AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

BTW Dan - you passed me again on 1st gen build view counts.



Probably for the final time.







Deservedly so.

 

Another great trip write up.

Headlights, a pain for sure, I tried a couple different restoration kits, even some Depos, decided to go with the 96 headlight mod.
I know it is major upgrade if you replace the front clip,( per STLharry ‘s write up) but I think in the long run it is much easier and a better fit than the way I did the swap for the 96 sealed beam ‘clones’ H4 Hella’s I picked up last year, once you get the buckets, adjustment screws and a grill.

Then you can use what ever H4 bulb you want. I went with the Hellas, they are an E Code pattern, they work pretty sweet, of course I also picked up the Headlight Services upgraded harness, and I am pretty impressed,, just using 50 watt Sylvania H4 Silver Star Ultras, not as hot a light but great coverage.
I still have to get them aimed correctly (don’t drive much at night). Add the super bright led floods, and the Anzo 7” LEDs, that combo works pretty good.
I’ll stick with this until I can afford some Light Force 170 HIDs or Light cannons,- both really reach down the road. Next item will probably be a fridge.

 

Just dropping in a quick note, since I have service for a moment. We are on the trail as folks may have deducted from my lack of replies. Back in a few days and I will respond to everyone then!

Headlights , limit strap diagrams , there’s just so much to say! Plus, a few more trips in the queue.

 

Pretty sure I saw you this evening...

 

Funny, I have one sitting on my desk as I type this. I've also already done some work to both the headlights and Hella's - the light results great all around, but the headlight work leaving a bit to be desired - the restoration kit and another important element (that I think is often overlooked) still to come. Write up is mostly done and just waiting in line with the rest of the backlog, so should be up in a bit. Stay tuned.

I just left the sticky bit over the openings. In general, the only thing that'll stick to it is dust, and then it'll become not sticky, hahahaha. The one caveat to that (which I mention in the write-up) is that you have to "shield" the lever for the door opener. I just used some split loom for that job. You can see that part of the install here, and a quick photo below.

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Thanks both. I've got some zipper-specific lube which seems to work well once or twice after it's applied, but not much longer than that. I might try the wax.

On this last trip, I found that simply wetting the zipper with water as a lube, each time I closed up the tent, worked well. But adds 5 minutes to the process. Bleh.

Yes, exactly; the shocks are too short if you have full movement from your control arms. "Extended" doesn't mean much - it's marketing. In fact, the ADS are longer than Kings, but shorter than the Toytec coilovers I was running previously. Ultimately, it doesn't matter - the right solution is strapping them.

If you don't hear the clunk, that's good. But it's not the best way to know if you have an issue. The best way to know is to jack up the front of the truck, take off the wheel, and remove the lower bolt from the shock eye. If your LCA then drops lower, you have an issue. Even if it doesn't, you might still have an issue with the weight of the wheel/tire, etc.

Dude, I have the coolest diagrams. I think anyway. And it's PowerPoint that I use for those .

Was a fun write-up to do, figuring out how to best describe it. I'm still not sure it's the best but I think it's good (if a bit information rich). Maybe I'll send it your direction for a proof read.

After this last trip, I agree with you. Obviously the post is still a bit out given everything else that happened prior to it, but I ran the OSRAM 90/100s this trip and they are WAY better than the LEDs that I used as my original upgrade.

And a wiring harness is easy to make. I've got that covered in the post about the OSRAMs as well.

Wow, cool. But I won't count my chickens. Once you're SAS-ing and doing all the cool stuff to your truck, you'll be back on top, I'm sure of it.

Thanks!

Hahaha, that was you!? Did you drive out all that way just to check out the little pump house? Well that's pretty bad ass, you should have come over! We were down there after a long day in Devil's Playground; camped by the train so we could hopefully get some nice sunset pics of a train rolling through. No dice as far as timing went, but we still enjoyed ourselves and got some nice shots in the morning before heading to the Granite Mountains.

Dinner was simple, but tasty - and in the center of the non-action.

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Protecting the Front Shock Towers with Limit Straps
I've done a lot of work to the suspension on the Tacoma - with good reason since it is what helps to make our trips more comfortable, and what helps to isolate most of the truck from the harsh terrain over which we travel.

In doing that work, one of the things I knew that I needed - at least technically - was a good set of limit straps. But - as with many who focus on the bling of a new shock, and less on completely finishing the job - I never installed any. Not on the back, and not on the front.

And then, a rude awakening. As we were making our way up Mt. Antero - a 14,000 foot peak in Colorado - Mike's @Digiratus shock tower exploded.

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We don't know exactly why this happened, but after much discussion, I think several of us generally agree that one of the contributing factors was over-extension of his front shocks. When this would happen - essentially the lower control arm (LCA) wanting to extend further than the shock would allow - the downward force from the LCA would transfer through the shock and to its only other attachment point - the top of the shock tower.

