TEJASYOTA
Adventurer
BTW, changing out your boots can be a PITA! :wings:
A build for going...off the beaten path
- Thread starter offthebeatenpath
- Start date
BTW, changing out your boots can be a PITA! :wings:
offthebeatenpath
Adventurer
REAL funny.
So this is a glimpse into how much fun it was:
I'm putting the tulip bearing back on, tapping it with a rubber mallet, when one of the "balls" of the tulip flies off of the tulip, sending needle bearings all over the garage floor. By the way, it is now 11pm at night, I'm working by work lights and headlamp. I search for 20 minutes and come up 3 short on the number of needle bearings. Knowing I can't put it back together missing that many, I remove one needle bearing from each of the other two bearing sets, and now they all match
they're all missing one needle bearing. I'm not worried about being one short, but it will always annoy me to know that I somehow lost three of them. It was one of those nights that was almost enough to make me quit working on my own stuff. But I lived to tell about it, and the truck drives just fine.
offthebeatenpath
Adventurer
Update - Jan '11
So, now that a few months have passed, I'm just as thrilled as when I first bought the truck. It has been great so far and served me well through hunting season and the first half of a Montana winter.
The tires that are on the truck are Cooper Discoverer ATR's in a 265/75/16. My first impressions on the tires are interesting. They've performed very well around town on the snowy and slick roads. I've actually been very surprised how well they've driven, much better manners on the slick stuff than the BFG AT's I had on my XJ, and WAY better than the Traction T/A's we have on the wife's Outback. On the other hand, while I was out hunting I managed to get stuck in about 10" of drifted powder snow. I was pretty irritated. Thankfully, two grumpy guys in an F250 were nice enough to get out of their truck in the 0 degree weather and help me out. So in summary, they're great on the road in less than 6" of snow, other than that I don't like them.
I've been searching the entire Northwest corner of the country on Craigslist searching for a used topper of sorts. I've been in such a search for one, that I would have taken just about anything- hard, soft, tonneau, but literally in 3 months of searching I have come across two of them, both over 12 hours away. I was getting ready to just order something, but was bracing for the cost of what I wanted.... and found this on Craigslist an hour away!
Bummer for the PO, he took it off to go buy a table saw, and he rolled his truck in the snow :Wow1: Thankfully, all the passengers were fine, even the saw made it okay, but the truck was toast. It has just about everything I wanted except for silver paint - front slider, interior carpet, interior light, and driver's side win-door. I was hoping from the initial pic on CL that it might have been black... but no, it's green. Oh well. I can still lock up my stuff and keep it dry. I'll plan on repainting it sometime in the future, hopefully I can find an autobody shop that will let me do the prep work on it- I can pull the windows and do the sanding prep, but I don't have the resources to shoot it.
I had to pull out my bedliner to drop the topper on, as my bedliner was the factory Toyota over the rail liner. Eventually I'll line the bed with something, probably something DIY like the Raptor Liner kit. I think I'll also reinforce the inner bedsides like this writeup I found in the TTORA archives: http://www.tacomaterritory.com/~dickfoster/Pics/Bed sides.pdf
In other news, I bought the 3M headlight restore kit, I need to do the Taco lights and the lights on the Outback.
I also have a bad gas mileage problem that I'm chasing down, so I picked up some misc tune up parts to start on that. I've dropped from 18+ mpg down to 14-15, and my driving has gotten more granny-ish too, trying to conserve gas. I ran some of that Chevron Techron through the tank last week, this week I'll run some Seafoam through the intake, then change the plugs and the PCV valve. We'll see what happens.
The next plan will be to add a roof rack to the topper. Not sure if I'll do that before or after paint, probably before. I had a Thule rack that mounted into the factory roof tracks on my XJ, I think using their TKII foot pack, which is essentially what you get if you buy Thule's tracks. However, I know I can go to the junkyard and pull the roof tracks off of a late model XJ for a fraction of the price of what new Thule tracks will run me, and viola! I'll have a roof rack!
