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DISCLAIMER - I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOINGThe Auto Shop 101 part is not fiction - I am a lovely mechanic and it generally speaking takes me 200% the amount of effort/time it would take anyone competent, and I nearly always hurt myself in the process. Hello AI! I've been meaning to make a thread about my truck (and maybe other Tacos too!) Here is my Taco truck! A little bit of backstory, and maybe some insight towards what I'm trying to accomplish with this truck. I've had and used 4 wheel drive since I was in high school. I've had a Bronco 2, Nissan Hardbody, Nissan Frontier, a JKU, and now a Tacoma.  A few months after I bought it. New wheels, new 255/75/r17 tires, Faux Pro grille Its been an interesting ride with this truck. I came to a Tacoma after driving a fairly built JKU across the country and back, because a- the JKU fell apart. I can provide a lot of details if anyone cares to learn from my Jeep mistakes b- I don't need to off road that well/much, but I absolutely must have something that rides better on the street so I traded it on on a Tacoma in August 2019, and its been a well, uh, a ride I guess. In retrospect, The only / biggest option regret is going with a 5' foot bed to get a manual transmission. Otherwise the Trd Off-road trim with leather, sunroof, and a locking rear end is   Joshua Tree 2019 sometime The truck has gone through several iterations as I try to build the ultimate overlanding machine, and I've done a lot of custom poo poo to it  Soundproofing - Worth it  Fox 2.5 Factory coilover with remote resevoirs and DSC controls, SPC upper (since upgraded to Uniball UCA)  OME Medium duty leaf springs with BAMF leaf spring hangers and crossmember. Since upgraded to Deaver Stage III leaf springs  First topper was a Craiglist special that AFAICT came off a Ford Explorer Sport-Trac at some point...  Fiberglass topper. Looked much better, but very heavy, and sleeping diagonal in the 5' bed was like a coffin...  Almost everything attached to the truck here specifically sucked rear end After researching effectively every single option on the market possible, and being put off by quality, price, or both, I ended up ordering the current camper from Bel-Air. Note - Bel-Air is just a skeezy shop that resells USA camper shells, which notably doesnt' have a website but Martin @ USA Camper shells is pretty easy to work with.   The finish quality on the camper isn't the best, but it seems very durable. Also, most importantly, its wide enough to sleep sideways above the rails of the bed, while being tall enough to also sit straight up like a normal human being. Bel-air claimed the shell weighs ~550lbs, but I'd guess its more like 600  Where we are at today. 285/75r17 tires, 5.29 gears, a Volkswagen worth of extra poo poo For those of you who haven't followed along with my BS in the 4x4 thread, right now the truck rides like poo poo because my ChonkyTaco™ is too heavy for what a Taco can realistically carry (also because of the loving  air trapped in the driveshaft). What needs to be done - I am making arrangements to buy used factory suspension off another Taco so that I can get heavier springs for the coilovers and get all of the shocks revalved. I need to get the custom driveshaft balanced so I can use it and stop loving around with the fart-yoke. I need to build out the rear camper so I can actually use it. I have a mountain of electrical poo poo to install. Vampire Panties fucked around with this message at 18:28 on May 29, 2023 |
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May 23, 2023 23:13
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poo poo I DID RECENTLY The whistling across the 8020 in the roof rack was awful, so I ordered a few rolls of the trim they use on 3d printers. It fits snug without using tape, but I added some for extra measure. When I figure out what/how I'm going to put up there, I'll cut the trim to fit around it and glue it all in place.  Secondly, w/r/t the ongoing ride quality issues, I realized today that my  rock sliders were basically a 120 pounds of costume. They looked sorta cool, but they rattled a bit, and ChonkyTaco would totally crush them if they were ever used. Off they went!Discrete  Clearly not strong enough to support ChonkyTaco  Shaved  I'm not sure that I actually need rock sliders; loving up rocker panels suuucks but I don't really do that kind of off roading  I already have the full RCI metalworks skid plate setup (not currently installed ATM) which protects the important parts anyway. Originally I'd thought that rock sliders would add some stiffness to the wobbly rear end frame on the Taco, and maybe some weld-on ones would, but these certainly didnt. For the price, and for a regular weight Taco, these are a pretty good deal but they won't work for me. One positive - it instantly made an improvement on ride quality, so I know I'm moving in the right direction.
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May 23, 2023 23:24
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I'm so sick of this loving truck. I'm going to close this thread; I'm loving done dealing with this truck and everything from here is going to be mitigation to trade it in and get something else EDIT put the front sway bar back on today, after having to swerve across a lane on the freeway yesterday and it got a little interesting. Ofc once I put the sway bar back on, truck rides like utter poo poo again. I'm not buying another loving sway bar, and I'm not driving around without one with a 600lb camper. I called the lovely mechanic to get a quote on respringing + revalving the shocks, they haven't called me back but I'm guessing its over a thousand dollars. A thousand dollars, or I'm going to be limping around in the truck for two weeks while also have to put take off / put on the shocks twice. i'm just done. Yesterday I believed that heavier springs + valves would make a difference, but honestly I'm fooling myself. I have never been happy with the comfort of this truck, and nearly 4 years later and investing like 50% of the value of the truck and its never going to happen. I'm so loving upset about all of this. This is the worst moment in my life to have ruined a perfectly good truck. I don't know what I'm going to do, but this is grim as gently caress. Vampire Panties fucked around with this message at 19:33 on May 24, 2023 |
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May 24, 2023 19:24
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Cool you unlocked your thread. Take 5. Truckfuckling fuckling sucks. step away from it for a few. Your rear sway is doing more work with the slide in anyway. Something is binding with the front sway. I don't know what it is because I don't know the geometry. Off road shops dance to a different tune... give it time. Put together some notes about what's going wrong, share this with prospective shops. You are in amongst friends that have spent entirely too much on an old piece of poo poo. It's the nature of the beast. Jeeps do this too. It can be unfucked, for more money/time/parts/etc. it's forever moving the problem around. It in some capacity will never end. E: grab a gopro and stick a big magnet on it. stick it somewhere so that the suspension is visible and go driving around. This will help a lot in narrowing things down.
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May 24, 2023 19:45
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cursedshitbox posted:Cool you unlocked your thread.  thank you CSB. I have so much respect for you and the other truckfucklers on these forums. My grandfather owned a mechanic shop and my dads a Teamster, so I should know fuckling, but I'm the worst cursedshitbox posted:Your rear sway is doing more work with the slide in anyway.  Agreed. The situation yesterday was the actual worse-case scenario - someone tried to merge into me at freeway speeds, and I had to dodge over a lane. The truck didn't go up on 2 wheels or anything crazy, and it rides so much worse with the sway bar disconnected that I don't think it makes sense to keep it. Going forward my truck will have stronger springs which should keep it more stable in that scenario. Plus my truck is effectively naked right now, it'll have 240+lbs of skid plate and rock slider as ballast to keep it level after the spring upgrade. cursedshitbox posted:Off road shops dance to a different tune... give it time. Put together some notes about what's going wrong, share this with prospective shops. so I went for a walk and chilled out a bit. The mechanic called me back, its ~1200 bux and they can get it all done Friday. - get new 700lb springs - revalve all four shocks for the extra weight - replace seals and fluids on the shocks - they'll also check the alignment. Beyond the tires rubbing the shock reservoirs, I noticed the front driver side tire is toeing (I think? Where the inside of the tire is wearing really heavily) Doing it myself, buying the springs from Accutune and using the free revalve (doesn't include seals or fluid), it would cost me at least ~400 bux. ~200 bux to pick up the factory suspension (cost + gas), and ~200 bux for the springs. Rebuild kits on their website are 50bux+, so even if rebuild labor is included with the revalve it would probably still be ~600 dollars at a minimum to do it all correctly. Thats also two weeks of driving around with a factory suspension on 34s  Will new springs and revalved shocks fix my suspension issue? It should but I spent two years chasing a fart-yoke, sooooooooo. There are other 4x4 shops in San Diego, but I dunno if they'll be able to get me in before the weekend. Changing the springs on coilovers, rebuilding them and revalving them should be straightforward for any 4x4 shop, but I have no idea. I don't like them, but I talked to the owner of the shop today and he's always been reasonable, and I'm much better prepared mentally to fight with them about their bad work than to find a new place (and fight with them about their bad work).  IF ANYONE HAS A MECHANIC RECOMMENDATION FOR THE GREATER SAN DIEGO AREA I'M INTERESTED cursedshitbox posted:You are in amongst friends that have spent entirely too much on an old piece of poo poo. It's the nature of the beast. Jeeps do this too. It can be unfucked, for more money/time/parts/etc. it's forever moving the problem around. It in some capacity will never end. Excellent call on the Gopro I'm going to figure that out today. EDIT Just got a quote from Accutune and they want 800 bux. I can pay The Truck Shop an extra 400 bux to actually take the shocks on and off and have it done in the same day. Vampire Panties fucked around with this message at 22:10 on May 24, 2023 |
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May 24, 2023 22:01
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Hellwig front sway bar with Overland Design tie links.   This is some rando's factory sway bar, to give you an idea of how much chonkier the Hellwig bar is  still working on the GoPro mount
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May 25, 2023 00:28
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idk if your shop is good or not, but if they are, approaching "the truck drives like this, and i wish it would drive like that" is a different approach and might get different results than "i want specifically these things changed in my setup". if they're clueless then you're better off doing your own diag, but if they deal with rigs set up like yours a lot maybe they can help you figure it out. in any case, don't get too short sighted / tunnel visioned into one specific solution. i like CSB's idea with the gopro.
