1st Gen. Lunch Table - General Discussion

Ok, quick stop at LAPS and then it’s O2 sensor and dash cluster bulb time for the rest of the day. Hope I don’t fail.

 

FIFY

(sorry, couldn't resist. )

 

Got two 2 packs. Gonna check the cluster bulbs to see if they fit there too.

 

So my project today I would have to say is a fail. But, I think I won anyway.

Since @Jack McCarthy posted that tractor a bit back, I'm mildly looking for a tractor. I'd rather buy a tractor with a bucket, use it for the summer, then sell it for what I paid than to rent some dirt mover for $300/8hrday + delivery + insurance I'm sure.

I found a tractor on C'list Friday night (or is 2am Saturday morning?). Decided to wait until Sunday to make a move as it's at an Estate Sale, Sat/Sun only. Was going to take the big truck, but the small truck was easier out. Not likely to be towing it home immediately so tow rating didn't matter for first trip.

So I took a run up to the estate sale - 40 minute drive into the backwoods. The Taco ended up being the right choice - tall, narrow, fun to drive. Apparently some of the roads I took were closed if you believe a random saw horse that says "road closed". I wasn't buying it & soldiered on. A whole bunch of sawdust suggests the storm relocated some trees & a bunch of large power company trucks with guys standing about idylly suggests the power company re-relocated those trees. Didn't come across any flooding. The last road was dirt & 1 vehicle wide. 3 houses on it. The house with the Estate Sale was beyond a utility vehicle that was resting against a boulder & blocking 3/4 of the lane. Resting on the boulder should suggest the steepness of the lane. The driveway to the house - covered in a fine gravel & was about 5 degrees shy of pure verticle. The Taco was my only vehicle that would have gotten me to this driveway, so WTH I went for it. Taco made it up the driveway, just barely. I really needed to be in 4WD, but RWD got me to the top - just barely.

Went into the garage & the wood chipper had a sold sign on it. :-( That would have been handy for the Roses & Forsythia clippings to happen.

No good details on the tractor in the ad. In person it's a John Deer 755 diesel. Didn't notice if 2WD or 4WD. Tractor was too large for my job, bucket was too shallow for my job. So it wasn't the right tool for my job. High bid on it was $2,500 over my ceiling, so i walked.

So it was a fail - failed to get a tractor today. But it was a win. Taco proved itself, it's versatility. I had a nice 80 minute drive on a beautiful day.
Wish I'd taken photos of the driveway, but to appease @bmf4069

For the curious, the high bid on the tractor was $7,500. Doubtful anyone came after me.
It only has the front bucket - guy used it to regravel the driveway. No mower attachment.
OH - driveway photo! Covered with teeny, tiny, itsy-bitsy gravel.
link to house photos found online for the bored. 21 kane mountain road kent ct - Google Search
For the folks in TX - those dark brown things with green stuff on them are called trees.

 

Licensed insurance agent here. Try quoting a policy with just you and her on there with only her car. Every vehicle on your policy is rated for every driver on the policy. Need one adult driver to drive the rate down with experience and then just her vehicle. Also try companies that will write you an annual auto policy vs 6 months. It'll keep the frequency of rate increases down.

 

Awesome advice

 

Start w o2 sensors or start w bulbs? What’s the best plan?

I picked up a furniture liquidators paper file cabinet cause I keep side biz receipts just in case. They close at 4 so wanted to knock that out today before getting going.

 

Start with the steering wheel lol. O2 sensor, get the hard shit out the way first. That way you'll have the most patience

 

O2 sensors first.

 

Leave for next week. Spray spray spray, e’re day with some PB or krill…

 

No shit? I always thought they were purple.

Late fall/winter around here is the time to buy a tractor. For whatever reason there's always a deal to be had. I think its likely because everyone uses them for brush mowing and stuff isn't growing from nov-march.

Have you checked with your local rental companies on their weekly/monthly rates? Its significantly cheaper than the per day price in my experience.

