El Honcho - 1st Gen Taco build

Any more updates?

 

The trans is running so cool now it's great. I'm really glad I installed that cooler. Still have high idle. Definitely thinking this throttle body is DUNZO. The brakes are making the truck stop way better now. Still a little soft but I think that may be due to the master cylinder. Took the truck out to try and get to the Verde River a few weeks back and it was a shit show. We had a huge fire here east of Phoenix and it burned a lot of the Tonto Forest near Four Peaks and Saguaro Lake/ Salt River area. Everything was closed so we went to this other spot that we drove by and tried to get down to the salt river and ended up getting stuck in a bottle neck section of a sand wash canyon. There were some big boulders in the wash that I had to go over and it didn't go so well. We were stuck out there for 3 hours. I actually got the truck out twice from buried down to the third member. Hi Lift jack for the win!!! My girlfriend kept telling me to give up but I knew I could do it and I could feel the 35's hitting bedrock below the 26" of sand. Got it out and turned around and then tried getting through the rock garden again going uphill, stuck. Got it out for the second time doing the old rock a bye baby. Then sat there until the US Forest Service found us and were able to let some family in a closed gate to our GPS location. Then while everyone was standing there I gave it one more attempt and actually got through. Felt like an idiot and asshole for making them drive 45 miles to help. Aside from that the steering is a hair off now to the right.

 

BUMP!

Need some thoughts... After our last outing getting stuck near the Salt River the steering is now off by 5 or 10 degrees to the right which means my toe angle is pointing left. Had an alignment a couple of months ago. I have replaced my rack 3 different times over the last few years and I had been doing my own alignments getting it near perfect each time but was lazy a few months ago. I don't feel like paying $70 again. The only reason I took it to the shop a few months ago for that alignment was because I had installed all of the LCA CAM gussets.

The only way I can see the "toe" moving directions is either cams have moved (they haven't) or bent tie rod. The tie rod is fixed to the spindle so there is absolutely NO WAY that a tie rod can go "in" or "out" without unbolting it from the spindle. If you read through a million posts about steering wheel being off center after off-roading ALMOST EVERYONE claims it's the "toe" position has changed. But if you critically think about the tie rods or if you have ever worked on them they can't "adjust" themselves.

My tie rods do NOT appear to be bent at all. This leads me to believe that one of the SPLINED portions of the steering column, pry the lower spline on the "intermediate shaft #2" are spinning inside one another. After reading there's 3 splined sections. One is the steering wheel. Second is the steering column connection point to the "intermediate shaft #2" Rag joint and the last is at the actual rack itself.

I stuffed the left front tire hard into a rock and it made the steering wheel violently spin to the left until it hit the steering lock. There's no chance toe position can change unless the tie rod is unbolted or bent. To me this absolutely has to be a spline problem.

Question is, what do ya'll think?

Going camping tomorrow and need to get this fixed right now. Truck is "walking" all over the place under braking. Instead of making the correction at the tie rods themselves I'm thinking about unbolting the rag joint spline and or the splined bolt at the rack itself, making sure steering wheel is correct then rebolting the spline together.

 

If the rag joint skipped, it would just make the steering wheel off center, but the truck would track straight (just with the wheel off center, but it's only for looks) - can you confirm your toe, camber, and caster are where they need to be at ride height?

 

This is exactly what I think happened. Problem is, I have loosened both rag joint nuts and can't get the thing to slide up the shaft more than a quarter of an inch... Tie rods are not bent so this is the culprit in my opinion. If I were to adjust the tie rods to compensate, putting the wheel back to "center"" my rack won't be in the middle any longer. Going to drop the rack real quick. I laid there thinking lol and I think this is the less hassle way to do it. I just need another quarter inch to get the bottom of the rag joint off of the spline on the rack. I have it parked with wheel to the right in about the position it is going straight down the road. Just need to slip off this rag joint and put the steering wheel back to center.

Don't want to get out the jack and mess with tie rods plus like I said above, if the splines skipped which I believe is the case that wouldn't be the correct fix anyway... FUCK!

On another note, my rag joint is BEAT! The top metal part is slip in half on one side, the rubber is in fairly good shape though.

