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

Nice its always fun having to many trucks. Im'm getting this guy next week and will probably not do much with it till spring. If you want the cab and frame then just let me know.

 

Okay so I don't think this is a great swap personally. It is much cooler to swap a 01-04 tacoma front end to a 4runner. The 4runner bumper has a big "under bite" look to it. It stick out much further than the tacoma's. But have at it my man. The 96 one isn't bad though, it's pretty slim so be better than a later 3rd gen 4runner. Might be a bit square but you'll find out.

The mounts will be quite different. Nothing that is impossible though. Mainly the frame end mounts are way different, the tacoma has a single stud out of the frame end and the 4runner has a plate with 3 welded nuts on it thats attached to the end of the frame. So that'll take some tweaking to make happen, but not impossible.

It should line up enough that you won't need to do the grill hood fender swap, unless you want too...

I also think you can honestly probably just put the lights from the tacoma into the housings of the 4runner. They might be the same twist lock outlet. I'd check that first. Other wise, just cut the wires and attach them correctly to the tacoma wires and you'll be good.

 

So I’m about to put my transmission pan back on and I have two different FIPG tubes. The 1281 FIPG is from last year for my valve cover job and the 103 FIPG I just picked up for this job. I noticed that the 1281 is red and the 103 is black. Am I suppose to use a certain one or will either be ok?
The pan had the red stuff to scrape off and Timmy the Toolman was using red as well in his video. Both tubes are from Toyota.

 

Ok looks like red is for gear oil and black is meant more for motor oil pan, after some research.

 

Both will work for the trans pan.

 

I'm interested for sure. Interest will definately increase after Christmas.

One of the vehicles clogging things up is my youngest son's Subaru. Clutch is fixed and everything is good on it again... but I'm stuck with it till he comes out on leave in December.

I'm also seriously contemplating trying to find some shop space to rent somewhere local, but I don't think I'd pull that trigger till after the first of the year.

 

Nice, I need to rent a shop as well. I'm hopping by January this truck will be buried in 6 feet of snow and I forget it's there till spring.

 

I recently swapped a '98 4Runner bumper on to my '98 Tacoma. Your partner's 01 Tacoma has a slightly different front end so your challenges might be slightly different from mine, but here's what I can offer...

Even with the 4Runner mounting brackets, you're going to have some fabbing and/or finessing to do. In my case, the two main brackets turned out to be similar but different--they both have two bolts on each side, but the bolts are different. There's also a large alignment pin on each side that's in a slightly different location relative to the bolts. I got my bumper installed using only the front bolts and have been driving it that way for a while. The bumper is wedged up against the body near the fenders which holds everything in place, but is probably also rubbing off the paint from the body. I intend to go back and either drill new holes or cut and weld the chassis end of the original Tacoma bracket to the bumper side of the 4Runner bracket.

I currently am not using the fender brackets, so I can't speak for how well they line up. I think they're different, though.

My Tacoma turn signal sockets did not fit into the 4Runner housing. I ended up going to the junkyard to find replacement sockets. It's still worth trying yours--you have a different face lift, and the sockets might be different. If you need replacements, they don't necessarily need to come from a 4Runner. Toyota used the same plugs in plenty of other cars--just walk through the junkyard checking the turn signals on any late '80s/90s/early '00s Toyotas until you find a match.

I don't have any pictures handy, but I think the '96-'98 bumper looks great on my '98 Taco. There is a gap between the bumper and grille, but it's not obvious unless you're up close. As others have said, the '99-'02 "fat lip" bumper is a different story... it sticks out too far for a '98 Tacoma and looks awkward.

 

Axle housing all buttoned up. Truck back on its own legs again. Just need to bleed the brakes and fill the diff.

Drilled the cracks



Plates with rosette holes as well.



Plates going on


"No more Taco lean" spring perch glued up. This perch sits about 1/2" taller than the OEM perch.

 

Nice work! Any sign of cracking on the other side? Both mine went at the same time.

