Motor Mount time - If I only knew then what I think I might now know, sort of? getting there? warm?

I have struggled in life with the big pic. In general we are taught, shown, to treat symptoms. & often we are brought up in ways which do not encourage taking the time to intuit connection, the butterfly effect, karma (the real meaning being, for every action there is a reaction), the Big Picture.... I was "brought up" with one thing in mind, surviving. It wouldn't be until many "colorful" years later that I caught glimpses of how "things" are inevitably connected. My growing love of nature & photography & the void it filled in me is what started me down this path. The difference between being alone & disconnected vs being alone amongst nature & being filled with a timeless, peaceful wonderment.... it kind'a scared me at first....

I am a storyteller, for those who have moved onto another post, I don't blame you. I rarely use absolutes, but nobody is everybody's cup o' tea.... For those who are anxiously awaiting my truck question(s), I think I have set the stage....

I started on TW in 11/17 with body mounts. The next thing was a tranny mount & then a center support bearing. Connected? Sure or rather, absolutely. It made sense in retrospect, however prior to this, I had not delved in on my own beyond ignition coils, brake pads & basic maintenance....
Somewhere over the past yer, year & a half I developed a clunk, somewhere mid bed. Note - this is a suspension Novel, so I am omitting non-suspension jobs from the saga.

1.Center support bearings go quickly, mine lasted a year-ish, so that was re-replaced earlier last year.
2.Then inner & outer tie rods. After these were done the engine started rumbling whilst the truck was idling in gear & was most notable when turning the wheel....
3. Leaf Springs
Whether the springs had anything to do with it or not, but e couple of days later, whatever the domino sequence the steering rack to tire connection got straightened enough to release my beyond shot steering rack bushing from being trapped between the clamp & the rusted through area directly under the bushing. & of course the result was ATF loss at what seemed like an alarming rate, but this hole had been in the works for ? Thing is just by looking, you'd never know it was as rusted as it was under the bushing.

4.So, let's add in the new steering rack.
4. & since the bolts for the stabilizer links would only come part way off & then did not want to go back on, they were cut off & replaced. Still a clunk & slightly rough shifting & engine rumbling when idling in gear & most notable whilst turning the steering wheel.
5.So, another tranny mount. Did that Sunday.... The shifting? Yup, almost like buttah.... & ya know what? The clunk is barely there. The rumbling is unchanged. My hopes is that motor mounts will take care of these. Order is placed & yes, went OEM.
Funny thing is I passed the "step on the gas" MM test 2,3 weeks ago. Now with things being set straight, there is a different reaction. Karma, if you will....

Things I've learned....
1. I know very little.
2. I am learning.
3. I need to ask more questions/read up more on whatever's coming up next. In other words, trying to move from reactive to proactive....
4. if anyone takes a gander at the front end suspension bushings & thinks that they are shot & then makes plans to supersize an ES bushing pak & do it all come spring.... which then turns to summer.... which then turns to fall.... while I am sure there are others not to ignore, take care of the steering rack bushing. It's easy-ish & you don't wanna have the same hidden surprise that I did....
My question? - For those of you who are still hanging in there , or when you wake up from your nap
1.whilst I am doing the motor mounts, what else should I look at? Or might be easier to access whilst I am doing them or rather, attempting to?
2.What might be things replacing motor mounts can set off? Or is that something that happens exactly as I have been experiencing it. You wait & see?

 

If its a 2.7, change the oil filter. I change mine whenever the wheel is off . Ehhhhhhh

 

Not sure if the placement is different? I can get at mine pretty easily if I crank the wheel to the right. I have to duck & tuck, but I fit almost perfectly in the wheel well space. It's making me laugh now. I guess I never really thought about what I must look like in there.

 

I should have at least counted the question marks but I was so enthralled with the ongoing epic Yoda struggle as it relates to the donino and butterfly effect of mechanical awareness. Parts break, wear out, are reduced to rubble by nature and are even stolen on occasion. Broken things lead to fixing things which necessities breaking more things to fix what broke while fixing what broke in the first place.

