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Got a good amount of work done to the runner these past few days. Interior is back in completely including Doomy's Christmas present of a complete interior kit from realtree. We only got the front 4" kicker speakers installed, and hooked up because there aren't any wires ran to the rear of the truck for the rear speakers. I think this weekend I will get those installed. Then i have to dig out my sub and amp to get installed. All the wiring is in the truck from the PO already. We also did a coolant flush because the coolant was pretty rust colored. Flushed it 5 times. Will flush it more when we do the 500 mile oil change. Along with the coolant flush we did the 100 (200in actuality) mile oil change. The oil was a little darker than expected. There was also a few flakes of metal that WAS expected. Saved the oil filter to cut open to inspect.
anyways, pics as usual. If it seems like they're jumping around a bit it's because they were taken over a 3 day span.
told you the water in the rad was dirty. Lmao.
Doomy doing her very first oil change.
Oil looked dark coming out.
I guess it's not too bad for 200-ish miles?
A little closer.
redneck funnel. Snapple or Gatorade bottles work best.
Just empty bottle and cut the end off. Clean inside afterwards.
it fits right into the valve cover.
and will sit flush when screwed in.
there you have it installed.
fresh oil. Pennzoil is only being used for break in. After 3 oil changes we will be switching to amsoil.
checking to make sure the level is good.
trailer hitch off of the parts runner installed. I didn't get a chance to paint it or clean up the rust yet, but the bumper hides it, so I'm it sure if I will.
threw a quick spray job on the bumper off the parts truck. It was sooo rusty that it gives the paint a textured finish. Hahaha. Doomy just told me that she will tell people it's grip tape.
Found a few mysterious wires that I have no idea where they go to. Ignore the antenna coax.
Decided to use spade connectors for the stereo. Not to usher here, just trying to get it done quickly.
Tiny little 3" speaker that the PO installed.
Finally installed.
Close up of the first mystery wire.
Dash mat installed. Fits great!
Doomys great idea for picking up all the little scraps I left in the foot well.
Mystery wire #2. It's behind the glove box. Don't know what this is for either.
Part of the Real Tree AP Mint seatcover/steering wheel cover/floor mat set i got her for xmas. The rear was designed for a full size truck, but a little creative folding, and Doomy got it looking great.
Car seats installed.
What the... what the neck is this thing?!
It's what happens when your #4 spark plug wire decides to hug the turbo exhaust housing.
That toggle switch is connected to......nothing!
Last edited by space-junk; 02-19-2018 at 09:43 PM.
T shirts in February, that's craziness doesn't happen in my neck of the woods. That's alright I guess, but we only get green grass for a month or so also!
You need to hit harbor freight and snag some heat shrink tubing, electrical tape is evil. I'm really surprised there wasn't a factory harness in the rear panels for those audio wires, I thought they all had the rear amplified speakers regardless of trim levels.
The factory audio wasn't too bad IMO, the amp chip used is kind of known for really bad distortion but for rock and roll music it fits right in.
Re: the row hitch, what is the perforated panel I'm seeing in that second photo?
That Snapple bottle funnel is awesome. All the p.o. stuff, that's going to be fun to figured out. Great job on the oil change Doomy, and on the tape idea.
And that's some pretty special coolant there.
Good job.
I had an "oh hell no" moment seeing car seats in there haha. No way you could get me or my wife to deal with kids in a vehicle without 2nd row doors, lol.
BTW -- After all that hard work you gonna put some Toyota RED in there???
T shirts in February, that's craziness doesn't happen in my neck of the woods. That's alright I guess, but we only get green grass for a month or so also!
You need to hit harbor freight and snag some heat shrink tubing, electrical tape is evil. I'm really surprised there wasn't a factory harness in the rear panels for those audio wires, I thought they all had the rear amplified speakers regardless of trim levels.
The factory audio wasn't too bad IMO, the amp chip used is kind of known for really bad distortion but for rock and roll music it fits right in.
Re: the row hitch, what is the perforated panel I'm seeing in that second photo?
We may have been wearing t-shirts, but it was mid 40s to low 50s and 15-20 mph winds. Still chilly. Felt good when the wind died down and you could just sit in the sun.
as for the heat shrink, I am planning on doing that, I just knew that I was going to have to pull the stereo at least 1 or 2 times, so I'm holding off on that for now. The rears, I think I found the plug for the rears. It's separate from the main stereo harness. So, I'm going to have to find a female pigtail for it. Just haven't had time to search.
lastly, the perforated panel is part of a Downey off-road package installed some time in its previous life. That's an axle girdle. Eventually it will be removed and stored, but for now, it stays. 8 shocks are so '90s it hurts. I love it. And it actually rides really smooth.
