Starting my SAS tomorrow on my 97 :)

Is it still 3-0 if you didn't hit the same holes? Methinks not.

 

Sooo been a while. A few updates to be added. Body swap is fully complete, as well as rack and pinion. And a bunch of other stuff as well.







Loaded up to go home after 5 months


Got the compressor installed in the new cab with the locker air lines pre run to the storage under the back seat


Got some turn signals


Put my 600W amp for sub woofer in the passenger side cab wall


Controller for front winch is under passenger side back seat - wireless still works for a good 75', haven't maxed it out yet!


Ran my own switches for the front air locker(front red switch), compressor(blue switch) and rear air locker(rear red switch)(Yes, I know the rear red switch is crooked, it wasnt tightend down at the point of the pictures_





Got my air tanks mounted about 1/4" forward of my hitch and about even with the bottom of it


Swapped out my gas tank skid seeing as the strap had broken 3 times and the old one was rotten... Nice to have this E-Brake cable bracket too, never had it before and was always worried about it catching something



And the weight ov the winch/bumper sucked my front end down a little as expected, so i threw some spacers on finally for clearance!


Threw my headers on when the cab was off




Still waiting on insurance to inspect the truck because the VIN's no longer match. So for now shes a trailer queen! Went out Saturday evening/night and had some fun with it but spent more time at the bonfire than wheeling.


Some random pics

Not even all the aftermarket wiring that was pulled out... And i put about twice as much back in if you take into account the 3 4ga, 1 8ga and 1 1ga wires i ran for the winch controller!

Swapped to a 98 style automatic cab so there was some custom cuts to make as well as using the whole wiring harness and dash from the original 97 body



I've found someone local who actually wants to build my truck, which makes me happy and sad. Happy cause its cheaper than driving it to and from South Carolina, sad because i was excited to go to South Carolina. Same guy who built this LT Chevy


And that's about it for now!

Also:

I suppose you have a fair point. Still the only one to pull anyone out though

And a HUGE thanks to Andrew for the hook up on all the parts and spending many hours in his garage with me on this project... Many beers were had and it was a good time, mostly.

 

Hope it all works out for you man! Wheter I do it or not!
Just ready to see it complete!

 

So here's my new dilemma... Finished my cab swap. Took the truck out and had a blast of a hunting/wheeling day. Got 10 birds.





And then 2 weeks later...



So my question is... Does anyone know if a 98 style body can swap directly over to a 97 frame/drive train(with the exception of the speedo cable) or do i have to gut my (new) cab and put it all into my newer un rolled cab... again? I know the mounting lines up but im more worried about the interior wiring/engine harness, climate control etc.

 

Yes, the bodies can be swapped. You're good to go.

 

Plug and play everything?! This makes me very happy. And sad that we didn't just do it this way the first time... Still gotta swap stereo/air compressor/winch controller over but thats peanuts compared to having to swap all the wiring harness'.

Thanks!

 

Why not just pound all the dents out and get new glass, you will probibly flop it again anyway.

 

How the hell did you flop it...again... haha

 

Between both the jobs I'm working I don't have time to do the body work. Easier and cheaper to swap bodies seeing as I have a line on a very wide variety of 96-99 tacoma parts/cabs/etc.

I didn't flop it "again". This is the first time but long story short, steep down hill grade and a rut covered by snow = taco trying to take a nap

 

Sooooooo finally took a stab at cab swap v2.0. Had it in and out of the shop in about the total equivalent working time of 3 evenings, over the time of 4 evenings.

Getting the old cab off and new cab on was cake actually, had the new cab sitting on the frame at the end of the first night. Used a S100 bobcat and some sketchy rigging but got er done!

Ran into a few hiccups though. First, pic of the new cab


So the first hiccup came when trying to plug in the 97 manual ECU harness to the 99 ECU(New cab is a 99). They are 100% different. So instead of re pinning the wiring harness, I opted to get the engine harness from the engine of the truck that the cab came off of. I'm extremely happy with my tacoma parts hook up, Andrew

So to change the engine harness, gotta pull the intake. Soooooooooo.......




Swapped the wiring harness. threw on the S/C. She fired right up.

Issue number 2: ran like complete shiiiiiite. Thought it was the computer learning but after 50km, it was very clear that was not the problem.

Fast forward a night, doing research and find out the MAF and IAT sensors are different from 98-older and 99-newer. Explains the two CEL codes.

So I drove the bag of shit to my buddy where we equipped it with the factory 99 intake. She drove like a dream on the highway home right until I turned off the highway. Turns out, neither of us thought to, you know, check to see if there was a filter in the air box. or at least if there wasn't a bunch of leaves in it. Got another MAF/IAT, and a filter. Threw em in, and MAN does she FLY! I cant wait to throw on the 7th injector kit & 2.2" pulley now!

