Builds Back In Business: Ferg's Tacoma Build (1 Viewer)

[theferg]

Made a bit of progress the last week.

-Upgrade Wiring Harness is installed. Got it from www.headlightservices.com . It consisted of some relays, connections to positive and negative battery, a connection into the vehicles headlight connector, and two headlight connectors. It's made to install the bulk of it near the battery and run one longer connector across to the passenger headlight. With the grille already out of the way, I loosened the 4 bolts holding the radiator in place, and was able to really tuck the new wiring down in between the radiator and the apron, ziptieing it along to the vehicle's original wiring running across there. Really happy with it.

-New headlights installed. Saw folks recommending new "CAPA" ones from Rockauto. I figured I'd give them a shot and throw them on. I figure I'll also shine my old OEM ones up as well and can always throw them back on if the CAPA ones don't last. They look pretty damn nice right now anyway (plastic wrap still on in the pic). Also cleaned up behind the grille a bunch and the grille itself. Not perfect, but way better.

-And with those I put in some new halogen bulbs I got from the same place I got the upgraded harness. Went with some higher wattage Osrams. Ran them befire and was happy with them.

-Cleaned up the bullbar a bit and threw a couple coats of semi-gloss on it. Turned out OK. Def better than it was. But I really want to get it powder coated and still may have it done.

-Started working on installing the XRC 9500 I've had sitting around. Got both the gear and the motor clocked to where they need to be for the ARB bullbar. Bit different to clock these ones, but not difficult at all. The bolts that came with it aren't long enough to mount thru the fairlead, bullbar, and into the winch, so gotta grab some slightly longer ones.

 

[theferg]

Removed the fender bars. As much as I dig the fender bar look and added protection, I was never fully into them on this truck. They also were riding directly on the fender flares in three spots, on both sides, so there's that...

 

[theferg]

Bullbar is back on and with the winch. Waiting on new indicators that are supposed to arrive today.

 

[theferg]

So needing to wire the winch and then adding the new headlights harness that both need to connect to the battery, I found myself wanting to do something else for wiring and/or some fuse block or something. There was a rats nest worth of wiring going everywhere from a switchpro installed under the hood, most of which went off to nowhere since the P.O. pulled all the accessories and camper off. The only stuff left were some rock lights underneath and none of them seemed to work. It seems nice-ish, but I don't like this switchpro design with wires pre-connected into the harness, just making a mess. So I pulled all that crap out.

 

[theferg]

Next up was a busted-ass center bearing on the rear driveshaft. I'd heard it squeaking now and then, and after the new trans and case went in, it was squealing non-stop. Driveshaft easily moved around by hand at the bearing. So searched around for the latest and greatest bestest replacement and seemed like the best replacement one for a 1G Tacoma was just the OEM one. So ordered it up a while back. That is a PRICEY bugger! -- $300 at my local dealer (sadly, their parts are always way more than anywhere else). Got it online for just under $200. Hopefully lasts another 160k ish miles or until I do a tcase doubler one day and I'll just do a new one-piece shaft.. (Or sell the truck one day... heh)

Marked it all up to make sure the shaft stayed in phase, and pulled it off. Tried to just do it all on the truck and just separated the front and rear shafts, but I ended up needing a puller for the flange (I figured I would), and stupidly I didn't rent one beforehand. So had to pull the whole rear driveshaft so I could put it in 4WD and drive it in front wheel drive to the auto store.

Rented the 5-ton puller and gave it a good go but that thing felt like it was going to break to pieces trying to pull the flange and wasn't getting it done. So took it back and got the 7 ton puller. Set it up on the flange and it pulled the flange right off easy-peasy. The outer rubber was completely gone on the bearing... two separate pieces.

Put on the new bearing and started to torque it down, but I don't have anything to hold it and keep the whole thing from spinning, so gonna have to put the front part back on the tcase output to hold it while I torque it. Ran out of light and time though so hafta do that tomorrow.

 

[yotadude520]

Glad you ditched those side bars - digging the cleaner look!

 

[theferg]

Glad you ditched those side bars - digging the cleaner look!

Thanks! I'm def liking it. I actually want to swap out the ARB bar too... Wanting something a bit less bulky. Not as many options out there for first gens as there used to be though. I like the Relentless fab stuff. But not decided on making a move yet. Lots of other stuff to do and want to just drive the truck a bit now that it is near tip-top shape.

 

[theferg]

Wish I woulda seen this a couple days ago when I was under there...

 

[SKULLYOTA]

That's how you know it's got fluid lol