1999 Tacoma Rebuild Over the Years

The struggle is real. Only a few places stock them. A handful are ice cold, but only one has 24oz cans.

**actual photo**

 

I can't even get them here. I have to stick Everytime I go to Ohio.

 

She runs and runs as well as she did 10 years ago. Changing oil right now and will flush the radiator later on. Did find a small coolant leak on an EGR hose I cut short and stuffed a bolt into. Hoping a few heat cycles will soften the hose and make it conform to the bolt.

The p0115 coolant issue was the sensor on the backside of the block. The one you can’t see at all. I ended up using my iPhone in video mode with the light on to line it up and click it. Cleared CEL and good to go. Took it for a “spirited” drive after it warmed up fully and no issues. Idle is still around 1500rpms and there’s the open hose barb thing on the under/back side of the throttle body. I think it was a coolant port actually but I don’t remember. My .pdf is utterly useless for vacuum and related hoses.

Gonna flush the wife’s gx470 tranny later today, too. Need to change that oil also as well as rotate those and my tires.

 

Fluid flush. Drained at radiator petcock and drained off petcock on side of block. This is all it gave me. Topped off with distilled water, ran 5 minutes, and am waiting too cool off and drain the water. Then add some 50/50 PEAK Asian who led red/pink.

 

Finished the coolant flush and no issues.

Flushed the auto tranny in the gx470. Easy, but messy.

 

This pic is hilarious!

 

Amiright?

 

So I had a good look after dark with a flashlight and turned up a few issues and a fix for one.

Fix: 1600+/-rpm idle. I deleted the EVAP box and just left those hoses curled up in the corner. Well, the port that feeds the vac for that system I just looped on the throttle body to another place. Well, apparently some of these have vac all the time and some don’t. This one does. So when I unplugged it from the throttle body the idle went down. And when I plugged in the hose from the EVAP thing the idle stayed down and quit bouncing. Then the EVAP started pulsing. So I’ll need to “T” the other little EVAP thing and maybe that’ll be kosher.

New issues: leak from EGR coolant hose with a bolt plug hasn’t healed itself.

fuel line has some leakage and the area around the banjo bolt has some gas residue on it. I did not Tq this one, only snugged up with an end wrench

 

I fixed the coolant leak by tightening the bolt into the hose until the shoulder buried under the hose clamp. This hose went to the throttle body and is the vacant nipple I referred to previously. I inadvertently did a “throttle body mod” by capping this line. The fuel leak was a quick fix, too.

Idle is still hanging around 1100rpm and I can’t figure out why.

I have deemed it road worthy today and will attempt a 1000 mile road trip in the next week.

 

She ran and ran well. Mileage ranged from 15-17mpg doing 70-85mph.

Picked up a sweet ticket between DFW and Weatherford. 86 in a 70. Didn’t think the ol’ gal would do that...

 

I tackled the leaf springs last night and this morning. Went from 1/2” rear sag to 1.5” of rear rake. I didn’t snap many pics but basically went from a 4 leaf pack with an overload to a 6 leaf pack and no overload. I would’ve put an overload on, but didn’t foresee needing 7mm more U bolt to do it. Autozone had 1/2” and 5/8” U bolts, too small and too big. No time to order a new set at this point so no overload.



I ended up cutting one down about an inch on the ends so that it would fit underneath and between the riveted clamps holding the remaining pack together. The older set of leafs were getting rusty after 9 years in the bushes. So I separated them and wire wheeled them down, then primed them with an acid-rust inhibitor last night before the game. After the game I sprayed them with rattle can truck undercoat.



Super happy with the outcome and I’ll be making a road trip soon to ‘break them in’. Also happy that I basically got for a few bucks something between an 8 or 10 leaf Deaver style and stock. Like a best of both worlds.

Old 4 leaf set on the driver’s side.



“New” 6 leaf set on the passenger side.

