"NE'02 TACO Rust Restoration"

The background: I bought this truck 6 years ago, 2002 base cab 4x4, 2.7 liter. When I bought it the previous owner retired it for frame rust, it was just starting to fall apart. Six years later and half the frame is air. The original plan was to patch it up, get it inspected and run it for a year or two. Well, I was looking for something else to drive, something old, pre-smog, but I never found the right deal, so I kept putting bandages on the Taco, fast forward to today, there's not much I can do other than stop it and repair it.

I was going to throw money at a new project, a pre-smog ride that I never found, now instead I'm going to throw money at the Taco, this will be that story.

You folks are going to think I'm crazy when you see this frame, most will probably think it belongs in a scrap yard.

 

Bottom photo shows a broken leaf, I completed the repair and added a pair of torch 2" lift helpers. Also note broken and patched cross member and material missing from the bottom of the frame rail. More photos to follow.

Can the star type wheel in the background be ID'ed? I don't think it's stock, it's a 16" tire?

 

sub'd

I have to work on my frame a bit as well, not quite as bad but salt belt blues (I treated the frame myself for over 10 years but have been lax these past after Toyota sprayed their goop)


I think that wheel was a "southern" special maybe? I've seen it before but am drawing a blank

 

I've done some fab work since those photos above, I'll take a few snaps later after it warms up outside. I'm working towards boxing the rear horns and replacing the cross members.

 

I just bought a replacement gas tank from ROCK. $250 including tax and shipping. Made by Dorman. The original tank is scaled to paper thin and has at least one pinhole leak, no fixing, just replace and move along.
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=10352148&cc=1388976&pt=6268&jsn=1
$250 was the best deal I could find.

 

Photos from today, camera battery needs to be replace, the lens needed assist in closing.

 

I'll use the side that's fitted as a pattern for the other side, everything gets tacked before final squaring and leveling and stitch weld. Gotta get both sides to match then use the bumper as a width spreader, after that some boxing and install new fabricated cross members.

 

Next up I'm going to fire up my CUT40 china plasma cutter to clean and smooth the passenger side frame rail. I gave around $200 for the cutter on EBay maybe a year ago, I gotta tell you folks, for light fab work that tool is the cats behind, its usefulness is top notch. I cut the 1/2" U-bolts that bind the rear end and leafs together with the plasma, I had to work my way around but it cut them.

The steel used for the frame repair is almost all A36 hot rolled 3/16" (0.188) thick, the exception will be the gas tank mounting cross members, those will be 1/4" thick 3"x1.5" channel. The spare tire cross member will be replaced with 1-1/4", 0.188 wall round tubing.

I source the steel locally, but with prices in constant flux I use Speedy Metals for reference, I sort of compare prices.
https://www.speedymetals.com/c-8209-steel.aspx

I also shop the local steel shop for drops from other cuts, this eliminates labor charges for cuts in many instances.

 

I haven't updated in a while, my camera took a dump, I got a cheap phone, I got pics of my progress, I need a USB cable to download, coming soon. As to my progress, I can actually see light at the end of the tunnel. I been working hard at it, but it's a lot for one guy, 63 years old, I guess I'm still gutty and I got a lotta heart, I ain't no quitter.

 

Interested in seeing the progress.

 

I think I might have it nailed down. The three rubber plugs with A10 on them.
The one furthest right goes to the rear end / rear brakes supply.
The one in the middle is the bypass return line.
The one furthest left is pressure supply from the front.

 

Is that the new one or the oem one?

 

that's a new one, the old went into the scrap.

Now my logic.

I think the engineers or designers intended for the valve to be self explanatory. There are two ports that are inline, and one port positioned at 90 degrees rotation from the two inline. When bolted to the frame the port that is alone points towards the rear end, it points across the frame, inline with the rear axle, the other two ports point forward. I'm going to assume that the one pointing at the axle is the supply for the axle.
Now the two that point forward are stacked when the part is properly installed, an upper and a lower port. At the front there are two junction blocks, the block closer to the rear end sits lower than the block that sits forward of it, the rearward (lower block) is traced back to the master cylinder and is pressure supply for the rear brakes, the other block, the forward block that sits slightly higher traces back to the front brakes pressure block. I think it is just as it looks, the higher block goes to the higher port and the lower blocks goes to the lower port.

 

The front two blocks, notice how one sits slightly higher than the other.

 

That sounds solid to me. Do you have that new valve in hand yet and where’d you get it? Once I get under my truck and look at the existing plumbing before I tear the whole thing down, it’ll probably make more sense. What are you going to use for your new brake lines?

 

I got the new valve at Amazon, it was on sale one night and I bought it, today's listing has it under $30.

$27 TIKSCIENCE Brake Load Sensing Proportioning Valve for Toyota Tacoma 1995-2004 47910-35320 47910-27081

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N4LH9YX?ie=UTF8
For replacement brake lines I'm using coated steel with stainless fittings. Going to buy some stainless tube in the future, see if I can work with it.

My plan is to mount the BPV or brake proportioning valve under the hood, and route the lines accordingly, by doing that I only have to have one line to the rear. In effect I'm extending line from the rear end to the valve and moving the valve forward, shortening the other two lines.
I'm not going to use a BPV weight adjuster, I'm going to run it as unladen, the stock configuration, no load on the valves plunger. I'm doing the rear disk conversion too and those are sometimes noted as locking up when unladen and a BPV isn't used, I've read posts both ways, some say no problem and some say lock up.

 

Looking at the toyota diagrams, it looks like those two blocks differ between ABS and non ABS models. I'll post em up here in a minute. It looks like on the ABS models like ours, the forward (higher) block is a 90 elbow like in your picture, but on the non-ABS models, its a T-junction.

 

Here's the ABS diagram, junction blocks circled in red:


And the non-ABS diagram: