04 Extra Cab SAS

Glad to see this and its is a recent thread. I am about to embark on a similar SAS with my 08 tacoma. I'm expecting to gain at least 7-11 inches of WB

 

Those of us who don't have forklift motors powering thier rigs!

 

I love that rear bumper.

 

Time for a long overdue post!

I've been uncomfortably busy for quite some time, but am now forcing myself to put in a little time on this. Since I agreed to help my dad out, building up his square body Chevy project, I want to get this back to a state where I can move it under its own power again. I'm not certain where I will draw the line on that.

Ideally I want:
-Oil pan back on and fresh oil in it
-Cooling system put back together and filled up
-New high pressure power steering hose made and get the power steering put back together
-Front calipers rebuilt and installed so front brakes function again
-Steering links tacked together (so truck has full lock to lock steering)
-All engine accys installed
-Rear suspension lifted more(to keep tires out of flares)

This would get me by for a bit until I get my dads project down the road. I'm hoping to be back at this full steam by later in the summer. I've set myself a soft goal of having it done over the winter, for Easter Jeep Safari 2024. I'm sure life will throw me some curve balls, but I want this thing back on the road and not turn into a 5 year project


Today was reasonably reproductive.

First thing I did was get the oil pan on. I cleaned up all the hardware on the wire wheel, and installed it with some fresh Toyota FIPG sealant. Then I threw a new oil filter at it and fresh Delo 400 (5w40) so its ready to rock.


With that done, it was time to move onto the radiator. I picked up a new Denso that is supposed to be tucked out of the way. Here's how low the old one hangs down


OEM parts =insert drool emoji=


Before I could put the new radiator in to test, I had to address the bent condenser. I was reluctant to straighten it, but wanted to try and salvage it. The AC system is still holding a charge. I do have replacement parts a buddy gave me, but for now this will work. I used some wood to spread the load and slowly clamped it back to straight-ish. Plenty enough to get the truck back on the road. Then a zip-tie to hold it in place and we are in business!





The side brackets for the radiator needed to be modified. The pass side needed some sanding and a fastener at the bottom without such a large head. The drivers side needed to be clearanced for the steering box, and the tab for the shroud needed to be bent out of the way. I took them off the radiator to get modified, hosed them with a little paint and installed the radiator. I'm not sure if I will bend the tab back straight for the fan shroud or modify it. It will work if you pull the steering box out of the way, but I don't want it to be a pain in the ass down the road if the radiator needs to be pulled.



Here's the bottom view with the new radiator installed. It's nice and tucked up out of the way. Looking at the lower radiator hose, I am unsure if the one I have will work, or if I will need to get a shorter one to work with the new location of the lower part of the tank.


Tomorrow I hope to put in a couple hours on it while folks are blowing their fingers off with fireworks. If I could sort out measurements for the power steering hose, I could drop off the info at a hose shop this next weekend and get the ball rolling on that.

 

Today I spent a couple hours on the ol' girl.

First thing I did was tackle the hood latch. It wouldn't work properly. After lots of fiddling, I got it working. I had to modify the holes a tad and massage the upper part of the core support some. It goes though. The lower cross bar on the core support got pulled out more and some small details got buttoned up.

Then I wanted to see some visual signs of progress, so I got the rest of the mock up lights and grill put in. I have some small fitment issues to address(seal on the hood that contacts the grill prevents the hood from sitting properly), but I'm happy to have seen something new.

Tomorrow I will get ahold of my buddy at Toyota for part numbers for the proper lower radiator hose to go with the new radiator. I'll have to see how the fan shroud fits too before I make an order for parts.

 

Tonight I made more progress. It doesn't look like much, but we're slowly chipping away at the list.

On my way home from work, I stopped by my local Napa for a lower radiator hose that fits better. The dude there was kind enough to take the stock one into the back and find me one that was a little better fit. I did have to trim it, but it seems to fit nicely. The stock upper hose seems to fit fine.

I dug out the fan shroud to get the gears rolling on that, and it looks like I will have to pull the radiator to get that modified to fit. So I am shelving that for another day.

