Keiko the Tacoma - An Evolution of Needs

[Toiyabe]

So, this is a chronicle of the evolution of a vehicle, after a good decade of roaming, and lots of lurking.
Forgive any continuity errors - it's a repost from another forum. Mea Maxima Culpa.

First, some background:

About 7 years ago, maybe 8, I turned to my wife and said "I want to go to Newfoundland." So we packed up the Evo, and drove there. Had a great time, wowed the locals (no Evos in Canada at the time) and really enjoyed it. Stayed in lighthouses, had amazing smoked salmon, etc...

The Evo was our recce/demo vehicle for the shop I owned at the time, and had a bunch of goodies, mostly suspension (RS&SP), and minor engine mods (cams, cam gears, clutch and flywheel, reflash, exhaust).

Gros Marne NP:



L'Anse Aux Meadows:


Sherbrooke:



This was fine and dandy, but we gazed across the Strait of Belle Isle, and I said "I want to go to Labrador."

Well, the only way we were going to do that was by camping, so we built a 1999 F250 7.3 4WD Manual. Slide-in camper, leveling kit, big bumper, exhaust, tuner, intake, onboard air, bigger wheels and tires, CB, lights, and a few other things. It had 200kish miles. It worked a treat.

Battle Harbour NP:





The old NAS at Argentia:




Tablelands NP:




Gros Marne NP:




Pinware River:




Red Bay:




A Beaver:






Quebec-Labrador border:




Manac 5:

 

[Toiyabe]

We then changed the tires, did a huge amount of maintenance, and changed some things up, and went to Vancouver and back by way of Nevada and the TransCan. Great trip. Made it up to Prince George, and down the spine of the Rockies.
I did not like the Nittos TerraGrapplers at all.

We visited the Viking factory in Victoria and the Canadian Bushplane National Museum. Again.

 

[Toiyabe]

We then changed the tires-as I really wasn't fond of the Nitto TerraGrapplers, did a huge amount of maintenance, and changed some things up, and went to Vancouver and back by way of Nevada and the TransCan. Great trip.

We visited the Viking factory in Victoria and the Canadian Bushplane National Museum. Again.

 

[Toiyabe]

The truck was great fun. We did, however, come to an interesting conclusion by the end of the trip: a slide-in sucks our needs.
This is because if we needed to go anywhere, or get anything, we had to pack everything up and move. So the idea of camping somewhere for a few days and exploring didn't really work. We began to dream of a small pop-up trailer.



Crater Lake NP:




Tuscarora:




Lamoille Canyon:




City of Rocks:




Nevada Highways:




Somewhere in BC on the Sea-to-Sky Highway:




Craters of the Moon NM:




After getting a flat in a thunderstorm in CotM NM-the DuraTracs on this truck were no great. They had excellent traction, and decent road manners, but wore extremely quickly and had abysmal puncture resistance. We actually flatted two on that trip, both sidewall cuts.




Winnemucca:




We also went to Sault Ste Marie in Winter, and then drove to Vermont via the TransCan. Then Acadia NP twice. Plus, lots of rallycar towing.

 

[Toiyabe]

So we purchased a hardsided pop-up and used a cheap Volvo to tow it.


That was extremely comfortable, and way less expensive in fuel, but I was worried about the automatic transmission, and the lack of truck-ness. It was competent (once I figured out how to wire trailer brakes into it - what a pain) but was not quite what we needed. We did Colorado for a week (to help out at a friend's shop), The UP of Michigan for two weeks, and a few small trips to WV and the Blueridge Parkway. We did an LED lightbar, some poly subframe mounts, a lot of bushings, upgraded to T5 front brakes, and added skidplates.










So, knowing we would never tow a race car personally again, we decided to sell the F250, which was overkill for the little 2200# pop-up. A friend wanted it, and had a Tacoma, so a trade was reached...

 

[Toiyabe]

Enter the Tacoma

So, we got a 2001 Tacoma TRD Off-road 4wd, extra cab manual. 200k miles, but a California car most of its life, the last part in Florida.
Typical of CA cars, the paint and trim was rough, but very rust free and mechanically excellent.
For one of the first times in my life, I got a used car that was optioned EXACTLY how I would have done it.
Power windows, locks, PS, PB, cruise, AC, rear locker, skidplates, and a decent head unit my iPhone plugs into. And that's it. Love it.


