What have you done to your 1st gen Tundra today?

You just wait... I'm going to show up at your gate at 6am on Thursday February 6th with a bunch of parts, some tools and Shiner.
https://youtu.be/Sdocmu6CyFs?si=PcJrjj-ikXkXRAqO

 

Oregon has a 25 year rule for Special Interest plates (there is a way to also get a brand new vehicle registered as a special interest vehicle as well, but that takes a lot of doing, and i’m not going to talk about it). Most all my vehicles are registered as special interest, but then again i have a large quiver of vintage vespa and lambretta motor scooters, so those easily qualify. I also have a couple trucks and jeeps from the 70’s and early 80’s that have special interest plates as well. The cool thing about oregon is that you can re-register a period correct license plate to the vehicle you want to register as a special interest. I’ve spent a couple thousand bucks on various used oregon license plates to match the year of vehicle that i own.

My tundra might be a bit too mundane looking to sneak in as a special interest vehicle? I do have a 2005 ktm 525 EXC that i bought brand new off the lot 20 years ago. I’ll have to wait another 5 years to get a SI plate for it.


A couple examples of my plates. And i do get to keep the 71 and 77 stickers on the plates too!

 

Wow! So glad you post here.

 

Changed out the driver side front strut. Thanks to @2006 Tundra AC for selling me his Billstein something or others with some heavier-duty spring. I can’t remember what kind they are but it took some prying to get it to compress a little and go in! Was definitely a couple of inches taller than my stock Billstein struts. I’ll upload some pics when I finish tomorrow. I used a round punch inserted from the front, then a second from the rear while prying up on the bottom of the strut with a crowbar. Once the rear was in, I could pull out the front one and lever it some more to get the bolt in. Was a bear but got her done.

 

We’ll open all the cocks when we do the timing belt.

Jealous is an ugly color. Almost as ugly as a white ‘02 Access Cab.

 

Tip for future: Take your foot and apply weight on the LCA. Don't use punches or bolts to align the lower mount, you'll scar shit. A properly positioned foot pushing down on the LCA, if swaybar is disco'd, will get you a solid inch or more of adjustment space. Makes it a no-brainer to get the shock mount bolt installed, properly with the bolt head facing the cab so it doesn't shred your CV boot in precarious situations, and you're golden.

We need pics now, of stance. I feel shorted here.

 

anyone posted exactly what needs to be disassembled to swap out a strut? I know swaybar, and possibly lbj but I just got my new assemblies and want to do them as easily and fast as possible. Is it easier to have both front wheels off the ground?

 

I thought you couldn’t get the bolt in from that direction without disconnecting the lbj bolts, the cv gets in the way

 

Everyone has their own way. I did one side at a time, lifting one side at a time, in my tiny ass garage.

Regardless how you do it, start by disconnecting the swaybar with the truck on the ground. Swaybar is a limiting factor in vertical movement.

The other lmiteing factor to UCA/LCA travel is the spindle/knuckle. Obviously, that's held in by the UBJ/LBJ. I'm more inclined to pop off the UBJ than the LBJ, unless you intend to replace the LBJs while you're in there.

UBJ is easy enough to pop free, pop the cotter, spin off the castle nut, flip over and reinstall the castle nut until it's 2-3mm (~1/16") off the arm and give it a couple of stout BFH whacks, it should drop down. Installing upside down will prevent damage to the castle side of the nut. Leaving the gap will allow the UBJ and the nut will catch the joint from dropping out. From there, understand two things: One, there's a lot of weight on the knuckle (caliper, rotor, the knuckle itself, etc.) and two, The CV axle can get pulled out if the knuckle etc. swings out too far. I kept the OEM bottle jack under my LCA until I wapped a bungee around the top of my knuckle and hooked it to the framerail. If you're worried about the CV axle, you can also pop off its nut and tap it loose, then bungee it.

If you go with popping the 4 bolts out of the LBJ, which is fair enough and sane, you're going to want to have a 2x4 or something to support the knuckle at the lug studs with a jack, to push the knuckle assembly upward while you work on the lower half. This actually may be the easier way, since it ultimately isolates the LBJ and LCA (with TRE attached) from the upper half; at that point, the TRE will become your limiting-travel point. You could disconnect it if you want maximum movement.

Standard disclaimer, I don't fully agree with his methodology or practices, but this video does a pretty good job of showing a typical driveway installation of the product at a level I wouldn't be surprised to see a shop use. I definitely don't agree with how he does it all, but some things, like the UCA pivot bolt on the passenger side being impossible to torque as-is ... "it is what it is". Where he shows prying with a prybar, this is where I'd be putting all my weight into the LCA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2unFVNRry8​

 

You absolutely can.

It's super easy if the CV nut is out, then you can just pitch the knuckle outward, tap the CV out, and lift it out of the way.

If the CV nut is intact, if the wheels are full-lock to the right on passender side, or full-lock left on driver side, the CV is fully free and clear from the nut. At half-lock, I found it was "clear enough" for me.

I actually ended up tearing back down again (I posted pics on here) because I'm OCD/anal retentive. I know others who do far more wheeling than me installed it backwards though. No issues (yet). But ... it looks pretty clear to me, with the right travel and wheel position, the shank could catch your boot.

 

Ahhh good tip, I never thought about turning the wheels, thanks for that

 

Obviously, this would be easier (/only possible) if both front wheels were off the ground, though

I'm picturing someone with only one side jacked up being, like, "GD it, shifty said I could turn the wheel!" *GRUNT, GRUNT*

You're not budging anything if one wheel is planted.

