Builds 60 guy does a 100 series LC...

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One thing that you hear me gripe about with these supposed "Plug n Play" LED bulbs is that they are not made to spec for reflector housings. When this happens for LEDs that are not setup for the reflector housing it just tends to scatter light everywhere. I have a bit of night time driving sensitivity so those rice burners and lift douche canoes that just install the cheapo Amazon one in their vehicles only to have it blind oncoming traffic, yeah I usually bitch about them quite a bit.

I was a bit skeptical that these were reflector housing compatible, but low and behold they have done their research and they definitely are!!! Light pattern down the road is not scattered to high hell, there is a nice consistent hot spot like you find with halogens and the cutoff is nicely done, pretty sharp in my opinion. I will likely lower the beam ever so slightly but will get a bit of night driving in before that happens, see if anyone flashes me.

Other great thing about these.... MADE IN USA!!!
 
And here is a better daytime photo of the head unit. Screens are glossy on these "universal" units, but I found some tablet capacitive matte screen protectors that worked on my previous unit. I will try to get that installed tonight and see what kind of difference it makes, I remember it wasn't a huge difference but took the extra shininess out of the screen.

Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
 
Last night started the install of the new Morel speakers as I had received them on Tuesday. Just been dealing with family in town and whatnot otherwise I would have tried to get them handled sooner. Due to time constraints and whatnot I was only able to get the drivers side installed last night, and it is a temp install, need to move the crossover and reroute/redo the speaker wires. While these are Morel's they aren't their normal line, more their "budget friendly" stuff, which I have come to find out is made in "parts unknown" instead of the normal manufacturing in Israel. Doesn't mean they are bad, but not to same exacting quality of their standard stuff. To me the tweeter sounds "brighter" than the other, just more crisp and clear. Definite difference, not HUGE or anything but definite difference. Thanks to @suprarx7nut for the recommendation on the Morel's.

Morel Maximo 6
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

Tweeter comparison
With Cover...
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

Without Cover...
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

6.5" comparison
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

I buttoned up fairly quick as it was already getting late so I will pull the door off again tomorrow or this weekend to figure things out. Tweeter sits pretty snuggly in the sail, not attached to the door which somewhat worries me. Gotta figure out how to either expand the opening in the sail or possibly double-sided tape the tweeter to the door bracket. For now that is also how the crossover is attached to the door. Debating on if I want to try and mount elsewhere in the cab or just leave in door cavity.
 
Last edited:
gregnash said:
Last night started the install of the new Morel speakers as I had received them on Tuesday. Just been dealing with family in town and whatnot otherwise I would have tried to get them handled sooner. Due to time constraints and whatnot I was only able to get the drivers side installed last night, and it is a temp install, need to move the crossover and reroute/redo the speaker wires. While these are Morel's they aren't their normal line, more their "budget friendly" stuff, which I have come to find out is made in "parts unknown" instead of the normal manufacturing in Israel. Doesn't mean they are bad, but not to same exacting quality of their standard stuff. To me the tweeter sounds "brighter" than the other, just more crisp and clear. Definite difference, not HUGE or anything but definite difference. Thanks to @suprarx7nut for the recommendation on the Morel's.

Morel Maximo 6
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

Tweeter comparison
With Cover...
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

Without Cover...
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

6.5" comparison
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

I buttoned up fairly quick as it was already getting late so I will pull the door off again tomorrow or this weekend to figure things out. Tweeter sits pretty snuggly in the sail, not attached to the door which somewhat worries me. Gotta figure out how to either expand the opening in the sail or possibly double-sided tape the tweeter to the door bracket. For now that is also how the crossover is attached to the door. Debating on if I want to try and mount elsewhere in the cab or just leave in door cavity.
Click to expand...


Very nice! For my install, I took a dremel sanding drum to the sail plastic and barely got the tweeters in there. It's such a tight fit, I couldn't aim it and just used adhesive tape where I could. It turned out just fine and I was able to use my dsp to tune out the very minor differences side to side.

How did the Crutchfield brackets turn out?
 
suprarx7nut said:
Very nice! For my install, I took a dremel sanding drum to the sail plastic and barely got the tweeters in there. It's such a tight fit, I couldn't aim it and just used adhesive tape where I could. It turned out just fine and I was able to use my dsp to tune out the very minor differences side to side.

How did the Crutchfield brackets turn out?
Click to expand...
Actually it is kinda funny because they fit nice and tight in the sail but no so tight they are hard to remove. Hence why I just left them that way.
Crutchfield brackets actually worked perfectly. They have some extra "tabs" that are removable to fit "other" speakers. The small speaker attachments that they send along as well work perfectly with the stock connector too. I will take a pic of the speaker wire connector when I am home at lunch.
 
I am really curious to hear your thoughts on the complete Joying/Morel setup since I've been eyeballing that for mine. I think my stock speakers are giving up after 336k miles and am considering the exact Morel you picked to replace them.
 