 

Always an adventure....

 

So are you "saying" two tranny mounts in two years is to be expected & I should just suck it up?
& I'm glad you liked the epic tale....

 

I love a good story behind someone and their Toyota. Toyota owners feel they are their own breed lol but I’m positive it’s the same whatever vehicle you choose to own. Having had a dad that switch between multiple vehicles from 90s F150 to a Lexus es300, I’ve learned that with any vehicle you own, you will make a connection with it, if you’re the type that cares about vehicles like 1st gen owners do haha. With the number of different vehicles my dad owned, mainly trucks/SUVs. He finally got a 98 4Runner and that’s the truck that started it all. Supercharged 3.4L, limited, all the bells and whistles but it was a stock truck and stayed a stock truck until I sold it just over a year ago (frame was rotted out). I was about 15-16 when he bought it, I’m only 23 now but the 6 years we owned it I learned about Toyota’s and then about 1st gen Tacomas. My dad passed the truck down to me when I was about 18-19 and I got to learn a whole lot more. The first thing I did on the truck other than brake pads, was my timing belt/water pump. Of course searched and found Aisin is the manufacture for Toyota so of course couldn’t go any other way than OEM. After learning about why it has a timing belt and learning more about these engines I realized how well they are made. Not for power but for strength on a daily driver scale. It’s obviously not as strong as a 86 6.9 IDI international diesel which will run across the country with a cracked head. Bare bones mechanical. But the 5VZ engine to me is one of the best, if not the best, 6 cyl engine in the American market. I still haven’t done much but I love working on my truck and the engineering put into these older Toyota’s, for me it just clicks and nothing seems too hard or made without thought. Maybe not every single little bit and bolt but about 95%.

Anyways, there’s nothing I could really think of doing while you’re doing your motor mounts. I am planning on doing mine soon as they are original and failed by a hair, so I guess I’ll see haha
But I do not believe that a trans mount or a carrier bearing should only last a year.
I did both of mine a year ago and are still like new, with about 15k miles on them.
I don’t know what Toyota’s replacement intervals are but probably not 1yr/12k miles.
I would expect at least 5 years just daily driving without any off-roading and possible two years of heavy off-roading. Again I don’t really know but that’s what I would expect from such a part.
Your story kinda inspired me I guess and made me start thinking of what got me into getting a 2001 Tacoma double cab onto now doing an auto to manual swap in it and wanting to make it my lifetime truck but I who knows what may come, so maybe in a couple years I’ll end up with a 1st gen 4Runner

Not much help but hope you enjoyed the entertainment, if you can really call it that
Good luck with your mounts

 

Great story! We all have 'em. They make us real & unique, yet connected at the same time. Thank you for sharing & the for the mounts....

 

If the Engine Mounts are broken or worn to the point they allow lots of twisting which I think would have been easy to see but who knows .

It could cause the failure of the transmission mounts rather early .

I have been running the 4X Innovation Transmission mount on my 5 speed 3.4 for 100,000 miles or so

 

Another thing your luck could be like mine and your 2 transmission mounts just were made on a bad day.

Leading to early failure.

Just curious how did they fail ?? Did the molded rubber pull apart ??

 

Short story long-

I don’t think the mounts are broken from the vids I have seen regarding testing them. I just think everything was/is “wonky”. & how long the mounts have been in need?, I dunno. Again, I imagine it just takes one thing being off & unattended to to affect another that has been hurting as well. Do the mounts take the brunt of this? I dunno.
So I go get a good alignment after replacing tie rods let’s say, & the tranny mount had been taking a hit on the side where one of the tie rods was worse than the other. You then go & fix the tie rod, get an alignment & now the tranny mount is off kilter cuz one side of it is smushed. I liken it to going to a chiropractor. This is all theory. But it’s too much of a coincidence that I fix one thing & something directly related goes. I have been lucky this time that I went with town fair. So far they have done three? four? alignments, one being past my 30 days & when I am done with the mounts they’re gonna do another.