 

WELL FUCK ME TENDER!!! God damn. Couldn't get rag joint to go up enough. Unbolted entire rack, couldn't get it to come down... I guess there was too much pressure on it to get it out of the center slot. Abandoned that idea. Decided to go in from the top and unbolt the steering wheel and make the correction there. While I was in there I decided to replace the CLOCKSPRING that I bought a year or so ago... Got it all put together and notice the yellow electrical connector on the new clock spring is slightly different than the old one. Fuck. Take everything back apart put old clock spring back in. Put everything back together. My "compensation" guess of where the steering wheel needed to be before I took wheel off and centered it was SPOT ON!!!! Truck is true, wheel is centered, truck tracks straight as arrow, truck does NOT walk left and right under braking now.

I'm almost absolutely sure at this point that anyone that goes out off-roading and returns with the dreaded steering wheel off center is experiencing this issue. The tie rods are fixed to the spindle so they can't move in or out at any given point. That's a constant. Other constant would be the rack itself is fixed to the subframe. Those two things can't move at all. There is a spline above the rage joint and below it. The only other spline is the steering wheel itself. The other thing I had noticed after that outing a month ago was the turning radius to the right wasn't as tight. That would make sense because the splines jumped and now the toe was pointing left, making you correct the steering wheel position off center to the right. Now it's dead even again at roughly 2.5 turns each way.

Basically, if you go out offroading and your steering wheel is now off center and your tie rods are NOT bent and the alignment cams have NOT moved then I would say there is a VERY STRONG CHANCE you have skipped splines on one of the 3. The splines are the only 3 variables in the steering that can MOVE UNDER FORCE. Same as when you wad up the dirtbike or MTB/BMX bike and the tree is off center to one side. That usually happens when you smack the steering block/lock hard AF!

EVERYTHING GUCCI NOW BOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYYYY!!

Hitting the RIM COUNTRY tomorrow!

 

Clockspring for 96-00 and 01-04 are different - not sure if any changes between 96-00 too though.

 

The whole rack can shift side to side from a big hit/knock changing the steering wheel angle in relation to your wheels toe angle.

Happened to me a lot on 2nd gen and newer 4runners but all racks can shift.

Usually under 45 degrees off on the steering wheel though

Bent in coil tower / frame obviously will change alignment if the shocks bottom out on hard hits before the frame bump pads stop suspension movement.

 

I don't see how the rack can move side to side at all. It's fixed in 3 different locations. The left side has the 22mm bolt that goes through the bushing into the subframe. Then there's the 19mm center bolt that goes down vertically through the center bushing/ mount point of the subframe. Then lastly the right side has the "clamp style" mount that uses two 19mm nut/bolt combo to clamp the rack tightly to the mounting point. This is the only point that physically could be a variable but in order for the rack to have moved to one side or another the two other bolts would have to be bent or the bushing themselves in the rack would have to be non-existent. Neither of which were true for me. I removed the two large bots (left, center) and they were fine. Rack bushing are nearly brand new, no play at all. I'm about 99% sure that the splines are jumping in the rag joint. Either in the splined section above the rag or the spline below. My rag joint is destroyed and definitely seen better days. I made sure the two 12mm nuts that clamp the splines together in place were tight as hell. The steering wheel was stuck on there so tight and after experiencing the difficulty of removing it, I'd say there is little chance that the splines are capable of jumping there. Which only leaves two other splines as possibilities in the rag joint.

 

It's the frame mount side that have a little room for bolt movement to allow the rack to shift.
The tolerances aren't super tight to the bolts or it would be hard to line up the bolts with expected tolerance differences on production line welded frames.

Maybe this isn't your issue but it's something I have experienced on builds with steering racks.

Haven't had have this issue on older Toyota builds with steering box/drag link setups.
Steering stays straight unless something is actually bent.

 

BUMP

Would have liked to have gotten it a little higher but overall pretty happy with the valving that I chose. Rebound looks pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmypU7wUbGY

 

Just realized that you're Fabien the god! Man, I used to read all of your posts from Ttora back in the day! Love your work too. Absolutely amazing. I really want to make my own front end. Would it be stupid to make spindles that incorporate an 05-15 Tacoma hub? Or if you're going to make spindles is it just the wise decision to go Dana 44? I was thinking more for ease of replacement and stock hubs are available at the auto stores. About ready to make a jig, any pointers? I would like to go vertical uniball on the spindle and get 16" of travel. 5" over. Then I can sell my Solomotorsports 3.5 kit and recoup some of my funds. 13.5" of front travel isn't getting it done any longer. The next step to my fabrication evolution is to make my own arms and then the plan is links after that.