 

So after I drained tran, dropped pan, cleaned filter, reinstalled, and refilled with 4 quarts this is where I’m at on the dipstick. I was under the impression that I would need 6 quarts (for dropping the pan) but 4 seems to put it right at the mark? It’s been sitting with 4 for about two hours.

 

Thanks.

There's no sign of cracking - or at least, there's no oil - without taking everything apart. I decided not to do that since even this side is a band-aid until the new housing shows up. If it does give out, I still have two plates so it's just a matter of doing the work.

 

You need to run it and get the trans up to full operating temp to check it correctly. Run it through all the gears after it's warmed up, then check with the engine still running. That "cold" mark is just for a factory fill level when it's coming off the line, it means nothing for operating level. You want to be between the marks in the "hot" range.

 

I appreciate the encouragement! I took a couple of photos of the signal light situation, here's the scoop:

First, the housing attachment (i.e. what helps the light housing fit into the bumper) is different, as correctly suggested by m3bassman. The '96 T4R uses two symmetrical clips on each side, while the 01 Tacoma has a twist-clip on one side, and a simple slide-in plastic pin on the other side.

Second, I don't believe the lights will fit direct into the housing, because they seem to be differently sized. I could be wrong about this, because the T4R lights have not come out the back with a quarter turn, despite what Youtube (and my experience with the Tacoma) tell me.

Third, they seem to have a different wiring harness. The t4R has two cords, while the 01 Tacoma has the white + green as indicated but room for a third. When we took off the bumper, we didn't take both ends of the connector for both lights. So I need to find a part number for what that connector thing is.

Here's a couple shots of the t4r bumper light housing, connector, etc:



And here are a couple of shots of the Tacoma lights, housing, etc.



And here's a screenshot from the Tacoma wiring diagram for the connector:


What I'm hearing is that the simplest solution would be to 1) get the right connectors for the t4r turn signals, and 2) wire them up accordingly...assuming they work.

Alternate solutions:
If I can successfully get them out of the housing, check if the bulb housing fits or can be easily adapted.
If there is a simple way to bodge the clips onto the Tacoma clips so they fit in the bumper, it's worth a look.

 

I don't remember for sure, but the 4Runner socket might be a push-and-twist. I struggled with them as well. Here's a pic of the socket out of the housing--you can see the ramps on the locking knobs.

As you can see, I spliced the junkyard pigtail onto the Tacoma harness. I tried swapping the plugs using the existing pins on the Tacoma harness, but they weren't compatible. You might have better luck since the '01-04 Tacoma plugs are different from the '98 plugs.



The plug you need to match the 4Runner socket looks like this:

 

I dug around a little bit on other forums, and there's a discussion that seems to suggest . Is this worth a shot? I'm trying to figure out part numbers but not having a lot of luck.

 

Finally had some time to start on the camper shell I got from the junkyard a few weeks ago. Nothing crazy, got all of the windows out and located the leaks it had. Took the rear hatch off to replace the bottom stripping on it and the struts. Have been in debate about sanding and repainting it which...I don't think I'll need to do now. Took some simple green and a scotch Brite scrubbie to it and it made a BIG difference. I still think some more cleaning products will be needes and maybe a polish with a compound to get some of the deeper stains out. $62 for the shell, $33 for some foam weather stripping for the bed to seal the cap and $20 for cleaning products, $115 all-in so far.

 

Finished this rebuild.

https://youtu.be/N87MXLrUH_w

 

First step of a rebuild is a tear-down.

 

I'm not sure about the part numbers because I got everything from the scrap yard, but according to the thread you linked it looks like you want 90980-11019, aka "Housing, Connector F". The connector I ended up with is an older version that doesn't have the outer shroud, but the inner connector is the same (or at least compatible). Both versions were used in a ton of vehicles in the US market.

https://www.toyotapartsdeal.com/oem/toyota~housing-connector-f~90980-11019.html