El Taco Diablo... Mall Crawlin, now with LT for tall curbs

Well said on the marlin long travel thread. (Enough frustration on that thread that my two bits isn’t worth anything.)

I don’t plan on buying the kit or have any skin in the game but I’ve been following it since day one… and it’s been goofy.

I’ve bought a lot of random parts from Marlin and have been pretty happy but this new phase of business from them is disappointing.

 

At the very begining there was talk of a RCLT kit for 1st Gen. I'm positive that's never going to hapen at this point.

So, basically, the skin I have in the game is I just have a problem with shady business ethics in the off road community. It leads to distrust, and makes it harder for the smaller, newer, guys to get a foot hold. As, well as, there are real people, who make real sacrifices in their real lives, to finance their builds... because it's their hobby, and passion. Then you have guys like Mike that appear to be using the money from real people, with real lives, to give shit to their buddies so they can peddle his shit.

I'm telling you, this RCLT is probably going to break Marlin. He's taking 7 THOUSAND DOLLAR orders and then taking months to deliver, as material, shipping, over head expenses go through the roof.

I'm telling you... If all the people who have money down on this kit "margin called" his ass today, demanding their money back, or charging back their cards... Mike would be bankrupt tomorrow. With cost of kit vs carrying vs lead time vs his press now to get more orders coming in, it's a Ponzi scheme.

 

He never got around to making the lower control arm brace kits for the 1st Gen Tacoma's either.

 

Wish he did! Lol been on that waiting list for years.

 

And he never really made good on his 3rd gen bumpers

And his crawlbox is, now, pretty much a shit show.

And the only thing you can really rely on with Marlin, is if you NEED a part, you wont get it in time, and they wont give you any usefull info as to why or how long it will take... after they have your money.

 

I finally gave up on them, and Marlin

 

JD Fab said if they get 10 trucks they'll make a LCA mount replacement like on their 2nd gens - but it'll be $1k+

https://jdfabrication.com/products/tacoma-05-18-lower-arm-pivots

 

Yeah I waited for like 3 years for a crawl box hahah finally gave up and got TG stuff

 

I have a feeling I'm going to be picking your brain a lot on your twin case set up, in the not so distant future. I'm not ready to start pulling all those triggers yet. But when I am, I'll probably be asking you a lot of dumb questions lmfao.

 

Ask away, I asked a lot of questions myself. Let me know if you want my spread sheet of my build. Put it together when I was buying things.

 

I would definitely love to see a build sheet. I love lists lol.

I have a bit of information from Matt down at Recycled Toyotas in Fresno (area), but I haven't tried to fully digest it yet.

 

@Dan8906 one question I have, that I forgot to ask Matt anyway...

I have twin sticks from Front Range Offroad right now. Installing those requires the shift rails to be trimmed, and that big assed oval detent/pill looking thing had too be pulled out. (giving the ability to be in Low Range without being in 4wd).

I don't think it would, but does that cause a problem when setting up twin cases? Or, will I need to do that anyway to run triple stick?

 

Doesn't cause any issues.
That's what you have to do anyways for triple sticks. So you already have that part done so you don't have to open up your factory case.

 

I still may need to crack it open. I've had a squeak that is almost a wheel speed related squeak. I kept searching for the cause and was stumped. I took it to a good friend's shop and he was able to narrow it down to right at the shell that is removable (with 5 bolts) around the seal and flange where the rear drive shaft is. He put a stethoscope on the shell and was able to determine this is where the squeak is coming from.

I ordered that shell/cover, it comes as an assembly with that seal already in it. I'm going to replace that this weekend. Hopefully it cures this squeaking, because if it doesn't, that seems to mean to me it's the rear output shaft bearing... in which case, I will need to rebuild this T-case.

Here is the shell/cover I'm talking about.

 

Gotcha.
Yea that rear cover isn't that bad to take off and do. Should be able to do it while still on the truck no problem.

 

I'm hoping that cover is pretty simple... and fixes the problem. Really hoping that squeak is from the seal or the metal dust cover near the seal. All that is part of the shell assembly.

 

Well... the cover was pretty simple.

Dropped the drive shaft and pulled the cover. Found that the output bearing is good to go. Perfectly smooth, no resistance.

The problem was also not the cover or the seal. The problem turned out to be the Vehicle Speed Sensor adaptor I used to convert the mechanical Tcase to the Electric senor on the truck, when I did the 4wd swap.



Ordered a new one from Trail Gear, should be here in a few days.

 

Also checked the front diff for leaks. Everything is good there.

We also regreased the driveline while we were in there.

Doesn't seem like a lot was accomplished, but I really wasn't feeling all that great today. All I'm hoping to get done tomorrow is the Tcase completed and the skids back on.

 

Man it would be nice to have a real shop lift at home for these projects.

 

Got the transfer case finished, for now untill we get the new VSS adapter. Just wont have a speedo for a few days. Test drove it, was definately the source of the squeak.

Only put the IFS skid back on. While I have the transfer case skid off, we decided to make some upgrades.




Still have to finish a couple runs of weld, but this should be a lot stronger than it was to begin with.