BigMike’s Big Journey: New 2016 Tacoma

Spent Feb and early Mar finishing up and launching our new website, so didn't have anytime for the Tacoma.

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Edit 1/17/18: I forgot to post up a short trip report:

March 18, 2016: I towed the Crawler Truck!

Holly "EvilToy", a long time family friend & local customer got married and we had both my Hilux and the Crawler Truck setup as a backdrop for her wedding. The wedding featured over 20 Rock Crawlers setup as backdrops and it was awesome. The next day after the wedding I drove the Taco up to retrieve the Crawler Truck. The All Pro springs don't carry much weight (which I am happy about since I'll be looking for some flex outta em) but the power was great. I pulled out in front of traffic and when you open up this 2GR-FKS and get it into the high RPM range man it pulls dang good.

Heading back home through the foothills



Made it back to the shop safely





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March 29, 2017: The Meat of the matter

Finally I had reached the first day of the most important project for this truck.

Back on the MC lift



Oh, hello thar.



Whoops, was this not supposed to fall off?

 

Was your factory gearing set up with a crush sleeve or did it have a solid pinion bearing spacer? Do you know if y'all or any of the gear companies will be offering a solid pinion spacer if these differentials are factory equipped with crush sleeves?

I don't trust crush sleeves.

 

I thought your previous post left me teased. Little did I know you were just getting started.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/behold-access-cab-cargo-light.492562/

Here is a possible option for your 3rd brake light / cargo light issue, and its from TW member @mesojdm.

 

@BigMike, you wouldn't have happened to taken better notes on removing front third member?

I've got an ARB to install in the future and more insight would help.

Got a link to a write up or anything?

 

@RedBeard1 It was a crush sleeve. At the time a solid pinion spacer was unavailable.

@whitedlite I will be discussing it more in detail for sure

March 29, 2017: The Meat of the matter (continued)
Happy to see we have some nice room to play with in here. Duals should be a piece of cake but it will require a good deal of cutting to get Triples in.

The goal at this point is to just get our Dual Ultimate (4.70:1) installed so I can make it to TLCA's Cruise Moab which is a month away.

This will make my Tacoma...

• 4.7 times slower than stock
• 4.7 times more torque than stock at any RPM
• 4.7 times more control
• 4.7 times longer reaction time
• 4.7 times stronger engine compression brake force (never use your brakes dropping off any size obstacle), and
• Big increase in traction due to moving slower minimizing tire slip

Additional upsides include...

• Less bouncing
• Less breaking parts
• Less trail abuse, and
• Less risk.

It will be transformed into a 28-speed, having 24 forward gears and 4 reverse, and an overall final drive / Crawl Ratio of 235:1. All of this from just one Marlin Crawler setup!
I'll run the Dual Ultimate setup through the year and move up to Triples in the off-season/winter as I'll have a lot of other work to get done in the interim.
After removing the stock t/case we took measurements and used this opportunity to introduce our MC3X adapter product line! Say hello to our brand new USA-made Billet Aluminum 3rd gen Tacoma transmission bolt pattern adpater!

We have made considerable improvements to our Transmission-to-Transfer case bolt pattern adapter plate kits, now branded under an all-new MC3X product line:
MC30 - All 3VZ 4WD drivetrains (formerly known as a 30-4GT Adapter Kit)
MC31 - All 5VZ/RZ 4WD drivetrains and some UZ 4WD drivetrains (formerly known as 27-4GT, 34-4GT & 47-4GT Adapter Kits)
MC32 - 1GR 4WD drivetrain (formerly known as a 40-4GT Adapter Kit)
Improvements include simplification of fastners (no more elusive Ford "D-bolt" nor having to clearance transmission tail housing flange), increased oiling/cooling, an 8% weight reduction, and an increase in strength across the transmission pattern by a solid 25%. For the cherry on top we're now hard anodizing them Marlin Crawler red
What our Transmission-to-Transfer Case Bolt Pattern Adapters do is convert transmission tail housing bolt patterns to that of a 1979-1995 gear drive Toyota transfer case. This opens the flood gates to the entire world of everything Marlin Crawler Rock Crawling. They are located in the lower section of our website here, https://www.marlincrawler.com/transfer-case/adapters, however as these are brand new we need to get this section of our website updated to reflect the improvements.

 

Basics of a Marlin Crawler Dual Case Setup:
When Marlin founded Rock Crawling in 1994, he created what he called a "Dual Transfer Case". This term is actually inaccurate as there are not two transfer cases (nor are there four drivelines): There is still only one transfer case. Rather, he has duplicated the low range section (containing High-Netural-Low) of the transfer case.

"Don't Gear Down, Double Up!"



