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

one of the many reasons why I divorced the IFS years ago

 

well if someone wants to prototype some parts to make it happen, I'm down to make some chips

 

Irrational fear if you maintain your truck.

 

Got the bed mounts cut off and the passenger shock mount cut off this evening, day by day its starting to look more like a race truck. Putting UCA's and LCA's and some fox 2.5s on my father's second gen this weekend, then I should be able to push the clean up and I can start patching up the holes left over from the rust.

 

Those are some beefy leaf springs and a modified frame, what happened to the truck before?

 

Sadly rust in frame around the front spring mounts. The truck has a bed cage for bypass shocks so I've decided to remove the bed to save the weight. I'm boxing in the rear part of the frame, replacing the cross members with some 2" round tube and moving the gas tank up behind the rear axle to move that weight to the center of the truck and being further back.

 

Heres a photo of the bed cage in it's current state.

 

The springs are Deaver J59. They have a lot of individual leafs but they're actually a performance-oriented spring designed to be flexy, not meant for heavy loads.

 

Thanks for the feedback! We appreciate your support

For anyone else interested, here's a link to our First Gen Products:
https://www.chaosfab.com/1st-Gen-Toyota-Tacoma-Off-Road-Suspension-Lift-Kits-Accessories

 

Changed out a bunch of nearly 30 year old vacuum hoses that were hard and brittle with these

https://www.siliconeintakes.com/liquid-air-adapter/silicone-boost-vacuum-hose-p-591.html

I’ve got a few more to change and then I’ll do my 3rd Gen 4Runner.

Mike

 

Tundra brake upgrade done. The old brakes were....done. Maybe a sixteenth left of pad. These brakes always were terrible anyway, here's hoping for better.

I'm really tired after being outside in Tucson from 9 to 3, so I'll bleed them tomorrow.
Also, the passenger OEM hard line on the frame rounded off, even with a flare wrench. Took that little short hard line out and put it in a vise, clamped
on the flare nut with vice grips and popped that sucker loose. Other than that, the whole thing went pretty well.

 

I only see heim ends for the outer tie rods, does TC have alternative inner tie rod?

 

I would love to design a new spindles that utilized a 2nd-3rd gen front diff, CV axles, hubs, and lower ball joints that work with 1st gen rear steering. It would be a big design challenge, but an awesome upgrade. I'm not totally sure it's even possible.

 

I made my own with Trail Gear clevis for the inner.



Then I added a rack slider.

 

Great job! I think I will copy your inner tie rod conversion. Did you lose the ability to use the boot?

The rack slider is impressive too! Does the steering feel different?

 

I ended up being able to cut the boot shorter and clamping it to the clevis.

Steering is fine.

 

Hit the 200K mile club on the trip up to Mormon Lake this weekend.

 

So first impressions after doing the Tundra brake upgrade, and admittedly the poor previous brake pads/rotors..... one of the better things I've done to this truck. It will literally lock up all four wheels now, really nice pedal feel. I deleted the load sensing valve a long time ago and I don't have a proportioning valve, and it stops very quickly with total control.
I also replaced the windshield washer squirters that were clogged up, and put the TRD stickers back on. There are no other emblems on this truck...just not a fan of them.

 

The TRD stickers are a little low in the besdide, but yes, the Tundra brakes are a top 3 mod for me.