Mechanics Special 05 DC Refresh

Great tips thank you. All on the list. And I appreciate the HF tip, I've been ITC for years and they already have plenty of my money lol. Talk shit all you want, but I have a store 8 minutes from my house so super easy to swap anything out that has lifetime warranty (I haven't had to much). Their ICON tools are NOT snap on, but for the money for a crappy weekend DIY guy like me they're great.

 

Haven't replaced yet and haven't had time to tinker with the truck much. Spent 6hrs today detailing and polishing my wifes GX, all my projects were on back burner until that got done. It's weird but it looks way worse without the tape measure there, and yes it's only like 0.5"

Will post pics soon. (Don't tell anyone but) I bought quickstruts for it and am planning on installing them at some point in the next week or two. For $150 if they just level it and last a year I'll be happy and revisit the bigger investment of bilsteins later. Again, this truck is being used to go to the dump and hardware store, so I'm not stressing ride or travel much.

 

This interaction of posts has had me domed up for a while now. I have a weird vibration that manifests in the mid 30 mph range, it tapers off as I accelerate but its still there. Can feel it in my seat, see it in rearview, and hear it from my kids carseats (and elsewhere).

I've read a few vibration/driveline threads and I know it can be coming from many places. I have a new (aftermarket) drive shaft, that has one grease zerk that I have filled with fresh grease. I have shitty chinabomb tires and older rusty rims. I have brakes with surface rust that I have no idea when they were last serviced, and I have a parking brake that basically does nothing.

When I was chasing the rear diff leak I filled it with 75-90 full synthetic. I clearly have the goofy brake master cylinder and AUTO LSD button discussed in other recent posts. I'm guessing, then, that I have LSD...sooooooooo is it possible the synthetic fluid in there is causing an issue, and in yalls opinion should I drain and fill with dino? I probably have less than 2500 miles on the synthetic stuff so hoping I didn't do any damage.

 

Auto LSD = open diff with brakes that provide traction control for the rear wheels.

No need to change the synthetic fluid out.

 

Been on the fence about selling the truck or keeping it. Forced myself to commit this week and will keep it until next summer at least - will start towing a boat more next summer and i'm not 100% sure 1GT is up to it.

Committing to truck has more or less given me permission to spend some money/time on it. Did some maintenance today...

Oil change/filter, and rotated tires x-pattern in my garage. All new lugnuts as the old ones were looking crappy and rusted. I've never had access to a lift but it'd sure be nice to have one rotating tires. I do have 2 floor jacks, so that helps.



Also been having issues with the AC - had my shop install a new compressor in July when mine shit the bed but my knobs have been hanging up and didn't feel I was getting full airflow. Fan blower does make a whirring click noise - it's original and I probably should replace soon. Dropped it to inspect, blew out some dust/debris with compressed air and reinstalled.



I had the same issues as in this thread - my blend door was stuck between dash and dash/feet https://www.tundras.com/threads/vent-control-binding-solved.58386/

Climbed in the footwell like shown in the youtube videos and removed the air baffle near the gas pedal - dude in the video totally buries the lede. The 10mm holding that thing in will NEVER go back. PITA wiggling around down there, but I'm 6'02" 275 so I am not exactly built to be working in the bottom of cars.

Anywho, I didn't disconnect all the stuff or remove the white plastic piece to shave it. Just lubed the crap out of it and all the cables with silicone - everything working much more smoothly now and have the AC set to full dash blast.





With that done I turned attention to the evap coils - saw interesting youtube videos and thought I'd attempt same cleaning procedure.
https://youtu.be/h0-iJVYuhPE?si=esumxrl-bhqZ4njp

https://youtu.be/wJ0Q2oxNDU0?si=e3VjFGdilc3rLE8o

These guys seemed to have more dust/dirt in their coils. Mine was FULL of mother nature. Pine needles, leaves, dirt, etc etc. I dont *think* it was a rodent nest in there, but it was a lot of rodent nest *stuff*. It's very tight access and tough to see in there, you have a very small window/angle to view and spray.

I brushed out the area as best I could, then went to town with the shop vac. Used pick tools to try and reach in there and dig some junk out. Then diluted 1:1 coil cleaner in a spray bottle and let it rip. Finished with a full spray bottle of water to rinse, then used compressed air to agitate and get as much of the last of the stuff out of there.















It feels WEIRD spraying 2 gallons of liquid full blast INSIDE your truck, especially around electrical connections and whatnot.

All in all, it helped, and it's better, but I still think I need a recharge or my shop didn't fill system correctly after the compressor install last month. I'm getting mid 60 degrees with an infared thermometer at the vents, full cold full blast. I'm guessing it should be blowing 50* in that scenario.

 

They may've used the new less-harmful 134A refrigerant, like the crap ZeroR makes. It's cheaper, and works less effectively.

 

Dislike button. I changed outfits twice today because I was too wet from sweat to go in my house and eat lunch.

 

I know nothing of refrigerant. There is an AC shop near me that advertises 1234YF in their google overview - is this the good stuff?