 

I f'd around and organized a bunch of s, I find that soothing, to put me in the right mood to wrench. Thirty more minutes of that crap and I'm ready. Bonus, got some cardboard to use as padding while I wrench since no lift.

 

Bulbs will be easy peasy. Our Tundra gauges are 100% easier to remove and reinstall vs T100 and FGTaco

 

Wait... Why don't you think we have trees? Because West TX, no doubt. I assure you Central and East TX are full of trees.

 

We have anybody close to Birmingham Alabama? Ass blood, I mean dog, found me a supercharger

 

Yeah, I already R&R'd the cluster once, and got screwed by green led (yuk) and polarity (no fuel gauges at night).

But, yeah, time to start, got all the bs done. Step 1 is skid plate removal.

 

That's one down, one more to go ...



@The Black Mamba I've got you in my sights.

 

NICE! You hit up a pick and pull or what?

 

I'm two hours drive away, else I'd do it. But I'd also be maybe a tad tempted to keep it. (I'd never actually keep it though)

 

OK, party peoples. I am filthy, well, some orange soap cleaned the hands a bit, got some grease on my crappy shirt but that was 'spected.

Skids off was a bit of a hassle, hopefully I got all the hardware for that organized but much of it is in kinda rough shape at only 2 years old, wondering if skid row might do a stainless hardware pack? If not, maybe I'll hunt for my own replacements before re-installing, not like I have to worry about wheelin' right now. And I'll get an oil change while the kids are all off. Didn't use the floor jack to remove them, hopefully that will make reinstalling easier cause a couple are heavy.

The driver side (bank 1 I think?) sensor seems the hardest to get to, hence why the videos focus on that. Passenger upstream seemed easiest. Removing the connectors wasn't hard, dunno why some of the videos made a big deal about that, but maybe I have more experience than most since that connector is used for TRD DRL on 3rd gen Tacomas and I do a ton of harnesses with them.

The downstream sensors seem to not need the tool at all, just 12mm nuts? Which I really should replace if I can figure out the part number. I removed the sensors along with the heat shield, did not see any alternative way to get them out.

I'll do some photos on my build thread while I have parts out, now that my hands are clean and then maybe break for dinner before attempting to install.

I assume I'll have to clear the CEL once done. Then put the skids away in a tidy spot and book my dealer oil change and/or maybe do the front diff while the skid is off.

 

Oh, and also, I got some black s in my eye, took a while to flush that out. I should probably be wearing safety glasses, will put that on the list.

 

I pulled my front two skids and touched up the scuffs, I need to get new hardware too. Think I might order some of these:

 

Safety squints engage.

I get stuff in my eyes frequently. I like to poke a hole in the cap of a plastic water bottle and use it for the eye flushing. The directed pressure from squeezing the bottle is really effective, and every job site ever has a bottle of water somewhere.

You can buy actual saline eye flush bottles which is probably better advice. Optometrists love me.

 

OK, dinner has been consumed, back at it to bolt these mofos back in and then, dare I test? You guys use extra anti sieze or just what's already on those denso parts after removing the plastic guard?

 

I think I remember reading somewhere that anti seize is not recommended due to the possibility of fouling the sensors. I carefully gave mine a little copper flavor and sent them home. No issues 1500ish miles later.

 

K, all tight and connected, let's see, even at Dave speed about 4h including skid plate removal and a break for dinner. A decent mechanic should be able to do all 4 on a stock truck without these skids in 2h for sure I would think. Amazing that I was quoted $950 from a shop, unless of course I somehow managed to bungle this thing entirely and now I have to pay to redo it. Even then, only out some time which was enjoyable and $200 in parts.

 

So far maybe ok? I’d throw another CEL if not, right?

 

I think these are just too bright for my cluster, gonna move them to the HVAC center console area where you have yours b/c those are dim AF for me now. That means I now need to do yet another round of bulbs in the cluster and hope they aren't so bright that I can dim down ok.

I do like white over green, even the OG green, green is just not great, white is great. I could try my amber set. The one T5 really pisses me off, they couldn't just use 5 T10's for consistency? grrrr.

Looked for zevo T5's, didn't find any.