Jake's Lil' Baby Beast

I think it'll work well too. Should start cycling this weekend and see how everything lines up.

Mmm, ill have to dig around. I'm bad with taking pictures.

Thanks! It's a bit of a love/hate at the moment. Rear will get links at some point. Right now will just throw some smoothies back there, maybe links in a year or two.

 

I just picked up an 80 series rear for my first gen! Have you had any issues with the ~4" offset diff in the tacoma? What did you do for the pinion flange?

 

Nice! Haven't noticed any vibes with the offset. I just reused the flange from the stock rear end.

 

Sweet. I'm looking forward to stabbing it in!

Awesome build by the way - I'll be following closely!

 

Ok- bit overdo on an update.
Everything cycled. Did some tweaking on the upper axle side mount to shorten it up. Biggest pain was getting the panhard routed to fit under the pan and over the 3rd member. Gets tight in there once the steering box is bolted into place. Ended up putting some bends in it and got it to where I can live with it. It cycled with 5.5" of uptravel once I bumped the frame height to 23" from my initial idea of 21".

With that all sorted I finished up all the link mounts and tacked into place. I was hesitant to fully weld anything until my RCV delivered, I wasn't sure if the housing needed to +/- 1/4".
Jumped to the rear in the meantime and whipped up some shock mounts. Just used some 10" kings I had sitting around. Should be good enough to get it on the trails.
Cut back the frame and built a crossmember. Set it up for some future projects.
Made some mounts for the front of the bed, made out of some 3/16" tube would should be overkill, hopefully.




RCV shaft showed up after this- so jumped back to the front. We able to test fit the shaft, make my adjustments and get it welded and painted.

Waiting for the paint to dry, knocked out the interior with sound deadening and fresh carpet. My supervisor came by and approved of the progress.


Shock tower brace installed and for the first time in 6 months the truck is off jack stands!
Have a good list of items to get done before my trip so for sure feeling the pressure to get it done.

 

Productive weekend. Dad came by and we knocked out the bed bob on Saturday morning. Used a laser to get some nice lines to cut.
Then we spent some time working on the cab. The rear doors took some effort to close, had to give them a bit of a slam. My dad enjoys sheetmetal work so I let him take lead on it. Some careful placement of ratchet straps and the doors now operate much better. Sheet metal isn't perfect, but at the end of the day it's a wheeler.

Made some rear bumps, mocked it up with some 1/4" strike pads. Might double that up to keep it from bending.

And just started on getting a front winch installed

 

Is this truck done? Weren't you supposed to be wheeling it by now?

(My 1st gen hasn't moved since I saw you like 2 months ago)

 

I think "done" is a poor word to use.
I did drive it to work today. Loading it on a trailer Friday morning. Currently finishing up the sliders and putting different shocks on the rear. Rear rides like a brick.

Better get on it, I think we need a lifes short ditch work trip in the upcoming weeks.

 

Looking forward to hearing how it performs. Pritchett shake down run?


You motivated me to do my annual oil change. 14 months and 2,300 miles since the last one.

 

Getting after it!

Pritchett or Clifhanger most likely will be the trial run.
We have a VRBO all week if you feel like dragging it out there....

 

Bring the shocks over! Lets make em buttery smooth!

 

Did I here life's short ditch work?

 

Looking forward to hearing how things turned out!

 

Where's the Moab trip report?

 

Running a little behind on it.

Definitely was a shake down run. Finished welding sliders back on, and put it on the trailer. Its about 4" too wide to fit on the uhaul trailer. Had to get creative with some smaller tires for the ride out there.

Was really impressed with the Tundra, averaged about 10.2 mpg up and over the passes of i70. About the same I got with the Tacoma on 37s.

Day 1-
Ran Kane creek, I ended up running it backwards and catching up with my group at hamburger hill. All the bumps were a little much for the kiddo to handle. The wall on hamburger hill gave the truck a workout. I thought I was having hub issues on the front, as the truck was only in 3wd with both lockers on. Swapped a new hub in and same issue persisted. At that point I knew I had a locker issue. Ended up just taking some easier lines to finish up the trail.

Day 2-
Moab rim. Knowing I had something in the front end not working, we opted for a little milder trail. Truck still kicked ass, it walked up the far right side of the Z- turn.


After the trail, I ripped the front axle apart, pulled the 3rd and the copper line was pinched off on the ARB. I bench tested it in the garage with just the 3rd in the housing, all good with no leaks. My thoughts are when the diff was built the line was installed in the incorrect position ( very top of ring gear) or was bumped around during shipping. Regardless, I was in need of a new seal housing.
As it happens, my mom was just outside of SLC visiting family and was able to grab a new one from Cruiser Outfitters and bring it down to Moab for me.

Day 3-
Jumped passenger with my dad and ran the Pickle. Was a fun little morning rip with just 2 rigs we crazed right through with minimal drama.

Went back to the rental house and got the front axle put back together with the new seal housing.
Decided to go test it out and ran Steelbender.
I knew that my ram for the steering was in a very vulnerable position for rocks and it was in my mind all trip.
The final climb out of Steelbender my front passanger tire slipped off a rock and the steering line just barely tapped the rock, popping the 90° fitting off the threads. Without steering, there wasn't a way to safely get it out. Ended up taking a strap up the wall and parking it in the dirt lot. Came back with the Tundra and trailered it out. Was a bit worried dragging it out in the soft sand up the hill, with less than new tires, but it lugged the Taco out no problem!

Day 4- Prittchet.
Got up and started sourcing a new hydro line. Ended up at the Caterpillar dealer in town, they whipped me up a new one, and a spare line, for $80!
Got it installed and rolled our convoy up to the trail head.
It was a long day. The steering pump decided it didn't like having any fluid in it, and we ended up having to stop every 30 minutes, let the truck cool off and fill the pump back up. Truck made some big climbs but fighting the steering was getting old very quick. By the time we made it to rocker knocker the fluid would puke out after the 1st go on the obstacle. Ended up winching 4 times in the name of keeing the truck alive. Used almost a gallon of ATF to get it back to the trailer.


Overall it was a fun trip, truck didn't snap in half, so I call that a win! I have a list of things I need to fix, hopefully will have some time in July to get on it.
A new pump and resivoir, new front brakes ( spend all day coated in ATF) and a ram/skid for the hydro assist are on the top of the to-do.

Also, noticed i have bend in front housing. About 2° of positive camber on the driver side. I'm hesitant to put many road miles on it until I resolve that issue.

 

I love the México colourway.

 

Yep! Going to rock it for a while. I thought it would be fun trying to get every color 1st gens came in on it.

 

You should get mismatching painted Limited flares to put on (but you already trimmed the fenders for clearance)... and maybe one chrome mirror from a Limited.