1999 Tacoma SR5 TRD Imperial Jade Build, Sweat and Tears

My bread crumb map of that area (ignore the purple line), these doesnt look like a lot but its a massive amount of ground covered. The flag is where the crazy climb was, it had a trailer marker with the number 1 on it. I liked to try and find out what that was.

 

Trails completed in Moab this far (all done this year 2025). There might be more that I did that connect some of these trails that I dont know about.

Shafer Trail
Onion Creek
Fins and Things
Hurrah Pass
Chicken Corners
Baby Lions Back
Deadman Point
Deadman Springs
Secret Spire 2.5
Dellenbaugh tunnel
Top of the World
3D
Hell Roaring Rim
Mineral Point

 

Just as a side note for anyone keeping up with my posts. I was checking the rear frame where I cut out the rust and made the welds everyday since I have no fish plates. After all that beating no cracks that I can see.

 

Was raining on the way out.




Just as im about 5 miles from the peak of the grade on the 70 shit starts hitting the fan. I start losing gauges and the tac starts bouncing around. I look down and it looks the the alternator is gone.


I fight to make it over the grade so I can at least coast a huge part of it to a parts store. I get to the tunnel and the truck starts misfiring and bucking in the tunnel. Kinda shitting my pants at this moment, the tunnel is full traffic, Im just praying for it to at least not die in the tunnel. I make it out and start coasting down the grade. Im at about 8 volts, the battery is slowing losing power. I go to put on the turn signal to get in the fast lane to keep my coasting speed up and it robs the battery of enough power it kills the engine. I turn it off and get the engine back, I coast quite a bit more but the battery doesnt have it, I have to pull over. My phone has 2 percent, I check for the nearest junk yard, 50 min away, not making that. Check for an auto parts store and I see a Napa like 8-10 miles. Thats doable.

I pull out my Noco boost battery jump pack, stick it on and start driving again. The jump back dies 1/4 mile from the exit to Napa. I pull off on the side of 70 again. Im dead in the water. I go under the hood just to make sure my connections are good on the battery and alternator. Seems ok. I go back to the drivers door to put the Noco jump pack on my Anker battery station and the god damn alarm locked the door with my keys and phone in the truck!!! HOW is this real! right now!!! The shit has fully hit the fan. I keep shit under control and just look for my next move. Breaking a window is something I dont want to do, need to find a different way. I cant go though the wing windows, I zip tied the rocker locks shut.

My shell is unlocked. I grab a pair of dikes, and climb over the top of all my stuff cut the latch off the back sliding window. Was surprisingly easy. All that got ruined was the outside tab of one side. Im good with that. I must have seen the future when I was at the junk yard in Colorado because I bought a full latch setup as a spare, so Im good. I used a pair of pilers to reach the door lock, GOT IT! Back in and minimal damage! I throw my Noco boost on the Anker right away to start charging back up.

At this point a highway safety guy pulls up. I tell him Im good, I dont need a tow. I pull the alternator connections off and just clean then just incase. He gives me a jump and nada, no charging, about 10 min has gone by, I have 1 bar on my Noco boost, I tell him I gonna drive to the next exit and go to Napa and if he can block traffic for me because I have very little spark and not a lot of power to pull out.

I put the Noco boost on and go. I make it to the exit, I was hoping there would be now cross traffic so I could roll the stop sign and carry some speed, but not there was someone coming, just by the brake lights coming on the truck starts bucking, I left off and get a little power back, shes almost dead, I make it about 200 more yards and the engine dies with about 7 volts, I cost it into Mc Donalds parking 100 yards shy of Napa. Im fine with that. Plenty of space to change the alternator and Im not in anyones way. I had called ahead when I was coasting down the grade and they did have an alternator. Almost $300! Im annoyed. Now I have to spend $300 on a junk Chinese alternator I dont even want. Since Im traveling I use Amex. They dont take Amex. Now Im fully deep in the shit. Im not ready to give up. The junk yard in Denver is open and its about 35-40 min. I just need to figure out how to get there. I check and they have 2 Tacoms and a couple 4 runners.

I start thinking. I wonder in I can use my Anker battery pack to act as my battery. I need a male to male 12v cig lighter plug to try. I walk back to Napa, they have nothing. Its a micro size Napa. I know I have one on my diesel heater and one on my inverter. It has to be done, I have to hack them off to try.


