1999 Tacoma SR5 TRD Imperial Jade Build, Sweat and Tears

Nice truck man. I'm not familiar with 1st gens but usually they sell the dakars as a kit that's supposed to look somewhat level. Is it possible to just purchase the springs and keep your shocks up front and make it a little better?

Once you start going up on the front end it turns into a money pit, so I would advise against it unless you really want the look and the clearance lol.

Maybe just take a leaf out of the pack and see where it gets you.

 

Not really although I've posted some pics and commentary about the...."unconventional" way I'm restoring my taco. Funny thing is the more I work on it the more I'm getting attached to it so the more i want to work it so......you know the drill....

 

Getting into Utah and after losing a ton of front diff fluid, I decided to empty it and see how much was still there. It down by half, but no major metal.










The next day I went and bought a bunch of gear oil to refill it. It was dumping out. I came across a product called blue devil stop leak and it seemed to slow things down a ton.

 

Utah to Wyoming. Steering rack problems and front diff leaks. Left my skid plates off and kept an eye on everything ever gas fill up (300 miles).

I found a camper shell in Utah but had to leave asap to make a delivery. I was kicking myself the whole way through Wyoming, there was so my epic places to stop but I had to get there.

Lost this much just filling for gas.


The clouds were insane.

 

Made my drop and decided to go to the Grand Tetons, but first....

Needed a hand pump to refill the front diff and some double face for my broken phone mount.

 

Grand Tetons

 

Since I still haven't found a camper shell I decided to just put a tent in the back and slept next to the Tetons. Wasn't too bad other than the truck not being level.

Had no idea there was a comet happening at the time.

 

It ended up being around 30 degrees at night. Wasn't too fun. Only slept a couple hours.

The next morning.




Was trying to figure out how to solve my steering problems. I thought maybe air was being trapped. So I unscrewed the lid and taped it lose. It seemed to help just a tiny bit but didn't solve it.

 

About this time I started hitting the flat and long part of 80.


To try and help some of the sluggishness going up hills at elevation I decided to pull of and change the fuel filter. Thanks to the previous owner the filter was from 2005.

The wind was blowing like crazy and gas was spraying everywhere. I thought the truck was gonna burn down.

Once I got the new filter on and gas was done getting sprayed everywhere, I shook some gas out the back to see how dirty it was and it was almost black.





Thanks to the previous owner again, I can't check the t case oil level.

 

Nebraska








Pulled off to get a sunset shot.

 

A little detour to the junk yard.




Figured since I was in Omaha Id listen to the Omaha Sessions album.

 

At about this point the front diff and trans is leaking like crazy.

While driving I was thinking why the hell is everything leaking so bad when it was all fine before. I thought it might be all the elevation. I did go from LA to 10,000 feet in Wyoming. I figured Id check the breathers. I stopped at the next junk yard just in case.

Check the front diff breather and it was fully caked closed, so I grabbed one off a 4runnner. I tried to reach up and find the trans and t case breathers but everything was too hot so I let it go.

 

Now I started to smell burnt oil so I pulled over right away. I check the trans and I was coming from there. It was down on oil, so I changed it at the next exit. There was anything on the magnetic plug so it looks like I got it in time.

While changing it a huge storm was coming and the wind blew a ton of the draining oil all over me. At this point Im all covered in gas and oil and not really having a good time.

Now at this point I desperately want to check the t case oil but its fucked. I tired my best to get the plug off with no luck. If you care about it you can read about it and see photos here... Its a long thread and an adventure on its own.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/urgent-need-help-again-fixed.676633/

 

If you're not into checking out the thread, long story short I got the fill plug out with a torch and vise grips. The asshole previous owner filled the entire case all the way to the top through the top fill plug up by the shifter. When I took the fill plug off it shot out like a fire hydrant and made a big ass mess.

I had a spare plug in my truck so I was covered once I got it off.

 

From here I was doing my best to get over to Chicago.




Made it into Illinois and trying to make my way to Chicago.

 

I called ahead earlier that day and talked to Chris at the Arcteryx store there and asked if he could hook me up. Which he did. Thanks again dude.





For the truck headliner