My Toyotas (including my 6spd Swapped DCLB 2nd Gen)

A Tale of My Toyotas (if you want my 2014 DCLB build, skip ahead to post two). Otherwise, we begin here:

I'm pretty sure it all started with this ad. My dad needed a new vehicle and this ad was open on the kitchen table one morning in the summer of 1987. Over our normal breakfast, we talked about how cool it would be to have a new Toyota 4Runner and all the things we could do with it and places we could go.



A few weeks later, in September of 1987, my dad came home with a white, bare-bones, zero-options 1987 4Runner. I was 9 years old and remember it like it was yesterday.

Long story short, I grew up in that truck in every way. Dad showed me how to drive stick when I was 13 on Northern Arizona's unpaved back roads, we took it to Canada, Mexico and every state in between. We took it camping every chance we could get. I waxed and detailed it and took it to prom, high school graduation and still shared it with Dad when I went to college. Some cute girl named it Bobby the 4Daddy and the name stuck. It was an amazing rig. It also helped start my love for wrenching. With the help of a buddy, I got rid of the saggy factory springs in place of Alcan's, added Sway Away torsion bars and Rancho shocks and later added an aftermarket stereo, American Racing wheels and several "performance" upgrades. Haha! 22RE performance upgrades. That's just funny. Dad never officially handed over the keys but it did officially go back to him when I purchased a 2000 Tacoma TRD Xtra Cab 4x4 in November of '99. From there, he drove it til the day he died.

My dad passed away unexpectedly in February of 2008. For over 20 years, he never even considered buying another vehicle, even with me sharing it with him. To this day, I still have a hard time with my dad's passing, but, every time I drove or even looked at the 4Daddy from that point on, it was painful. It made sense to me at the time to move on. Here's how it looked when I sold it in June of 2013.


And here's the truck, that replaced the 4Daddy for me. My 2000 Tacoma, the Norge, the day I sold it May of 2019.



Since this is a 2nd gen build up thread, I won't bore you with too many more details about the Norge, but it's a 2000 TRD Off-Road Xtra Cab V6 4x4 that I supercharged for pennies on the dollar, added a 3" Donahoe/Deaver lift, manual hub conversion, Tundra brakes, Elite Off-Road front bumper, custom homemade rear bumper, Magnaflow exhaust, URD fuel mods and ran the 285 75 R16 tires off for nearly 20 years. It was the best machine I've ever owned and better than the 4Runner in nearly every way except for one category: people hauling. And in all those years of trouble-free ownership, it only let me down one time.

It was June of 2018 and one morning a wildfire began a dozen miles from our home. It wasn't long before the wind moved the smoke close enough to choke on and rumors of evacuation spread just as fast as the flames. We packed up the Norge with everything important to us but when I went to start the truck, it didn't even click. That was the first and only time it ever let me down. But, given the circumstances, it was a profoundly meaningful let down. The 18 year old starter was easy enough to rebuild but I took it all as I sign that it might be time to start thinking about a newer truck.

We parked the Norge safely at a friend's place loaded up with pictures, paperwork and keepsakes and decided to turn lemons in to lemonade and go on a roadtrip. So we took my wife's 2006 DCSB TRD Sport 4x4 on a 3000 mile adventure to visit family in Oregon, traveling on back roads and dirt almost the entire way.

Here it is loaded up and taking a break at my favorite steak house in Montana


My wife bought the truck in 2010. It was the first nice vehicle she's ever owned and she quickly named it Blueberry Crush. She got a good deal on it because, as it turns out, the previous owner rode it hard and put it away wet. But after a little love and clean-up, it's been another great Toyota truck. Over the last 10 years, it's needed a set of rear u-joints, a carrier bearing, a spiral clock spring cable, a set of front wheel bearings, the compass resolder, and I replaced the water pump, fan belt, and sparkys, but aside from tires and fluids, that's it. It's about to turn over 200k miles and because it runs as good as the day she got it, it looks like we'll be keeping it another 200k.

On this trip, though, something became clear to both of us through a series of events. I've always thought for everything useful that you can do in the back of a truck, short beds are pretty pointless. And after this trip, my wife agrees with me. Before you flame me, here's what happend.

