It's a fantastic area to live, I split my time between here and Ecuador during the winter. I am truly lucky to do so. I own a shuttle/wine tour company up here so I spend my time getting to see all the great things we have up here.
It's a fantastic area to live, I split my time between here and Ecuador during the winter. I am truly lucky to do so. I own a shuttle/wine tour company up here so I spend my time getting to see all the great things we have up here.
It was nice and sunny out today so I went out with the family and ran some seasonal roads. Nothing crazy just a little snow and mud here and there, the Firestone destination A/Ts did good for what they are and the truck was great. Being short and low have their advantages in the woods around here. Kind of confirms that I want to just stick with a leveling kit and 33s rather than jumping up to 35s.
Also snagged a picture next to a DC Tacoma, the two trucks are about the exact same length but the Tundra is obviously wider.
Well the projects kind of slowed down since all the corona stuff started, but it was nice out a few days ago so I went and took the old tint off. Used a steamer to warm-up the tint and it pealed off pretty easily for the most part ,then just used some window cleaner and razor to clean up the little bit of glue leftover.
Here you can see the shadow left on the old tint from a sticker.
Looks better with the tint and sticker off
Up-graded my antenna put a new gasket around it and threw some weathertech floor mats in today:
Got my new headlight housing and headlights in today. Kept stock lighting with upgraded stock style bulbs, read a bit on candlepowerforums and that seemed to be the best solution to upgrade without spending a ton.
Before:
After:
Left the old bulbs on the passenger side to compare light this evening, i‘ll take some pics and post them up than.
My cabin and engine air filters showed up this week so thought I would throw them in tonight quick after work. Went with the TRD drop-in air filter and Bosch cabin filter (really love my Bosch wipers I installed btw).
The old units were pretty ripe:
New guys looking all fancy:
Cabin air filter went in really easy behind the glove box and made a BIG difference in the smells and amount of air coming from the vents. Another step towards conquering the smell of smoke in the Tundra! Then there was the engine air filter...not so good:
The filter was too small for the box...turns out I order the filter for 2014+ trucks so need to return that and order the correct one.
Short term goals right now:
1 Replace inner wheel wells up front where there was some rubbing
2 Replace all fluids with Amsoil
3 Take care of exhaust manifold/gasket
Got some more stuff in this week: t-case and diff fluid, oil/filter, magnetic drain plug, the right air filter, and a repair manual. Installed the air filter right away and will start on diff and t-case fluids monday. Oil filter is a cartridge type and I’m waiting on a metal case to replace the plastic one.
Get an ozone generator from Amazon, $99 bucks ...plug it in close up the truck for an hour the smell will be gone....
Finally knocked out the fluids for the diffs and transfer case as well as an oil change this weekend. Also ordered transmission fluid/filter and upping my braking game with this:
Ordered stop tech stainless lines and new fluid too. All this should help bring the unit to a halt once it’s loaded down and with larger tires.
Still waiting on my StopTech rotors and pads but they should be in the end of the month (fingers crossed)...in the mean time I got a few little parts in:
Cruise and intermediate wiper switches! Should make daily driving a bit easier. Through the wiper switch in ASAP but need to order a few more small pieces for the cruise switch.
new wiper switch all ready to rock:
Snagged this to start planning some trips, waiting on the souther half atlas to show up still.
Rest of my cruise control parts showed up and got it wired into the steering wheel.
But sadly no joy on actually working, did some digging on a tundra forum and looks like I need to run some more wiring to finish it off.
Took the family out for a little canoeing. Good thing a 15.5’ canoe totally fits and doesn’t look stupid
Had most of my brake parts show up today...full StopTech kit, look good and should slow the truck down a lot better once I go to bigger tires. Also got my spark plugs in this week!
Neat "little" truck. Not sure I've ever seen a SWB Tundra.
Well had my dash light up like a Christmas tree a week or so ago. 4x4, abs, and traction control all went out. Took it to a local mechanic to have them see what was going on and it seemed to be the rear abs harness. Replaced the harness and the wheel sensors but my dash still remained REALLY festive with all the lights. So after some poking around underneath I found this little guy:
So I have a new connector and pins coming this way form Toyota and going to try my hand at rewiring the connector.
I wouldn't mind a SWB Tundra with the 5.7 and TRD package. Basically a sleeper in disguise, or a wolf in sheep's clothing if you will haha. You wouldn't think something like that would move very quickly, until you hit the loud pedal, and the next thing you know, you're already doing 60.
Bill
My son calls it "Super Tundra Speed!!!"
UPS guy brought me the parts to fix the wiring today so I’ll try my hand at splicing the new connectors in Tomorrow.
Also brought my rear brake calipers, dust shields (a whopping $230 a piece), and some other rear end seals and stuff I’ll be replacing when I do the dust shields. Waiting on my front calipers to dive into all that so I can do my new SS lines and fluid swap all at once...they should be in this week.
Going to be fixing up my front wheel wells tomorrow too. The liners had been rubbed by tires at some point in their life so they have holes and some fasteners are missing too.
whole gaggle of small parts along with the “golden dust shields”
4WD, ABS, and traction control all back up and running! Soldered in and shrink wrapped the new connector, didn’t turn out too bad for my first go around! Also sprayed down the undercarriage with a few cans of fluid film while it was on the lift. Going to make this a habit since I’m up in the salt capital of the world Michigan.
Tried getting the new wheel well liners in but they seem to be different then my oem and ran out of time to monkey with them today...I’ll try again later.
Front calipers showed up today from Toyota. Always forget how beefy the fronts are one these trucks. I’ll be getting to all the brakes a week from Monday, then a few more maintenance things and on to my lift and tires. Should have it lifted this spring!
My ever changing list of “to-dos”
Brakes/rear end
AIP Delete
Exhaust leak
Battery
Water pump/Belt/coolant flush
Lift and tires
Skid plates
Where in Michigan are you?
In reply to chandler :
Frankfort, about an hour southwest of Traverse City.
Tour into my rear end this week. Took the shafts to a local mechanic to press everything off/on including new wheel bearings. Figured while we had it apart might as well. So the rear has all new seals, bearings, dust shields, calipers, stainless lines, and the rotors/pads I put on last fall.
Got a start on the front but stalled out when I didn't have the right socket to remove the wheel bearing. Ordered up a socket and a few brake lines should be here Monday.
all tour apart
back together and looking pretty
In reply to Bill Mesker :
funny you bring that up, i recall years ago Car & Driver tested a TRD Supercharged tundra and it put down 500hp! they said it felt like a sub 5-second 0-60, mid 13's level of speed. amazing for a dealer-purchased supercharger kit. i think, at the time, it was the most powerful V8 truck you could buy using dealer parts.
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