 

That's the new stuff, I don't even know if it's compatible with 134a. The stuff I'm talking about is usually labeled "Replacement R134A"

This video may be interesting for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41HBPqdMxfI​

 

That’s the worst. R12 was the good stuff

 

It's amazing how much gunk seems to get into these Tundras. I remember reading through professional hand model's thread, and seeing all the pine needles and other forest debris that was jammed into a bunch of places in his truck. Sure enough, anytime I've happened to be in the same places in my Tundra, they're full of pine needles and compost. Never had any of that in my similar-generation Tacoma. These Tundra cabs seem to have issues with water leaks and debris accumulation that the same year Tacomas don't. Growing pains for Toyota's first full size I guess.

I should inspect my heat duct/blower system before winter to make sure it's fairly clear...I had to use defrost on a wet morning recently and was underwhelmed with the performance.

 

You might be shocked what you find in there. The picture doesn’t do it justice because the access hole is so small. There was little mulch looking sticks, leaves, and dirt all crammed in between the coils.

I bought a gallon of the coil cleaner, if I was to do it again I might buy a can of the foaming cleaner and alternate with that as well. There are definitely edges of the coil you can’t reach with the type of sprayer I used.

Overcast this morning and 78* ambient florida temp (aka humid AF) I was getting 52 degrees at the vent. So I’m not running out for a recharge quite yet. It’s a big improvement

 

RE: the evap coil cleaning process...if anyone is on the fence or considering doing it, just do it. After letting the system run and spool up for a bit on a drive, I am shocked how much of an improvement it has made. Blowing COLD today on a trip to the junk yard. It WORKS!

 

Damn. Nice. My AC seems to work just fine (fine enough for Montana anyway). Heater and blower motor power I'm more concerned about.

 

Wrapped up a relatively thorough front end rebuild this week. My cam bolts were frozen so I couldn't get a true alignment and I think I've started to get uneven wear on my tires, creating a vibration at certain speeds. Will not put $1k worth of new tires on the truck if I can't get an alignment and chew up tires, so my hand was forced.

New lower control arms (TRQ)
New OEM LBJs and bolts (Toyota - ordered from Ourisman they were great and caught that I ordered the wrong bolts and swapped in the correct ones for me)
New quick struts (Detroit Axle)
1.5" leveling kit (ebay/spacers)
New cam bolts and sleeves (Sheisor/Amazon)
New Sway bar end links (TRQ)
New inner and outer tie rod ends (TRQ)
New tie rod boots (Amazon)
New steering rack bushing (Amazon) - I only used the "U" bushing on passenger side - the center bushing in red color amazon kit did not fit my rack

Didn't take a ton of pictures or video to document, as there's already some helpful youtube videos out there. I relied heavily on TRQ and the 1stgenoffroad Ep. 17 video documenting the control arms replacement. I am a novice at suspension work and was too focused on getting the job done and not bricking my truck to document too much.

For those attempting this in the future....

1. The diablo carbide blades are a must if youre cutting out seized cam sleeves from the LCAs.
2. You will need some big size sockets and wrenches, could get away with a crescent but I opted to buy a 20-25mm wrench set to up my size game
3. Shop air and an air impact is very useful if your truck lived in the salt at any point. The torque is huge compared to electric impacts
4. *Important* If you get the LBJ recall kit from toyota you might get some cotter pins thrown in but it will NOT include castle nuts. My old ones were trashed and the old pins were seized so I had to order new ones and it delayed my alignment 4 days. P/N 90171-18003
5. I managed to find sleeved bolts that fit for lower shock mounts at the hardware store but the castle nuts they carried did not line up right and had to wait for Toyota OEM castle nuts to ship in

Shout out @shifty` and @w666 among others for help with part numbers etc thru the process.
Quoting shifty on shock mount numbers: https://www.tundras.com/threads/first-gen-lower-ball-joint-lbj-failures.141860/page-13#post-3694850

This was a big job for me and although not overly difficult from a technical standpoint, doing this shit on jackstands in your driveway when it's 137* outside sucks. Truck doesn't fit inside my garage and I left it unfinished overnight 3 nights before getting it all buttoned up. Pretty physically demanding. I'd guess I have 12 hours over 3 days invested in this project. Others could surely do it quicker but I generally take my time and am a slower worker, especially when the weather is this hot and I'm getting up and down off the ground on my back 100 times a day. Rusty bolts don't help things, neither does being 6'2" 275. I'm not built to wriggle under cars

Sway bar link bushings and general condition of front end components - note the hole in tie rod boot:



Passenger tie rod boot and steering rack bushing:



Peek-a-boo seized cam sleeve. I know I'll get rust comments and there is rust, but the general condition is better than appears in pics. Caked on dirt and crappy rust converter paint make a lot look worse than it is.



Knuckle suspended with ratchet strap - need a wired sawzall to cut sleeves - battery job won't cut it.



New cam bolts slathered with anti seize. Not OEM but felt good about quality upon visual inspection, it's a solid spoof of the original for 1/4 the price, 75 bucks for the set IIRC.



