As is prolly obvious by now, I hate rattling, loose, floppy, slappy noises in my vehicles. One noise in particular is created by the 21 year old tailgate limiting arms (for lack of the official name). These arms were designed with nylon bushings and rubber bumpers which, over the decades of use, have deteriorated leaving the arms floppy. They slap against the tailgate and the corresponding opening in the bed every time I hit a bump or come to an urgent stop. I hate unnecessary noises (comes from having babies in the house all those years....).

Well I decided to fix the problem. While looking online for replacement arms, I remembered that my Tacoma had cables instead of hinged arms. So I looked for some on ebay........here's what I found

Removal and replacement is self evident upon visual inspection. The cables are longer than the original arms by about 1/2 inch which allows the tail gate to hang at slightly greater than exact level, but the silence is worth any nuisance the remedy creates.

Of course the elimination of one noise reveals the existence of another. It's like a treasure hunt really......

 

go get 'em man!