Betterbuckleup's 2000 taco build & BS

Yea I did the rear seal a bit ago. The small inner one on the companion flange wasn't bad, but that large inner one didn't wanna come out.
I got a new seal puller tool that should hopefully make taking it out easier this time around for the front.

 

Sub'd! Amazing Build!

Your running 12.5" wide tires right? Hows the power/mpg/off-roading with them?

 

I'm running 285/75r16 tires which is about 11.2" wide.

With my previous 4.30 gears it wasn't too bad. But changing to 4.88 made driveability a lot better. It really comes down to your combo of engine, trans, and gearing in your differentials on how larger tires will perform for you.

MPG was about 14-15 city and 16-17 highway with the 4.30's on these tires. I have yet to find out if I have an MPG increase with the 4.88's.

The general X3 tire itself is an amazing tire. Before when I was open-open on both diffs, I was blown away the stuff I was able to get up. I attribute a lot of that to the tires.

 

When you gear higher, it creates more torque right? That would translate to lower top speed?

Been keeping my eye out for a Ext Cab 4x4 V6 Auto
Would the width change if I got r15's instead of 16" rim size?

 

Wow, you’ve done a ton of work! Nice job!

 

Essentially, yes but the opposite of what you said. I geared lower by going from 4.88's from 4.30's. Before at say 80mph I was at like 3k rpm. Now it sits at close to 3300 rpm with the 4.88 gearing. So less top speed pretty much I guess you could say, but these toyota motors are rev-happy and have no problem with operating at higher RPMS. My new gearing puts my torque/power curve at a more usable range in the powerband if that makes sense.

A great tool that like to use for calculating tire sizes is this website: Really useful for comparing tire, wheel, and offset combinations.

Thanks!

 

Finally got around to installing my axle relocation plates yesterday.
Had them sitting around for about 2 years or so, but decided to throw them on after my rear tire tried to eat the front of my rear fender when I tried to run the ditch at Hollister last weekend. I also trimmed the inside front and rear of the flares on the back for extra insurance.

I used the 3/4" position on the plate to move the axle back. Going to test it at work with the forklift to make sure I don't have any more rubbing issues with my fenders or my flares.

I'll hopefully be ordering some durobump bumpstops for the rear soon too so that I can prevent my rear leafs from going too far negative. The stock ones don't even touch under full articulation.

 

went to moonrocks in Nevada yesterday and had a good time.

Super cool terrain there and tons of trails that go all over the place. Good place to test out your suspension too on some of the whooped out sandy sections too.

Stoked with how the truck performed and how the lockers did. Wish I had a supercharger for some of the climbs though.

Got some cool footage of some obstacles and my front suspension putting in work.

 

Making a To-Do List to keep track of things that I need to do on the truck short-term.

• Rear diff armor (https://trail-gear.com/armor/300655-kittacoma-rear-differential-armor-1995-2013.html)
• Rear Durobumps bumpstops (& measure length needed)
• Turn down front diff drop spacers on lathe to keep front diff off of skid plate
• Front passenger side core support reinforcement/repair
• Bed stiffeners/tie-down point
• Remove LCA's to grease bushings, install cam tab supports, & do DIY alignment
• Install uni-strut below rear window

 

Checked out Prairie City on the way back from Tahoe this last weekend.
Cool place with some fun obstacles to mess around on.

Really wish I had dual cases. That's moving up on the list of mods that I wanna do in the near future. You really have to ride the clutch in the technical stuff.

 

Been busy on the truck with the whole shelter-in-place going on right now.


Plated the lower core support body mount area since the other side was starting to collapse, and the side I tried to fix before broke again. I really hope this holds because if it doesn't, i'll either have to make my own core support from scratch or get real creative with that lower section and modify it to be stronger.



Also pulled both LCA's and re-greased my whiteline bushings sine the passenger side was starting to squeak pretty loudly.


While I was down there, I welded some 1/4"? bar stock on either side of the cam tabs to reinforce them and prevent them from folding over.



Also discovered that I had a close call on my rear diff when I was at Prairie city a bit ago.



So that led to be adding some 1/4" thick beef, courtesy of trail gear, to the rear diff cover to prevent help me from potentially royally fucking things up

 

I need to look into this... but at the same time I have some pinon angle spacers I wanted to add but I don't think stacking the two is a good idea.

My project 1999 Taco hit a few hogs and deer in it's past life. The core support is toast. It also slightly damaged the passenger fender apron so a new core support isn't an option either. A full custom front end of the body is almost the only option besides a body swap. Full custom is also pretty far above my current skill set.

 

I was able to get away without it until I went up to 285/75r16 rubber. Got way worse when I added fender flares on too.

I wouldn't add any axle shims with the relocation plate because that centering pin on leaf pack and plate aren't that tall. You would also most definitely need longer U bolts to do that too.

Yea i'm hoping I don't have to get super custom with the core support. It's my daily driver, so i can't afford to have it down for that long either which makes thing problematic.
I've seen a handful of people swap over salvage fender aprons and core supports. Doesn't look to be too hard if you have the tools. Definitely time consuming though.

My fender apron got a bit crumpled in an accident a while back, but I was able to pull it back out kinda straight to bolt back up okay.

 

I think my best option is to move the leaf spring mount angle on the axle when I do the rear shock relocation. I keep slamming my passenger shock into my dakars. Maybe I'll run the relocation plates or weld some on.

Yeah my struggle there is it's the same price to cut one out of a truck that's 3+ hours away as it is to buy a new apron from Toyota. So I need to make that decision at some point.

 

Have you checked your u-bolt torque? I had that happen because I didn't retorque my U-bolts.

Changing the spring perch angle could def do the trick, but i'd def be careful with that to make sure both sides are dead nuts equal. Not sure how i'd go about doing it, but i'm sure there are plenty of videos and stuff on that out there.

Welding the plates on isn't a bad idea. just a couple small beads on each side that you could grind off if you ever need to.

If it's the same price, might as well go OEM imo. Didn't even know you could get that piece OEM new from Toyota!

 

I need to add some reinforcements to both skids, my ifs is pretty beat up.

 

My ifs one has been holding up decently well. The reinforcements were done to my transmission skid.

The angle iron helped a bit, but it still bends when you drop it onto a big ass rock. Go figure

 

Swapped my OEM 600lb springs to 650lb ones.

Not the easiest thing to do and was a pita to take the CO's on and off over and over again until I got the ride height I wanted.
and putting a big ass piece of square 2x1 tubing over the preload tool really helped crank it down to where the preload needed to be.

Once I did it for one side I only have to do it once for the other though fortunately.

Not a crazy difference, but I really notice it on the turns where there's not as much body roll.

I'll be curious to feel the difference offroad

 

Installed some 4.25" rear durobump bumpstops recently. Super good quality product. Replaced the U-bolts while I was at it just for good measure.

Had to modify the mounting plate and the bottom of the bumpstops in order to get them to work with my axle relocation plates. The rubber used in them is an interesting blend. Not like the typical super hard bumpstop material.

That also involved shortening the leaf spring centering pin. Hopefully it's not too short for when I put an AAL in the pack.

 

Ian, looks like we started with the same truck. LOL. Nice detailed posts. Did you purchase the front and rear diffs complete with lockers from ECGC and then return yours for core returns or how does that work? Does the 4.88 gears with the 33" tires feel about like the 31" tires with 4.30?