Psychic's low-budget low-skill build thread

Hi! I bought my 1st-gen last May and since then I've done a little trail running and some maintenance and dreamed and planned about what I want to do, but I have very little money to actually do any of the things I want to. So, I'm making this to write down what I've done to her and the problems I'm having and what I want to do in the future. This might be me soliloquizing, so be warned.




Maintenance:

May 2020:
CEL, some code # I don't remember, took to dealership & replaced MAF & Throttle body. Cab heat dial doesn't do anything, disconnected cable from water valve & that works well enough. Still haven't fully fixed that.

June 2020:
Replaced blown rear shocks.

Dec/Jan/Feb 2020/21:
Replaced the radio that came in the truck with a stock radio. Couldn't stand the bright continuous RGB barf right on the dash. Bought a radio here installed it, tape deck didn't work. Removed and replaced with the original. Bought another, everything works. The only thing I'm good at now is removing and reinstalling the dash. Sold the first radio I bought to a delightful guy with a mint black TRD pro 2000 extra cab. Cleanest truck I've ever seen.

Removed wiring harness for 2 sets of old accessory lights that no longer worked. Brackets are surprisingly stubborn but someday I'll get around to pulling them off.

Mar 2021:
Truck pulls right when braking. Parking brake locked up during massive Denver snowstorm, disconnected cable on rear drum, lost & replaced pin. Reinstalled parking brake. Now parking brake drags and parking brake will not release in brakes. Remove drums and loosened brake, drove w/o parking brake for a few days. RR drum seemed to be way gunked, but didn't think much of it.

Went to Big O Golden with the following complaints:
1. Truck pulls right when braking.
2. Parking brake is dragging.
3. Parking brake doesn't work.
4. Wheels need alignment.

They quoted $2000 for replacing pads, rotors, shoes, drums, and rear pistons, all 4 corners. And replacing RR axle seal. $1200 for parts. Right rip off. Recruited my dad who has tools and knowledge and I bought all the parts for $400 from NAPA and Toyota, replaced all the parts above, plus the front calipers, and flushed brake and clutch fluid.

During replacing the axle seal, the part from Toyota did not fit even slightly, and didn't resemble the part we took out at all. We got a different seal from NAPA, which slightly fit, and reassembled.

Drove to IL to visit family, noticed there was oil from the RR drum leaking onto the wheel. So clearly the oil seal wasn't the right one. The brakes feel much more responsive, but the truck still pulls right under braking, which is fun at 80.

Hit 250,000 mi during this trip.

The truck is currently at a local mechanic who is as confused as we were about the axle seals but seems to have gotten the right part to fix it. He also noticed that the rear brakes were assembled completely wrong, so perhaps it will be back to normal after this.

Upgrades:

June 2020:
Applied off-brand roll-on bed liner. I've been touching it up periodically with spray-on bed liner.

Future Maintenance/Mods:

1. Get an alignment and fix the pull under braking issue.
2. Remove shitty old front lights and brackets.

1. Topper. Probably an ARE MX
2. Bed sleeping system, with drawers but only half-width.
3. Some sort of semi-permanent water storage, possibly underneath the bed.
4. Fridge. That'd be really nice.

Goals: make a full sleeping setup in the bed while retaining a stock look, so I could sleep anywhere without seeming like someone is camping.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about mods if the budget doesn't allow for it. These little trucks are good right from the factory. Keep up regular oil changes and needed maintenance and drive it till the wheels fall off.

 

Love it! Do a solar set up for the camping! That way you can keep stuff in your fridge 24/7, and also charge your phone/laptop or whatever while your camping. Have fun!

 

did you track down your pull under braking?

I had one and it was ultimately determined to be due to worn out lower control arm bushings.

 

Haven't had time to track down that issue yet, but I'm doing the 250k service next month and it'd be pretty easy to do the bushings while its up on stands.

I still don't know why the rear seals didn't work, but what we put in and so far seems to be working great is an SRT 50x70x8 CR seal. At least now I know when I do the other side

 

Setting up solar is something I'm really looking forward to. I'm sure I could do the basic setup, either flat or with mobile panels, but I want to try possibly making something like a Stewart platform, where sliders on three points on the panel can be extended to tilt or angle the panel and give better efficiency than a flat panel. But, I still want rack space and afaik there aren't any good racks for extended cab 1st gens. So I'll probably end up with a panel or two I drag out whenever I set up camp.

 

That would be cool! I have a Yakima rack on my cab and my topper, that way I can haul bikes or whatever, or a solar panel while still having a roof basket over the cab, works pretty good

 

Curious if you know how many miles you had on them at that point? My truck is sitting at about 146,xxx miles and the other day when I went to look I saw some slight to moderate cracking on the rubber of the LCA bushings. I’m in CA and this truck hasn’t really seen salted roads or any kind of corrosion. I think it’s just from age and heat cycles.

With the help of someone with way more experience than me, I’ll be changing the LCA bushings soon and installing Energy suspension bushings. Steering rack bushings too.

