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

Tundra brake upgrade done. The old brakes were....done. Maybe a sixteenth left of pad. These brakes always were terrible anyway, here's hoping for better.

I'm really tired after being outside in Tucson from 9 to 3, so I'll bleed them tomorrow.
Also, the passenger OEM hard line on the frame rounded off, even with a flare wrench. Took that little short hard line out and put it in a vise, clamped
on the flare nut with vice grips and popped that sucker loose. Other than that, the whole thing went pretty well.

 

I only see heim ends for the outer tie rods, does TC have alternative inner tie rod?

 

I would love to design a new spindles that utilized a 2nd-3rd gen front diff, CV axles, hubs, and lower ball joints that work with 1st gen rear steering. It would be a big design challenge, but an awesome upgrade. I'm not totally sure it's even possible.

 

I made my own with Trail Gear clevis for the inner.



Then I added a rack slider.

 

Great job! I think I will copy your inner tie rod conversion. Did you lose the ability to use the boot?

The rack slider is impressive too! Does the steering feel different?

 

I ended up being able to cut the boot shorter and clamping it to the clevis.

Steering is fine.

 

Hit the 200K mile club on the trip up to Mormon Lake this weekend.

 

So first impressions after doing the Tundra brake upgrade, and admittedly the poor previous brake pads/rotors..... one of the better things I've done to this truck. It will literally lock up all four wheels now, really nice pedal feel. I deleted the load sensing valve a long time ago and I don't have a proportioning valve, and it stops very quickly with total control.
I also replaced the windshield washer squirters that were clogged up, and put the TRD stickers back on. There are no other emblems on this truck...just not a fan of them.

 

The TRD stickers are a little low in the besdide, but yes, the Tundra brakes are a top 3 mod for me.

 

Finally got the manual hub conversion done, and swapped on the Tundra brakes at the same time.



Will have to go back in later for the upper (Icon) and lower (stock w bracing) control arms and king shocks, still waiting on a couple bits

but two less things in the to do pile

 

I can always get new ones and raise them up, but I went off of these measurements.
Gen 1 OEM TRD stickers | Page 2 | Tacoma World

 

Not done in a day, but over the course of 2 months:

• Full body repainted
• Color matched fender flares with new weatherstrips,
• 4Runner mirror swap, painted + heated mirrors wired up with a Muth H-Mod and 1st gen Rav4 defrost button (they need t3 neo wedge LED bulbs if anyone does this later on - stock incandescents are too dim)
• New chrome emblems,
• New TRD 16" Ivan Stewart wheels + tires
• Hella fog lights installed with the Camry fog light switch
• XM antenna run outside to the bumper
• 2nd gen 4Runner door actuated map light (which caused me to short out my body ECU and blow up a resistor )
• Seat jackers so my spine is no longer being shattered.
• Metal door handles
• Fuel sending unit, pump, filter, soft hoses, overfill valve, tank gaskets, painted tank skid plate - dreading the day 20 years from now when I have to pull the tank back down
• Locking glove box latch from 4Runner
• Swapped ARB turn signals for ones from a VW Golf Mk 2 with running lights
• New headlights and side markers
• New third brake light + gasket, license plate light housings, tail light housings (not pictured)
• Antenna painted (missing from picture as it was drying)

 

I was planning out all the parts to do the same, but be aware that you will have a lot of bumpsteer if you don't use the TC LBJ conversions to go with it. Moving pivot points will do that.
I was going to use this for the inner clevis

 

Absolutely. My plan is to make a spindle that will works with the lower ball joint I think. Kinda like the fabricated spindles from Solo, that use Dana hubs. Only in this case, 2nd-3rd gen Tacoma hubs.

 

I have an idea to do spindles but use the hubs/snouts from an IFS Toyota truck. When I get to that spot I'm going to talk to Bobby about getting fully fabbed spindles that are drilled appropriately for that application. The IFS Toyota truck is servicable like Dana 44 (doesn't use a unit bearing). I think Toyota hubs would be stronger than anything I'd be able to find for Dana.

79-85 Mini Truck / 4 Runner manual hubs are 30 spline. Plus I think you can upgrade further with Longfield Chromoly hub gears.
(I need to do a lot more research on this whole topic)

That's probably on the coming "Winter List."

 

LBJ’s for the first time since I bought the truck. No idea when they had ever been replaced and I’m taking a big trip this coming weekend and didn’t want to end up with a cambered wheel on the side of the road. Kinda cool so see the OE parts in the package with the Japanese script.

 

Oi! Are those the 4-runner 16x 7 wheels you have the tundra brakes and manual hubs on?

 

Yes sir! Fit like a glove, including the center cap once you remove the center

 

That looks plenty clean enough, but for any perfectionists in the crowd, the locking-hub center caps from Tacoma wheels fit right into those 4Runner wheels. You might still be able to source some new ones from Toyota.

 

Took and extremely long time to get the results this time (nearly 2 months) but just got my engine oil results back from Blackstone. Still looking good (according to them). I'm also still using an aFe washable filter, which I know a lot of folks have moved away from (and back to paper), but it seems to be working well for me.

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