What have you done to your ride lately?

Silverback

Lima Gulf Bravo Foxtrot Juliet Bravo
How about for the hatch?
 

tx_shooter

It is not a war crime the first time.
Staff member
Since it opens up I am not going to put anything on it. Plus it would interfere with a drawer system inside the cargo area. It it was a barn door style hatch I would be more inclined use it for storage options. If the window cut outs were cheaper I would jump on those too but right now they are out of the price range.
 

Anathollo

Armorall is my choice of lube
Staff member
I also ordered new Crown brake lines. I'm 99% sure these are fine and its just cosmetic, but I really don't want to take a chance. I had a Goodridge line explode on me many moons ago. I had a Crown airline for the front locker get melted against the header and it still worked fine (it was replaced though)... so I "think" the brake line is fine. But that being said, I ordered a new set. I got the 3" over stock length, which should fit a little better since the ones on there are 4" over stock length.

View attachment 11754
I had 4" in the front and this exact thing happened to me except it failed while braking for a red light. You did the right thing by ordering new lines because at some point it was going to fail without a doubt.
I thought having longer brake lines in the front would be a plus but it's just long enough to start rubbing on stuff.
 

Anathollo

Armorall is my choice of lube
Staff member
Well crap. About a month ago I was driving to work with the stereo on, low volume and all the sudden "BOOM"! Then a very high pitch sound out the front passenger kick panel speakers. I finally got around to troubleshooting it and discovered my Audio Control DQX is the culprit. Bad news is they no longer sell it and I don't see any Audio Control repair facilities. So... ordered a replacement for it. Its the Audio Control DM-608. Doesn't have the cool DDC like my DQX did but it is controlled via your laptop. Which is fine, once I got the DQX setup I never fucked with the settings via the DDC (and there are a shitload of settings). Good news is the new unit is a little smaller and the inputs are in the same locations so hooking it up should be simple (I probably just fucked myself ).

Old unit... you will be missed.
View attachment 11751

View attachment 11752
:criesinhundreddollarbills: that sucks!
 

Silverback

Lima Gulf Bravo Foxtrot Juliet Bravo
I had 4" in the front and this exact thing happened to me except it failed while braking for a red light. You did the right thing by ordering new lines because at some point it was going to fail without a doubt.
I thought having longer brake lines in the front would be. Plus but it's just long enough to start rubbing on stuff.

Thanks for validating what I did. I figured it was at risk, like an inner city kid, and best to replace it. :)
 

Silverback

Lima Gulf Bravo Foxtrot Juliet Bravo
:criesinhundreddollarbills: that sucks!

Yeah, not happy.. the one piece of equipment I really loved died. Hope the new one is as good... I'm sure it will be.
 

Oswego

n00b
Anyone mounted molle panels in their rig before? I ordered a large panel to mount on the back of my back seats for additional storage options. The panel should be here in a few days so we will see how it goes.

Nope, but Ican;t wait to see what you come up with. My plan years ago was to do a similar panel out of aluminum to cover up the back of my extended cab. I removed the rear seats/plastic panels/seat belts/everything in order to come up with some storage solutions lol
 

CowboyTaco

Well-Known Member
This is your opportunity to grow it. :) But I agree. We do have folks from both coasts though (Morning Glory is on the coast of Texas) but we need some southern exposure. BTW, be sure to stock up on Monkey Butt powder. :) Best of luck with the new job.

I think I'm going to need Zech to bring me some more stickers....
 

tex

That's Mr Asshole to you
I was actually about to put together another order and see if there was any interest in some TOR t shirts or such.

Yes to shirts. I think @CowboyTaco might have a great image to use that is currently on a shirt.

Tacohillclimb_zpsdf69233c.jpg
 

CowboyTaco

Well-Known Member
I do have a shirt with that picture on it. Came out nice if you ask me. A couple quick filters in Photoshop and you get a nice sketch of whatever image you want. I'll snap a pic of the shirt at some point.

So onto what I've done to my ride lately....

