07 Dual Cab Long Bed Manual Swap

Just finished up my DCLB manual swap last night! So slowly going to start amassing my walk through forum. But first going into the background and why it came about. Then go into steps, costs, etc.

I had bought an 06 Access Cab 4x4 MT 106k in the spring of 21'. I bought it in NY when I was living in CT. Was hyped on getting my first manual car and learning how to drive one but also knew nothing on cars at this point. I had maybe done brakes on my previous car. Cars were definitely not in my comfort zone or had any knowledge on. That bite me hard because the frame on that thing was already shot. I just didnt know what I was looking at (had already been patched and stamped frame was separating but was undercoated so looked clean.) Thats important for later. I also knew I was having to move out to Utah later that summer for a job. Used it to move all my stuff (lots of ski and bike gear) and pull my other car a $500 Subaru outback I had bought a little before that off buddy. That set up was incredibly sketch and amazing I didnt get pulled over. Most was slow but smooth sailing. When in Wyoming ujoints and carrier bearing failed and had to do those roadside. Anywho, that truck was not ready for Utah drivers as in the first year I was there I got rear ended 2x (had bike rack on so no damage and would let people go) and Tboned on the highway which is an absurd story in of itself.

Driving down I15 early one morning, I'm cruising in the right lane going slower, trying to get any sort of acceptable MPG. Out of the corner of my eye, I see something. I look over to my left and from the far left lane some dude has veered and is coming perpendicular to me about to tbone me. Thats interesting I think. Home slice hits rear access door, and it spins us sideways/ so I am perpendicular to traffic and he doesnt let off and continues to push me sideways down highway. Finally, he lets off and then all that momentum is transferred toward me going head on towards jersey barrier. I am barely able to steer out and just graze the wall all things consider. In the left side breakdown lane, homeboy gets out of his car in military fatigues and comes over. Says hes super sorry, he fell asleep, and calls the cops to report the accident. Cop shows up and asked what happened, dude responds "you ever see top gun?" Cop looks at dude like wtf and says "ya." Dude goes "you know how the fighter pilots tense really hard to fight gforces? Well I was doing that and just KOed and woke up to truck sideways in front of me being pushed down the road." Hilarious in hindsight. Truck ended up getting totaled but insurance being the scam that it is, was lowballing the piss out of me. Well probably more trying to give me a more than more than fair price for 15year old truck but people here want insane money tacos out here. It was like 25k for something with 150k miles. Makes no sense. But I went on fighting them for a couple weeks because I was going to be unable to replace it for what they were giving me. The f'd part was that they had the scrap value at like 5k. Which is outrageously high, and would represent the pricing because thats saying a yard is going to make way more off of it than that. So eventually I hit them with that which made them drop down, I took the truck back and the check and pocketed. Did need to do tires and a tie-rod to get drivable again as tires were to cords from getting pushed sideways. The goal was drive and put little to no money into it as I knew the frame was bad. (photo was actually day before crash)

Fast Forward EOY 2024. Thing has just been deteriorating. muffler rusted out, doors that got hit really dont work anymore, didn't realize you physically cant not have bed stiffeners and they are fully cracked through and move 1-2 inches side to side. Motor and trans are still good though, everything else is horrible. Not putting money didn't really work, ended up doing most thing on the truck XD. There was one major issue the last year. I was getting and ecu and airfuel or 02 sensor codes. And couldnt get to bottom of issue. But wasnt going to be able to register truck with emissions. W/ them expiring February, fuel pump died late jan and it got towed home and was done.

I had looked and bought the 07 in the fall, as I needed something a little bigger for when I drive my truck. Bought it on work trip in PA as prices were probably 10k plus cheaper with how outrageous they are out here. But driving that thing across the country with the auto made me want to paint my ceiling with my brains. By the time I made it to Utah, I was looking at every telephone pole as a good opportunity to take me and this truck out of its misery of being an auto. Have a tangent on some dude at a gas station, that ended up being a huge reason of why I did this all. But Im already way too deep into this and havent even gotten to anything swap related. It got to utah and it sat hard parked as I couldnt drive it. And was debating between selling the horrible thing I had just bought or fixing it (I am a very stubborn person and like things the way I want if you couldnt tell yet.) Did lots of research thanks to everybody who has done write ups and give any info on this site. Pretty insanely cool community it seems. Complied a huge checklist and how to do everything.

