Newbie with a few questions

Hey, new to the forum -- I've got myself a '95 Taco 4x4 2.7L and love it! I've done some cosmetic things to it, but nothing else. It basically gets me where I need to go, and does some light off-road to get me to places for my right-now hobby of photography!

First, such a great site!! All the info is really really helpful to someone who is trying to keep it cheap and do it all without pricey dealer intervention!

A few questions for you all -

1) I'm replacing my exhaust manifold that has developed a nasty crack, and already have a nice aftermarket one (got it for a steal from a parts dealer friend) and was wondering if you have any advice before I go at it?

2) Recently I lost my antenna to a rather nasty carwash -- the owner was completely cool with it, so I'd rather save him a few $$ and do it myself if possible. It kinda broke it down in the silver surround part, if that makes sense. Do I have to get into the fender area for this, or what?

Any responses will be greatly appreciated! Such a great site!

Exhaust manifold : Let the star bolts soak overnight...You'll be glad in the morning. Be careful if you have an 02 sensor in the rear area, it can give way a little but you don't want to overbend it. Get new gaskets for everything..don't reuse the 02 sensor gasket if you have it. have fun and have a 6pack ready for afterwards. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />
personally, I bought a new stock manifold, so I have no experience with aftermarket parts.
Oh, and clean the surface area of the header really well before assembly.

Welcome on! For the antenna, this is actually a mod, but it'll get you where you need to go:

http://www.4runners.org/writeups/whip/index.html

Also, for $10 and your time, you can get the FSM for your truck at www.techinfo.toyota.com, to include TSB's and all that stuff. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Fantastic! I was stumped on how to do the antenna -- now that I know all that it should be a piece of cake!

The manifold that I have isn't anything special, just a bolt-on aftermarket that supposedly 'strengthened the weak areas prone to cracking'. I got a good deal, so why not.

I may look into getting the FSM - I really am only sorta 'borrowing' the truck for the summer. It was mine, but then I got married, got a job, needed a better transit car with better mileage -- so my parents bought the Taco back for my little brother. Our schedules are crazy so we needed two cars, thus I have my Taco again. It's fun though, I'm doing all these things and mom is paying for it, I just do the labor!

Problem - I went out and followed the instructions you guys gave me -- I unscrewed the chrome bezel part, and it came up with the black surround (the piece that flows to a molded piece with the truck...) Anyway, that came out fine, but the antenna is broken off down in what I would assume be the base that is connected to the wiring from the radio. Any advice on how to solve this??

You'll likely have to follow every step shown in the procedure posted to replace the whole antenna.

You can probably get at the antenna base if you unscrew the plastic fender liner.