1999 Tacoma SR5 TRD Imperial Jade Build, Sweat and Tears

Moab to LA


So much dirt on my sensor, damn.




Going through a sliver of AZ


Nevada. It was hot as hell. At this point im getting a feeling Im going to regret going to LA and I really wish I hadnt decided to go.


The closer and closer I got, the more traffic I hit, the shitter the drivers became and my regret started to build. At this point I was so pissed I stopped taking photos.

Crossing the border in CA was a joke. They were stopping everyone. Making them get out and opening the trunk or the back of their vehicles. I dont play bullshit and Im well aware of my supposed "rights" and I dont have any fear. I started recording the 2 cars in front of me and kept my phone visible so they would see it. Im not complying with illegal searches. This is an "agricultural" check which is BS anyways, but Im not doing any Nazi check points. And why is CA the only state in the country that makes you stop at the boarder?

Anyways. As soon as I pulled up I just stared the lady in her eyes with the Im not f'ing around look and the camera pointed her way and I got waved through, no check, no questions.

This country is going to shit. The surveillance is off the charts and I hear no one saying anything. I will touch on this again later.

 

As soon as I got into LA I checked on my car to get it up and running. At some point Im going to have to take it out of here and when I last parked it around December, it was losing water and I was scared of a head gasket failure since I redid the cooling system and there was no signs of water leaking.

I know this isnt Toyota related but just to show you I never have it easy.

I made a trip to Oaji. On the way up the water light came on and on the way back it started to over heat. I pulled off right away as I dont want to warp the head. Grabbed water and filled it. Water light went off and temp was back down. About a mile later the light came on again, oh shit, its serious. I see no water on the ground. Closest part store was 5 miles, thank god it was mostly down hill. After 2 stops of adding water on the way I made it. Had a good look and see a drip. My only choice was to pull the tank and try and make a repair.

I pulled it and what do you know, the belt cut a groove into it til leaked. But the belt is inches away, wtf.

I bought 2 repair kits and patched it. I was really worried the head gasket at this point is gone, especially with the over heat.

I got the leak stopped, the repair kit seemed to work which is weirds because this same kit didnt work on my truck when I had the cracked in my radiator top tank.

I added water but it kept puking it out. Im thinking it was the compression of the engine bubbling it over. Every few miles Id pull over and it kept puking it. Then I remember when I bought the car and re did the cooling system what an absolute nightmare it was to bleed the system. I just kept prying that it wasnt the head gasket. If it was the car would have to go to the junk yard, there wouldnt be any point in me taking it across the country.

Well I finally drove it enough and kept adding water with it on steep inclines and it worked its way out. It seems to be fine.












Plugged my scanner in to see the actual temp numbers since the factory gauge is bs

 

Coming to LA set off a whole chain of shitty events, even being here im losing my mind.

Let me first state I was born here and lived all over LA up until now so if anyone would know its me.

LA is the biggest shit hole ever. Shit is hitting the fan left and right by just being here, the people are beyond garbage. Some guy in a Mercedes road raged me in my car because I got over in the next lane and he tried to block me. He raced ahead of me and slammed the brake so I would hit him which I did.

I got kicked out of where I was keeping my car, so now I need to figure this out on the fly.

I literally cant be here, its gonna go badly.

I bailed back to Oaji for a couple days with my truck to try and figure out what to do and be in a semi peaceful place.

I had a few things planned to do while I was here like seeing some friends and stuff but Im bailing on it all.



Cool Delica in Ojai

 

Changed my oil.

 

Im getting out right away I cant be here. Im bleeding money just breathing the poison air here and my body feels like its on fire. My only choices are to find somewhere else to park my car. Drive back to the east coast, drop off my truck, fly back to LA and drive my car out. This one is a little messy because Im driving back kinda empty then I have to pay for a flight back then drive back again.

After thinking about a bunch of different ways, the lowest cost and most efficient plan is to flat tow the car out. Not really the best idea but nothing I ever have to do is easy so Im going to give it a shot. My only worry is that im going to be underpowered to pull the grades getting across, especially the one in Colorado (Vail). Im still loaded down in my bed full and top box so adding the car is going to be extra crazy.

Escape from LA is a go.

I knew in my head I could drill into the bummer bar on my car. Ive seen the bar before and knew it was really thick aluminum so the plan is to pull the bumper skin and mount the flat tow.
I headed to harbor freight and grabbed their flat tow bar. Really haven't had the best of luck with their quality so Im praying hard this bar doesn't fail. I did some research to see if I need to disconnect the driveshaft even if its a manual and never got a real answer.