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May 25, 2023 05:49
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Raluek posted:idk if your shop is good or not, but if they are, approaching "the truck drives like this, and i wish it would drive like that" is a different approach and might get different results than "i want specifically these things changed in my setup". if they're clueless then you're better off doing your own diag, but if they deal with rigs set up like yours a lot maybe they can help you figure it out. in any case, don't get too short sighted / tunnel visioned into one specific solution. i like CSB's idea with the gopro.  This is v. specifically what I spoke about with the Truck Shop. I explained the truck rode like crap; its in the bumpstops all the time even with the DSCs cranked up. The owner recommended heavier springs, it was sort of an 'ah hah!' moment for him (at least to me, on my end of the phone ) I went back and checked my very original order with Accutune and I'd specified the weight of this build, but in retrospect I'm not sure Accutune really did anything with that info. When I take the truck in Friday I want to talk with the owner and go look at stuff on my truck; if I don't feel that this will specifically address my issue I'll leave. EDIT also I really want to hear about the fart-yoke and if they've encountered that before. I've been thinking about it, and there's a lot of complaints about 'thumps' from other Tacoma/4runner drivers, but nothing like that. The dudes had to disconnect the shaft from the rear axle to install 5.29 gears, none of them noticed the yoke was fart-loaded?  Life got in the way this afternoon but I have a solution to the Gopro thing so I will have some footage midday tomorrow. Food for thought - I have Deaver Expedition Stage 3 springs which are good for 700-1000lbs. With a ~600lb camper and ~200lb in tire carrier and spare tire, I need to conserve weight wherever possible. Originally I was going to build plywood benches, but I think that will be way too heavy for what I need. I was thinking about using nylon webbing, like a lawn chair, to make the seats instead, but I'm really interested in any suggestion as well.  DOUBLE EDIT is there a good program for sketching something out? I need something better than MS Paint over phone pics, but maybe not something as complicated as Revit Vampire Panties fucked around with this message at 06:13 on May 25, 2023 |
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May 25, 2023 06:07
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Vampire Panties posted:also I really want to hear about the fart-yoke and if they've encountered that before. I've been thinking about it, and there's a lot of complaints about 'thumps' from other Tacoma/4runner drivers, but nothing like that. The dudes had to disconnect the shaft from the rear axle to install 5.29 gears, none of them noticed the yoke was fart-loaded? ok what the gently caress is this. this is the fourth time you have mentioned this in the thread but i have zero context what a fart yoke is. i know what a fart is and i know what a yoke is, but im kind of stupid. re: software, ive used freecad for simple stuff before, but that might not be as straightforward as you want. its still a kinda janky full 3d modeling program.
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May 25, 2023 06:32
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honestly gonna agree talk in normal terms because the nicknames or snide names make it drat hard to follow with what your trying to say. It makes it hard to even attempt to get what is the problem. As is, it seems weird that youd be hitting bump stops even with stock springs with only a couple hundred extra pounds on it, even if a tacoma isnt a heavy duty truck. I don't really get what you mean by it rides like poo poo, is it to stiff? to soft? steering off? all of these can mean other things are the issue.
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May 25, 2023 07:27
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Yes I'm sorry, I've wrote about my truck at various points in the 4x4 thread but here's a quick synopsis - EDIT truck first impressions and why i messed with it originally - I bought the truck in the Bay Area, and during the test drive thought it was fantastic. On the drive back to SoCal, I got cramps in my legs from the weird seating position. (I think this is where I got it in my head that my truck is uncomfortable). This was August 2019 and I had both moved and started a new job, so I wasn't really focused on it. I took the truck out to Joshua Tree and Anza-Borrego and thought it was me?. I was thinking about getting bed bars and a roof top tent, but that was future considerations. After spending a frozen Christmas at Yosemite in a truck bed tent, I realized that I needed something more substantial. Of course COVID happened and everyone was looking for anything outdoors, but I was able to find the aluminum contractor topper posted on craigslist. I actually took that topper out to the Grand Tetons and Great Basin national park, and it worked fine, although it was claustrophobic to sleep inside. It was also ugly and didn't match my truck. During this time I decided to upgrade to a fiberglass topper, to match the truck, and (in retrospect) this is where the ride quality issues began. Specifically the little camping buildout I had in the rear, plus my extra stuff, along with the extra weight of the fiberglass topper made the factory suspension bottom out really badly on the concrete sections of highway 15. Specifically I had a disasterous thanksgiving where I tried to drive to Death Valley and spent six hours going a hundred miles with an aching back, basically screaming and crying in frustration. I got seatjackers and they helped, but the truck was still way too rough on the freeway. double edit I should add here that I had similar frustrations with the stock suspension on my Jeep JKU. A friend of mine who was a big Jeep guy effectively linked me a Rock Krawler kit and said 'buy this, find any dipshit to put it on', and I did, and it was a night and day improvement in ride quality. This set the idea in my head that aftermarket suspension would make my truck ride better, so approxmiately two year ago. I upgraded from factory Bilsteins to Fox 2.5 coilovers with SPC UCAs, Hellwig front sway bar, and Overland Design sway bar links, with OME Medium duty leaf springs, Fox 2.5 shocks and BAMF rear spring hanger + crossmember. I also had them install Durobumps at the time, but I had unknowingly ordered too large Durobumps for the rear. Even from day one, I felt like the truck rode like poo poo. When I say the truck rode like poo poo, specifically the truck handled insanely well, but it were as if every single bump were duplicated. Drive over a speed bump, and it would bounce up and down twice. The concrete sections in the freeway in SoCal would make the truck buck like a rocking horse - A McDonalds coffee cup would spill out the lid while in the cupholder driving 55 mph down the freeway. Tons of issues at any speed - bumpsteer knocked the steering wheel out of my hand turning left on a paved street. The truck was exhausting to drive anywhere. I took it back to the mechanic and complained that it was too bouncy/stiff, but they blew me off and said it was the Hellwig front sway bar. I didnt have any money to chase the issue further ( still dont, really)and the mechanic made it seem like it was my bad choices & I was being unreasonable on the ride quality (shop owner frequently said "well its a truck"), and I didnt know what the gently caress to do about it, so I went on the internet. After internet research, I reached the bad conclusion that it was the OME springs, and that maybe adding more weight would help? I went through various ballast solutions, even putting 200lbs of sandbags in the bed at one point, but it only sorta helped. The bumpstops were also too tall by 3/4", as previously mentioned, so with the extra weight I was hitting the rear bumpstops constantly as well. One of the ball joints on the SPC UCA started weeping grease, so I thought "maybe the ride quality is the UCAs?" and swapped those out to JBA HD UCAs. (It wasnt  )Meanwhile I