What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

@cynicalrider
Go by the FSM. It is possible to have the rack and pinion gear a tooth out. It will function and the limit switches may or may not do their thing in one direction or the other. The painful part is there may not be full engagement of the locker. Put a good load on it and bang. Zuk the gear installs guy mentions this in one of his builds. Warning, I am getting a virus warning at his site.
That big clock spring is intended to let the actuator run its intended range of motion and stop even when the splines are not lined up (keeps the motor from burning up). When the splines finally line up the locker collar snaps into place due to that spring.

 

I checked it just now, it's just an old site that doesn't use https as far as I can tell, so it is unsecure. But he doesn't ask for info or sell anything on the site so I don't think it matters even though the standard now is secure for everything. He doesn't even have ad space or ad domains on it

 

So with the rack and pinion in that position according to the manual that's fully locked, correct? And it seems like you just need to energize the actuator to be in it's locked position too, right? Then you have no risk of the rack and pinion being a tooth off. It seems like just plugging the damn thing in and letting it cycle to the locked position should do the majority of the work for you. I will see if it lines the matchmarks the way it should before I install it, and use a battery to fine tune it.

THis thread was also helpful for trying to understand what the FSM was trying to explain with the actuator itself.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/e-locker-actuator-motor-install.466058/

 

With the rack gear, yes.
With the actuator gear, sort of. Yes on the mostly full lock bit but I would guess there could be a bit of over travel (motor spinning down after limit switch hit) when using jumper wires and no mechanical load, hence the mark alignment as a final check with a tweak if necessary.
The deal at the end of the FSM page where they rotate the actuator with the "knock pin and slot" is essentially preloading that clock spring a tad against the "locked" position after the gears are in sync. Helps to make sure the locker collar stays in the fully locked position.

 

That makes a ton of sense. As always your wealth of knowledge is much appreciated here.

 

I got my lower ball joint all fixed, but it left some gashes in my tire. Do you think these are bad enough to replace my tire or should I still send it?

 

Those are totally fine to run with. They seem to be into the tread blocks and not the tire casing

 

if u have no issues with shaking while driving or problems with tire shop balancing it out then no. Doesnt look bad imo, ive chunked worse on curbs/rocks

 

Sweet thanks man!

 

You can do more damage to a tire on a single off road trip, and still be fine

 

Sold the 1st gen today.. the new owner is a local Toyota enthusiast and plans to solid axle swap, supercharge, and 5spd swap. He’s got all the parts. Couldn’t be happier about this dude buying it.

 

More tear down on wife's truck. Not Tacoma, but fun wrenching stuff none the less.

Pitman arm, Idler arm, Idler arm bracket, and drag link removed.

Had to get the Pitman arm off because there are 3 spline or 4 spline for her truck. Needed to find out which. Also, the pitman and idler connection was really wobbly, needed to find out if the holes in the drag link were ovaled out. (they weren't, so I don't have to replace it)

Also found the nut holding the Pitman arm was bearly finger tight, and the Pitman arm wasn't even pressed on to the splines... if that nut would have fallen off, the Pitman arm would have fallen off the steering box... and no steering

 

*looks at thread title

Damn, that is one weird looking 1st gen Tacoma. You must've been working on that thing for a while now...

 

Just got my OME lift kit in , and thinking of biting the bullet on some 255/85/r16 I’m looking into some Steelies , thoughts on the setup and where I can find some good wheels ?

 

Finally got around to changing my rear wheel bearings out...well...one of them. Also got my tires road force balanced today, very excited to see how they ride now
I have no idea what this staining is, sanded it down and went with it.

Once I got the right press setup and stopped stripping studs , it went smoothly

 

This guy’s video was super helpful. I rebuilt mine last year using his vid and it has been working great ever since (despite the truck living in CO its whole life with no rust anywhere else, the locker was totally fucked - his cleanup and rebuild process definitely works).

 

My recommendation would be this - if you're getting new wheels in addition to 33" tires, get 17" rims. There seem to be many more tire options for 17" rims, and once you get to 33+ on the rubber, you still have enough sidewall for some nice, cushy, flex. With 16s, you'll only have options of load range E on 255/85R16, but with 17s (so something like 255/80R17), you'll have options that give you D or even C (which give such a nicer ride) tires.

Also, with 17s, if you ever want to go to 35s, you can get a 35x10.5R17 Kenda Klever.

 

If you ever plan on upgrading your brakes to tundras you will likely need a 1/4" spacer and extended wheel studs to run most steelies.

I just changed my wheel tire setup this summer from steelies and 255/85/16. I don't think I'd run steelies again. The extra weight isn't worth it and I think it would be very difficult to crack an alloy wheel. You would have to be going pretty fast at low psi to severely damage one. I really liked the look of the ones I had though.

I'm not sold on the 17" being a better option than 16". I like more rubber generally and had originally planned on going with a 255/85/17 tire but they were on back order and cost almost double what I ended up with.

 

I have heard that the steelies with the oval hole won't fit around the Tundra brake swap in case you are planning to do that or have that already. I may be wrong on this but I thought I remembered reading that.

 

got my total chaos uca’s