DIY rear diff armor on the cheap

have done this on other toyotas so figured i would do it again.
now you can go buy ones for 50-80 bucks and those are totally fine, but i like using these as they are beefy and cheap. just requires a little work.

the main reason for doing this, is that the stock covers are paper thin, so a little ding on a rock will push it onto the ring gear. you dont want that.

Step 1
first up pick up yourself a butt weld 8" weld cap. they look like this. they are 3/8" thick. so very thick.


Step 2
next up you will need to cut it in half. you can do this a few ways, but i used my band saw (you can use a chop saw, cut off wheel, hacksaw lol)



Step 3
drink a beer.

Step 4
once you have the two halfs, you will want to add a drain hole on the bottom. i also drilled and tapped a hole to reattach the ebrake cable guide. I also cut a half circle out of the top to get easier access to the fill plug. i did that with just a hole saw.


and a bottom shot showing the drain hole. i think i just drilled a 1/2" hole as that should be fine.


Step 5
then weld it up. sand off any paint before welding and have at it. I will say that my bottom weld didnt turn out to great due to getting contaminated/ windy/ upside down lol
but its not going anywhere. you dont need to fully weld it, i normally just do a 2" weld on both sides and one on the bottom.


Step 6
Drink another beer and watch the paint dry

and one i did on my other toyota. this thing has hit many many rocks and still looks new.

 

Nice writeup! I'd like to do this sometime just for the hell of it, I don't rock climb very much but this is nice to have no matter what

 

looks good, no worries welding about getting too hot in the housing or anything? or did u do it with an empy rearend?

 

awesome... just need a welder and some more beer

 

i normally dont empty the diff, but you can if you want. also, with small welds you are not putting to much heat into it. now dont go all crazy with it as you can put to much heat in it, but go easy with it and you will be fine. I also like leaving it full as having the fluid inside will help cool the welds faster.

i also dont rock crawl with this, but i did it on my last truck before i got into crawling as i dented my diff cover when backing into a camping spot on a large rock at night lol. just easy protection.

 

Great write-up! Now to find those caps...

 

Wondering if this would work the same on a 3rd gen. I don't see why it wouldn't. Does it get in the way of servicing the diff at all?

 

Anything is possible. OP is one of our resident fabricators (https://www.paranoidfabrications.com/collections/toyota-tacoma). If there was an issue with servicing, I'm guessing he would've resolved before sharing.

Take some measurements and start checking online suppliers.

 

ik this is a diy thread but if any 1st gen guys wana buy a bolt on rear diff skid the 2nd gen taco one off of RCI fit my 1st gen