In other details, I've been using this Craigslist search program that I ran across, I think it may have been on IH8MUD, I don't remember. It's pretty simple, but perfect for searching multiple cities. The guy wrote it to be able to search for vehicles, but you can use it to search anything in the for sale section. Just select which state you want, then cities, etc. Enjoy!
http://www.themccumbers.com/States.htm
So, now that a few months have passed, I'm just as thrilled as when I first bought the truck. It has been great so far and served me well through hunting season and the first half of a Montana winter.
The tires that are on the truck are Cooper Discoverer ATR's in a 265/75/16. My first impressions on the tires are interesting. They've performed very well around town on the snowy and slick roads. I've actually been very surprised how well they've driven, much better manners on the slick stuff than the BFG AT's I had on my XJ, and WAY better than the Traction T/A's we have on the wife's Outback. On the other hand, while I was out hunting I managed to get stuck in about 10" of drifted powder snow. I was pretty irritated. Thankfully, two grumpy guys in an F250 were nice enough to get out of their truck in the 0 degree weather and help me out. So in summary, they're great on the road in less than 6" of snow, other than that I don't like them.
I've been searching the entire Northwest corner of the country on Craigslist searching for a used topper of sorts. I've been in such a search for one, that I would have taken just about anything- hard, soft, tonneau, but literally in 3 months of searching I have come across two of them, both over 12 hours away. I was getting ready to just order something, but was bracing for the cost of what I wanted.... and found this on Craigslist an hour away!
Bummer for the PO, he took it off to go buy a table saw, and he rolled his truck in the snow :Wow1: Thankfully, all the passengers were fine, even the saw made it okay, but the truck was toast. It has just about everything I wanted except for silver paint - front slider, interior carpet, interior light, and driver's side win-door. I was hoping from the initial pic on CL that it might have been black... but no, it's green. Oh well. I can still lock up my stuff and keep it dry. I'll plan on repainting it sometime in the future, hopefully I can find an autobody shop that will let me do the prep work on it- I can pull the windows and do the sanding prep, but I don't have the resources to shoot it.
I had to pull out my bedliner to drop the topper on, as my bedliner was the factory Toyota over the rail liner. Eventually I'll line the bed with something, probably something DIY like the Raptor Liner kit. I think I'll also reinforce the inner bedsides like this writeup I found in the TTORA archives: http://www.tacomaterritory.com/~dickfoster/Pics/Bed sides.pdf
In other news, I bought the 3M headlight restore kit, I need to do the Taco lights and the lights on the Outback.
I also have a bad gas mileage problem that I'm chasing down, so I picked up some misc tune up parts to start on that. I've dropped from 18+ mpg down to 14-15, and my driving has gotten more granny-ish too, trying to conserve gas. I ran some of that Chevron Techron through the tank last week, this week I'll run some Seafoam through the intake, then change the plugs and the PCV valve. We'll see what happens.
The next plan will be to add a roof rack to the topper. Not sure if I'll do that before or after paint, probably before. I had a Thule rack that mounted into the factory roof tracks on my XJ, I think using their TKII foot pack, which is essentially what you get if you buy Thule's tracks. However, I know I can go to the junkyard and pull the roof tracks off of a late model XJ for a fraction of the price of what new Thule tracks will run me, and viola! I'll have a roof rack!
In other details, I've been using this Craigslist search program that I ran across, I think it may have been on IH8MUD, I don't remember. It's pretty simple, but perfect for searching multiple cities. The guy wrote it to be able to search for vehicles, but you can use it to search anything in the for sale section. Just select which state you want, then cities, etc. Enjoy!
http://www.themccumbers.com/States.htm
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offthebeatenpath
Adventurer
So I've been chasing down my mpg issue as I mentioned above.
1- Ran a bottle of Techron fuel system cleaner through. Did that before I went to pick up the topper, didn't notice much difference except I got a small bit better mileage from the highway drive to get the topper.
2- Ran a bottle of Seafoam through the intake. Burned a lot of stinky black stuff out. No change otherwise.
3- Changed the fuel filter. Had purchased a Napa gold filter to put on, but had second thoughts after some recent posts here, so I picked up the Toyota filter. Turns out, the one I pulled out was a Napa filter. Changed that yesterday.
