2004 Tacoma SAS

Doing a bit of maintenance and prep, plan is to head down to Moab in a couple weeks. Need to build a couple skid plates for sure, transmission and hydro assist ram are pretty exposed. Planned to do the new rear disc brake set up but would hate to have problems and not be back together in time.
As a temporary bandaid I put a 2lb residual valve on the rear brakes to hopefully help with it pushing the pistons back.

Fitting a skid plate is going to be fun, as I don’t have much room to get it to the frame in the front. Going to set the front at full bump and see what I’m working with.

 

Making progress! Belly skid plate is finished just need paint, pretty happy with how it came out. Need to build a steering ram skid and looks like my upper link mount is starting to pull off the front axle, seeing some gear oil coming out (thin Toyota metal). Will need to fix that and brace it a bit better. Moab’s coming fast!

 

Painted and installed. Ended up building a mini skid for the back of the case since it hung over. Leveled out the steering ram since it was at a pretty bad angle but definitely needs a skid built for it now. Braced the upper link bracket. Closer each day!

 

Quick and dirty steering skid, rebuilt a loose Johnny joint and the Tacoma is ready for Moab!!

 

What a great time in Moab. This little truck impresses me so much.

Far too many pictures and videos to post here, Instagram has all the goods from the trip.

 

I saw a picnic bench diff rebuild on instagram, was that your diff?

 

Not mine! My truck stayed fully intact minus a tail light on Pritchett canyon.

that was the white pickup’s rear 9.5” I was with. It spat out a ujoint on devils hot tub first day, and a bit later in the day it lost the pinion nut. Turns out it chipped the pinion gear and lodged the chunk in the bearing so hard it stripped the pinion nut off.

Found a very expensive used bearing at the Land Cruiser shop, heated it up in the fire pit and built it by feel haha. Stayed together all week!

 

Couple more

Metal masher
Moab rim
Rusty nail
Golden crack

 

Rocks are going to be super lit

 

Took out the engine last Friday, spun a rod bearing and seized up while out snow wheeling. 617k KM on it. Swapped in a different one by Monday night.

 

There was one time, a while ago, I swapped my grill in a weekend...

 

Took the truck out for a Christmas tree today. Upper rad hose and coolant res were very pressurized. Not sure if it was because the vent wasn’t very good on the reservoir or if I have a bad head gasket or crack on the “new” engine.

So I’m looking for a better coolant reservoir. Anyone have recommendations? Currently running a universal container from dorman - it doesn’t hold much capacity and has always wanted to spit out the top which my old stock one didn’t do. Thinking maybe a second gen pickup res? Or maybe something factory from a different vehicle?

 

Weird. I have my overflow tube running into the top of a vitamin water bottle and never had it want to blow out or leak.

What do you mean spit out the top? Like it's a bad seal or overfilled?

 

I could just see coolant residue outside the vent. I don’t know if it was just not vented well enough on the cap it came with or what. But yesterday it had some kind of pressure haha. Figure I better make this proper before anything else

 

Yea I would try messing around with different venting configurations. Could try and add an extra vent port into the res you have before buying a different one.

 

Merry Christmas!!

How I vented the coolant overflow tank. Coolant goes into the cap, vents through the other hose in the bottle. Seems to be working, upper rad hose seems a bit harder than I’d like it to be but I’ll deal with a problem when it shows up.
Some wheeling, some exhaust work since my cat rotted apart in Moab. Added a universal cheap cat, new o2 bung and a v-band to make removing a bit easier.

I trimmed my fenders and prettied them up earlier this year while gaining a bit more uptravel, and now my 38” winters rub.. so more cutting is going down.
I’m also getting a little bored, starting to thinking about links in the back or some bigger axles.

 

Couldn’t pass up on this truck. Needs some frame work, but I’ve always wanted one this color. Excited to have a nice little daily instead of driving my F350 5 minutes to work/around town every day.

 

Question... Are you satisfied with the steering / turning radius of the Toyota steering with the long wheelbase of the double cab?
I am looking into things for my build and I am not satisfied with the stock IFS steering and I am still trying to decide what front axle I'll use when I do my swap.

 

That's hot.

 

Toyota solid axles aren’t the best steering radius. Aftermarket like a TG housing is even worse.

That being said, I’m used to it and with selectable lockers, I manage ok