Then, I moved on to fiddling with the power steering hose. Put the pump back on and the high pressure line I kept. I got some measurements and made a diagram for the shop I'm dropping stuff off at, to make me a high pressure hose, utilizing the stock banjo end. I want to retain that because it has a sensor in it and I'd like to keep that in tact.

That's about all for about a week or so.

 

Small update time.

I was really hoping that I could balance a little work on this, with my dads project, and my house.... but my head just doesn't work that way unfortunately. My dads square body Chevy project has become more time consuming than I thought(typical).

Since the weather here in the PNW is starting to go south, I wanted to get his truck into the garage so I can wrap it up easier. With that came a little justification and motivation to work on the Tacoma finally.



I left off needing to wrap up the fan shroud before I could do the final install on the radiator. Since I had to cut some stuff out of the bottom, the shroud was pretty flimsy. I decided to make these little aluminum pieces to fill in the gaps, and add some structure back.

They were a pain to weld because of how many clamps and blocks I used to hold them, and not having a smaller TIG rod on hand. Luckily the ugly welds won't ever be seen haha.




Wit that done, I was able to move onto getting things put back together under the hood. I did end up having to cut a little passage on the bottom drivers side of the shroud. One of the bolts for the steering box was interfering with it. Everything is a tight fit down there

I didn't install any of the power steering stuff, even though I did get all my custom lines made a little while back. I'm wanting to do that all at the same time I drill/tap the steering box for hydro assist.



And lastly, a crappy SnapChat video I sent to a couple buddies of it running again(can't figure out how to post it like pictures)

https://flic.kr/p/2p51FSK

 

Merry Christmas all!

I figured it was time to get the ball rolling on this dusty project. I've been gathering parts for a little bit to make a nice dent in this project. This coming week I have off from work and have "gifted" myself the time to work on it!

So far I have everything to completely rebuild the front axle, do the e-locker retro-fit, and sort the rear axle. The 3rds were re-geared with 4.88 Yukon gears with all fresh bearings, crush sleeve eliminator in back, and multi-drilled flanges. I got knuckle rebuild kits from Marlin, Power Stop rotors and pads, RCV's, and all the parts to rebuild the front calipers. Somehow I lost the brake pads lol.

With any luck, I will have the axles wrapped up this week. I'm shooting to have her back on the road sometime this summer...

 

Today seemed to go alright. Even with a later than desired start, I still managed to put down a solid 10 hours of work.

I got the truck in the driveway and situated the other day.



First order of business was to pull the axle. That seemed to go pretty quick



Then I blew the axle apart



From there I re-arranged the garage, and got the axle housing up on some saw horses. The next step was to work on the elocker retro-fit. I cleaned up the flange and started to eye-ball things. I've done a few of these retro-fits on rear axles, so this will be my first front.



I used a new gasket to mark where to cut and where to add some weld.



Next I TIG welded up the un-needed holes and built up the corners. Then I carefully ground everything smooth, checking little by little that everything stayed pretty flat

 

Next I dropped the 3rd in, so I could use a transfer punch to mark the holes.



From past experiences, drilling and tapping the holes can be tricky. So this time I machined a little drill bushing to help keep things straighter. It seemed to help out some. I learned a couple tricks to make the next one a little smoother, but all in all, it seemed to work alright.



After the holes were drilled and tapped, I got the plasma cutter out and notched the housing for the locker fork. Then I cleaned everything up and installed the long studs. The 3rd seemed to fit fine.

Tomorrow I will move onto cutting the unnecessary crap off the housing, and start making some diff armor.

 

Love to see this level of effort. Always appreciate people putting in the work instead of buying parts off the shelf. Keep the updates coming!

 

I have done a few elocker swaps into 85 front axles and pretaco rears. I am getting ready to do another front in the next month, what tricks did you come up with?

I am going to have to use that bushing idea.

 

Thanks! I'm glad I got into fabrication and machining for a living. It certainly helps me save money in some areas. Plus, I just really enjoy making/working on my own stuff

Well to get me through this, I used a drill that fit tight in the long stud holes(21/64 I believe) to help correct a wondering problem. The bushing I made was the right depth for the short studs, so it kept things nicely in line. But on the long stud holes, the drill wondered off center. It wouldn't have done that if it was supported the full length.

