1st Gen Taco Kit

So this was a post about my 2002 but I have decided to make it about All my 1st gens

Now named 1st Gen Taco Kit



This will include

2002 red Tacoma rebuild
2004 silver Tacoma play / cabin / parts truck
2004 black Betty Tacoma crew cab v6 4x4 auto this will be parted out

Combining this all into one is probably a bad idea but it’s also a bad idea to have 4 different truck threads about Tacoma’s if you include the 007 taco pro

Orignal post

Hi to all the TW ppl that decided to find out with this is all about !

My name is Jon and I am from Newfoundland Canada

This is a spot for me to document my Tacoma truck and the stages it has gone through.



Please feel free to comment, suggest and inform

I have had a few Toyota's over the years starting in 2006 with a 1992 22re truck that I LOVED ! I did the cam chain and adjusters and some other items. But i was doing allot of highway driving and the lower control arms were getting bad The truck had a MAJOR case of rust and it was in need of more work then i could give it at the time. I tried to keep it but had to let it go.

 

After driving the 22re for a few years I found a 2002 Tacoma v6 Std 4x4 for sale in 2010, this picture is the day I bought it with 130257 KM on it

 

So where do i go from here ?
I remove the cap and sell it, dive it for 2 years without doing anything other than oil changes.
Go into to Toyota dealer and they inspect my frame and it passes so i get the FREE undercoating (Free Mess) two months later my hand brake cable broke so as i was investigating and trying not to get covered in the free mess i see that the frame has separated by the spring hanger.

I call the dealer and they told me to bring it in again so they could look at it ...... HUMMMMMMM weird they did not pick up on this.... Whatever two weeks later i bring it in and leave with a rent a car for a full month while my truck gets a new frame, springs, lower control arms, and a bunch of other stuff. I was told Toyota Canada spent $16000 on my truck, I told them If they let me i would use that money and buy a new truck. No dice

 

While the dealer was doing the frame i had a extra leaf put in the rear springs. After the new frame i had all kinds of issues where everything was disturbed it brought almost worn out parts to the end of their life.

When i got it home my gas tank started to leak
The tank straps were also way to thin
Reinstalled the tank and my sending unit for my gas gauge only works from full to just below 1/2 a tank
The muffler started to leak in all joins and in the muffler itself
Tie rod ends were worn
Tires were at the end of their life
With the new extra stiff springs in the rear i noticed how soft the front suspension was
The backing plate for the front brakes was gone
Passenger side front diff seal was leaking

* All the above issues were not caused by my dealer, they were due for replacement

So.....

Tank came out and got fixed and coated, i made some new tank straps.
I ordered a Magnaflow cat back exhaust Brapppp
Installed some slightly used TRD shocks front and rear
New rubber 265 70 16 general grabber AT2
Went for a front end alignment was told that the inner tie rod end was gone
All new upper and lower ball joints and inner and outer tie rod ends (the good ones)
New diff seal
New backing plate

 

No pictures

My passenger side floor was getting wet when it rained, so i stripped the interior and started to wire wheel the rusty spots.
I noticed a small bump on the pass side floor and took notice but continued to prime and paint, reinstalled with out any carpet as i have a dog and it is easier to clean this way.

Time to look into the deck plate mod, ordered a K&N air filter went to install and this is where it went down hill ........

The ear for the air box that holds it to the frame was cracked off weird
Their was bolts missing in top of the pass side fender holding it on and a rubber hood support
Removed the air box and there was a big crease in body under the air box
Further investigation

salvage yard bumper
Head light
after market pass side fender
new rim

explains the bump in the floor, slight vibration at speed, dented gas tank ...

This truck was in a accident .......

 

Ok i am over it .......

Drove the truck

 

Subd!

 

Lots of adventures were had, until the motor started hesitating. With 200 000km of towing this or hauling that i was thinking it was the clutch slipping under load .... Ordered a new one (Exedy) and what a Pain in the A$$ to install !!!! took it for a spin and it STILL hesitated ! FML

 

The hesitation issue was not the clutch at all but with 200 000km + and doing lots of highway driving i have no regrets about putting this in.