Here it is:








First off, it was time to do all the anal maintenance I like to do.
So, I replaced the valve cover gaskets, IAC, cleaned the throttle body, replaced all the filters (fuel filter was original!), center support bearing, wires and plugs. Also, belts, coolant, and side marker lights.

The dealer had been in there for a tune up. Quality work:



Then, at 200k, the Bilsteins were weak, and I knew I'd be driving it more heavily laden, and off-road. So, 5100s on the front, and 5125s on the back:


Cheap at $317 shipped for the set, custom valved, and lifetime warranty.


I hate modern bumpers, as they are much more interested in aerodynamics than small impact protection, so I put a Trail-Gear low profile front bumper on, and added LED turn signals, as Tacomas have a bizarre turn signal arrangement. I also replaced all the fluids in the truck with synthetic, redid the front brakes with Brembo rotors and Hawk pads, added a trailer brake controller and 7-pin connector, cleaned the skidplates of a decade of accumulated grime, repaired the UHaul hacked wiring, put in floor mats, and did a tie-rod end. And stickers.

I'm a Nevada boy at heart:






Our first camping trip with it was in February, to Faireystone SP in Virginia. It was very nice, and it gets exactly 15% worse mileage than the Volvo, but takes regular as opposed to premium, so it's a wash.






Now, a few things became apparent.

1) These tires blow. They are great unladen, and on-road, but suck for what I do. So, they are being replaced with tall, skinny, Duratracs. We will see if I have better luck than the last set. Going from a 265/70-16 to a 235/85-16, and from factory alloys to steel wheels.
2) Brakes are probably marginal for real mountainous work. However, a Tundra front brake caliper and rotors upgrade fixes this, for about $300 my cost. This nets about a 20% increase in swept area and thermal mass.
3) We need to help the tired rear springs. To that end, I have a set of Wheeler's 1.5" HD Add-A_Leafs waiting for me in Colorado, with the tires and wheels.
4) The front mud flaps broke off in the snow, and I won't pay $150 for a pair from Toyota, so I'm going to make my own.
5) I want to extend the rear diff breather.
6) I want to add a 30" lightbar to the front, and wire it up like the Volvo.
7) I want to put a HiLift jack in the bed, since the shell locks.

Otherwise, it was great, low range helps for tight maneuvering (as does the front hitch), and it was nice having a vehicle I didn't worry about at all. There is enough room between the cab and trailer for us and things that need to be perfectly watertight, and the bed gives us a huge ability for other stuff in bins and boxes. The roof rack is cool, and will take our kayaks, and overall we are happy.

I might do a winch in the future, as well as work lights. Funds and time preclude those anytime soon.

 

[Toiyabe]

Last little bits before I left for CO.

First, extending the breather line for the rear diff.
Here is the factory breather and location:


Replaced breather valve with a steel schraeder valve from a split-rim, with the core removed. 1/8NPT is so close to M10 pipe it screwed right in.


Original breather valve attached to some cheap pipe fittings.


Zip tied up by the fuel filler on the neck. I'm using 3/8" fuel line as hose.


Installed, I zip tied the hose to the harness and breather for the rear locker motor.


Now every breather in the car is at least 36" above the ground.


Stock front mudflaps are $80 a side, plus shipping. The right side ripped off somewhere, and I'm not motivated to pay that. So I bought some generics on closeout at Advance for $2.55, and drilled them to fit. Then I heated them and gave them a rearward bend . Looks totally fine and covers about the same area as stock.



Toolbox, jerrycans, water jug, and recovery strap, jumper cables, etc...

 

[Toiyabe]

From the recent trip, just a teaser:




Scott's Bluff:






Great fishing at the bottom of the canyon:










Hadn't been here before, gorgeous:

 

[Toiyabe]

From the recent trip, just a teaser:




Scott's Bluff:






Great fishing at the bottom of the canyon:










Hadn't been here before, gorgeous:













I put in the rear 1.5" Wheeler's AALs and the new wheels and tires in Colorado. It was a great combination in the mud of spring melt, and it drives nicely loaded on the highway.

But...
I warped a rotor on the way home, so I'll be doing the Tundra upgrade in the next week or so. I also have braided lines to go in, with a slightly extended rear.