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Compensating for this sudden, downward force, is not what the shock tower was designed for. Over time, it caused fatigue and eventually failure. Or, at the very least, contributed to it.

Limit straps could have helped to prevent the situation, and since I can hear my shocks reaching full extension on the trail from time to time, it's time for me to get some limit straps installed!

What do limit straps do?

At their most basic, limit straps act like a lot like bump stops, in that they limit the travel of a vehicle's suspension. Bump stops do this as suspension compresses; limit straps do it as suspension extends - protecting not only suspension components (shocks, etc.), but also protecting non-suspension components (shock towers, hydraulic brake lines, etc.) that may be affected by overextension.

Let's look at the previous diagram again, this time with with limit straps installed.

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A quick way to know if you need straps

So, how do you know if you need limit straps? Here's a dead giveaway:

1. Jack up the front of the truck so the front suspension is fully drooped out and place a couple jack stands for safety.
2. Remove the front wheels - you'll want to do this on both sides of the truck, since they aren't identical and may have differing travel abilities.
3. Remove the lower bolt of the front shock using a 19mm socket and wrench.

If, at this point, the LCA drops down below the lower eye of the shock, that means the shock is limiting the travel of your front suspension. You need limit straps.

Even if the LCA doesn't drop down below the lower eye, if you can push it down below the lower eye without a ton of effort, that shock is still limiting your travel - and you would benefit from straps. This is because the additional weight of the wheel+tire, and momentum when the suspension is cycling, will result in more downward movement than when the suspension is just sitting on stands.

Ultimately, my recommendation if you are doing a lot of driving where your suspension is fully extending, limit straps are a good idea.

Installing straps

Strap installation is reasonably straight forward. The first step is to figure out the length of straps that will fit and then purchasing them. For a 1st gen Tacoma with OEM LCAs and the sway bar removed, 7" straps are about right. I ordered up a set of 7" Kartek straps, two clevis' to secure the top of the strap, and two clevis mounts, which arrived a few days later. I also picked up a couple of Grade 10, 9/16" bolts and nylock nuts to secure the bottom of the strap.

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With this configuration, the clevis mount is welded to the frame of the truck, and the bottom of the limit strap is secured to the LCA using the sway bar mounting point. I got started by taking off the front wheels.

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With the wheel removed, the next step was to lay out where the clevis mount would attach to the frame. This is done by

1. Assembling the limit strap with the clevis and clevis mount. Make sure that the lock nuts at the top of the clevis are at the very end of the threads, such that the strap can be tightened over time by threading them further down the clevis shaft.
2. Installing the bottom of the strap in the sway bar mount.
3. Allowing the shock to extend (droop) fully. Note: This fully extended point is the point at which the strap needs to be protecting the suspension. Since a strap stretches slightly, it needs to both engage and reach full stretch before this point.
4. Note the location of the clevis mount on the frame.

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Having noted the location, I used an angle grinder and flap disc to remove any paint and rust from the frame in order to prep for welding.

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Everything prepped, I welded the clevis mount to the frame, and hit the entire area with a couple coats of primer and paint.

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All that was left after the paint dried was to reinstall the clevis in the mount and adjust it so that the strap reached full stretch when the brake rotor was about ¼" above full extension. This is something I may adjust over time, but I figured that a ¼" buffer was a good starting point for limit strap stretching and to compensate for additional stretch due to weight and momentum of the tire on the trail.

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And that's it. Insurance installed! Reinstallation of the wheel and everything is good to go.

I've got an upcoming trip to Death Valley where I plan to put it all to the test...

 

I was headed to the Kelso dunes with a telescope and a very nice camera that I borrowed from a friend to check out the Jupiter/Saturn alignment and try some long exposure photography with a partial moon and meteor shower underway.

But full disclosure: I saw "adventuretaco" pop up on APRS somewhere around Barstow, so I headed your way to see if I could say 'hi!' But when I got there, I suddenly got the feeling that I was being a creepy stalker, and I didn't see any people or campfires or signs of life, so I decided not to approach any closer. Maybe you were already in bed, or off on a hike, I thought... 2020 is not the year for uninvited visitors. I hung out nearby for a few minutes and tried calling you on the radio, but then I saw a train approaching and wound up chasing it all the way to Kelso. That was fun. Guess I should have called from Barstow when you still had your radio on.





Here's the kicker, when I got to the dunes, I realized I didn't have an SD card for that camera! It takes the big kind, and I only have the tiny ones. Plus my telescope tripod broke on the drive out, so the motors wouldn't work, and the seeing conditions were crap anyway. Also, the dunes were silent, as they always have been for me. I hope to someday hear them "sing."