So I helped a kid on TW replace his LCA with a Duralast complete and his wheel bearing with the Dorman complete bearing/hub assembly. Everything went smoothly and he has 198k on his lifted Taco. So I figure "cool. that wasn't hard at all. I'm going to replace my wheel bearing while I do the LBJ at the same time. Might as well since I'm about to move and don't know when I'll have a new garage setup the way I want it."

I was off work on Columbus day and figured, what better time than a company holiday to do some preventative maintenance. This started the worst day of wrenching that I've had in a VERY long time. I figure I'll start with the wheel bearing since that should be the harder of the two tasks to complete. Might as well get that over with first. Wheel, caliper and rotor all come off without a hiccup. Axle nut didn't want to budge. All my body weight plus some muscle and nothing. During the process, the socket slipped off the nut and all that force sent me falling in some direction....hit my head on who-knows-what, shoulder on what I think was the end of the slider, landed halfway on the rolling shop stool, which changed my trajectory so that what tools I didn't land on went flying. Hopefully all that made sense. I must have loosened it though, because the impact was able to take it off with ease after that (didn't budge before). Ok, axle nut off. time to pry the hub loose. Nope.

After hours of prying and two bent screwdrivers later, I reached out to @tex, who had me reach out to @tx_shooter . Zech gave me some different ideas that didn't work until he had me go get a bearing puller at AZ. That one worked like a charm. Hub was seized on the axle and no amount of prying was going to get it loose. Put some of the Lucas green grease on the axle before putting the new hub/bearing assembly on and tightened everything down.

During my frustration with the hub, I decided to start working on the LBJ because "darn it, I'm getting something done today" but that effort proved to be futile as well. Because of the angle, I couldn't get the connection piece that connects the LBJ to the spindle off. So I decided to remove the LCA so that I could flip it over and knock it off. Got the rear alignment cam and bolt out no problem. Progress....cool. Got the front alignment bolt out, but couldn't get the sleeve out to save my life. The actual adjuster part of the sleeve pried off completely while I was trying to remove it. I even tried using the ball joint press to press it out. I got it to press out some, but not enough. Eventually at around 8:30, I decided to put everything back together. I started at around 10am. Used the press to put the sleeve back in, and the bolt to finish getting it in place and tighten the adjustment piece back on the sleeve. Not the best feeling in the world.

So at this point, I'm looking at cutting the alignment cam to get it out, which means that I'll need to order a new one. I have the Duralast LCA on hand, so I can go this route if I need to but would prefer not. So I took it up to Firestone today to get an alignment. I wanted to know how bad it was out before deciding if I want to cut or not. Turns out, they were able to get that side COMPLETELY W/IN FACTORY SPEC. So what I thought was a royal screw up actually got it better than it has been since I lifted.

Tomorrow, I have a plan to get the LBJ out. More on that if it works.

Ironically, the tech at Firestone said my LBJ is fine and that I don't need to do anything to it. However, the alignment cam on the driver side is seized and will need to be replaced. They want to replace the LCA on the driver side (all of the above is on the passenger side) at a cost of $750 or so. I thanked him for the alignment and went on my way.

Huge thanks to Zech for getting me out of a jam on the wheel bearing, and Boyd for the info leading up to helping the kid the previous weekend.

Since everyone loves photos....
bearing on.jpg

bearing puller.jpg

bearing off.jpg
 

CowboyTaco

Well-Known Member
Almost forgot, the test drive that evening went well for about 3 blocks and then I got a HORRIBLE grinding noise. You can imagine my frustration level. I put on the emergency flashers and pulled over, got under the truck and didn't see anything wrong. Turned out all the prying on the hub bent the dust shield. I was able to bend it back by hand the next morning and haven't heard it since.
 

tx_shooter

It is not a war crime the first time.
Staff member
Glad it worked out but damn that sucks. @italynstylion is next up to do most of what you just did. Hope he has an easier time. Next time I am going to recommend going straight to the puller.
 

PSU Taco85

Well-Known Member
Almost forgot, the test drive that evening went well for about 3 blocks and then I got a HORRIBLE grinding noise. You can imagine my frustration level. I put on the emergency flashers and pulled over, got under the truck and didn't see anything wrong. Turned out all the prying on the hub bent the dust shield. I was able to bend it back by hand the next morning and haven't heard it since.