In 08 I used to read Ttora drooling over your work. Thanks for the follow!

 

Ha, thanks!
If I was building spindles from scratch I'd prob buy some 12 bolt blocks that work with a dana 44 bolt on snout. Think TT motorsports has them, Nexgen off road...

I haven't had any problems with 05 + hubs but finding a hub block to build around them might be a little hard. DTF uses them for his kits, maybe he'd sell a set. The stock spindles are forged and you could build off them but their shape is a little weird to use as a base.

I prefer horizontal uniballs for steering radius, 5" over you should be able to get around 16 without a vertical uniball but you could prob get closer to 17/18 with a vertical uniball.

Good luck, it's totally do-able if you take your time

 

BUMP FOR SOME LOVE!

 

Time to cage?

 

Who's got a 1 3/4 die for a manual bender for sale?

 

I couldn't stand the carpet any longer. Too long to clean up after Mexico. I also wanted to make a platform in the rear ext cab space with incorporated down fire sub box. The one I had in there was huge and took up all the space behind the driver seat. I want to make that space more useable. Now that I have it almost completely gutted except the dash I think I should sack up and do the cage now so it's not twice as much work. I also bought new fixed back fiberglass bucket seats off of Ebay. We'll see how they do. I couldn't afford PRP right now and I can't stand these reclining chinese racing seats that I put in there 3 or 4 years ago. I really didn't want to go back to the stock Toyota seat either. Now that I have new seats I should just do the cage now. I actually got a fabrication job a couple of months ago. My boss, the owner of Diamond Lead Reels and Premier Patio and Design/Premier Powder Coat has all the essential tools to get the job done and already said I can use the shop whenever I want. I never bought a 1 3/4 die for the bender I bought years ago which sucks but I can't spend $290 right now on a die. If I had one I could have already had the B pillar hoop done.

 

BUMP

Got my seats in 3 days from Cali off of Ebay. Overall impression is you get what you pay for. They are decent though. I temporarily retrofitted the steel frames I already had from the old seats that I got with that purchase years ago. That was about the only good thing that happened with that purchase is the seller coincidentally had Toyota Tacoma seat brackets that he threw in for free. When I do the cage I will do away with these brackets and mount the seats to the cage. Until then I wanted to still be able to drive the truck right up until I do the cage. The seats are a world of difference over those shitty reclining racing seats from Ebay OMG. You are definitely secure in the seat now. I've gone around some corners at 40 late night when nobody is on the road and it's amazing how much more planted in the seat you are in these vs stock or shitty reclining buckets. No upper seat movement now, no creeking noises, no feeling like the seat is ready to break in half. Flying over some of the best speed bumps I can find in the area it's simply amazing how solid it feels now. The only thing that I don't like is there is a tiny bit of play in the sliders which is the only downside so far. The butt and back padding is decent enough but outside of those areas it's just a thin layer of foam between the fabric and supposed fiberglass backing. I think if it really was a problem or something that I don't like in the future it can be dealt with. The seat cover comes off and I feel there is a little room still left under the cover to add an additional layer of padding. That's in the areas not directly in contact with the body at all times, so like behind the head, shoulders, side bolstering. My GF sat in them and said better but then got up and said I'm buying us PRP because she gets cost plus 10 through her work but she's bipolar. When she's in a good mood and likes the truck she says shit like that and then when she's pissed at me and or I break the truck she says I'm not buying shit for this thing and tells me to sell it. LOL WOMEN!!!! FUCK EM FEED EM AND FREE EM is what a pimp once told me. Obviously I didn't listen... She did bring me home some PRP 4.2 harnesses though...

 

BUMP!!!

FINALLY!!! FUCKEX just delivered my die!!! YEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!

GSP APPROVED!!!

