3 Tons of Fun! Littles 2nd Gen Taco and BMW E46 Build with B.S. and travel pics

Another step closer.

Had to buy a different puller from the one I rented to get the marlin oil seal extension housing off.







I can actually get to this one buy the trans mount now that it's not a bolt.



Shifter need some work. Lol



Dropping the shafts off tomorrow, will have them back Friday. Could actually be rolling again by Sunday.

 

Forgot this one. I had everything lined up on the studs and splines lined up to the trans under the truck and was pushing on the transfer case but it just wouldn't go in. These NWF shifters sit a little further forward than on the marlin setup.

 

Nice work!

I see you chopped your old mount off, does the NWF have a mounting point, or are you just running it without?

 

Thanks! Its getting there. There's no provision for a mount on the NWF box. With the way the two halves go together and the clocking feature, I think it'd be hard to do. I actually had the FROR tcase support sitting in my garage for the past few years that I never got around to installing on my marlin setup. I was thinking about using that, but after hearing mixed things I sold that a hefty loss few months ago. I think it will be okay without the additional support. Unless I go buy a brand FROR support, I am not sure how to even go about building something that would work when theres no way to attach it to the case. If you have any ideas I'm all ears but it's not currently in the plan.

 

I was supposed to transfer this thrust washer over to the new input shaft that's now in my completely sealed up FJ case. Fuckity fuck. Guess I'm splitting that again today. Fuck.

 

That sucks
Fuck

 

As Paul from Fab Rats likes to say:
"We do it nice 'cause we do it twice"

 

Keeping it as simple as i can on the shifters. No welds. Just bends using my sliders and the handle of my hydraulic jack for leverage. Looks like I can make this all fit nicely with my old redline goods boot, and it will actually work even better with the shifters being forward and not pulling on the leather. The NWF shifters were a lot easier to test fit than my old rad designs since I didn't have to dissamble the whole assembly each time to see how the fit was.






Clearance around the rear tcase shifters. I know others had issues, but plenty of room with the body lift and hammering I did on the trans tunnel first-time around. Passenger side:


DRIVER SIDE:

 

I'm at this part. Backing out of the garage tonight!

 

The NWF eco crawler is offically installed and I just went for a test spin. I am pleased to report everything is working perfectly on my short loop around the parking lot. Very impressed with this product desgin and overall install. It's very doable for the average guy with some basic mechanics skills and tools. I did most of it in my kitchen. I made some stupid mistakes along the way with the install that set me back, and that fucking flange nut was stuck on with the force of 1000 gods, but other than that everything went pretty smooth. The triple stick setup is very solid, especially compared to my old radesigns setup that felt a little loose and janky to me. I did zero welding for this. I cut the stick with an angle grinder and bent them against my sliders. The body lift I installed a few years ago and all that hammering on the trans tunnel was definitely a huge factor in making this an "easy" swap. I had no clearancing to do on shifters or tcase, and the exhaust reroute and extended wiring was also done already.

I have more a few pics and a few install notes but I am exhausted. I will get those and maybe a video up shortly.

 

Taking a break from the oil, heavy lifting, and turning wrenches to focus on the finer things today. I threw this very nicely custom made Redline Goods shift boot on some bent coat hanger with some thread and some twist ties when I first put it together. It held in place but wasn't very finished.




Time to get fitment right and give this thw finish it deserves. Tediously hand sewing coat hanger into that leather that I am still not sure how I will affix to the plastic.

 

So instead of one continuous loop, i did a piece of coat hanger for each side and stitched it in this time. That should help me fit it to center console better. Have you heard of thimbles? They are great but I still stabbed myself with the back of a needle several times. I think this is all going to fit up nicely

 

Nice work man!

 

the custom shift boot is a very nice finishing touch

 

Rant about this shift boot and finalizing the NWF trip sticks coming soon...

Couldnt make it work. Looks like hammered piss, just like it did with the marlin /radesigns setup. Whatever. I have triple sticks, and dual cases. Function over form. It at least feels better.

 

bop it! Outdoors edition

 

Looks good from the side

 

It looks okay from a distance, but there's no connection between the boot and the console. When I had the boot made, i designed the rear section yo small in proportion to the trans portion. Well I made the rear section to short, and as a result the tcase shifters pull the leather away from the console. Not the finish I was hoping for. The only way to do it right is have a completely new boot made with a larger rear section, or have someone take this apart and try to redo the rear section.




I split it to be 6" up front and 3" in the back to fill the 9" opening. I wish I would have split it 4.5" on each side and put that seam in the middle so it doesn't pull the shifters.

I really feel like redline failed me on this. They made it to my exact specifications, but i specifically asked about that measurement and the guy said its fine, that doesnt really matter. All we needed was the throw measurements at the top of the shifters for the height of the boot. I understand every application is different, but that was clearly wrong information. I think they should have been able to give better desgin feedback than they did since they've done these on tacomas before.

 

The pictures of oil on everything gave me PTSD flashbacks of puddles of oil on my garage floor, running down my driveway, and coating everything from the crawlbox to the tailgate. Not a fun time.

+1 on the flexible line of you find yourself dealing with that again. The hydraulic throw out from ClutchMasters came with a nice braided steel line that was very easy to work with.

Lime residue on the dishes? Meh.
Lime residue on the tcase? Nah, fuck that.

Damn, that sucks, you'd think they'd be the experts. Is there a local upholstery shop you could take it to so they could see how all the shifters move and where the material will get pulled in relation to the console?