That dust shield is a PITA, i've put it on 180* out and installed the bearing then realized once I put the rotor on I fucked up. I'm about to just leave it off next time I have the bearings out lol
 

Anathollo

Armorall is my choice of lube
Staff member
That dust shield is a PITA, i've put it on 180* out and installed the bearing then realized once I put the rotor on I fucked up. I'm about to just leave it off next time I have the bearings out lol
I've done this or completely forgotten to put it back on more times than I'd care to admit lol
 

Anathollo

Armorall is my choice of lube
Staff member
I do have a shirt with that picture on it. Came out nice if you ask me. A couple quick filters in Photoshop and you get a nice sketch of whatever image you want. I'll snap a pic of the shirt at some point.

So onto what I've done to my ride lately....

So I helped a kid on TW replace his LCA with a Duralast complete and his wheel bearing with the Dorman complete bearing/hub assembly. Everything went smoothly and he has 198k on his lifted Taco. So I figure "cool. that wasn't hard at all. I'm going to replace my wheel bearing while I do the LBJ at the same time. Might as well since I'm about to move and don't know when I'll have a new garage setup the way I want it."

I was off work on Columbus day and figured, what better time than a company holiday to do some preventative maintenance. This started the worst day of wrenching that I've had in a VERY long time. I figure I'll start with the wheel bearing since that should be the harder of the two tasks to complete. Might as well get that over with first. Wheel, caliper and rotor all come off without a hiccup. Axle nut didn't want to budge. All my body weight plus some muscle and nothing. During the process, the socket slipped off the nut and all that force sent me falling in some direction....hit my head on who-knows-what, shoulder on what I think was the end of the slider, landed halfway on the rolling shop stool, which changed my trajectory so that what tools I didn't land on went flying. Hopefully all that made sense. I must have loosened it though, because the impact was able to take it off with ease after that (didn't budge before). Ok, axle nut off. time to pry the hub loose. Nope.

After hours of prying and two bent screwdrivers later, I reached out to @tex, who had me reach out to @tx_shooter . Zech gave me some different ideas that didn't work until he had me go get a bearing puller at AZ. That one worked like a charm. Hub was seized on the axle and no amount of prying was going to get it loose. Put some of the Lucas green grease on the axle before putting the new hub/bearing assembly on and tightened everything down.

During my frustration with the hub, I decided to start working on the LBJ because "darn it, I'm getting something done today" but that effort proved to be futile as well. Because of the angle, I couldn't get the connection piece that connects the LBJ to the spindle off. So I decided to remove the LCA so that I could flip it over and knock it off. Got the rear alignment cam and bolt out no problem. Progress....cool. Got the front alignment bolt out, but couldn't get the sleeve out to save my life. The actual adjuster part of the sleeve pried off completely while I was trying to remove it. I even tried using the ball joint press to press it out. I got it to press out some, but not enough. Eventually at around 8:30, I decided to put everything back together. I started at around 10am. Used the press to put the sleeve back in, and the bolt to finish getting it in place and tighten the adjustment piece back on the sleeve. Not the best feeling in the world.

So at this point, I'm looking at cutting the alignment cam to get it out, which means that I'll need to order a new one. I have the Duralast LCA on hand, so I can go this route if I need to but would prefer not. So I took it up to Firestone today to get an alignment. I wanted to know how bad it was out before deciding if I want to cut or not. Turns out, they were able to get that side COMPLETELY W/IN FACTORY SPEC. So what I thought was a royal screw up actually got it better than it has been since I lifted.

Tomorrow, I have a plan to get the LBJ out. More on that if it works.

Ironically, the tech at Firestone said my LBJ is fine and that I don't need to do anything to it. However, the alignment cam on the driver side is seized and will need to be replaced. They want to replace the LCA on the driver side (all of the above is on the passenger side) at a cost of $750 or so. I thanked him for the alignment and went on my way.

Huge thanks to Zech for getting me out of a jam on the wheel bearing, and Boyd for the info leading up to helping the kid the previous weekend.

