cbechtold's Long Travel IFS Crawler Tacoma Build and BS Thread

Apparently I have a bad seal in my rear axle. Found diff fluid all over my wheel. It's not terrible, but rebuild kit will shortly be on order. I'll still driver her daily until I get it fixed or until it takes a turn for the worst.

 

So I thought I'd share a bit of the pain that my dad and I went through this weekend. So long story short, I originally saw a bit fluid on the side of back driver side wheel. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be fluid from the rear diff which meant that the inner seal was worn and bad.


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Inner seal was bad, and so before even pulling my truck apart, we order a new inner seal and o-ring for the job, only to have everything apart, put the new seal and o-ring on and then realize that the bearing as well is shot.


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Short video showing the movement that the bearing had. Normally it has some play, but this was excessive. Sorry for the terrible video/quality.

After taking the whole drum brake assembly off, dad and I tried everything to get bearing out of the backing plate. Nothing. Later after a bit of a parts run, we learned that we need a special tool to do the job. We also called up a local Toyota dealer to see if they would be willing to just press out the bearing and everything. With the estimate being about $250 ( ), it was a pretty quick no from both myself and my dad.

This is where we basically went to the point of making tools specifically just to get this thing apart. The retainers we ended up just cutting off to save time. First tool we made was to get the part for ABS off (Don't remember what it's call.. Sorry)


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

In short, it's two short pieces of angle iron and some 2x2 scrap steel that was laying around that we stuck bolts through at the top. Then we used our 20 ton press to get this piece off.

Then we proceed to make a tool to press the axle shaft out. We took 2 .250" steel plate and welded them together. Then we marked the bolt pattern of the housing/backing plate and drill holes do the backing plate would fit on and be able to bolt down to it. We also had some scrap 2.5x2.5 square tube laying around so that would be used to branch up the axle shaft and create a place where we could weld on some more square tube up higher so we could hang it on the press.


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

The whole thing worked like a charm. Axle shaft popped out easily. and then with the bearing came out with a bearing press kit that my dad has. One hit and it came out as well.

Reassembly wasn't terrible, except for the freak springs. OMG! Those are a nightmare to get back on. I mean, having an extra pair of hands help, but man they are so annoying!

Needless to say, besides the spring being annoying, we used the press to press everything back on and we were able to have the truck back on all before noon... the next day.


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Here's the whole assembly back together and cleaned of any oil/dirt/grease/etc... To give you a comparison, here's the assembly just after we pulled it off.


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Filthy, right?

Anyways, truck is back together now and brakes have been adjusted. Still need to do the other side next weekend, but at least I have the tools to do the job.

As for future reference, I'll be taking a look at this. It's a full-float conversion by Front Range Off-road Fabrication. If the first gen Tacomas were full floaters, then this job would have been a piece of cake. Definitely going to be looking into this if I have the truck for a while... which I probably will.

Here's the truck now on all fours!


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

 

Watching this makes me want to go wheeling. Here's hoping Slick Rock opens up in the coming weeks.

 

Sub'd Sub'd Subd.

 

Found some time, and some motivation, to work on the truck today. Front tires have been rubbing for quite sometime so I finally decides too see if I could clear them.


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Was able to find a place where I can fully flex the truck out. Full flex was pretty much fine, besides that rear rubbing, as to be expected with the Dakars and 33s. Nothing a 4crawler axle relocation plate can't fix. Turned the wheels though and it was pretty apparent that the front need to be trimmed back........ a lot....... like it looks excessive, but it works. Also had to bite the bullet and cut some sheet metal to make the clearance as well.


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Also pulled the front bumper off and took my LED lights off to reseal them.

Condensation has been building up in the one of the left for the longest and the right has only recently started.


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Turned out also that apparently there was just a rubber gasket in there. No silicon at all or anything to truly seal it.


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Used Di-electric Grease to seal the lights up. Used a ton to make sure that is wouldn't leak at all. I'd be surprised if it did leak, but we shall see. OCD will also drive me insane since they looked ruined but whatever. Run them 'til death.


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Also while the bumper was off ended up painting the front of the truck flat black just for the aesthetic reasons.


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Doesn't stand out as much as it did before. I'll have better pictures up tomorrow. Tomorrow I got to take my sliders off and cut them back so I don't rub on them all the time. Probably will need to take about an inch out of them but we'll see.

 

Looks good, you kill me with the white text though lol.

 

I do it for the lolz

 

Me too!

 

Cut the sliders down today. Took about an inch out of the to clear them.


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

I think taking an inch has cleared them 35s, so if that ever happens, I'll be ready.

Also at full extension it looks like nothing ever happened.


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

At full flex there's no rubbing for the most part in the front. Rear needs the axle relocation plate so that'll happen whenever.

All in the name of wheeling, am I right?

 

So... may or may not have a pile of parts for my truck in my room. Also may or may not have some stuff on order still.
OTTRATW Switch, Paranoid Fabrication Switch Panel, Diff Breather Mod, Rock Lights, Axle Relocation Plates (on order) etc...
@Delta00 how long did 4crawler take to ship you you axle relocation plates?

 

My eyes hurt

 

Hell of a long time, like a week and a half. What are you using for rock lights?

 

Welp... Looks like that'll happen at a later date lol. Rock lights I'm gonna try and mess around with a set of Vision X Tantrum LEDs. Honestly they were in the garage and I just asked my dad if he had plans to use them. He said no so I jumped on them. If they don't put the light out that I want then I'll probably sell them and go check out some Lux LED Rock Lights. They're small, super bright, but rather expensive so I'd hold off on them for now.

 

Ha yeah i saw those, nice but really expensive for something i will most likely never use except to look cool haha

 

Yea, they'll probably get almost no usage, but I'd rather have them just in case. I've talked to a few people who've wheeled at night and they've all said that they wished they had them. You're pretty much blind when looking under your rig and it's just ones of those things that just makes you feel better.

 

Nah I'd use rock lights just driving around ha. Hell you could even do maintenance at night

 

It's illegal in most states, as far as I'm aware, to drive around with any sort of "under glow" lighting. I know in California it's for sure since most things are illegal in good old Cali lol

 

Ah damn forgot about that.....

 

So why this wasn't one of the first things I did completely beats me, but diff breather mod is done.


Diff Breather 1 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


Diff Breather 2 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

For those interested in part number and whatnot, here ya go:

- Union - 90404-51319
- 5/16 Hose Clamps
- 5 or 6 ft of 3/8" Black Fuel Line -- Any Automotive/Hardware Shop
- Reused old breather that is relocated by my gas filler cap

You could go out of your way to buy another breather but I decided against. If reusing the old one becomes an issue I'll move over to the aftermarket breather. If you want to go out of the way and get a one here's the part number: 90930-03136

Also, mounted my fuse block on top of the OEM fuse block.


Aux Fuse Block by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Definitely going to try and get the lights wired this weekend. Never done any sort of "real" wiring project, so this should be fun.

 

Nice, how long did the diff breather take?