Originally Posted by habanero
That Snapple bottle funnel is awesome. All the p.o. stuff, that's going to be fun to figured out. Great job on the oil change Doomy, and on the tape idea.
And that's some pretty special coolant there.
I always use the Snapple bottle trick. Works so great. Because as soon as you're done, put the lid on and flip the bottom over and shove it back into the bottle. Creates a seal so nothing leaks out.
Originally Posted by highonpottery
Good job.
I had an "oh hell no" moment seeing car seats in there haha. No way you could get me or my wife to deal with kids in a vehicle without 2nd row doors, lol.
BTW -- After all that hard work you gonna put some Toyota RED in there???
the girls are 4 and 5 now. They are able to climb in on their own. Only issue is trying to buckle them, but Doomy just opens the side window.
and yes, after the coolant can keep it's opacity better, I will be filling with red. I just don't see a point in wasting money for now. Plus, it's gotta be drained when the ARP head studs go in anyways, so, yea.
Last edited by space-junk; 02-20-2018 at 12:24 PM.
The plug wire was real easy to find. Especially when it started misfiring while doing 50mph. Bahahaha. It's funny, I was using that tape for the stereo and I left it in the passenger foot well until i was done and when Doomy was cleaning she threw it in the glove box(this irritates me because I'm an advocate of putting things back where you got them) but it wprked out. Allowed me to patch the wire at a gas station. Burned the holy balls out of my hand, but it worked. Little miracles, eh?
luckily we were heading into town anyways to get the fuel pressure damper from the dealership, so we picked up a new set of plug wires while we were there. Doomy got those installed today. No pictures, but I can guess y'all know what those look like. Lol.
Slacking on doing a timely update from this weekend. I had originally planned on doing some refreshing of some front end components, however last Friday, while Doomy was taking my daughter to school she rolled the drivers side window down and it fell off its track. She was able to grab it real quick and hold it while she rolled the window up, but it was a tad bit crooked. I was at work, but luckily my father was home and he helped her get the window back in it's track(threats of rain necessitated it be done immediately even though it was 30* outside). While doing that, Doomy noticed that the plastic liner was missing and there was no grease on the regulator at all. The windows have always felt like they're being strained going up and down. So, plan changed from front end R&R to interior R&R.
Ended up getting both the doors reskinned with some home siding frost barrier, regulators greased, 6.5" speakers temporarily installed in the back, and the fuel damper installed.
So, hopefully this weekend I can work a bit on the front end. It needs it badly. We will see since its been storming here for 3 days.
Onto the pictures.
Doomy got the new plug wires installed on Tuesday.
Everything was all crusty.
This is the window that fell off the track. Couple factors here, I think. The window weatherstripping is bunched up in the window frame and the fact that the rubber that holds the window in the track is so hard and dirty. I think it just lost grip while fighting the weatherstripping.
Yep.
More metal on metal.
Everything greased up nice. Even greased the edges of the window that sit in the track. And blue painters tape to the rescue! It provides just enough thickness to get a tight grip out of the rail.
Doomy using her art skills.
More blue tape. Y'all seeing a theme here?
Everything on drivers side buttoned up.
Doomy is pretty proud of herself.
Might have gone a little overboard with the blue tape here. Lol.
Got the switch and the trim plate installed from the parts truck. So much nicer. Passenger aide is still hit or miss on wether it wants to roll down, so maybe wiring issue?
I think that after 175k miles, this damper is toast.
Last edited by space-junk; 03-01-2018 at 10:54 PM.
Not a whole lot accomplished this weekend. Have been trying to track down some pretty substantial oil leaks and a water leak for the past week. Took it by the shop and Albert pointed out that the water pump seal was leaking, oil pump seal was leaking, valve cover was dripping, and the oil pressure sending unit was puking oil everywhere. Water and oil pump seals will have to wait until I get my tax return. The valve cover isn't leaking enough to warrant fixing right now. Money is kind of tight and I can't afford to have this truck down for more than a few hours. Anyways, I got an oil pressure sending unit from autozone because toyota would take a week to get. Went to go install it and....well....the old one was about a full turn from being tight. So, that was a thing. No more leaking from there.
got another oil change done. One more at a thousand miles and then it's a swap to synthetic. Other than that, took Doomy down a "road" near us. As usual, pictures do t do it justice. While it's not a full on trail, I think it was good for Doomy to get some sort of experience in 4WD.