was still trying to use the truck as a truck. The fiberglass camper shell didnt work out, so I bought the Bel-Air shell I have on the truck now. I thought it should've been heavy enough to settle the truck down, but I was still having the bounce issue. I decided it had to be the OME springs. I had Deaver Expedition Stage 3 leaf springs installed earlier this year. While the leaf springs were being installed I got to talking with the shop owner, and kinda/sorta got bullied into going with 5.29 gears and 285/75r17 tires. Yeah its my money  but I wasn't expecting to be fired from my job the next week  While I was doing this, the shop owner said that I would get much better ride quality from a uniball UCA as compared to a ball joint UCA (like the SPC or JBA I had). Since JBA had a year return policy, I went ahead and upgraded to a uniball UCA as well. I also had the rear durobumps swapped to the correct size at this time. While all that stuff helped some I still had the same basic issue - truck just bounced up and down the road no matter what I did. Took it back to the mechanic 3 different times and got 3 different answers. Ultimately they stopped returning my calls. Finally, grasping at straws, I reached the conclusion that it was maybe the driveshaft, like it was too short or maybe the carrier bearing was bad? Instead of ordering a replacement carrier bearing, I decided that I would do the smart thing and order a custom driveshaft that was the proper length. This ended up being complicated - a regular driveshaft would spin past critical speed with the 5.29 gears, so I had to find a shop that'd make a custom driveshaft retaining a carrier bearing. Custom driveshaft arrives, I put it on, and  WEIRD BOUNCING ISSUE GOES AWAY However the new driveshaft isn't balanced properly. The truck tries to shake itself apart from 40mph+. (Note: I've taken the driveshaft on/off four times now, and really hammered it on there, so I'm 98% its the driveshaft). Either way, the vibration was so bad that I didn't feel comfortable driving around with the new driveshaft on.This brings us to about two weeks ago, where I'm dragging the factory driveshaft down to my truck to reinstall it while I try to figure out what the gently caress is wrong, and I'm literally holding the factory driveshaft upright when I think "Hey, isnt the slip yoke on the driveshaft supposed to slide smoothly? this thing feels like its spring loaded". I tried to put my body weight down on the shaft and it would just pop right back up. I popped off a metal clamp holding the rubber boot over the slip yoke, and it instantly made this long slide whistle fart noise. I swear it was as if the truck were both laughing and farting at me.  Somehow an air bubble had been trapped in the slip yoke, and the seal around the rubber boot was strong enough that it turned the entire driveshaft into an air spring. Even with the metal clamp removed, if I slide the boot down into position over the driveshaft, the seal is strong enough to support my body weight. I drilled some holes into the rubber boot covering the slip yoke and the problem is sorta/kinda solved, although if the driveshaft compresses fast it will still get hung up. Circling back around, I cannot find a single loving instance of this happening ever, let alone for a Tacoma. I wouldn't believe it if someone else told me about it. Honestly I hosed with the driveshaft for like an hour because I didnt believe what was in front of me. A lot of Tacos and 4runners complain of a 'thump' from their driveshaft going over bumps, which is supposedly the air exhaling from their slip yokes, but I can't find a single instance of the air getting caught to support weight. At one point I had over a thousand pounds in the bed of the truck, and it still bumped around. I've taken to call it the fart yoke because I dont know what the gently caress else to call it. I'll take some pics and post them later today. EDIT where it stands today - with the holes drilled in the slip yoke cover, with the coilover springs cranked way up, the skid plate and rock sliders off, front sway bar disconnected, and DSC settings cranked up front & rear to nearly their stiffest setting, it rides OK but still not good. I still get some bounce from the driveshaft (I think thats the source) and I still frequently bottom out on the bumpstops. I think the front bumper, winch, and dual battery kit are too heavy for the 13" 600lb coilover springs. Its also possible that I'm nearly at or over the weight limit on the Stage 3 leaf springs. Furthermore, I know these shocks weren't valved for this kind of weight, but I dont know how much difference shock valving will make. I'lll record some footage this morning and post it ASAP Vampire Panties fucked around with this message at 17:14 on May 25, 2023 |
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May 25, 2023 14:25
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in-situ pics of the truck through the various adventures Kings Canyon  Great Basin  Grand Tetons  BLM land outside of Joshua Tree. Had the tent on the truck for months, finally get out there to use it, and realize.. how do I get up the ladder with the dog? then the real question - does the dog like being in the tent?  gently caress.No   Finally made it to Death Valley, nearly asphyxiated in the shell.  dog tax. You can also see how small it is inside the previous fiberglass shell; there's only 30" from the wheel wells to the roof. Not enough to sit up straight, and with the 5' bed I was forced to sleep across the wheel wells.
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May 25, 2023 17:02
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Vampire Panties posted:Originally I was going to build plywood benches, but I think that will be way too heavy for what I need. I was thinking about using nylon webbing, like a lawn chair, to make the seats instead, but I'm really interested in any suggestion as well. Fiberglass? Sheet aluminum? Offcuts from a metal/boat/pool supplier are dirt. Sketchup Onshape Fusion360 Driveline vibes can happen via incorrect clocking. Especially in a multishaft setup. If they have arrows painted on make sure they're aligned. If not, make scribe marks and re-clock. Dry joints will also create vibes. Changing anything wrt joint angles cause vibes. Yoke queefs: Slip the yoke apart and poke around inside for a rubber o-ring. Yoke and splined shaft side. I once had a P38 rangie that had a similar problem due to the slip not being clocked correctly on reassembly. It killed the pinion bearings while it was in there. (I was there to throw a rearend at it and found the rear driveline a mess for whatever reason from a tcase job or something) Till the springs are done, can pull the bumper and see if that improves anything. I would too pay $400 to let them deal with pulling the coilovers and such than try and do it on the curb. Jeeps Just Ride Like poo poo (tm) 
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May 25, 2023 18:19
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jesus loving christ this truck is cursed so i have spent the entire morning trying to record and download five minutes of GoPro footage of the truck driving around the block. The truck recorded the first section, showing that the front bumpstops dont hit at all (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) but the loving gopro crashed recording the 2nd and 3rd sections. As in, showed it was recording, acted like it was recording, the footage looks correct on the GoPro preview screen, but the footage only has .5 seconds of movement and then the video freezes. So far I've had to - manually remove Apple Photos from my phone - update the firmware on the GoPro - update stupid loving Dropbox on my PC  literally everything in my life is going wrong and nothing I can do slows or stops it EDIT I was able to recover the footage and am working my way through uploading it to Youtube. Here's whats interesting - In the 5 minute drive around the neighborhood pictured below, I don't seem to hit the bumpstops at any point, front or back. However driving around I would've absolutely sworn that I hit them numerous times. I recorded footage of myself driving, and you can see me being shaken around the entire drive. 
