2005 Bulletproof Taco: 1 Ton SAC

Pm sent

 

Retube-worthy rear section and in-need-of-bearing front section are gone. Thanks Josh!

 

Well Eric (Supra TT) came down so I had some help this weekend to get some work done on the truck...true to form for lately we completed some work on the garage first

First up was building a workbench to store some crap and give us a nice area to work. Bench is 10' long and 42" high, built with 2x4's and a 5/8" particle board top and shelf.






Then we got started on the truck. First up was to remove the tcase skid:





Then removed the crossmember, tranny support, and tcase:





Transmission to Gear-drive adaptor marked and being drilled out:



Tailhousing removed from transmission and bearing and seal removed from it:



Tailhousing back on tranny, minus bearing and seal, with coupler on tranny output:



New extension and seal installed over coupler:



Crawlbox installed:



Hole in tranny tunnel for shifter:



Got the shifter all made up last night, First I cut the stock lever off the "ball" and drilled it out to insert a piece of 3/8" dia CRS. Welded the top of the joint and a plug weld through the side...its solid.

Reassembled shifter and installed in the truck, marked and bent the jog. Then cut the rod to length. Beveled the end of the 3/8" rod and the end of a piece of an M12 bolt and welded them together, an filed them smooth.



Added some rustoleum primer, paint, and topped it off with an Inchworm shift knob

 

You mean that fat ass original shifter handle? I didnt want it that fat going through my cupholders. I still have it and if its an issue I can modify it. Hoping to re-assemble the console tonight.

Did you install the oil slinger under your shifter base?

 

Yeah I have a slinger on the way but some use them and some people dont and havent had any issues.

I figure I shouldn't need any dampening in the shifter either since TrailGear and others shifter dont have any dampening in them.

 

How do all those levers work? The three in my crawler are confusing enough.

 

One is for the transmission. One is for Hi-Lo is the crawlbox. One is for 2wd-4wd, and one is for Hi-Lo in the original tcase replaced with the FJ case.

 

Makes sense. Mine is the 5 speed, original J shifter(2wd, 4 hi, 4 lo), then hi-low from the second case.

 

Man that's all the work you and that dude got done?



JK.

 

yeah he bailed on me half way through the weekend

 

So I have this problem in life of not leaving "well enough" alone. I reinstalled my shifter for the crawlbox and wasn't happy with the height or with the little bit of "slopo" the shifter had too it. Back out it came.

First I removed 3" of height from the lever. Easy enough. Cut out a section of rod, bevel both ends, weld, file smooth, paint.

Next was to remove the side-to-side slop in the shifter. Dropped a little bead onto the side of the shifter "tang" and filed smooth. Test fit, repeat until desired fit is achieved.



Its hard to tell from the blurry pic, but I added material to the right side of the tang, about 3/64" of material.

Then to eliminate some of the front-to-back slop I repeated this process on the front of the "tang" as well.



Material was added to the top of the tang in the picture, then re-filed to profile.

***NOTE: The shifter components are hardened so use caution not to overheat them, and quench immediately after welding to retain strength properties.

Re-installed the center console, grinding away the lower edge of the coin slot to remove only the bottom as I will utilize the sides to attach some rubber flaps to seal the shifter slot.

Crawlbox HI





Crawlbox LO

 

Thanks...wait til you see it completed I have a boot coming to seal the cut-out in the tunnel, and gonna seal up that coin slot nicely as well.

 

Looks awesome! Ant needs to pay attention.. His shifter surround has become a garbage can

 

very clean

 

Sweet!! I bet you can't wait to try it out in a few years!

 

So last week I ordered a shift boot off ebay, about the only one I could find all in black that I figured would work was for a Nissan 240z, cheap enough at $12.00 so I figured heck with it.
Stuck the boot through from the backside:


Made a few retainers from some aluminum strip...

Test fit


Added some #6 machine screws

Trimmed the excess material:

Then I trimmed off the excess machine screw shanks as well to clear the Tranny shift mechanism next to it.

I still have a rubber boot to install at the tunnel opening to seal from water and debris. It from an '62-'67 MGB

 

are you not putting an FJ t-case in???

 

Nope. Never had the T-case actuator miss a beat on me. The only other advantage to the FJ case is twin sticking it and I dont really care if I have 2Lo or 2Lo-Lo

If the actuator ever goes you can manually shit the case from inderneith and if I can get an FJ case cheaper than an actuator I may upgrade then.

Factory Knob will still handle the 2WD-4WD shifting, and the factory case. The manual lever is H-N-L for the gear drive crawl box or 2Lo-Lo shift only.

 

i thought about not going with the FJ case, but I miss the old school 4x4 shifter on the floor, its not the same with out it now


I like you though, have never had the actuator shit the bed, but I have a spare if I ever need too

 

Yeah I am gonna buy a spare off someone who goes with an FJ case