1st Gen Chain Drive T-Case Twin Stick Mod

I've been looking at the different twin stick kits available for the factory transfer case on the 1st Gen tacomas. And the instructions say that for the chain drive T-Case you have to remove the high/low range shift rail from the transfer case and trim the notch out of it. I'm fine with doing that, but I wanted to know if anyone else has done this yet and if you know if I would still be able to put it back to the single stock shifter if I ever had to for whatever reason.

I am also planning on custom fabricating the levers myself since I don't want to spend the $200-$300 on a kit. So if anyone has made their own before some tips or ideas would be nice

Thank You

Here is the only premade kit I have been able to find so far
https://frontrangeoffroadfab.com/twin-stick/

 

Also I haven't been able to find what the gear ratio is on the factory T-Case. I keep seeing 2.28 and 4.70 on aftermarket dual cases, but nothing on the stock T-Case, would any of y'all know what the gear ratio is

 

I believe once you notched the rail, you can’t switch back to the factory single stick. Thought I haven’t test that theory.

The factory chain tcase gear ratio is 2.57:1

might as well remove the “pill”

 

It's definitely reversible if you can find an unmodified shift rail to swap back in. In theory they shouldn't be too hard to find off someone who gutted a donor case for the NWF crawler. There's a good chance I still have mine from my FJ case in the garage but am not home to check. Or you could order from Toyota.

RADesigns also makes a twin stick but it's more expensive than the FROR.

 

Alright thank y’all for the answer and thank you @02hilux for the gear ratio

and yes I was already planning on taking the “pill” out I just didn’t think to mention it

 

You’re doing this for 2wd low or adding a doubler?

 

Just 2WD Low
Here’s what I’ve got so far

 

It’s awesome to be unique and different but at the price point of low 200, o would just for the money and buy one. Saves yourself the headache to drilling, measuring, cutting just to find out it doesn’t work.

But hey, glad you want to attempt this piece

 

Yeah I completely agree that it would be a 1000 times easier to just buy the kit, but I’m 17 and don’t have a bunch of money to spend, and I’m trying to learn how to fabricate stuff so I figured it’d be fun to try and see if it worked or not.

Last week was my first time actually building something out of metal and my 3rd time ever welding, I made some ditch light brackets and they work great, clear the windshield and everything.

I don’t have a picture of them though

 

Wait…for 2wd low you just unplug the blue plug on top and slightly driver side of the transmission.
That might be for just automatic transmissions, not sure about manuals.

Edit: ah, derp, manual transmission.
I love having 2wd low range. (2lo with the rear locked is donut mode)

 

It’s finished now and works good

Doesn’t look the prettiest, but I made it out of scrap metal and it cost me $10, then when I buy some knobs it’ll be about another $20. So roughly $30 is a lot better than $200-$250 to me.

 

Anyone successful with removing the roll pin, so as to slide the shift rail out?
I can barely get a thin punch on a side of the roll pin. Even if I were able to get it punched out, how would I be able to get the pin back into the hole for re-assembly?

This is a VF2 Tcase

 

I’m assuming that you’re converting it to a twin stick and not just doing maintenance to it.

When I converted mine to twin stick, I did not remove the shift rail to cut that tip off. I just shoved a bunch of paper towels beneath it and used a die grinder to slowly shave down what I needed. And then vacuumed up inside the best I could.

Mines a first gen but I would be that it works the same for both.

It worked for me, I’ve been running it for 3.5 months now and I’ve had zero problems with it.

Hope that kinda helps your question.


Something else, when I split my case I put a little bit of twisting tension on the shift rails without knowing and snapped the shift fork stopper. It took 2 weeks to get a new one in. Luckily in mine I didn’t have to fully disassembly the transfer case, but I’d be careful with it.

If that didn’t help you none let me know and I’ll try to explain better

 

Thanks for the reply. Correct, I am converting...

I put the case back together last night, and tonight, I am going to pull the front case section and leave the guts in the rear of it, should there by expose the shift rails...

 

Ok, I wouldn’t know how to split it from the front without being there looking at it, do you have to take that roll pin out in order do leave the guts on the back

 

On another note, here’s the finished product.
I forgot to post the pictures back when I got it done

 

It is very similar to the back...
And it's giving me full access to the shift rail.

 

This looks great!

 

Might as well pull the pill to get 2wd-L

 

Ok, I think I’m starting to understand now, so are you already took it apart, and you were asking about how to put the roll pin back in when you put it together