What was stopping me? I am not a car person, I am kinda dumb, and I have a lot of other activities I really like that I heavily allocate my time towards. When I say I'm not a car person, I mean until I got my first car in my early 20s they were totally black magic to me. Didn't know anything about them, didnt know how they worked, need maintence, etc. I would have been the person to not understand you need to change oil or why. This was only 3 years later. That fuel pump died and it lined up with some slower times with work, skiing and biking and it felt like I had to give it a try and was excited to see if I could learn and do something new!

 

Photos related to top post.

 

Can’t wait to read more! I was considering a manual swap when I planned my 4wd conversion, but it hadn’t been done as often. I always said by the time my current transmission blows up, maybe someone will have a nice guide ready

 

Onto the 07 and swap! Going to work backwards and show end product & then go through the process I took.

Here is the rig!

Summarized review:
Over all did end to end in about 3 weeks time after work and in between biking and skiing. Nothing itself is too too crazy, just lots of little steps.

What I did right:
- DO THE SWAP, super stoked I went through with it. It is exponentially better and 100% the right decision.
- Label literally everything, every connection, painters tape and sharpie for what its for, bags for grouping of bolts labeled to what its for. I ended up doing the interior piece back together incredibly fast and with nothing extra. Which is astounding for someone with my memory and skill level (hardly existant and low accordingly)
- Mechanical parts of the swap. These to me are the easy fun and fast parts. I pulled the manual trans in just over an hour off the old truck. Auto took a while and also really confirmed for me I was happy with the decision to get rid of that thing. God that was un-fun going through starter hole
- research and making list, will post what I had put together
- pull entire dash made working space way better
- not getting discouraged by the screw ups I made
- Kinda figure out electrical stuff (with help of friends translating forum posts for me) Dude I dont understand this shit. And the problem is i know its not that complex, but if I look at a wiring diagram, I might as well be trying to read chineese, I have zero reference to the real world application of it and dont know how to turn diagram into what im looking at. Probably Hardest part for me of the whole swap and it realistically isnt that crazy
-tried to record a video of everything so I can hopefully make a full legnth video of everything on the swap as I know for me thats how I best learn by seeing. But that will require me to go through hours of footage and tons of editing. it will happen, just with due time.

What I did wrong:
-Metal prep and mocking up pedals / the fab work. The pedals and original trans tunnel hole sucked. Rushed, impatient. would have saved me an absurd about of time to just line up 12 more time to confirm. You only have one chance with sheet metal if your the welder of my quality (not good), Burned holes that i couldnt fix because i had to redo the mount. That was disappointing. Live and learn but these are the pieces that shouldnt be rushed.
- not stopping at just dash and taking out heater core, evap, air box thing, ended up pulling later to check that that stuff was all good as ac wasnt working and was not that much more work than entire dash and would have made ebrake way easier
- Not buying a manual ecu right away and probably pissing off the guys at OTT with my questions on why they said they can tune an auto to work as manual but to go buy a manual any way. (this I would still be really interested to know the answer of, as on every form they say it can be done and they can do it. But right away just told me to buy a manual one. Does it not run as well if you use the auto or not as reliable? I have no idea how any of that shit works and am just super interested to know the advantage of why the manual one would be better as it is essentially pushing business away from them. Which is kinda cool and respectable but there has to be a reason. (probably just im an asshole and wouldnt just take their advice as it was given))
- try to fix play of oem shifter by filling with epoxy. Like dog you cant be dumber than this. felt great until it got warm. This is the biggest what the fuck justin thing I have had in a long time and then had to spend 380 on b&m shifter to replace. Which i have to check if its normal but mine has an insane amount of play and kinda feels like trash. way more than oem before mod.

 

Dude do it! You will be thrilled with results! The 4wd swap seems so gnarly! Props!

 

(edit later to add total generalized checklist)

 

Really cool conversion, thanks for sharing! I might be interested in doing this down the road so it's good to hear that it is a doable project.

