MatosTaco's Build Thread

My red and clear tails finally came this afternoon, post office "missent" them once they were already here in Miami. Big thanks to Jose/JDMHelix for the hookup:waytogo:

 

11-06-2010 Well, I finally installed the RSX seats today. I did all the work to install one last night and then spent today doing the drivers side. I literally mean the whole day, from 11:00 am to 11:45 PM! I still need to make an extra piece for raising the outboard side of the driver's seat, I added a half inch thick spacer and it was not enough, the seat is leaned outward. Why couldn't Toyota just use a flat bar where the front of the seat mounts like everyone else? No! They just had to do some stupid slanted bar. I did take the truck for a spin and I have to say I hate how high the seats sit, it feels as if I never dropped my truck! I may end up making my own brackets from scratch in order to lower them some. It was a huge PITA to install these seats and I simply can't believe that there is still work left to do!

 

11-07-2010 Didn't do anything with the seats today. I blocked up the outboard driver's side brackets 1/2 inch as I saw that was what VRacer (Customtacos member that pioneered the Celica seat swap into Tacomas) did but the seat leans outward. I will have to do 1" soon, it's killing me how high the seats are. I mean, the visibility is great and I still have good head room, not bad considering I'm 6'2." Besides this, the seats are awesome. They are exponentially more comfortable than the stock seats and they really hold you in place. You feel way more connected to the truck and it really shows in the corners. Another beautiful thing is that the bolt from the seatbelt buckle matches the thread for the buckle on the RSX seat so I was able to add my stock seat belt buckle without buying more hardware.

 

12-17-2010 Finished getting my clutch and flywheel in a couple hours ago , pictures coming soon.

12-19-2010 Going to have to redo the clutch installation, tomorrow's going to be a long day lol.

12-21-2010 Well, my friend Javier came over yesterday and we took the transmission down again and re did the clutch installation. The pressure plate was warped just as Gadget (owner of Underdog Racing Development) said. I cleaned the holes for the dowels and we reinstalled the pressure plate, using quarter turn increments in order to tighten the pressure plate down. It was not possible to do half turns as there was not enough room under there, however quarter turns work the same- they just take twice as long to do.


Big thanks to Gadget for his awesome customer service and his willingness to help. I would have never figured it out without him. Who else do you know that will take your phone call at 8:30 PM on a Sunday night? I can't thank you enough Gadget! The truck is running great, no shaking or clutch chatter whatsoever. The new clutch is rougher at engagement than the stock, but that's to be expected.

 

The old stuff




New Flywheel installed




New clutch installed (this was taken the first time I installed it)

 

Trans out of the truck




Closeup




Method of adding transmission fluid






Caught the lunar eclipse

 

12-22-2010 Well, I took the truck to the gas station today and I was scared the whole way to and from, I thought something was going wrong and I got alot of stares lol. However, I realized they must have thought I don't know how to drive stick and from the research I've done it seems alot of people have that experience with an upgraded clutch. I got an odd noise when letting off the throttle and letting it roll in 4th and also 3rd gear.

However, I just took it for an extended spin around my neighborhood and I found that it was much more compliant. Maybe it likes the temperature at night? Anyhow, there was a lot of starting and stopping at stop signs coupled with plenty of shifting through 1-4 gears. I took my camera along and tried to get some video of when that noise happened but I only managed to replicate it once and then it never happened again. I wasn't able to get video of it. It started getting easier to drive as I kept going and not just because I got better at handling it. I noticed that the clutch, which up until now had always engaged with the pedal still very close to the floor, was now engaging with the pedal a little higher. This makes it easier to drive. I still have problems starting off the line without peeling out or shaking the truck as if I'm about to stall it- man it feels just like when I was learning stick! I used to drive around my neighborhood just like that to try and improve my skills.

Overall, it's an interesting experience, sort of sucks to not be able to drive it as easily as before yet it's exciting to some degree.

12-30-2010 I had Javier ride in the the back of my truck about a week ago while I took it for a spin on the highway as the vibration sound was happening alot at speed. As soon as the sound started, he knocked on my back window, confirming that the problem was somewhere in the back. We decided it had to be the center bearing on the driveshaft.

Sure enough, when I got back from vacation I jacked up the truck and realized that I had foolishly installed the bracket for the bearing upside down. The only way I knew was because of the markings left by the washers. I could not get the bearing back into the position where the washer markings were and after speaking to Gadget I realized this was because of the fact that the truck is dropped. Interestingly enough, it had been in that position the whole time I was dropped until I removed the bracket for the clutch installation. I had never had vibration before.

After taking it for another clutch break-in run I noticed the sound was gone. That was yesterday. Today the noise returned, although it does not happen as often as before. The clutch itself is starting to become easier to use. I think the driveshaft may need some sort of alignment after all. It could also be the famous flywheel chatter- only time will tell I guess.

 

1-24-2011 Gold/Bronze powder coated wheels. Pictures coming tomorrow.

1-26-2011 Here they are, the powder color is "bronze" but it is the color of fresh bronze, the more copper like color that comes to mind when people hear the word is aged bronze if I am not mistaken.

 

1-26-2011 Finally Mounting them after having the truck on stands for two weeks, ouch.




A shot later on in the day, it was gloomy out so the color of the wheels didn't look as bright



Time to drop the truck some more, the front is ready to go, the rear will need more mods.

Beefed! I need that 4 link lol!

 

1-30-2011 Took advantage of my day off and brought the front down another half inch. Once I get the four link (I know you'll get it done Beefy!) and some rear coilovers, I'll bring the front down the last half inch that the QA1s will allow. I'm loving how it looks now.