We were driving home from my mom's in Oregon taking the long way home through Yellowstone. We usually travel self contained with a big cooler, water, camp kitchen and tent. We were west of Bozeman and the rolling hills and dirt roads caught my fancy and I ended up taking one hoping to find a pretty little spot to camp. 5 miles turned to 10 and 10 miles turned to 15 and then the weather turned on us and it started raining. It didn't let up. Around a bend, lumbering through a clearing, we saw a pretty big grizzly crossing the dirt road. It was as cool as it was eye-opening to my wife. Living in Colorado, we're no strangers to living in Bear Country but we're used to the little black or brown ones. This big fella made my wife's hair stand on end. There was no question now that we were in Grizzly Country! We deliberately passed a couple nice spots just to get further from our encounter but finally settled on something decent and pretty sheltered from the rain. I went to pitch the tent while supper was heating but the notion of sleeping in a tent in Grizzly Country started a heated debate. One of us was fine with "tent", the other wanted to sleep in the bed of the truck. With the rain still coming down solidly, that would mean we would've had to close the tailgate and camper shell window and cram into the 5 foot bed. I'm 6', she's 5'2" and I blurted out "I'm not sleeping in your silly little short bed."

Worse got worse and she slept in the bed of her truck while I slept in the tent with the dog. It wasn't a good night for either of us, but especially not for her, as even she was cramped in the Short Bed while every sound she heard was a grizzly bear ready to eat her.

The next afternoon, after making up over a great breakfast in Bozeman, we slowly made our way through the Galatin River valley and headed toward West Yellowstone. It was late June and, as you can imagine, every single camp spot was fulled up to the brim. Figuring we might need to start planning ahead (haha. Way too late as always), my wife started looking at accommodations at lunch. Campgrounds were full, and motel rooms, even the crappy ones, were over $250 a night. After our blow-out fight, I didn't even bother bringing up the idea of dispersed camping. But low and behold, my wife found us an option: A "Sheep Wagon" for rent at one of the camp grounds in town. It was marketed as "glamping" and was a "bargain" at $100 for the night. Given the circumstances, it seemed like our best option, so she quickly booked it sight unseen.

Pulling in to town, we realized the campground was right in the heart of touristville where everything was at 99.9% capacity. If it weren't the night after a blow-out fight, I would have gotten our money back and headed for a boondock spot out in the woods somewhere. But I quietly went with the plan and put on my fake smile to play along.

We got the keys, were directed where to go and turned a corner to see this: the Sheep Wagon in all its glory. Someone's idea of glamping was: Flat, rotted tires, leaky roof, Astroturf floor, 3 feet from a stinky, loud bathroom and a round roof curving over a small double bed that, as it turns out, wasn't much longer than the bed of her truck. I quietly dreamed of all the other things I could do with $100 but wised up and shut my pie hole.






Even Bailey didn't know what to think



My wife is a good sport, though, and we fell asleep giggling at our circumstances.

After another poor night's sleep for both of us, I had my wife convinced we needed to find a newer, bigger truck.

The next day, we had a great time Griswolding Yellowstone

 

Before:


After:


Current:










Truck:
2014 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 Double Cab Long Bed
Premium Sound/Navigation
Tow Package
Silver Sky Metallic (1D6)

Drivetrain:
RC62f 6spd Manual Transmission swapped
VF2B Manual Transfer Case swapped
B&M Short Throw Shifter with modified TRD Pro shift knob with custom boot
Front Range Off-Road twin sticks
ECGS front diff bushing
4.30 gearing with rear Eaton True Trac

Performance:
Modified TRD Cold Air Intake
MightyTacoMan 3 degree retarded cam gears
A11 Oil Catch Can
URD Y-pipe
Borla Pro XS custom catback exhaust dump after the axle
CSF High Performance aluminum radiator
HP Tuners tuned

Suspension and Brakes:
KING 2.5" Extended Reservoir Adjustable Coilovers and Shocks
ICON Uni-ball UCA
OME Dakar Medium springs
Ride Rite AirBags w/Daystar buckets and custom brackets sitting on
Low Range Off Road U-Bolt flip kit
DuroBump front bump stops
Wheelers extended SS brakelines
Toyota 14WA Big Brake Kit and StopTech 338mm slotted rotors
SOS Rear Disc Brake conversion
Energy Suspension poly cab and radiator mounts