 

How was mounting the pedals? With the manual ecu did you still get a bunch of Christmas tree lights?

 

This is cool! Thanks for sharing, looking forward to more posts!

 

Totally do able, fully believe if I can do it, anybody that has pulse could probably do it better

 

Pedals and ebrake weren't great, weren't terrible, there is definitely a couple ways to go about it. I had a parts truck and I was trying to go as oem as possible. Hopefully get some more posts up today on the walk through. But quick notes were, take the 3 seconds to pop the booster off/out to put brace in behind makes it so easy. Feel like how to make this swap hard and take a long time is when you try to "save" time by trying to work around stuff. With dash and booster out of the way it is SO much easier to mock things up. Dash & crash bar out of way its easier to prep and weld, which I tried to avoid at first and is what had dug my hole. 2 regrets/biggest mistakes I made with swap was not just popping that out of way first time and trying to cut trans hole with grinder and sawzall. Should have bought the $40 harbor freight dremel and saved myself so much time energy hassel and stress. It made that shit so easy.

Thanks dude! more coming soon!

 

Once you reset immobilizer, (very easy), and has been posted amount a couple times in TW, but I will cover in that step of swap when I get there. That removes all the lights (i still have/had one check engine for no vin because I somehow think i found some old new stock and it was a new ecu that hadnt had vin written. p0630.) It also drives way better off manual ecu. shocking. I did drive on auto and it drives fine enough, definitely is lethargic though. And you get 16 check engines and they are all summed up in the computer saying "yo where the FUCK is the transmission dog."

 

Welcome to the DCLB manual trans club! Pretty elite group and I'm the self-appointed president (only because I also did a manual transfer case/twin-stick swap for the street cred). LOL

Can confirm:
-SLC drivers absolutely suck. Sorry SLC, but from Tremonton to Spanish Fork, your town is an absolute shit show of the worst drivers I've ever seen. Don't get me started on Little Cottonwood Canyon
-clutch/brake pedal assembly and getting it right takes lots of patience. I'm proud of mine, but it took me literally a week of mocking it up, tweaking the template, re-drawing the template and starting over 100 times.
-Get the manual ECU. I drove the stock auto ECU with all the lights on and even after Justin "tuned" it for the manual trans, it drove like garbage with the A/T Temp light illuminated.
-I also had issues with the ABS module talking to the ECU. In my experience, if you want to have ABS and airbag system functionality get the ABS module off the same truck you got the ECU. I ended up tracking them down in two separate LKQ transactions, but it wasn't easy and I'm thankful to the guy I had there helping me.
-Over a year later, being able to row the gears still makes me smile every time I drive it. Such a better truck all around.




On another note, I think I understand you're not stoked on the B&M shifter? I'm kinda disappointed in mine, too, because I feel there's a lot of play and some shifts feel vague (especially from 1st to 2nd and 5th to 6th) but have no basis of comparison since my used junkyard trans didn't come with a shifter and I've only used the B&M. Did you say the OEM shifter was better when epoxied? If so, I might have to try an OEM shifter.

 

Ya I think you take the take the cakewith the dual sticks, that would be the dream, but I had my tcase already so went with what I had. But so stoked to be a part of it. Driving to work the last couple days has got me stoked! You build is amazing definitely going to pull inspiration from it quite a bit with a couple things I want to do.

Ended up going with the manual and stoked to hear a little background on why. They had mentioned timing is different but local OTT guy is out of town so in a little limbo. Definitely drives exponentially better with manual ecu. Shoot hopefully I do not run into issues with the ABS or airbag, been all good as of now. driven couple hundred miles as of now.

In terms of B&M shifter, I am partially a huge dumbass. I took it out last night and the bushing had popped off knob when it went to click in. So it was super vague and awful feeling. But totally my fault. Will have to see how it holds up now that I did it right. But man getting it in right kinda sucks huge time.

In terms of the oem shifter, I had read a thread of somebody drilling holes in there and filling with some sort of rubber and It made it crisp. the OEM is a non serviceable 2 piece with rubber bushings in the middle. as it ages and gets softer it has more play making it more vague. When I did it, I had epoxy on the self behind me not thinking of heat. It felt great shifting but as soon as I drove long enough you had that awful warm epoxy smell and it got a touch softer. So it works if you use the right stuff to fill it but definitely dont use epoxy.

