The Getaway...Crom's build and adventures

Even then, the build doesn't stop!

 

Really interested in seeing how the gussets and carrier bearing work out for you. I'm more than a little OCD and I tend to overbuild things, so I've been eyeing the gussets for awhile now. Can't wait to see the results!

Good luck!

 

Like You Say Hatch A Plan And Make It Happen! Lol! You will have the Ultimate Heavy Duty gone through Front End when it's done! Excellent Build!

 

Care to share your decision? Or is it secret?

 

SPOILER ALERT: It's never "finished."

 

Thanks!

Rebuild!

Thanks. I think I'll tackle the center support bearing after the cab mounts. I've not dealt with u-joints or CSB's before. I've watched enough videos where I think I' can mess it up real good though.

Thanks so much!

It will be a standard issue Brute Force Fab HC bumper.

Touche!

 

Energy Suspension Tacoma Body bushing kit, Part no.

$110 8.4109G Body Mount Set-Reg, Access & Dbl Cab

8.4109G



Here are the cab mounts assembled.


Original Equipment Part numbers and locations.



Nut for radiator bushings is part number: 90177-A0010, It's an M10 x 1.25 thread.

Note to self: 45 ft.lb for frame bracket bolts, and 34 ft.lb for cab mount bolt / nut.





I've been working on the cab mount / body bushings at my leisure. So far it's been pretty easy.

I was helped by the fact that I don't have a plastic bin on the drivers side behind the rear seat, and I think I did some clearancing on the pass rear seat bin when I was sound proofing. So bottom line is I could access the bolts without doing anything more than folding down the seats. Winning!

• Disconnect fender well aprons from frame,
• remove brake line bracket bolts (behind fender well aprons),
  
• pop ABS wire harness out of bracket in engine bay.
• Loosen all six body bushing nuts,
• Remove all three bolts and nuts from one side, passenger is first in my case.

I followed advice from @58 Siesta and lifted the cab from the rear corner where the pinch weld makes a 90 turn. I used a 4x4 piece of wood to push up. It's funny to watch as the jack moves up, the suspension unloads, and the frame and cab move in unision for at least 2-3" before the cab actually lifts off the cab mount.



I decided to support the cab from the pinch weld which is where two pieces of sheet metal come together and form a vertical 1" protrusion. The best way for me to do this was to use long pieces of 2x4 supported by my sliders, and then some scrap wood on top of that. I got just enough height to fish out the old cab mounts.


Here are the cab mount bolts.

I don't know why but Toyota is using different plating on the rear cab bolts and the radiator bolts (not pictured). They appear to be a black oxide finishing variety, hence the black appearance.

The zinc plated bolt is from the front cab mount.


Here is a new ES cab mount with all the pieces to make one unit. I numbered them in order of assembly.


Here is an assembled unit next to the old one. Getting the frame/mount bolts broken loose from the frame are somewhat of a pain.


I have decided to use Prothane grease inside the bushing for the sleeve. I'll leave the washers dry.

The old cab mount pictured below is from the passenger rear.
It appears to be in fairly good shape, although it's cracked. I didn't probe it to see if it's a tear, I might later if I remember.


It turns out the rear and front cab mounts are physically different, they are extremely close, but there are subtle differences, and they have different part numbers. Something I didn't catch initially.


I ended up putting in the kit radiator bushings and retiring the old universal bushings after a year of service. Comparison photos below.











Picture of installed rear cab mount




Rig is rolling on new mounts. So far after 6 miles, zero difference felt. Taco lean is the same as it was before.


After thoughts post install

There is a good install thread going on over here.

 

Electrolytic Rust Removal (Electrolysis)

Since I have time on my side right now, I decided to do something fun with the rusty cab mount bolt. I decided to remove rust at the molecular level.

For this I used the following:

• Power supply, I used an old rectifier / wall wart / AC adapter 7.5V DC @ 700 mili amps (it used to power an old 56K modem! )
• Alligator clips twisted to leads power supply.
• An iron block to use as sacrificial anode.
• Plastic bin
• Washing Soda (electrolyte)
• Clean RO water.

I put some water in the bin, and mixed it with some washing soda and my kids took turns stirring it up. lol

I made perch for the bolt to rest on in the solution. Put the iron block in and attached the positive lead to the iron block, and the negative (cathode) to my rusty ass bolt

Turned power on and watched the science happen! Very tiny bubbles will begin to rise from the bolt indicating that it's working.

The electrical current flowing through the electrolyte breaks down the covalent bonds in the water producing hydrogen and oxygen gas. If you do this, don't do it in an enclosed space.

As the current flows, it cleans all the corrosion off the bolt and does not harm the good steel.

When the process is complete the bolt will be very clean.


Power supply


All that rust came off the bolt after 13 hours!

Here it is after 13 hours of treatment.



After 28 hours of treatment.



I was going to zinc plate the bolt, but ran out of time, so I hit with paint, then used waterproof grease on it.

 

Brilliant!

 

Can you share with us the reasons behind your choice of the brute force HC rear? I looked at their website and it looks great!

 

I first saw a HC rear bumper on a Tacoma seven years ago next month in this thread here. Since that time, I've always wanted one.