Got it mounted but the bolts are short they are barely holding.


Ace hardware was down the street and this should hold to make it there.


The bolts that came with it on the right.


Took off the bumper again to replace bolts. Harbor bolt on right, replaced with Ace bolts on the left.


Then I made a trip of harbor freight again and grabbed safety chains for all 4 corners of the tow bar. I want this to be as safe as possible.

My plan is disconnect the driveshaft once I get a 100 miles out of LA. Just to make sure I was getting some lubrication I started my car and let it run at idle.

Cant get out of this shit hole fast enough. Insane traffic with people just jamming their cars in front of me taking away my buffer zone. So far its not pulling too bad as of now, but Im trying to be aware of the braking because of the issues ive already been having with the shitty Bendix pads. Plus I know this truck really isnt the best for this kinda work.

 

I stopped about 50 miles from where I left to rev up the engine to try and splash the output shaft on the trans so I wouldn't burn it up. Well, I spaced out and the doors lock themselves automatically at 10mph. So now my keys are locked in the car with it running.

It never ends.

I looked on the map and found a cleaners. Asked for 2 hangers, threw the guy some cash for saving my ass and tried to get the door open. I pulled out my pickle fork and used it to wedge the door open with some card board not to scratch it. The hangar wouldnt reach and it was too soft. I decided to add a zip tie, then twist the loop onto the the inner door handle when it was close. It worked. I didnt really get good photos. Legit about to have a mental break down from all this BS.

Reved it a few times, shifted through all the gears with the clutch in and headed out.

 

Stopped a couple more times and reved and went through the gears.

I knew the first true test would be the grade going up the 15 towards Vegas, especially in high heat. If the truck wont pull this Im going to be screwed in Colorado going over the pass.

It surprisingly did okay. I was watching coolant temps and nothing, it just ran normal, around 198f. The 5vz is a weird ass engine. It feels underpowered just pulling itself around yet some how it pulls this car while also being loaded down in the bed and top box. Makes no sense.

I finally got far enough out of LA and past the 15 grades to know that this might make it over the Colorado pass and now I really need to disconnect the driveshaft. Im not looking forward to this part, Ive changed the clutch in this car and its not easy to disconnect the driveshaft. You need to drop the entire exhausted and heat shielding. The car is ultra low and I have no jack stands. Im gonna have to figure this out.


I pulled off in the dirt, lets see how much of a nightmare this is going to be.

 

I have a harbor freight Pittsburgh 1.5 ton jack, so I jacked the car up in the dirt. Then I remember the tab on the end of the handle to let the jack down is broke off, so Im going to have to rig something up to let it down after. I put my toyota jack under the rear diff as a safety/jackstand incase the floor jack slips out on the dirt but honestly at this point I dont even care, it would be a blessing.

Im gonna do my best to disconnect the driveshaft without taking anything off. I never seen anyone try and do this but Im going to make it happen.

I bend the heat shield slightly away and access the rear drive shaft bolts one by one. I set the hand brake, take one bolt out, take the parking brake off, turn the rear wheel turning the drive shaft to expose the next bolt. I get all 6 out by doing this. Then I try prying the drive shaft off the diff. No go, no matter how hard I pried with a pray bar or hit it with a hammer it didnt even move. At this point semi drives are pulling in around me not giving two craps and just dusting me out. Im over it. I pull my jack from under the diff. Grab a socket and extension and let down the busted Pittsburgh jack. Get in the car, set the hand brake as hard as possible, start the car, rev it up and dump the clutch. Driveshaft disconnected instantly.

Jacked the car back up, threw my safety back under the diff and pried the driveshaft away. Its captured in a safety housing so it cant just be moved over. With it just sitting there is was still rubbing if I spun the rear tire. I remember I still had dirt bike tire changing spoons in my tool kit. I went and grabbed one and grabbed the visegrip off my camper shell. I used the tire spoon to pry back the drive shaft just enough for it to not rub and visegripped it in place.

I thought I took photos but I cant find them and this is the only one


At this moment I finally feel some relief. I got the driveshaft free and Im out of LA. I breath a small sigh of relief. Now to make it across.

