat under the plastic covers.

 

This is actuly amazing, how much resistance old seat belts had. I used to have to pull quite a lot to buckle up. Now the seat belt is flying on its own. I will have to get used to. And of course retracting all the way back without any help. I think it was very well spent money. I will see if there is any way to clean the old seat belts. It might be a problem as there is a lot of dirt no just on the belt itself but also inside the retractor mechanism. There are plastic guides inside the retractor and they might be worn out too creating significant drag on the belt.

 

Anybody got a link to this 'fluid film'?

 

http://www.fluid-film.com/international-sales/

Or USA

http://www.fluid-film.com/retail-locations/

 

Thanks. did some quck googling and saw some videos if the proper gun and attachments, looks like another product that requires multiple applications through the life of the truck. Not so bad since it goes on easy, doesn't drip and also lubricates rubber parts. Def down when the time comes.

 

Yesterday I fueled up my truck first time in last two months. 12.25 gallons. You can tell this truck is used for very short distances. Gas mileage confirms that dropping to 15.8mpg (I used to get more than 19mpg on a long streatch). At that rate it will be few years before my next oil change .

I used my 4Runner for longer trips (like visiting my parents that lives 12 miles away) so 4Runner gets around 18.8mpg. Fueled it up also after 2 months with 16 gallons of common 95 oct fuel (the lowest octane fuel available here that is equivalent of 91 US oct).




Let's get back to rack guide. Nice weather, drove to my parents house and worked on my Tacoma. Actually before that I had to fix my parents car, as driving out of the garage my father drove his car over a wooden construction he did not see ripping out the bumper cover and breaking some clips on the way.

So one hour later I drove my truck into garage, chocked rear wheels, removed the steering rack skid plate, lift the front putting a 2ton jack under the front cross beam (where the steering rack is mounted to) and finally put my 6ton (actually 3ton each) jack stands on each side under the frame just behind the front wheels.

I'm set. Te work is straight forward, I did not take any pictures as Tim's video is way better than any pictures I could take. First I tried to measure the resistance on the steering wheel with wheels attached. There is no way I can take any measurements as they varied each time by 300%. I decided to screw all physics and calculations I made and go by the feel. If it worked for Tim, it will work for me.

The first and only difficulty I had was removing 54mm flat nut. I used WD-40 on it but still did not want to budge. I molested it with a pipe wrench but I did not care as I had brand new nut in the box. Finally the nut gave up the fight with a pipe wrench with handle extended by other wrench to about 2ft. The rest was as easy as it was shown on Tim's video.

The 54mm nut had a residue of some kind of glue that Toyota used it at factory (I guess), not a blue loctite, but some kind of white glue. Other thing is that the sway bar is a little in the way especially when applying torque wrench. But I managed to actually torque it exactly as specified.

I followed Tim's video, cleaning the rack from old grease, putting new lithium grease on the rack and guide and gluing the spring with a tap of grease, exactly like on the video. The only difference was in my 19 deg. calculation. I marked two corners of the hex hole in the guide cup, that is 60 deg exactly. Divided by 3 is 20 deg. Accurate enough.

Additional comment to the video, about holding the cap with wrench while tightening the nut. The nut wants to take the cap with it. That's the fact. No "maybe". I did not have a helper (my parents are way over 80 not fit to go under the truck), so I grew extra pair of hands (I guess) and tighten the nut while holding the cap at the same time. And of course, I made the same markings to watch if anything moves later.

So here is a proof of the work, pictures taken after I drove back home (16 miles) and nothing moved.



On the picture below you can see my 60 deg markings on the cap. You can also see how close and in the way the sway bar is.



No, my rack does not leak. I think this is overspray from fluid film or some other crap.

So Tim did not follow on his video if they ever changed the cap position or they left it at 19 deg back from 18 ftlb torque. I felt the steering wheel with still original guide in place, then without a guide (there was a significant difference) and then with the new guide torqued and backed off. It feels the same as before the change. So I guess it is OK. The wheel returns to the center after the turn and there is no sloppy feeling in the steering.

I tested the truck driving on some dirt road (full of pot holes) around my parents house and the annoying knocking is gone. There are noises from skid plates, rear leaf springs, bed moving, some panels rattling but no more steering knocks. I am happy as a clam.

Now here is a little video I put together to show where the knocking sound comes from. This is a design flaw in the guide, I don't know if the slope was from the day one or was developed after few years of driving.



If you don't want to watch this boring video I just say the knocking is from roller free to move side to side ( or up and down when installed on the rack).

And finally I did check my front suspension while I had front wheels up. I did the "crowbar under the wheel" test to check my lower ball joint. Doesn't matter how much force I was using the ball did not want to move even a bit in the socket. All bushings (including steering wheel bushing) are like now no cracks, no slope, no free movement. I guess my truck was made as a "demo truck" because these parts are amazing.

Anyway, I still have a set of OEM ball joints for my Tacoma on the shelf.

BIG Thanks to @Timmah! for putting together such excellent video and for being a source of knowledge and experience.

 

A couple week ago I emptied my bed removing all "carpet stuff" after finding some serious leaks in camper shell. Actually the wood got hammered with dry rot so I will need to rebuild it in some parts. During the rain I noticed the water flowing in front right corner and left rear corner. After detail inspection I noticed the seal between camper and the bed was damaged in these places.

So today I pulled the camper shell out. This was the first time ever I did that. With my son's help we lifted the shell and moved it out of the bed. It was not that heavy as I was thinking. Somewhere between 100 and 150 pounds. Anyway this is the first time ever I've seen my truck without camper. I took the opportunity to replace burned high stop bulbs with LEDs (the last bulbs that were not LED) and clean the rear window.

As for the leak actually the camper was leaking from all corners. The old seal was deteriorated completely. In local hardware store I found a 50mmx3mm drywall deafening tape for cheep. I could not find any wide neoprene seals so I use that. I also noticed that the front wall of my bed is about 1/16 inch lower than the side walls. That could contribute to the leak. I used double layer on the front wall and single layer on the side walls. I have also some leaks from the rear window so I will need to use some silicone to fix that. Then the future rains will show if the camper is sealed or not.

 

So far so good. The new seal does not leak. Maybe because it has not been raining . But I fixed side windows today. I guess from the age the window seal got shorter so I have re-seated it. Also the glass of non-sliding portion of the right window magically moved about 1/4 inch backwards exposing a wide gap at the front seal. Very carefully with help of silicone lubricant I was able to not break the glass and move it back to place. It it is not raining tomorrow I will take care of the tailgate glass and leaking frame.

Funny thing, after 22 years the truck is still sealed at all windows including 4-part rear sliding glass, but non-Toyota camper shell is showing it's age on every part (including peeling off the clear coat).

 

Hey there, I've enjoy reading your post, maybe someone else wrote something about what I am going to ask but I haven't found it, so here it goes, I have a 2017 Taco TRD PRO and I am planning to move back to Poland after living here in Florida some time, my questions, concerns :
1.- I guess my warranty will not be recognize on a Toyota dealer in Poland ....?
2.- I am concern about maintenance and spare parts over there for my 2017 Taco.
3.- How much are you paying for insurance on your 4runner ? will they provide original parts if need ?
4.- What about taxes related to the truck import from US, I've read that if you own the car for at least 6 month you don't have to pay, but I'm not sure about that, can you give me some light on this ?
5.- What about changes required by government in order to make the truck legal in Poland, where they expensive ? was it difficult to get the parts ? I've read its mostly related to lights.....

Hope you can give me some information on this that can help me decided if I sell the truck here or I take it with me.

Thanks for any help