 

BUMP for some updates

2 things I have to say to get off my chest. First thing that I was wrong about with the truck in the last 6 months is a couple of months or so ago I was convinced that the steering wheel or part of the secondary shaft at the rag joint had jumped spline because the steering wheel was a little bit off going straight down the road and I could tell that something had moved because the truck is walking all over the place under heavy braking. WELP my dumbass was wrong. A couple of days ago I had the creeper outside under the truck looking at places to pull the B and C pillar through the floor. I noticed the rear pivot point on the driver side lower arm has moved a bit. I couldn't really see that it had before because it was a little dirty and it's the rear one so a little harder to see the alignment cam. It definitely moved about 4 or 5 of those hash marks which means I believe that is inward which in turn would have had a TOE OUT effect on the driver side tire. All the other 3 alignment cams are correct and where they were set from alignment shop. I will have to put that back and then re-do the steering wheel by pulling it off the spline and putting it back to where it was after I get the rear alignment cam set. No biggy because steering wheel is coming off for cage anyways.

Now this had me thinking though. I saw those new lower arm cam bolts that don't have any variance built in. I forgot who makes them but I think this is the route I want to go now. I see everything now is going to that style where it's just one exact size hole so there is no variance in how the arm can be set up. Obviously that's why it's great because you set it and forget it. Lower arms will never move again. I think I want to completely cut off the toyota lca mounts and do my own. Anyone else done this? I like how SOLO and KIBBE and a few other cars I've seen how they do the LCA mounts. Super beafy.

Second thing I was wrong about and now I feel like a complete idiot. Good thing I haven't posted to DR yet! They'd never let me hear the end of it. LOL Last January when I built the bed cage for the truck I went to a local small time steel yard that was close to the area I grew up in. I was a little intimidated because I'd never bought or been to a steel yard before. So instead of going somewhere reputable like Metal Supermarkets or Industrial Metal Supply because I was a pussy I went to this small time place to feel better lol. Anyways. Last January I went there and I rolled up to the tubing section and I said I need 1.5" DOM .095 or .120. Guy says we have .095 so that's what I got. It was like $2.47/foot. Which is pry why if anyone was reading where I said that I did the whole cage for like $80 was scratching their head in amazement for how cheap the metal must have been if it was DOM. Fast forward to yesterday. Your boy goes back to the same hillbilly steel yard to get a stick of DOM 1.75" .120 so I can start making my cheater bends and play around with the bender. I go over to the same section and I told the guy what I needed. First, he couldn't decipher his head from his ass. We went from 1" to 1.5 to this guy was all over the map like I was speaking GERMAN. So I'm pointing at the tube 1.75" .120 it's right in front of me. The guy goes ok you need how much. Then I say it again, I need 20 ft of 1.75" .120 DOM. This bum that surely works/sleeps at the steel yard mumbles that it's not DOM. I go, are you sure because I was here a year ago and you sold me what I thought was DOM.

Come to find out and now I know for certain, these fuckers sold me HREW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I know how to differentiate the two. HREW has that purplish black SEEM on the outside and DOM is perfectly round and seem gets removed. Hot Rolled Electric Welded isn't as strong so now I'm pissed that I have fucking HREW in the back of my truck. I was pretty sure that I will be cutting it out in the near future anyways because now that I have the tube bender I will re-make a proper bed cage and do it with 1.75" to keep everything the same so when I tie the cab into the bed cage it's all gravy baby! SHOUT OUT BEN GRAVY!!!!!!!!!!!!! LIVING THE DREAM!! YEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

So yea, the other thing that I learned and it was a rude awakening is that DOM is about twice the cost per foot than HREW. So needless to say as soon as I heard that they don't usually carry DOM and I knew they sold me HREW I was like I have to get the fuck out of here before my head explodes and immediately left.

I got a few quotes today through email.

Cheapest quote for 100ft of 1.75" .120 wall DOM came in right around $590. What do you guys think??? So far without a few pieces accounted for depending on how crazy I get with it but for just the basics on the roof, A B and C Pillar, door bars side impact shit like that I have 76ft accounted for. I figured 100 ft should get the job done. The other reason I was kind of pissed about this whole HREW situation is that a few months ago I went back to that little steel yard and again CLEARLY stated that I wanted DOM. I bought a stick (20ft) of what I thought or was told was 1.5" .095 DOM to do a rear bumper. I never used it. It's just sitting in my backyard.

Last question, can you get away with using HREW for a bumper??? Surprisingly my bed cage is holding up really well. It's still true and zero cracks.



Check out my Christmas story in the first gen cab cage thread. I MEAN MY FRIEND's CHRISTMAS Story. This certainly didn't happen to me. I was relaying the story for MY BUDDY. JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJA

FELIZ NAVIDAD GUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY