The T100 has always it’s share of squeaks and rattles, but lately it’s crossed the line for even a 25 year old truck. Two problems in particular were getting worse. The first was a noise from under the hood that sounded similar to the ticking noise from an exhaust leak. The problem was it was coming from the left side of the engine, opposite the exhaust. When I had the manifolds off for the head gasket repair I checked them for cracks, so I was fairly certain it wasn’t leaking from there. I could only hear it under load so I could never identify where it was coming from by sticking my head under the hood. Finally I gave up last week and went to a local Toyota shop to see if they could figure it out. A half hour of labor later they came back with the diagnoses of a cracked heat shield. No exhaust leak after all, just a rattle that was in time with the exhaust pulse. I took it back home and added a hose clamp to keep the heat shield in place.

The next noise was a constant squeaking from the rear of the truck whenever I went over a bump…or when I slowed down…or accelerated. This was easier to identify. The rear leaf spring bushings were shot. They were in bad shape last year when I installed the add-a-leaf, and half a year of carrying a camper only made them worse. Below is a 360 video of the bushing replacement.

It’s been a slow winter for the T100. With the camper gone it’s been serving as my daily driver, but with Spring just about here I’ve been thinking about setting it up for longer trips again. Since I won’t be spending as much time in it as last year, a full camper would be overkill and instead I’ve been keeping an eye out for a cheap shell for the bed. I finally lucked out and found this ARE topper on craigslist:

It came off of a 270k mile T100 and needs some maintenance, but it has some great features for a camper shell. Came with a carpeted interior, compression boot where it meets the cab, hinged window on the left, and a slider on the right. The downside to it is the height. I had hoped for a flush shell, but for $200 I can’t complain. I also need to do something about the paint. At a minimum the white paint needs to be touched up, but I’m considering a full repaint to match the truck. Would look better, but I might regret it in the heat.

When I installed the 2″ lift kit, the final ride height measured out a 1/2″ higher in the rear than in the front. Since I knew the camper was going back on I left it as is and guessed I would see about 1″ of sag in the rear which would keep things roughly lined up. It turned out to be a bit more than that.

The total sag came out to 2″ in the back, more than enough to be noticeable. I debated adding rear air bags, but I was quoted >$600 to get them installed. The parts cost was less than half that, but since I’m living out of the camper for the next few months, I’m stuck without a good place to work on the truck. A lift block looked like a much easier installation and I was reasonably sure I could do it myself at a campsite. Toytec offers a 1.5″ block, so I grabbed a pair along with a set of 9″ u-bolts.

The installation itself was about as easy as it could be. The entire process is shown in the video embedded below:

The end result came out just about perfect. Air bags might have been nice for the adjustability, but I can’t complain about the simplicity of this set up.

I’ll start with the completed picture, the T100 is looking good again.

I’ve been running with just the rear add-a-leafs for the last two weeks, and the jacked up rear look was really getting to me. Installing the Toytec ball joint spacer was straightforward, I followed the factory manual ball joint replacement procedure and trimmed the upper control arm to fit the spacer before reinstalling it.

I also ended up shimming the shock to get about a 1/2″ more down travel. Though the upper bump stop still isn’t fully compressed, so I might end up shimming the bump stop as well. The only real surprise was with the nuts and extended hex bolts Toytec included. All the online write-ups for generic spacer installs say to replace the hardware, but I had assumed Toytec would bundle decent quality gear with their kit. But sure enough the first time I tried torquing them down the nuts stripped off the bolt.

I might have expected this kind of issue from an ebay seller, but not from a local shop. The bolts did look decent enough and actually had the same markings as the replacement ones I bought. Though after how easily the nuts stripped I wasn’t going to chance it and replaced everything.

Once it was all back together it measured out at a little over 2″ lift at the front wheels, which is close to the 2″ that was advertised but is a little more than I actually want. The rear sags about an inch with the camper on, so I’m planning on adjusting the front traction bars down a 1/2″ to get it to ride closer to level. Should soften things up too.

Last weekend I finally got around to installing add-a-leafs in the back of the T100. I bought a 2″ lift kit from ToyTec when they were having a black Friday sale, with the goal of gaining enough clearance to fit 33″ tires. The lift consists of the leaf for the rear suspension and a 1.5″ ball joint spacer for the front. The remaining .5″ up front is supposed to come from torsion bar adjustment. Though I’m expecting the camper to compress the rear suspension some, so I’ll leave it at 1.5″ and only adjust the front if it ends up uneven.

I put together a short youtube video of the installation:

What’s not shown is the driver side install. I had intended to replace the leaf spring bushings while I had it apart, but the new bushings turned out to be the wrong size. Which was unfortunate since I spent nearly an hour prying the front leaf spring pin from the old bushing.

The lift came out to nearly exactly 2″ in back. It’s riding comically high in the rear now since I ran out of time to install the front lift. I’ll show that install in a future update.

What’s impressive about this photo?

I can see through the window again! Last Thanksgiving I took the inaugural trip of the Phoenix camper. I used the tie down locations left in place from the Fleet camper, they turned out to be too close to the rear eyebolts of the new one and allowed the camper to slide forward. This resulted in a smashed rear window covered in gaffer tape for the past few months.

The other visible improvement is to the side window latch. The prior owner had used a lengthy piece of rusty wire to close the window shut. I finally replaced it with a genuine Toyota latch assembly. I rarely have passengers in back so I can’t see it getting much use, but at least now it’s less likely to stab whoever’s sitting next to it.

I installed a set of Bilstein 4600s this past weekend. With Amazon back ordered, I ended up finding the fronts locally at Four Wheel parts. The old shocks looked to be original, Toyota marked KYBs in back and Tokicos in front. Odd that they were different manufacturers, but both were stamped with Toyota part numbers.

It’s possible the previous owner had them replaced at a dealer, but given the condition they were in I’ll believe they’re 20 years old. The Bilsteins went in smoothly, though as warned in an Amazon review the mounting ears for the front shock had to be bent out slightly to fit the shock. The ride is much better already, though the real payoff will be when the camper goes back on. Carrying that much weight on blown shocks was more than a little unsettling.