If you ever get a chance to go wheel'n with Marlin and sit with him at a campfire you'll be in for some amazing stories. He'll describe how Toyota pickups were outnumbered on the trails 30:1 by Jeeps, save for but a few Land Cruisers. How back in the 80s and early 90s very few people wheel'd Toyota pickups. How Jeeps owned & ran the show. And how it was common to be told to "get his Jap tin can off the trail".

As many know Marlin is famous for carrying a ton of recovery parts that he uses to help rescue broken rigs. But the reason why he began carrying so much is actually because he would go out for a weekend and never see another pickup for three days. He carried so much out of necessity. He'll even tell you it was out of fear. Forget about trying to find spare parts -- there weren't even other like vehicles on the trail.

The reason why Marlin was able to finally get recognition for Toyota pickups is due to the unique 4-housing design of the Toyota Gear Drive T/Case. The first housing contains the High-Netural-Low (low range) components while housings 2-4 contain front and rear output components (2WD-4WD). A bit more is explained on this very old tech page of ours, https://www.marlincrawler.com/java/gearvschain.html.



This design of the 1979-95 Toyota Gear Drive T/Case is highly unique and is unlike 99% of all mass produced 4WD truck transfer cases. This is not possible with any Jeep/GM/Ford/Chrysler/Nissan/Suzuki/etc t/case except for the older, unpopular, and almost 3 times more heavy NP203. This is why Marlin was able to transform the Toyota pickup into a break-out star: By extracting only the first housing, we can stack and combine High-N-Low sections, what Marlin calls a "Crawl Box", one after the other as many as desired like pancakes. Two? Three? Four? How about Ten? The limiting factor is how much can be removed from your rear drive line -- and this is where the Toyota Hilux/4Runner and even more so these long wheelbase Tacoma's shine. The traditional Jeep has a very short wheelbase rendering this process either impossible or very difficult (requiring a very tall lift or repositioning the engine forward). The same applies for the classic FJ40 Land Cruiser (which used to be more common on the trail than Toyota pickups) and Suzuki Samurai. As such the Toyota pickup became extremely capable off-road and an overnight sensation all thanks to the Marlin Crawler. The rest as they say is history!

 

March 29, 2017: The Meat of the matter (continued)

At this point I had a decision to make:
1. Keep my original 6-speed manual transmission-type transfer case with it's electric shift solenoid,
or
2. Replace it with a 6-speed manual transmission-type transfer case from a FJ Cruiser which uses a manual top-shift shift handle (just like our older Hilux pickups!)

I decided to keep my original t/case with electric shift solenoid. The reason is three-fold as 1) I like to keep parts original as much as I can and it would be neat to retain it, 2) while I've heard horror stories of dust, grime, and water getting into the electric shift solenoids causing them to not function, I've already got a nice push dial on my dash and I'd like to keep it and see how it does for a few years (we make the most successful seals on the market, Marlin Crawler EcoSeals, so if this does prove an issue then we will flat-out resolve it), and 3) not everyone is willing to give up a cup holder so I'm planning to design a proper remote shift setup that will satisfy Tacoma, 4Runner, FJ Cruiser, T100, and Tundra customers alike.

Next is an issue with my manual-transmission-type t/case input spline count.

When Toyota introduced the 6-speed manual transmission, they finally made a man-sized input gear, namly the 19-spline. This input is massive compared to the older 6-cyl manual transmission's 23-spline input of the golden years (adopted from the 1986 Turbocharged 22R-TE 4cyl & still in use after all these years). Starting with the 2nd gen Tacoma, there are two 6cyl spline types offered: The traditional 23-spline input (auto applications) and the new, massive 19-spline input (manual applications). Unfortunately for us our world-famous Double-Roll output coupler/mainshaft bearing does not have a large enough ID to accept the 19-spline t/case input. Marlin already designed a solution for the 19-spline back in 2006 but demand has been too low to produce it. Little by little things like this are going to be changing as we move deeper into newer Toyota models.

So currently the only way to install a Marlin Crawler Dual Case into a Tacoma, which since 2001 is known as a "TacoBox", is to use the 23-spline automatic-type t/case input. I cracked open my t/case of only 8,000 miles to perform an input gear conversion





While looking things over I noticed my freak'n oil pump is already galling!!



Here you can see a lot of wear on the softer aluminum housing:



What's up Toyota? Only 8K miles and my t/case oil pump has noticable wear? Not much I can do now beings I've open up the t/case (bubye warranty) but I'm sure glad I noticed it. I promptly ordered a new pump gear & housing from Toyota -- which was delivered with perfectly smooth polished surfaces.

When changing to the smaller 23-spline automatic-transmission-type input we must also change to it's matching t/case nose cone. So here we have automatic input and nose cone installed onto my manual t/case:



Now we are finally ready for some MARLIN CRAWLER MAGIC!