HOA Karen down the street loves me



Carnage

 

Results - happy overall. The sway bar links are the only thing I questioned the quality on. Otherwise the TRQ stuff seems solid, LCAs are beefy. 1stgenoffroad went aftermarket with his and based on what I read he was happy for over 3 years and he wheels his truck - mine is a 4k/yr pavement queen to go to home depot and the dump.

I know everyone here hates spacers but I couldn't stand the rake any longer and again, I'm not wheeling the truck. Love the perkier look up front.

Parked in front of her most frequently visited store







I'm holding the camera at a poor angle here or something, this pic looks like more of a squat than there actually is. Passenger side definitely still higher than driver though - my toyolean is legit.



Shiny bolts!





Some shine, some crust

 

Also this week tackled the Loncky or Lonky steering wheel wrap mod. My wheel was chewed up and nasty with some chunks missing out of the leather and some stitching separation around the top right spoke. Didn't know these custom wraps existed until a couple weeks ago seeing it on a thread here. They have one on Amazon specifically for our 4 spoke wheel that stitches right up. I looked hard at some of the ebay replacement wheels with wood grain at 12 oclock but didn't want to swing nearly 300 bucks on it, and they don't have many options in my color - a lot of black options though

This thing cost like 35 bucks and it's well worth it. The leather itself feels high quality - not synthetic or plastic-ey. Some thoughts:

1. Take your time lining the cover up and choosing when to lay down tape
2. They give you plenty of tape so use lots of it
3. This is not a project for someone that doesn't have real interest in the result or wants a quick fix/do it and be done with it. It will take time and patience. The stitching is tedious but the end result is well worth it.
4. The wheel feels like a new car wheel when done and really changes the driving experience
5. I removed the wheel and highly recommend that especially if you're not doing this in the fall or spring and the weather is hot. Sitting in the truck doing the stitching while the battery was disconnected without AC in florida in September was a non starter
6. Total working time in this project was roughly 5.5 hours - from disconnecting the battery and start of removal of the wheel back to re-install and battery connect. I took my time stitching and worked the cover to make sure it looked as OEM as possible.

Old wheel - note the black marks and gashes



I opted to not remove my old leather off the wheel. When I placed the Loncky cover over the top the ends met perfectly on the straight runs, I was worried if I removed the leather the cover would be "too big" and overlap at the stitches.



In process - the straight/flat areas go very quickly, simple pattern and you make up ground. All the time is spent in the turns and the spokes, to get it to lay down right and tuck behind corners.



Complete



Airbag connectors - the wheel removal and install is pretty straight forward aside from these. Two T30s behind plastic covers on either side of the wheel, then the main 24mm nut. The airbag clips are removed by lifting that yellow tab in the center of the clip, then pulling the harness connector straight up. I needed a wheel puller to pop my wheel off. Also make sure you mark the nut and inside of the wheel to ensure you center back on the correct spline to keep your wheel straight



Finished product. The wheel definitely feels bigger in hand but not bulky or obnoxious like the parts store $10 slip on covers. It feels like the more modern wheels nowadays that seem to be bigger than our 1GT wheels from the factory.

 

Nicely done! Just saw your PM and skimmed your thread - you are persistent! Nice truck, and great job on the wheel. Such a nice feel in hand, especially for the money. Despite getting a bad hand from the "mechanic" who flipped it, you've got a sweet ride here. Hope you made that fella's antics known on his business page!

 

Knocked out the firstgentundra phone mount project a while back. It appears he's using a slightly different material since theyve come back in stock, as mine has a hammered finish as opposed to the shiny/smooth finish @shifty` and others show in their mounts. Overall I like it and though I'm used to having my phone more in line with my sight on a window mount, I think I can make this work for me.

Mine did rattle and squeak a bit at contact points so I removed it and added thin strips of TESA tape to contact/mounting points and that fixed the issue.

Mounting plate $30
https://www.firstgentundra.com/first-gen-tundra/p/fzv5ch6rzinqzihjep00juhapbbf7r

AMPS ball mount $17

$18 Aluminum AMPS to 17mm Ball Adapter with Extension Rod for Car Phone Holder, Drill Mount Ball Plate Base Meets Industry Standard AMPS Hole Pattern,Compatible with Garmin GPS Nuvi Dezl Drive Zumo RV

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZN3CLWS?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

T Nuts $7

$8 Socell 180Pcs 2020 Series T Nuts,M3 M4 M5 T Slot Nut Hammer Head Fastener Nut Nickel Plated Carbon Steel Assortment Kit for 20 Series Aluminum Profile - Nickel Plated Carbon Steel

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Z4YH6NP?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

Magsafe plate $17

$16 Coolpow for Magsafe Car Mount Charger【Vent+Dash+Wall】Magnetic Wireless Car Charger iPhone【 360°Rotation 】Mag safe Car Charger, Car Phone Holder Charger for iPhone 16 15 14 13 12 Pro Max Magsafe Case

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BS46NFTL?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

USB C cables and plug I already had sitting around. So I'm in the project $70 which is still a lot, but I'm happy with the items performance and look. I already have a OhSnap! ring on my phone, made of metal, so the magsafe plate grabs HARD. Like I have to slide the phone off sideways because I can't pull it straight off. "it's not going anywhere".