Modified Tundra Rack Swap Preorder

Yea when I get back home off fires I'll work on getting a couple more detail shots of it installed and some tips for how to do the install

 

What's giving out on them and can you post pics of the damage that occurs to the stock ones.

 

They shit the seals...or start to have a ton of slop in em(pinion to rack gear backlash) or my issue...snaps the passenger side mount off the rack because it's a chinsy stamped metal bracket holding the mount on the rack....literally broke 3 in a weekend for me like that.

The tundra replacement...much larger pinion and rack gear, and with some control valve modification to get more flow thru the rack it pushes big tires around no problem...the housing is all formed out of one piece so the mounts shouldn't snap off and it has bigger bolts(9/16) that hold it in place.

 

Paid so I'm not the deadbeat holding this up

 

Got two racks today...gunna scoop another one tommorow for @SGTCap...seal kits ordered...the ball has started to roll

 

Hell yea man looking forward to getting mine!

 

I got this on my dream list, along with the manual locking hub conversion. I guess I could dream.

Beautiful work Travis!

 

Seals failed on 2. This last one i literally broke.

 

So I grabbed a pic off the website that sells the completed kit, hope this is not an issue.

You can see the differences in size and where and why the Tacoma version is weak.


I also have a question on the portion cut out on the frame, what did you replace the cut out part with or did you leave the frame as is after you used the plasma cutter?

My thoughts are to mill down the Tundra mounting points vs cut your frame. Not sure if this will work, but if does it makes life easier for those interested as they will have less to deal with. I am actually interested in this, but I have a shop and will probably do the mods when I get a little time.

 

In my case not only did one of the seals shift and it pukes sometimes. Crawling it rocks and getting a wheel bound up I've jumped teeth on the rack manhandling it to get it unbound, even just on 33s. Larger tires guys tend to do that more as well.

 

Any 3rd gen offering

 

I made some new sleeves to put into the frame...they're about 3/8" wider spacing per side and the rack needs to sit flush on the crossmember not raised on the posts like the stock rack...it wont fit otherwise, the oil pan is in the way
In addition the bolts are larger diameter as well..I used 9/16 bolts

 

What diameter are the factory Tundra rack bolts? If you used 9/16", I'm guessing that they're M14.

What's the diameter of the factory spacer that you removed? Is there enough room to get an appropriately sized hole saw on a drill or 90 degree drill head in there to cut out the factory spacer and make holes for the new mounts if you don't have a plasma?

 

I was thinking the same thing.

Use a hole saw from bottom up, use the existing bolt hole to guide saw and drill it out oversize.

Based on the mentioned 3/8" (10mm) width difference you would need to go over on the hole saw size to cover the new bigger barrel and bolt hole width offset. Factor in 3/16" (5mm), or half of the 3/8" width difference, for each side to make up the difference in total width of the tundra steering.

Make a barrel with the hole offset from center 5mm to one side to compensate for the width difference.

The 10mm comes from 3/8" mentioned. 3/8" is actually 9.525mm so I am assuming it would be 10mm.

Get measurements of the factory barrel and bolt hole size and I can work the math and provide the hole saw size.

If you want barrels made I can provide those for a test run as long as I get the correct size for bolt hole and width for both the Tacoma factory steering and Tundra steering.

 

In @Basikbiker's pictures that show the factory barrels cut out, I'm pretty sure those are the new barrels welded into the frame, so they move out and forward. He also said 3/8" per side, which looks about right in the photos. You'd be cutting a huge hole to try to takeout the factory barrel and have the new barrel welded into a new filler piece.

My thinking was more just for alternate ways to remove the factory barrels and punch holes for the new ones without a plasma cutter. It would be easy enough to pick up a steel spacer meant for a smaller bolt and drill/tap it for the larger tundra rack bolts. It just needs to be the right length.

Also, the mount on the Tacoma rack is the issue, not the mounting bolts themselves. If you got the factory mount out clean, I would imagine that you might be able to reuse it for the Tundra rack. You would just need a sleeve to reduce the holes in Tundra mounts to the factory bolt size, so there isn't a bunch of slop in the rack.

 

The difference is not as much as you think. The photo shows actual differences between the two. The hole saw size would be a bit excessive at approximately 2" to cover the 9/16" bolt size he used.

The existing barrel can be drilled out with a hole saw, just size the hole saw to fit over the barrel OD. You would then need to oversize the hole to push the barrel over the amount needed (3/8") .

 

I'll get some more pictures when I get back home from firefighting stuff...

Making a sleeve to retain the Tacoma rack bolt size wont work...too small of a difference.

The new mount points are wider and slightly forward of the tacoma making some offset bushing decent idea but difficult to make especially if there's already a thru hole.

A drill wont fit on top even a 90 drill. Holesaw from the bottom could work maybe. The factory barrels are only welded on top.

What I ended up doing was taking some solid steel stock boring a hole to proper bolt size and the diameter of the new barrel was about the diameter of the bushings on the new rack (about 1.75").
With the big holes cut out ontop of the frame I plated back in those holes to make a "clean slate" then marked where the rack needed to be for reference. Set the new barrels on the rack with the bolts picking up the barrel and bushing hole...tacked a piece of rod across the top of the barrels making a quick little jig. Recut the holes in the frame and welded the new barrels flush.

 

The hole goes forward too not just wider

 

Trust me I tried calculating everything out in a few different ways...(I have the Tacoma frame CAD file) and even tried to make like an easy fit kit in a few different ways...none of them worked so far mostly due to clearance issues...the tundra rack barely fits in there...pic is one of the failed attempts..spent 3 days trying ways to make it easier lol

 

I am fortunate to have a Plasma Cutter, but if not it seems you could use a sawzall flush on top of the crossmember to remove the existing mounts.