lckstckn2smknbrls
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2008
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- LOCATION
- Lake in the Hills Illinois
I recently acquired my parents 2006 Toyota Sienna mini van, they bought it new and put 90,000 miles on it in 13 years. It's the limited XLE with almost every option but no hitch. I bought a Drawtite hitch over the winter but just got around to installing the hitch. The van has 6 threaded holes under the rear. I tried screwing the bolts in the holes but no go 13 years of northern Illinois weather, winters, salt and corrosion had messed up the threads.
I went to Auto zone and through their loan a tool program I got a thread restorer kit. I couldn't get the thread restorer to start in the threads either. My next idea was to use a tap to clear the threads. I went to Menards they had the proper size tap and the T handle too. It took about 15 minuets to run the tap through the 3 holes on the drivers side the holes on the passenger side were a little harder to get too because the tail pipe was in the way.
The instructions and most of the videos say to drop the exhaust but if you pull on the tail pipe and use a ratchet, long extension and 5/16" 12 point socket you can get the tap to the holes.
Now that the holes were cleared I slid the hitch in over the tailpipe and set the other end of the hitch on a floor jack and raised it up.
Now it was just a matter of screwing in the 6 bolts and torqueing them to 75ft pound and done. The hitch sits pretty low on the Sienna vans so I'll be getting a fairly tall hitch and I'll be using the Masterlock 1-7/8" 2" and 2-5/6" 10,000 pound rated interchangeable ball system.
All in all it went pretty well, I'm waiting for the trailer light wiring kit to come in.
I went to Auto zone and through their loan a tool program I got a thread restorer kit. I couldn't get the thread restorer to start in the threads either. My next idea was to use a tap to clear the threads. I went to Menards they had the proper size tap and the T handle too. It took about 15 minuets to run the tap through the 3 holes on the drivers side the holes on the passenger side were a little harder to get too because the tail pipe was in the way.
The instructions and most of the videos say to drop the exhaust but if you pull on the tail pipe and use a ratchet, long extension and 5/16" 12 point socket you can get the tap to the holes.
Now that the holes were cleared I slid the hitch in over the tailpipe and set the other end of the hitch on a floor jack and raised it up.
Now it was just a matter of screwing in the 6 bolts and torqueing them to 75ft pound and done. The hitch sits pretty low on the Sienna vans so I'll be getting a fairly tall hitch and I'll be using the Masterlock 1-7/8" 2" and 2-5/6" 10,000 pound rated interchangeable ball system.
All in all it went pretty well, I'm waiting for the trailer light wiring kit to come in.
