1st Gen. Lunch Table - General Discussion

Thats cool. I don't have a garage, but might one day. Any reccos from you about this?

 

recos? all my mirrors came from many toyotas. Gentex makes all the mirrors for the most part. pretty common to find on any modern vehicle and can be made to work. the one in my tundra is from a 2011 avalon, the one i had before was a non home link from a 2009 venza

 

i think i have some extras laying around. but i believe theyre non homelink

 

Okay, on an unrelated note.

Turn the truck over, pushed parking brake, put truck in drive, and started taking off. Hit my high beams, and noticed that my LB (light bar) was flickering.

My first thought was that the electricity gremlins were paying me a visit after all this work.

Put the truck in park, and flicker went away. "Hmm." I thought.

Pulled into a flat spot on the driveway, put it in park, and got out to check the lights. No flicker. All looked G-money. Pushed the larking brake in, and put it in drive. Verified that truck was not going anywhere. Got out, and investigated. My drivers side headlight was burning up, and was a terrible blue cooler. My LB is tied into my drivers side HB.

Ran around, popped the hood, dove into the headlight, wiring burned my calloused hands, pulled back, steeled myself, and dove back in. Disconnected the headlight, and the flicker in the LB went away. Down to just one Headlight, a light bar, and 2 fogs.

^This is just fogs, no headlights.

^Passengers side Low beam, no fogs.

^High beam with LB, and pass side headlight.

^Pass Low beam, with fogs.
https://youtu.be/RNrbnf-21j8
^Here is a video I took in one spot explaining my light pattern.

 

Hey, that's fine. I can live without Homelink, right now. If you can find one, and verifiy it works I'll buy it off ya. Or we can exchange injectors/auto dim for that.

 

give me a wee bit of time (currently in the process of a massive clean up and slammed at work...) but i know the camry one works.. white LED compass. The venza one also works, but it has that funky high beam module on it.. if i can figure out how to remove it that one has the green led compass that closer matches the original tundra interior lights

 

The only thing left green for me is the radio. Lol

 

I want to figure out how to make the "Cargo light" appear more white, and less yellow.

 

i like the green compass because it accents with the green clock and other little green things i can rid

 

Oh, I see...

Well when you get around to it send me some pics unless that would be too hard to do.

 

Forgot to mention, the foglight button is still green. I ordered this OEM button for a clean install a year ago? A little over a year ago?

My old fog light housings were dated Feb 9th, 2019. I installed all of that together as a package deal.

Mr. @Professional Hand Model helped me on that one. As well as the ignition ring.

I guess no one ever figured out how to remove the green from the auto up/down window switch?

 

@empty_lord

Are all toyota rearview mounts the same?

Or just most? I'm honesty kinda scared about doing too much prying on the rearview after my big blunder with the windshiled, and backer rod. My rear view is still the same one as it always was even before the new windshield so I guess the mount is the same?

 

you can make them LED with neowedge bulbs.. i think the 3mm i dont remember.

 

the mirror should be held on with a set screw.. i dont think toyota put the stupid clip ones on like my original on the avalon... the auto dimming mirrors are torx screws that hold them onto the wedge.

 

I just took a peek around. Didn't see a set screw. It honestly looks like it just slides in, and clips in. Clip on the bottom?

 

uh... dont try.. i'll see if i can find the instructions... you can easily break the windshield trying to remove those the wrong way.

 

I know well enough how painful a broken windshield is. Didn't bother. Just looked at it. LOL

 

Finally found @BubbaW's FSM post.

Was doing research, and stumbled across this.

Excuse me, just what the fuck? I want a magic button to open the rear glass. Too many times have I laid the seat down at highway speeds, opened the window, and sat right back up.

@NUDRAT

 

This video kinda stinks, but you get the idea.
https://youtu.be/fbZ9zbS7lvg

 

Just realized that I never responded to this part. My bad.

For our in house HVAC stuff we usually contract out. Most contractors do not want to teach us maintenance folks. I asked a few questions one day, and he basically said "All you maintenance men are the same damn way. You think you're high, and mighty. Always forgetting about the people below you, or doing the dirty work."

