Cynicalriders "J0hnny5 is ALIVE!" 01 build thread.

Exactly

 

No more fish bowl for the DD. Hoping it makes it easier on my son in the back now that the sun stays low ish all day in the winter.



I’ll probably use the same guy for the truck. His dad does upholstery and will fix my rsx seat for a reasonable price.

 

I use this in the Tundra because poor dude was getting fucking wrecked by the sun even with tint. If you apply it properly (windex, apply film, squeegee) then it's on there good enough that you can still roll the window up and down. The best part is that it's static cling so no worry about adhesive residue or anything.

$18 B&Z Solutions Original 4-Pack Car Window Sun Shades Bundle-Universal Fit All Vehicles-Easy and Effective Way to Block Sun Glare, Harmful Heat, and UV Rays from Children or Pets-Black Static Cling Film

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UTZCHUW?ie=UTF8

And I use this on the rear window because I want to be able to easily remove it when I tow for better visibility. Also static cling, also great at blocking the sun. Easy to transfer between vehicles if necessary.

EcoNour Car Side Window Shades | Medium - 2 Pack Sunshade for Kids | Automotive Sun Protection from UV and Sun Glare | Car Baby Accessories (20"x12")

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08RSB2FHW?ie=UTF8

 

To be honest I would be really surprised if he still has issues after this. The difference was night and day. Good to have in my back pocket if it doesn't though.

 

Redid this setup with an actual breather vs a metal nipple with nothing keeping water/moisture from entering the diff.

Old:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

New:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

The working theory was that all the fine snowy powder I was driving in in VT iced up, blocked the breather and blew the seal. Not sure that is the case now, but this is cheap insurance if it was.

 

Monday was a huge day for me as a Dad. My son and I had off so we decided to do some adventuring in the truck. This was my first time putting him in the truck since my wife was nervous about him riding in it (tbh I was a bit too, it's an old purpose built offroader afterall). I think because she sees me do "unsafe" things with it she automatically thinks it's unsafe, which I can kinda understand. Not like she hasn't seen me almost roll it several times. But after some convincing she was cool with it.

First thing I had to do was reinstall the cup holder/car seat base support that I removed long ago back when we were convinced we were never having kids.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

First we spent the day with @Chux and his kids. Ethan got to see chickens up close for the first time, and so did Mac. Mac was obsessed with the chickens.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Had a great time watching the kids play and Chux let me take Ethan on his first quad ride too, which was awesome.

Then we headed to the pines for his first trip offroad. I knew there was only one place I wanted to take him to, and it's on the first page of this build. It was where I took this truck offroad for the first time, and where I visited many more times after that.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

It was a really humbling experience to bring him to where I got started. It makes me so excited for many more trips like this.

Also worked on some other random shit. Rebuilt my 3rd spare CV, cause you can never have too many.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

And I am trying a new potable water/shower setup. My garden hose setup tasted funky, and trying a new sleeker hose nozzle that I hope isn't going to be a pain in the dick.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

 

Dug into the leaky axle seal over the weekend. It looks like my suspicions were correct and that the pressure build up literally pushed the axle seal as a whole out of the axle housing. Not even damaged, just straight pushed out. And as @jubei mentioned in another thread, it requires some force to drive that fucker in, but I have seen pressure do some crazy stuff. This video comes to mind with the similar concept:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7QztTTSyhE&t=108s

Shit was definitely messy:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

This is how it came out, axle seal came off with the shaft. Now I know this didn't get "knocked out" pulling the axle because the retainer rides in the center of the seal so it's physically impossible for the seal to get passed the retainer and get pulled on by the retainer as I remove the axle.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

I reinstalled a new axle seal from Toyota, and then inspected the bearing. No metal flakes and the play was comparable to a brand new bearing I had in the garage. So I carefully popped the dust cover off the bearing, and sprayed the fuck out of it with brake clean and then hit it with air to try to force as much of the gear oil out of it as possible.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

I then wiped it all down, and repacked the bearing. I would pack it, then spin it, and pack it again. Did this over and over until grease no longer went in.

I then popped the cover back in with as much grease still floating on the surface as possible before I wiped all the excess off before reinstallation:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

The reason why I didn't feel it's necessary to replace the bearing was because I completely rebuilt everything in July 2019 here:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-01-build-thread.290011/page-82#post-21131976

After I did the grease trick to verify the retainer is still riding in the proper position on the seal (decided to switch it up from the marker trick) I reinstalled the axle.

I saw the self adjusting lever for the parking brake looked bent so I tried to unbend it....

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Waiting on another one from Toyota now.

In the meantime I tried something I never done before in this truck... tried to setup to sleep in the bed.

