What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

yeah maybe. Just going off rpm differences. 3rd to 4th is almost 1000rpm. Stock 4th to 5th was about 500. New 5th makes it almost 1000 rpm.

Stoked to do this mod myself.

 

The shift feels pretty natural. On the very first test drive it was a little sticky, but it's as smooth as any of the gears after the 250 miles home. Really great.

Ahh, from this perspective, it feels "normal" to me, but I'm probably the wrong person to ask b/c I am a notoriously slow driver. Definitely there's a lot less oomph behind 5th gear now; it's no longer a "passing" gear at the speeds I drive. Though, frankly, at the speeds I drive, it wasn't ever really a passing gear, hahahaha.

I've got this in the step-by-step, but since I found it interesting, here it is:

Thus, by installing the R452 5th gear into the R150F, the overdrive will increase from 16.4% to 30.5%, or approximately 500 rpm at 65mph.

* Shown for completeness, since some R150F transmission owners like to swap to R151 transmissions, in order to get lower gearing in 1st and 2nd gear. Note that the swap outlined here is not compatible with R151 transmissions.​

I'm looking forward to the same. My first trip down to Las Vegas (~1000 miles) is going to be at my usual speeds (62mph) but the plan is that I'll increase that to ~68 or so with the new setup in the future.

Was a fun one for sure. Super glad to have Zane there - both for the shop and moral support. The only bummer is you don't really know if it's going to work until you crack open the trans. But hey, it's a good excuse to replace the t-case seal if it's leaking and get fresh gear oil into the trans, hahahaha.

 

Were you able to detect any improvement in highway MPG?

 

YESSSS I have been waiting for this write up! Going to add this to what will get done when the eco crawler will be installed.

 

Could've just put 35s on with the same effect

 

Put these bad boys on.

 

A diesel swap & 3.56 regear also work too

 

Repainted front bumper and sliders

 

Not yet. The drive home was only 250 miles and I did half of that on the same tank I drove over with. Plus, I always get a kick out of folks who are like, "got 35mpg!!!" only to find out that they went 12 - 100 miles, lol.

I've got a 1000-mile highway trip coming up, so that's where I'll check out the mpgs. Or, at least, get an initial glimpse. It could be a little weird b/c I think (but don't have a lot of data for) I lost about 7% with the new wheel/tire setup (which added ~20lbs and more wind resistance to each corner), so the 5th gearing might just get me "back to where I was." The curse of multi-mods on data collection.

Ehh, that would affect all the other gearing too, and I like the low gearing right now in the rocks. Now, 5.29s with 35s, LT, and this taller 5th? That sounds fantastic!

 

Did up the Tacoma for "Trunk or Treat" at the kiddo's school. Had the cap led strips on a fade/color cycle setting. Bluetooth speaker playing the creepy pipe organ/spooky track. Had a great time passing out candy to the kids and answering a few taco questions/talking shop with some of the other dads. I think for next year maybe one of those small fog machines.

 

This is awesome.

 

¿Dia de los muertos con los mamalonas?

 

Trucks looking good James!

 

Thanks, so happy to have it back lol itching to go camping

 

Replacing my door handle, anyone know if this linkage is supposed to be bent like this for some reason or did I bend it trying to get it off the handle? I'm fairly confident I bent it just wanna confirm

 

Put new door handle in and also redid the vapor barrier, old one was torn up and falling apart. Used 3 mil plastic sheet and put butyl rubber strips in areas that it peeled off or wasnt adhering well.

 

Nice, I did the same thing with 3 mil a couple years ago too. Helped a ton with condensation in the winter

 

Finally getting this rear links project up and running! Martec rear link kit coming soon!


IMG_6503 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

 

Did the same a while back. Also used it as an excuse to put soundproofing on the door. Made a huge difference.