The test mule is a modified MC11 USA-made Billet Aluminum Dual Case adapter with our signature double-roller maximum capacity 32-ball count main bearing now for the first time ever utilizing our Extreme Duty lower cage bearing:

 

This really excites me!!

 

I was out of town for a week and knowing time was critical I had Rocky, who is our drivetrain specialist of 16 yrs, build my TacoBox with a set of our 4.70:1 Competition gears (made from Chromoly by Toyota's own gear cutter in Japan) that feature our Total-Spline technology (world's strongest Toyota input design).

This also meant I missed the opportunity to get pics of the build. I do have studio pics for a 1st gen Tacoma which is nearly identical except for bolt patterns...



This is our MC09 TacoBox with our new updated front & rear adapters. Click each thumbnail for larger resolution:



We are looking at a 1979-95 Toyota High-Neutral-Low t/case section extracted and placed between two Marlin Crawler adapters ready to be mounted between your choice 1995.5+ transmission and transfer case.

Described by location:

Transmission --> TacoBox --> Transfer Case

Described by shift modes:

Transmission --> H-N-L --> 2H-4H-4N-4L

The nice thing about duplicating the High-Neutral-Low section is that in High Range we have a 1:1 direct drive meaning that whatever torque we have entering the Marlin Crawler will be the same exiting (ignoring insignificant parasitic losses).

New T/Case Gear choices become:
1. Marlin Crawler in High, stock Tacoma t/case in High = 1.00:1 x 1.00:1 = 1:1 (cruise on highway same as factory)
2. MC in High, Taco in Low = 1 x 2.57 = 2.57:1 (same as any other Tacoma on the trail)
3. MC in Low, Taco in High = 4.70 x 1 = 4.70:1 (83% lower than stock!)
4. MC in Low, Taco in Low = 4.70 x 2.57 = 12.08:1 (370% lower than stock!!!)

When you replace the 1979-95 2.28:1 factory Toyota low range as I've done with our 4.70:1 ratio (which Marlin created in 1995), you have what we call a "TacoBox Supreme". Probably 95% of all TacoBoxes we build are Supremes. The primary reasons for this are 1) if you're going to do this much work why not go all out, and 2) with the Supreme you get three very distinct ratios (2.57:1 & 4.70:1 & their combined 12.08:1) instead of a similar pair of 2.28:1 & 2.57:1 which isn't nearly as interesting.

There is one final part remaining and that is how do we get the smaller 23-spline automatic-type t/case input to connect to my manual transmission's larger 19-spline output and for this we designed a 19-to-23-spline coupler with an extended length specifically to match our Total Spline input technology. I'll update the thread with more info & pics of this once we get actual production couplers ready.

 

April 24, 2017: World's First Dual Case 3rd Gen Crawler is installed!

CHECK IT OUT!! Test-fit pics of the World's first Dual Case'd 3rd Gen Tacoma!

 

That is freaking awesome!

 

I love this thread!

 

BIG thank you guys!!

 

Clearance issues

To check for clearance we reattached the drivetrain in it's original location of crossmember to transmission tail housing.

It turns out there are only two issues.

1. T/case top is contacting the bottom of the cab where the e-brake cables are held:



2. The top of the t/case front output section is not touching but is very close to a body rail:



All things considered that is really not bad at all, even the (dumb) factory crossover exhaust clears. As for Triples......forget about it. I am going to have to cut out and replace an entire section of the body. I must go Triples. I will go Triples. I'll have to save that for a later date.

Because I'll eventually be cutting this stuff out I just told Rocky to "use a big hammer" and appropriate clearancing was performed We test fitted it three or fours times taking measurements each time so now we know how far to clearance for clean customer installs.



There are two pluses here for weight concerns: 1) The Chain Drive is almost 20 lbs lighter than the older Gear Drive t/case and it's long been proven that one t/case mount is sufficient for the extra weight and length added by a Dual Case setup, and 2) because the #1/front gear drive housing is where the t/case cross member was originally mounted, the Marlin Crawler adds an optional/additional t/case mount. As such there are many crossmembers designed for the Marlin Crawler that incorporate dual crossmember mounts to help spread the drivetrain load prolonging the life of your engine mounts.

 

Will this be available for auto's? Lots more auto's than manuals out there

 

Thank you for the Q! Yes, absolutely. In fact it requires less work to install into an automatic. I am planning to do some video reviews and will be looking for a local 3rd gen auto owner who wants to go slow and help us with some marketing.

 

You need a guy from a different state for proper marketing. Say a guy from AZ where there are LOTS of trails to crawl!

 

In you picture of the paint chipping I have the same spot on my white Tacoma..it is the top little chip and it happened like day two of ownership and I too never hit it or put anything in the bed. I remember when it happened it looked like the paint was bubbled and when I touched it the little fleck came off. Strange.

 

I'm going to stay tuned for your progress, but am reaaalllly excited to see one going in a slush box truck.