I averaged 18.995mpg on the trip, with a best of 21.03, and a worst of 16.07. That worst was at 80mph across South Dakota with a 30mph crosswind that was gusting to 50.

I also will be installing an LED lightbar and wiring.

Here are New rotors versus original size rotors:


The wheels ended up being an issue. Apparently, the manufacturer did not provide accurate blueprints to the Tire Rack, and I had less than 1/16" clearance between the stock calipers and the wheels. The Tire Rack graciously refunded my money for the wheels, and even though I tried to make them work with BORA spacers (soon to be for sale), I eventually went back to the stock wheel.

 

[Toiyabe]

Further Tinkering

So after a frustrating morning dealing with the Sentra From Hell and a Hyundai Accent, i decided to do some fun stuff.

First, I organized my chemical shelves:



The factory Tacoma TRD has an interesting setup for the transfer case. The lever behind the shifter controls the high and low range shifter, and the button on the shifter engages the front driveshaft and Automatic Differential Disconnect. When you are in high range, you can push the button at any speed up to 100km/h and get 4wd, and disengage at any speed. When you shift the transfer case into low, it automatically engages the 4wd. If the wiring is stock, the rear diff lock only works in 4-lo.


Now, I like being able to engage low range without locking the center diff/engaging 4wd. It can really make trailering easier, but there is no way to do that in the stock configuration. I contemplated doing a twin stick conversion, but none were available. The I read a thread on TacomaWorld, and read the wiring diagrams in disbelief. This is super easy.

You disconnect the low range position sensor.

Yup, that's all you do. It will now no longer engage 4wd when you shift into low range, as the car thinks you are still in high. The button still engages the 4wd - both ADD and driveshaft - in both high and low. The only issue would be the locker will no longer work, except that I did the mod to eliminate the need for it to be in low range already. :rofl:

Here goes:

Unplug this connector:



I soaked foam earplugs in dielectric grease, compressed them into the connectors, and sealed them with electrical tape. Then I ziptied them together securely.


And it worked great. There is no high/low indicator on the dash anyway, so it's completely transparent.



Then, I installed the wiring harness from Rigid for the LED lightbar that should be here tomorrow.



Button installed on the dash. I went with a button activation as a) the stock lights are pretty good, so I don't need the auxiliary lights for normal driving like the Volvo, and b) I like being able to have the lights on with the ignition off.




Relay location, in the highest, coolest, driest spot in the engine compartment. Fuse is by the battery. connector for lights is a Deutsch connector.




Mounting the lights is a little more complicated, for a variety of reasons Thinking about solutions this evening.

 

[Toiyabe]

So, while waiting for a part to come in on the Evil Thats Is A Sentra, I went down to a hardware store I had been told about, and got some 1/4"x6 6061T6 and 1" sq 14ga 1025.
Pricing was ok, not great, but friendly and convenient. They even cut it up so it would fit in my truck.
I had bought some 1/4"x4, but they couldn't find it, so they gave me the 6" for the same cost.



I want to build a top plate for a light mount, and to cover a winch should I choose to mount one. And, in that vein, I want to make sure that whatever I do is reversible easily, in case I do put a winch in. So, no welding in light tabs. So, I took the 1/4" 6061, trimmed it around, and bolted it to the top bar. If I want to get rid of it, it s simple to remove and weld the tapped holes up, and grind them flush. I need to borrow a belt sander to finish up the edges, but it's not that bad. Especially for not having a vice, bench, or any stationary power tools...
It also serves the purpose of a good deterrent for a theft of convenience, in that multiple fasteners will have to be removed to get the light bar (or winch) off. I like that much better than bespoke fasteners, like PIAA uses on lights.





Made some more terminals up today. Cool new tools for it:

 

[Toiyabe]

Brake Upgrade

So, while waiting for FedEx - also known as The Most Worthless Company Ever - to deliver the light bar - so far only 4 days and one misdelivery of it, and one incorrect package delivered to me, I decided to do the big brake upgrade.



This is the stock rear brake line at full droop. It is not under heavy tension, but is fairly taut.




Stock front brake caliper and rotor in relation to the wheel.




Here's another angle on the rear line, and you can also see the (excellent) Wheeler's AAL.




Stock front rotor, caliper, and lines.




