3 Tons of Fun! Littles' Build, Travel, and B.S. Thread

Thanks! It's all coming together. This has been a fun mod to tackle.

I used Bill's Englewood driveshaft. They built my 1 piece double cardan for $575 last year.

Modifications were $336 with new u-joints up front.

I will eventually have them modify my backup 2 piece, but I thought it best to keep it stock for the moment in the event that something goes terribly wrong and the FJ case goes back into the truck without the crawlbox. At least I will have 2wd.

 

That’s not bad at all. Thanks for the recommendation! And that sounds like a smart idea with your backup, at least for awhile.

 

For the ADD delete, I followed this thread:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-deleting-add-system.427258/#post-12253319



I took the axle shaft and bearing to a local shop and had them press it on for me so I could assemble it all together ahead of time.



After trying to get the snap ring in by a variety of means, I broke down and bought a special set of large snap ring pliers of Amazon just for this task. I actually had to take my angle grinder to the pliers to get them to catch the snap ring properly, but it was easy peasy once I did.


I drove the seal in to the proper depth specified in the thread linked above and then set to work draining the front diff and pulling the CV.


Unlike in the thread above, I did not unbolt the diff from the frame. I was able to loosen the bolts and pull diff tube out by just pushing the support arm over while it was still bolted in. Then I popped out the ADD stud and was ready to put in the new tube and axle.




Sealed up the tube, bolted it in. You can see the wire dangling down for the ADD actuator. That just gets cut as far back as I can and left connected to nothing.


My diff drain bolt was starting to strip out and so I replaced that with the Lexus plug. Pop back in the CV axle and the rest of that crap, get the tire back on, fill the diff and you're done...aside from wiring which I'll get to in a later post.

 

Ok so next up is the body lift, which I started doing and then realized the body mounts needed love so i replaced those too.

Followed this write up on body mounts so I wont be detailing the whole install:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...stall-now-with-pictures.432885/#post-12488510

Honestly this was one of the biggest bitches of the project so far. Not because a body lift is difficult to do...procedurally it's pretty simple and straight forward. It was a bitch because rust and seized bolts.

On both the body and the bed, there was one bolt that decided to be a little asshole. It took multiple cycles of heat, PB plaster, and air hammer, impact and the f-word to convince them to let go. I also broke a bolt holding a body mount bushing in on the frame so I opted to replace all of them as well.

So my pro-tip here is to PB blaster the shit out of the bolts a few days ahead of time, and be ready to replace bolts. With the body lift, the bolts get replaced with longer ones, but you re-use some for the bed. I didnt replace my bed bolts because I wanted to get shit back together, but I will when I pull the bed for my new shock mounts later this year.

This little SOB was seized up in the sleeve. I eventually got the bushing to break loose, but then the sleeve would just spin in the rubber bushing. It took several days of blow torch and PB blaster to release from the sleeve.


Snapped the head off this guy and decided to replace all 8.


Rusted bolts!


I lubed every surface of the body mounts and lift before install.

Old vs new

Final:



Another pro-tip...the pucks for the front of the cab by the radiator have smaller holes for the smaller bolts. Dont accidentally use one of the larger inner diameter pucks up front and have to take it out because you realized it when putting the last bolt in the bed.


Between the body lift and some hammering on the trans tunnel, I have plenty of space for the triple stick linkages. I think this can be done without a body lift, but it will require a fair amount of hammering. I probably didnt need to hammer the trans tunnel as much as we did. Big thanks to @CO MTN Steve for being my muscle on the BFH.

In contrast to photos in my prior posts, you can see the linkage is now below the body instead of above.

 

I’m glad I had the dealership replace my body mounts when they did the new frame. What a bitch.

 

Yeah, they definitely sucked. It's one of those things that you just need to leave extra time for and be prepared for the possibility that you might get halfway through and need order parts. Don't start at noon on a sunday if it's your daily.

 

Did you go with OEM or poly mounts? I did poly and didn’t really notice any extra vibes.

 

I went with poly. Are vibes that a thing that people have mentioned happening after going to poly?

 

Yea just cause they’re stiffer than OEM rubber.

 

With the body lift and mounts in, I started trying to work on the shifters and wiring.

Heres a closer view of the clearance between the linkages and the body:




Before making any modifications, things were actually looking decent. I had a little contact between 2nd gear and crawl box shifter in the forward position, and could not access reverse with the crawl shifter forward, but otherwise I was pretty happy with how things landed:



With the center console:





Time to get out the dremel and cut some plastic to make moar room.





I bought a little harbor freight welder thinking that I'd be able to just pick up the gun and stick metal together. After some embarrassing practice welds I decided I should really try to score and bend versus cut and re-weld. I scored the crawlbox shifter on both sides and bent that bad boy, more to the left and forward. I scored both tcase shifters and bent them both outward. I also unbolted the trans shifter and flipped it over to the passenger side to give me more space between the crawl box shifter. I think they could all use to be just a hair longer so they are not as far down in the center console, but I can get to everything without shifter contacting or rattling. I have the space I need to get to reverse and 2nd gear so I'll call that a win.

 

Awesome awesome work Bryan. I've been wanting to try an ADD delete for first gen's without doing manual hubs for a long time but haven't pulled the trigger yet. I should have when I snapped my stub shaft but didn't.

 

Thanks Mike. I know I mentioned it before but despite setbacks I really am having a lot of fun with this mod. It's amazing that I have been able to find almost all the know how i need online, mostly on this forum.

I assume it's a similar process to do the ADD delete on the 1st gens?

 

Should be even easier. Get a tube off a manual diff and bolt it onto the add diff. Done.

I’ve wanted to do it ever since I saw Ant do it, and then we talked about it when he was at my place when I was fixing my stub shaft. We figured removing the add setup would remove the extra risk of deflection but I haven’t been able to scoop up a stupid cheap manual diff to give it a go yet.

 

Bryan you are a badass who else rebuilds tcase’s on their kitchen counter. We have to go wheeling again sometime!

 

This hasn't exactly been a budget build for me and I lack patience to wait for the right thing to come along, but if it ain't broke you have time to wait for the diff.

I dont even mind wiring and when I thought about the options, pulling the whole side apart, draining the diff, and swapping things out was still more appealing to me then wiring up that switch. I have never had an issue but it's one less thing to go wrong.

Being single has its advantages. One is a healthy truck parts budget and two is no one gives you a hard time for degreasing a transfer case in the sink.



Crossing my fingers i'll be running again in another week or so just in time for Moab. It's been hard being down in the middle of the season.

 

I know we are skipping ahead a little with the step by step on the crawlbox...but heres a little teaser. Installing tonight!

 

Badass. Just in time to meet us in Moab huh.

 

this is so awesome! would love to see kayla's face if i had that laid out on the counter

heading to rock therapy so we can have a turtle race?

 

I am down to the wire thanks to delays and fuck ups.

How bout laying it out on the counter for 2 months? Lol. It's a cozy place to work.

Dont think I'm going to make rock therapy...which is why I'm trying to get out this week. but we will see...could maybe swing a long weekend.