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

That bench test video was awesome.

 

Not sure if this applies to 2nd gens but keep an eye on your bed mounts. The spacers that came with my body lift are too small of a surface area and punched through the bed crossmember.

Also, great work on the crawlbox!

 

Good to know. Especially with how much weight I carry in my bed. I'll have a chance to reinforce if I need to when I pull the bed for the shock mount relocate.

 

Alright back to the crawlbox install...

While I had the crawlbox and tcase installed for test fitting, I measured my driveshaft and had those modified so they'd be ready. At this point I was just waiting on the spline coupling and input shafts for the tcases that had been dropped off at G&K. It was a happy day when they arrived.





Now it was time to put the input shaft back in the FJ case and glue it back together. I replaced the front output shaft seal, the input shaft seal, the oil pump seal, and the shift rail seals. Ultimately this was a waste, because in my haste, I royally fucked up. I neglected to get the hi/lo sleeve properly seated in the planetary gear and cracked the back of my tcase bolting it together. stupid stupid stupid. I wasnt about up go through all of this work and put a cracked case in my truck so I paid the idiot tax and bought another FJ case with fewer miles for less money.






I cracked the case on Friday afternoon. I had a new one by tuesday.


To save time, I swapped over the twin stick shift rail from my busted tcase. I took my time re-assembling the case this time around. Now that the input shaft was back in the tcase, I did my bench testing to make sure everything worked in lo, double lo, and 4wd. It was at this point I realized I would have to grind down the tacobox to make bolts fit because fuck marlin. Gotta love taking a grinder to a $2200 part.




After the bench test I unbolted everything, sealed up the tcase to the tacobox and then the moment of truth. I opted not to install the oil seal extension housing until after I knew everything would fit. Glad I did.




Because of the neck, the spline coupling did not seat as deep into the trans as I had hoped. As a result, it was sticking out just slightly past the tail housing on the trans. If you look at the input on the crawl box, I needed it to sit about 1/2 inch deeper than the bell housing in order to bolt it all the way down.





This was my biggest fear when designing the adapter. I wanted to make the 23 spline female side as long as possible to take advantage of the total spline input on the crawlbox, but needed to balance that with it fitting between the trans and the crawlbox. My solution was once again to break out the grinder.

I realized that the trans output had a bit of a bevel, and if I ground down the 90 degree shoulder of the adapter it would seat further into the trans. I also beveled the 23 spline side so that it wouldn't bottom out on the neck of the input shaft. These seemed easier to me than trying to grind the entire adapter down.




The end result is that I got the extra 1/2 I needed. Below is the adapter with the oil seal extension housing.




After that, it bolted up perfectly...for the most part...


I was not able to install the bottom two bolts. Apparently one of them requires drilling out the threads on the trans to bolt it the opposite direction into the the crawl box...and I dont know why the hell the other one felt like it was bottoming out. 6 out of 8 bolts should hold it

 

So back to the more or less final part of my crawlbox install...

I was up till 2:30 in the morning bolting that bad boy in on Tuesday the 24th of September. Got up on Wednesday morning, filled the front diff, drained and filled the trans, filled the crawlbox with about 2.5 quarts, filled the tcase and put in the sticks.

I backed it out of the garage and put it in low low and everything worked. Forgive my crappy video...I was actually shaking with excitement.



With 2 days till Moab, I still had the exhaust re-route and crawlbox support to finger out. I went to AA Performance Muffler and Brakes in Englewood. A mom and pop shop with an older couple that runs it. When I called and said that I needed a re-route on my tacoma and the wife asked if it was to fit my skid plats and needed to go around the black box on the back of the tcase...I knew I had the right shop. I told them what I needed, they marked it up, took me out and showed me their plan, and they had me in and out in about 90 minutes.




Later in the evening I went over to see @YamaDirtrider and he fabbed me up a simple support for the crawlbox with some c-channel. I have seen some of the beefy ass supports others have gone with and just didn't think I needed to go that crazy. When I learn how to weld I may do some gussets or something down the road but I like how clean it is.





Thursday morning was a chaotic rush to get the front driveshaft in and the skid plates installed. My tcase skid ends directly behind the t-case but the cross member for my tcase skid needed to be placed exactly where the back of the tcase hangs down. There was no way to bolt it properly to the cross member, but I figured something was better than nothing. I installed as many bolts as I could in the the front of the skid and installed the crossmember just behind the tcase. Good enough for now until I get it extended or buy the bud built skid that matches my setup.

Then it was off to Moab. I didn't get to beat on it as hard as I wanted, but I threw it in compound low every chance I got. Everything worked flawlessly.



I still have some odds and ends to deal with. My drive shaft was also rubbing slightly against the center bearing mount, so I cut that off and will just convert my spare driveshaft to a 1-piece.




I still need to seal up the floor, finalize the stick positions and do my shift boots. My speed sensor somehow got damaged and stopped working so that has to be replaced. Oh, and the crawlbox does not want more than like 2 quarts of oil. Anything more than that and it's just throwing oil out the shifter boot...which is what I expected with the known adapter plate issue.

This is hands down the coolest thing I have done to my truck and my absolute favorite mod. If I could do everything over again, I would do forego all other mods and do this first.

I am officially all caught up on my build thread. Just have to muster up the motivation to complete all the finishing touches.

 

Nice work!

