Tacoed Tundra project

I bought a set of four center caps on craigslist this morning. I lucked out that the seller was only a few miles from the church that i go to, so there wasn’t much additional driving. Plus there isn’t much traffic in portland at 9:30am on a sunday.

Oh, and those $100 center caps came with free wheels and tires. The tires are starting to crack, but i needed a set of rollers to mount on my wrecked truck! It was a definite win for me!

After i got home i did the ol’ sitchero and mounted the cracked tires onto my steel wheels, then mounted my more street biased (LT215/85-16) tires onto the aluminum rims that i just picked up. It’s nice having a tire machine Coats 40-40). It’s a bit worn out, so it definitely still takes some work, but it’s still pretty sweet to own it nevertheless.

$100 center caps...



...along with free matching rims and tires

 

Nice find and, they are/were Studded. Never ran those but I did have a set siped back in the day, x2 wet traction/braking, and quite a bit better in snow.

 

Fedex delivered a care package today. It’s a partial order from a toyota dealer. I have no idea where the rest of my order
is, so i’ll have to make some calls on monday. But what did arrive today was greatly appreciated. OEM brake shoes, gas cap, and key fob.

My current brake shoes had about 1/32” of friction material left in a few spots, so i’m glad i spent the time to remove the drums to inspect them.

The gas cap that was on the truck wouldn’t stay tight...like whatsoever. You could keep twisting until it would click 10x, and the cap could be loosened easily by the wind from the fluttering butterfly’s wings. The new replacement cap solved the issue.


And thanks to @shifty` for the info on which remote key fob to buy for my truck. I didn’t even realize that my truck had keyless entry as an option. So this is a VERY nice surprise! It only took about a minute to program to my truck.










Here’s the youtube video i watched to program my key fob. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CcfJZ...urce_ve_path=MzY4NDIsMjg2NjY&feature=emb_logo

 

I found a used lumber rack on craig’s for $260 a few days ago. I left early this morning to go buy it. I don’t know if i will keep it on the truck full time or not. But when you need a lumber rack, you NEED a lumber rack. Luckily it’s light enough that two people can easily lift it on and off the bed though.

 

It was kind of a last second idea, but i decided to swap out the foam bottom and back, along with the seat covers themselves between the 2000 and 2004 trucks. The 2004 brown driver seat foam and covers were coming all apart. I used the passenger side seat in the wrecked 2000 truck for the donor parts. Too bad the 2000 truck had grey colored interior, but hey, i had all the parts already so i didn’t have to spend a dime. I’ll just have to install some seat covers to make both side look uniform.



The seat pan on the left was bent up from the crash, but luckily the foam cushion didn’t get damaged.




A little comparison between the two seat bottoms.




Since this is a passenger side seat foam, i had to cut out a chunk of foam where the round seat adjuster knob bracket resides.




I then glued the foam plug on the other side.




The colors looks a bit peculiar, but it feels WAAAAAY better on my backside!

 

I had a large parts order that Fedex was supposed to deliver yesterday. I checked the tracking just now...i don’t have high hopes. I placed the order through Midlands Toyota on 10/8. Tomorrow is the 30th. I’m just starting to get a little frustrated. Hopefully the order does arrive tomorrow AND that all the parts are there and undamaged.

 

I regreased my front driveshaft splines this afternoon. A new OEM boot was fairly inexpensive (about $8) so i also decided to replace my old boot as well. I cleaned out the old grease, slathered in some new, slipped on the Oetiker clamps, smooshed the boot over the splines, and then reinserted both halves together. I’ll wait to tighten up the clamps after i install the shaft. I don’t want a bunch of trapped air (positive or negative) under that boot.

Hindsight i’m thinking it would be super simple to add a zirk fitting into the tube. At the same time, since the shaft never compresses or extends, then i don’t really see a need for adding grease as part of a regular maintenance program.

 

I received my AVS window visors in the mail and then promptly installed yesterday. They’re pretty much a prerequisite on every vehicle here in the rainy PacNW.

 

What's this promptly installed, you speak of?????