Holy shit, this is comfy! I always had a tool box so it was never possible, plus I never had a full cover. I ordered a custom sized tarp I can use as a temporary back door to seal up the back. Bonus for my camp light mount doubling as a place to put my Mr. Buddy heater.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

The back tarp is a custom made tarp and it's coming from India, so as long as that comes in on time I should be good to try this out.

If it's not supposed to rain or snow heavy I should be able to use a regular tarp, but the custom sized tarp is going to look and function much better I think.

 

How many tire weights are on that tire?!

 

I think they go all the way around except for that little space at the top

 

I remember the tire guy was having a hard time getting it to balance. It cost me 0 doll hairs to get them mounted so I didn't complain.

 

Alright so I learned something new and cool when working on the seal this time around. There is a small shield called an oil deflector secured on the back of the axle shaft itself via the wheel studs. The purpose of this is if the axle seal fails it is supposed to drive the oil out of the drum through one of the 6 holes that lines up with the deflector and safely onto the back of your wheel. Now I have a wheel spacer there which essentially blocks the oil from escaping so my leak takes longer to know it is happening as well as it getting EVERYTHING so much messier as it is happening.

You can see the escape hole in the 10:00 position here:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

And how the wheel spacer blocks it.

Always interesting to still be learning shit even though I have done this job 2 other times already.

Got some new brake tools to make life MUCH easier.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Though the one spring tool should be a little bigger.

So after I tested the mounting of the Mr. Buddy in the bed I checked the temps on the fabric of the topper. It was... unsettling to say the least. This was at like 5 mins heater run time:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

So I googled to see if anyone made a heat deflector for the heater and stumbled upon something WAY better.

This is the original video I found, and then found a bunch more but this gave the best detail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjj8mCEuAnM

So it's a wood burning stove fan that uses a TEG to run.

After the guy said he felt almost no heat above the heater anymore and felt it all in front of the fan I knew it was worth a shot.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

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

Another video:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

I had the topper off to seal up some leaks so once I wash the bed and add that back I can do a temp test and see if it improves the temperature on the fabric.

 

Saw that on your Insta yesterday. Seems like a cool little setup that I may try. I'll also have to try the propane fill up trick you posted too, seems way better than just replacing the little ones every few months

 

Wouldn't a wheel block that hole just the same?

Maybe lining your canvas with a reflective blanket might help also.

 

I'll be curious how well it works. When I use my buddy heater in my topper before going to bed, the top carpet on the topper gets dumb hot.

How tall is the whole assembly with the thermo fan?

 

Yeah the propane trick works really well, the only difficulty I run into sometimes when the tanks get real old is sometimes the valve I use to burp the tank doesn't fully close again due to corrosion. I have a tank like that right now and none of my valve stem tools are long enough to fix it.

Not a Toyota wheel:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

And do you mean like a mylar blanket to retain heat in the topper or to dissipate heat? I have used them between my rain fly and tent before and it's annoying as shit. They are almost impossible to secure/stay secured with tape in the cold unless you make it permanent which is the last thing I want on something I regularly remove the soft top on. That and unless they are perfectly secured the crinkly noise they make in the wind is annoying as shit lmao. If anything I would use maybe a thin piece of fiberglass blanket there if the fan didn't work.

Overall height is just under 20" tall. I am curious to see if I can use this setup in my ground tent in the vestibule like I used to have the heater.

I know this was post snow storm, but still based on this photo it's going to be tight.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Okay so, I got the topper back on last night and ran the test... holy shit it works so good!

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Video of the test:

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

And this is with ambient temps in the garage being about 65 degrees (got some early spring weather in jersey) but this also makes me feel like this is working super well based on the fact that there is no outside cold on the backside of the topper cooling it down too.

A couple other mods for this trip - a cheap attic net for the topper:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

And lastly a custom made back door that I ordered from coversandall.com. I was able to tell them the size I needed, and got it reinforced with d rings. The tire screwed up my sizing requirement though and It needed to be 6-8" wider. For $35 though I can't really beat it. It's a good temporary solution for this trip until my fabric guy can properly sew up a back door for me.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Hopefully it doesn't rain too bad on the trip and get the bed soaked. It's supposed to rain Wednesday so that should be able to tell me how much water will get in if it does rain. All my gear gets stored in water proof containers since I never had an enclosed topper before, but this will be a good test until I can get the proper setup done.

 

Yes one of those blankets to retain heat. I was thinking tucked between the frame and canvas wouldn't be too bad.

 

Yusss oh shit handle let’s go!

 

Grab handles are lame

Just kidding. Nice upgrade!

I forgot all about the fact that you never had them to begin with, but I remember talking about when we were doing the Kokopelli. So weird that they WOULDN’T come with them.

 

My Tundra didn't come with one but the earlier years did so retrofitting one on there was easy and is a must. I don't know why they're not standard on all trucks.