Hodakaguy's Overland Tacoma Builds - on to new adventures.

Sub'd amazing work being done

 

Wow, amazing skills! I only dream about making these kind of modifications to my truck. I bought with the icon stage 4 lift and the firestone air bags already installed. Nice to see how complex they and how well engineered. I am a desk jocjey by trade and a weekend wannabe wheeler. Looking forward to meeting up with local Tacoma world members in my area to go wheeling with.
Nice build, can't wait to see your first wave of miss completed.
Cheers

 

I really like following threads like this. Nice work!

 

Love the detailed pictures and commentary. Amazing work!

 

Received the differentials back from the gear shop. Can't wait to go for a drive and try out the new gearing!

The old cast carrier removed from the front diff. I ended up having an ARB air locker installed in the front diff while it was apart, no difference in labor at this point so now's the time if your gonna do it.




Air fitting installed in the front diff for the ARB locker.




This is the drivers side needle bearing in the OEM front carrier that ends up causing vibrations in lifted Tacoma's, If lifting a Tacoma it's wise to change out this bearing with a ECGS Bushing which will fix most vibration issues in the front drive line. The ARB locker carrier doesn't use this needle bearing so no need to change anything if installing this unit. I had already ordered the ECGS bushing and had it on hand then changed my mind on installing the locker.....guess I'll have a ECGS bushing up for sale soon




The same area on the drivers side of the ARB Carrier.




Shiny new REM Polished 4:88 Nitro gears installed in the rear diff.




Gasket surface cleaned on the diff housing, getting ready to install the new gasket.




Rear Diff re-installed and torqued, locker connectors fitted and guard installed.




Axles torqued to specs and brake cables re-attached.




Installed the modified passenger side lower air bag mount/cradle.






Received new lug nuts in the mail. The new aluminum wheels need taper style lug nuts (can't use the factory nuts), I stopped by a local tire store and they gave me a Gorilla spline drive lug nut to try out on the wheel at home. With the new wheel in place I wasn't happy with the amount of threads that was protruding from the wheel and engaging the lug nut, time for some searching. I ended up ordering the same lug nuts in extended reach that add another 1/4" of engagement with the threads....much better.

Gorilla ET Lug Nuts on Amazon Here: CLICK HERE

New Gorilla spline drive ET lug nuts




The standard lug next to the ET version. Much improved thread engagement.




Testing fit in the wheel. Plenty of space left to allow the wheel to fully seat. There is also slight clearance between the lug nut and wheel to allow proper centering.




More to come.......

Hodakaguy

 

subbed

Thought I'd seen your screen name before over on ADV. Sure enough, same person.

As a Taco owner I'd say your are building most owners dream truck.

 

Yeah I've been a member of ADVrider for a long time.....Bikes are in my blood

Hodakaguy

 

Still chipping away....Today's Progress.

Installed and torqued the rear drive line in place.




Installed the drop spacers on the center carrier bracket.




Here's the OEM brake lines at full extension, pretty tight but could probably live with it. I'm installing extended braided steel lines in their place.




The new extended braided line next to the factory line




New brake lines installed, not near as tight at full extension.




Getting ready to install the fill lines for the air bags. I'll be routing the air fittings out the two upper rear license plate bolts, this will allow for easy filling of the bags and having them separate will allow both side to side adjustment for load leveling as well as up/down adjustment. The metal edge just above the holes for the plate (Red Arrows) needs to be slightly bent upwards to allow clearance for the brass fill fittings.




Hole enlarged and Air fitting installed




Both air fittings installed, they also secure the plate to the truck.




Air lines installed. I secured the tubing out of the way on the factory wiring harness.






On the passenger side the tubing is fairly close to the exhaust as it comes out of the air bag. There should be plenty of air space to keep the tubing cool but I added a piece of heat reflective tape to that section of tubing as an extra measure.