Wheels and Tires:
Sema TRD Pro 17" wheels
BFG KO2 285 70 R17 tires

Interior:
GT Endura seat covers
Husky floor mats
Scan Gauge II with BlendMount
Billet seat lifts
Auto dimming/Compass/Temp mirror
Always-on rear camera mod
Meso LED interior lighting
Kilmat sound deadening to cab floor and rear wall, roof and doors TBD

Exterior and Protection:
Demello Baja aluminum front bumper
All Pro Off-Road aluminum rear bumper
RCI DCLB sliders with kick out
TRD Pro skid plate
RCI aluminum gas tank skid plate
Ricochet Off Road aluminum LCA skid plates
Generic TRD Pro grill with SSM surround
Martin Cab Rack
Relentless Fab Tailgate Reinforcement panel
Gear Tech Customs Wheel Well Liners

Lighting and Electrical:
TRD Pro Headlights w/ OSRAM Superbright H4 headlight bulbs
Headlight Services standalone harness
VLED V6 Amber DRL LED's
Chineeseium Taillights (what can I say? They look waaaay better than those silly chrome stockers)
Baja Designs Squadron Pro fog lights w/ amber lenses
Baja Designs S2 Pro ditch lights with Cali Raised brackets
Baja Designs S2 Sport reverse light
Baja Designs XL Linkable light bar
Toyota LED bed lights w/ water-proof switch
Matt Gecko LED light strips for Habitat and Engine Bay
ARB Compressor with All Pro Off-Road bed cubby mount
Blue Sea Systems 100-amp breaker, fuse block, buss bar
Littelfuse water-proof mini relay block
Odyssey AGM battery w/ Low Range Off Road battery box
Pop N Lock Auto Tailgate Lock

Other
Total Chaos bed stiffeners
ATH bed corner/moto mount brace
ARB gearbox breathers
Redline Tuning hood struts
Sabelleco Tailgate lock
A/T Overland Habitat camper

Future Mods
Custom bed build-out
JD Fabrication Everything
Install URD fuel pump
Upgraded audio
Supercharger?

 

When we got home from the trip, my search for a new truck began. I went and test drove a new 3rd Gen TRD Off-Road DCLB. Then we both went and test drove it. We both shrugged our shoulders and went "meh". From there forward, we decided we needed to find another 2nd gen, and yes, you guessed it, a long bed.

Before long, a nearly perfect, one owner bare bones SSM DCLB appeared on cars.com. It had low miles, wasn't far from home and the price was right. Plus, it came with a nice set of snow tires and OR wheels. Long story short, it was mine July 10th, 2018

Here it is the day I brought it home



It didn't take long to have some parts ordered. I though I wanted to keep the lift simple, so an Old Man Emu setup with Dakar springs made sense. I pulled a favor from a buddy and had him drop ship me a setup. I loved the Sema wheels on other trucks, so with an Ebay coupon, got a set super cheap. As it turns out, I found an Icon Uni-ball UCA here on Tacoma World for a good deal. Last on the short list was a set of Wheeler's SS extended brakelines.



Out with the old


In with the new








I've always wanted air bags (we could have really used them on my wife's truck on many occasions) so I made provisions with this truck to put them on early. A u-bolt flip kit is so easy to do on this truck, so I devised a plan for both but it required me getting creative with the welder. Here's the bracket I made to support the Daystar cradles on top of the Low Range Off Road u-bolt flip kit


And here it is bolted up





Not bad for a days work:


The truck had good service records and only 37k miles, but I wanted to be sure and I wanted to get to know it. No better way than adding a lift and freshening up the fluids. 12 quarts of Aisin 0WS



No vibrations with the new lift, but I did the ECGS bushing anyway. It was a bit of a fight, so this is the only picture I have of the day! lol

 

I ordered RCI protection and waited and while I waited I scoured every classified ad possible for used Tacoma parts. A 6' Softopper appeared on Craigslist a few hours from me for a really good deal. I figured I would give it a shot because, at that price, I could always sell it and get my money back.

I headed up and bought it on the spot. It was in great shape; only a year of easy use and the PO helped me install it in his driveway. I was stoked.



