'03 Prerunner 4WU 3link up-date

I left my truck at M.I.T last night.
They will tear into the rear of the Inch Worm case and see what damage they need to repair. Also, I am having them remove the oil pan and re-seal... it's been leaking the entire time I've had it back.

Should get it back tomorrow sometime.

More to follow.

 

Oh yes, I forgot to mention about the full width and steering. That's another reason why chose 1 tons at the end.

Quite interesting that you were able to run big meats with the fj60/fj80 combo without issues. Those have stronger ring/pinion than regular toyota mini stuff. You have an awesome rig BTW.

In terms of price, i could have built the front D60 cheaper. You can get a lot out of them in factory form with just a few changes. But for peace of mind, I ended up gutting the whole thing. Things snowed ball quickly and before I realized i had changed everything hub to hub (all chromo 35 spline inner/outers, new bearings, new brakes, aftermarket kuckles, Artec arms, hardcore hubs, etc) There's only one more thing I could add to it, and that's getting RCVs. But those are 2 grand for the D60...it ain't happening any time soon lol

I still regret not getting a Diamond from time, mostly because of the lower weight. My front D60 as it is weighs about 530lbs. Add tires/wheels and you have one heavy predicament for a small engine to push. But there's no turning back now

 

Bearings for the Inch Worm case were ordered from Marlin Crawler today.
Due to them waiting for the bearing shipment which was expedited as a one day shipment, I'm hoping the oil pan leak was repaired today as I dropped off the oil & filter. Y'all know how Marlin Crawler is though.

Keeping my fingers crossed in having it back later tomorrow afternoon.

More to follow.

 

So what was the final official diagnosis of your inchworm box? What happened exactly to those bearings?

Hopefully things went ok with Marlin Crawler. It seems like it's always hit/miss with them. Hopefully you will not be left waiting for an eternity for parts to arrive.

Glad to see you are getting closer and closer to finalizing this project.

 

The tail shaft was not properly aligned with the pinion and the trans height was off after the original cross member was removed.

The output flange bearing took the hit and is shot.

I should hear more today.

Stay tuned.

 

That seems weird that would cause the bearing to fail, i would think the ujoints would absorb all that angle.

 

^ You'd think, right?

Other than height off of the cross member, one issue was the tail shaft was more towards the passenger inside frame rail. After measuring an all stock '02 4x4 regular cab 2.7 w/ auto my buddy owns, the center of the output flange measures 18 1/8" to the inside of the driver side frame rail. Mine was that plus 5/16". Doesn't seem like a big deal but yeah, it really is, not to mention it's a big deal to my wallet.

No call from the shop yet but in this case... I'm thinking no news is bad news.

More to follow.

 

Sub'd.

 

The good news iis that bearing is easy to get to, and if i remember correctly you dont even have to drop the case to get it, and its not pressed on. It was a while ago since i built my case so i could be wrong.

 

Something doesn't add up there. Guys run fzj80 rear ends in Tacoma's without any issues and they are offset a few inches at least. 5/16's isn't going to kill an output bearing...

 

Sorry to hear about your bearing issues. Fingers crossed that you get your parts quickly. I'm still down to do a shakedown run in a month or so. I still don't have my truck back from Solo. Lol

 

You'd think, right? I thought the DC would make that up.

I hope to hear from the shop today.

The rear hasn't changed at all. This truck was solid when I dropped it off, not one single issue. Had fun with it for years.
Now the OEM cross member is out... compounding issues arise.

More to follow.

 

Welcome to the wonderful world of custom fabrication where the strain on your wallet is never-ending and nothing goes according to plan.

 

True...but a lot of the things that go wrong have more to due with some individuals in the off-road industry making things unnecessarily difficult and frustrating for customers

 

True but, if the industry did as advertised, it would be far less painful.

I'll get things sorted, just time of which I have little of or I'd do more things on my own.

More to follow.

 

That's a huge issue right now in they Toyota scene... Night and day difference if you have ever played in the Jeep world.

Marlin and Inchworm are bleeding to death because nothing is ever in stock.

There are probably a dozen or so shops that have great products in theory. Problem is that's most of the reviews/posts about their products are glowing until the, "but they forgot this" or "I had to modify this" or "I had to call and check the status of my order"

These shops are charging prices geared to a crowd that either doesn't have the ability to fab/modify or somebody that doesn't have the time to waste screwing around with building their own. For a $1200-$1300 bumper, it better fit perfect...etc. Bump up the price by a factor of 10 for full blown fab work and swaps.

Most here don't like Trail Gear because they started out a bit iffy on quality/fit. Now they have gotten the quality up and are killing it because none of the other shops have figured out the consumer just wants parts as they are described and in a timely manner.

 

/\

Damn, well said.

 

Some good points, however as a former jeeper they have the same issues with the good parts. Like toyota's if you want something stupid like an LED light bar you can get that overnighted and they have a million in stock, yet if you need drive-train parts its a crap shoot if they ever have them in stock. That and you had the joy of working on a vehicle cobbled together at the factory with the scrap bin of thrown away junk parts from other mfr's. The nice things about toyota's is you don't have to replace every part on the vehicle in order to wheel anything decent with 33's. Hell most of the upgrades for toyotas are stock toyota parts from another model.

Toyota parts are stupid expensive now, it used to be the cheap way to wheel.

I just want a parts supplier west of the Mississippi so i don't have to wait a week for parts and pay up the nose for shipping.

Ritchie: When did you get your lefty?

 

^^ Mid year in 2013.
It supposedly was the last unit Inch Worm had in fact, when I spoke to Josh, he said he might have enough parts to build one.

It took a while but I received it after 3-4 months. Many shipping issues though. The wrong coupler (21 spline) was sent which I still have... if anybody wants it, it's yours for free.

I bought the shifter from Marlin and I modified it to fit where the OEM shifter would have been.

 

Ahh, i was asking because i guess the early ones had oiling problems that they fixed. I built mine in 09 and its been fine, then again i i haven checked the bearing in a while (grab the output and wiggle it for loosness, noises, parts falling off lol). Do you have a crawl box?