Rear wheels installed and torqued. Still sitting on the jack stands, I'm liking the look of these wheels.






Getting the front diff ready to re-install. Here the supports have been re-attached and torqued.




Running the air tubing for the front locker, here just loosely getting it into position.




Getting ready to re-install the diff. Applied painters tape to the open ends to keep out dirt and nasties during the install process.






Shot of my ugly mug re-attaching the vent lines and bracket, it's one of those areas that you can easily see but is very difficult to get to.




Front diff installed.




Front drive line re-installed and torqued.




Air locker tubing installed and securely routed up into the engine bay. Excess tubing placed in the rear corner of the engine bay for now.






More to come.....

Hodakaguy

 

Great builds.

I have two questions for you. 1st the rear Pinion angle looks a little low in the picture at full droop, do you plan on doing anything about it? 2nd, from experience, the airbag suck as bumpstops. Do you plan on adding rear bumpstops or air bumps?

Good luck can’t wait for more updates!

 

Those gorilla lugs if you got them from America's tire are based off what their system recommends .They put them on my aftermarket wheels and that sleeve extended beyond the pad of the wheels and almost resulted in my wheel coming off whilst driving. They have me different lugs like the ones you got without the sleeve so you have better engagement .

Looks amazing so far, I love how you used the folf babev for the airbags as your licence plate holder. So you didn't want to do a compressor to sit up and down the bags?

 

It looked a tad low to me as well, I'm going to see how it does and can add in degree shims If I need to. Going to use the air bags as bump stops for now, although I was looking at the Icon bumps if I can figure out a way to make them play with the bags.

Thanks, I'm really liking the way it's coming together. I will have a onboard compressor but will inflate the bags manually, simpler and less to go wrong

Hodakaguy

 

I'm sure every wheel is different, my wheels didn't leave a lot of threads available with the standard lug nut, the ET versions give a lot better grab in this case. There is a solid 5mm of clearance between the extended nuts and the rear face of the flange on these wheels so no worry about bottoming the nuts out.







Hodakaguy

 

Up early to start back on the truck.

Snagged a cheap HF weed sprayer to use as a pressure bleeder (nice and clean inside unlike my old one) and added a pressure gauge to the tank. This will turn out to be a waste of time....more on that later






Next up started assembly of the drivers side front end. Axle cleaned, greased and installed back in the Diff.




Drivers side back together and new braided brake hose installed.






Passenger side diff seal cleaned and ready for grease.




Using a large brass drift to seat the axles back into the front diff.




Passenger side back together again.




Axle nuts torqued and keepers installed.




Bleeding the brakes. Here I'm setting up the pressure bleeder and getting ready to start the bleeding process. Right after this picture was taken I read in the Toyota shop manual that you use the trucks built in pump to bleed the brakes and this air bleeder is completely unnecessary, probably should have read that before building this unit LOL. Bleeding brakes is super simple, Fill the reservoir, power on the ignition and pump the brakes 20 times, allowing the pump motor to shut down on each stroke. Repeat this process 4 times total then with the ignition on bleed the brakes like you would normally do, I had my father press the pedal while I did the bleeding. The power pump moves a lot of fluid and the bleeding process was done in no time.




Next up fill the Diffs. I had this oil left from my Unimog project, it will work perfect for the initial short flush period.




Front and back diffs topped off.






One mile stone down. Lots of work to go still.




And out in the wild again. Crappy pics here as I was in a hurry and the lighting wasn't the best.








Took it on a real quick test drive and everything seems to be functioning just the way it should be, no weird codes etc. Only did a short drive but I think I'm going to like these gears!

Lot's more work to go.....More to come soon.....

Hodakaguy

 

I'm interested to check out the Four Wheel Camper you'll be getting. Are you going with the Swift?

I have a camper trailer, but kinda want to go with something a bit simpler... so I've been checking out truck campers that will fit our short bed Tacos. Four Wheel makes a nice one. The Palomino SS500 is also sized right. I may go with the latter since there are a couple dealers close to me and support could be had easily.

