Enigma8246's 2001 Tacoma SR5 Build Thread (SOLD)

My dad and I are both federal employees and were off yesterday for Columbus Day. We both planned to do yard work at our houses but the forecast called for rain pretty much all day so I took the truck and some parts over to his house and we made good use of his shop. Here are the parts:





I ordered two kits from Royal South Toyota/Scion on ebay and am very happy with the price and service for OEM Toyota parts. All of the parts were right and labeled clearly. The only thing they didn't include was the o-ring for the oil dipstick and I noticed in the FSM that this was listed as a non-reuseable part so I picked one up prior to starting this job. All parts installed were Toyota OEM except the radiator and hoses which were from NAPA.

Torn down:



All in all it went well. The only real hurdle we had was getting to some difficult bolts to remove the A/C bracket so we could get to the back bolt on the timing belt tensioner. We were aware of this issue because my dad has a 2000 4Runner with the same engine/transmission as mine and he did this ~5 years ago. The excellent reliability he has gotten out of his 4Runner is the main reason I wanted this truck.

The only other thing we ran into was the hose from the water pump to the transmission oil cooler. I was surprised to see that a manual had a transmission cooler but according to the dealership, that's what it was. I decided to replace this hose just because it was such a pain to get to and I didn't want to have to tear down the front of the engine again if it started leaking. The local dealership had one and after a quick part run we were back at it.

The water pump didn't have any play in the pulley but the gasket was seeping some. Both idler pulleys had play and the tensioner was pretty worn out. While there wasn't anything particularly challenging besides the A/C bracket, I'm glad this is a 90k mile service and not more frequent.

 

sweet truck man kind of reminds me of my own...

 

I love the RTT. Were you able to get a pretty good deal?

 

Also looks like you have a lot more places to use yours than I do. I need to get mine out more.

 

Yeah I got a pretty good deal, I paid 600 but it needed a new cover so 700.

Yeah man I live about 3 hours from moab, and if I drive about 10-20 mins any direction from my house there are trails haha

 

Wish I could find a deal like that. I've been looking on craigslist but there was only one and he wanted about $150 less than a new one. I would rather buy a new one for that price and know that it didnt' have tears/issuses.

I have a couple of parks nearby and some forrestry service roads that I have yet to explore but you look like you have just straight up wilderness. That's what I'd like to have.

 

yeah i bought mine with some issues im kinda having trouble with, but all in all it was a 600 dollar tent that was originally around 1600 so im still ahead

 

I ordered some 'SR5 Expedition' decals from ruggedT a while back and have just gotten around to installing them. I got the 'SR5' and compass in matte black and the shadow and N in red. I'm loving the color combination and am very pleased with the cut of the decals.



I also installed a 'pulsing' module from Coupe Concepts for the 3rd brake light on my camper shell. I installed 194 style LEDs in the 3rd brake light and spliced it in with my tail lights:



I also installed a 40" low profile LED bar in the bed cap for lighting. Right now it is wired up using a rocker switch. I am waiting on a plunger switch which will allow the light to operate based on the bed cap glass being opened similar to a dome light.



To avoid drilling into my camper shell, I just mounted it using a generous amount of clear silicone caulk. I let it sit overnight and then pulled on it a little. I don't think it's going anywhere. I'll try to get some night shots at some point but right now I'm honestly a little concerned that it may be too bright.

 

gahh.. your truck has gotten me thinking about switching my bumper for the apex front bumper.

 

I'm very happy with it. The fit and finish are very nice and it bolted up perfectly.

 

I got to ride some trails yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't get to ride for very long. My wife was not enjoying the bumpy ride and kept freaking out when the truck shifted. I don't think she'll be accompanying me on too many more trips. We didn't take many pictures. I didn't want to stop driving to take pictures and my wife didn't want to get out of the truck because it was chilly outside.





This was only my second time at HS ORV. The first time we didn't do the second half of 'The Snake' but I was able to this time. It definitely gets tricky for the last 1/4 of it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Didn't get pictures or video because I was too focused on driving and my wife was too focused on us 'not dying'.

I have some video I took of one of the easier 'pipeline' trails that I'd like to post but youtube keeps rejecting the file for some reason.

