Featured 100 - spressomon

[spressomon]

Not so cheap thrills...and showing my age

Works great and check'd off the list.

Thanks again Shane for the idea!

 

[badlander]

It looks creepy on that side!

 

[spressomon]

...creepy is also what it cost me to stay in the terrestrial radio world

 

[r2m]

^ taken this morning. Had I known the blue/green-ish color of their "charcoal" I would have just gone black...next time Maybe with dirt on them they'll look better under the Bronze Metallic...

I know this is a little after the fact cause I haven't been following your posts lately, but you could also do your bumpers and lower body in that color too!

 

[spressomon]

Just in case you want to know what the back of the gauge cluster "combination meter" looks like...

Have a noisy tach that's bugging me...thought maybe I could just pull a plug and do without the tach and the noise (step motor?)...but no way. Good thing I have 500 watts of amps to drown it out

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Just in case you want to know what the back of the gauge cluster "combination meter" looks like...

Have a noisy tach that's bugging me...thought maybe I could just pull a plug and do without the tach and the noise (step motor?)...but no way. Good thing I have 500 watts of amps to drown it out

View attachment 1039214

OH MY EYES... HELP!!!

J

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Not so cheap thrills...and showing my age

Works great and check'd off the list.

Thanks again Shane for the idea!

View attachment 1037945

PERSONALLY!.... I would have just bought a RHD cruiser if I wanted the antenna on that side... HA!

J

 

[r2m]

Spressomon, since you pulled your dash cluster out, did you consider replacing the lights with LED's?
I've been considering doing that for several reasons: one, maybe change the color of lights. BMW has done studies and have shown that amber/orange seems to work best for preventing eye strain/fatigue. Two, I know it's not much, but to reduce power constitutions. Three, they may offer a little more range of brightness if necessary and finally, doing such, I will probably NEVER have to change a bulb again!

 

[spressomon]

^ I did...but I don't have a problem with the OEM filament dash lamps. And my "D" has been out for a few years; just the way I like it

 

[r2m]

my "D" has been out for a few years; just the way I like it

Funny you should mention about the "D" not being lit. Both my wife's 98 LC and my 98 LC have never had that light on. I pretty much have considered that it was factory set to not be on.

Also, off topic, your location is central coast and mentioned you went into the Reno area for some work on your rig. Would it be too personal to ask what city you're in? Reason I'm asking is although I'm in San Clemente, we have a place at state line in South Lake Tahoe that we're at every New Years for 2 weeks. If you're ever up to it, I'd love to visit and see first hand all your do-dads on your rig and maybe swap some lies over a glass of port or a pint of ale.

You can PM me your city if you want to keep it confidential or just tell me to go pound sand.

 

[rusty_tlc]

no indicator=Drive, works for me.

 

[spressomon]

@reevesci passing as much as I do = no bueno for me stateside with RHD. Its a V8 thing

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

@reevesci passing as much as I do = no bueno for me stateside with RHD. Its a V8 thing

My 4 cylinder should give your V8 a run for its money.... 5745#s, 37s, 4BT.... I backed off at 94mph.. and been avg 22-24mpg.

Its a fun rig... Understand what your saying.. I just like them.

I'm on the hunt for a HZJ7X RHD... maybe one day...

J

 

[spressomon]

So while traveling around living the life of a nomad...I finally decided I better address what seemed like piston slap or a rod knock that started sometime last year. It sounds off for about a minute or two but then goes away. A couple of well seasoned pro mechanics thought it sounded like a cracked flex plate...

While in Denver hanging with family I figured this would be about as good a place to swap in a new flex plate as its going to be for me for awhile. I contacted Robbie Antonson aka Powderpig at his shop in Boulder and he was gracious enough to create time for me and spressoWAGON. Although I thought it would be a two day affair pulling the tranny and swapping in a new flex plate, Robbie, being the seasoned pro-mechanic (Certified Toyota Master Technician) he was confident "we" could get it done in a day.

I had Onur aka @beno ship the new flex plate and related parts to Robbie (while in there it got new rear main output seal, AT input seal, FP bolts, etc.). Thanks for the super speedy service Onur!

Well, Robbie was right: The job only took "us" a day . Albeit one long ass day. And even though the familiar to many in the Toyota world start up knock is still present I'm glad to have the flex plate swapped as it had significant stress cracks at the mounting holes (torque converter side)!

And, of course since we're both espresso lovers, I kept us "fueled up" with 'spro throughout the day .

Given there isn't much discussion on the 100 board about this potentially looming issue I would recommend putting, at least careful inspection via the window plate on the bell housing, it on your 90k PM item list.

So after all the work Robbie is certain I've got a little piston slap at warm up. Not a super immediate concern but something I'll need to address eventually.

Big thanks to Robbie for everything!

1FZ flex plate behind the 2UZ flex plate...just for comparison grins

 

[spressomon]

Robbie cut the oil filter to have a look at the filter media hoping to see any tell tale sign of metallic evidence of the source of the knocking. And although nothing unusual looking was found...we did discover a very good reason NOT to use Amsoil filters on our 2UZ-FE engines: Even though Amsoil brags about their filter media...there just isn't much of it.

 

[spressomon]

Whenever I'm in the Denver area its always nice to go say hello to Christo, Ben, Joe and the boyz at Slee Offroad. Although Joe was booked out several weeks and couldn't work me in for the flex plate job I did have him and Brian, their alignment tech, check and adjust my front end alignment. Since the last visit a few years ago to Slee's shop I wasn't aware he's once again expanded his menu of service offerings and now features precision 4-wheel laser guided alignment.

For those of you that reside closer to Slee Offroad in Golden Colorado I highly encourage you, in addition to all the routine, not-so-routine and custom work Christo and his solid team of professional mechanics offers, to utilize their alignment services! They DO know what they're doing!

Both Robbie and Slee Offroad are truly in rare air of honest, capable and very professional all things Toyota mechanics!

 

[spressomon]

Also to note and FYI/FWIW: Anyone who knows me...is fully aware I'm a big believer of ~1" body lift on a thirty-five'd 100-Series. And in addition to the performance and all things front drive system reliability/performance enhancements from same, the 1" body lift made pulling the transmission a little more manageable.

I'm not sure how much longer it would have taken without the body lift...but I can say it would have been a much bigger PITA to reach all the connectors, shift linkage, upper bell housing bolts, etc.

 

[e9999]

oooh, that is a beaut! all chromed up! And a manual transmission too!

 

[spressomon]

Oh and you should taste how she purrs

 

[KlausVanWinkle]

Your posts make me not want to keep trucks that long. Glad you got it all sorted.