Haven't posted here in a while, been busy at my main work, was finishing up remodeling a house, moving, and remodeling again, and then got slammed with the quarantine COVID-19 life.
During my maiden trip up to Oregon to Utah and back to California, I had to replace a U-Joint and the E-Brake cable snapped. Not having an E-brake was not great for parking on hills and wanting to warm up the truck at higher colder altitudes, so I ordered one and replaced both while on the road. In the photos below, you can see how the end nub that screws into the brake lever broke.
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Installation was super straightforward and logical in typical Toyota fashion.
One lesson I learned though was to attach an electrical fishing wire or string to the end of the old E-Brake cable before yanking it out... otherwise it is kind of a pain fishing the new, stiffer, less malleable, E-Brake cable between the gas tank and the body to get it to the small E-Brake opening. To my recollection, I pulled out the old E-Brake cable unsheathed and duct taped it to the new one and fished it to the E-Brake hole.
Once I got back from the trip...
I got rear ended on the highway with a pretty significant speed differential (if I had to guess 20-30mph or so) because the other driver was texting and driving as we approached slower traffic. To make things more complicated and more frustrating, the other driver took off and ran. Thankfully a week or so later, they caught the person and there's a little more accountability that I can hold her to.
Now, for the damage of the 75... Honestly not that much.
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You can see the bend of the rear bumper a bit, but it's not too bad. Insurance still is willing to help me replace it though (EXP ONE bumper maybe...?). However, I did notice that there is a whirling sound, and after diagnosing where the sound could be, I feel like it's the front differential. There's some play in the front drive shaft, pinion gear... So I guess it's time to tear apart the front axle (and rebuild brakes while I'm at it).
Other news:
I ordered Planted seat brackets. One thing I noticed on the maiden voyage was how uncomfortable the seats are. It was so uncomfortable at one point that I didn't want to get an AUX gas tank for the truck anymore because I NEEDED to stop every 500KM/tankful in order to be a functioning human. After I get the planted seat brackets, I was thinking about getting Corbeau seats and some flat adjustment sliders to sandwich between the Planted bracket and the seat itself.