Glad to hear someone else's review of the traffic and drivers, I traveled a lot and I don't think I been anywhere with worse. Worst part is I commute 35miles each way on i15 everyday. Feel like I'm going to war everyday. Little Cottonwood is atrociously bad. I refuse to ski resort when it snows anymore. Only time I go up is early morning for backcountry dawn patrols before work or it hasn't snowed in a couple days on the weekends. Can't imagine how sick it must have been pre covid before lots of people like me moved there lol.

 

Parts that I bought or needed:

• RA60F w/ transfer case, can run RA62F from 3rd gen and people have done but i am not familiar with how harness lines up
  
  
  • Why I stayed with the RA60F
    
    
    • Drive truck loaded and up mountains a lot.Mountains and being loaded dont really see how it is feasible to have ratios from 3rd gen without regearing. You'd will be railing 2nd and 3rd gear all the time I'd imagine. Would love @DesertRatliff to weigh in on the rc62f, as you were the forum I had read on this back when i was planning. Thoughts on long term with the gearing?
      
      
    • Ratios:
      
      
      • Ratios 2nd gen ra60f
        
        
        • 4.171
          
          
        • 2.190
          
          
        • 1.488
          
          
        • 1.193
          
          
        • 1.000
          
          
        • .849
          
      • 3rd gen rc62f
        
        
        • 3.982
          
          
        • 2.017
          
          
        • 1.321
          
          
        • 1.000
          
          
        • .848
          
          
        • .713
          
      • Auto 5spd A750F
        
        
        • 3.520
          
          
        • 2.042
          
          
        • 1.400
          
          
        • 1
          
          
        • .716
          
    • If you can somehow get the FJ trans, that one has a much better OD ratio and you could have manual case (I believe) RA61F
      
• URD throwout bearing kit or clutch masters
  
  
  • Urd is easy, I already had it and it worked great for me.
    
• Slave cylinder
  
  
• Clutch pedal w/ master
  
  
• Manual brake pedal or cut auto pedal
  
  
• Ebrake assembly
  
  
• Manual brake master res for combo or brake clutch or Remote resi and mount, stole remote mount idea from @cfcarpenter link to his build and a lot of part numbers here. (on first post.)
  
  
  • 31402-20160 remote resi
    
    
  • 31408-60010 mount
    
• have to get braided line made, opted for this, clutch line seems majorly over complicated and not worth it in my opinion. I mine was a little long at 6ft, I think the perfect amount would be around 5-5.5ft
  
  
• Custom drive shaft
  
  
  • front section has to be LEGNTHED by 1 inch
    
• Brace to hold clutch pedal mounts from other side of firewall (can source from truck by spot weld drilling or make your own)
  
  
• top clutch pedal mount make or take from truck (can source from truck by spot weld drilling or make your own)
  
  
• ebrake firewall mounts (can source from truck by spot weld drilling or make your own)
  
  
• Shifter (I had an oem, tried to modify and botched. Ended up getting a B&M short throw shifter)
• Shift boot
  
  
• Manual Shifter console
  
  
• Hand Ebrake plastic piece
  

Most of this, as I mentioned, I already had access to with my old truck/ parts truck.

 

Damn making me wish I went manual now!!!

 

@jhoes13 I mainly went with the RC62f because I didn't have a parts truck, although, in hindsight, I should have just purchased a crashed 3rd gen. I would have probably been way ahead. The other reason I went with the RC62f was the improved quill design at the clutch release bearing that so many people complain about with the RA60f. On paper, I like the improved ratios of the RC62f, as well.

As for the gearing, I'm running 285-70-R17 tires (33") with a fairly heavy camper build, so a re-gear was already in the plans. I went with 4.30's...the stock 3rd gen 6spd MT gearing... and again, should have just grabbed an entire parts truck to pull these from (front diff and done the 8.75" axle swap). With stock 3.73 final ratios, 33's and the camper, 6th gear was basically unusable for me in the RC62f after doing the swap but after the re-gear, I'm very happy with the 4.30's.

