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

Yeah, I was looking at that link. At least I'm aware of it and can keep an eye on it. That thread is a little disconcerting, a lot of cracks harder to get to than this one. 205,000 miles is a long way

 

You do you boo

 

The nuts are definitely not fully engaged, if they were you wouldn't be able to see the threads inside them. Those studs are tapered, it looks like there is about 50% engagement. Not the end of the world though, I would definitely deal with the crack first.

A fatigue crack like that indicates that the rest of the coil bucket is not far behind - it's not an isolated crack due to impact or other damage. That steel spacer will do nothing if the top of your coil bucket comes off, like it did for Mike in the thread that I linked. That will absolutely ruin the shit out of your day/week/month, and hopefully it doesn't happy on the highway while you're pulling your trailer because that could cause you to lose control real fast.

 

Check eBay. I've gotten a lot of OEM parts there before for like less than half the cost than what my local dealership wants.

If you have a part number, it's much easier to find what you're looking for.

 

The nuts might not have been tightened in that pic because they ARE fully engaged. I will def keep an eye on it tho, I cleaned things up while I had it apart and I didn't see any other cracking but thx for the heads up. I was thinking that it might indeed be localized because of how the end of the spring was directly under the outer top cap bolt

 

I know this might feel like piling on, but it's because everyone cares that we're saying anything. In that "what cracks" thread, one of the things you'll find is what happened to @Digiratus on a trip about a year ago. He had - effectively - a 1" spacer sitting under the top hat of his coil bucket, and the whole thing pushed through.

That's what everyone is worried is going to happen to you - and perhaps more quickly as a 1/4" spacer isn't really holding things together. Also, you can see that he had a crack exactly where you do, right through the center hole.

To fix this, it took removing the engine, cutting off the shock tower, and welding new ones on. You don't want that. Weld up and reinforce what you have ASAP, so you don't have to do the same.

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no worries, I knew it was an issue when I saw it. I'm still not sure exactly how to fix it better than I have tho. It's a shitty place to weld, it has to be flush on the bottom as it's a seat for the top cap and it has to be flat on top because of the nut so the weld can only be as thick as the metal that's cracked. Maybe I should put that spacer on top and weld around it. I figured that the steel spacer would at least stop some of the flex until I had a better solution

 

That spacers gonna make the stress on the top hat worse

 

This was my solution to keep it from happening to me:

 

See above. That's the best way to do it. Not easy either.

 

Take the spacer out and live with the lean it’s just adding unnecessary force. Even if you daily the truck on streets and nothing more who cares. A cracked coil bucket still has the chance to kill a bus full of nuns.

never understood people going to crazy lengths to fix the minor lean. If I shake the truck it’ll level out when I get out lol

 

That's what I meant by putting the spacer on top and welding around it. I didn't see any cracks on the sides, just the one in the pic, but the side plates aren't a bad idea

 

@eimkeith sells that top plate. I made the sides by hand, wasn't super fun. Top plate is great though.

 

Threads are visible inside each of those nuts which clearly shows that the studs are not fully engaged. No ifs, and, or buts. By engaging only half the threads of each nut you are greatly increasing the stress on the few threads holding your suspension together. For the love of you, your passangers, and the aforementioned busload of nuns, please please do stop driving your truck around until you get this resolved. To continue driving would be incredibly irresponsible.

Edit: Unless this picture was taken after you'd already loosened the nuts while investigating? If so, pardon me.

 

Time to cut up some perfectly good parts to make room for these. I wish the wires to the ballasts were longer.

 

You can buy extensions.

Or make your own HOWEVER, it needs to be heavily insulated as the voltage post ballast is very very high. They will just arc out and shutdown if it's too thin

 

You have the demensions to it? wanted to build something similar but instead of having 3 seperate plates it would be 1 bent piece. Ive welded the TC gussets as a precaution but they seem more trouble than their worth. Also were a pain to weld in certian spots witch have less than stellar look.

 

Headache Rack V2. Its amazing what adding a single bend will do...

 

Not today, but removed the 1.5" Rodger Brown body lift off my truck over the weekend and replaced the body mount bushings with the ES kit. I've had the body lift on it for almost 10 years now and the body mount bushings were shot. Not as of a visual big of a difference as I thought there would be, but now I can get a front bumper without having to do custom or worry about recovery points.

With that being said, anyone know of the best way to get the body back aligned? Visually, the cab and bed are off. I've slid the bed as much as it would allow and that I could by myself. I think the problem may lie in the body. I had a hell of a time getting one of the very front bolts aligned and in place. All the other bolts went in fairly easy. The very back of the cab is even side to side, measuring from the frame to the pinch weld, but is off at the middle mounts, and I can't get it to budge.

 

You wouldn't have happened to have templates?