 

Awesome thanks @shifty` luckily my truck is 2wd so no cv’s to worry about. I may try the upper bj trick. I hate the thought of popping joints and re attaching them without replacing. My lbjs are only about 2 months old so I don’t want to mess with them.

 

First two modifications.

l) Installed a Desert Does It Seat Jacker on the Left Side. This gives more legroom and a more comfortable seating position. Makes a huge difference in leg position. Helps reduce/eliminate my back pain on a long drive.



2) Treated the door gaskets, window seals, windshield wipers, windshield seal with ShinEtsu Grease from Japan.

This is a thick paste-like material. Rub it on like using a lotion for dry skin. It rejuvenates dry rubber. It contains active ingredients that make the rubber plump up. The truck has less wind noise entering the cabin.

I do a lot of deep water crossings. This is a must to keep water from entering the cab.



Here's a guy rejuvenating his Supra Targa top seals.

https://youtu.be/mVhUfDTGOqo?si=zrocM76wrvQDKUS-

 

Ah good idea on disconnecting the swaybar. Will do that on the passenger side this afternoon and get pics later today.

 

2WD, is a no-brainer. Pop the upper. You don't even want to fight with replacing that SOB, though. You'll still want to pull your ABS/wheel speed sensor if your truck is so equipped, and be mindful of your brake lines while in there.

But before you put forth the effort of disco on the UBJ, see if you can get the strut/CO to fit without. You may still be able to tuck the top half of it up in the 3 holes of the pocket up top, spin the nuts on loosely, and step on the LCA to get enough downward pitch that it slides up into place. I've never done a 2WD so not fully sure.

 

I'm curious if the uncomfy seat thing is just a manual/non-power seat thing. My power seat seems like it's able to adjust out to where it gives more lift than what I see the non-power seats get. Lower the ass-end of the seat, raise the front, then slide it back, and I'm golden.

On that product, I ended up buying some Gummi Pflege Stift which seems to be similar and does same thing?

 

Tried the LED projector, high beams were weak, and the lens kept fading, so I decided to "upgrade" (saw these on the FB group). Next is foglights.

 

It sure gives you a lot of room to work when you lift from the hitch and let the suspension sag. How’s my two stacked stumps measure up on your list of sketchiest jacking jobs? Haha

 

Way sketchier than @Sirfive 's. Top 5 most sketchy I think. LOL

 

I couldn’t find a pic, but I had seen one guy with his truck on cribbage and sitting upright underneath working on it

 

I may be a bit more cautious than most. We lost my uncle when the jack he had a truck on failed and it came down on him. He had neglected to put jack stands under it.

I jack my truck up, put stands under the frame, keep the jack up and locked in place and once a tire comes off, it's placed under the axle as a last ditch safety measure to catch a falling truck.

 

I’m all about the tire crib safety measure! More people should get hip to it

 

how’d we have rusty’s truck lifted when your jack tweaked? Didnt we just leave the bent jack in there?

somewhere, someone has pics of the cinderblocks we used during panhandlemonium.

safety is for suckers, if its your time, you’ll find out.

 

That's exactly what I do. I had a neighbor that never used jack stands. Just the jack. He was dying of cancer so I don't think he cared. Not sure which way would be worse to go.

 

I read a thread on this somewhere...can't remember if it was here. People have different opinions. Only thing I know is when I bought my topper from large junkyard, a production place selling a lot of parts, almost every truck on the property was sitting on a stump, or stack of tires, or something, resting on the hitch. Rear axles removed and stacked on racks up near the office.

 

It’s looks awful, but it was surprisingly stable and about as safe as I could make it with my space and equipment constraints. Fronts chalked and in 4x4, hitch centered on stumps and I tried rocking it front to back and side to side before going under, it wouldn’t budge. I was swapping the leaf springs so the rear axle stands I used wouldn’t have stopped the truck from falling/would tip over. I had to use the lift jack to raise/lower the axle into position and couldn’t keep it on the frame. I wish I had jack stands tall/strong enough for the frame but with an uneven dirt surface I wouldn’t have trusted them anyway. I guess all I’m saying is that I don’t have a death wish and think safety is good, it’s just funny how my safest option ended up looking.

 

Reminds me of one of the Faces of Death movies when I was younger. The guy who went to the junkyard, and the car fell on him. I think the rotor basically cut off his arm, and he "bled to death" on the yard.

Most of the footage was faked, but they'd insert real aftermath photos/video from other stuff IIRC.

 

I do like this jackstand conversation, keep it going I don’t want to derail, but I’m also looking for some advice.

I was just reading about the Toyota 4.6 v8, they mentioned that our 05-06 4.7 valves should be checked or adjusted every 60k? I’ve never done that, has anyone else and what does it entail? How important is it?

 

If your not a total moron, gravity has to work alot harder to kill you than a distracted dipshit. Saying that as someone who shuffled wires across red iron in buildings, unharnessed; and has wrecked several motorcycles without help.

@Bed Tundy as soon as i pull my vc’s i plan to check(150-160k). Apparently folks think cam buckets are like hydraulic lifters. But i know the titan has never been done, and its handling 300k just fine.

You set each piston to tdc on compression (or wherever all the valves are closed, and measure how much feeler gauge you can fit between the cam & bucket. The reason it’s not 0” is to compensate for heat expansion.

once everything is measured, you pull the cams & shuffle or add shims to get each cam lobe to the proper tightness. A crank angle gauge is handy & a good measurement caliper is mandatory. Also torque wrench & feeler gauge set, but thats a given everytime you open any machine.