What have you done to your ride lately?

[PSU Taco85]

So what is the targeted benefit from bypassing the heater core?

the thermostat is set to 203° in this pig, and the engine likes to run hot. I’ve heard that it will drastically reduce the air temps on a hot summer day with the AC on. Some of the newer trucks came with it from the factory, although it only bypasses one side of the core. Bypassing both lines will allow the same coolant flow through the rest of the engine and keep the same load on the water pump during the transition, hopefully maximizing its life and minimizing any cavitation.

My buddy send me a pic of his 2003 earlier so I could get the hose routing squared away, you can see his had a bypass

 

[AlienXtx]

We have manual valves on our buses for the same reason. Take the heater cores out of the loop for summer or the drivers ac won't cool for shit at idle or the rear floor heaters will radiate heat even though they are not "on".

 

[CowboyTaco]

Hey, @tex. Something you might consider.

I saw another one of those "check my blog for story" posts on IG of a 1st gen Tacoma that suffered a LBJ failure. I'd put that on your "replace immediately" list for the new truck.

 

[tx_shooter]

Yeah, I have given him a heads up that the replacement cost is nothing compared to the potential damages from LBJ / bolt failure.

 

[tex]

Hey, @tex. Something you might consider.

I saw another one of those "check my blog for story" posts on IG of a 1st gen Tacoma that suffered a LBJ failure. I'd put that on your "replace immediately" list for the new truck.

Way ahead of you. I have my parts and maintenance list going now. OEM LBJ and OEM bolts, diff and transfer case fluid change, oil change, headlights, tires, tint, and redo driver seat.

 

[MatthewMay1]

Way ahead of you. I have my parts and maintenance list going now. OEM LBJ and OEM bolts, diff and transfer case fluid change, oil change, headlights, tires, tint, and redo driver seat.

Want a transfer case skid? Not sure the frame differences, but you could test fit it if you want.

 

[tex]

Want a transfer case skid? Not sure the frame differences, but you could test fit it if you want.

You not going to use it? Does it need the matching front skid to bolt it up?

 

[PSU Taco85]

Installed my fuel pressure gauge into the ferd fteenthousand and swapped the LEDs to green to match the classic 2002 instrument cluster colors

 

[CowboyTaco]

Do you have the option to turn off the lights on those gauges? It's nice to have the info, but that would annoy me on a dark road when I'm cruising at normal driving speed.

 

[Taco Loco]

Yup those are purrty bright

 

[MatthewMay1]

Agreed, they look super bright in that photo

 

[Silverback]

He mentioned in his build thread that they are not that bright in person, iphone pic just makes it look so.

 

[tx_shooter]

Prepped the disconnect power cables today. The plant is to wire these in tomorrow and get the winch power cables setup to connect to it. Then the plan is to setup my jumper cables to use the disconnect plug also. No more popping the hood.

 

[PSU Taco85]

Do you have the option to turn off the lights on those gauges? It's nice to have the info, but that would annoy me on a dark road when I'm cruising at normal driving speed.

Yup those are purrty bright

Agreed, they look super bright in that photo

This VVV they def aren't too bad. Worst case scenario I may be able to tap into the dimmer circuit and make them dimmable. I'll see if I can grab a video in the dark to see if they show up better.

He mentioned in his build thread that they are not that bright in person, iphone pic just makes it look so.

Today I fixed my under hood LEDs on the taco. THe cheap pin switch rusted out years ago, and finally figured I would reconnect them up, I used a waterproof toggle switch, hopefully that'll hold up a little longer than the pin switch

Got the bracket cut and disconnect switch for the winch mounted on the bracket. I'll have to disconnect all my battery cables another day and cut and splice into the winch lead. I will remove all power to the truck while doing this, don't need any extra sparks flying.

Installed a crankcase vent on the ferd, used a sprayer filter assembly from TSC, routed the hose to the back of the axle. No more stinky diesel fumes up by the cab

 

[PSU Taco85]

Some DD maintenance. Bearings were howling. Replaced both rear ones, the passenger side was definitely bad, drivers side was probably due as well. Timken uses NTN bearings, which I believe are the same (or maybe Koyo) as OEM for Honda and Toyota. Noise is now gone, the factory ones lasted 130k

passenger side hub assembly was seized pretty good into the aluminum knuckle. Had to beat it pretty bad with a sledge.

Side note, these socket organizers are pretty sweet. I stick them to the lift arms and never have to get up to search for a socket back at the box

 

[tx_shooter]

Received the last parts I needed to setup my jumper cables to use the disconnect plug. Tomorrow I will wrap up the winch disconnect end since it was still raining out this afternoon.

 

[tx_shooter]

Finished wiring up the winch tonight. The odd gray thing is the winch controller. It has LEDs to show in/out, load amount, flashlight in the handle, and magnets in the handle to keep it out of the muck. Also the winch has an LED strip so you can see the winch line in low light.

 

[CowboyTaco]

I may be on the hunt for electrical gremlins.

My horn blew a fuse, so I replaced it last week. Well, it doesn't work again.

Yesterday, my radio gave a weird error about a DC wiring issue. I haven't been doing any work on the radio or wiring in a while, so I'm not sure what could be causing either issue.

 

[Silverback]

Sounds like a short, wire rubbed over long enough time that it's causing issues.

 

[CowboyTaco]

tracking that down sounds awful. But, pretty sure that's what I have to do. I'll start with all the wiring that I have done, which is going to suck in its own right. Then I'll have to look at all the OEM wiring, which will suck worse.