 

I finally got the video to load. This is one of the easier trails but I was trying the camera out for the first time. This trail was made slightly more difficult by the sun directly in my eyes. Long story short, I learned a lesson; always clean your windshield before going on a trail that points your nose directly at the sun.

www.youtube.com/embed/HvyaZyctadg

 

Also got around to taking a night shot of the bed cap light. I adjusted the midtones slightly to get it closer to the actual output. I'm very happy with the light and just waiting for my other switches to get here.

 

I've done quite a bit of work on the truck lately but I haven't had time to do updates so here we go...

I finally got around to installing my 40" dual color Zeus Lighting LED bar:



It took so long because I accidentally ordered brackets for a curved bar. I initially tried to modify them to work and that did not go well. I wound up fabricating these and I think I like them better than anything else I've seen.



The brackets consist of a piece of plate cut and bent. Then, due to the angle not being parallel, I drilled holes and had a piece of tube with a plate end welded on. I drilled a hole in the plate at the end of the tube and the light bar mounts there. The holes and tube were not initially planned but they wound up increasing the security. With the bolts being sunken inside the holes, it would be difficult to get a pair of pliers on the head. Eventually I'll put backer rod in and fill the opening with about a 1/4" of black caulk to make it even more difficult to get to the bolt. I did something similar on my wife's lights and it's held up well so far.

I used rivnuts to install the brackets into the rain gutter with security screws. I also used security screws to mount the bar to the brackets.

Because the light bar has two colors, it has two power wires and a ground. Unfortunately due to having two power wires, I was unable to tuck the wires behind the weather stripping. For a while this meant I had a couple of ugly wires running down my a-pillar. I eventually got some white heat-shrink and white PET braided sleeving and made it look decent. I installed a sheet metal screw in the rain gutter with silicone on the threads for the ground.



I plan on mounting the wire in the sleeving using white nylon clamps but the ones I had were too small. I've ordered some slightly larger ones and will install when they arrive.

 

I also got my plunger switch for the bed cap lighting in. I fabricated a small bracket for the plunger switch and rocker switch.



Similar to a dome light, the light can be set to 'on', 'off' or 'door'. When set to 'door' the rocker switch routes power to the plunger switch and it controls the circuit.

The bed mat actually helps cut down on the light bar being too bright by keeping the glare down.

To avoid making extra holes, I used the frame screws to mount the wiring.

 

Sweet build!

 

Thanks! I've done a little more work but mostly using it these days. Unfortunately, it's being used for work and not play.

 

I was in Phoenix on business this past week and had Friday afternoon to burn time. I decided to drive up to Sedona to do some off roading but I flew to Phoenix so I didn't have my truck. I wound up renting a Jeep for the afternoon and did a portion of Soldiers Pass and all of Broken Arrow. I was pleased to see just as many Toyotas on the trail as Jeeps.

My ride for the day




Devil's Kitchen sinkhole:






Seven Pools:





















I saw a lot of awesome scenery but not much wildlife. I had to rush the second half of Broken Arrow because weather was moving in and I didn't want to go down the 'Stairs' when they were wet.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/KSLaMiPA0Tc

 

I tackled my valve cover gaskets this week. This was another kit from Royal South Toyota/Scion that I ordered on ebay and once again I was not disappointed. My dad helped me get them removed since he's done this before on his 2000 4Runner and an extra set of hands makes this MUCH easier. We pulled everything and put the valve covers back on Wed evening. I re-torqued the valve cover bolts Thurs evening and the gasket had compressed quite a bit. Fri afternoon I re-torqued them again and reassembled everything.



I also did my plugs and wires while I had everything torn down and the kit from Royal South included a PCV so I took care of that too. When everything was back together it wouldn't start. After panicking for 5 seconds I remembered it had been parked for 2 weeks without being on the charger. Since I had the ARB fridge in, the battery had drained. Once I charged the battery it started right up but idled very rough. I checked my vacuum lines and sure enough a hose had slid behind the block and I hadn't seen it to reconnect it. Once I did that it was back to running perfectly.

This job was time consuming but not anywhere near as complicated as I expected. I definitely recommend that someone doing this for the first time have help from someone who has done it before but I wouldn't hesitate to do it again without help. Having said that, I hope these last me until it's time for a new truck.

I'm hoping to get my steering rack and LCA bushings knocked out over the next couple of weeks.