Vampire Panties fucked around with this message at 21:21 on May 25, 2023 |
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May 25, 2023 20:42
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UPDATE ok well I've been fighting GoPro/Windows 11/Apple/Youtube all afternoon, but I feel like I've made progress? Specifically, the truck is NOT bottoming out. I have footage of me bouncing around in the cab, but its clear that neither the front nor back bumpstops are hitting at all. I had the Fox DSCs at nearly their stiffest setting, I turned those down to 3/3 (the reference point from Fox) and drove around - didn't bottom out either. It seemed like the front sway bar may be binding up, so I pulled it back off, and it seemed to have made a slight difference? However its the same as it ever was - I bounce in my seat with legit weight shift 3-4 times before the end of the block. There seems to be less vibration in the cab but I feel like adding/removing the front sway bar should've made a considerable difference, and it doesn't feel noticeable. Right now I think the ride quality issue is a combo of two things - I think the preload is so high on the front springs that they effectively slam the tire back into the road after any bump, and I think the rear driveline has been fuckled for a while and thats whats causing the bouncing. I think its possible that I stretched the driveline while off-roading in the first couple months of owning it. There's dudes on the Tacomaworld forum talking about dry or excessively greased yokes from the dealership. If it got stretched out off roading, and there was a shitload of grease, an air bubble could've burbled in. It would explain a lot of the problems I've had with the truck consistently. I'm really open to suggestions though, because (to me) the ride quality is pretty bad, and I'm not really clear that a high preload and a hosed up driveshaft would cause such an issue. Not the most exciting pic, but here's the fuckled yoke. You can see where the rust sealed up the boot from the inside, although I didn't see any rust anywhere further in the yoke.  Yours truly driving around the block  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_V_51zaXsQ I should add - there's a short part near the start of the run, after the speedbumps, where the road is concrete sections. I dont think the videos capture how much you feel them through the truck, even at <25mph Front Suspension - DSC set to 7/7, sway bar attached (obviously) Not the best angle but you can see the bumpstop behind the CV shaft https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQXC35PM6JU Rear Suspension test - DSC set to 7/7, front sway bar on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ33LcgdaY8 Rear Suspension Test - DSC set to 3/3, no front sway bar (you can see the lean in this one) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4GGeod46yE Vampire Panties fucked around with this message at 01:08 on May 26, 2023 |
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May 26, 2023 01:05
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Vampire Panties posted:There's dudes on the Tacomaworld forum talking about dry or excessively greased yokes from the dealership. When I check and grease the caliper slides on my Corolla, when I put them back in I find that theres an air bubble in there that gets sealed by the grease and the rubber boots. Typically I can use my fingers and push it in and out a bunch of times and that will eventually cause the trapped air to dissipate and not keep trying to push the pin out. Typically it only happens if I put a big glob of lube in there. I'm not saying you can do that with this, though you seem to have solved the problem. But maybe its *supposed* to have just a light coating of grease in there and probably a lot of techs just ram grease in there until they can see it coming out of the seals.
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May 26, 2023 01:21
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Piles of old hard grease can cause sticking/queefing/etc. It doesn't need a ton of grease to do its job. The undercarriage looks pretty mint however. The rear looks relatively composed and soaks the up travel. 3/3 seems boaty, 7/7 seems stiff. The front coilovers are ridiculously stiff. Back the preload off slowly and find things to bounce into until the truck starts bumping the bump stops. It barely gets into the travel under braking. Change the preload and drive it with or without the front sway. I don't see any binding with the front sway through its limited travel with the end link or its knuckle. That's a plus. Also make sure the middle section of the sway where it passes between the frame rails isn't contacting anything as the suspension cycles through its travel. The front sway could be contributing to harshness when going over uneven terrain, like crossing a drainage ditch at an angle. The rear sway links look to move a little through the travel but I don't see binding there either. leafs and shocks look fine too. The in-cab footage is stabilized but you're bouncing all over the place on surface streets. Unacceptable. That rides like the unladen farmtruck that's sprung like a dumptruck. Over near seaworld dr is some pretty busted tarmac near the waterfront to get your jounce on. I rode over in that area semi regularly when I lived downtown It may help to write settings down vs outcome. Eventually you'll end up with a table of what works and what doesn't.
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May 26, 2023 01:26
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cursedshitbox posted:Piles of old hard grease can cause sticking/queefing/etc. It doesn't need a ton of grease to do its job. The undercarriage looks pretty mint however. The truck has lived its entire life in San Diego. I've taken it off roading maybe a dozen times, almost all super easy peazy stuff. There's been some rainy rear end winters in San Diego lately, but I've never forded a stream or anything. cursedshitbox posted:The in-cab footage is stabilized but you're bouncing all over the place on surface streets. Unacceptable. That rides like the unladen farmtruck that's sprung like a dumptruck. cursedshitbox posted:Over near seaworld dr is some pretty busted tarmac near the waterfront to get your jounce on. I rode over in that area semi regularly when I lived downtown Yeah I've been cycling through the DSC settings.  not so much at this apartment, but at my previous place the hobos would mess with the settings when they walked past the truck at night. I had to set them back to my preferred settings like 1x a week. UPDATE As a science experiment, I pulled the factory driveshaft and installed the (potentially unbalanced) custom driveshaft I ordered.  The blue tape wore funny in the factory driveshaft. Also that grease looks very watery. wesleywillis posted:When I check and grease the caliper slides on my Corolla, when I put them back in I find that theres an air bubble in there that gets sealed by the grease and the rubber boots. Typically I can use my fingers and push it in and out a bunch of times and that will eventually cause the trapped air to dissipate and not keep trying to push the pin out. Typically it only happens if I put a big glob of lube in there. I'm not saying you can do that with this, though you seem to have solved the problem. But maybe its *supposed* to have just a light coating of grease in there and probably a lot of techs just ram grease in there until they can see it coming out of the seals. It looks like there's a grease zerk at the top of the yoke, hidden behind the boot. I think normally I could do what you said, but also I think the lift pulled the driveshaft out and created a cavity inside the yoke.  There's grease in there, although very red/brown  Arrows lined up, seems like all the dimensions match.  On flush, but also you can tell how many times these have been on/off. Auto Shop Truck indeed. looks straight? EDIT at one point when I was swapping out the driveshafts, I tried a carrier bearing spacer because some dipshits on Youtube said it helped. Not only did it make things worse, the bolts that came with the spacers stripped out the welded nuts. Now I have to string a bolt through the stripped out holes and put a washer + nut on top   The yoke has the tiniest of overhangs, so it looks like its not quite on there, but I hammered each corner pretty good. RESULTS Bouncing somewhat resolved? but minor vibration in the steering wheel from ~35mph+ . I didnt have a chance to test it faster (its rush hour in SD, I couldnt get up to freeway speed on the actual freeway). I think I need to reverse the driveshaft mounting on the truck before I can really confirm the driveshaft is unbalanced though. A lot of the previous vibration I thought was the custom driveshaft was actually the skid plates or rock sliders. CONCLUSION I think I'm going to move forward with some of the suspension work tomorrow. It really does seem like heavier springs that aren't cranked down so hard would dramatically increase the ride quality, and after replacing the driveshaft I think the bounciness has been resolved somewhat. I think with the longer springs I have to get the front shocks revalved, but honestly I dont see a reason to gently caress with the rear shocks one iota. Right now the truck has the camper, the tire carrier + spare, all that plywood and extraneous crap, and the extra driveshaft. If its not bottoming out at 3/3 with this much weight, why mess with it? Vampire Panties fucked around with this message at 03:58 on May 26, 2023 |
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May 26, 2023 03:11
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Vampire Panties posted:
 There's a lot of preload there and it would be absolutely noticeable if they even drove it across their parkinglot. That tracks, especially if they're in a hurry. Not to poison wells but just about every time I've paid for work I've been disappointed but it's at least done. Sometimes it comes out downright wrong. quote:
red/brownish grease is fine. The receptacle looks fine quote:
The thread can be fixed with a helicoil kit. Amazon or parts house. I stock this sorta stuff because it happens. Threads wear a little with each use. It's a good thing to learn. Speaking of, ditch the grade gouda because they're not gouda nuff. The washers are bowing and that's a recipe for the bolts to vibrate loose. grade 8.8/5 at the minimum and send. quote:
Are those ujoints greaseable? If they aren't sealed for life pump em full. quote:Bouncing somewhat resolved? but minor vibration in the steering wheel from ~35mph+ quote:CONCLUSION Agreed focus on the fronts right now which is where the bigger issue lies. The rears look fine enough to me for now.