4- New plugs. Bought new plugs from the dealer and started to put them in this afternoon. Printed off the factory service manual for the job and also checked the ohms of resistance on my plug wires and ignition coils, they're good. Got three done......and managed to pull the wire right out of one of the plug boots.....
5- Call the dealer....they don't have any in stock. Wouldn't be able to have them til Thursday. That figures. Dealer parts guy actually tells me to go buy Napa's premium plug wires and not to worry about it. Drove to Napa, bought wires, then to go buy a long needlenose pliers to pull the fitting off of the plug still in the cylinder head. Also bought a plug gapper and more dialectic grease.
Back to the driveway....pull the busted plug out. Then proceed to pull all of the new plugs back out so I could gap them and grease them. Get the new wires run. :victory: Finally done.
6- Cleaned out the throttle body with some cleaner and a rag, as well as the intake tube.
7- I also bought MAF sensor cleaner, so I pulled that and realized how big of a problem I had. When I pulled the air intake tube, I noticed that there was a crack around the flange where the intake tube mounts to the air box. As I was doing the wires and plugs I bumped it enough times that it actually broke off. So I pull the MAF sensor and I could see just how much dirty air was entering my intake behind my filter. Just about made me sick. :yikes: On the other hand, I think I probably found the root of my mpg issue right there. So I took what I had on hand, Liquid Nails and ran a bead around the flange after I seated it in CA (super) glue. We'll see how well it holds up, I'm thinking I'll look for a new air box, as the lid for changing the filter is also busted, there aren't any clips to hold it shut, just some sheet metal screws. I'll post up if my mileage changes, but I expect it will, mostly from a clean MAF sensor. There was so much dirt on that sensor
1- Ran a bottle of Techron fuel system cleaner through. Did that before I went to pick up the topper, didn't notice much difference except I got a small bit better mileage from the highway drive to get the topper.
2- Ran a bottle of Seafoam through the intake. Burned a lot of stinky black stuff out. No change otherwise.
3- Changed the fuel filter. Had purchased a Napa gold filter to put on, but had second thoughts after some recent posts here, so I picked up the Toyota filter. Turns out, the one I pulled out was a Napa filter. Changed that yesterday.
4- New plugs. Bought new plugs from the dealer and started to put them in this afternoon. Printed off the factory service manual for the job and also checked the ohms of resistance on my plug wires and ignition coils, they're good. Got three done......and managed to pull the wire right out of one of the plug boots.....
5- Call the dealer....they don't have any in stock. Wouldn't be able to have them til Thursday. That figures. Dealer parts guy actually tells me to go buy Napa's premium plug wires and not to worry about it. Drove to Napa, bought wires, then to go buy a long needlenose pliers to pull the fitting off of the plug still in the cylinder head. Also bought a plug gapper and more dialectic grease.
Back to the driveway....pull the busted plug out. Then proceed to pull all of the new plugs back out so I could gap them and grease them. Get the new wires run. :victory: Finally done.
6- Cleaned out the throttle body with some cleaner and a rag, as well as the intake tube.
7- I also bought MAF sensor cleaner, so I pulled that and realized how big of a problem I had. When I pulled the air intake tube, I noticed that there was a crack around the flange where the intake tube mounts to the air box. As I was doing the wires and plugs I bumped it enough times that it actually broke off. So I pull the MAF sensor and I could see just how much dirty air was entering my intake behind my filter. Just about made me sick. :yikes: On the other hand, I think I probably found the root of my mpg issue right there. So I took what I had on hand, Liquid Nails and ran a bead around the flange after I seated it in CA (super) glue. We'll see how well it holds up, I'm thinking I'll look for a new air box, as the lid for changing the filter is also busted, there aren't any clips to hold it shut, just some sheet metal screws. I'll post up if my mileage changes, but I expect it will, mostly from a clean MAF sensor. There was so much dirt on that sensor
offthebeatenpath
Adventurer
So I've been on a sort of hiatus from EP for awhile, and it hasn't been all that bad, turns out- I can live without internet forums
But I do have a few things to update, so here we go.
