My 00' Highlander build

[TBuzz]

OCT 22-truck is hobbled

While in Ouray I busted and cv boot. When I got home upon inspection of that I discovered the radiator was leaking and there was a certain looseness in my safari steering rack on the driver side. After I ordered some parts I replaced the following

1)Replaced the radiator with Tacoma 4cyl from lowrange(was dreaming of sas still)
2)Replaced a torn cv boot
3)Rebuilt king coils with new seals, fluid and 650lb coils. The fluid was black and they didn't hold pressure at all.
4)Tightened and staked very loose ITRE

Charged to 175 psi. I now have them at 200 psi.

 

[TBuzz]

11/01 Vibration overload and metal

After the last round of maintenance I started searching for a source of the vibration I was feeling. I started by taking it to a mechanic and putting it on their lift. then driving it in 2 wheel drive upto about 30. The driveshaft looked bent and I thought "well that was easy, it's a bent driveshaft".

Went home pulled the shaft then drained the rear diff fluid and to my horror found metal shavings were in it. They were the size of pieces of finger nail and the fluid was quite dirty for having less than 1000 miles on it. I called and spoke with Chase and ultimately was advised to send it in. Over this month while truck was down I did some more things.

1)Driveshaft confirmed balanced and straight
2)New OEM rear wheel bearings and seals both sides
3)New OEM rear pads
4)Resurfaced drums
5)Changed Transfer case fluid, front diff fluid
6)Replaced 4.88 ARB'd rear diff after ECGS check up and service

I waited 4 weeks for my diff to come back and it comes with a bent tube..my invoice said my pinion bearings were replaced and the tech who actually did the work told me he was doing it as a precaution. hmmm

 

[TBuzz]

11/25 Still vibrating cause unknown

I got it all back together and still a vibration on the highway.

Went to Austin for Thanksgiving. Was showing my uncle some stuff and he uncle says "I built my rear bumper too come have a look, I've got my taillights built in"

Saw a very clean 2nd gen that had obv been waxed recently.

 

[TBuzz]

Dec-Still vibrating, snow, brakes and more metal:crybaby:

I'd been wanting to fit the LX450 w/o spacers and figured id grind the caliper. I'm using duralast calipers and I had already established that I could exchange them for new ones under warranty after the process, which I did. This is what I had to remove...

and painted

Christmas day was the first day that we got snow in town this year. I went up the road just to get out even though the truck wasn't driving highway speeds well.

Came around the corner in town and this guy was facing me...

I decided to drain the rear diff and OMG not again!!

 

[Toyotacolin]

More pix

Here are a few more pix from that trip. I think we are planning another trip up to that area this summer around the time of the Summit, maybe going to it on Saturday and staying a few days, maybe you could join us?

IMG_4923 by Captures by Colin, on Flickr

IMG_4818ps by Captures by Colin, on Flickr

IMG_4857 by Captures by Colin, on Flickr


IMG_4853 by Captures by Colin, on Flickr

IMG_4860 by Captures by Colin, on Flickr

 

[TBuzz]

Thanks for posting those. That's pretty much why I didn't break out my camera that day. I figure you'll be back at least once this summer. I'm looking forward to it. Hope the family is well.

 

[Toyotacolin]

Thanks for posting those. That's pretty much why I didn't break out my camera that day. I figure you'll be back at least once this summer. I'm looking forward to it. Hope the family is well.

Did you hear I sold that FJ and picked up a new one?

My wife took it out for the first time today wheeling it while I got to sit back and take pix.


IMG_7307 by Captures by Colin, on Flickr

IMG_6982 by Captures by Colin, on Flickr

Here is our little dude too, he LOVES wheeling!
IMG_6783 by Captures by Colin, on Flickr

Not a bad truck, I'm pretty happy with it, other then the 12mpg. LOL

IMG_6383 by Captures by Colin, on Flickr

 

[TBuzz]

January-sorting it out

Started talking with a couple builders for a source of the metal that I kept finding. I couldn't get any real defined answers but there was speculation that it was residual from PO. I knew wasn't the case since [MENTION=44220]BigFishAllDay[/MENTION] hooked me up with it and it was in perfect condition. At this point it had been rinsed and cleaned a number of times anyhow. Since I was unsure and I couldn't stand to go through the shipping to ecgs again, I settled for the idea that it was ok. After all it had only a few hundred miles on it since it was serviced and looked over.
Determined to find the cause of this vibration and when it occurred I convinced myself it was a front wheel bearing. I pulled the DS and spindle and put it on the bench. Sure enough I could here grinding needles. Off to the dealer it went and a new bearing was installed. On the bench it was much queiter. On the road improvement but not the source of my issue.

Reinstalling the UBJ to the spindle I marred up the threads..had to go find the MATCO guy for the proper die to fix it..drooled for a minute in there it was lit up like heaven.

Went up to PURG the next day for a test run. Hoping everything was normal. It wasn't, I still had some wah wah wah vibration at speed that increased when decelerating from 50 to 45.