I throw the Noco boost back on the charger to get one more start to see if this is going to work. I cut both 12v connectors off, I grab my meter to beep out which wire is ground, I beep the first one out, when I go to beep out the second one the meter dies!! God is giving it to me long and hard today. I switch the meter off and on a bunch of times tile I get the faintest beep, GOT IT!! Not today god! I twist them together, then just electrical tape them.




I plug it in and get the jump pack. I jump it and start it, now the moment of truth when I pull the jump pack clip off........ IT WORKS!!!!! but for how long?! Its only making 10volts but its running!! Anything electrical is discounted, GPS, mirror/dash cam, I even unplugged the USB charging socket. I jump in and GO!!

Anker 12v outlet to trucks 12v cigarette outlet.


The Anker is putting out major watts through the 12v. 121watts, watched it go as high as 140w.


10v


I threw my other pack onto my Anker to charge the Anker. I still have a ways to go and I dont know how long the Anker can keep this wattage through the 12v. Thank god my Anker was some what charged up.


Tacoma sighting while limping it to the junkyard

 

I make it to the exit. Its 2 miles from here. It starts raining, as soon as I pull off the exit I instinctively put the wipers on. The engine dies!!!!! Shit hope there is enough charge in the Noco boost, I just need 1 start to make it, no way in hell im not making it. Noco boost barley starts it. Back up and running but not good. Very low power. It struggles to make it into the lot, but I MADE IT!

IT STARTS TO RAIN! GOD why do you hate me so much. F it, Ill get soaked. I get in the yard with an hour left. Both Tacomas missing the alternator, shit. Theres a couple of 4 runners left. I can feel it already. The shit is already lined up to not be good. Each 4 runner I go to nothing. The last one, please god let it be here, NOPE!







Not today, I made it this far, Im going down fighting all the way. Im at the last 4 runner and I turn around and I see a RAV4 (1999). Could it be?! I pop the hood, the alternator is still there! By my eye it looks close! The connector looks the same! I look on my phone with 1 percent battery life, it doesn't cross reference to anything but a RAV4, phone dies. I dont care Im taking it.


$41.53 is better than $300 junk. Fingers crossed.


They say dont work on the car in lot but I dont care, youre gonna have to stop me.

 

I pulled mine to compare. Its not exact but close. Moab dust covered Tacoma one on the left.


I went pulley to pulley, its looks close!


I impacted the nuts off for the pulleys, the shafts are different sizes! Damn! I put them back. Gonna have to try with the RAV4 one that has an extra rib.


I dont have a photo of it but you can see above how the ear on the left alternator (RAV4) has threads on the bottom ear. I drilled it out like it is on the Tacoma one. I mounted it in and I got the top bolt in. The ears arent in the same place so it sits a little different on the truck, but the top bolt lines up. I fight to get the the tensioner bolt back in and its not going. I just want to see that it works and I want to get out of this lot. I put the connector back on and the wire back on, pull as hard as I can on the alternator and tighten the one bolt. The tensions is ok but not great. Moment of truth......


IT WORKS!!!!!! 13.2v


I make sure not to rev too hard to make the belt slip. I have a 40 min drive and I make it. Once I get there I pulled the alternator back off to see if I can get the tensioner bolt back on. I drilled the ear one size bigger and it barley just makes it back in alignment with the slot in the tensioner. I had the worst time getting the bolt to line back up with the tension screw that goes through. It took like 40min. What a dumb design on Toyotas part. At least put the tensioner where you can get to it. It so tucked under everything and you have to put the bolt on the u groove first then try and thread it.

Man what a day. Its fully bolted on, tensioned and seems to be working volt wise just like the Tacoma one. I looked up the specs and it says 80 amps. I think thats 10 higher than the one that came off. It might be dumb idea but I think Im just going to run with it for now and rebuild my old one.

Well now you know, if you're in dire need and all you got is a RAV4, itll work. I think the year that this runs across is 1998-2000.

 

Anyone in Boulder/Denver that wants to do a trail, I think ill be here like 10 days.

 

Throwout bearing just left the chat.

 

Noooooo

I love keeping up on what’s going on with your truck I hope keeps going

 

Thanks, its already mostly taken apart, drivelines dropped, all the trans bolts off, connectors off, shifters off. I just need a jack to drop it and waiting for the part to be shipped. Its gonna run, I need it to get 1500 miles back home.