One thing I have not yet posted a question about is if there is any significance in that when I jack up the front end & am on a flat surface, I have to put an extra jack under the passenger side & lift it more to get the tire suspended. The frame is even, gas tank level makes no dif. & whether this is related or not, is that each time I fix something & the alignment gets thrown off, it’s pulling to the right.
Ha-ha! To answer your question? Yes. The molded rubber pulled from the edges. More so on the right than the left.
I need to get ahead of the game. The mechanics I consulted were no help. I have done a better job diagnosing with the help of TW than they have. The varying results times I have called them on it or have pre-diagnosed something they did not think was the problem, have been interesting. I am sure it’s not just cuz i’m a “girl”, I mean attitude is attitude, but it does at times add an extra “flair”.

 

TW is gonna start charging me for using up so much space/bandwidth....

 

A few Toyota Techs may understand "Wonky" .
Maybe?
Perhaps pix or a laser pointer and Wonky would help.

 

Wonky - thrown off, askew, off kilter
A kristi word used to describe what she has experienced thus far, ie-tie rods led to revealing the leak in steering rack & engine rumbling (mounts).... used in a sentence. Things were wonky in kristi’s truck. She wishes she could foresee the wonkiness. Ie-will replacing the motor mounts reveal the next neglected part? Is there something that might be wonky that would be easier for kristi to check while replacing the mounts?
Seriously, I mean I have seen how some haveput while i’m replacing ____, I might as well check or replace _____. Water pump, leaking or not, when you do belts. I’m trying to learn that kind’a thing.

 

Wonky is a fine description used a lot in High Tech Welder repair quite often.

Along with new unique strings of curse words

Just How high and where and what type of jack are you lifting the front end ??

That you need more lift on one side

I have been doing it so long I can`t recall one side does tend to come off the ground first maybe

 

A “regular” 6 ton bottle jack. Don’t recall the max height (13-ish?). Not the short one. I put it where the center spot is, under the rear skid plate.

 

Now that makes more sense I have just been using 3 ton floor jacks for years

With a bottle Jack you would need higher Math to figure the perfect location to lift but it would change every time makes sense it does not lift straight

 

You're on the right track. Do your own work, be willing to learn and watch and read and study and then do it yourself. These things are 20 years old and will nickle and dime you to death of you use a shop.
And the beauty of these old first gens is they are fairly basic and great for the DIYers. Tons and tons of help and writeups here in the forums. I'm still shocked at the work you've done yourself!!!! Swapped out body mounts!?? Only one other woman I've ever personally known that could do something like that or not be too nervous to attempt it, and that's the exso I can tell by the way you ask your questions and by what you say that you have the ability. And the desire. All you really kinda need is a little direction or confirmation the direction you're thinking is the right one. Without someone there to put eyes on it with you, best bet will likely be pics of what you're doing or planning on doing with the questions. Easiest way for us to get you the fastest and best help.
Keep up the good work. You ladies that can turn a wrench and work are admirable. So just keep at it. Much respect

 

when I am doing mounts... motor, trans or otherwise I will leave them loose enough for the supported bit to "settle in"... take her for a short ride then bring her back and torque them.

 

So the mounts came in super fast. Last night I made a little extra room in the garage so I can access both sides of the truck, backed in, went to spray down the bolts & I dunno, but the passenger side looks pretty scary. I thought I had fluid filmed everything on the truck, but apparently not these. I know, I know. Pics.... I got coached in the posting pics when I first joined with the body mounts problem. & this is where my hiccup apparently is. I knew there was an unusual issue with those. Whereas with the motor mounts, I simply knew they were shot. After seeing the setup last night I wonder if there is something else I am gonna need & that my friends, is where a pre-posted pic or two may have saved me a headache if there is an added issue. So I will post a pic in a bit. Coffee, shut, I mean suit, up & pic(s).