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May 26, 2023 06:00
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idk if modern vehicles will complain about it, but if you think the rear driveshaft is a source of your bounciness, cant you just take it out and run in "4hi" (which would now be fwd-hi) then you could decouple which symptoms are the shaft and which are the suspension
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May 26, 2023 06:51
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Raluek posted:idk if modern vehicles will complain about it, but if you think the rear driveshaft is a source of your bounciness, cant you just take it out and run in "4hi" (which would now be fwd-hi) I can't speak to every modern vehicle, but I did this on my Tacoma a month ago, when I was trying to confirm-confirm the issue was the factory slip yoke. cursedshitbox posted:
the place is always slammed, and intuitively I never got the feeling they were trying to screw me, but I always felt like they didn't have time for me. I had a minorly salty, polite-but-firm conversation this morning when I dropped the truck off. After a conversation with the owner, I'm having them check the alignment (because I think its bad, also weird vibration at 10-20mph) and only replace the springs on the front coilovers. The owner insisted that I didn't necessarily absolutely have to revalve the shocks to go with a longer spring, and I also got the impression that they didnt really want to work on Fox shocks, plus I don't want to spend any more money on the truck right now . IMO fixing the springs on the front is the most effective money I could spend right now, and I still technically have a free revalve at Accutune if its really an issue? I'd rather spend 3-400 bux now and get to the truck back to relatively normal then spend more money I don't have trying to make it perfect-perfect (and potentially introduce more issues) cursedshitbox posted:helicoil  thats what the stuff is!!! I vaguely remembered there was a way to repair threading  I'll fix them this weekend. I still have the original bolts so I'll toss the Home Depot () hardware in the trashcursedshitbox posted:I didn't see weights on the replacement driveline, that's an immediate tell if its been balanced or not. If it hasn't, get the entire thing balanced. It's not a big job compared to say building the driveline itself. A reputable manufacturer should provide pre balanced drivelines imo.   There is the only weight on the driveshaft. When I read your post last night, it just clicked in my brain. I got up early and pulled the driveshaft and took it into the local driveshaft shop. I mentioned to the guy working that I didn't see any weights on the shafts and he made the 'oh.. oh yeah' face. He said he'll get to it early next week also I decided to throw the factory driveshaft back on there, mostly to show the issue to the mechanic and chat with them about it, but I shoved the yoke in flush and then drew it out slowly to the rear driveshaft, and holy loving poo poo what a difference. I wish I had the GoPro going in the cab, because that driveshaft now rides better than any solution I had previously. I'm sure air will eventually leak back into the cavity, and I have the custom driveshaft being balanced right now, but it was a really good feeling driving the truck around this morning (even with the bullshit ride w/ the squashed coils).  The mechanic had two RHD Prados out front. This one was
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May 26, 2023 18:37
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UPDATE Truck is back from the shop.  Front end sits about 2-3" higher. This will settle a bit when all the armor is reattached I know there's a Taco lean, but this is probably overcompensating  Either way, the work is done so I don't need them anymore. Ride Quality?  The ride home from the shop was soul-crushingly worse than the ride to the shop (although I sorta expected that ). However I think I figured out why the driveshaft keeps queefing - the mechanic puts it up on the rack every time, so the axle droops to max extension, which I think is enough distance for the shaft to cavitate inside the yoke. I disconnected the driveshaft from the rear axle and burped the yoke this morning - its better, but that problem is going to keep happening with that driveshaft. I'm going to check the grease on the yoke a little later when its brighter, maybe there's some dried stuff somewhere thats making it sputter. Alignment did nothing for the low speed / high speed vibrations. I kinda think the tires aren't balanced correctly, but I'm willing to check other stuff before I mess with that.After I burped/purged the shaft I went for a test drive and it was better, but I need to get the skid plates and rock sliders reinstalled to balance out the new springs. I set the Fox DSCs to the softest settings and drove around, and it was still pretty stiff. Ofc this is the literal, exact mentality on how I reached this point, but I feel like the rear end should be heavier?
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May 27, 2023 18:24
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Yeah get the weight back on it and give it time to settle in. From there steal some pointers from racers and set in your suspension sag (basically setting preload for the current loadout of the truck)
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May 27, 2023 19:10
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UPDATE most of this:  is now on this  240lbs of steel/chinesium immensely smoothed out the ride Also there is one (small) advantage to Auto Shop Truck - since this is 2 1/2 time I've installed the skid plates + rock sliders, I was able to get everything on pretty much perfectly. No rattles, no shake, all fits like it should. Tbh putting on all that poo poo kicked my rear end so I'm going to gently caress off for a bit, but I hope to take it out to the desert sometime tonight EDIT When I sat two and a half times, I mean - I put on the rock sliders and skid plate initially, but I didn't do it correctly. Specifically I got the order of the spacers wrong on the skid plate stuff, and there two bolts/capture nuts that I didn't install on the rock sliders. (  Don't believe Youtube). When I was chasing vibrations/ride quality stuff, I realized that none of that stuff was necessarily installed correctly, so I kinda/sorta undid enough pieces to fix the spacer issue & get the additional bolts+capture nuts respectively. Of course that all came back off as part of the vibration/ride quality chase, but its all back on now Vampire Panties fucked around with this message at 02:50 on May 28, 2023 |
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May 27, 2023 22:49
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If I'm looking at that driveshaft right... Pull the zerk fitting and test it. Should act as a vent. Idk if out forever would be a good idea but should give a very quick this is or is not an issue test. Also I'm not a truck person, so this comes from track car world, but thinking out loud. Are your shocks single adjustable or double adjustable? I ask because you mention harshness on the initial hit then it keeps rocking. That sounds like it's to stiff on compression and to soft on rebound.
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May 29, 2023 03:50
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honda whisperer posted:If I'm looking at that driveshaft right... Pull the zerk fitting and test it. Should act as a vent. Idk if out forever would be a good idea but should give a very quick this is or is not an issue test. I'm still sorta/kinda getting the same issue, even after thoroughly flexing the suspension on Sea World Drive*  If anything, it feels like the driveshaft is binding. Good call on the zerk fitting - I will check that when I regrease the shaftShocks are dual adjustable, and I agree - it does seem like the shocks aren't set correctly, but after two years of YouTube and reading around, I personally cannot make heads or tails of the Fox DSC settings. Specifically there is a low speed and high speed compression, and I don't understand whats what. I've tried numerous combinations of the settings, but it never went anywhere (in retrospect, probably because the rest of the suspension/driveshaft was so borked) After doing a bunch of test driving today with various settings... results where inconclusive I'm working on uploading/editing GoPro footage to the pertinent parts, but I was wide open soft on all shock settings and doing 65mph across Sea World drive, and I dont think I hit the bumpstops front OR back    This isn't perfect because my driveway is tilted, the tires aren't perfectly centered, and I think the shorter height tire may be slightly up on the curb stop but  there's a pretty good chance that the mechanic randomly cranked one of the coilovers to 11*Sea World Drive, for those of you not familiar with San Diego, is one of the shittiest roads in a city full of lovely roads. There are dirt trails in the desert that are smoother. Depending on Memorial Day shenanigans, I'll try to get some video tomorrow Vampire Panties fucked around with this message at 04:41 on May 29, 2023 |
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May 29, 2023 04:35
