NW WA Meet / BS Thread

John is a pretty cool guy, I bought my suspension and ARB bumper from him a few years ago.

 

Makes sense. thanks man! what i heard is that in order to get the valving just right you need to weigh your truck's front end to understand the load they will be under. test them out to see how they feel, with a full load or totally empty truck. get that sweet spot where it feels right in both instances. also take into account any other accessories you might be putting on your truck in the future, (winch, batteries, etc)

 

Yes, weighing the front of the truck and a good idea of use will get you in the ball park.

 

Orrrrr could probably buy new assembled 3rd members from east coast gear supply, swap them yourself and send back the cores. I should see how much that would cost.

 

Or just ask the local shops to quote that. I.e., bring them the diffs rather than driving your truck in and out of the shop

 

Let us know if they get back to you! Sounds like a good idea.

 

For sure! Yeah im going to call around and ask for quotes on that option. Pretty sure I can pull the 3rds myself, if done a lot of work on my truck myself. also I'm a pretty good negotiator, if i get enough shop quotes i can pit them against each other and get the best price for me. Nobody is going to look out for my best interests except for me. Shops are big boys, they wont agree to do work unless they make a profit.

 

ATV/Motorcycle shops might be the best bet as that style is abit more common in their setups

As for the shims..if you do weight your truck and can talk to someone like DownSouth Motorsports they can probably help you custom order a stack. You have to remove the shims anyways to replace the shaft seals so if you ordered new stacks just be a matter of putting the new ones in for the old ones.

 

They just got back to me for 3rd gen with 8.75" and oem rear locker. 100 bucks more. 2900+ tax.

 

There was a shop in the portland area that was doing gears (f&r) for like $1700 w/o OEM e-locker and like $2000 w/ OEM e-locker

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/portland-area-gear-installation.645083/#post-22774332

 

Was this in 1996?

 

maybe?

 

shit that aint bad, if im in there anyways, and i can improve how they perform even slightly thats a good option. At this point anything would be better then right out of the box, considering im running 700lb springs, steel plate bumper, steel skids, winch in the future.

 

Shit they sell completely assembled ones. Just a core charge to send it back. Not sure the price. Maybe if someone was comfortable with it or has done it can just watch 2 or 3 guys do it so they can turn around and we got ourselves a 5 or 6 rig turn for install ?

 

So i called east coast gear supply for the pre-assy clamshell and rear diff, with a detroit tru track. 2855, but the core charge is 800-100 shipping. so it would come out to $2155 for 4.88s with detroit tru trac.

 

Read my mind, $2100 after the core return and thats with a new detroit tru trac in the rear.

I watched @TacoSTIG do this same swap at my shop a while back, he did it without any help and no experience. just needed a hand with the front clamshell.

 

Not bad if you've got the tools and feel comfortable doing it. I'll prolly keep saving til I can afford the install. Let a pro do it and be warrantied that way too.

 

i just called this place, and the guy said $1985 for 4.88s parts and labor..... uhhh im pretty sure thats a steal of a deal. also said hes about a 1-2 weeks out for appts. only down side is if i went with ECGS i could get that detroit tru trac for about the same price, but i would be doing all the labor.

 

another thing, he said was they have done about 20-30 tacomas, so they are familiar with them. super nice guy too.

 

The rear third is super simple. Especially if you dont have the e-locker. Hardest part is getting the axles out if you leave the brake lines attaches. Have to undo the brackets on the axle and then just carefully pull them out the 3-4" you need. Otherwise its pretty much unbolt old one, rebolt new one.

Front thirds are just annoying more than anything. Just a lot more unbolting than a rear. And wrestling the thing out. But if you were doing it at the same time as the shock rebuild...