 

2-18-2011 I wrapped my steering wheel in leather. I'm loving the new look and feel of my steering wheel, no more ugly cracked surface. It took a while to do and I got stabbed in the fingers by the huge sewing needles that came with the wrap, but it was well worth it.

 

3-21-2011 Got a few mods coming up this weekend. The SRunner rear sway bar is hopefully coming on (the brackets are back- ordered) along with full interior LEDs, blue for the dash and bright white for the dome light.


4-01-2011 Alright here it goes . . . I took the center console out and then removed the panel around the ignition. I then followed the dash take apart instructions in the tech section(of customtacos.com). It isn't mentioned there, but I highly recommend you take out the plastic cover around the steering column in order to make it easier to take the panel around the gauge cluster out. The left side A/C vent has a 90 degree elbow which makes removal of that part a pain if you don't remove the column cover.




With that done, just remove the cluster. If you have an older Tacoma like mine, it will have a mechanical speedometer so you will feel a pop as you pull the cluster out, don't despair. This is just the mechanical connection popping out.





Take out the stock lights according to the instructions in the tech and put in the new LEDs. The ones for the cluster are two #194 wedge base bulbs. On my dash, there is only one LED in the A/C panel, a #74 wedge base bulb.







I plugged in the gauge cluster harnesses and the dimmer harness in order to test out the bulbs, mine were not polarized so this step was more out of curiosity/ double checking just to make sure- it would have sucked to put that dash back together and find out the bulbs were in wrong. From here, everything comes back together the same way it went in. However, in order to reconnect the speedometer you need to stick your right arm through the center opening and push the end inside the dash into the back of the cluster- it is pretty much impossible to do otherwise.





Now simply enjoy the new dash. The 5- LED bulbs I chose are a nice blue, blue and orange are complementary colors so the lights really make the orange needles pop. Pictures do not do it justice, it is way nicer in person. I now need a new radio as the green from it detracts from the overall effect.







This took all of 20 min to complete, followed by hours of waiting for night to come so I could see the effect.

 

4-02-2011 The SR rear sway bar went in yesterday. Hellwig only sent me the shackles, guess they didn't understand I also needed the U bolts lol, so I got some from Home Depot. They are temporary until I upgrade or weld the shackles to the axle but they get the job done. I took the truck for a spin and found that the rear end definitely comes out more and the truck has more bite when it turns in. However, My front tires are now rubbing the fender liner and the fender itself when I corner hard. Time for some good old fashioned fender rolling.

 

4-08-2011 This is what the Toyota brackets for the SRunner sway bar look like




This is the sway bar with all the necessary bolts and brackets assembled to it




These are the Hellwig shackles for the axle, had I known how they looked I would have saved time and money by making my own from some square tube.






Here it is under my truck




Here is a side view

 

4-10-2011 On a random note, I just drove my friend Javier's AE86 for the first time, we recently got it running. It has a six puck, unsprung hub clutch and aluminum flywheel from SPEC and it engages smooth as butter, it's not even broken in yet- this was its first use! This is possibly because that clutch is about the size of a donut. I now understand how Luis could drive his newborn around with one of those clutches in his AE86.

8-19-2011 I came back (from an internship) and found my brother got me a TRD shift knob for my birthday! Score! Unfortunately, the internal seals on my brake master cylinder were out. I initially thought I just had air in the lines so my friend Javi came over and we bled the lines, only to find that nothing improved. Upon removing the cylinder, I found that one of the seals for the rear brakes was blown so I picked up another master cylinder at the auto parts(no one seems to sell rebuild kits) for $77 and put the internals from that into the Toyota one. Unfortunately, I did not notice the inside walls were roughed up. So upon bleeding the brakes, they were good for awhile when suddenly, the pedal dropped. We took the thing apart, realized the walls were the problem and had blown the seal in the same position. So we swapped some good seals from the Toyota internals and put them into the new cylinder and installed that. Bled the brakes AGAIN, and the problem was solved. The truck brakes better than ever. Should have just installed the new cylinder to begin with. A warning to you guys, the factory brake master cylinder costs $295 at Toyota, this is insane- don't even bother with them. The $77 A1 Cardone from the autoparts works perfectly.

 

So Clean!










It feels great and it looks nice in there.

 

Gross looking reservoir, the fluid was disgusting too, it had clearly broken down and absorbed water




Here is the new cylinder and reservoir in place

 

Yet another gratuitous shot of the Taco, I was hoping to come back to the Sunshine State, only to find nonstop rain!

 

9-01-2011 My brakes are working great now, but the brake light keeps coming on. I pulled the 15 amp EFI fuse and erased the ECU thinking this would do it but the light came on shortly after. I will try to troubleshoot this, maybe even return to the old reservoir. It could be that the crappy aftermarket sensor is bad or the clip for the harness gives a bad connection.


9-08-2011 I topped off the brake fluid and problem solved! I also did the carrier bearing flip this weekend but it actually makes the off throttle vibration problem worse. I've always said it, my vibration issue is the clutch/flywheel combo. I'm going to start saving up and hopefully I will attempt clutch/flywheel installation again after Thanksgiving. It's going to suck to break in a clutch again but it will be well worth it.


9-19-2011 I replaced my airbox with a K&N cone filter this weekend. So far I have put over 80 miles on it and I notice that the engine warms up to operating temperature much faster than before which makes sense since it is now drinking warm air from the engine bay. I cannot comment on gas mileage just yet because I have not finished a tank. I would love to get a scangauge and monitor fuel consumption more properly. I have the IAT sensor sitting below the filter so it reads the intake temp decently.








Yes, I know I have no cap on the washer fluid lol. Anyone care to donate one?