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low/high speed compression is talking about the velocity of the shock's piston not the velocity of the vehicle. Here are some examples of low-speed scenarios: Chassis movements during acceleration, braking, cornering, accelerating; Gradual altitude changes: roller coaster type trail or road like the sections of a bridge. Small bump sensitivity and washboard-type terrain; Traction. Here are some examples of high-speed scenarios: Square-edged obstacles: potholes, rocks, roots, etc.; High-frequency, medium- to high-magnitude impacts like whoops, rocks, or roots; Bottom-out situations: landing jumps, drops, rock ledges, etc. There's similar circuits for rebound and there's other valving circuits depending on the shock type. When you decrease compression damping by turning the adjustment knob counter-clockwise for soft/faster, you allow the shock to compress faster. It feels softer and more supple. When you increase compression damping by turning the adjustment knob clockwise to slow/firmer, you make the shock compress slower. It feels stiffer and more supportive. Watch fast offroad stuff in slow mo, you'll see the suspension cycling slow on compression but fast on rebound through things like desert rollers. Here is when you should consider decreasing low-speed damping: Ride generally feels harsh and you desire it to feel looser and more comfortable; Vehicle or bike rides too high in travel; center of gravity isn’t low enough; Small bumps and washboard-type terrain are harsh and uncomfortable; Losing traction while cornering; Losing traction in loose or slippery conditions. Here is when you should consider increasing low-speed damping: Ride generally feels too soft and you desire it to feel tighter and more responsive; Back end excessively squats during acceleration; Front end excessively dives during braking; Chassis rolls too much while turning a corner; Ride feels mushy and uses too much travel during gradual altitude changes; Front end bounces off of small to medium sized obstacles (like rocks); Back end bucks off of jumps and other bumps. Here’s when you should consider decreasing high-speed damping: You aren’t using full shock travel, even in high-speed scenarios, and you’d like more comfort; You’re generally going to be driving at lower speeds (remember, high vehicle speed is correlated with high-speed shock movements, but doesn’t necessitate it); Potholes on the road and other square-edged obstacles are particularly jarring; Vehicle or bike bounces off of high-frequency, medium- to high-frequency impacts like whoops because the shocks aren’t compressing enough; Landing jumps and drops feel harsh. Here’s when you should consider increasing high-speed damping: You’re using all of your shock travel and bottoming out too often in high-speed scenarios, and you want more comfort and control; You’re generally going to be driving at higher speeds (remember, high vehicle speed is correlated with high-speed shock movements, but doesn’t necessitate it); Square edged obstacles use more travel than they should and sometimes even bottom out shocks; Vehicle or bike bounces off of high-frequency, medium- to high-frequency impacts like whoops because the shocks have packed down and have no more available travel to absorb the next impact. Rebound can be a bit more complex since it sometimes depends on the situation. Too slow and it'll usually 'pack' in and fail to respond to terrain. Too fast and it'll buck/bounce. This can be related to the low speed compression settings so it's important to dial that in first. Mostly pulled from the below for reference. https://foxacademy.ridefox.com/2021/06/how-to-adjust-dsc-factory-settings/ https://foxacademy.ridefox.com/2020/10/how-to-use-low-and-high-speed-compression-adjusters/
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May 29, 2023 20:05
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UPDATE  Truck mustve been up on the curbstop a little. Backed it up a tiny bit in my (slanted) driveway, and now they're pretty close. No need to borrow trouble here, I can circle back on this later.  Boring pic, but I spent the day reinstalling the front sway bar and the A-arm skid plates. After the test drives yesterday, I realized that - my ride quality issue isn't related to the front sway bar - I care way more about on-road performance than off - the truck handles like a dream with the sway bar on Earlier I'd removed the a-arm skid plates while chasing rattles ( mechanic had dropped an alignment washer into one and left it there). I went ahead and put them back on; I don't think I need them necessarily (they came as part of a Black Friday package deal) but I think they'd help in a mud/rock/snow recovery situation w/r/t sliding as compared to the A-arm dragging. There's some internet chatter about a-arm skid plates being bad, because they can trap mud and stuff against or in the frame, but really thats just an extra step at the car wash.EDIT I have the rear axle skid plate as well, but its not really compatible with the rear sway bar. I had disconnected the rear sway bar and installed the rear diff skid plate for a while, but driving w/o the rear sway bar suuucked. I'm sure I can figure out a way to make them all work together. I'd posted previously how 'Slipyoke Air Bubble' came up blank, but '3rd Gen Tacoma defective driveshaft' found a fuckload. I'd mentioned some people had complained about not enough / excessive grease in the slipyoke, seems like a ton of 3g Tacoma owners have been chasing ride quality, vibration, and noise issues from their factory driveshafts; even a few semi-notable Tacomaworld dudes gave up on the truck entirely. There is no definitive fix (a couple of guys claim the dealership swapped out their driveshaft <3k miles). Based on what people are saying there, my complaints about ride quality on the truck from the very start may be legitimate - there's a chance that I overloaded the payload in the first 500 miles, moving from the Bay Area to San Diego, forcing an air bubble in the yoke. 4 years of this problem... I dont have the right kind of teflon gliderite grease or whatever is supposed to be used, but I may try slathering the whole thing in red axle grease and see if there's an improvement. Honestly knowing that the driveshaft is most likely defective, and that I have a custom driveshaft literally in the shop that (should) resolve all of these issues.... I think I can limp along for another few days and save myself some  cursedshitbox posted:Fantastic Fox Information Thank you CSB. I'm going to read through this later today.I mean... I honestly don't understand how the driveshaft could be causing this issue but I'm nearly positive that it is? There were points yesterday (after airing it out on Sea World) where it started to feel OK, and then it went right back to poo poo again. Its like the top 1" of the suspension doesn't exist. Its beyond aggravating to be doing 65mph on a bullshit road and the suspension is eating it up and smiling, but the truck bounces up and down like poo poo on perfectly smooth streets. Alternatively I can set the shocks to racecar stiff and feel every pebble in the road. At this point I'm beyond anxious that the driveshaft wont fix anything but I mean... what the gently caress else could it be?
Vampire Panties fucked around with this message at 23:12 on May 29, 2023 |
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May 29, 2023 22:30
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Update (maybe the last) I loving despise this piece of poo poo Its loving with my mental health. I've put more time/effort into this truck than any personal project; probably more than all of my personal projects combined. Hundreds of hours, thousands and thousands of dollars, and I have nothing to show for it. Nothing. I'm like 30-40 hours deep in the loving skidplates I've never hated a physical object like this before. I've had a couple of primo shitboxes over the years, most notably a Bronco II in high school where nothing could go right (to be fair I beat the everloving crap out of it) and a Hyundai Sonata... which was a Hyundai Sonata - it ate a car payment worth of repairs monthly before I was able to get the cash to dumpster it. I hated both of those cars, and the situations I was in at the time, but its nothing compared to the seething toxic rage I feel towards this truck. Nothing matters on the truck. Nothing makes any difference. The fuckingpieceofwetdogshittruck bounces up and down, hard, at all times, at all speeds. Fox shocks set wide open soft, truck bounces up and down and rides like poo poo. Fox set as tight as it can go, truck bounces up and down and rides like poo poo. Drive 70mph across Sea World Drive, truck bounces up and down and rides like poo poo. Drive 5mph across a parking lot, truck bounces up and down and rides like poo poo. All I've ever wanted from this truck is to go on road trips, and driving it 5 miles on city streets is physically painful. I'm a middle aged man whose faced a shitload of adversity in my life, and I want to scream and cry and take a hammer to the truck before I light it on fire. Every bump hits my rear end, literally. I tore the existing driveshaft apart today and greased it - per Tacomaworld that made a big difference for a lot of people - truck bounces up and down and rides like poo poo, identically to the way it always has. There's something loving wrong with the truck and nobody can figure it out, and more importantly nobody will even take me seriously enough to loving look at it. Honestly at this point I think the entire loving truck is oversprung, because the loving assholes at the mechanic jsut loving refuse to listen to me and keep dialing the truck into some bullshit dirt monster, despite me emphatically telling them numerous times that I dont take it off road that much, but I dont even know how I go about finding another 4x4 shop without them either charging me thousands of dollars to start from scratch, and/or loving me around as well. Honestly I dont even know how I come back from this. Supposedly the custom driveshaft will be ready in a day or two. I didn't ask specifically, but they said they were working on it, so it seems like it does need to be balanced. (Of course with my luck, and because I didn't ask specifically, I'm going to assume that they haven't actually touched it and I'll get a call tomorrow saying its balanced and there's nothing wrong). I know I said itt that the custom driveshaft fixed the ride quality issues, but I dont know that I believe that. The truck vibrated so bad that the exhaust was hitting the skid plate, Im not sure that I just didnt notice the bouncing with all the vibration. Vampire Panties fucked around with this message at 15:36 on May 31, 2023 |
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May 31, 2023 02:15