If I did these more often, I might be inclined to make 4 bushings. 2 bushings at the correct depth for both the shallow/deep holes with an ID for a pilot drill, and another set with the same dimensions, but ID for a letter H drill. The long stud holes would be tricky to do a pilot hole correctly, so I probably would have to order a specialty drill. I suppose just a pair of bushings for the long/short stud holes to use a letter G drill would work well too. The problem with drilling without a pilot, is the hole always seems to be a couple thousandths big. So that would probably be my recommendation. Make a pair bushings to work with a letter G drill bit for both the long and short stud holes, in combination with the 3rd member to drill the holes correctly. That should also help the tap run straighter once you pull everything off to tap the holes.

 

Todays progress was slow, but still forward. First step was to cut off the tabs marked in pink, before moving onto cleaning. Then I spent several hours cleaning the axle housing to prep for more fab work.



With the axle clean, it was time to move onto the diff armor. I looked on the interwebs for some inspiration and this is what I came up with. It was pretty time consuming because I have never worked with cones before. I think it should be pretty stout. I was able to rough cut the parts out of 3/16 with the plasma cutter before calling it a night.

 

Today started out with getting the parts sanded to shape, and formed. It took me some time to massage things into place, but I'm fairly happy with the finished product.



I also wanted to add some beef to the ring around the drain plug. In the past, I put a larger piece of tubing around the outside and welded it on, to add some beef and keep it from mushing over onto the plug. I didn't have the right size tube on hand, so I just welded in a "ramp" to the ring and called it good. It's a little ghetto, but it should work.



After everything cooled off, I dug out my axle fixture for building axles or checking them for straight. Turns out there's a tin baffle ring or something at the ends of the axle tubes with a hole too small for my fixture. I was hoping to make sure the axle stayed straight during welding, but I will just have to go with it.

Then I finished the evening with cleaning/re-setting the garage and painting the housing.

 

The last couple days of progress weren't photo worthy. It was all just hours and hours of tedious cleaning and painting of all the knuckle parts. I ran into some issues with being an idiot and ordering the wrong parts, but that all got sorted out.

I got started on Friday with re-setting to clean. Until I actually get my parts washer rebuilt and find a home for it, what I have been doing in the meantime, is using gas in a catch pan as a poor mans parts washer.



One silly little detail that's going to bother me is the dust shield on the hubs. One of them was a nice gold zinc color after cleaned, and will match all the new hardware I got for the hubs. I picked another one up from Toyota and its almost silver. So now I need to find a matching one so it doesn't drive me nuts haha.



After probably 14 hours or so of cleaning and painting, I am left with this pile of clean parts. One thing I did, that I don't generally do is delete backing plates. However, these ones were pretty trashed. So I cut them down into "backing plate delete" plates. All I have left to do at this point before re-assembly is some last detail cleaning of the inside of the axle housing, and knock the trunion bearing races out.

I'm a little bummed I wasn't able to get this more complete and put back into the truck before my time off, but that's the reality when you're real picky about things.

Hopefully I won't be too hung over tomorrow to put a little time in on re-assembly. But we shall see.

 

Life's been pretty busy, and I have been itching to get back onto this project. We had some amazing snow in the hills locally, so I couldn't resist taking the opportunity. It was probably some of the best snow I've played in!



Shortly after that, we got hit with a pretty good snow and ice storm here in the PNW, and I had to work a ton to keep our local municipality rolling on maintaining the roads.

I was able to gather a couple more small parts here and there. Finally, I got a matching set of caps for the drive flanges. The brake pads ended up never being shipped from Rock Auto, so I got that sorted out and another set sent over.



Last evening I spent a little time to get the radius arms cleaned and dusted in a little paint. The bushings were fine, so I left them.



This afternoon I moved onto getting the axle put back together. It took a little time to finish off some last minute detailing and cleaning of the housing, before moving onto assembly. First thing I did was clean the mounting surface for the 3rd, and get that installed. I decided to use some Toyota FIPG in addition to an OEM seal. I figured since the e-locker modification wasn't machined, it would be nice to have a little extra assurance that things sealed up well.




Next I moved onto packing the trunion bearings and getting the knuckles installed and setup. I installed the new Marlin knuckle studs, and ran into a problem with them. While trying to torque them to spec, 5 of 8 stripped out. The other 3 that torqued to spec, didn't feel firm either.