 

it started to get bad around 225K miles

 

Burn the old one out.


Still remember the goofy looks from my neighbors... lol

 

A fellow member on here has a spare set of energy bushings that I plan to use. I’ve read and seen that the inner metal sleeve needs to remain in place, and also that most of the hardware gets reused. Seems fine to me as I’m rust free.

Can you shed some more light on that or share any tips?

 

The outer sleeve is what stays, that's the piece that's pressed into the LCA. And yes, you reuse the rest of the hardware. You can see that in the top of my above pic, it's still blackened from burning.

Here's a thread that helped me in the process (more or less, lol).

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-replace-upper-lower-control-arm-bushings.280375/

Honestly, I think this was a bit of a hack job, but the pictures at least give you an idea of what to do.

I was careful trying not to scratch the inner and outer sleeves as this 1st guy was, but you get the idea. I don't recommend using a sawsall, lol...

I used a drill (1/4" or maybe 5/16"?) to remove as much rubber as I could, then you start burning with a map gas torch (or whatever). The rubber will heat up enough and you'll be able to separate the inner sleeve from the rubber. From there, it was a (relatively) slow process of burning and scraping the rubber. But once you get the inner sleeve out, it goes a little faster.

I also used a 1/4" metal rod (seen behind the LCA in pic) to help scrape the goopy burned residue off. A screwdriver works too, but it'll get a bit messy.

Once most of the rubber was either gone or charbroiled, I used a wire wheel attachment on my dremel to clean the burned residue off without marring up the surface like you see this guy did. Smoother the better, especially for the inner sleeve because that's what rotates.

 

Excellent, many thanks. The sleeve I was referring to is about the same circumference as the bushing is. The larger pressed in sleeve stays, correct me if I’m wrong.

I shouldn’t have called it the inner sleeve, that one is much smaller in diameter. Maybe I should’ve called it the outer most inner sleeve. Haha

 

lol, yeah, I gotcha. inner vs. outer: just think of it in reference to the bushing itself, not the LCA. So yeah, the outer most sleeve that's normally part of the bushing stays pressed in to the LCA. This same sleeve would be pressed out of the PCA if you were replacing them with OEM style or whitline bushings.

 

You rock! Thanks man

 

@jbrandt thanks for that info!! Yeah idk if any of the old owners had the bushing replaced, but I'm assuming they're on the full 250,xxx miles.

 

Today's update: Pull under braking has faded a bit after replacing brakes and flushing fluid, but there's a very noticeable squeal coming from the passenger side. It squeals when the steering angle changes, and also makes a similar noise when going over bumps and stuff. The squealing stops when I get to full lock, so I don't think its the power steering pump. I haven't noticed the driver's side doing the same thing, but it squeaks whenever I get out. Between what I've heard from you guys it seems like its the control arm bushings.

 

Update for y'all:

Took it in to Stevinson Toyota in Lakewood for a diagnosis of the squeaking up front. They did that and a "Multi-point inspection" for $75. Overall 10/10 customer service, friendly, would go back. They didn't check that the hood was latched (neither did I) and it popped against the catch on the highway.

So for actual problems the squeak is probably from the lower ball joints, and they recommended replacing them. Planning to get the parts and do that this weekend, if its not freezing cold. They found that the power steering rack was leaking, but I haven't had to refill the reservoir in at least 10k so that should be fine. They found that the valve cover gasket was leaking, but again oil is still golden brown and fine on the dipstick 3k after an oil change. They also found that the inner CV axle boot was cracking, so probably needs replacement whenever it fails. Timing belt was the only thing they found that actually needed replacement, its been 130k since the last replacement.

I'll try and remember to take some pictures of the ball joint replacement for you guys. I just moved and finally have a sizable garage to work in!!

 

Replaced the lower ball joint assemblies last night. No major issues, just the usual stuck bolts and liberal use of WD-40. The tie rod bolt and lbj bolts both sounded like gunshots when they broke free from the mount and we thought the car was gonna fall on us. Started at 8ish with a friend, took about an hour to get everything unbolted and free, and took about another hour to get everything bolted back up alone. Everything got torque'd back to spec in the FSM.

So far this has solved all the squeaking, wandering, and pulling under braking. No more noises up front! The old lbj's had about 5mm of play, which was a little terrifying. Glad I got these replaced now and not when they failed!

 

Last 2 weeks have been a bunch couple of bigger issues that I couldn't do.

First was Timing belt, Water pump, and t-stat. It'd been 130,000 since the last one, so it was good to get it taken care of.

Next, since replacing the lbj I have noticed some severe vibrations and some popping on acceleration. The tech that did the timing belt commented that it was probably the driveshaft carrier bearings and u-joint. I took it to Inland Truck in Denver to rebuild the driveshaft and bearings and joints. Awesome service and way quicker than they quoted. 2-day turnaround. Picking it up, no vibrations, everything felt buttery smooth (for the first time in months). It feels really great to not have a major mechanical repair looming!