Betterbuckleup's 2000 taco build & BS

Smart! Keep the miles off the Yota and save them for the trails!

 

Yup! And can now afford the down time on the truck for more in depth mods & whatnot

 

Yup! I wish I would have done it years ago. But oh well.

 

Yup! I wish I would have done it years ago. But oh well.

 

Made a simple mount rail for my mountain bike on long drives so it's not flat in the bed and I can pack other stuff around it.
Took a piece of uni-strut and put those two giant phillips head screws on the corners of the bed through it to bolt it down. I can use the strut as a tie-down point for other gear too.

This was the best solution I could come up with to keep my bike secure and out of the way in the bed while i'm wheeling. Should hold up good for my moab and colorado trip.

I'd like to add another attachment point to the bed in the middle of the strut because it has a bit of a bow to it currently. Not an issue, but just a minor gripe of mine

 

Did some PM on the truck.

When I last was on the Rubicon, I noticed a weird noise that seemed to come from the steering rack when I turned the wheel. A kinda creaking noise.
For the longest time i've had a torn bellows boot thing on the passenger side of my rack. I figured that water could have gotten in over time and damaged the ITR. Not sure if this fixed it or was the source of the noise, but we'll see when I drive it around some more.

So replaced it with a pro forged one and threw on a new boot. I also noticed how weak the one that was on there is. Surprised I hadn't bent it already. Check out the thin section of it compared to the new one, much less material (old on the right)


For some reason, the ITR was less than hand tight into the steering rack. Fortunately that crush washer behind it was there to keep it from spinning completely out, but still. WTF



When I was removing my mid skid, I noticed that the side of my transmission was wet with fluid leaking from somewhere out the top.

Pulled the shifter covers & found out that the whole linkage plate that attaches to the tranny was completely loose. The 4 bolts weren't even hand tight which is weird. I originally thought that the breathers were clogged, but they seemed fine.
Put some blue loc-tite on the bolts and slapped them back in. Hopefully it doesn't leak anymore, otherwise i'll have to pull it off and seal it up again with some silicone.

Idk how all this shit has come loose. I blame the Rubicon



I also washed, clay bared, & waxed the daily. Wanna keep the paint nice on at least one my vehicles lol.
Buttery smooth like a mirror

 

Had a great trip with some fellow TW members on slick rock this weekend. Great trail with some great views.


DSC_2635 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr


DSC_2638 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr


DSC_2642 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

Mark getting his caboose dragged around



Ferny doing ferny things



Camp

DSC_2650 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr


DSC_2649 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr


DSC_2644 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr


DSC_2647 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

 

sub'd


IMG_6135 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_6147 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_6155 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_6168 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_6181 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_6191 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_6193 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

 

Dude amazing photos!! I'll post some of the video I got of you when I get it edited up.

 

Thanks! Sounds good man. Looking forward to seeing the videos.

 

Reinstalled my cruise control in prep for my road trip coming up.
Before I had removed the module to fit my air compressor under the hood. I had also swapped to a lexus steering wheel before, so the control stick on the new steering wheel wouldn't work with my system anyways.

Had to extend the wiring so the plug would reach. Used some heat shrink butt end connectors I had leftover and they worked out pretty well. Sealed up and protected from corrosion or water entering the connections.


I had to remove this silencer thing from the intake in order to get room under there. Used a rubber plug to seal up the opening on the bottom.



Made a plate to mount the module to the fender well. Used a hole that already existed down there and drilled on more to prevent it from pivoting around. The hole I used that was already there is kinda slotted so it allows for a bit of position adjustment which is convenient. Painted it in flat black before bolting it all up.




Modified part of the steering wheel to fit my OEM CC control stick. Didn't have time/didn't wanna buy resistors to make the lexus one work with my setup, so had to get creative. I also had to JB weld the controller stick back together from when I ripped it apart before trying to see what resistors it used.

Zip ties worked out really well actually for mounting. The casting of the center steering wheel structure had some weird contours so I didn't wanna drill and tap new holes. Plus they would have been super close to already existing holes. In order to get it to fit in that spot, I had to grind away some of the aluminum from the tabs on either side where the previous CC stick mounted. This worked out pretty well and it's solid though and it's going anywhere. It's not like I'm putting a bunch of force on it either when using it.



Stoked to have cruise control again. Definitely will need it on this long ass road trip I have coming up. It's tucked up in there real good now. Clearance is really tight around the other things in that spot, but she fits.

 

So one night when I was sitting around the campfire with some friends on my last trip, we got to the topic of how many miles our vehicles had.
I brought up that I didn't really know how many mine had due to the fact that someone swapped the instrument cluster from another vehicle into it (with mileage from some other taco).

One of my friends mentioned that I should do a carfax to get better insight into it.
Can't believe I never thought about that before.

So I pulled up the website and put my VIN into the free database to see the listed records.

There weren't many entries, but when I scrolled down I saw that there was one point where the mileage went from 220k to 140k. Somewhere between those two entries is when someone installed that other instrument cluster.
That was back in 2016.

So with some estimation and math between then and now, I estimated that my truck has approximately 270k on it.....
Kind of a shock to me that it's that high of mileage, but also impressed with how much it's put up with and what I've put it through with that kind of mileage.

Fuckin Toyota's man....

 

Photo dump from my CO & UT road trip this last week.

Did a number of passes in CO including: Pearl pass, Ophir pass, Cinnamon pass, & some other smaller trails here and there. Did Poison Spider in Moab too.