 

Gas milage is still high. After pulling all this, up all these grades, in the heat I get 273 when the light came on. This is crazy. This is about what I was getting before pulling the car pre alternator and clutch change.


Checked over everything. Nothing coming loose all is still solid. You can see how much my truck is squatted in the rear from all the weight in the bed.

 

The devil is never far behind. I dont get it. Its a never ending shit storm of hell that doesnt let up. I dont even know anymore.

Semi driver was on his phone weaving around and we eventually clipped.

 

My goal now is to get back to Moab, park this car and camp for a little while and just think about my life.


The next test was the hills getting into Utah. Despite the high heat the truck is doing okay and pulling the hills decently. At worst I have to drop to 3rd gear to pull the really steep ones but it holds its speed.


Completely mentally f'd from all the stuff that just wont let up I forget to get gas before this section. There really isnt any gas for quite a long way through here. Carrying the extra 5 gallons finally saves my ass.

 

Few hundred miles from Moab




This section almost took me out. Flat towing is different than pulling a trailer. When you come into a tight turn and start braking, it wants to push your rear end out. The tires of the car do follow best when being pulled, once you let off and start to brake in a curve they tend to steer more straight and start to push the rear out of the truck. I barley made it through this section. I used just enough brakes to try and get some tension pulling but not enough to cause total loss of control and I think all the weight in the bed saved me by keeping traction on the rear. I could feel the rear end slipping as the car was pushing back against the truck.

 

Crazy storm getting close to Moab. Seems fitting.


The winds were insane. Hundreds of tumble weeds. So far my shell and top box have held pretty strong so I was confident it would be okay. The car seemed unbothered.


Got past the storm, just a few more miles to Moab

 

Was grateful to find a big RV camp spot when I pulled in.






This one hurts. I love this car just as much as my truck and I have just as much work into this car as I do my truck maybe more.


The storm I passed coming in came over in the night and was insane. The lightening and wind was crazy.

 

When I woke up. I looked for another spot. I dont want to take a huge RV spot.

I found one.

Ive never seen anyone mention this when I was checking into flat towing. Up until now I have made sure Ive never had to back up. I made sure I could always pull though. Well today I learned you cant back up flat towing. Maybe a foot or two but thats it. The front tires bind up on the tow vehicle. Keep this in mind.


My plan is no off roading, not even a little. Ive been through too much shit in the past couple months I cant take anymore problems. Im just gonna drive around on the roads and think about things. Its also hot as shit. No sleeping in or you bake in an oven.

 

After being in Moab 5 times this year, this place finally opened. Its a good escape from the heat into the AC. They arent fully up and running yet but the food they did have, mostly pastries is really good. Best in Moab.

 

I was bored so I decided to change my parking brake cable with the one I got out of the junk yard in colorado.

I didn't take too many photos. But the previous owner strikes again.

You can see from early on in this thread that I was trying to figure out what the deal with the parking brake was. I dont know why I didnt notice this before. You can see its mounted incorrectly and its not passed between the bracket correctly either. I always wondered why Toyota would put it in a position for it to rub on the leaf capture shackle. The tension between the 2 sides was never even, there was always tension on one side, making the brake stick on and drag. Its been nothing but a problem since ive owned the truck.


Well I pulled the old one and installed the new one. Night and day difference, even with the brake off. As soon as I let off the parking brake it rolls right away and even taking off from a stop the truck feels like it moves better. It seems Ive been dragging the brake slightly this entire time, even when off. Kinda of crazy how much of a difference it made. Curious to see if it adds more MPG. Either way the brake is working great now.

The old one

 

Ive been here 4 nights. It was a good reset to try and let things settle but Im starting to feel like Im wasting time as I have a lot of problems ahead of me.




I debated staying 2 more nights and running Poison Spider but Im too stressed to try and enjoy that.

Before leaving, I went to gas up, get ice and food without having to pull the car around town and just make things easier, well when I got gas I left my cap for the AUX tank on the shell and lost it. I didnt realize till I got back to the car about 10 miles away. Looks like Im starting this one out on a good note.

Hooked back up. Im gonna look for the cap on the way out.


Found it. It was laying in the road about half way between the gas station and where the car was. Good thing its made of stainless. I just stopped in the road and went to get it.


Hoping the hell ride is over. Time to try and get past the climb over colorado.

 

When I got gas in Moab on the way out, I added 2 stroke mix to both tanks to try and help the engine going over the pass.
The milage is still looking good, especially for pulling so many hills.