What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

again..lift doesn't mean the tire is going to fit.



either way should be fine. I doubt i have more than 2'' lift and fit that same size tire.

 

I’m sure the way the tires just set in front my other tire throws off proportion.

And I got a couple hundo pounds back there atm.

Thanks for the reassurance...

 

Just to put it into comparison, when I was calling shops to diagnose my flexplate issue the average R&I charge of a transmission was in the range $750-$1,200. My local transmission shop charged me about $988 labor plus the cost of an OEM flexplate.

Of course I did the original transmission swap myself, but when things when awry I decided to leave it to the professionals. 9/10 a transmission swap will go smoothly I just got unlucky with a warped TC from a front end collision donor truck unbeknownst to me.

 

access to welder but not mine.

can you suggest angle from cross member to rear axle?
I "think" I have 10.25" billies 5125s

ok, so the shock mounts lower than centerline of the rear axle sounds like a non-issue

 

I'll be honest I had no idea what I was doing either. Biggest mechanical work before I did my 4WD swap was changing my brake calipers and rotors - seriously. I just studied up on videos, read the FSM A340F/A340E section religiously, and just started removing fasteners, hoses, and connectors according to the FSM step by step instructions alongside the exploded diagram. Double check everything, torque everything to spec, and most of it is self explanatory. Longest part by far was re-aligning the dowel pins on the transmission to the engine. Took me a good three hours with my fully adjustable transmission jack.

And it worked fine. At least for a few days until the flexplate finally cracked from the stress of the uneven runout.

 

What helped me the most was using large ratchet straps to hold the tranny in place. Not like a jack you can angle the tranny to line it up.

 

Got pulled over on my way home from my girlfriends. 67 in a 55. No ticket thankfully! Kinda lied my way out of that it

 

I guess I got lucky... I had no flex plate issue

 

I had the fancy fully adjustable transmission jack and it was still struggling. I made the mistake of keeping the transfer case mated because I was lazy and a result it was rear heavy causing the jack to lean backwards.

Removing and mating the transmission is just a huge pain in the ass. I actually cracked the bellhousing of my A340E removing it from a dowel pin that got hung up. Luckily my replacement transmission came off the same engine so I was fine.

 

No mistake in keeping the t case mounted. It just needs to be angled to line up. I did it mounted.

 

Now that's interesting - is that a v6 03/04 ETCS-I transmission? That looks a lot different than mine does. Is the t-case shifter rod straight or bent?

 

Yes you are correct. I think the shifter is bent. I don’t remember. But you done your homework

 

I used the same trans jack as @BartMaster1234 - there's so much play in the adjustment threads and such a small contact area that it is a battle trying to get the trans not to rotate from the off center weight of the transfer case. I didn't like trying to get the trans past the power steering lines and all the other stuff on the way out so I made an extremely simple jig out of pressed board to make putting it back in hopefully easier. I'm down with the ratchet strap idea too - I used them to help take it out.

Got a couple things done today. Learned a little more about non-add diffs thanks to @BartMaster1234 so I'm going to be looking for either a non-add jack shaft and tube or a complete non-add diff. That delayed my plan for the front diff to get torn down today - don't want to mess with a complete diff until I figure out which route I'm going to take.




Moving around with the jig on there makes the trans feel a lot more solid and the play in the adjusters doesn't seem to make as much of a difference since it's locked in once you get to the end of the play in the threads.

On another note, the front diff pinion looks super close to the bellhousing bolt holes on the block. I don't know if it's just me, or if I lost some engine height from the bomb proof motor mounts - does anyone have a bad experience from mounting the engine and losing height with these? Probably just my imagination, I'm going to try to mount the trans tomorrow - or at least just get it to line up. It's been off the truck for 6 months.

 

got the 4.7L engine rebuilt finally. went through a shit ton of wire wheels for a dermal to clean the heads and everything. going to get her painted and probably dyno'd next week

 

Are you lifted at all? How do the u-joints feel when you rotate them through their full range of motion?

 

LowRange Offroad

 

The cig lighter isn't changeable. It's soldered to the 2 pins. To change to an LED you have to do this.

 

No been doing taxes.

 

Rivet guns are inexpensive. You need the gun, but you don't necessarily need Redline. I bought Suspa 60# struts off Amazon for $22 and 4 brackets off feeBay for $15. Already had the gun, and rivets are just a few cents apiece.

 

@Blackdawg The shocks were acting as limit straps when I first installed them in the factory location which seemed sketchy. We mounted them with the axle at full droop and gave the shocks another .5-1" of down travel as extra insurance. The shocks should have more down travel than the leaf pack / axle now. Does that make sense?

Thanks @Squeaky Penguin That does sound like more of a to do that what I had done. I may end up fussing around with the rear shocks and leaf packs again this year because need to change out my current shims for some w a steeper angle. I'll make sure to pester you guys if I get into that project and need some insight