Pretty much quit socializing with the contractors after that.

 

We have dash cams in our vans. Instead of an ugly cord hanging down I went on monoprice and bought a longer cord for it. Tucked it up in the headliner, down the a pillar, and under the dash to a usb adapter in the power outlet. Dual usb cause I'm fancy.

Did you tap it straight into the headlight wiring? Not just using it as a signal for a relay? That should be on it's own circuit.

You should look into a dedicated trade like @FrenchToasty, @Festerw, me, or some of the others on here and leave the maintenance man position to the older guys.

 

@bmf4069 has the right idea. HVAC right now is huge our 3 guys on campus have been offered jobs all over between $30-35/hr.

You pretty much can't go wrong with most trades. Easiest way to get in is find a Union Hall and sign up as a laborer or for an apprenticeship. It'll take time but you'll work your way up.

I spent 10 years after HS bouncing then at 27 started working for PSU. Had I not screwed around I could've retired at 45. As is I'm still looking at going out at 56 with full bennies and state backed pension.

I've got conflicting views as 4 years of college is what pays my bills but the trades are always necessary.

 

I’m guessing PSU is a smaller campus?
I’m not part of facility maintenance, were our own dept, and we have 5”hvac” guys(we basically do everything, electrical, plumbing.......moving kids shit) But facilties probabably has over 15 hvac guys, but they won’t touch electrical problems Or plumbing, but get paid more.
None of us make great money, most of us are there for the bennies, they are worth more in the long run

 

I'm at the Behrend campus of the Penn State system. We're strange in that it's technically private but it receives public funding so we get the same tax benefits as state employees...but we're not, it's a weird deal.

Our campus has about 10 trades mechanics, 12 grounds crew, 35 janitors, and maybe 15-20 auxillary workers throughout other departments. That's for the educational space, Housing and Food service is a different entity and I don't know enough about it to make a guess

We're the largest branch campus of the PSU system with about 4000 students.

At the time I started I made more money as a janitor here than I would've in this town with my degree in IT.

 

I’m jealous of you guys that work with your hands even though I‘ve make money with mine in a different way over the years in modeling. I’m afraid I might get Soy Boy Carpal Stress Fractures in old age from not using my hands in a tough way over the years.

 

As somone who didn't learn a trade, I agree with you guys. Noah and I discussed this when he was here. There is a shortage young people that know trades and it will only create more demand as boomers retire. I read that 10,000 people turn 65 every day.

I've got a buddy that works here at Oak Ridge National Lab. Those that know history will recognize the name. He got his CDL and will make $80k just driving a dump truck or flatbed around the plant. His BIL is a master electrician at the plant and clears 6 figures.

There are many days where both of them only work 4 hours and then sit on their ass the rest of the time. I could go on a rant about wasting tax payer dollars and government inefficiency but I won't. I'm happy for them and if given the chance I'd do the same thing.

I'll add that $80k in Knoxville is BIG money. Our cost of living is so low you could stash 15% for retirement and still live a nice upper middle class lifestyle.

 

One of our Athletic Trainers keeps asking me how my forearms got so muscular. I tell him I have a real job

 

Nice, I’m in the residential housing dept, but not connected to any of the food service action. But we have like 15-19 general maintenance mechanics, 2 sparkies, 2-3 plumbers, 2-3 carpenters and 2-3 painters, then us 5 hvac guys, and probably over 150 custodial- they have an army! we take care of 25 buildings, some of which are historic, not sure how many students we house but it was a lot.

 

Yesterday the Governor has extended the no eviction rules due to covid

I'm still evicting this 1 lazy, worthless bastard today. Hopefully he hasn't watched the news

 

Sweet-ness. I'm sure that's nice.

I'm assuming you're talking about the light bar. Yeah, I soldered it into the High beam wires. At the time of installation I really wasn't 100% sure how to do the relay set-up, and I very distinctly remember having a "bad day" and did not feel like I was worth asking the forum how its done.

I'll have to investigate.