4 wheel drive on a 98 tacoma with locking hubs

Bugging people is OK, it's what the forum is here for.

Tacoma World has lots of regional forums:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/regional-discussion/

At this point, what I'd recommend is go to the regional forum closest to you and look through the topics, find an upcoming meet where guys are going out on the trails. That way you can go out into the sticks with people that have more gear and more experience than you. You can learn by doing and watching - both how to drive your rig (which is hard to learn on the forum) and what gear folks around you are running.

But you can end up spending a LOT of money real fast here. So that's why I recommend going slow, and using what you've got before you go out throwing dollars at your truck.

 

Nah, your fine... gotta learn somehow. It doesn't hurt to search and just do A LOT of reading... the good thing about that is you learn things that you weren't trying to learn... but even if you were "annoying someone" all they have to do is not answer

If you look, there are charts out there that decode the vin numbers on vehicles... they will tell the gear ratio, if it had a locker, limited slip, etc...

 

o ok sorry like i said im new

 

No big deal, just search around, read some stuff and you'll be surprised at how much you can learn on here. We were all new at one point in time.

 

ok. let me ask this, is it ok for me to lock in my hubs but not engage my 4x4 inside the truck and drive until i need to

 

Yeah, it will just make your CV's be spinning all the time... that's one of the good things about manual hubs, you don't have that constant movement which can help extend the life of the CV's

 

I know people who do it, but remember if you have them unlocked you have less drag and less strain on the drivetrain (possibly better gas mileage). Also the CV axles won't be spinning, in return making them last longer.

 

thats what i meant. just when i know ill engage it on the trial i can drive it with them locked but not engaged

 

yes

 

one last question for tonight. i was under the impression that lockers and lsd was the same thing so i was asking everything about locking diffs. is it possible to put in some kind of lsd in the rear instead of lockers?

 

OP
This book answers 95% of your questions. It's Jim Allen's Four-Wheeler's Bible.

It explains how the diff works, recovery gear and a whole lot more.



Good open diff explanation

 

Yeah. Great book to have if you're going off-roading, and if you're thinking of building up your truck to be more capable off road.

 

i am going to have to get that. looks like an informative read. and OP, if you dont even know what recovery gear is your truck the way it is will work just fine for your off road needs. When the time comes when you actually are doing terrain where you need a locker you will know.

 

I just ordered that book off of Amazon.

 

i have a 2000 with manual hubs if i wonted to get lockers all i need is front one right

 

First off manual hubs don't make a difference when you are talking about getting lockers. Manual hubs let your front 4wd system work, not lock the dif. So do you have a rear locker? If not the rear locker is what you would get first, not the front. For that you can find a used tacoma rear axle that has the locker in it, or buy an air locker which will require slightly compley installation on your surrent dif.

 

oh i see well thats what i need to do

 

Think about weather or not you really need one though...I believe I have heard them costing around a grand for the air locker, or finding an undamaged rear end with the e locker and installing it, it is pretty expensive.