Thunder's Garage Tetris: 04 Taco + 12 CTS-V + 06 GSXR

Dude thank you so much for all these tips. I really appreciate it. This is great.

 

No problem. Just make sure you have all the gaskets and o-rings for every line before you start. My condenser didn't come with any.. probably a mistake; but I had to get them from the dealer the next day.

 

Truck is almost buttoned back up.. had a hell of time figuring out why the horn I removed no longer worked. Ended up having to sand the mounting surfaces to bare metal because the culprit was a bad ground.

Then I checked my aux lights, also not working. Bumped the relay.. it started working but failed again after flipping a few times. Replaced relay. That's like the third one I've had to replace because of water failure. Good thing I had two spares. PA and turn signals worked on test.

Just need to zip tie wires and reinstall my skids. Then my truck will be whole again. Fresh oil in the engine, diffs, tcase and tranny. New TB/WP, valves back to spec, new fan bearing, clean MAF, new air filter, new valve cover gaskets... practically a new truck. Should be rolling for a while with no work needed. Just need to put gas in it to keep it going

 

Truck all back together, was able to get 37 degree temp reading tonight. I'd say the AC is working good now! I've also noticed that my engine is not as taxed with the AC on as it was before. The old compressor was really robbing a lot of power. Almost no noticeable difference in engine performance with the new one.

 

Ghetto fix of the month. Seat moves forward again when I use the lever.

 

Decided to solder the end and the slather it all with JB kwik.




Got everything put back together and teated a few time and it works. Hopefully it holds.

 

New battery hold down. I know, riveting stuff on this build thread.

 

We are on the edge of our seats























Not everything has to be SAS, LT, thousands in mods.

 

I'm cleaning my evap coils tonight and vacuuming up what I can.









Here's what I caught in the pan.



More discussion here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/vacuuming-evap-housing-to-remove-debris-possible.554506/

Hoping whatever the hell was rustling around is out of the evap casing. It's been driving me nuts for about 4 years now, if not longer.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/weird-and-extremely-annoying-rattle.342855/
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/please-someone-help-me-with-this-rattle.376774/
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/truck-smells-like-rancid-gym-sock-after-rain.387269/

 

Got around to fixing my air damper going berserk. I followed this thread and bent the contacts upward a little and greased some of the plastic gears and whatnot with white lithium grease. Broke off a bunch of tabs but still seems to be held on tightly with 2 of the 3 screws and 4 of the 6 or so tabs

Pro tip: Make sure the air is on FULL COLD and then when you put the white arm back together, follow the orientation of the arm thingy in the pic from the post below (the center pivot needs to point at 3 o clock)

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ssible-aftermarket-part.500522/#post-16582776

Thank you @jammer!

 

Installed a Filter Minder tonight, which takes the guess work out of when to replace the air filter. I usually get paranoid after wheeling on dusty roads. This will help a lot!

took a total of 10 minutes. Most of which was filing off the excess plastic from drilling the hole. I ended up putting it in this location since it was the easiest way to drill the hole and I won't have to worry about it "falling out" from being installed horizontally, not that I think it would. It seems to clear the hood just fine.

No more guessing when to change my air filter!










EDIT: tested it with a new filter at WOT in 2nd gear and it registered 8", so it does work.

 

Also replaced all of my brake bleeder caps. Literally all of my brake bleeders were missing caps, including the clutch bleeder and the BPV modulator.

 

@Knoxdavid34 here's some info on tack welding the steering column to fix the sloppiness.
Steering column "fix"
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/sloppy-steering-column-fix.502851/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/first-gen-steering-wheel-clunk-fix.106254/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/sloppy-play-in-steering-wheel-gone.370052/#post-14171357

 

Soon as the bearings are replaced ill be doing this. At the shop right now!

 

nice. Fingers crossed this will be the last time you gotta mess with it

 

It better be. The original lasted over 200k miles. These just lasted 3000. After talking to him yesterday, he also admitted he didn't replace the seal between the hub and bearing like he was supposed to. Said the old ones "looked fine." Which explains why the bearing were full of lbl mub. Add that to the fact he never properly torqued the lock ring so they had excessive play and i was lucky they lasted that long. He still thinks its my fault because I "took it mudding."

 

What a doofus

 

I will

I'll defend him a little. He has done it that way for 20+ years with no issue. But I'm sure every other customer doesn't off road there yota like me. So I can see why he thinks its my fault. But at the same time, you Justin and Carter all went though that same hole with out having bearing issues. And I bet Justin and Carter hit it way hard than me.

 

Yeah for sure. A good seal should keep mud out just as much as water, dust, and road grime.

 

Another $900 towards the CS Automotive trust fund, new fuel pump and fuel filter. Seems to have fixed my hot start long-crank situation, so that's good. Next thing will be upper ball joints.