04 Extra Cab SAS

This is awesome. I had this same idea, but it just never came to fruition. Also you can modify your housing for the elocker. You don't have to buy a different one. Keep up the good work.

 

Yeah, I believe I mentioned that in my post. I've done a few elocker retrofit's into non elocker housings. Im just hoping to avoid it if possible. But, I will certainly do it if I can't find a housing. Im just excited to finally have an elocker! It will match my factory rear elocker nicely

 

More progress this week/weekend. Although, like the last few posts, not as much as I am hoping.


After the the test fit for the radius arms was complete, I made a couple adjustments for a little more strength and TIG welded everything together. I am not the worlds best TIG welder, so its certainly no weld porn.






With them all welded up, I got them tacked in really firmly so I can eventually put some weight on the truck and see if everything landed where I wanted.





Next order of business was to get the steering box mounted. This proved to be a very time consuming process. Since I knew I planned on modifying the chassis plates to set the box in a better spot for my truck, I needed to set the steering before getting the plates tacked on and working on anything else such as coils mounts and panhard mount. The box got clamped to the bare frame(not pictured) and I and I marked the holes, then drilled the frame for the sleeves. Once the chassis was drilled, I cut the chassis plate and clamped everything on, so I could make a template for a filler piece.




With the holes drilled, the plate cut, and template made, I cut 2 filler pieces. I clamped both sides together before cutting anything, so I could duplicate the filler plate. Once the filler was made, I TIG welded everything together and ground it flush so you cant even tell it was cut. You'll see that in later photos.






With the outside plate finished, It was time to move onto getting the sleeves for the steering box properly installed. This is where I have some criticisms of the kit I purchased. I got the kit from WFO because it looked closest to what I was doing. I knew there was a chance I would have to modify it, but that isn't where my gripe was. First of all, I would like to start by saying that I am probably unnecessarily OCD about some details. First of which, the hardware included is 1/2" fine thread grade 8 fasteners. Quality stuff, but I don't like mixing metric and standard hardware. It seems lazy and cheap in my opinion. Grant it, the easy solution is to run a 1/2" drill through the 3 holes on the steering box and move on with my life.... but that's not how I roll.

Second, and this one is truly just lame to me... is the zinc coated spacer sleeves. Anyone who welds/fabricates for a living knows that stuff needs to be removed for a good weld. More importantly, the fumes aren't good for you. A simple solution would be 3/4", .120 wall DOM or HREW cut to length. That's essentially what these sleeves are. Initially I was going to machine some proper sleeves, but said screw it and ground the zinc off in the places I needed to weld.

So this morning before getting started, I went to my local hardware store to grab some generic 12mm fasteners so I could fit everything up for now. Later I will source better fasteners after everything is blown apart for final paint and re assembly.

Rant off:



It was time to move onto getting the sleeves tacked on, square to the outside of the frame. It was more simple to clamp everything together using only the outside plate, and tighten the bolts to ensure the sleeves were sitting square on the chassis plates. After this, I took the chassis plate off, and welded the outside edge to the bare frame(I pre beveled everything to allow for weld), then ground it flush for the plates to sit nicely on the chassis.




With the sleeves set, it was time to move onto the inside plate. First thing I noticed is there needed to be a bend closer to the engine mount. I don't like just clamping it out. That introduces stress to the frame and that's unnecessary.



So I put a little bend in it so it fits better. I also cut a little of the end, because it was interfering with the engine mount. It would have actually been worse if I didn't modify it already. So I suppose those are 2 more criticisms for the WFO kit.




With the extra bend, and the plate all welded up and ground flat, I had it fitting nicely. I did end up adding another small bend at the front of the chassis because of the small gap due to the replacement chunk of frame I made. So there is a small bend in the plate at the bottom of the photo and now that end sits nice and flat against the chassis.



After putting together and taking things apart several times, I finally had the plates tacked on, and the steering box mounted temporarily. You can now see that he filler piece I made is un noticeable. I then re attached my string to see what the steering angles will look like, and I am reasonably happy. I think the truck will need to go up an inch or 2 , but it gives me a really close idea on where things will land. Then I tacked together a coil mount to start eye balling things. I cant really go any further now until I pull the axle out and swap the oil pan. The IFS pan is in the way of me making a panhard mount and getting a temp panhard bar in place to start fine tuning the side to side, as well as setting in the coil mounts. So that is a project for this next weekend.

 

Damn, that's awesome

 

Spectacular fab work. Sub'd

 

Very impressive work indeed! That is going to be a one of a kind beast of a machine.

 

This is sick. Sub'd.

 

Mounting the steering box SUCKS!!! I still have nightmares from when I did mine, be glad you didn't go forward swing, that makes it even more miserable. I believe it took me like 20hrs of cutting, thinking, welding and grinding to build mine.

 

Holy EFF! Im not a terribly quick worker, so I could understand that. I feel like going with a mini truck box worked out in several ways I hadn't thought of. Especially with how close everything will be with the panhard mount, coil spring, and steering arm.