Road some sweet trails along the way too. Dr park in CO & The whole enchilada in Moab. That one kicked my ass hard.

DSC_2885_1 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

DSC_2838 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

DSC_2828 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

DSC_2754 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

DSC_2751 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

Pearl Pass Summit by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

DSC_2717 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

Pearl Pass Start by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

DSC_2825 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

DSC_2850 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr

DSC_2696 by Ian Lennox, on Flickr





We were on the way to go and do Imogene pass, but turned around because we were told a bridge collapsed somewhere along the way so we wouldn't be able to make it all the way through.

On the way back down the dirt road, I noticed a lack of steering control when I turned the wheel. I could turn right, but not so much left.
I pulled off to the side of the road because I knew something was wrong. I looked under the truck and saw that something was up with the driver side tie rod.

After pulling off the boot, I saw that the inner tie rod can completely separated from the pivot joint. That's what I get for buying a cheap shit.
It was a beck & arnley ITR from rockauto. I had replaced the passenger side one before the trip with a proforged one, but didn't think to do the driver side one because it was working fine.

The dirt road we were driving on had some suuuper gnarly washboard and even aired down to 15 psi, it was damn rough. I think it was the constant barrage of bumps that put the ITR over the edge.
I'm just reaaally glad that it didn't happen on the trail. If Imogene pass wasn't closed, it forsure would have broken somewhere on the trail and it would have sucked to have to change it there.

Fortunately I carry spares for this very reason. I had my old 555 ITR that was still good that I replaced it with. I didn't have to take the wheel off of the truck which was nice. Just crawled underneath and swapped it out.
Took about 45 min or so with the right tools.

 

So on the labor day sale I ordered a bunch of stuff to do dual cases with 4.7 gears and triple sticks.

Got an old inchworm rf1a housing from another forum member. Gonna use TG adapters and Marlin XD series gears to make it all happen.

Some people say to not mix and match brands like that, but I was reassured that it should work just fine after talking to one member who has that setup and yotamasters that said they set people up like that a bunch with no issues.

The slightly annoying part is sourcing some of the internal parts since I only have an empty housing with no internals.
Fortunately yotamasters has been a huge help on this and was able to source everything I needed. I would highly recommend them for help on trying to find odds and ends for a project like this.
That includes: shift collar for the shift fork, input gear inner and outer snap ring, counter gear inner and outer snap ring, input pocket bearing, & the low speed cage bearing.
There will probably be something else that I didn't think of that I'll need to get when I start to assembly everything, but i'll cross that road when I get to it. For now I've got 98% of what I need on the way.

Ordered the 4.7 gears on the sale and got them delivered legit the next morning
Idk what marlin's deal is with stocking things and giving a bunch of people the run-around, but I guess I got lucky on snagging a set while they were in stock.

Usually it's the other way around where Marlin is the one that's always out of stock and TG has all their shit on the shelf ready to go. But in this case I have to wait a week for the adapters to get assembled before they're shipped out to me.

In putting all my gearing into a calculator online, with the addition of the doubler & my 4.88 gears & on 33's I'll have a final drive ratio of 232.83... That's stupid low. My current ratio in factory low range in first gear is 49.54 for comparison.
It's pretty fun to nerd out over the numbers that the gear ratio calculator spits out.
Like how at 750 rpm I'll be going 0.32MPH lol

Got the bearings pressed onto the gears at work today

Really excited to build this all up. Gonna be a really fun project.

 

YEAH BUDDY!!

 

Stoked to be making moves on it!

Also, turns out that you can buy the rear inchworm adapter from Marlin now. Not sure how long that's been going on for.
It's $1k for just the rear though. And who's to say how long it'll take them to get it to you too

As much as I'd like to clock the rear case, don't know that a $700 price difference in adapters is worth it.

 

As someone who has that fancy clockable adapter, I don't see it as worth it. I don't use it and I have plenty of clearance. I would notice a much greater difference if I went to bigger tires compared to clocking my case 10 more degrees.

Also, for the love of all things holy, build a mount for it. They have enough torque to twist the whole drivetrain at idle without it. I highly recommend a poly bushing mount. You'll feel a little bit more vibrations, but it's so much better than hearing the transfer case hit the trans tunnel as you go down the trailer, let alone a bumpy road.

 

Yea in terms of bang for buck, I just don't see it. That money can be better spent elsewhere on the truck forsure.
The t-case hangs down about as low as the factory cross member does anyways. So if you were to do a true flat belly, you'd have to chop that out too.

Oh I 100% will be. I ordered one of the bombproof mounts for it and I'm planning on building a mount off of the existing cross member for it.
Also will do a 3/16 or 1/4 skid that either replaces my existing all-pro trans skid or extends past where it currently ends.

 

Yeah. I definitely agree with that. Spoonman ended up rebuilding his trans tunnel to get a flat belly on his Taco and it just doesn't seem worth at all. He nuked himself off TW, so that's why I'm linking his Pirate build thread.

https://www.pirate4x4.com/threads/silver-double-cab.2676140/post-44458544

I'd personally build a new skid and build it right with 3/16" plate. As much as I love my 1/4" belly skid, I'd probably be better off with a 3/16". Would help save nearly 50lbs if I rebuilt it.

 

Yea I've gone through his build. I remember him doing that.
Makes sense for a crawler that's super low to the ground like his, but just not for me.

Yea 3/16 should be enough with some reinforcement here and there. Helps when you don't try to bounce the thing off of rocks too I've had to throw my trans skid in the press a few times to flatten it back out