I guess RC60f out of the 4th gen Tacoma/world market HiLux is the real Toyota Bling, though:

RC60F Transmission swap including 4th Gen Taco | Tacoma World

 

Gotten busy and lazy with updating this. Trying to get back to it. Going breaking down the different parts of the swap. In my eyes, they can be viewed broadly as:

1. Pedal box
   • ebrake to hand brake
   • clutch pedal install
2. Electrical/harness stuff
   • Wiring into neutral to have 4x4
   • Adding reverse light
   • ECU swap (this part is easy)
3. Trans tunnel hole
4. Mechanical Work
   • Auto Trans removal
   • Clutch install
   • Manual Trans install
5. Hydraulics
   • Putting in the slave
   • routing braided line
   • Remote Resi

I listed the # of order of difficulty (at least in terms of for myself.) With that some is subjective. I would say the pedal box work is pretty comfy the hardest no matter your comforts with the amount that goes into it. The wiring work is probably really really easy but I do NOT understand electrical stuff. Wiring diagrams have no tangible meaning to me. I dont have any real world experience or application to them so it just confuses me more. Granted there is very little you need to do. But this part is where I struggled the most I felt for what it was. And I think that it is because it is really so simple that nobody had even bothered to put into terms I like and understand lol. Trans tunnel hole, I screwed up at first. This is extremely easy with the knowledge I have now, but kinda f'ed up so had to come with save. The mechanical stuff in my eyes is easy and fun. Big expensive legos. Minus getting the auto out. But when you get to this point, and it sucks, its just that much more motivating to know you are never going to have to take one on and off again. I was so stoked when I got that POS off lol. A manual is like 1.5hr job. Auto was like 4-5. Just so many extra steps. Cant imagine taking one of them off to then to have put it back on. I legit think I'd get truck crushed at that point. Hydraulics are very straight forward and simple at least in the fashion I did it.

I am going to start with the pedal box walk through as that is majority of the work/time involved with this swap.

 

Pedal Box Work Key Advice: Take it all out and off and go absolutely ballistic mode with painters tape, plastic bags and sharpie.

I had never taken a dash off in any capacity. It was definitely very intimidating. But if I could do it all again I would have probably fully removed crash bar as it isn't many more steps (I did it later to pull out the airbox) and it opens so much space. But the piece I did right is I used a shit ton ziplock snack bags labeled with sharpie for bolts and I had nothing left over on the first try. Every separate piece that got pulled off got a separate bag. I also put painters tape flags on every connector labeling what it was. I personally think doing all this saved an absurd amount of time fighting myself on the back end. I got the truck from fully apart to fully back together in a matter of couple hours maybe and I definitely wasnt moving fast. Definitely would have botched something had I not.

So in summary take seats, console, the entire dash, crash bar at least out of way and movable. It will make your life SO much easier and make the fab work way easier and better too.

Now onto the specific steps of this process!

 

Okay Pedal box work walkthrough. This might end up being a lot and broken up into a couple posts. Pulling this mainly from memory so here we go and will edit as I remember things I forgot lol.

1. Start by popping both seats out
   • This opens space and makes working quite a bit easier
   • Each is 4 14mm
   • Driver has two electrical connectors (atleast on sport)
   • Passenger has one
   • Harness both have clip to seat you need to pop
2. Console
   • Cupholder area clips in, so you need to pop that out
   • Shifter console has two philips screws that hold to console box, remove those
   • For shifter console area, you pull up from back (side towards console box) to pop/ unclip from lower dash
   • Console Box has 2 10mm in the center of it. You first need to reach from front underneath the box and find the holes at bottom and push the plastic/ fabric base floor up and out to access those bolts. You basically give it the good ole reach around.
3. Auto Trans Computer removal Tangent
   • Underneath the console box lies all the trans computer jazz, you no longer need, remove all of that junk. If i remember correctly, the console box brace sits above it and is help on by 2 10mm on the sides of the trans tunnel. Removing that now makes a nicer place to sit later, so I recommend this and then makes getting auto stuff out easier.

Dash is next, have to pause for now