Replaced the busted factory airbox with one that I ordered off of www.car-part.com
If you've never looked at or heard of that site, I highly recommend it. Basically, it is an online search engine for a nationwide computer database of the inventory of junkyards. I got the factory airbox and tube, shipped to my door for about $60. I think the dealer wanted something like $400!
June of '011, my wifey let me take the weekend of my birthday and run around and do whatever I wanted to outdoors. We've got two little girls, (3 and 1.5) so those weekends don't come around very often. Especially with one or the other of us working every other weekend. So I took off and headed out to do some fly fishing and some exploring. It was fantastic.
Here's a few pics:
It was a great trip, but I got my butt kicked by a pine tree.
I was already planning on painting the topper to match the truck, so this just added to my bodywork plans.
The drive was awesome, the scenery was spectacular. The roads were iffy, as you can see. We'd had record rainfall and snow runoff was really high last summer. Many roads and trails were just simply gone. Ultimately, that's what ended my day. Fishing wasn't great, mostly due to high cloudy water.
But I do have a few things to update, so here we go.
Replaced the busted factory airbox with one that I ordered off of www.car-part.com
If you've never looked at or heard of that site, I highly recommend it. Basically, it is an online search engine for a nationwide computer database of the inventory of junkyards. I got the factory airbox and tube, shipped to my door for about $60. I think the dealer wanted something like $400!
June of '011, my wifey let me take the weekend of my birthday and run around and do whatever I wanted to outdoors. We've got two little girls, (3 and 1.5) so those weekends don't come around very often. Especially with one or the other of us working every other weekend. So I took off and headed out to do some fly fishing and some exploring. It was fantastic.
Here's a few pics:
It was a great trip, but I got my butt kicked by a pine tree.
I was already planning on painting the topper to match the truck, so this just added to my bodywork plans.
The drive was awesome, the scenery was spectacular. The roads were iffy, as you can see. We'd had record rainfall and snow runoff was really high last summer. Many roads and trails were just simply gone. Ultimately, that's what ended my day. Fishing wasn't great, mostly due to high cloudy water.
offthebeatenpath
Adventurer
The remainder of '011 held a lot of family visit and short trips. We did quite a few day hikes, river floats, yard work, etc.
Hunting season came and went, very successfully, I might add. I don't expect to have another season anytime soon where I'm able to fill my antelope, elk, and deer tag. And my freezer
But, during hunting season, I made a connection with a friend of a friend who has a spray booth set up in a shop space he rents. He doesn't do bodywork fulltime, he's a big diesel mechanic, but he's got much more experience than I do.
With that in mind, he and I set up to paint my truck. Sooner or later. I set about getting the bodywork and prep done. I was able to finish most of the pounding and filling before winter set in.
This weekend, we were able to get it apart and in the booth, and sprayed. I'm stoked to have my truck be all the same color, although it'll make my truck look like the other five 1st gen DC silver Taco in town. At least I have the only ugly bumper gaurd! I'll still be able to find it in the parking lot at the trailhead.
I also got my backup lights installed and wired. I wanted them to look as low profile as possible and be as factory looking as I could make it.
I picked up some 35w fog lights from the local O'Reily's, they are about 2.25" round, so I took my factory rear bumper and drilled two 2.5" diameter holes in it and mounted the lights inside the rear bumper. There's not a lot of play, but I might trim the opening with some black moulding trim just to finish it off.
Also in the works is redoing my under-hood electrical mess. I had picked up a fuse block from Napa that I thought was going to work, but I wanted something with a power feed, more like a sub-panel, rather than a plastic housing for six fuses. We'll see what I end up with, looks like I'll be buying a Blue Sea block. Here is the thread about some of those questions and discussion.
Hunting season came and went, very successfully, I might add. I don't expect to have another season anytime soon where I'm able to fill my antelope, elk, and deer tag. And my freezer
But, during hunting season, I made a connection with a friend of a friend who has a spray booth set up in a shop space he rents. He doesn't do bodywork fulltime, he's a big diesel mechanic, but he's got much more experience than I do.