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Update Spent the evening pouring over Tacoma-related forums (also got 12 hours of sleep😅). Searching '3g Tacoma bounce' brings up an avalanche of nonsense. Weird to say this, but IMO Tacomaworld/Tacoma3g/ExpeditionPortal are chock full of idiots compared to Pirate4x4 and IH8mud. However, for whatever its worth, it seems like a shitload of 3rd generation Tacoma owners have experienced the same ride quality issue I have. There's lots of perfectly spelled, grammatically correct, and completely unhelpful posts on Tacomaworld effectively saying 'welp its a truck'. From there, it seems like a bunch of owners did something and the problem went away. Lots of people threatening to sue dealerships, driveshaft and leaf springs replaced under 5k miles, upgraded to Bilstein/Fox/King/Icon shocks/springs/UCAs, but no single solution. Or nothing worked - there are also lots of posts where the profile hasn't returned in 3+ years. Also worth noting that I seem to be at the extreme end of modding w/r/t custom leaf spring hangers and 5.29 gears. Even the biggest names on the Tacomaworld forum stop at SPC UCAs and OME springs. There are a lot of Tacomaworld superstars who've gone further - popular dudes like Meso, who started mesocustoms - but it seems like they have all very quietly bailed on the 3g Taco as a platform. Also this is maybe confirmation bias, (or  ) but all of the real expedition people who built custom Tacos for world travel went with 2nd gens exclusively. By process of elimination, the only consistent hardware on my truck across the last few years has been - lower control arms, driveshaft, front mount for leaf spring hangers, BAMF rear leaf spring hangers, leaf spring shackles. The lower control arms and the front attachment for the rear spring hangers both look OK, although they're sorta flimsy. Checked the BAMF hangers this morning and they look fine and the leaf spring shackle is greased. The driveshaft causing the issue doesnt make sense to me, even though I know I've experienced smooth riding in the truck, so I'm going to just pull the entire thing today and drive around in 4hi. I should know instantly, and then I can throw that piece of poo poo in the trash and focus on the driveshaft in the shop. If problem persists than maybe its structure fire time I dunno.  Slipyoke grease from yesterday. Food Grade doing work. notched boot for airflow The yoke itself is in great shape. There's nothing visibly wrong with any of the splines, and there is effectively no play when I counter-rotate the shaft and yoke. Greasing the shaft/yoke eliminated a lot of noise but did nothing for ride quality. CONTENT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0ReJBKzgb0 There is the aforementioned Sea World drive. Watch the chassis of the other cars. It was during rush hour, and they had a lane closed to trim the palm trees in the center divider, but I think the overall road quality is obvious. The 2nd half of the video in Fiesta island - thats a local recreational area with a 25mph limit. The road is easily smooth enough to rollerblade or skateboard on. Finally check the end where I drive across the broken dried-out ruts in the parking lot. I was going 15-20mph across bullshit and somehow it was an improvement in ride quality Now, as CSB mentioned, this is on my stabilized GoPro 11 so its not necessarily a perfect representation of the truck's suspension, but I was doing 60mph+ across a very broken and uneven road and (at least from the exterior) the ride quality was fine.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nIefc8g01U thats from the interior of the truck, on the road through Fiesta island. Its not perfect 1-1 footage as captured from the hood view, but the road quality is effectively identical. Same stabilized camera, same stabilization settings. You can literally see everything bouncing around the entire time. not to rant/rave, but I have to get this figured out. I should've been attacking this years ago (or traded the truck in, honestly) but here I am. One thing I need to consistently remind myself is even though I feel like this is a brand new truck that I butchered (its nearly 4 years old now ), and I feel like I've spent the entirety of the trucks worth in modifications and extra labor, its still less expensive than a Jeep Gladiator. Also this thing is the ChonkyTaco - the mechanic threw out 6700lbs as curb weight, which compared to the factory 4500lb curb weight, is nearly 50% body weight in additional poo poo. I have nearly 800lbs of armor alone. If I can get this bouncing poo poo figured out, this truck is actually a (weirdly) amazing bit of engineering.
Vampire Panties fucked around with this message at 20:20 on May 31, 2023 |
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May 31, 2023 20:09
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Are you expecting IED's out there? Get some RunFlat's too it cant hurt the ride quality much. Sorry about your bad bones and rear end. Here's an anecdote about my old XJ Sport, real base modelly and stock as hell, the seats sucked for me. Didn't slide far enough back, and sat too low and my knees where not having it. I got some Corbeu seats just to get a different seat bracket and they looked kinda poo poo and they where also poo poo in general. But i miss fooling around going up any old dirt roads and it just did incredible things. It was honestly pretty sharp on the street too. Well, anyway
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May 31, 2023 21:42
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UPDATE Removed the driveshaft - no loving differenceI'll take some GoPro momentarily and begin the song/dance of uploading it Leper Go-getter posted:Are you expecting IED's out there? Get some RunFlat's too it cant hurt the ride quality much. With how much the truck bounces, intuitively I felt like it needed more weight. Right now I honestly have no idea though. Leper Go-getter posted:It was honestly pretty sharp on the street too.  I tell you, and the rest of the forums/world/God, that this Jeep outperformed my Tacoma in literally every single way. Way faster and better handling in literally every condition. Way more comfortable. gently caress even comparable gas mileage, and it still had stock 4.10 gears. I got rid of the Jeep because Jeep poo poo, but even after 4 years it still blows my loving mind just how awful the Tacoma is compared to the Jeep. Don't get me wrong, that JKU had some design choices that were so dumb they're evil (i'm looking at you, transfer case shifter linkage) but like, its not even close. Honestly I'm sorta done with this truck. Its beyond my ability to figure this out. I'm sure as gently caress not working on it more today, and there's no more money to be spent. Personally things are going to get very, very bad and weird because of all of this and I'm not sure what the gently caress to do
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May 31, 2023 21:50
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Look your situation seems rough but how does it matter if you do NOT have the Tacoma? Sell it off, say you don't like how it drive, try not to go on a whole tirade about shops and shocks. (just do this easy thing that is easy for other people dummy) Get a comfortable runaround. Why is having an overlander so mission critical?
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May 31, 2023 22:12
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Leper Go-getter posted:Look your situation seems rough but how does it matter if you do NOT have the Tacoma? Sell it off, say you don't like how it drive, try not to go on a whole tirade about shops and shocks. (just do this easy thing that is easy for other people dummy) I'm currently unemployed, and also mega broke. The truck is right side up and I could unwind a bunch of upgrades before a trade in, but even if i strip everything off Carvana isn't going to buy it with 5.29 gears. Of course I can go to a used car lot and trade it in, but it'll be pennies on the dollar and probably something fundamentally worse. As an extension of being unemployed and mega broke, I absolutely must have a vehicle, because I'd say its 99.99999% likely that I will be homeless in the next 30-45 days, but also factually I'm going to have to move to find work. I dont have anyone - no IRL friends, no family, and even my coworker situation is hosed, so it all circles back to living in a vehicle. Emotionally, the last four years+ of my life have been an absolute loving shitshow of humiliation, extreme bad luck, and failure. I haven't had a real vacation in those 4+ years, and so I was hoping this motherfucking truck would/could redeem this whole shitshow. I could get some time away from this awful loving city, find a new good job, and even have some cash in my pocket from living in the truck for a bit (or not just straight hoteling it for months). However I make plans and God laughs, because TRUCK STILL RIDES LIKE poo poo It'll be hours before the GoPro footage processes but it's the exact same fundamental issue, even in 4hi and rear driveshaft missing. Outside of the issues of driving in 4hi on a city street, I could not tell a difference in ride quality with or without the driveshaft. It does feel like the stupid loving front sway bar is exacerbating things, but I dont have the emotional or physical energy to take the loving slid plate off again and take the front sway bar off again for it to ride fundamentally the same. Something is loving wrong with the truck. Could the shocks be hosed? There's grease/liquid around the shafts on the rear shocks. Vampire Panties fucked around with this message at 22:39 on May 31, 2023 |
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May 31, 2023 22:36
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Two things: First the thread title had me thinking you had a sexy goth themed Mexican food truck. I can't be the only one. Second, you clearly hate this thing, and It'll never live up to your expectations. What you should be doing is selling it to someone looking for an offroader. If you're only wanting to use it to take toad trips and don't go off road, then you really should be looking at luxury SUVs if you like the seating height. You should probably do some good thinking and figure out what exactly you need from a vehicle and work forward from there, than trying to fit a square peg into a round hole like with your Tacoma. A Porsche Cayenne would probably be a good fit, bonus points for one equipped with the pneumatic suspension.