 

It’s been a minute since i’ve been on this thread. I’ve been waiting and waiting for my parts order to show up...which it finally did today. 5.5 weeks after my initial order date...Ugh!



I was at a dead standstill for weeks. All the parts i got from a toyota dealer. The new exhaust studs are quite a bit shorter than the original ones. They also are stainless steel! I don’t have any experience with using stainless studs on the exhaust manifold collector though. Hopefully they’re strong enough.




Once the exhaust manifold studs were installed (and liberally coated with nickel anti-seize) i quickly proceeded to get the rest of the exhaust installed. I’m hoping to get LOTS more accomplished tomorrow!

 

I found another rack on craigslist today. It’s not another lumber rack this time, but a hybrid sort of headache rack. It’s a Pro Tech brand an they call it a “sport rack”. This rack would be a lot better for hauling firewood than a lumber rack. At some point i’ll plan to weld in some sort of rear window protection. Whether that be a screen, expanded steel, bars, or who knows what, i just doesn’t know yet. I would like the screen protection to be able to be unbolted and removed so that i could wash the rear window if needed. Maybe i’ll add some backup lights/brake lights/ amber warning lights as well?

Here’s are pics of it when it was still on the seller’s truck. $150 later and it was on the back of my little trailer.

 

I also did some testing for the past couple days with the ABS delete on my 2004 ABS truck. I’m pretty sure it’s now 100% sorted. I haven’t done any pavement miles on the truck just yet, but i do have all four tires off the ground on jack stands for testing.

So here’s the gist...there are four ABS wheels sensors, one at each wheel. The two rear ABS sensors send a signal to the ABS pump, which in turn send another signal to the speedometer. If you want to delete the ABS on the earlier 2000-2004 trucks (i dunno about the 2005 and 06 trucks), you MUST retain the two rear ABS sensors! You also have to retain a portion of the ABS pump assembly! You actually don’t need the whole pump. You can simply unscrew the plastic covered electronic portion from the ABS pump itself. But then you should seal the back of the electrics somehow. Perhaps with RTV? I reassembled the electric box to the ABS pump for now. I want to put some miles on the truck before i go and start throwing any of my ABS parts away. So this next spring/summer i’ll get around to the next step. The front two ABS sensors have absolutely nothing to do with sending a speed signal, so those wires are now obsolete. I currently have mine unplugged.


ABS pump



What the electronics looks like unscrewed from the ABS pump. You must keep this portion of the ABS pump and plug the wire harness back into it!

 

love the boat cleat...

 

Yeah, there’s a total of five of those cleats that are attached with fairly small screws. I don’t really trust them for a heavy load. I think they’re coming off and some sort of loops or something will be welded back on. To the previous owner’s defense, he was hauling around a kayak on the rack. So i guess a boat cleat would have been the most appropriate option.

 

I went to test the drivetrain of the truck with it on four jack stands. I was getting a horrible shake from the front left tire. After inspecting, i found that the inner steering rod had some slop in it. I decided to order just a single inner rod...then changed my mind and figured i should also buy a new tie rod end too...then prudence came and convinced me to just go ahead an buy inner rods and tie rods for both sides! Might as well buy a pair of TYC front turn signal housings as well. The lenses on both of the existing ones fell out a few months ago. My order arrived from Rocky auto well after dark saturday night. So today i begin the install.

...then found out that my left brake caliper was sticky. Turned out three out of the four pistons were a bit rusty. I was tempted to just buy a piston and seal kit, but i’m beginning to loose patients on just how long this project is taking. So it was off to the local parts store to buy a pair of reman 13WL calipers. Of course i accidentally snapped off the brake hard line (that threads into the caliper). I let the words “son of a”...then the rest just kinda trailed off. I wasn’t about to let the truck know that there was a possibility that i would/could get frustrated with it. Luckily my wrecked truck donated its brake line. I got the brakes bleed the rest of the way just after dark this evening. Before i remove the rack and pinion accordion boot, i need to see if i can procure a replacement Oetiker clamp tomorrow (for the boot). Hopefully my local toyota dealer has one in stock.