 

I also changed the tranny oil. My manual tranny calls for a gl4 but nobody sells that in synthetic locally. So I used some Lucas 75-90 gl4/gl5 about 50k miles back. Shifts have gotten harder along the way and now 5th will grind if you shift too fast. None of the others will do that. So I looked and ordered some Redline MT90. $50 for a gallon and I only need 2.2qts. But 3qts by the single was $60. Go figure. Changed it out and it was very noticeably better shifting and felt better. So then I realized I never changed the oil in the transfer case portion. Changed it to some Lucas 75-90 and it felt better after that. Both oils were dark and stanky. The tranny oil had a very small residue of brass in the bottom of the pan. Maybe a pin head worth but worth noting.

 

So I decided to replace the near 10 year old Bilsteins and found myself ordering the wrong shocks. I measured my rear shocks with the truck sitting static and not loaded. I loaded my usual weight when traveling to work and measured again. Then looked online at all the 5100 and 5125 shocks to find what I needed to split the difference. Found some that work out to be about a 4" downtravel and 5" uptravel while loaded. Should be perfect for highways and washboards. But I didn't look at the eyes of them. They arrive and will not mount at all. I get sad and pissy then start looking for a solution. Energy Suspensions has several poly bushings to do the trick and is apparently becoming the more common thing to do for a perfect fitting shock. Now the wait for 2-3 weeks to get the bushings in since Amazon says they're not essential and I didn't wanna pay any other vendor $10 S&H for $8 worth of bushings and still be 8 days out. So at some point I need to visit my uncle and press out the nice factory bushings from the Bilsteins and I should be able to put the ES bushings in with my vise.

I also went with a set of Tundra 5100 struts. They are about .4" shorter overall length and have a beefier looking bushing. These will fit without swapping. The shortness will merit some measuring for perch placement before mounting springs to get it right. The Tundra struts are supposed to have more dampening abilities is the reason for choosing them. If it is noticeably dampeny-er, I may get a set of these for the GX470 that I used the 4Runner struts on. With the weight of the v8 it is slightly under dampened. I notice it but the wife does not. If were all still in quarantine when I get time in a few weeks I should just swap those 4Runner struts for these Tundra struts. But that would have me doing 4 coil spring compressions back to back. Not my idea of fun. Maybe there is a shop with the big compressor.



Energy Suspension bushing for the shocks to fit a 1st gen Tacoma
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ens-9-8140g

Summit bushing for a Bilstein strut to fit a 1st gen Tacoma
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/bsn-e4gv2z033a00

List of Bilstein 5125 shock lengths (will likely need the bushings swapped)
https://www.shockwarehouse.com/site/bilstein_5125.cfm

Summit has a helpful search option of extended and compressed lengths. Scroll down and tick as many as you want that would fit your application.
https://www.summitracing.com/search...ocks and Struts&N=part-type:shocks-and-struts

 

I'm curious about the final ride when you get done.

I absolutely hate the factory Bilstein ride. Been looking for the best ride for a non lifted 1st Gen. (Been experimenting for 20 years).

 

i just removed the ebay header it came w a warped flange, so it didnt sit fluch on the head, now i got LCE headers. good luck.

 

What all brands have you tried?

 

Sorry to hear it was warped. The flange on mine looked thick enough to handle a little mechanical decking to flatten out. LCE or factory mini header with my old collector will be my next route.

 

Gabriel, monroe, Bikstiens, taconsha, AutoZone store brand.

I think the gabrials were the best of the bunch so far.

Bad spelling, but I don't care enough to worry about that right now

 

I’ve heard good about the KYB and the Eibach seems to have a following as well. Never bought from this place but they list specs when many other places do not.
https://www.shockwarehouse.com/inde...=Toyota&model_name=Tacoma+4WD+(including+TRD)

 

Thanks for the link. Book marking it for now as I just got done rebuilding my coil over shocks. It took me 6 tries before it was " mostly" right. I kept getting sent the wrong parts. I bought assemblies so I could get them changed quick. Nope, sent shocks assemblies that were too short.

Ended up rebuilding the fucking things myself. Zero time saved, truck on the rack for 2 weeks. Mega pissed.

I can tear down and rebuild coil overs in 15 minutes now. Not that I'm proud of that.

Sorry about the rant. Those front shock assemblies piss me off!