Tiffany the Taco

Good deal!

 

So this is happening

 

Nice. That'll match your trd stickers nicely

 

Yes it will! I don't really know why Toyota didn't put the locker in the 4cyl auto TRDs

Unfortunately my truck is not prewired for the computer. So I will be making my own harness from the harness from the donor vehicle.

 

Got a picture of my lighted ignition ring from a limited. It was completely plug n play. I got the trim ring from a 4Runner piece on eBay for $10.

The picture makes it look super orange, but it's actually red.

 

I stripped and painted the elocker axle housing today. I spent at least an hour scraping the old 3rd member gasket. I sent the 3rd to ECGS a few days ago for a complete rebuild with 4.56 gears.

I also started pulling apart the elocker harness that I got from the donor truck. Originally I was going to wire it into the BN1 connector under the seat, but then I realized that part of the wiring goes through the BN4 connector as well (which my truck doesn't have). I believe the BN4 is mostly for ABS wiring and sits right next to the BN1 under the driver seat. At this point I may just get the female BN4 connector and wire the whole elocker harness through it. I have a bunch of extra wires from the donor truck harness to mess around with.

 

I made my passenger auto switch (on the driver side light up).

 

I am now wired for the elocker!

 

I 3D printed a seal driver


And this is how I got the old seals out

 

Nice job on the custom seal driver!

 

I just put it up on thingiverse if anyone needs one!
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2207359

 

E-Locker Swap

So I thought I would compile as much info as I could about my e-locker swap into my TRD truck that didn't come with an e-locker (4cyl automatic prerunner).

I was, unfortunately, not prewired for the elocker. This didn't deter me and I still wanted to keep the wiring as factory as possible.

I located an axle from a 2000, 4x2, TRD, Prerunner, 3.4L, w/o ABS. It had 4.10 gears but that didn't matter since I was planning on changing them to 4.56 anyway. I was able to get the complete wiring harness from below the driver seat back to the taillight from the donor truck. I also got the dash switch and 4wd computer. The 4wd computer from this truck was brown BTW. My truck does not have ABS so I didn't have that to worry about. One thing I did learn was that all E-locker axles are setup for ABS. They will have the tone rings and retainers installed on the axle shafts, just no sensors in the housing.


I got the axle back to my place and dissembled it. I removed the 3rd member and axles shafts. At this point I learned that both rear axle seals were bad. I decided to replace axle bearings and everything while I had it apart. I sent the 3rd member to East Coast Gear supply for a complete rebuild with 4.56 gears.


I then cleaned up the axle housing and put on a coat of rustoleum truck bed liner. A paper plate works well as a paint mask for the 3rd member hole.


While I was waiting for the 3rd member and parts to rebuild the axles, I started on the wiring. I originally wanted to swap out the BN1 connector under the seat with the complete harness that I got from the donor truck, but after looking at all of the mounting points I decided it wasn't worth it. I started separating the elocker wires from the rest of the harness. This consists of 7 wires and ends of as 6 at the BN1 connector since the two grounds are crimped together in the middle of the run. I just removed the wires from the female BN1 connector and started cutting the tape and loom away. I decided to use this connector from Amazon https://amzn.to/374Li29. The pins are slightly different that the stock connector, but they were easy enough to crimp on the stock wires. I was even able to wedge the male connector onto the plastic mount where the BN4 connector is supposed to go. I used the remaining wires from the donor truck harness to connect the 4wd computer to the uxcell male connector. I was referencing two diagrams while I was doing the wiring. One from a 4runner install, and the stock 99 wiring diagram. I used the 4runner one to make sense of the stock one. You can also see the part numbers for the repair wires and female connector housings needed to plug the stock switch and computer in.




I had to add a wire to the back of my gauge cluster. The part number for that wire is on the 4runner diagram. The wire goes between the Black-Yellow and Purple wires on the "D" connector. It is the one nearest the driver door.


Once I got the parts from Conicelli Toyota, I took my axles to Auto Parts Warehouse in Tallahassee. The guy said he has been doing Toyota Axles for almost 30 years and knew about all the issues with the axle seals. He charged $65 a side to put new bearings on, which I thought was reasonable. He was even able to reuse all of the retainers and ABS tone rings. This actually saved me $140 in parts that I could return to Conicelli. He made a tool to pull the retainers off without damaging them.

In some down time I designed and 3d printed an axle seal driver since I had heard horror stories of people driving the seals in crooked. I printed it at 40% infill which seemed plenty strong enough to drive the seal in. It is designed to use a 6" 1/2" socket extension, but it is long enough to use without one. The outside diameter at the back is 75mm and the seal diameter is 70mm. You can see the step down on the print. The center part is to hold the seal on the driver to easily insert it into the axle. That part is 50mm.
You can download and print it from Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2207359


I also came up with an easy way to remove the existing axle seals. I found a 3" c-clamp that fit perfectly wedged into the center of the seal. This allowed me to pull the seal out without damaging the axle tube.



I put the axle back together once I got the 3rd back from ECGS. I also put on new brake shoes at the same time. The next day I swapped the axle in about 5 hours. If I had a helper that time probably would have been cut in half. Most of my time was spent dragging axles around without enough space.

Pictures of the axle installed



Here's my old axle which I am now trying to sell:


Here are all of the parts that I used in the swap:

FIPG: 00295-00103
Inner Axle Seal (2): 90310-50006
Outer Axle Seal (2): 90313-48001
Axle O Ring (2): 90301-88077
Axle Bearing (2): 90363-40020-77
Rear Brake Shoe Kit: 04495-35230
Drain/Fill Plug Gasket (2): 12157-10010
E-Locker O Ring: 90301-20005
4WD computer connector: 90980-10801
Diff Lock Switch connector: 90980-10631
Terminal Repair wire for either: 82998-12170
Terminal Repair wire for dash light: 82998-24180

You will probably need these unless you can reuse the existing ones:
ABS tone ring (2): 43517-35010
Retainer (4): 42423-20010

 

Great write up and nice job on everything! I can't want to see how it looks installed?

What gears are in your old rear axle?

 

4.30s

Edit: just added some pictures to the post above.

 

This just happened

 

Good stuff, Noah. I just cracked 140K yesterday. Finally broken in.

 

Scored a factory painted grille on eBay in really good condition. I'll cut it up and put my mesh in there when I get a chance.

I also pulled out the two hella lights I never use from behind the grille. I might look into getting some LEDs up there.

 

No pictures, but I changed out my lower ball joints yesterday after reading all of the horror stories. They had 175k miles on them and honestly felt fine to me. They did move a little easier than the new ones, but I couldn't detect any play. Still, I feel a lot better swapping them out.

 

Finally finished my new grill

Trimmed the center out



Made a template for the perforated steel


Clamping and holding the steel in place while I applied epoxy

 

Nice. I would like to do this when I have the time.