With that in mind, he and I set up to paint my truck. Sooner or later. I set about getting the bodywork and prep done. I was able to finish most of the pounding and filling before winter set in.
This weekend, we were able to get it apart and in the booth, and sprayed. I'm stoked to have my truck be all the same color, although it'll make my truck look like the other five 1st gen DC silver Taco in town. At least I have the only ugly bumper gaurd! I'll still be able to find it in the parking lot at the trailhead.
I also got my backup lights installed and wired. I wanted them to look as low profile as possible and be as factory looking as I could make it.
I picked up some 35w fog lights from the local O'Reily's, they are about 2.25" round, so I took my factory rear bumper and drilled two 2.5" diameter holes in it and mounted the lights inside the rear bumper. There's not a lot of play, but I might trim the opening with some black moulding trim just to finish it off.
Also in the works is redoing my under-hood electrical mess. I had picked up a fuse block from Napa that I thought was going to work, but I wanted something with a power feed, more like a sub-panel, rather than a plastic housing for six fuses. We'll see what I end up with, looks like I'll be buying a Blue Sea block. Here is the thread about some of those questions and discussion.
offthebeatenpath
Adventurer
Here's the progress:
Wiring around the back end is much easier with the bed off
Makes me think I might take the 20 minutes to pop the bed off when I get around to doing rear suspension.
Here's the rest of my wiring projects:
New terminals, making additions a lot easier.
Here's my new back end lights. I switched them independent of the reverse lights, so I have control of when they turn on and off. I picked up some of the black plastic edge trim that I may trim the openings with. We'll see. I'm pleased with how they've turned out.
Wiring around the back end is much easier with the bed off
Makes me think I might take the 20 minutes to pop the bed off when I get around to doing rear suspension.
Here's the rest of my wiring projects:
New terminals, making additions a lot easier.
Here's my new back end lights. I switched them independent of the reverse lights, so I have control of when they turn on and off. I picked up some of the black plastic edge trim that I may trim the openings with. We'll see. I'm pleased with how they've turned out.
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achampagne
Explorer
Looking good, i like the rear light idea..
offthebeatenpath
Adventurer
Finally put back together It's been awhile. I tidied up a few other odds and ends in the process, repaired the screen in the topper window, wired in the brake light and bed dome light (which works better than I expected). Still have to put the emblems back on, but that's about it. Turned out much better than I expected. A few of the pics I took make the bed look like it doesn't match the truck, but that's only because the truck is dirty- the light reflection isn't the same. I'll also be installing a roof rack on the topper, based off of the Thule system, more details on that as it comes together.
But I also got distracted this week.........found a new toy
Needs some work, but I couldn't pass it up. It's a base 4Runner, '99, 3.4l, 215k miles.
Needs: brakes, tires, timing belt, windshield, inner tie rod ends, among other things......
But for $2200, how could I go wrong?!!
It's been awhile. I tidied up a few other odds and ends in the process, repaired the screen in the topper window, wired in the brake light and bed dome light (which works better than I expected). Still have to put the emblems back on, but that's about it. Turned out much better than I expected. A few of the pics I took make the bed look like it doesn't match the truck, but that's only because the truck is dirty- the light reflection isn't the same. I'll also be installing a roof rack on the topper, based off of the Thule system, more details on that as it comes together.
But I also got distracted this week.........found a new toy
Needs some work, but I couldn't pass it up. It's a base 4Runner, '99, 3.4l, 215k miles.
Needs: brakes, tires, timing belt, windshield, inner tie rod ends, among other things......
But for $2200, how could I go wrong?!!
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offthebeatenpath
Adventurer
Well, spring is here in Montana. Hard to believe. No more snow.
Here's an update- new wheels and treads
Yep, those be 80 series LC wheels, powdercoated black. Picked them up from a local guy I found who buys and parts out Toyota trucks! He's got gobs and gobs of parts for Cruisers, Tacomas, 4Runners and pickups. Great guy too. Got the wheels for $300. Found the tires on CL- saved myself about $300 on tires that only have 1k miles on them. They're load range E, but so far seem fine to me. I'm running them at 50 psi at the moment, we'll see how that pans out. The big lugs on these tires are definitely a bit more squirrely than the Cooper ATR's I was running, but not enough to make me change my mind.
