Official Crawlbox BS thread!

Ant posted one over on RST

 

I have built three crawl boxes and a lefty and here is my advice:

Read evrey writeup you can find on the internet, these come with zero instructions and there are alot of tricks that can hang you up or cause failure down the road. Go read installs and builds on minitrucks with these, lots of good info buried in those.

Coat the splines on the tcase with anti seize, not grease, anti seize. This will prevent metal fretting on the splines and a stripped input, i learned this the hardway when it stripped pulling away from a stop sign after work, a week before an 16hr round trip drive to go wheeling in ky.

Change the fluid evrey 6months if you see any red colored milky fluid, drop the cases asap because you have fretting.

You dont need twin sticks with a crawler, just leave the front box in low and the rear in 2wd. I have triple sticks, but thats because i wanted my cupholders back. I can count on one hand how many times i ever used 2wd low/double low anyway.

Best mod you can do, do this before an sas. I only broke one cv and it was on an easy exit of an insane obstacle, i sheared the cv spline shaft off into the jack shaft tube, wierd.

The wireing on a 1st gen j shift is easy just extend the wires.

Buy a trans jack, dont be an idiot and do it without one.

Permatex the right stuff is your friend, i could never get them to seal right using ultra grey.

Overall its an easy mod, just intimidateing at first, but all the cursing, blood sweat and tears are well worth it!!

The crawl box coupler big ass c clip is a BITCH. You are going to need the biggest set of cclip pliers you can get your hands on and they will still be too small.

 

There are a couple done by Wyatt, but I've found a few steps that have been left out those. I'm taking pics and will do a writeup.

 

That's my first step before I begin install

 

Because #crawlbawks @HomerTaco

 

That's the axle shaft on the drivers side.
The truck drives in 2wd with the locker engaged

 

Could have been worse.

We got the starter swapped out too.

 

Now that I know what's wrong it can be addressed.
Ordered replacement taillights so that pretty much covers everything but the non-functioning subs and tempromental cruise control.

 

some one has to be the jerk and say it but 6 lug probelms.

 

Did you do the twin stick mod without taking the case apart?

 

I guess I did my twin stick mod a bit differently than everyone else. It's not my fault if you ruin your case doing it this way, so proceed at your own risk.

With a buddy holding the shop vac and a magnet I cut the nub off with a combination of a dremel cutoff wheel and grinding stone. As you can see I stuffed an oily rag under the nub to try and catch any filings that might have escaped the shop vac.



Bye bye nub!



After that it's time to get the "pill" out of the case. It sits between the two shift forks, so the back of the case does have to be separated. But I chose to not pull it completely. First, pull the detent ball and spring. Leave the nut off of the case since you need a path for the pill to come out. Pry the case apart about 3/4" of an inch, push the shift rails as far forward as they can go, and tip the case on it's side. In my case the pill fell right out of the hole.

I cleaned the mating surfaces, applied new sealant, and buttoned the case back up. Done!



Things that were left out of other install instructions:

1. See the plug on the case that has the 26 on it? That's where the speed sensor from your taco case needs to go. I'm glad that it wasn't difficult as I realized this after the case was in place.
2. The detent balls and springs need to go back in the case.

 

Thank you. I'll probably tackle that this weekend. Have you installed everything yet?

 

I'm not finished with the whole install, but the main parts are in and functioning just fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oAcoe-9KTI

 

Needs moar crossmember...

 

One thing at a time! I have tubing and a few bends coming this week. I hope to get over to @Boomtacoma01 's this weekend to knock out the cross member and skid.

 

I'll probably do my install in my driveway then drive straight to Eddy at SOS and build the cross member and skids. I'm hoping to get as close to a true frame to skid flat belly as possible

 

To do that you'll have to remake the stock cross member as well. I'm planning to use the stock cross member, but I won't have anything hanging below that.