I decided to change the spark plugs with OEM Toyota plugs as i had no idea what was in there, i researched it and started to think what if my plugs are seized into the block ? ..... so i put some penetrating oil down in the spark plug hole and ran it through a few heat cycles. In the research i did the OEM plug from the factory was different from one bank of cylinders to the other (brand, model, something cant remember right now) and this is the way you could tell if the plugs have been changed. Anyways my plugs never have been changed ! went to take them out expecting to have to fight all the way as they have been in the motor for a good 15 years ! the plugs came out nice and smooth and i found my problem, one plug was falling out, allowing low compression and causing my bad fuel mileage and loss of power.

 

Its time to take a BRAKE ?

new grease-able u joints
new carrier bearing
new rear brakes (drums, brakes, spring kit)
new front calipers, pads and rotors

I had to cut the drum off FML

bought the truck in 2012 ...... first brake job 2015 ish

 

Somewhere in between all of this my starting motor started to act up
I ordered a new one from local supplier took way longer then it should mostly my fault, BUT no worries i kept my ball peen hammer in the truck, for a quick tap after work, getting it started at 5:40am was a different story. I used to back in the driveway and bump start it every morning to go to work. This went on for like a month .... lol

One of the guys at work took a marker and wrote on my hammer "genuine Toyota starter"

New starter went in no problem

 

Ok so where were we ? .... I guess then next thing i should talk about is my luck with Tires .... or just one tire.

FYI i know that this is ALL MY FAULT and a plug is not the right way to fix a tire so here it goes

Arrived late one night to my remote camp and pulled in my passenger side rear tire ran over a survey peg (re bar) that was in the ground. My tire started hissing. Out came the plug kit

Next morning out came the breakfast beer and i drove that sucker in the ground







Happened Again on the Highway .... More plugs !




And if anyone if following i have put more plugs in this one tire then ALL the other tires combined.

 

Moving on ......

Had some exhaust issues along the way ....
The joint where my cat back mounts to the original exhaust keeps rotting off
happend 2-3 times now in the same spot !

The NUTS rusted off the O2 sensor and blew it out .....

Man do i hate RUST !!!!

 

I guess this was the start of it ....

My belts started to squeal ........

I looked at the compressor belt and noticed the compressor pulley was not running straight !

Ac had left long ago so i priced a pump ...... and off came the belt !

Problem solved, until winter came my belts started to squeal again FFS

I took a wrench to the alternator adjuster and sure as shi# the bolt broke off, took it all apart in the dark, in the driveway, in the winter, on my back in the snow ...

Found a bolt in the bin and had to run a die over it to take the shoulder part off and then trim to length reassemble and adjust belt.

 

I took a week off work in the winter and planed to head into my remote camp, loaded up the trailer and no lights .... traced it down to no power coming from the truck. Took it all apart and found out that the trailer wiring was all messed up. Time for a mid winter rewire of the back half of the Tacoma.

My best friend Terra helping me out ..... Her name was almost Tacoma

 

So I found some more pictures and I added them in almost the correct places.

Keeping it OLD skool with the OEM tape deck, cd, radio combo !

 

ADD got me ..... so I went to look at a early 80's 2wd truck in the woods. It is -29 c out side with the windchill so we did not stick around. These trucks are non existent around here. Rare find.

 

Welcome

Fellow Canuck here but currently living south of the border.

Cheers man!

 

Way way back when I was doing some work I noticed the power steering rack was leaking, so I filled it up every now and then.
The temps dropped and the squealing belt was back.

Leaving at 5:40 Am to go to work with what sounded like a bag of cats under the hood probably made me popular in my neighborhood.

So I tried 6 bottles of power steering pump leak stop ...... did not work .... puking it all over the underside of my truck .......

When the temperature doped to the point of snow i guess the THICK STOP LEAK did not want to pump so i had almost zero steering, but when it heated up everything was fine.

with this and some other small issues i decided to take the truck in for a refit ......

By the time i got all the parts lined up to do the job my pump was making a noise all the time

Parts ordered
New powering steering rack
New pump
New Tires
New OEM Toyota belts

A week before this was all about to jump into my truck a RT180 crane made contact with the box of my truck Its only metal and no one got hurt.

 

Hummmmmmm Shi##Y yes it is.

So my plan was to keep this truck for a LONG time, and this is still the plan !

So lets recap
1. I need new tires (remember the plug story) also has a leaking rack and squealing pump
2. Tried stop leak and when its cold it did not pump, burnt up my pump
3. I want a front end alignment with my new tires
4. All ball joints and tie rod ends have the boots torn and are puking grease (good thing i bought the lifetime ones)