[_Ace_]

Originally Posted by phattyduck

Won't stop cat thieves or a tow truck...

-Charlie

Earlier in this thread I posted that I installed a transmission skid plate / CAT shield, so the CAT protection has been addressed. Tow trucks and wheel thieves aren't much of a concern.

I did order a Directed Electronics 506T I.T. Audio Sensor to add to the Viper alarm to detect window breakage. Inexpensive and easy to add to the system, seems like a no brainer to counter smash & grab thieves.

[_Ace_]

Got a few things done today - the rear diff breather mod and I painted the rear drums.

Tim covers how he did the breather mod here -



I bought the steel nipple, vent valve and the hose all on Amazon. The two "Toyota" parts I received were in plain plastic instead of the normal Toyota packaging so I kept the steel nipple but returned the valve to Amazon & ordered one from Toyota. The one from Toyota did arrive in normal packaging so I'm guessing the Amazon parts were knock offs.

Here is the 5/16 tubing I bought, came with clamps -

Amazon.com



I removed the rear differential vent after I wire brushed the area of dirt, then installed the nipple with some teflon tape-

[_Ace_]

Then I installed the tubing & clamp -

[_Ace_]

Then it was a matter of routing the hose up to the gas cap area and securing it with zip ties.

I removed the two bottom panel fasteners for the fuel filler neck cover but like Tim I had to break the upper pair. No big deal, I had spares from another job-

Amazon.com



I made my hole in the fuel filler rubber surround with a bolt that I heated up with a propane torch. This created a nice, round hole for the vent to go into.

Then I put the new vent valve through the hole and connected the tubing after cutting it to length. Lastly I installed the clamp and installed the fuel filler tube cover. Here is the routed vent line -

[_Ace_]

Finished -

[_Ace_]

Since I had to remove the rear wheel to access the fuel filler tube area I decided to paint the rear drums.

They were't too rusty but I cleaned them up with wire brushes & such -

[_Ace_]

Then some Rustolem rusty metal primer and satin black -

[_Ace_]

Looks better -

[_Ace_]

One more thing I did today - replace the faded warning decal on the driver's door panel -

Before

cleaned with denatured alcohol

after -

[_Ace_]

Crawled under and lubed all of the u-joints...they took a lot of grease.

Also connected the Directed Electronics 506T Audio Sensor to my Viper alarm. I put the microphone right above the Diff Lock switch -

[_Ace_]

The new off brand fan clutch was staying locked when cold for too long so I ordered the Aisin OEM replacement.

Amazon.com

[alexperrucci]

Good call on the Aisin fan clutch imo. Mines been working perfectly ever since replacing it.

[_Ace_]

Installed the Aisin fan clutch with great results.

[_Ace_]

I prreviously installed a Talons Garage Transmission /Cat skidplate to protect both items. This is a really nice skidplate that has an additional wing on the passenger side to protect the catalytic converter from sawzall attacks.

Here's what it looks like on my 1998 SR5 -

[_Ace_]

Being that cat thieves are going to be in a hurry I wanted to install an additional shield or skidplate to stop them from cutting off the back of the cat before realizing they can't get to the front.

I could buy a transfer case shield from Talons but thought I'd just make a shield myself out of stuff I had on hand. The shield will only make the thief pause so that they can move on to easier pickings.

Looking around I found a piece of galvanized sheet steel used in HVAC, left over from a previous project-