87warrior said:
I am really curious to hear your thoughts on the complete Joying/Morel setup since I've been eyeballing that for mine. I think my stock speakers are giving up after 336k miles and am considering the exact Morel you picked to replace them.
Click to expand...
Absolutely dude... I can tell you that from previous experience the JOYING units are worth the money. Are they any better than a name brand like Kenwood, JVC, Sony, Pioneer, Alpine, etc. ??? Nah probably not. But I like the andriod operating system on them and feel like I get a bit more bang for my buck. They are easy to operate, quite responsive, the one I got with buttons and a rheostat knob for volume all feel good, and the knob has a decent tactile feel to it for increments.
Will it always be like that? Who knows, but at $350 shipped to my door (with the AHD camera and extra "Universal" Toyota harness) I figure that if it dies in a few years then I have gotten my money out of it. Plus it has a 2yr warranty and my last dealings with them were just fine.

I am no audiophile though so the Morel's sound great to me. Do I notice a difference, sure. Mainly in the tweeter, the voices and whatnot just sound more crisp and bright. The 6.5" seem to have a better low end but I still have to mess with wiring and whatnot, so it may clean things up even more, who knows!
 
Man, that matte screen protector looks great! I have had an Atoto M6 Android radio in the 100 for a few years and love it, despite the glossy screen that is now scratched up since I touched the screen when covered in dust. Only problem the M6 is that it was out of date when I bought it and is currently 2 generations behind the latest offering so the old OS can't support some of the latest app updates. I was curious about your thoughts on the Morel speakers since I imagine our radios have about the same audio output quality.
 
87warrior said:
Man, that matte screen protector looks great! I have had an Atoto M6 Android radio in the 100 for a few years and love it, despite the glossy screen that is now scratched up since I touched the screen when covered in dust. Only problem the M6 is that it was out of date when I bought it and is currently 2 generations behind the latest offering so the old OS can't support some of the latest app updates. I was curious about your thoughts on the Morel speakers since I imagine our radios have about the same audio output quality.
Click to expand...
Yeah I get you.. When I get the other door installed and have a bit more time listening I will report back.
 
Finally finished the install of the Morel's and have to say they sound great. Then again I am not an audiophile so I doubt I would really know the difference until I hear it with a super expensive setup, but this is more than enough for now.
As soon as I am done with the rebuild of the OEM axles I am getting to replace my crappy Chinesium ones I will plan to replace the factory amp with a better one and then on to figuring out that sub situation.

For now, here is what the final-ish setup of the speakers looks like. @87warrior I know you had said you were looking at getting the Morel's, just an FYI there is LOTS of stuff in the box, including specifically sided terminal ends for the woofers. USE THOSE when you run your wire, the fit SOO much better than anything I had laying around.

Right now the crossover is only stuck to the door via heavy double stick tape, when I do the sound deadener install I will put some nutcert/rivnuts in the door to hold them in place better.
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
 
Got a little work done tonight... really was messing around for the majority of the time trying to see if I could track down door lock issue. Pretty sure that it is passenger front door lock cylinder of sensor. Motor still seems decently strong, when turning the lock cylinder by hand it seems to "drag" more than the others when attempting to unlock. This lock DID have issues when I bought the truck however I believed I had fixed when I cleaned out with WD-40 and electrical contact cleaner. Wondering if the cylinder needs a full rehab and sensor just needs to be replaced....

When I got bored of messing with that I started messing around in the back... Notice anything!
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
 
Finally got the new outer axle assemblies and man are they hefty!
Test fitted the New OE hub flanges to the new outer axles and was expecting a super tight fit like guys have experienced with the aftermarket axle splines. Not so much but almost ZERO play/backlash.


Then last night while we were having a wind storm I decided to build the whole axles. Super easy build, especially thanks to @87warrior for cutting the shafts down for me on the inner tulips. While the grease was a gray color, I expected to be runny but it was still decently thick. Cleaned everything out, scuffed up the tulips and painted with some Rust Reformer paint and then put everything back together.

Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

All-in-all it took me about 2 hours to do both axles, everything was supplied in the new outer assembly for the entire rebuild (inner boot, grease, clamps, snap rings, etc) which made it awesome. Used the McMaster-Carr clamps on the inner boot too since I don't have the special tool to fix the stock clamps. So this weekend will be doing the front end rebuild FINALLY!
 
Played for about 3 1/2hrs last night and finally wrapped up the rearview camera in Alita! Not overly hard and this time I was careful with the fishing of the video cable!!! SIL-GLYDE is a wonderful thing and the line slide like a hot knife through warm butter this time. Little massaging of the boot as I worked it through but otherwise took ZERO effort. IMA IDIOT!!!
Install stuff here! Aftermarket Backup Camera wiring *install*
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
 
So I have been slowly adding to my morale patch collection...
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

This one was a custom one that I had made...
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

And big update coming tomorrow, I finally got the axles taken care of!!
 
