What have you done to your rig today?

[DaveInDenver]

Finally dug in and punched antenna holes in the roof.





The sheet metal is really thin in trucks now so I made these disks from some scrap 24ga sheet I had around. Wanted to use something a bit thinner but it is what it is.

 

[RayRay27]

Opened up the hood for a quick inspection. Coolant res was empty and the radiator was about an inch low. MUD paranoia takes hold and HG fears overwhelmed me.

Had a beer and headed back out to take a closer look. No coolant in oil (blackstone test came back great 5k ago). Start crawling around and notice coolant dripping from the starter, left side of the engine block, a few hoses, and the bell housing. Start looking higher up on the engine for the source....

Not 100% sure yet but it looks like either the PHH (replaced 40k ago so I hope not) or the throttle body coolant hose. Always fun diagnosing issues by headlamp in the dark on an icy driveway. Seems to be leaking coolant at a steady drip when cold. Once the engine gets to 175 or so it stops. Maybe its just a loose clamp? Hoses to the firewall all look good.

That's how my PHH acted all the time. It would only leak when it was really cold out then stop once the engine was warmed up.

I ended up just getting rid of the metal tube all together and getting a long piece of Gates green stripe to use. It seemed like I could never get that short piece of hose to seat right on the tube and engine block to keep it from leaking prematurely.

 

[twentyfooteighty]

Is the meter or jumper cable possibly bad? Sounds kind of suspect.

i was using a Firestik Firering coax. Cut off the firering, spliced on a proper 259, SWR dropped.

 

[DaveInDenver]

i was using a Firestik Firering coax. Cut off the firering, spliced on a proper 259, SWR dropped.

Yeah, sounds about right. Those Firerings have to be assembled in the right order, it's easy to have them upside down, have a washer short or contact be lost completely. Then even if you have everything just right to work in the first place road grime and salt leads to them eventually failing anyway.

 

[rover67]

I myself was fighting insane SWR on the new Ham setup and traced it to a bad PL-259 I soldered on. IT was an intermittent fault which is why it was hard for me to diagnose, It only had a short when I held it in a particular way.

Dave, Nice work on the hole. how thick did all the metal end up being with that spacer? How does the outer threaded ring of the NMO line up with the center part?

 

[DaveInDenver]

Dave, Nice work on the hole. how thick did all the metal end up being with that spacer? How does the outer threaded ring of the NMO line up with the center part?

I didn't think to measure actual thickness but my estimation is that the roof on a 2008 Tacoma is about 26 ga. So I'd estimate about 0.045" or so.

I had to file the NMO ears to get it to grab both thicknesses and keep everything centered. Apparently Larsen makes their mounts (I used the NMOK-HFUD like in the image above) for exactly 24 ga sheet and it would walk around in the roof hole otherwise.

I tried epoxying the disk to the underside of the roof but it popped off as soon as I flexed the roof a little. So I need to research a better adhesive, perhaps some sort of industrial silver epoxy that'll be conductive, too.

 

[twentyfooteighty]

I added this finely crafted statue to the dash of my 80.

 

[wheresthelc]

I just installed my third windshield washer tank . It seems to bounce off. Anybody else have the same problem?

 

[Notyourmomslx450]

Got it in the garage and started disassembling.

 

[IoN6]

Oil change w/ new washer on the drain plug finally and rotated the tires.

 

[RayRay27]

I cleaned up all of my courtesy door switches on the PIG. The dome lights would only work when the driver door was open. Pretty simple to do. I found a video on YouTube that pretty much steps it out and this method works on all sorts of different model Toyotas.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Finally got rid of the old 30” LED light bar and replaced it with four 4.5” round LED pods. They’re very bright, they look better, and they don’t reflect off my dash and make it impossible to actually see when using them.

 

[rover67]

Finally got rid of the old 30” LED light bar and replaced it with four 4.5” round LED pods. They’re very bright, they look better, and they don’t reflect off my dash and make it impossible to actually see when using them.

Those look bright which ones did you choose?

 

[White Stripe]

Recovering my dash pad. So far it's not turning out too bad I guess.

 

[rover67]

That dash looks nice I did not realize you could do that

 

[bassguyry]

Got a ton of work done on the new 100 this weekend.

I reinstalled the Slee rear bumper from my wrecked 100, which I mistakenly decided to do by myself. When the spare tire and ladder swingouts are removed, the weight isn't too bad, but since it's such an awkward shape, I had to rig up a few ratchet straps to help keep it stabilized while I fit it on the frame. Though, once I got it on the frame, it was super easy to bolt up and reinstall the swingouts. Much easier to do on my driveway than in a dirt salvage lot.

Also installed a new aftermarket stereo (thank god - the stock stereo had a busted CD player and radio antenna, so it was basically non-functional), and also managed to fit a CB radio underneath, in the dash. Crutchfield's pre-wired harness for the stereo made installation super easy. The CB, not so much. I had to splice into the power to the cigarette lighter (worked really well, but soldering inside the truck freaked me out a bit), and then had to run the antenna coax through the passenger side firewall (ugh - I hate running cabling through the firewall). I'm still having some serious grounding issues with the CB (super high SWR - like 3+), but I should have it sorted out next weekend - probably just need to run a ground wire from the antenna to the frame or battery. I mounted the antenna on the ARB front bumper, so I'm assuming the powdercoating is causing the grounding/SWR problem. I'm hoping I won't have to re-do the CB power wiring, but we shall see...

Lastly, I replaced the hood and tailgate struts, and plasti-dipped the spare tire wheel. Next weekend, I'll reinstall the RTT (need to drill some new holes in order to fit it to the Rhino Rack), and it'll be ready to head to Slee for the rest the week after.

She's starting to look ready for CM...

 

[Hulk]

Woohoo! An 8’ 9” custom garage door goes up next! I am so happy about this. Also, the total all-in cost for a RTT is >$10k...

That's a spendy RTT. Just think of all the nights you could have stayed at Howard Johnson's for that kind of coin.

 

[dan1554]

Not my rig but did some exhaust welding. I'm terrible at tig but it should hold together. I'll have to do another in a couple months and I already am dreading it.

 

[Inukshuk]

@dan1554 looks great!

I changed spark plugs on the 80. 1.5 hours from walking into the garage to walking out. Pro tip 1: remove the front tires and lower the front end for much easier access to #6. Pro tip 2: make sure you have two floor lacks bcause when you let one completely down under the front axle you will not be able to pump the handle at all to raise it back up!

 

[fjc man]

Or get one of these. Like 30 bucks from Hitchmate.