 

[Fishwerks]

Thanks for sharing all the photos, love the southern end of this state but I don't get down there too often.

Sorry to hear about the diff and vibration woes. I have a slight vibration on the highway as well, but I'm pretty sure it's just my tires being slightly out of balance and/or a little cupped. That's probably not your issue since you have 2 sets of tires. Hopefully you can track it down.

 

[Unner]

Awesome build! Keep up the awesome work and the great pictures of you out wheeling! I really like that river crossing picture. Looks like fun and the picture came out awesome.

 

[TBuzz]

Did you hear I sold that FJ and picked up a new one?

I didn't that thing is guilt!,, what's left to add more lights?

Thanks for sharing all the photos, love the southern end of this state but I don't get down there too often.

Sorry to hear about the diff and vibration woes. I have a slight vibration on the highway as well, but I'm pretty sure it's just my tires being slightly out of balance and/or a little cupped. That's probably not your issue since you have 2 sets of tires. Hopefully you can track it down.

Sure, I take terrible photos and need to change that. Sometimes a couple pics help remind me where I was or what happened though. Yes the vibes have had the truck down since last August when I had to bow out of the Jambo meet. It's all ironed out and running like a champ after a long long hard battle.

Awesome build! Keep up the awesome work and the great pictures of you out wheeling! I really like that river crossing picture. Looks like fun and the picture came out awesome.

Yes that picture was taken by a pro [MENTION=85218]Toyotacolin[/MENTION], his pics are great! I actually went through the creek quite slow compared to them so my splash is quite small comparatively.

 

[TBuzz]

Feb 1- first wheeling trip in many months
I didn't take too many pics but here are some random ones along the way. Headed down to Choke Cherry canyon. It was myself, my friend Rick in his buggy, [MENTION=91267]tacokiller[/MENTION] and his buddy in a nicely built 13' tacoma.

After getting just into the trail there's this nice shoot obstacle. I chose not to do it this time as the sand was pretty wet. I've done it before if you seen my videos but in dry conditions. After watching the buggy I just opted out at the time. Tacoma wasn't condidering it.

 

[TBuzz]

Up around down and up. Stopped for a minute.

Onward

 

[TBuzz]

 

[TBuzz]

I went up this but had to stack rock on right side...again wet sand and couldn't bite..try and get some vids in here later.

Buggy flogging around, he started and had to settle for the middle. He was open open though all day. Our line is tight to the trees on the right.

Then we parked the Tacoma to drop in....Rick said it had been pretty gutted out from recent buggy brawl.

Nearly did the rear flare removal mod..

Turned around at the bottom and headed back up. Last time with [MENTION=44220]BigFishAllDay[/MENTION] I had pointed this obstacle out. I was wanting to go at it this time so I made my way to the bottom and got lined up.

And denied..again just too wet combined with how steep. Back wasn't grabbing the lip.

So I back off and went around. Tried to follow the buggy up the next more challenging line....and

Denied again

And OUT

 

[SCRunner12]

So what finally fixed your vibrations? I've had a random vibration above 60 mph for a while now and have replaced just about everything under the truck.

 

[TBuzz]

So what finally fixed your vibrations? I've had a random vibration above 60 mph for a while now and have replaced just about everything under the truck.

The thing I did that finally made the biggest difference was pulled the slip yoke apart, cleaned and greased it properly then flipped it 180. I'm guessing the driveline guy that did my ujoint just didn't put it back on right.

Also I think it's important to not get air in it and it's easy to get air into it when greasing it on the truck. I compressed the clean yoke then pumped in some grease. Everyone understands hydro locked and too much grease. This is my observation when assembling. In my opinion the grease acts as a limiter of sort on how long the shaft is. With some grease in it, it has a amount of "travel" if you will before it breaks the seal. I think that travel range is important. Here's what I did to avoid an air pocket. First pumped some grease in it. I then attached the front of the rear shaft and held the rear of the shaft up to the pinion. At that point it wasn't long enough so I lowered the rear and pumped in some more. Then held it up. At that point the ds flange was just touching the pinion flange bolts. I held it there pumped a couple times and it stretched out. I then grabbed th yoke and pulled it seated to the pinion. without it bolted to the pinion I could easily pull the ds yoke back and forth through, to me, what is a sort of travel range.

 

[TBuzz]

reserved

 

[TBuzz]

3/7-Prepping for Moab

Getting some things freshened up for Moab next week. I heard mention of others being in the area. If they read this, I'll be in Moab thur-sun.

I sanded down the sliders and rear bumper, spot primed them and added some fresh black.



Cleaned up the rack today and got it back on too..

And this will come in great this season.

 

[TBuzz]

tied some of these


took the trout limo down to the hole


And caught a few of these... Believe it or not the first two were considerably larger at about 18-19" but I guess the camera was off. Polarized glass looking at that damn camera not the first time. Anyhow my hands smell like SLIMERS and its time for lunch and more prep..