I tried to take some pictures with my cellphone, but it has too much dark noise to do more than a few seconds exposure. I didn't get a single meteor, although I saw several fly above while I was sitting there pouting and being cold. The nice camera wouldn't even trigger exposures without a memory card, so I didn't even get to glimpse what I was missing on the display. Here's the best I could do holding a cellphone to the telescope eyepiece with shivering hands.



Jupiter and Saturn in near alignment? Or, a blurred shot of distant lights? It looked a lot better by eye. Even though my attempts at photography (and saying hi to you) turned out to be a bust, it was still fun going out to the desert -- hopefully will be back out there over the holidays.

Anyway, were the lava tubes open when you drove by? They were closed off for covid several months ago, but I don't see a closure listed on the NPS site any more. Can't wait to see your pictures!

 

Bummer to hear about the SD card! Would have been cool to capture the alignment - I know we were definitely watching it get more and more aligned, every night of the trip.

I think we were just sitting in our chairs behind the truck when you pulled up (and I turn the radio off once we stop moving for the day, so... dang!). I know I got up and looked over there and saw you wander into the pump house. Honestly, if I'd known it was you, I'd have come over to say hi as well; as it was, with no idea, we erred the same way as you - just keep to ourselves, hahahaha.

Lava tubes were open, but we passed by reasonably early in the morning on our way to Devil's Playground - 9am maybe - so no nice rays of light as you can get between 12-1. That makes 2x that we've not been by at the right time of day, but just another reason to head back .

I won't get back again until January most likely, but I'll try to remember to shoot a PM before I head down.

 

Hm I'd have plated the spot you put the mount for the limit strap personally. Lot of force being put on that at times.

 

Nicely done. Like the MS Paint work.

It may be worth noting that the OEM welds that hold the lower shock mounts to the LCAs can also fail for the same reasons the shock towers can fail. So limit straps will help with that as well.

Some evidence we found on both of my LCAs:

 

Yeah, I thought about it but after looking at it and seeing how thick it is there, and after seeing how Mike (and I think Dan or Zane) did his, I figured it'd be just fine. I've been on ~12 days of dirt since the install and it seems OK, so hopefully it lasts a lot longer. If not, I'll just re-do it.

Thanks! (And than you for being the guinea pig.) Was nice to be able to ask you as I was doing mine.

As far as the lower shock mounts go - I agree with you, and I should note it in the write-up. One thing I'm curious about is whether I'm going to transfer the "problem" to the sway bar mount where the strap is installed. Seems to me like that piece/weld now has a lot of force that it never had before, and we could start seeing weld cracks there. Time will tell; I'd rather have that fail than the tower at any rate.

 

Where were you before we did this?

It was Dan.

I would agree with you about the swaybar mount except that it appears to be attached much better to the LCA compared to the lower shock tabs.

I will be curious to see if your straps have stretched or not. Mine did some.

 

I went with an eimkeith designs Tacoma limit strap kit.

 

Only a text/call/pm away.

 

HIDs and LEDs - Finally, I Can See Again!

For years now, I've felt like the headlights on my 1st gen Tacoma left a little something to be desired. More than a little something, really. Some of it is my fault - the bulbs I have installed are over 20 years old, surely not as bright as they once were - but it seems to me that 1998-2000 Tacomas have always had the crappiest of the 1st gen headlights.

Initially, I added Hella 500FFs to the front bumper to solve this problem. They were great until they got destroyed when I hit a deer for the first time. I replaced those with Hella 700FF lights, and those proved to be even better - especially since I tied them into the hi-beams. Still, I want more when I'm ticking away miles on a highway - with hours of darkness to navigate on the way to some adventure.

One option has been to purchase something like Baja Designs Squadron Pro, Rigid D-XL Pro, or my personal favorite, Diode Dynamics SS3 Pro LEDs - all would give me more light, but at a cost. A cost I haven't been willing to bear - so far.

In chatting about this with Monte on our Clear, Colorful, Colorado trip, he mentioned something to me that he's been saying for a while, "Just f-ing do the HID upgrade to your Hella's already."

Well OK then, no need to mince words.

The HID upgrade is reasonably straight forward - it entails taking the stock, 55W halogen lights out of the Hella 700FFs, making a slight modification to the plastic housing, and securing some new, 55W HID lights in their place. Of course, you also need to find somewhere to mount the ballasts for the new blubs, but that's easy as well - especially when the cost is right around $150 for the entire setup - less than half the price of an LED option.

While I was at it, I also decided to upgrade my headlights - I'd replace them with LEDs - so that all the light pouring out the front of my truck would be bright. Finally, I'd be able to see, again!

Getting the Parts

I gathered parts for both mods at the same time. Or is this maintenance, since I really needed new headlights anyway? It doesn't matter - here's what I picked up:

• BEAMTECH H4 LED Headlight Bulb - these are 50W each, and provide a maximum of 8000 lumens at 6500K. I may end up wishing they were a little yellower - in the 5000K range - but I didn't have an option, so this is what I went with. They do have a cut-off for the low beams, which was a requirement for me.
  
