What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

Good to see you came out of it with little damage. If that happens again (wheels turned, truck going straight) take your foot off the brake. If that doesn't get your front wheeles tracking, and if you are in 4-wheele-drive, give it a little gas.

 

Mounted my scangauge.

 

Whoa! That's kind crazy. Glad that thing is still in use. It's not the lightest rack but it was functional. I liked it. Mount that sucker up and lets see some pics!

 

October 26, 2018.

"Let's go somewhere." said @mrs.turbodb after I'd been home just a short time from my previous trip. That was of course fine with me, and so we set about finding a place to go. It was going to be cold and rainy on the Washington coast, so we set out looking for somewhere warm...

...As we started into Succor Creek Canyon, we were both looking forward to the drive - this area was so beautiful the last time we were here - the hills covered in May's spring green grass, blowing in the wind. The hillsides were golden this trip, but striking nonetheless.

Read and enjoy the photos in Winter Escape - Hot Springs and the Alvord Playa (Part 1).

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Winter Escape - Hot Springs and the Alvord Playa (Part 1)





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You can actually just weld in the stock mounts a lot better, and they will hold the skid just fine. The problem is that from the factory those mounts are just tacked in two places below the LCA.

Did this to my truck and to Mike's @Digiratus truck, and both have held up just fine through many scrapes.

Description and pictures of the end result: Fixing the IFS skid mounts

@xtremewlr

 

No engine was off.

 

Your tires should clear with the truck sitting on the bumps. Lift height doesn't clear tires if you flex your suspension.

It should be pretty easy to drill and tap a zerk into them. I'll likely do it if I find them squeaking.

I see Subarus more than any other vehicle in the ditch for likely that reason. With snow tires and giving it gas it's like they're on rails but if you brake or let off the gas with an MT they just go straight. Took me a bit to realize that since I was mostly used to driving the Tacoma in 2wd and just letting off the gas to get the back end in line. That didn't work with the wrx I had.

 

Damn, looks great. Clean truck.

 

Method 305s and 285/75 r16 BF Goodrich KM3s going on this weekend!

 

Are those after aftermarket headlight housings? Where did you get them they are nice and clean i am needing to replace mine.

 

That looks good.

 

Did you buy that piece or fab it up yourself? I think I like that spot better than any other place I’ve seen and I’ve yet to mount mine or even set it up lol

 

These are actually from protuninglab.com. Initially I tried the HID kit they had. HID is not meant for these housings as it just scattered the beam. I kept the housing because the originals were yellowed and just added halogens.

They lasted two years. Up close they are about ready to expire/replace. And one indicator housing did leak. I'm assuming the Amazon headlights that are similar to this are all the same.

 

I have the ultimate headlight upgrade and I’ve noticed mine is around 12.5 with the headlights on...usually it’s 13-14 under normal conditions, hits 12 only every once in a while when the headlights aren’t on.

 

Little bit more progress on the 4x convert tonight. The blue gasket maker has been bugging me. I've never seen blue gasket seal that is for diffs or for contact with gear oil. So I decided to crack her open. Good thing I did. I'm pretty sure, even if the blue RTV was ok for gear oil, this thing would have been a leaker. Almost no RTV on the mating surface. It appears it all got squished out. Took a while to clean everything up. But we used gear oil compatible gasket maker. Put everything back where it goes, and just bearly snugged the bolts. I'll let the gasket maker set up over night and torque the bolts tomorrow.

 

Also did a little personalization to the Hellas.

Have never been a fan of the covers... Like this.

So I painted them matte black and added some (grey) stickers I found on eBay for a more subdued look.

 

Going to Arb tomorrow!!! The shocks I bought last year had epoxy all over the stem threads (I dont think they were cut deep enough. Cause the 3/4 nut wouldnt budge with a 1/2 ratchet before the top plate They did exchanged them as manufactured defect after alot of hassel. Now my used 881 springs were within 1/16 of free length spec before mounting. These I pulled out of the box 20 minutes ago and my eyeball caught this.

Maybe this is why some people get a horrible taco lean. Poor manufacturing quality control, I should have just bought kings.

Pulled tape from the same spot to the same spot. A whole quarter inch difference.

 

The taller spring goes on the driver side... To compensate for the lean.

A lot of springs for our trucks come that way. Here's a set of OEM replacement springs I had on my truck for a while.

The taller spring was labled to go on the driver side.

 

Are king springs that way?

 

I fab'd it up from a piece of 20g aluminum I picked up at Home Depot. It uses the 2 bolts that hold the light on to secure it. To do it you have to remove stock review mirror and have one that glues to the window.