I will soon be pulling off that obscene bumper I hope. I keep thinking I'll run over a deer or something that will pay for a replacement, but no luck. The aluminum skid that's attached to the bumper doesn't have any holes in the bottom, so nothing drains or cleans very well. I've trashed two engine fans because of rocks bouncing up and destroying fan blades. I suppose I could probably drill some holes in it, but it also makes a good excuse to get rid of it and buy a real front skid.
Here's an update- new wheels and treads
Yep, those be 80 series LC wheels, powdercoated black. Picked them up from a local guy I found who buys and parts out Toyota trucks! He's got gobs and gobs of parts for Cruisers, Tacomas, 4Runners and pickups. Great guy too. Got the wheels for $300. Found the tires on CL- saved myself about $300 on tires that only have 1k miles on them. They're load range E, but so far seem fine to me. I'm running them at 50 psi at the moment, we'll see how that pans out. The big lugs on these tires are definitely a bit more squirrely than the Cooper ATR's I was running, but not enough to make me change my mind.
I will soon be pulling off that obscene bumper I hope. I keep thinking I'll run over a deer or something that will pay for a replacement, but no luck. The aluminum skid that's attached to the bumper doesn't have any holes in the bottom, so nothing drains or cleans very well. I've trashed two engine fans because of rocks bouncing up and destroying fan blades. I suppose I could probably drill some holes in it, but it also makes a good excuse to get rid of it and buy a real front skid.
cam-shaft
Bluebird days
You cant get much better looking country then that. Those backcountry pictures are very nice. As far as the goodyears go my buddy had those on his Nissan Titan, they provided good traction in the hard packed snow roads, but as you stated there was a ton of tread floating movement on the asphalt. They seemed to be a good winter tire for the guy traveling from cold dry conditions to snow packed mt conditions daily. In the summer that goodyear tire design overheated and burned up, however being siphed helped contribute to the over-heat for sure. These tires seemed super sensitive to temperature. This is another reason why I agree with a summer tire and winter tire in the NW.
Cam-shaft.
Cam-shaft.
offthebeatenpath
Adventurer
Well, a few updates-
The 4Runner was a fun project- was up in the air about what to do with it until a friend (Larry) in WI told me his T100 was about to rust in half and return to the ground from which it was formed. So he made me an offer I couldn't refuse, plus he's a good friend, I could do no wrong by selling it to him, right?
So Larry flew out, we had an epic two days of spring fly-fishing, caught over 120 cutthroats between the two of us. I doubt that will ever happen again. So he headed back to WI . . . . and his wife called me three days later because the head gasket blew on the T4R. Larry couldn't even bring himself to call, he felt like it was his fault. But he's getting it repaired and he'll still have a good truck, it's just frustrating. The last three vehicles he's had have all blown head gaskets- Izuzu Trooper, Subaru Outback, T4R.
Here's a few quick pics from our fishing day-
Larry stoked about his fish-
Me fumbling mine......
Fantastic dinner-
The 4Runner was a fun project- was up in the air about what to do with it until a friend (Larry) in WI told me his T100 was about to rust in half and return to the ground from which it was formed. So he made me an offer I couldn't refuse, plus he's a good friend, I could do no wrong by selling it to him, right?
So Larry flew out, we had an epic two days of spring fly-fishing, caught over 120 cutthroats between the two of us. I doubt that will ever happen again. So he headed back to WI . . . . and his wife called me three days later because the head gasket blew on the T4R. Larry couldn't even bring himself to call, he felt like it was his fault. But he's getting it repaired and he'll still have a good truck, it's just frustrating. The last three vehicles he's had have all blown head gaskets- Izuzu Trooper, Subaru Outback, T4R.
Here's a few quick pics from our fishing day-
Larry stoked about his fish-
Me fumbling mine......
Fantastic dinner-
Mrknowitall
Adventurer
It looks like its too late for this one, but the next thing Larry buys, should just go in for preventative head gaskets.