Feeling a little defeated, I decided to call it a night... Then changed my mind. I threw my work clothes back on and put a little more time in. I decided to clean up all the original studs and hardware, and re-install them. They all torqued to spec just fine and felt good and firm. I'm not sure if I will keep these in, or see if Marlin will replace the ones I purchased and try them again. I'm leaning towards just keeping the original stuff. Even though it was a late evening, I was able to hit the checkpoint I was shooting for before calling it a night.

Hopefully I can wrap this axle up soon and get it back under the truck. I'm pushing to get the truck back on its feet before moving back onto my house for a bit.

 

I decided to take the day off from work, and squeeze in a little more. It wasn't a ton of time, but good progress.

I was also able to get ahold of Marlin and get the stud problem resolved, so that's cool.

First thing was to get the knuckle wipers/tins put together and start packing the knuckles with grease. A buddy who works at our local Land Cruiser shop gave me a neat tip, to coat the felts with grease. It seemed like a good idea to keep as much moisture from trapping in them, so I coated both sides with some grease to see how it works out.

After getting that sorted, I moved onto the RCVs. It was a pretty big struggle to get the tone rings on them. I fought them for a while due to not really having anything to easily get them on before taking a lunch break and doing a little research. After a few minutes reading a thread on ih8mud, I decided to try heating them up. That worked well using a propane torch and evenly heating them to get the rings installed.



With that fight being over, I got the spindles installed and ABS sensors in. Now I just need to get the bearings/races, rotors and hub studs onto the hubs, then I can install those and it should be ready to put back in the truck for the final time!

I am going to try and sneak some work in on it in the evenings after the gym this week and hopefully have it back in the truck Friday. We shall see what life has in store though.

 

Small progress report.

I had some struggles getting this thing back together, but it should do for now.

The other evening I got the bearing races pressed into the hubs, bearings packed with grease, and the hubs/rotors on.


After that was figured, I ran into a snafu with the drive flanges. The cap wouldn't fit. After getting some info from some buddies at Land Cruiser NW, I realized I needed the "long" flanges that were on the 95/96 axles. Which is fine because as my buddie pointed out, the splines inside the short flanges wear over time, causing slop. So now I have the correct ones, and they shouldn't have any slop. Those got painted and installed



Then I installed the new hub studs which is where I had my next issue.

These kits from Marlin use a split washer, which doesn't play nice with the cone washers. Factory had flat washers which makes more sense. The material in the split washer is soft and I couldn't even hit the torque spec before they were messed up. They even damaged the threads a little on the studs and dug into the cone washer. I was able to throw back on the stock washers and get them to torque, but I will probably order some stuff from the dealership because I have a couple oddball washers in there(somehow there's only 10 of the 12 I needed for flat washers?)

I am pretty disappointed in these Japanese made fasteners that Marlin has. Marlin has been great with their customer service, and I know they don't make these. I will still buy products from them, probably not these stud kits anymore though. From now on, I will buy OEM for the little extra that it costs.




With those issues resolved, I finally had a complete axle again. That delayed things, but it was a nice checkpoint.



This evening I had a little time to get the axle back under the truck. It's certainly not as far along as I hoped by now, but I sort of need to boot this project from the garage for a little bit while I work on some other stuff. I probably wont be making any progress on this for a couple weeks at best, but hopefully I can get back onto it soon. For now, it can sit halfway under the carport and let some more moss grow on the canopy

 

The time has come to make the final push to get this truck back on the road! Unfortunately, life has has been chaos lately, causing months of delays on things and preventing me from getting back onto this. In March, I lost my mom pretty swiftly to cancer, and the fall out from all that really put things on hold.

Between that, needing to wrap up the renovation on my living room, pushing out the last commitment I had from the garage (this sweet Datsun 260Z), and the wife's 80 series needing some last minute maintenance, everything got pushed out several months. The plan originally was to get back onto this beginning of April, but here we are.




No real updates besides the truck being back in the garage ready to get loved! We're hoping to go to Moab this fall and take this, so the fire is really under my butt to get this done. Starting next weekend, I plan to hit the ground running and start knocking stuff out!