 

Through the clutch fork boot




Looks like a bit of wear on the bottom fingers


Pivot pin/ball looks good enough for now

 

I think the missing inspection cover might have been the down fall for the bearing, there was a lot of red dirt in there. The cover has been missing since I bought the truck and only just realized it recently.

 

Damn, damn , damn
Love this thread

 

get that clutch working again and keep on rollin'!

 

Are you ordering full kit and replacing everything?

 

I was just going to do the throw out bearing to get me back to where Im going. When I ordered from Rockauto yesterday the fastest I could get a clutch kit was the 27th, I cant wait that long. I could get the throw out by tomorrow the 23rd so I did that. But I just looked again right now and for some reason I can get the clutch kit for the 23rd. So I got an Aisin kit coming. I couldnt decide between LUK and Aisin and I dont really have the time to research so I just went Aisin even though its a lot more $, LUK was $180 and Aisin was $242. Not sure why the price difference is so big, then I took the hit for shipping to get fast, $60.

I mean Im in there so it just makes sense to do it once but Im also not in a normal spot with all my tools to make this easy. I have enough to get it done besides a jack, but yeah, its not really fun at this point.

 

Just looked at Amazon and they have the same

$233 Aisin Ckt040 AISIN CKT-040 OE Matched Clutch Kit - Compatible with Select Toyota 4Runner, T100, Tacoma, Tundra

Aisin Ckt040 kit for $235 free overnight.

Just canceled with rockauto and did amazon to save $60 shipping (so $45)

I seen someone say the aisin kit isnt what it used to be, its different now, the springs on the clutch disc are held by plastic but he LUK is like the old style. I cant get the LUK fast enough so Aisin itll have to be.

 

Some one said UREA Honda lube is really good so I got it.


Everything is pulled just need a jack to drop.


Harbor Freight 20 min away has a $130 trans jack. I think Im going to do that. Expect the uber ride there is $50-60! What a ridiculous world this is. So the uber ride there and back is going to cost about the same as the jack. WTF. I can get a plane ticket for that.

 

First of all this is the exact reason I wanted my enduro to take with me for situations like this, but here we are.

Pretty sure the universe has it out for me right now.

I looked and the bus here goes right to the harbor freight. I sucked it up and took it. 33 stops one way. Took about 3 hours round trip. Had to carry the jack 45lbs a mile after from the station. Knowing what I know now I would of just paid the $120 for uber. While coming back, waiting at the bus stop I smell something burning, I look up and some guy is smoking something with a huge propane torch. So not really happy I got 2nd hand of whatever that guy was smoking. Fucking lovely. Pretty much fuck colorodo for promoting and supporting this, I literally see it everywhere, even in rich ass boulder. Rich people seem to love to keep poor people around to feel better about themselves, same shit as San Francisco.

Anyways.











Wasnt too bad other than theres too much weight to the back of the jack and it was tipping.



Pilot bearing race just laying there. No ball bearings were found, they were all gone.


Pilot race on right and throwout was welded solid.


Marking on pressure plate 2019, no maker marks just the number.


Clutch is legit brand new. So is the pressure plate and the flywheel. The pressure plate and flywheel still have ridges in it. Looks like it was just installed. Im pretty good on clutches so I guess the previous owner was right when he said a new clutch was just put in.

 

So the outer ring for the pilot bearing was stuck in the flywheel. I tried to use a socket like someone suggested in the other post I made, not even close, there was no way. I have a pry bar that has curve on the end, I hooked it in the and was pressing really hard changing it to different spots and it slipped off, my elbow hit the side of the cat (which isnt sharp) so hard it spit it open a 1/4 deep. The nerves in my hand hurt so bad it felt like a truck drove over my had. Worse pain of my life by a mile. So I got that to add to the list.

After rolling on the ground for 30 seconds I just went back to it. Im over this shit by a mile.

I went to my tools grabbed the puller which just barley fit and rigged up some none sense.


I got it out. I took a photo of it out but my phone died right when I took it and it didnt save.

I think I possibly know why it failed. From what ive been reading youre suppose to install the clutch plate backwards, thick side towards the flywheel. They did not. It was thick side to the transmission. Its any wonder my clutch always engaged off the very floor. Its probably why the throwout bearing was always running.

Skinny side facing flywheel


Well its all out and waiting to Aisin to arrive tomorrow.