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

Cleaned it up and started some prep work

 

Any component of these trucks fail. The t-case is vulnerable on any rig that spends a lot of its miles on terrain other than pavement.

 

Well given 90% or more of your miles are on pavement Im not too surprised haha you've worn through just about everything else though.

Dan has put on 150k worth of miles and a lot of that is dirt. Fluks happen too. it's a bearing going out so not that unlikely. Actually I'm surprised you haven't replaced more bearings in general in your Tranny and Tcase.

 

Me either!

But then, I didn't expect my rear axle housing to crack, or Mike's shock tower to blow up. Just part of the game, I suppose. I have to say that with the miles I put on this truck, I've been pretty lucky. Extremely, really. Never stranded, and only two trips where I headed home early. That's with 80 trips (about 450, 8-12h days of dirt roads) in the last 6 years.

204K buddy . And, a little over 100K since the t-case gave its first indication of trouble. (That Mud Was In My Transfer Case!)

 

jesus man hahaha impressive numbers.

 

That's some nasty oil lol. Did you relocate your dif breathers after that experience?
(it was probably written in the thread somewhere but i just skipped to the picture.

Ps. I've been eyeing your tundra brake line kit for a minute. Once my current brakes wear out a bit I'm sure I will be hitting you up, do you use a double flared end on those hard lines?

 

I did not relocate the breathers, but never had the issue again - including in 36" of water when exiting Afton Canyon at the end of the Mojave Road (see part 2 of this trip: Mojave Road (Dec 2018)) That was scary and in the top 5 dumbest things I've done in the Tacoma, I think. On my last trip to Death Valley (with Monte, Mike, and Zane) a couple days ago, when the case started making noises, I opened up the top (hoping it was a shifter bushing) and actually commented to the guys, "hey look, there are a couple breathers right here that I should probably relocate," hahahaha). As it turns out, the t-case breather already has a tube on it, which I think T-s into the breather for the ADD actuator and then ends up in the engine bay. But don't quote me on that. The only thing I can say for certain is that the t-case breather isn't just sitting there in the tunnel like the two breathers next to the 5-speed (of which you can only see one in my photo).

Grab one any time. Around Thanksgiving, I made shipping free for the rest of the year. Seemed like a nice thing for the extended holidays.

And yes, double-flare for the hard lines.

 

Not an expert, but... given that it's somewhat common for folks to do ABS deletes, manual hub conversions, and e-locker axle swaps without even thinking about the t-case, I can't imagine there's any significant difference?

If you expand your search into 3rd-gen 4Runners, there are some other options beyond what was offered in Tacomas. Most interesting (in my opinion) is the "multimode" j-shift, which can be run as an unlocked center diff in case of slick pavement conditions. I haven't seen a definitive answer on how easily a multimode t-case will go into a Tacoma, and I'm not aware of anyone trying it.

H2: 2wd
H4: 4wd with open center diff (activated by a button on the side of the shift knob)
H4L: 4wd with locked center diff
L4L: Low-range 4wd with locked center diff



Photo credit/more info:

 

Thanks. It's a good point about the various deletes/conversions that people do. Another vote of confidence for this working.

As for the multi-mode - it's actually something that I brought up as well when we were out on our trip. Seems like a fantastic idea, really. The issue that was raised to me, is that the multi-mode case is longer than the "normal" cases, and so would require a custom drive shaft on an Ext or Double Cab Tacoma. Interestingly though, on a single cab Tacoma, you could just swap over the multi-mode case *and* the T4R drive shaft and be good, because the distance to the rear axle is the same!

 

Also you have to find a new 4wd ECU to swap in and a lot of wiring is done to get the multi mode in right. Is totally do able. I'm hoping to on my single cab daily.

 

*looks at single cab parked outside*

I assume the multimode internals would also be less stout than the standard j-shift internals (due to more moving parts), but I wonder if it's enough to matter? It would be fine for a DD obviously, but would you wheel it?

Good too know about the ECU. I thought/hoped all the electronics were in the t-case itself. Is the 4wd ECU independent of engine type? If not... would a 2.7L (because standard cab) multimode ECU even exist?

 

I think it'd be fine to wheel - people wheel 3G T4Rs all the time, and Limited's (which I think were the only ones with multi-mode) are pretty ubiquitous.

As for the 2.7L (standard cab) - there are 5VZFE standard cabs as well. And that's what Monte's got. I have no idea if there were 2.7L T4Rs...

 

5VZFE standard cabs were only available for the 95-97 model years, and there were some ECU quirks within that... I don't know all the details but I understand that if you want a TRD supercharger in a 5VZ standard cab, you need a '97.

Monte's lucky I guess... Mine's a '98 with the 2.7.

There were 2.7L 4Runners, but I doubt they would have been available with the multimode transfer case. A fancy transfer case/higher trim level with a base model engine would be an odd combo.

 

It's a totally sperate computer. So not dependent on the engine type.

That said. I have no idea if it'll bolt to a 2.7l. I know it'll bolt to a r150 and a340 auto. But that's it.

 

The whole topshift and forward shift thing still applies to the electronic cases cause you still have to manually engage low. I can never rember what combos of engine and trans had what style case though.

 

98-99 only had j shift multi modes. After that was all push button style.

All of them were on autos only. V6

 

U lucky shit, that's really not a bad price if it's as nice as your describe. If I ever get off my ass and find one to match my lunar mist, I want to put a bed in the back so I can go camping and not sleep on the ground anymore

 

that's two of us, we missed out on a group buy that just happened.

 

Looks good, they might come in handy if you ever have to crawl under the truck in the middle of the night.

 

Nice looking Truck.