 

I also grabbed the buffer and spent less than 5 minutes polishing up the headlights and fog lights. It would make it MUCH safer to drive at night!


Before




After

 

While playing with the abs pump, did you happen to stumble upon a way to hot wire it? Some folks have mentioned their belief that the pump hinders bleeding, but mine gravity bled fine.

 

What do you mean by “hot wire”?

 

You know, hit a pin with 12v & make the pump pump. I've heard theres a dealer tool that can do it to the newer trucks, but seems the early trucks dont have the option.

no big deal, i just know i've seen people asking about it.

 

Man you do great work! What a thread!

 

I think you do that with techstream on the new trucks.

 

Thank you sir! It's been pretty fun so far, but the waiting for all my random part's orders to arrive are REALLY wearing on me! I would have liked this project to have been 100% completed 1 month ag0, but i guess that's why it's called a "project".

 

I haven't even tried touching it. I'm afraid that i would short something out and have to buy a replacement pump!

 

What's that saying... something like "the adventure/fun is in the journey, not the destination"
I'll second AircoolerKirk, awesome thread here, info and photos are invaluable.
Cheering you on, can't wait to see the finished truck.

 

I noticed that the recently installed fleabay snorkel might vibrate some in the wind. I don’t know that for sure, but it just seemed like it might. So i ended up installing an additional support bracket. The snorkel kit came with a steel bracket, so i decided to use it. I bought some M6 rubber well nuts as well as some toggle type riv nuts from Mcmaster. I wasn’t sure which would work better, but it turned out the rubber well nuts were the winner.






I did a test of both M6 nuts beforehand on a scrap piece of 1/8” HDPE. The rubber well nut worked better. I would have rather used the steel riv nut, but since it just has a zinc plating, i figured it would corrode sooner than later.

 

Two 1/2” holes for the well nuts were drilled.

 

I wanted a bit better connection between the rubber S shaped snorkel tube and the hard plastic airbox inlet. My solution was to buy a rubber Fernco style plumbing connector. I used a 3x2” rubber adapter. The 3” coupler had a slightly larger I.D. and O.D. I cut all of the 2” taper off the connector and just kept the 3” portion of it. I got it good and hot with a heat gun, then slipped it over the top of the plastic airbox inlet pipe.

I also bought brand new stainless hose clamps. The stainless clamps included in snorkel kit began to rust overnight, so i bought new ones that were heavier duty. Once everything was installed and clamped down i was pleasantly pleased with the results. It will be a more reliable and solid connection now.

I also swapped out the 2004 airbox lid (that has the built in grey colored screen) with a freer flowing open lid off of my 2000 truck. I dunno if there’s any sort of performance difference between the two, but obviously the 2000 lid will have less obstructed air flow.




The rubber S shaped snorkel adapter will slip on over the top of the 3” rubber Fernco piece.

 

With the snorkel and airbox FINALLY installed, i could now plug in the MAF sensor to the airbox. Ironically the check engine light shut off once it was plugged in. I say ironically because because back when this engine and exhaust system (including the same o2 sensors) was in the 2000 truck, there was always a check engine light on. So i automatically assumed that eventually i would have a large headache of trying to figure out the source of the check engine light once i had this 2004 truck up and running. So right after i plugged in the MAF sensor, the light went off. I didn’t quite trust if i had a broken check engine light or not, so i plugged in a code reader and nothing came up. Success!!!

 

I’m also sheepishly admitting that i forgot to install the dust shields when i installed new wheel bearings. I set the shields RIGHT next to the spindles so that i purposely would NOT forget to install them...well sure enough, i got both bearings and hubs completed installed in the spindles without the dust shields. I didn’t really care too much whatsoever that they are not installed, i’m just really frustrated with myself that i forgot to install them. My old 71 ford f-250 has no dust shields, neither of my 3 jeeps have dust shields (front or rear), so i could care less about having them on the tundra either.

 

I figured if i used a maintenance minder sticker to date my replacement timing belt it would eventually get accidentally worn off. Instead i used an engraver to write down the date and mileage on the airbox.