CV Axle Update (FINALLY)!!
So you all may remember this garbage that I found when I was doing a bit of front end maintenance. Originally this started as chasing a vibration between 55mph and 70mph. Reading put it that this was pretty indicative of cheap axles being cheap.
When looking in there this is what I had found.
Axle number TO-8139
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
That stuff was months ago when I found that, which is what started the journey down the rabbit hole of replacing the majority of things. I ended up replacing pretty much every seal on both sides, bearings were still in good shape so I kept those and repacked everything with MOBIL-1 red synthetic bearing grease.
After getting into the axles a bit more this weekend when the project commenced here is what I found.
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

Everything needed to get the stupid ground down c-clip out. Not enough room to get a good hold on the c-clip with the pliers, but enough to start it then had to work it off with chisel and screwdrivers. Ears were ground down enough that you couldn't really get a hold and it was thin enough that you could barely get pliers in.
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

Once all that was off and the flanges were off, this is what they looked like. They definitely were original, had some decent wear but were still in pretty good shape. Gonna see if I can find someone to send them off to and have them milled out for that "just in case" moment that the axle/splines break and I need to run them with center diff lock on.
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

Bearings were pretty nasty. Looks like when the shop installed the cheap axles and were installing the lift they pulled the rotors and packed the cavity but never repacked the bearings or anything. Luckily they still spun smoothly and didn't seem to have any play.
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

The rotors had some weird grease I had never seen. Maybe Lucas Red N Tacky? Was stick and smelled like bearing grease but was kinda translucent.
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Of course that was only in the cavity between the bearing races, elsewhere it looked like they used cheapo brown moly grease. So everything got a heavy fresh coating of Mobil 1 Red. Bearings had all old stuff pushed out, little cheapo bearing packer worked ok, but will definitely need to invest in a real one down the line.

Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
 
Best part was when I went to remove the old axles this is what happened!
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

These DEFINITELY are not RZEPPA type bearing tulips, they are tripod and hence the vibration issue. I literally just gave a quick tug to see how tightly they were in there and the tripod popped out and wouldn't go back in (happened on both end). So that makes me believe there is no retainer ring or anything like OEMs have to keep bearings in place and axle from traveling too far.

I did end up weighing the cheap axles against the OEM and not only do the OEM feel much more hefty, they are heavier by a good 2lbs via my unscientific weighing of me, me + AM, me + OEM.

That started the reassembly process.
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
New T-seals for diff tubes
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Everything torqued down to 14.5lbs of preload. Ended up having to do about 52ft/lbs of torque on the nuts to get the appropriate preload, but all in all spins nice and smooth. Needed a 1.8mm snap ring on drivers side and a 1.9mm on the passenger side. Both fit perfectly and were just loose enough to spin in their grooves with a little effort, otherwise they were nice and tight. I got a timing belt job coming up at 200k (another 3k miles) so figure at that time I will go back through and check everything to see how it is doing.

All in, this job took me about 8hrs... Most of it was spent on the drivers side as I figured things out and then maybe 1/3 of the time on the passenger. Passenger side nothing in the control arms, TREs, etc. was torqued to spec except the brake caliper bolts, so that was an interesting find.
On top of that I found that my drivers upper ball joint is shot. While it moves normally, it does spin in the socket which caused some issues trying to get things torqued to spec, ended up having to use a pair of channel locks to grab the ball and then tighten to a point where it would stop spinning when I turned the castle nut. Same went for outer TRE ball joint when I was doing that on passenger side.
So looks like new UCAs and TREs are in my future, will likely do lower ball joints when I do all that stuff.

But the best part, NO MORE CLUNK AND NO MORE VIBRATION AT SPEED!!!! Which was such a beautiful feeling and sound after all that work!!!
 
Monday I went to do a quick run to our family cabin to haul some pine needles to the dump. Ended up renting a 4x7 trailer from U-haul only to get there and find out that something was wrong with the tow harness on Alita. So had to quickly swap vehicles and head on the way.
The harness was getting no power according to the guy at the rental spot, and when I went back with the wife's 4Runner, same trailer and harness and everything worked perfectly so definitely problem on Alita.

After doing some digging on her I found that I was only getting power to the right turn signal for whatever reason. No taillights, no brake lights, not left turn signal. For the 98 there is a tow box that is connected inside the quarter panel. Apparently there is some that were subject to recall but according to the Toyota website either it has been handled or mine is not included (recall for 98-99 years).
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

Once I found the box I tested the connections coming out of it and all seemed to work.
Next I disconnected the gray plug that leads down to the wiring that exits that interior of the quarter and comes out underneath the vehicle. Same thing, all lines work properly.
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

At that point I figured that had to be a break in the line somewhere between the plug and that gray plug connection seeing as prior to the plug I was getting good signal. Testing at the 4-pin harness on the hitch resulted in nothing but the one side again.
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

So I took a chance, measured a few inches back off the plug and cut the sheathing on the wire to expose some copper so I could ensure I was getting good contact, found a good ground point and WAHLA!!! I was getting signal. So looks like something happened with the plug, maybe just time and corrosion, as there was again nothing at the plug or even just behind the plug. Since I had the Hopkins 4+7-pin for the truck already I said screw it and just cut the plug ends off and wired it all up independently. From testing with the multi-meter I now have signal and everything just need to find a trailer to test to ensure.

Still need to run reverse lights and auxiliary power for the 7-pin but no that I at least have this I should be good and running the reverse wire should be fairly easy to get into that quarter panel and tap the reverse wire, again.
 
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