Since everyone loves photos....
View attachment 11776
View attachment 11777
View attachment 11778
I do have a shirt with that picture on it. Came out nice if you ask me. A couple quick filters in Photoshop and you get a nice sketch of whatever image you want. I'll snap a pic of the shirt at some point.

So onto what I've done to my ride lately....

So I helped a kid on TW replace his LCA with a Duralast complete and his wheel bearing with the Dorman complete bearing/hub assembly. Everything went smoothly and he has 198k on his lifted Taco. So I figure "cool. that wasn't hard at all. I'm going to replace my wheel bearing while I do the LBJ at the same time. Might as well since I'm about to move and don't know when I'll have a new garage setup the way I want it."

I was off work on Columbus day and figured, what better time than a company holiday to do some preventative maintenance. This started the worst day of wrenching that I've had in a VERY long time. I figure I'll start with the wheel bearing since that should be the harder of the two tasks to complete. Might as well get that over with first. Wheel, caliper and rotor all come off without a hiccup. Axle nut didn't want to budge. All my body weight plus some muscle and nothing. During the process, the socket slipped off the nut and all that force sent me falling in some direction....hit my head on who-knows-what, shoulder on what I think was the end of the slider, landed halfway on the rolling shop stool, which changed my trajectory so that what tools I didn't land on went flying. Hopefully all that made sense. I must have loosened it though, because the impact was able to take it off with ease after that (didn't budge before). Ok, axle nut off. time to pry the hub loose. Nope.

After hours of prying and two bent screwdrivers later, I reached out to @tex, who had me reach out to @tx_shooter . Zech gave me some different ideas that didn't work until he had me go get a bearing puller at AZ. That one worked like a charm. Hub was seized on the axle and no amount of prying was going to get it loose. Put some of the Lucas green grease on the axle before putting the new hub/bearing assembly on and tightened everything down.

During my frustration with the hub, I decided to start working on the LBJ because "darn it, I'm getting something done today" but that effort proved to be futile as well. Because of the angle, I couldn't get the connection piece that connects the LBJ to the spindle off. So I decided to remove the LCA so that I could flip it over and knock it off. Got the rear alignment cam and bolt out no problem. Progress....cool. Got the front alignment bolt out, but couldn't get the sleeve out to save my life. The actual adjuster part of the sleeve pried off completely while I was trying to remove it. I even tried using the ball joint press to press it out. I got it to press out some, but not enough. Eventually at around 8:30, I decided to put everything back together. I started at around 10am. Used the press to put the sleeve back in, and the bolt to finish getting it in place and tighten the adjustment piece back on the sleeve. Not the best feeling in the world.

So at this point, I'm looking at cutting the alignment cam to get it out, which means that I'll need to order a new one. I have the Duralast LCA on hand, so I can go this route if I need to but would prefer not. So I took it up to Firestone today to get an alignment. I wanted to know how bad it was out before deciding if I want to cut or not. Turns out, they were able to get that side COMPLETELY W/IN FACTORY SPEC. So what I thought was a royal screw up actually got it better than it has been since I lifted.

Tomorrow, I have a plan to get the LBJ out. More on that if it works.

Ironically, the tech at Firestone said my LBJ is fine and that I don't need to do anything to it. However, the alignment cam on the driver side is seized and will need to be replaced. They want to replace the LCA on the driver side (all of the above is on the passenger side) at a cost of $750 or so. I thanked him for the alignment and went on my way.

Huge thanks to Zech for getting me out of a jam on the wheel bearing, and Boyd for the info leading up to helping the kid the previous weekend.

Since everyone loves photos....
View attachment 11776
View attachment 11777
View attachment 11778
Next time, take the Axle nut off FIRST before you remove the caliber and rotor. Stick a screwdriver in through the slots on the top of the brake rotor, let the screwdriver brace/hold itself against the caliper and then it's easy peasy to get the axle nut off.

Do this in reverse to put the axle nut back on.

Also...the axle nut is the whole reason I got a 1/2" electric impact. We've all been where you were the other day lol After a day of shitty wrenching, that justify's any new tool purchases you need to make! :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: tex
Top