My Big Can of Worms Build

which Thule rook rack footers are those, do you know?

 

Give me some pictures to look at and I'll let you know. I know nothing about this kind of stuff

 

well, actually, i'm trying to see how they're attached in to your camper top... and how much weight you trust your camper top to hold

 

I bought it this way and don't use it for what it's meant for I can't really say, but the previous owner did have at least two decent size kayaks up there.

 

So this happened:



Blown headgasket $180. Going to build it from the block up.

Man I have a lot to learn. Luckily there's these videos:



Not a Tacoma, but principles still apply:



En Español!



Got the camshafts pulled off one side. Need a set of 1/4" sockets. Hopefully I'll be done the teardown by the end of memorial day!

 

I have an engine I am going to rebuild as well. may have some work done to it in the process. My truck is running good, but it has some oil leaks I need to track down.

 

Just finished a month and a half of working six day weeks w/ stuff to do on my days off. Now I'm hopefully gonna get some progress with building an engine and other basic stuff. Here's the link to my engine build:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/5vz-rebuild-first-timer-noobtastic-thread.492672/

And here's what I did yesterday and today.

Finally washed it after 2 months and you can see the difference all the parts I have in the back are making on the rake:



Started painting little stuff starting with the body that's usually covered up by bumpers on the rear



Got tired of rust on the frame horns and discolored stuff up front so I scuffed it up with a green scotch brite pad, wiped it down with rubbing alcohol and got down to business. The red is rust killer primer:




Painted a slider and the frame / undercarriage between the frame and pinch weld on one side before it got dark:




The white things on the ground are Marlboro signs made of plastic that looks like cardboard that my roommate had left over from his work - it's awesome for working under the truck because you can slide around super easily. You can also see where I de-badged the doors. The glue was a b**** to get off - luckily I'll be repainting this thing. I didn't really need to mask it off since I'm going to be repainting it, but less work when the time comes for sanding.

I've been using this paint and I like it. It reminds me of Rusto bed liner, but with smaller flakes of whatever. For $5.27 a can it's a better deal than bed liner by $3 for an equal size can at Home Depot. I'm comfortable spraying stuff direct with it except for the rustiest parts that I hit with the rusty metal primer first.

 

Here's the laugh of the day - sad laugh, but a laugh none the less:

The previous owner never realized the bushing was missing on the clutch pedal where the torsion spring contacts the pedal and dug it into the pedal a good quarter inch plus. You can see where the spring should have rested in the bushing before the channel gets narrower.



Looks like I have to find someone who can weld in the spot that the spring dug into the pedal.

Here's what I'm going to make to keep this from happening again. A new brass bushing:



It'll go in like this with some persuasion from my dremel:



Here's the write up for the brass bushing:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/clutch-pedal-squeak-new-bushing-design.76599/

And the writeup I used for removing the clutch pedal:

http://www.lieblweb.com/clutchbushing.html

Seriously how did the previous owner not know

Oh well, better learning experience for me lol.

Here's the diagram that I couldn't find in my digital FSM, but appeared in a thread on this:

 

So work got busy - I couldn't bring the pedal to get welded until the end of the day today. It either needed to get welded and completely fixed tonight or it had to go back in the truck again to get the truck off the street tomorrow morning for street sweeping. Guess what, the guy I dropped it off with didn't have time and I was forced to put it back in

I tried to get AAA to tow it next door to a parking lot, but apparently they couldn't do it since my emergency wasn't an emergency... The tow truck driver told me he'd move it to the parking lot for $20 if I didn't have him call his boss to ask if he would be allowed to do it under AAA. He was a little salty when I told him to call his boss and ask if he could do it - there's no way I was going to pay $20 for him to tow it a block and a half.

So that was it, put the pedal back together. Getting some practice at taking it out and putting it in lol. Haven't taken any pictures in awhile so I thought I'd take a couple.




Tomorrow I'm taking the lt kit off of my other truck - funds for the engine for the Bean

 

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When ChadsPride scopes your thread:

 

Super sweet build!!!! ​

 

He does the samething to mine haha. You're screw now, welcome to the club! haha

 

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Couple updates:

First, I took the clutch pedal back out. The guy down the street welded metal back in and ground it down for me. I made a bronze bushing for it. The pushrod needed some adjustment after, but I got it roughed in well enough to drive - I'll have to dial it in a little more with the FSM pages on this procedure I found. Here's some highlights.

Pedal looked good:



Made the bronze bushing with a dremel with a cutting disk, here were my first marks:



It took a minute to figure out how to get the torsion spring back on the pedal:



Used the hose clamp in the foreground of the picture to compress the spring - the back one wasn't really doing anything. Then I used my trusty plastic fastener tool to push it easily back into place:

$10 Lisle 35260 Plastic Fastener Remover

https://www.amazon.com/Lisle-35260-...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=QBEWKES8ZM18QXJHBESQ

The bushing in its new home:



Here's the more complete writeup:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/successful-clutch-pedal-adjustment-bronze-bushing-mod.499079/

 

Happy 4th! I spent a good 4-5 hours today removing all the rats nest of aftermarket wiring from the engine compartment and the cab today. Still have some left, but it consists of (maybe) a first radio swap of 2 and a Viper car alarm that hasn't been in use since the original owner had it 10 years ago. Here's some highlights:

Rock lights and a bunch of jury rigged lights and rear e-locker swap wiring were making a mess of the engine bay:



Engine compartment after:



The ol' rats nest in the driver's footwell from guys just hacking together stuff in there:



And after:



I'm still wondering if that red tape is factory or the first stereo system that was put in of 2?

The leftovers:



Looks like it'll be awhile before I am in need of a spare length of wire lol.

This wire made my job have a loose end to clean up - I'm not sure if it was used to tap power from the headlights with the green wire spliced into it - it had a 15 amp in-line fuse. That's what made me think that might be how it got there:



The alarm system:



And a few things I'm not sure what they are yet:

This was in the stereo bay - I think it is all stereo related:




The clock connector maybe?

 

I have also recently performed surgery to remove a non-functional alarm system installed by the previous owner. A hidden fuel pump or battery cutoff switch is cheap, simple and effective.

 

Got the alarm removed today. Never seen one before so these two videos gave me the info I needed to go on, although it should have been simple anyway.





The only wire cut was the starter wire so I soldered a piece in.



Stupidly I forgot to put on the small size of shrink tube I was going to use and the larger size I had on there was too big. Cut the wire and added another solder.



The t-splicers left some cuts in the insulation on the wires they were on. I just put some two part epoxy on them to seal in the wire.

On a bummer note, the clutch pedal started to squeak. At least it works as it should, but looks like it will be coming out again (hopefully third time will be the charm).

 

Finished putting the wiring harness that the alarm had intruded on back to stock:

 

Painted the other slider today. Rolled over onto a red ant and that guy bit my knee - been stinging for 2 hours still. Finally thought I'd do something about it and put some hot water on it - hopefully it works like it does with sting ray stings



Also probably the last place I haven't searched in the truck - the passenger side door compartment - and I hit the mother load.



Still working out a timeframe for things to come:

New engine build

Replace trans

Replace rear driveshaft