Badass Brunette Tacoma - Build & Adventures

He's officially back together and meaner than ever! Even with the shock relocation brackets, as it sits, there is barely any available up travel because those 14s are just SO massive. So, once the new towers are fabricated we're cutting up through the bed.

I'll be doing a lengthy post soon with all of the details behind what was done, cost of materials, and a whole lot of photos of the process.

 

If you want a low profile bed cage, take a look at my build (since you are willing to cut the bed). It has worked well for me. I can generate some fabrication drawings for you and Noah. I assume your shock angle is close to my 16's.

 

Thanks for the lead! I don't doubt that Noah will fabricate bed hoops that won't interfere with the bed rack in any way. That bed rack is a unicorn. I won't be switching it out anytime soon!

 

Very recently, out of nowhere, my A/C suddenly stopped blowing cold air, just as the weather is warming up. Thinking it just needed a simple recharge, I had the tech take a glance at it while at my alignment appointment. Turns out that I had a hole in the A/C condenser (caused by my winch box). They quoted me a "worst case scenario" where they would replace the entire A/C at roughly $2,900!! I knew there was no way in hell I would need to pay that, nor was my entire A/C broken. I threw out an S.O.S. on the local Utah offroad Facebook group in search of a condenser. $85 later, I had myself a brand new one. (I don't know what brand it is, but it's definitely not a stock Toyota one.)

Since there seems to be fairly limited information on swapping out A/C condensers, I thought I'd write up a quick walk-through. It took me between 1 - 2 hours, but I was taking photos and undoing bolts that were completely irrelevant. So if you know exactly what to do, you can crack this out in an hour, no problem.

Tools you need:

• 10 mm socket
• 12 mm socket
• 10 mm wrench
• 12 mm wrench
• Socket extension
• Flat head screwdriver for the front grill black pins.

Alright, lets get started! Side note: my setup will have additional pieces like the ram air intake and winch cables so pay no attention to those. Also, depending on the vehicle year, a few bolts and things may be in slightly different places. The A/C condenser removes out towards the front of the truck, so you need to remove anything that would get in the way of sliding that puppy out.

Start with removing the front grill. Mine is attached with two primary bolts to the truck body and a bolt / pin combo next to each headlight (these are what I used the flat-head screwdriver for). Due to my raptor lights, I couldn't fully remove the front grill, but anyone else should be able to remove it completely.



Next you want to remove the hood latch mechanism guard (2 bolts), the latch mechanism itself (3 bolts), and the horn (two bolts).







With the horn, I unplugged the right one completely (because of those winch cables), and un-clipped the wiring piece that connects to the center support beam (next photo). Maybe it's not entirely necessary, but the bottom line is that you want everything out of the way. So if that means unplugging a few things then that's whatcha gotta do.





Now address that center support piece. I removed the top bolt and easily bent the whole tower out of the way but you could easily remove the bottom bolt.



Now I would loosen and remove the A/C lines (pipes) - 1 bolt per side - driver side is at the top corner, passenger side is at the bottom corner. Be gentle with these, guys! You may need to gently wiggle the pipe free.

Driver side:


Passenger (reach way down!!):



Now you can remove the two bolts holding the A/C condenser in place. However, you won't be able to remove the unit just yet.



Now you need to find and remove the four bolts holding the radiator. The reason being is that the condenser is sandwiched perfectly in it's space and in order to pull the unit forward to pull completely out, you need some additional space behind it.

To loosen the radiator there are two bolts on top, these are very easy to find, and two on the bottom corners, accessible through the wheel-well.

Top bolts- (Note the bolt sleeves with tiny hooks)
Driver side:


Passenger side:


Bottom bolts-
Driver side:


Passenger side:



Once the radiator is loose, this should give you ample room to work the A/C condenser out. Keep an eye on any snag points. If it isn't budging, chances could be that you missed a bolt somewhere. It shouldn't give much of a fight to come out.


Out with the old, in with the new!



The culprit was specifically that left one. Completely punctured through.




Slide that new condenser in the same way you pulled the old one out. Feed the bottom back behind the cross member piece and get those center support clips in the right place. I realized that the unit doesn't necessarily seat down fully in the slot itself - it sort of rests at the edge of the slot (if that makes sense). Once you screw the two condenser bolts back on, you'll see what I mean.

From this point, just work your way back, reattaching in the order you took off.

• Four radiator bolts
• Two A/C condenser bolts
• Reattach the A/C lines (heads-up, there may be protective caps on your new condenser right where these lines are supposed to go. You're supposed to remove them, not fight to get it to fit for nearly ten minutes!)
• Reattach that dinky center support piece, horns, then latch system.
• Reattach the grill
• Close the hood to check you got it right.
• Crack yourself a cold beer.

Last, but not least, time for a system recharge. Unfortunately I cannot give any specifics on this since it's one of those very few maintenance items that I leave to someone else. Personally, I don't want to under or over charge the system, so I let the pros take care of it.

Hopefully this is helpful for someone some day.

 

Did you do anything to prevent it from happening again, or just crossing your fingers?

 

Yeah I bent the winch box mounting tabs flat, relocated the best I could and then secured it better.

 

Roger. Thx. I’m wondering if I will need to do something.

 

Love the rig!

 

Thank you!

 

@cwhet10,

Just wanted to give you kudos for recommending Midnight 4x4. They did a complete build on my truck and did a fantastic job.



And with the SCS wheels.

 

WOW!! Your truck looks absolutely incredible!!

 

I haven't posted in a while! Two jobs have kept me very busy all summer and I honestly haven't been camping at all. I've really been lying low the past few months. There aren't any mods worth mentioning lately. I found a serious problem (and the source of a horrendous squeak) with the heim joint on my front Kings that I'll share at some point.

But I had the opportunity to do a photo shoot.

 

Truck looks great, haven't checked your build in a while. Looks like it's ready for some more adventures. Bummer about the AC glad you sorted it quickly though.

 

So Cristin...I heard Ronan got a nifty new feature added. Do you have something you'd like to share with the class?

 

^ If this is true, please do.

 

Thank you! Yeah the AC gremlin was annoying as can be. Hopefully it doesn't happen again!

 

Keeping such delightful tabs on me!

Well, If anyone has been following my IG story, they would have seen the newest feature is a little delightful thing called Remote Start.

Less than 3 days on the truck and it's already in my top 3 favorite upgrades.

 

I saw it on your IG story