 

Finally somebody actually doing it with the 80 series radius arms and coils! Love it. I've been dreaming and talking and planning on doing this for 10 years now, first on my 3G 4Runner, then on my 1G Tacomas. I'm not a fabricator or welder and don't have time to become one. Maybe one day when I'm old and retired.

I know it's early on in this build, but, you wanna do another one...? Maybe at least keep the thought in the back of your mind as you're going thru...

Oregon isn't /that/ far from where I'm at... I am seriously looking for somebody to get my 80 axle with radius arms up under my 2003 Tacoma. No fab shops or anyone else around me know anything about Tacomas or Cruisers -- only Jeeps and trucks and they just want to do custom 3-links and coilovers, which I'm not interested in.

Regardless, awesome build. Keep the updates coming!

 

Thanks man!

Hahaha, you're like the 3rd person to ask. I suppose I wouldn't be against it however I am not terribly quick. Part of that is a bi-product of not having a full fledged shop at home to work with so there's a certain level of inefficiencies there. The other factor is that I do this for a living so it's difficult to keep momentum after a hard days work doing the same stuff hahaha

Feel free to keep following the build and reach out once Im done. Im sure when this is finished, I'll have a list of things I would do differently if I had to do it again. Much like my beloved 85 Toyota pickup that has an irresponsible amount of money in it hahaha

 

Small Sunday evening update.

Not a whole lot to report this evening. I took all of this coming week off, so I wasn't planning on working on it much due to rain, but am still a bit bummed by the silly road block I hit.

Yesterday, the wife and I went to a local favorite wrecking yard of ours to look for some parts for a friend, and a steering shaft. I fortunately got a complete one off a 3rd gen 4x4 pickup which will be necessary for adapting the steering column to the mini-truck box.




I also received the drill guide for the new dip stick tube from Off Road Solutions this week.





With the drill guide in hand, I decided to work on getting the oil pan swap out of my hair. I first had to drag the axle out from under the truck. From there I got the oil draining while I worked on removing the drivers side exhaust manifold. It was a little time consuming, but luckily all the fasteners came off without anything breaking. Afterwards I dropped the oil pan, and removed the dip stick tube. From there, I supported the drivers side of the engine VIA the alternator bracket while I took the engine mount out.



With everything out of the way, I took a very quick moment to scrape off the bigger portion of 17 years worth of caked on crud. Generally, I get really out of hand and clean everything to make it look new again. I knew I was limited on what I could actually do without spending a ton of time I couldn't afford to spare, so it was time to exercise some self control.

You can see marked in pink, the spot in the casting where a hole may have been drilled.



Once I bolted the fixture on, I quickly realized that I needed a right angle drill. At this point, it was about 4:35 PM and my local Hobofreight was closing at 5. So I ran 10 minutes down the road and purchased a drill. Unfortunately getting a late start today, and frankly not being that motivated bit me in the ass. Once I got home, I discovered that the particular drill I got was too fat to fit. I was debating on the one I got, and just a cheap air drill. I chose incorrectly.




After bringing much shame to my family for such a mistake, I had to find a block of wood to support the engine for the night. Luckily, with having the week off, I should hopefully make a large amount of progress. Tomorrow morning I will go exchange the drill for one that should fit better.

 

Nice! I recommend swapping out some of the oil pan bolts for studs while you have the pan off. Those oil pan bolts are stupid easy to snap off, the studs are a little more forgiving. I was able to find them at ACE hardware.

 

Thanks. I'll consider it. They all came off really easy. Id imagine the torque spec on them is pretty modest.

 

Yea it's super easy to snap them off by hand, plus the studs make it easier to install it by yourself.

 

Definitely following along. Picked up an 80 axle last summer for my 3rd gen 4runner and was planing on using the radius arms. Already have a Tacoma with FJ80 axles front and rear but trying to keep this one simple. Just sick of breaking front cv shafts. Have the t100 trans and case too. Only thing holding me back, I was hoping to find an elocked axle or diff rather than spending the money on an ARB.

 

What are you using for a tcase on the Tacoma with 80 series axles f/r?

A buddy was, trying to convince me to do that but I didn't want to deal with compound angles with the driveshaft

 

There's one for sale in the 1st gen BST that's in NJ. Might be worth grabbing if that's what you want. They are getting fewer and farther between unfortunately.

If you got a 3.0L r150 with the pass drop chain drive case it will bolt up to the 3.4L. Use the 3.0L slave and throw out bearing and the 3.4L clutch/flywheel. Then you can sell your taco trans and probably come out even, if not money ahead. Plus you get your pass drop. Those chain drives are plenty strong when they aren't worn out.

 

Im aware of that option. Im curious if he adapted an 80 series or a 60 series split case to account for the offset rear diff.

I already have my transfer case situation figured. Im just curious what he did

 

Oh I see