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May 31, 2023 22:36
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Bajaha posted:Two things: First the thread title had me thinking you had a sexy goth themed Mexican food truck. I can't be the only one. Honestly I wanted it to be a sexy goth themed Taco truck. I have so many ideas for this truck, but Bajaha posted:Second, you clearly hate this thing,  I absolutely hate giving up like this, but there's just something wrong, and its driving me crazy.EDIT for content - I got rid of the Jeep because it was a dumpster fire of issues. First, the rear axle seal leaked and the tire shop I used as a mechanic could not get it right. Second, the same tire shop mechanic had hosed up when they installed the lift - Rock Krawler bushings use motor oil instead of regular grease ( ). The tire shop used Lucas Red, and it had been OK for a year or two, but after one bushing exploded I realized that I needed to replace every bushing on the Jeep. Third, transfer case shifter linkage, and finally Fourth -  I wanted something that had a smoother ride DOUBLE EDIT w/r/t shocks being bad, I just went outside and jumped up and down on the rear bumper of the truck. It didn't really move, and I could hear the shocks 'cough' I guess? also I just remembered something - a long time ago, I unbolted the rear crossmember between the leaf spring hangers, and it made a serious improvement in ride quality (or I thought it did at the time) I'd prefer to keep it on, since I have so much weight on the truck and it keeps the frame together, but I'm going to try removing that and see what happens. Its not like I care about longevity on this truck, I just need it to last a few months at most.
Vampire Panties fucked around with this message at 23:00 on May 31, 2023 |
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May 31, 2023 22:42
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Seems like you've done some real good prioritising up to this point. Now it is true the world hates us all with a passion and wants us gone, I dont see how throwing all your money onto a pickup truck is gonna save you. You seem a little frizzled and I dont know what sort of advice is gonna stick when your this deep in the hole. You might become homeless. What is lifted tricked out shortbed with a fiberglass coffin and a plywood bench gonna do? Homeless AND broke. Those wheels will get you nowhere. This could seem offensive and I will take the timeout if it comes but are you supposed to be on prescription meds to maintain a baseline?
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May 31, 2023 23:28
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It might be too late now, but that super lube poo poo in your picture fuckin sucks poo poo. I've used it before on brakes and its awful. Might be different on a driveshaft slip yoke, but if you can, use something better.
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May 31, 2023 23:28
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Any chance your upper or lower arms got their bushing bolts torqued at full droop? If it's not on the tires when that stuff gets tightened the bushings will all be locked at maximum give. Usually it shreds them in short order. Also makes it ride like it has no suspension.
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Jun 1, 2023 01:43
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wesleywillis posted:It might be too late now, but that super lube poo poo in your picture fuckin sucks poo poo. I'll throw it out. Seeing teflon in a Harbor Freight product made me real nervous. I don't want to accidently PFAS the poo poo out of myself (more )Leper Go-getter posted:This could seem offensive and I will take the timeout if it comes but are you supposed to be on prescription meds to maintain a baseline? No I'm not prescribed anything but extremely valid question. Besides this is the Something Awful forums - we're all a little crazy here . I won't go into the details of my life, especially the last four years, but I'll freely admit that I'm overly emotional and completely fried w/r/t to this truck. I want to get away from it, gently caress I just want to get out of the goddamn ZIP code, but I have to figure this poo poo out. I have (some) money, I don't have to be homeless, I do probably have to leave San Diego, but mostly right now I'm the exact right flavor of crazy that both can't leave a problem like this alone AND I tend to blow things way out of proportion. Sorry AI, I usually keep the crazy on the inside  The problem isn't just Tacos/Fox/The Truck Shop sucks (which I keep conflating saying ) Thats my mistake and I'm sorry. The problem specifically isn't that its bad per se, its wrong. Bad is just bad - wrong can be fixed. Once I figure it out, the truck is ready to go. I have lithium batteries and inverters and DC-DC chargers, and the interior of the camper shell is actually about as large as a office cubicle - but an office cubicle I can take anywhere. There's more than enough room to sleep, sit up and work, cook, and eat. There's enough room to stand up with my shoulders hunched to get dressed, and I have all the parts for a sink/shower with freshwater/blackwater tanks. I also have money to get a hotel every few days and sleep in a real bed + take a real shower. All sorts of crazy-good ideas and plans, and my five thousand dollar suspension can't ride down a city street.  Also - its extremely likely that my ride quality issues are cumulative. Maybe this leaf spring shackle thing explains part of the bouncing, but factually that driveshaft was hosed up and contributing to the problem as well. Its also very likely that the Hellwig front sway bar is too stiff and that it needs to be removed again. The previous springs were also cranked to 11 and it seems likely they weren't rated for the weight of the bumper and the winch (let alone skid plates and rock sliders) as I'd specified with Accutune in the original order. Also the original Durobumps in the rear had were 3/4" too tall. The Fox shock settings do matter greatly, and I do not have them dialed in correctly. It all adds up, and it all obviously drives me crazy, but All Cars Are Pieces Of poo poo please God tell me I'm not rationalizing UPDATE Progress?Backstory - I had the BAMF leaf spring hangers installed as part of the lift install, and I had the Truck Shop fabricate the crossmember because I'd read that people had problems with Tacoma frames splitting apart under heavy duress/weight. About a year ago I removed the winch (left the bumper because of the hole) and the tire carrier, to see if the weight at the very ends of the truck were causing the bounciness (they weren't). I needed to carry a full sized spare, and I was only 255/75r17 at the time, so I decided to remove the leaf spring hanger crossmember and remount the spare in the factory position. The ride quality improved substantially, but it still sorta rode like poo poo. I ended up putting 200lbs of sandbag ballast in the back at this time and it was ok but still wrong.(looking back, it was probably the air bubble driveshaft thing) I reinstalled the crossmember when the big truck camper was put on, because I was worried about the weight. The OME springs also got replaced with Deaver because they were not enough for the camper and tire carrier, and I didnt think about the crossmember until today. After 2+ years of research, I don't really know of any incidents of Tacomas splitting their frame unless they were doing crazy/stupid poo poo, but also I don't really know of anyone carrying a lot of weight in a 3g Tacoma so I removed the leaf spring hanger crossmember. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn9MBRL9Cr8&t=125s Check out that video from the timestamp. This is with the crossmember attached (and in picture, top of screen). Watch the leaf springs and the camera - the truck clearly goes over a couple of bounces and the camera stabilizes, but the leaf springs dont move at all. I think the bounciness is the truck bouncing off the leaf spring shackles? Could they be binding? It seems like the angles on the leaf springs, shackles, and hangers could all combine just wrong enough that the leaf springs shackles dont engage correctly, and the truck just sorta bounced off the leafs themselves. I dont know the right words I'm not a suspensionologist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSOZMvqsdiA Check out that video, with the leaf spring shackle crossmember removed. Look at how much the frame flexes within the first 5 seconds of backing out the driveway (at least I think thats what I'm looking at?)  If that's the frame flexing, is that bad? Is it possible the leaf spring hanger crossmember was pinching the leaf spring shackles somehow? It was very slightly wedged into place when I unbolted it, it could have been torquing the hangers and thus the shackle, but how would I tell? EDIT To be clear, ride quality improved with the crossmember removed. However with the truck driving in FWD/4hi, and the front sway bar on, its really hard to quantify how much better. The specific feeling of the top 1" of the suspension not working seems to be gone but its really inconclusive.  front leaf spring hanger looks good  front sway bar isn't hitting anything  rear leaf spring shackle looks good?EDIT I think that piece of plastic sticking out is an anti-rattle spacer.   leaf spring hanger crossbar when it was new  leaf spring hanger crossbar removed today Vampire Panties fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Jun 1, 2023 |
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Jun 1, 2023 04:10
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