What have you done to your 1st gen Tundra today?

Financing available

God help me if I ever have to make payments on an alignment.

Reminds me of that old Jeff Foxworthy joke where he is talking about Rednecks financing tattoos- :slaps arm: "3 more payments and this sumbitch is mine".

 

I borrowed one of these that a friend had this fall and loved it. Bought one as soon as I arrived back home. But then winter came so I havent gotten to use it. But once the weather warms up, I cant wait to use this thing. It gives you like an 8 foot long camping area and takes like 2 minutes to install.

 

See a lot of that for wheels/tires. Great if you're 19 and want 22s on your 98 Blazer.

 

@Festerw beat me to it. I took a quick stroll past the windows this am when I popped by.

Lots of high dolla rims, and tires I'd never heard of before.

 

When browsing CL I frequently see "Financing Available" on cheapo $200 lift kit installs. Blows my mind.

 

Back around 2008 a young guy at my shop got wheels at the rent to own. We all laughed. About 2 months later as I was dropping off my van around 1am I saw two shady looking guys at the shop asking about him. It was late and they asked me if they can enter the gated lot, I declined.

The next morning when I got to the shop there were a few guys standing around his car laughing. His car was now sitting on 4 spare wheels/tires. The guy never made his first payment and they got repossessed.

Oh the shame, it got worse.

 

Did the 13WE to 13WL "upgrade" yesterday with the Power Stop Z36 kit. Comparing the old/new parts side by side made me realize this isn't much of an upgrade.

While the backing plate of the WL pads (on the left below) are larger, the pad surface is the same.







While the WL calipers are larger, it appears that the pistons are the same size (I didn't measure) as the WE's.





Old and new pad in the Power Stop 13WL caliper.





If nothing else, it looks nice! The rotors are the same size as what was on there previously. As mentioned a few times in this forum, the dust shield has to be slightly trimmed for the WL calipers to fit properly.





I installed their stainless steel braided hoses in the front, the kit also came with a rear hose that I will do at a later date. I didn't have a chance to test drive yet, I will break in the pads later today while I'm out. I was under the impression that I'd have more braking surface area going from WE calipers/pads/rotors to WL's but that's not the case. In any event, I'm sure my braking performance will be improved with all new fresh parts and brake fluid. And no PHM, I haven't yet used the sexy high temp Bosch brake fluid, I'll do that when I install the rear brake line.

 

Yep. Darkness has been saying this for a while. I think the biggest improvement comes from having new parts and new fluid.

 

Is there any evidence the brake caliper upgrade is less likely to cause warped rotors?

 

Good question. No clue here. I've somehow been spared of this problem everyone talks about as the rotors on my truck never warped. I don't know why.

 

Not really.

I got cryo treated rotors around 2012 and never had a problem since. They're expensive but they got rid of my problem. I did the 13wl upgrade later.

 

This is the crappy part. You've got to look for pads with more surface area. I think OEM Toyota and Akebono make better use of the pad backing with more meat, but haven't seen a side by side in a while of them.

The damn chamfered edges rob us of surface area as well.

Those calipers look sweet though! At least you have the confidence of a new set on.

 

When I opted for the tow/extreme duty brakes on my Ford van, the rear shoes had considerably more brake lining on them and I thought the WL brakes would offer more as well on the pads. I think the WL kit will do it's job adequately, if not I'll look into pads with more surface area and cryo treated rotors. I had slight rotor warpage with the WE's so we'll see how these work out for my occasional towing. And yeah, the calipers sure look the part!

 

But the chamfered edge keeps the pad wearing evenly and the noise down to a minimum.

 

I think its just to prevent noise, I don't like it. I've had noisy brakes with the chamfer and quiet brakes where the chamfer wore through.

 

Today I replaced my silver faux beadlocks with black ones from China.

I think they look a lot better.




I also removed my crushed trailer wire harness. I had two wires from that old brake controller I'm trying to determine how to handle. I cut them. Safe to just tape them up and move out of the way?

 

I think thatd be safe, maybe use shrink tubing on each end and then tape or zip tie them out of the way.

 

Just picked her up. A good sign that the steering wheel is straight.

Heres my numbers.

 

I remember questioning the Power Stop pads chamfer thing once I opened them and had the old ones to compare but by then it was to late. I snapped a pic of these TRD Pads and its hard to tell if they are chamfered. They look wider like the WE13 with a similar foot print. The chamfer is hard to see.

Per the Piston Size: Someone had posted up diameters of the WE, and WL and the WL is larger slightly. Not much. They look the same size so its not much difference.

I’m guessing much of my improvement came from having pistons that work instead of being seized.

 

I dug into alignment specs a while ago and the DJ specs are off from socal paul. I thought socal paul was for the 2nd gen, but don't remember for sure. Dj specs attached. Also, DJ has positive camber and everyone else said negative.

 

Ive got one similar that I would gladly part with for a reasonable offer.

 

You have a foot or battery powered pump for that sink?

 

Picked up some new parts for the truck.
1) Side Mirrors from yesterday.

2) Little Convex sticky doo’s.

3) Toy: Fuel Filter, air filter, and exhaust flange bolts/ nuts.

 

I bedded the pads in today and they do have more bite than whatever pads (unknown) were in my truck before but that could just be different materials. Oh well, no ragrets.

 

Nice. My same pads bit better, too. That lack of surface area chaps my ass, though. I did a blow up approx added surface area from another pick I found using the TuRD pads. The extra surface area in Orange only adds back to the same amount as the WE.

 

I did a whole tune-up the other day. I changed the oil and used a fresh OEM oil filter (instead of my normal Wix one). I did a drain and fill on the rear end after the second break in, and then replaced the pan gasket and strainer for the trans.

The following morning, the gah dang thing had the audacity to leave a small puddle of coolant on the ground. I tracked it down to the water pump.
This means I'll just keep a jug of coolant with me until my timing belt is due. No way I'm gonna tackle it myself. I have no idea how to get the timing correct on a VVTi when I'd be putting the timing belt back on.

Maybe I'll do it someday down the road if I'm really feeling confident and have a second mode of transportation.

I also just washed the truck and polished out a few scratches on the bedside. My new taillight came in and installed it last night. Here's a pic of my broken one. The foil tape was the only thing I had that would adhere to the plastic housing lmao

 

It's just a hand pump. I had 3 gallon jugs below. The drain tube just ran out through the hole in the taco cubby and hit the ground behind the tire. The whole setup could be pulled out and hung on the wall in about 5 minutes. I made a lift for the topper and I could have it off or on in about 15 minutes.

Valterra - RP800 Rocket Hand Pump

$46 Valterra - RP800 Rocket Hand Pump for RV, Camper Holding Tank Faucet Pump - Chrome

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BGM2XG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_1rr9Fb1KWP4F2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

I looked into building one of these for my old truck. The tundra probably has 6-12 more inches of head room though.

https://topperezlift.com/

 

Slapped up the scrap bits of Noico where I could, and got the plastic sheeting reinstalled with the butyl that came. I got the thickest available (6mil) I could from Lowe’s. It was @Darkness Approved.




This was good stuff, easy to work with and felt good when applying. I used the Noico roller to help embed it into the door and then the sheeting into it.



Doors are back on. Realized I forgot to detail the window switches so that’s on deck next. Now, a two hour nap!