  
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• DDMTuning Ultra HID Kit (55W) - I selected an H3 blub at 5500K, and no additional harnesses or adapters.
• DDMTuning AMP Extension Cable - I ordered a 1 meter extension, so I could mount the ballasts in the engine compartment, instead of on the bumper where my Hella's are located.
  
  
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Installation of the Headlights

As I mentioned, low beam cut-off was an important factor for me when buying these LEDs. So, before installing , I verified that there was in fact a cut-off shield.

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Headlight installation was mostly straight forward. Simply unplug the harness from the rear of the OEM headlight, remove the rubber cover, remove the wire retainer and pull the original bulb out of the headlight housing. Note: I found it easiest to remove the air intake box and battery during this operation, for easier access to the headlights.

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Unplug the harness after removing the air intake box (passenger) or battery (driver).​

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The rubber water cover is a friction fit. Pull backwards to remove.​

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Completely remove the wire harness; it will be easier to install the LED this way.​

To fit the new LED lights into the housing, a few tricks and modifications are needed. First, place the wire retainer over the bulb prior to inserting it into the housing - it's easier to manipulate the retainer outside the truck. Second, you'll need to modify the rubber cover to fit over the LED heat sink. I found that cutting out the two breather holes and making a slice in the bottom of the cover was all I needed, and I still got a good fit. Then, put everything back together, finally plugging the stock harness into the mating fitting on the BEAMTECH LEDs.

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Install the wire harness on the LED before placing it in position. Place this assembly in position and then tighten the screw for the wire harness.​

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A little trimming to the cover. I don't love this, but new ones (81139-16610) are reasonably priced.​

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Plug in the two harnesses and secure with a zip-tie.​

Installation of the HIDs

Replacing the lights in the Hellas is a bit more entailed than the headlights, but still not at all difficult. As far as tools go, I only needed the following:

• Philips Screw Driver
• Hot glue gun
• 1" Forstner drill bit (or any 1" drill bit) and a drill

The whole process starts by removing the Hellas from wherever they are currently installed - in my case, the front bumper.

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Next, locate the plastic clip that holds the glass lens into the plastic housing and remove the #2 Philips screw that holds it in place, so you can separate the two pieces.

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Locate the clip on the back of the lens that secures the blub. Unclip it, and then remove it from the "hinge" side by carefully pulling it off of the two "ears" that form the hinge.

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Place the H3 bulb into the lens housing, aligning the cut-outs on the bulb with the two metal prongs on the housing as shown.

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Using the hot glue gun, fill in around the bulb as you hold it securely in place against the rear of the lens housing. This secures the bulb to the housing and also seals it against weather.

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Using the 1" Forstner bit, drill a hole in the exact center of the plastic housing. Note that there's a circle in the exact center location, part of the casting of the plastic, which makes this a no-measure operation!

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Fish the wires and grommet through the 1" hole and secure the grommet in place, helping to keep the entire assembly weather resistant.

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At this point, I was done, except for (re)installing everything on the truck! That process was straight forward, as I've done it a few times in the past, and before long everything was buttoned up and ready to test.

With no reference and with photography of night lights notoriously hard to capture, it's hard to get scientific measurements, but the light output of the Tacoma is now significantly better than it was prior to these upgrades. I look forward to my next trip, to see whether I feel like it makes a significant difference at 62mph!

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Original low beams. Bleh.​

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LED low beams. Better, for sure.​

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LED high beams + Hella 700 with HID upgrade. Nice! (most of this is Hella 700)​

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A little bluer than I'm used to. A problem? We'll see.​

Note: If you're reading this and thinking, "I've gotta do that," I wholeheartedly recommend doing the HID upgrade to the Hella's. I can't say the same about the LEDs yet, and I'm still working through what I think the best solution is there. So hold off for a week or two until I have a bit more info. Plonk in your email here (https://adventuretaco.com/subscribe/) if you want a notification when I post where I ultimately end up with the headlights.

 

You're fuckin welcome haha

 

Stock housing for the LED conversion?

 

Yes. Original housing from when I bought the truck.

I'm curious, did you read the post and still had this question?

 

hahaha yea. Read the post. Been stalking your travels. But wasn’t sure if you ever changed the housing out before. Saw that bulbs were 20years. But just wasn’t sure of the housing. Been debating on whether to do this mod because I’m on old oxidized housings.

 

Gotcha. Well, my recommendation is to hold off on the LEDs. I've got more coming in this regard in the next couple weeks. If you wait, I'll be your guinea pig and you can make a more informed decision.

I wholeheartedly recommend doing the Hella HID upgrade, if you're also considering that.