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

I'm in for a little steering Tack weld mod and sway bar end links. Stupid end links took longer than the whole steering removal and welding.

 

Wouldn’t have that problem if you didn’t have a sway bar.

 

That would solve it!

 

Mounted the new idler pulley, and... did what I could for the filter on the power steering pump. A can and a half of brake cleaner in, it's a lot better than it started but nowhere near what I would call "clean".


Look how shiny and new it is!


Not a bit of light shows through. I'd apologize for the atrocious photo angle, but... this ain't an easy thing to photograph.


Not sure if I should keep pumping brake cleaner through it or give it up as bad money after good. The fluid pouring out was a nasty brown color, but this is a lot better already, and I'm not sure how much better I can manage without prying the reservoir open.

 

I want to say "opening circuit" relay but not 100%. It's behind the kick panel. I've never been able to hear it with the engine cranking even when I had a Walbro pump.

 

Not sure how the circuit works but I'm guessing the relay gets a signal from the ignition when in start position and stays pulled in when the engine is running. If engine isn't running it's cut. I think this is for safety reasons in an accident that fuel isn't continuing to be pumped through a potentially open system fueling a fire.

 

I am on a Haltech

 

No need to question your reality then lol

Stock ECU does it totally different.

 

Very nice. Sometimes the little quality of life things have the biggest impact.

 

Pulled the plastic bed liner out to prepare for the worst… but was pleasantly surprised to see no real rust. Just some paint that was rubbed through.

 

47 hours later, and I'm done!
Jobs included:
SC rebuild
SC paint (was meant to just be a touchup but I bought the wrong color, so I said fuck it and did the whole thing)
Valve cover gasket replacement
Valve cover paint (red makes it go faster)
New spark plugs/wires
Cleaned K&N filter
Before and after:

 

Well, I knew I had to have fucked up somewhere. After about 10 minutes of driving, I started hearing a grinding sound from the SC, and once it got up to temp, I lost acceleration and the check engine light started flickering.

Edit: also, the damned drivers side valve cover is still leaking. I may have cracked it.

 

Dammit!!

 

Had an exhaust leak on cat. Proven with shop vac in the tail pipe soapy water trick. Which was generating a p0420 code and CEL. So I finally got around to welding leak. Not a pretty weld but seems to be effective. Put 25 miles on it no code. Codeless once again so far, yes!

 

Got the new compressor mounted, the belts and the PS pump on. Discovered the banjo bolt for the PS pump has some kind of shim instead of the copper crush washers I expected from turbodb's excellent guide. Oh well. Always some differences between late-model and early model trucks, even in the same generation.


Aint' it pretty? All shiny and new.


Not sure if it's a shim or a crush fitting.


Home stretch! Cap's off the reservoir to let the last remnants of brake cleaner that might be in there keep evaporating.

Oh, and I cleared 21 years of road grime off the engine/differential/transmission skid. No real reason to, except "why not" while it was already off.

I'm tempted to wrap this job after work during the week, but realistically that's not going to accelerate the "back on the road" timeline. And the diff & transfer case oil are probably going to eat the shop time I have after work anyhow.

 

Should have just cleaned it out and lived with the code like me jk that would drive my crazy on a daily.

 

My CEL has been on so long it probably just happen to burn out at the same time I fixed it. I'll actually check the codes in a couple days.

 

Ruh roh

 

Welded in some stronger front bumper tie-in plates. Winches are powerful I guess

 

We could probably make one for a 3rd gen... just need to get the material from one to take measurements.