On the drive home, I had a few hours to think and it occurred to me I hadn't named my silver truck yet. I kept looking at the Softopper in the rear view and stopped a few times for pics. All of a sudden it occured to me: part of the reason I got this truck was because of our night in West Yellowstone! The Softopper made the truck look like a covered wagon to me...a SHEEP WAGON. And the name stuck.

 

Here's a random smattering of updated pics:













Modded TRD Intake:

 

Cam Gear install:



URD Y-pipe stud strip nightmare:



Shifter boot mod and TRD Pro shifter:


Scan Gauge, Compass/Temp mirror and mount:

 

Fabbing the tranny cooler bracket:




Adding the Demello Bumper:




Raptor Liner-ing it:

 

As long as we're talking Toyotas, here's another 87 I got off a "friend". He said it overheated and wasn't starting. I bought it off of him cheap and tried to replace the head gasket. Since I found no bearing material in the oil filter, I figured it was worth a shot. Less than 500 miles later, the bottom end let go (spun rod bearing). Turns out he was driving it for a year and overheating it and replacing coolant. Lesson learned. Luckily, found a newly built 22R near me. Here's me installing it at our ski area's maintenance yard I "borrowed" over a weekend.


And the for sale ad with some quickly welded up bumpers from scrap steel, 2nd gen wheels and some bedliner added to the chipped door sills. .



I don't remember breaking even. I wish I would have kept it and sold it for $1,000,000 this last year with prices as silly as they are.

 

GearTech Customs wheel well liners. Worth every penny!

 

Manual gearbox(es) swap. The Saga.

DCLB Auto to Manual RC62F, VF2B transfer case and 3rd Gen E-Brake Swap (Hopefully) | Tacoma World

 

A TW member was selling a used Habitat for a really decent asking price and offered to drive it 11 hours so I wouldn't need to lift a finger. I've wanted one for at least 5 years now but couldn't justify the new purchase price. This was too good to resist.

Seller was a stand-up guy too. Everything was as described and like I said, he drove it to my house from MT. Pretty awesome.

Seller says this was a floor model and used by A/T to go to showcase at expos. As a result, it had every available option including front slider, rear window, side window and hatch. I guess carpeting was an option back then, so it's got that, some simple lighting and charging and came with two of the Goose Gear chairs that weren't in the the sellers ad, so that was a bonus.

Here's moments after removing it from his truck with my make-shift hoist:



Stickers removed, having given it a quick exterior clean and polish and installed



Deployed to clean the interior

 

You've been busy

 

Busy missing the southwest! But the riding up here is good too.

 

Been enjoying the truck a bit. I'm enjoying the manual tranny but thinking gears will be my next investment. 6th gear is tall with 33"s, 3.73 gears and the camper. Will do that after camping season this fall.

Here we're using the truck as the base camp rig to summit and ski down from Mt. Adams






The access road to Adams is a bumpy forest road and I've had a rattle coming from the rear driver side interior that's been driving me nuts. I wanted to make sure my Energy Suspension body mounts were still tight but I ended up tearing down the back half of the interior and using the rest of the Kilmat I'd purchased a year ago to do the entire cab. I think the rattle was the rear corner piece that wasn't properly clicked into the plastic push fastener.

Here's my interior halfway through the back half. I did the front half of the cab when I did my tranny swap.

 

I've been doing some electrical the last month or so.

Pop N Lock auto lock with a custom aluminum bracket and soldiered connections

 

I've been collecting Baja Designs XL Linkable lights for almost 2 years now. When I see one or more used ones for sale at good prices, I snap them up. I finally found the final two needed for my collection.

Time for some arts and crafts to make a bracket for my Martin roof rack




Test Fit the prototype bracket (the masking tape is there to protect the Tacoma's finish from being scratched while I test fit everything, removing the heavy light bar and reinstalling it a dozen times. My buddy saw the pic and reminded me not to paint the bracket while it was on the truck. WTF? No faith in my skills. I told him I was just test fitting not painting!)

8 Baja Designs XL Linkable lights without the outboard brackets installed fit the exact width of the Martin rack. Easy peezy.



