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

give us the details! I want leather like that in my truck

 

Katzkins $1300 installed

 

Noice!

 

I love my katskins; really transformed a 20 year old truck.

 

Been stuck in classes the last couple of days (work) but managed to knock this out. Potato pictures, but I like the look and operation of this BakFlip FM a hell of a lot more than my TonnoPro, so I guess the TonnoPro is going up for sale, $125 here, $150 on CL.

 

Did you treat it with Crisco or is it naturally that shiny?

 

Unfortunately, it's naturally that shiny. Which, in reality, my truck is shiny, so it's not as obvious out in the sunlight, it just looks extra glossy in shadows.

 

Did and learned a few things today I’ll cover this eve. Here’s the coil-out sitting on stops wheel stuff.

 

Just wait until you need to pull your leaf springs (if you have a hitch).

 

This is not what i need to hear since I need to replace my leaf spring bushings.

 

Enough rust to need new bolts? It would be worth it to cut em off and put the nuts on the frame side.

toyota engineers would climb over a mountain of virgins to screw a mechanic.

 

I guess I’ll find out when I put the impact wrench on them. They don’t appear corroded enough to distort the nut or threads.

 

Replaced valve cover gaskets, spark plugs, and PCV valve between yesterday and today. Also cleaned up the valve covers a bit while they were out.
Pretty pleased to see that the previous owner took care of the engine.

Passenger side





Driver side





Spark plugs - replaced not that long ago, but I figured while replacing spark plug seals it would be good to inspect and replace.

 

Plugs don’t look terrible, maybe keep them for spares, or make a wind chime

 

Today was productive. Test fit some 1.25" Spidertrax spacers. Completely removes any frame rub with room to spare. Crowds the pinch weld and windshield reservoir. But, gave me a good baseline because I'm testing .75" spacers tomorrow. Either .75" does it or I go 1.00". Once I know I'm ordering them in steel.

I modded the pinch weld with no cuts or drilling, went with the less is more approach. If I need more room back there, which I doubt, it means modding the tub.

If you have changed a lot on your front suspension - I recommend pulling your springs and sway bar sometime and measuring your tower to bottom shock mount distance with as much truck weight on the bump stops as possible. Showed me two things. Solo arms engage the front bump stop first, OEM engage the rear first. And, there's more distance from the top of the Solo LCAs to the bump stops. I spaced my stops down 3/8". Also begins to show where your tires could bash on up travel and on up travel turns.







I just realized I didn’t take any final pinch weld mod photos….

 

Did you find any mushrooms down there?

 

No kidding. Moist rich looking soil. Maybe just wet dirt, but It felt like potting soil...

 

Yours is exactly what I expected and hoped to see @72k(ish) miles. Wasn't the reality I found, I'm slightly jealous. Reply or two after that, you can see how much crust I scrubbed, blew and vacuumed out out with the time I had available - some really substantial chunks came out from under the baffle - but I'm super disappointed with what I saw as you can imagine.

I should've swapped my plugs while in there, but I wanted to re-boot a couple of my coils (4&6) because they were slightly toasty.

Anyway, good find on your side, that's comforting to see, your internals look great. I have a series of flushes and short-interval oil changes coming up to try and clear out and purge the remaining crust and varnish, which means lots of sweating for me as I watch my oil pressure needle between OCI hoping none of that garbage clogs my pickup tube screen.

 

Is the PCV valve a normal wear item? But a pain to replace if valve cover gaskets already done?

 

Thanks @shifty` ya I was pretty pleased considering its sitting at 234k miles. Part of the reason I bought the truck was I know the previous owner and he takes great care of everything he has. I'm sure if you're persistent and patient you can get that stuff flushed out without causing any clogging issues.

While in there I discovered I need to replace a couple coils.

 

PCV should be a normal wear item, but I don't know if there's a maintenance interval for it. Should be easy and accessible after VCs are done.

 

Takes less than a minute to replace the old one. You can even pull out the old one and test it by shaking it and blowing through it. (Only works in one direction)

 

Yes, it is. I think the OEM change interval is 15, 20 or 30k miles? I looked it up in my OM, but don't recall the maintenance interval, was definitely 30k/mi or less though.

For my later-model 1GT it's easy thread-in/out. I think on earlier models it may be a simple pop-in/out?

I swapped mine out before doing my VC gaskets because I had concerns it may've been stuck and maybe causing extra pressure, which caused my sudden VC leak. When I pulled it, it's definitely chunky in there, same shit you see in my linked pics was gummed in there, but it was technically operating.

Anyway, I'd do it if I were you. The valve itself is cheap af, and if you haven't done it yet or know it hasn't been doing, can't hurt anything, I guess?

 

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Just a little extra work I thought I'd be avoiding (along with annoying maintenance like VC gaskets I wasn't expecting to suffer with), I'll get it done, and up to MY normal level of expectation for how my vehicles would be maintained. This whole situation has just inspired me to do a full fluid rotation on everything at this point to get to a baseline now I've seen that nonsense.

RE: Coils, not sure if you caught it, maybe your tubes are cracked and this doesn't apply, but for $50 Denso has their name on a set to re-boot and re-spring the coils. https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=4718148&cc=1426935&pt=10150

5% coupon for RockAuto is floating around here also, which should cover shipping and maybe part of tax.

 

Good thinking on the fluid swap. Makes a world of difference.
Sadly, I have 2 coils that are cracked and need full replacement. Sucks, cuz I just ordered a starter from Rockauto and should have ordered coils too.

 

Rubbing Issue - Do I need an alignment

I've noticed recently that my driver-side tire is rubbing on the bumper trim; most noticeably when backing out of the driveway or turning and the shock compressing. I measured clearance between tire and trim and it seems the tire is more forward on the driver side. No issues with the passenger side. I'm wondering if my LCA could have moved, and if a new alignment is needed? Or could it be caused by something else?

 

Put a bunch of high octane doll hairs in the tank today!

 

Thanks fellas and fellinas, the clutches are soooo much happier! I don’t even think I herd(@Tundra2) them bark as I was backing out of my driveway to go do unnecessary 8s; while I was there I thought this clapped out Mercedes’ was starting a fire in the dumpster? So after they left I went and CIO and the lid was melted but nothing actively burning, so maybe they were just burning oil?
Anyways I did a bunch of locked turns from a stop while all the Bettie’s were pushing their carts and walking in the center of the driving isle….. and even some off camber sharp turns down some of the drainage in the back. Feels so much better not feeling that rachet coming from the rear, now I can ocd on other weird noises…..