Preparing for Adventure

In the midst of winter, Tacobella was treating me well but some very necessary maintenance items were coming to light. I was coming up on five months of owning the truck in December, and a very wet and cold week hit. This finished off the rubber boots on my CV axles, water was seeping into the joints and freezing, and causing all sorts of terrible popping noises.

I looked over the maintenance log supplied by the previous owners, with some key items detailed below.

The tires were overdue for replacement, as I'd been warned. The CV axles were failing, and I discovered that some very critical front end suspension components were completely original. This was borderline outright dangerous to drive.

See, the first generation of Tacomas suffer from one glaring weak point in its design. The lower ball joints that keep the front wheels attached to the suspension are designed in a way that they're continually being pulled down out of their joint. Over time the ball joint will wear out and fail, and can cause catastrophic damage to the front end of the truck. Despite all this, these components were all still original at 275k miles.

I isolated myself to Santa Fe, not wanting to take the truck out of town or go highway speeds lest I risk a crash, an expensive tow, or even being stranded somewhere.

Research was done and while aftermarket parts are available for this, the general consensus is to go with Toyota OEM parts. Thankfully during December, Toyota was running a sale and I was able to acquire the lower ball joints at a steep discount. I decided I may as well replace the lower control arms, and the upper ball joints as well. The bushings in the lower control arms were likely worn out anyway, so I decided on a mostly complete front end overhaul.

Earlier in November, I had managed to locate some wheels that came from a 1998 Toyota 4runner, and liking the design decided these wheels were going to go on the truck when I got a tire replacement.

Finally, I was tired of looking at my busted up rear bumper. I'd been trying to keep an eye out for an OEM bumper from a junkyard truck, but it just wasn't showing up. I bought a cheap aftermarket replacement bumper and had it shipped in as well.

All of this arrived in early January, but it was just too cold to replace any of it. I didn't have a garage space, and I'd also gotten sick during this time period. The cold was keeping me sick, but the weekend before my birthday I decided to sit down, order my new tires, and get to work.

Except I didn't. I couldn't get some of the bolts unstuck. I was still way too weak from being sick, and I only had a garage space for a few hours. I cancelled that idea, and contacted a mechanic. They couldn't get the truck into the shop until Tuesday, the day after my birthday. I had already scheduled the install of my new tires on the morning of my birthday.

Welll damn it. I hadn't been out of Santa Fe in three months. I needed to get out of town. It was my birthday and I WAS DETERMINED TO GO TO OJO CALIENTE. I wanted to go soak in the hot springs since it was free on my birthday. Truck be damned, with my new GEOLANDAR AT/4 tires and shiny wheels installed, I headed north out of town.

Then Murphy's Law taught me yet another lesson. Halfway to Ojo, my alternator failed. Maybe it's the battery, maybe it's this, or that, maybe I can still get there. I let judgement rue the day, turned back to Santa Fe and barely made it back before my battery fell below 12 volts. Three hours later, the alternator was removed, a replacement sourced, and installed by yours truly.

I spent the rest of my birthday with friends, and had an enjoyable night despite the events of the day. The next morning, I took the truck into the mechanic to get the front end parts replaced. The mechanic ended up needing a blowtorch to cut out the mounting bolts for the control arms, and a one-day shop visit turned into three days of hiking around Santa Fe, catching the bus, and asking for rides. The shop suggested replacing the shocks while they had it all torn down, and having the Billstein 5100s in stock that I wanted, I said go for it.

I contacted them on Thursday for a status update, and they thought they were going to need to keep her another day. Then an hour before they closed they called me back saying if I could get there before closing they'd have her ready. I was ready to have my truck back.

I got her back that evening, and it's like driving a completely brand new truck. Corners that sent the contents of my passenger seat to the abyss known as the seat gap, now kept everything in place. Bumps that previously would jar the soul are now indiscernible. vibrations at highway speeds are gone, and she rides smooth as butter.

Most importantly, she isn't a death trap anymore.

With the new front end and with the new tires, she was almost ready for this year's rounds of adventure. At this point, she just needed a little bit of added flair. I purchased a vanity front license plate and cover (seen in earlier photos), and a vanity license plate cover for the rear bumper.

Now she's ready. Stay tuned for camping and offroading adventures as the weather continues to warm up and I prepare to go exploring parts of New Mexico I haven't been to.