I've always wanted an armored rear end to guard against distracted brain dead drivers rear ending me. If I get hit, I want to be able to drive away with zero, or close to zero damage.

Recently what caught my attention on rear bumpers was internal construction pictures posted by @HolyHandGrenade in this thread here. It's incredibly strong and a big selling point for me.

I like Billy's design of HC, with the added side protection. I may end up using it as a step to help load on the roof. I've not seen that in another vendors products.

The weight of the HC bumper is 130 lbs, which was 30lb less than a similar competitors product.

The stock chromium and hitch take off is combined 95 lbs. So the net difference is +35 lbs. And I'm good with that!

I've been quite careful over the years to not add too much weight to my rig. Because of that, I'll be doing an alum front bumper for sure, and probably spring for alum skids.

Now back to the bumper.

I will leave my spare under there for most of the time. However, if I want to step up to more difficult trails, all I'd have to do is pull the spare out and put in the back of the truck, or on the roof for said wheeling trip.

I looked at tire gates, and there is no way I can do one of those. First, I'm in and out of the back all the time, and my wife, well she would probably cut my hands off, or stab me if I put a tire gate on as she would not be able to operate it.

Second to all that, tire gates plus spare adds a lot of weight to the rear of the truck, and I don't want that much weight that far from the rear axle. I've watched a number of folks go that route, then reverse it later. There is nothing wrong with any of that, it's just not what I want.

Here are some pics of other members trucks with the said bumper

@redtacoma88 's 2012 Beautiful truck, and sharp photography. Love the red.


@MadToy 's '07

 

Well done. Did you use the core support bushings that come with the kit or leave the old ES bushings in?
Nice floorjack.

 

The universal ones are still in there. I plan to pull them and check them with a caliper and measure vs. the kit ones. Not sure yet which ones I'll end up with. I have been very happy with the universal ones though.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, the handle on the jack makes a great cheater pipe for wrenches, if there is enough room.

 

AND...

If you step up to 35's Billy's bumper will clear them. Maybe OP isn't interested in this, but someone else reading the thread may be.

 

I hope you do a write-up on this, something I already am planning to do down the line.

 

I commented a little bit about the install above in post 2401. I'm not quite half way done.

And I'll probably add more there as I finish the job. However, there is already a pretty good writeup with pics over here. in this thread: Body Mount Bushing Install - now with pictures!

 

I finished installing the cab mounts and I swapped out the E.S. universal radiator bushings for the kit ones.

Photos added to the first post on page 121 here is a link.

Here are my initial thoughts after completing this.

First, I had suspected one of my cab mounts was damaged. I was wrong. There was nothing wrong with any of them as far as I can tell. In fact they were in very good condition.

Second, this was a lot of work and I'm not sure at this point if it was worth it. I think If I could have known the condition of my mounts I would have just left them alone.

Third, I had complications during install. My workspace has a slight incline, and when I put the cab down after doing the second side, I had alignment issues preventing me from finishing the bushings (on that side). I could get the bolts through but not install the sleeves. It was a little time consuming to solve. had to roll backwards on flat ground and brake suddendly to get the cab to align correctly.

Also the instructions from E.S. are very vague and can only be used as a guide. I noted that the supplied bushing frame brackets have the bolt holes ovaled instead of straight drilled. I know why they do this, but I don't think it's necessary or helpful. Once I finally got the bushings fully assembled I drove around the block a few times and then torqued the bushing / frame bracket bolts tight.

Fourth, I had to play games with the drivers side core support again. Mine is a little deformed, I think due to the battery and offroading. I discovered this last summer when putting in the universal bushings. Anyways, what this means is that it's very difficult for the bolt to get proper alignment for removal or install. had to use a hammer to get it to go in and then I got to play games getting the bushing sleeve installed properly. It took much patience and perseverance.

Fifth, When assembling the bushings, I did grease the sleeves and internal parts, and for the most part left the washers dry. I didn't torque to spec. I was pissed and wanted the job to end so I ran the nuts on with an impact with the knowledge that correct torque is 34 ft.lbf. I also used a paint pen to index everything, so that it's easy to tell if something moves.

Sixth, I made one mistake and that was failing to remember that I had zip tied my trimmed mud flaps to the frame perch. On both mud flaps it ripped a hole in one of the bolt holes. I don't care that much and when buttoning the truck back up, I just put it where it was and re torqued the fastener in the torn hole. Good enough!

Lastly, I decided to use the kit supplied bushings for the radiator core support. They are longer when stacked and are of a softer (less dense) poly than the universal bushings I was using. The kit ones also have poly where it goes into the frame perch and the universal is metal sleeve. The sleeve for the kit bushing has a smaller diameter hole for the bolt so it fits better. The universal ones were excellent for the year that I ran them, and hopefully these kit ones will perform in a similar fashion.

I'll be looking to get off road to test the truck in the dirt with the new bushings!

Addendum October 26, 2016: about two days after install I fine tuned the body mount bushing torque and they are all in spec now 34 ft.lbf.

On October 23, The radiator nuts I torqued as tight as I could make them with a 1/4" drive ratchet and 14mm socket. I am going to double nut the bolt M10 x 1.25.

Bushings are silent and make no noise!

 

Wonder if yours look anything like mine used to?

 

Sorry to hear you went to all that trouble, but as usual a great write up.