New braided rear line, 4" longer. Not so long (like many) that it can get caught on things, but plenty long for no worries at full droop.




A pneumatic vacuum brake bleeder. Best. Tool. Ever.





Sucking all the old fluid out, before disconnecting lines. It was two months old, and was already discoloring from heat.




Hawk HPS pads, for the original caliper on the left, new on the right.




New caliper and line on the left, old on the right.




New caliper and rotor mounted.




Side view. Minor bending on the backing plate was necessary, but no cutting. The size differential should be obvious.




The splash guards between the body and frame are held on with plastic push pins, like most modern cars. Every single one broke on removal. So, I drilled all the holes out, and installed steel riv-nuts in 6x1.0 metric. Then I reinstalled the guards with button head 6mm bolts and fender washers.
One of the things I hate is when people modify cars and mix hardware. Metric cars get all metric hardware. This weirds out all my local hardware and fastener stores. They tell me almost no one wants metric hardware. Odd.







1" wheel spacers from BORA installed for three reasons:
1) Caliper clearance with the steel wheels.
2) Clearance between the tires and the UCAs and leaf springs to run any type of tire chain
3) to get a little wider track for stability.
All were achieved.




New caliper and rotor in relation to wheel with spacer.

 

[Toiyabe]

Light!

Well, FedEx showed up at 1950. Yay for them. Only 4 days late.





Deutsch connector installed on light. In my experience, most of the Chinese lights have no connectors, and weak hardware.




The supplied mounts have bent up tabs to serve as anti-rotation keepers for the 8x1.25 bolts supplied. I hate that method, although easy. So i hammered the tabs flat, drilled and tapped holes in the mounting plate, and then installed the supplied nuts as jam nuts on the back. This made mounting the slider hardware a pain, but it's way more secure.




Mounted, and preliminary aiming.





It's bright. Really bright.





Tomorrow I will slightly adjust the light, and go over everything again.

 

[Toiyabe]

Final bits, minor tweaks.


How it looked this morning.




The mudflaps I made kinda sucked. First, they rubbed against the passenger side tire in reverse, before the spacers. After the spacers, much worse, and on both sides. And, as you can tell from the pictures from Colorado, they didn't actually keep any mud off the truck. :abused:
Here's the rubbing.




Mudflap removed, trimmed inner fender liner, beat seam weld flat.




The two paints I use the most. Hit it with Extend, then a few coats of primer black. Works great, is pretty durable, easy to touch up, cheap, and looks good.






Readjusting the lightbar. Here you can see the adjustment and mounting.




I don't have any experience with the 5W, but I can compare it to the 10w on the Volvo. I'll try and get night pics here soon.
It appears - and I'm still figuring out aiming _ to have significantly more light fill and breadth than the Volvo light, and maybe a bit less throw.
There is no doubt that the more emitters means it is a much fuller, brighter light close.

Here is the shop wall this afternoon, as I was reaiming them.




Low beams.




High beams.




Light bar.




The aiming process, again.






Had to put in a fuel/air sensor. I decided to buy an Ultragauge as well, so I can monitor voltage, coolant temp, mpg, etc...




Old sensor.





I have a dash rattle. I thought it was the HVAC crossover tube. It wasn't. Dammit.





I need to figure out if I can salvage the paint on this. I tried polishing up a section or two, and waxing. It looks better, but I may need to buy a buffer. I haven't waxed a car in a decade.



First, despite being halogens, the Tacoma's stock headlights are actually quite good.
All pics by iPotato. Standing still, and actually are a great representation of the light.

Low Beams.




High Beams.




High Beams + lightbar.

 

[chmura]

Awesome build! What brand LED light bar is that? You seem to have a sweet shop to work in also, I'm jealous!

I believe the stock breather is one way valve only. Lets air out but does not let air in. So if your rear diff is hot and you soak it in cold water during stream crossing you have the potential so get water sucked in through your axle seals on both ends of your axles.

In my 4runner I had a one way breather in the rear diff like you. But Toyota put a 2 way breather for the front diff and put it high in the engine bay. Why put in a 2 way breather for the front and not the rear? I'm not sure. So I put in the same 2 way breather from the front diff to the rear diff and put it as high of a location that I can find. IMO a 2 way breather is better than a 1 way.