If the valve cover leak is on the hot side it "needs" fixed, particularly if it gets anywhere near the alternator. Crank the acorns down till they bottom out, the rockers will clearance themselves to the baffle plate..
A few updates from the past few weeks. Went out to that same place again and discovered a few issues with the runner. And that's ok because I'd rather discover them playing around instead of 4wheeling.
1. Charge pipe keeps popping off. Need to change the placement of the silicone coupler.
2. Brakes used to be rock hard. No pressure until about halfway and then it was like stepping on a cinder block. After playing, it was like they were real brakes. Only thing I can think is that it shook up a blocked line or unstick a caliper?
3. The transmission developed a shudder whenever the torque converter locked up. It's still doing it over a week later. Sometimes it shudders and sometimes it's perfectly normal.
all that aside, we also got the 4.88 US Gear equipped rear diff installed. Stupid me never pulled the rear drums and the axle seals LOOKED good, but when I couldn't bleed the rear brakes and pulled the drums, they had a pretty good amount of oil buildup in there. And it's been there for a long time. Far longer than we've had this runner. Anyways, we tried for hours to get the brakes to bleed and nothing. The bleeders weren't clogged and yet no fluid at all. It got late so we decided to call it a night and try again the next day.
Next day rolls around and acting on the advice from vital22re we decided to try to bleed the MC. I happened to notice that the resivoir that we had completely filled the night before was to the minimum mark. I knew it had to have gone somewhere so I went to the rear to look for leaks in the brake lines and saw none. So we refilled and tried to bleed the brakes again. Apparently I left the passenger rear bleeder valve loose as it was dripping fluid. It bled out fine. With that little issue out of the way, we continued to bleed all the ports to get the brake fluid out of the system. The previous owner never changed the brake fluid from what I can tell because it was almost black. And there were chunks in it. Anyways, Doomy and I talked about it and decided that we would hold off on replacing the axle seals for when we put a locker in the rear, which isn't so far off. Until then, we are enjoying the great drivability that the 4.88s are providing.
pics as usual.
Last edited by space-junk; 03-26-2018 at 04:22 PM.
Good job - some nasty brake fluid right there!
I'm all about regular brake fluid flushing now....when I bought my last motorcycle the PO had like 10 bikes and this one he didn't ride much, so I knew I needed to flush everything. I kept putting off flushing the brakes since they felt fine and saying I'll do it next weekend. One day about 3-4 tanks of gas later, I barely touch the brakes and the front calipers kept grabbing harder and wouldn't release, locked up enough to skid the front tire and dumped me at about 30mph, which was real fun. Anyways, a year later when I finally decided to tear into the bike I found super dark brake fluid in the lines and crystals in the calipers, I didn't even know brake fluid could do that.
I like your socket wrench
Where you're out driving off pavement - is that property your family owns? Nice out there this time of year being lush and green
Brian, that is off latrobe rd. out by prairie city.
haven't done a whole lot recently. I've been sick with a stomach virus for about a week now and its kept me pretty much on the couch or sleeping. Real brutal thing. Worst sickness I've had since I was about 10. Like 5 days of food poisoning. Yes, I've already thought that it was Doomy trying to kill me, but I'm not done working on her truck. Don't think she'll try to off me until its finished.
what I did happen to get accomplished before this crud started was to get half the trucks paint roughed up. Basically the whole thing had bad hard water build up on the drivers side and the paint was also dirty. Pics don't do it justice, but the white was more of an off white or tan. It was gross. So I did the only thing I could think of with the resources I had. I went to town with a green 3m scrubbing pad. When my fingers got tired, I grabbed the dual orbit buffer and got at it again.
i managed to get the entire drivers side done. Yes, it does scuff the paint pretty bad. I later found out that it's similar to a 600 grit sandpaper. However, this paint is already shot so it doesn't bug me. But, boy what a difference in color! Shes almost blinding in sunlight now. And you can definitely tell where I've gotten and where I haven't. I did manage to get a coat of wax on it to give it some protection. I still need to finish the drivers side. Once that's done, I bought some nufinish scratch and swirl remover and I'll give that a shot to see if it helps. If not, just gonna have to make sure I teach Doomy how to wax the truck after she washes it every other week.
pics for proof.
Last edited by space-junk; 04-10-2018 at 02:59 PM.
02-17-2018, 02:26 PM
