1st Gen. Lunch Table - General Discussion

@Pinay, our fellow lover of black Tundras, is this sticky worthy yet?

I got a little extra money coming my way and decided to pick up a small welder. Reading now about welders. This will help when I get the Archive rear shock kit and need to reroute my exhaust, also will help when I throw a muffler on my GTI. I'm sure I'll have other projects too, like the little mini bike I've had for years that needs a motor.

For now I'll just read and wait for good weather to fix the GTI.

 

I have Clazzio synthetic covers on my Ferd. They is nice.

 

I'd order one. It would suck to have to do it twice.

 

Yeah. I think the same thing, but my inner @bmf4069 is acting up today so I may go out and mangle it a bit.

Its one nut and bolt which has some rust, but not too bad. I’ll pull the muffler off as gently as possible and inspect the old gasket. I’ll order a new one today and it can be here tomorrow from stealer if need be.

 

What welder are you looking at getting?

 

Hopefully something more powerful than my Hobart Handler 125. It's been a great little welder for the last 10 years, but I'm really wishing lately that I'd gotten at least a 140. If/when I upgrade, I'll get something more powerful than that even. Maybe a Diversion 180 or 220.

 

I'm just starting to browse. I'm trying to stay under $600 if I can, the Hobart 140 caught my eye but I'm open to others. I don't have a 220 source, I toyed with the idea of adding one but for the limited things I need that might be overkill. The 140 can do up to 1/4" and to be honest anything beyond that I'd go visit my buddy's shop.

 

Trucks been making a lot of creeking noises when stopping and turning ever since I went to the off road park. I hope it's just my uniballs needing some grease. But I fear it may be my driver CV. That's the one I didn't replace that had a slightly torn boot.

 

@because_wumbo-truck I bet your balls are filthy. Wipe them down with a rag and put some lube on them, see what happens. It takes 5 minutes.

 

The lowers? The uppers are uniballs

 

Based on my experience, spend a little more than you are comfortable with. The power goes up, but often times, so do the features. My Handler 125 is very basic. I have 4 'heat' settings and infinite wire speed settings. There have been many times a nicer welder, with more precise controls on power output would have made a project much easier. *I mean thin metals in particular.

Look at Everlast as well as Miller, Lincoln, and Hobart. There are many many options and often times, used machines can provide an opportunity to step up without spending the full amount.

 

I thought you had SPC UCA's?

 

I do

 

Those are greasable ball joints, not uniballs. You were asking us about greasing them in the past. Did you ever get a chance to do that? It could also be the bushings squeaking.

 

Yes. I honestly thought they were uniball lol I had it in my mind the uniballs were the ones you had to grease and the ones that actually look like a ball you didn't... I'm dumb

 

No worries. I looked back at this thread before I said anything.

 

I greased the uppers for piece of mind. Not sure how to do the lowers.

 

At least you know your balls arent the problem

 

In my case, I have a lower ball and an upper. The unit chubs slightly to the right.

 

Doesn't everyone (who has two)?

 

off the rails we go

 

Anybody know how to grease the lbjs?

 

If you get or want a 240v one I bet I could walk you through adding a welder plug.

I'm not touching that one...

 

mine have grease zerks on them but they are aftermarket

 

I just ordered the Dorman steering rack bushings. After reading @Professional Hand Model s comments i agree My Energy Suspension "Performance" bushings are to soft.

 

Yeah. They are the worst thing I’ve done to my truck so far. Everything else these past 2 years has been spot on.

I only saw 1 bad review and the dude was spot on concerning these bushings. He described exactly how mine perform. Squishy. Didn’t believe him due to thinking the guy installed them improperly like many of the reviewer amateur mechanics. Nobody but him complained about the actual performance.

Glad I saved the old D-bushing as it was an easy swap and stiffened it up enough to be doable. Those other rack bushings are a pain and very well may stay there until the rack needs replacing.

 

@Professional Hand Model here is what Torque Pro app said. When I crawled under the truck my IR thermometer read 133.

 

133° was your coolant or the transmission?

 

Transmission. Coolant never changed more than 1-2 degrees.