And getting the measie's to him to be converted to an autocad file for Send Cut Send


After some internet magic (aka waiting for my parts), a big box arrived from Send Cut Send with the brackets


Test fit




I ended up fabbing and adding a center support bracket out of some 1/4" thick 2 inch flat bar steel I had. Likely not needed but adds some rigidity and peace of mind. I didn't take pics of the fab process but will add the final once I head out to the shop again.

All in, I'm stoked. I put this system together for less than half the price of new and I think it looks great.

Now working on improving my fuse distribution block to get everything safely wired and tidy.

 

With the super-high overdrive gears of the RC tranny (5th and 6th), my 33's (and wanting to run 35's someday) along with the weight and poor aerodynamics of the camper, I've been wanting to re-gear. I'm not a die-hard crawler guy, just a fire road rambler and the rig has become our travel rig, so having good highway gearing is important to me. All that said, the 3rd gen MT Tacomas or their auto 4cyl brothers run 4.30 diff gearing from the factory. 4.30 kinda makes sense to me on a bunch of levels. Not too high, not too low and if I can score diffs out of the 3rd gen, I'd have factory set pinion lash and might get it all done on the cheap. As you all are likely squirming to tell me, though, 3rd gens run a different rear diff (a 8.75" ring gear instead of my 8.4" open diff) so unless I wanted to find an entire rear axle off a 3rd gen, just finding a used rear diff wouldn't work. Actually, finding an entire rear axle isn't a bad idea as you get the increased strength of the bigger ring gear, stronger higher spline count axles and it would be a good way to add a factory e-locker to a non e-locker equipped truck (like mine) BUT I already have an Eaton True Trac sitting in a box waiting to be installed for my 8.4" rear diff. (what I REALLY should have done is just find a wrecked 3rd gen Off-Road MT but too late now).

All that said, the front diffs are the same from 2005-2023. So I randomly started looking for a 3rd gen 4.30 front diff. A re-gear of just the front is around $1000 with parts and labor. If I could find a nice used front diff cheaper than that, I figured I'd be ahead. What I was finding, though, were that 3.73 and 3.91 (3rd gen auto diff gearing) carrier assemblies were cheap and plentiful. But the word was out that 4.10 and 4.30 diffs were sought after. Car-part and local junk yards had 3.73 diffs for sale for a couple hundred bucks but some 4.30's were in the $700-$900 range. Still a savings, but not all that significant especially knowing my front diff was low-mile and in really good shape as I changed the fluid regularly. If I was paying $800 for an unknown used diff, I may as well pay $1000 to have mine regeared, I thought. That said, I posted an ad in the 3rd gen classified section that if anyone had a decent 4.30 front diff, to send it to me first before they had it re-geared and I would send away my stock 3.73 for them.

In the meantime, though, I kept looking... without success. I reached out to a couple local junk yards and they either didn't have what I was looking for, were asking a high premium for higher mile 4.30's that they had or had mislabeled 3.91's. I even paid $330 for one but before I made the 3 hour drive to Salem to pick it up, had them check the ratio one more time for me. It turns out it was a mislabeled 3.91 after all. So I reached out to Kasey at LKQ. Why didn't I just do that before?! He's the one that got me the RC62 tranny that got this whole thing started. He said there was a 4.30 front diff in Albuquerque for $500 but shipping to the PNW would be around $400. Then he looked and said there would be a 4.30 available off of a 2023 that was damaged and totaled on the dealer lot with 4 miles on it! He said it wouldn't be available for a couple of weeks but he could get me the front diff for $600. I said "heck yeah". I could wait. $400 savings wasn't a great amount, but it was in the right direction and factory set pinion lash was also a bonus. With a complete diff to swap out, maybe I could get a couple hundred bucks for my complete 3.73, too. Getting a new ADD actuator out of the deal wasn't bad either. Wins all around.

I picked it up yesterday. Minty! Definitely looks like a 4 mile front diff.

 

what happened here? I think im going through the same thing

 

The stud on the manifold with the external Torx was fused/seized and it sheared right off when hitting it with my impact. I should have applied more heat and penetrant but that's with good ole hindsight.

I cut the stud flush and managed to bullseye the center and drill it out without damaging the threads much. A new stud with some copper anti-seize went in and Bob's your uncle. Spent the whole day doing a job that should have taken less than an hour!