I'm also curious how one goes about securing such a camper to the vehicle. I don't want to keep mine on all the time, so I'll want to get the powered stands to raise it up and lower it.

 

looking good

 

Yeah we will be installing a Swift shell model with heater and roll over couch. We've had a couple FWC units and really like them for our needs. There are huge differences between the FWC unit and the Palomino, both in price and quality. The FWC units are expensive, but they do hold their resale value extremely well. The Palamino units while cheaper don't hold their value well at all, which is good if your looking for a used unit. Other main difference is construction, the FWC uses a welded aluminum frame and is designed to flex with the truck when off roading, they are light weight and proven to hold up to years of off road use. The Palamino units are wood construction and don't' fare to well when used off road. FWC uses a completely waterproof material for the pop top as well, same material they make zodiac boats with. Couple that with the one piece aluminum roof and it makes a true 4 season pop up camper. I've been in some really nasty rain storms in our old FWC and always stayed completely dry.

The FWC units use turn buckles inside the bed to mount the camper to the truck bed, they are completely hidden and give the camper a clean look. You access the turn buckles from inside the camper through built in access doors. Usually on a metal bed you install 4 shouldered eye bolts in the bed for the turn buckles to attach to, since our beds are plastic it takes a slightly different approach. With the plastic bed Tacoma's there are two options, external tie downs like the old 70's campers (nasty looking) or you can install a couple internal bed mount bars that attach to the factory bed mount bolts, the tie downs will attach to this bar. The camper is pretty easy to remove on/off the truck, takes about 2 minutes total, I often remove and re-install mine depending on what I'm doing with the truck.

Here's a shot off the web of the FWC Tacoma mounting system.



Hodakaguy

 

With my truck now mobile it's time for an alignment so I can start getting some miles on the new parts. I've had good luck in the past with the local Les Schwab tire center so I made an appointment and arrived early in the am to get the alignment completed.

Even with the REM Polished gears I will be following a break in period to ensure the gears are properly broken in. I left the house and drove for 25 minutes keeping it at or under 40 mph. When I stopped at the tire shop for alignment I used a IR gun to check the temp of the rear axle and 3rd member, nice and cool From this point I will drive it easy for several hundred more miles.




I asked for 3 Deg Caster if possible, came out at 2.5 Deg. Not perfect specs but it's driving really well now.




Out in the Wild.....




I'm really liking the looks of these Wheels.




With my truck out of the shop it's time to start in on my fathers truck.

Up on stands and ready for Round Two.....Ding Ding.




Drained both axles, my fathers truck has 5500 miles on it at this point and the oil in both the front and rear had a dark grey color to it. When installing new gears they recommend a 500 mile oil change on the front diff and rear axle to flush any metal particles ect during the break in period. If keeping stock gearing it would be a good idea to change oils in the front and rear within the first 5k miles, most will just drive their new cars without ever doing a oil change on the axles.




Pulling the front end apart, I was smarter this time and left the axles attached to the spindle.....a lot less work and speeds up the process. Second time around is always faster, should have thought about this when I did mine.




Stock suspension components removed.




Front Diff out of the truck.




Supports removed and the diff is ready for re-gearing. All wrapped up and ready to transport.






Removing the drivers side Upper Control Arm bolt was a bit tighter on my fathers truck than on mine, a little trimming on the bolt face allowed the bolt to be removed without cutting the bolt in two. A small air grinder with a skinny wheel made quick work of the trimming process. Once the sheet metal was tweaked back a drift pushed the bolt right out.






Looking Bare. New UCA's installed on both sides.








Getting the tires installed on the wheels...






Lots more to come......

Hodakaguy

 

Amazing build! Looking great. Can’t wait to see what’s next.

 

Loving the thorough details and photos. Awesome work, slow and steady.

 

Which leer?