 

Wyatt at RST told me 2qt exactly in the marlin or it'll do just that... this was also confirmed by another TW member who got a response from marlin. MT is limited, however, when mated to a AT, the crawlbox requires a lot more oil

 

Most excellent.

 

Sweet build and subbed

 

I am a little late to the game, but great work dude! Next time you post, copy all the crawlbox info over top the crawlbox bs thread, tons of good infomration. This needs to be in there as well! good write up!

 

Thanks Greg!

Eventually I'd like to get this whole install into a consolidated post but we'll see if I get that motivated.

I do have some build thread news:

After taking some time off from wrenching, I did make some progress the truck this weekend.

I was in such a rush throwing shit together before Moab that a few things didnt get done quite right or as I wanted.

I had purchased a new bushing for my hurst shifter as well a new shift boot since mine was deteriorating. I installed the shift boot but I never got around to installing the bushing. I had purchased the shifter used, and I've put 20 or 30k on it and it I had a rattle. I'm not sure if the rattle developed over time, or if it was there all along. We'll see if this helps. I also slapped a dab of RTV between the shifter base and the shifter to help avoid rattles there. It was only loosely fitted together when I left for Moab so there was a ton of slop in the shifter the past few weeks and gears have been hard to find. Gave the bolts a few good ugga duggas and its feeling a lot tighter now.





I also didnt have time figure out how to seal the floor before Moab, so I have been running the truck with this giant hole I cut in in floor and the boot just kinda chillin over it. Needless to say it's been a bit loud in the cab, and the smell of gear oil spewing out the shift boot has been intoxicating.

Figured it was time to come up with something a little better. The floor of the truck where my hole is cut is incredibly uneven, due to just the shape of the floor and wailing on it with a hammer.



To make the surface a little easier to seal with the boot I got from Radesigns with my triple shifter, I used some leftover mass loaded vinyl from sound proofing the back of my cab and I cut that up around the hole and glued the pieces together. I also cut a piece to fit closer up around the trans shifter to keep noise down up ther . Ideally I would like to put a moisture barrier and a decoupling layer between the MLV and the floor, but for now this will be a huge improvement over a gaping hole.






Another thing that gave me hell with crawl box install was this damn c-clip for the shifter base. I tried like hell the day I was leaving for Moab to get it on with the shift base bolted to the crawl box and after 45 minutes of cursing and sweating, said screw it and just slid the boot over...knowing it would leak more and I would have to be 3xtra careful about not yanking it out when shifting. Only happened once on the trail. So I figured I would fix this today too...







With over 1,000 miles on the new crawl box and the shifter off, I figured I ought to change the oil. It was darker than I thought so I am glad I did. No major chunks on the magnet which is good. Roughly 2.25 came out so hopefully it wont spew so bad with just 2qts in there this time.




Another thing I didnt do last time was seal the shift base...so that too could have contributed to my oil spewage.





And finally with the boot installed:



The sticks do sit a little low inside the console. I need to raise them up a little higher so the knobs dont contact the center console before I finalize the interior boot.


And last but not least, I got some help from @YamaDirtrider and @Red Baron extending my tcase skid. I couldn't justify spending $350 for a new one to go a few inches longer. Just needs a little paint and the fun task of re-positioning the cross member on the frame and this baby is ready to go back on.


That's all for today. Getting closer and closer to buttoning up loose ends on this project. I have a feeling getting these little things done is going to take me the longest because they are non essential and the truck runs.

 

Not much to report. Things have been quiet since the crawl box went in. Haven't seen a trail since the day after Thanksgiving in Moab with my brother. Got a really beautiful shot of the canyon coming down Pucker pass that day.


I think you were enjoying equally shitty weather on the other side of the canyon.

 

Your brother was here last night until 1:30

we need to start discussing spring in February...

 

So I was taking parts off the truck last night getting ready for the next exciting stage of my build that starts this weekend, and decided to get a little nostalgic flipping back through my pictures to the last time I photographed my truck without the topper. This was back in October 2015 in north central PA just 2 months before I moved to Colorado.




Here we are a little over 4 years later. At a quick glance, not much looks like it has changed. Since then, the entire suspension has been upgraded, went from 33s to 35s, lockers, re-gear, and a crawl box.




I am loving driving the truck today without all that weight. It feels like a race truck now

 

One from this morning with slightly better light.

 

Replaced headlights this past weekend with a set I got from @303tacoma. Thanks again Becca! They look so much better.

I also touched up some paint chips around the lights and anywhere else I saw.







Found some pretty awesome cracks in the core support while I was in there. Not sure what to do about that at the moment so I just put the headlights back in and will do my best not to think about for awhile.




I had high hopes of being able to put my voltage monitor and dual battery disconnect switch in the old 4wd switch location next to the A/c controls and finally finish that off by taking advantage of some real estate I picked up with the FJ case swap, but I didnt think two switches would fit side by side in that blank so I tucked the wires in and popped in the blank for now. Its nice not having wires dangling for the first time since October.


I need to do some work on my triple sticks to raise them up a bit before I have my boot made to finish that off.

I am looking forward to my 5 hour drive out to grand junction this weekend for the new flippac.

 

So. Much. Win.

 

How'd the interview go?

 

Welcome B
You should look into upgrading your harness (Theyre located in Centennial)
The light output is awesome running higher wattage bulbs..

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/