Tacoma Refugee on Space Coast

Hi Guys (and Gals)

I don't currently have a Tacoma truck, but I lived in/near Tacoma, WA for about 40 years. Does that count? OK, so I currently own several well-loved Toyota products, and had a 1976 Toyota HiLux truck for a few years until the (standard) transmission died. It looked pretty much like this one... Sadness when the transmission died.

I currently own several Scion xB's, 2005 5 speed, 2006 automatic, 2006 automatic, and a dead 2006 automatic that my wife was in a head-on with a big SUV and the Scion lost. I've kept it for parts for now. I also own a 2008 Toyota Yaris.

What brought me here... this forum had a nice discussion on Koyo and Timken wheel bearings, and authentic/counterfeit bearings. I understand Koyo is the OEM wheel bearing manufacturer for Toyota, at least for my Scions. I did the whole darn wheel bearing replacement on my 2006 Scion xB, sought out Timken bearings, and then about 1000 miles later, the bearings have failed. I don't know if I got counterfeit Timken bearings or if I screwed up the install or if just Timken quality sucks now. I got the Timkens through Amazon. Yeah, I know, that was my first mistake.

Anyway, I am about to do my wheel bearings again, and this time I got Koyo bearing that arrived today, and I want to do an authenticity check before I go through all that freakin work again. This time I was able to get the dust shields and I will also be replacing control arm, ball joints, tie rod ends, and that link thingie. I'm not a real mechanic but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express 10 years ago. For things that require actual skill and precision, I hire a real mechanic to do those parts of a job. As Clint Eastwood said, "A man's got to know his limitations." I can't recall if that was before or after the "Do you feel lucky today, punk?" quote, or from a different Dirty Harry movie.

 

A friend had a red one of those trucks.

 

"A mans got to know his limitations" is one of my favorite quotes. Touche.

Should probably add your source for the parts and probably pics of packaging and the parts themselves.

 

Welcome to TW!