Also, compressor/amps/all wiring has been re done, everything is in the same spots and I wont bore you with the same pictures over again

Sooooo going on a may long weekend run with my newly acquired group of off-roading friends, pretty stoked for that!

And thats whats all new with the project. Diffs are chillin at the border till I have a truck capable of picking them up(or the time)

 

Well boys and girls... may be 6 years (almost to the day) since I started this build thread, and 5 years and change since my last post in said thread... But no time like the present to revive a dead, buried and forgotten build thread, amiright?

I'll first start off by saying, back when I started this thread, or even frequented TW at all really, I was young(20), dumb, and looking back, knew next to nothing about the solid axle game, and very little in retrospect about my truck. Sure, I could strip it down in a few hours and swap a cab, but knew next to nothing about how everything actually worked. To top it off, I had the goal to make it street legal (in Manitoba, Canada, that is next to impossible). Fast forward to today, having taught my self fabrication, being introduced to actual wheeling (Rock crawling, mud) by a group of people I barely knew at the time (some of whom are close friends, and we now have a very tight knit group I'd compare to a dysfunctional family), subsequently going through 4-5 7.5" IFS diffs each year for 3 years because i couldn't bring my self to drop the money into making the stock suspension somewhat reliable as its days were numbered from the start, I've finally got a completed (mostly) SAS with the 9.5" in the rear. Bonus points for full off road coverage being $240/year . And let me tell you, it has been a long, antagonizing, painful and what i would call the most stressful process I've ever been through when it came time for the actual SAS, but my dream truck is finally a reality and it is everything I could've ever hoped for.

I wont go into detail about each and every picture, but will touch on the important/funny ones.

First things first, we started off with a third cab swap. Without going into detail, please drink responsibly folks and never drive under the influence.

We'll resume in November, 2016, after 2 years of daily driving, a dozen or so wheeling trips and a 8500km round trip family road trip to BC, when I learned that lesson the hard way.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BfI3WuYJ5LYm7Yc_L6OFWnXg0T1JBOa0/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FusRIQavEjqVLt42P-ElBWCsXBS7sOE7/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hrnAupmiGLcy116CUM_9yoi9J1JGLH7z/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eoQqgLFJzOifUYhS8TQ4DiX2qoKJpuY5/view?usp=sharing


After the dust settled and it was time to go for round 3 with the cab swap, it was apparent the frame needed some love. Que a month of 12 hour days in a single car garage across the road at a buddies place and a decrepit Decastar 210.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/11X3pIQj8yx5ARd-EQbTJtexpIolUnZqZ/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f0PbCUmJ8HT0sc_Uc9sHFSZs-nyKhMDH/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i4MSEpn7xzywGa1zlMZ1pdnf0V9rDrPK/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ItChfaASJ5ej83Ap3WjFXyr1AfMF0wgv/view?usp=sharing
3"x3"x1/4" angle plus 1/4" plate should hold a 10,000lb winch pretty okay.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nIL2CL9XKVJ0TyBThe2UEgNSri_cTROE/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/162x1d4JOAb2Mpfb9RHUK1bYJPT6d3Nx8/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YOb0Sgmz6AOIbQrtRVtMNFw6kgMFTTpQ/view?usp=sharing

And we have a completed cab swap.

Jump ahead to fall 2019, lets cut off one side of the IFS, then let the truck sit in the shop all winter while away pipelining.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eQHwoQcwZiJ0RHIgZL6uXGmWP_fMgq3-/view?usp=sharing

February 2020, we finish the IFS delete and do the majority of the SAS in 11 days straight to try to make a winter wheeling run. Some things got done I'm not proud of, but we"ll address those later.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QBoa8-kCdHnHcdYJkWIGnF4_ZnuLQclH/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11b37FBrdSf11e8kBs7lveZj9EHHQ_oYm/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q6uHJsDn17rKcHPrrl0ueTijOnDW48KZ/view?usp=sharing
2" OD .250" upper link and steering components. 2.25"OD .375" lower links, cause I like to party.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GHmjL_OJzAls6xuhpW9cKqg5neRFthV4/view?usp=sharing
Ballistic Fab brackets/towers for everything, minus the TMR universal panhard kit
Ballistic Fab Johnnt joints for the links
Ballistic Fab 1.25" forged chromoly heims for the steering compomemts

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fuA7vYcUDxRpWv82NGqOGHjcDo9kh1mP/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GwQaJiaYaD99LFv-bY0FZyEn5s9GOTq4/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17T3FpaQPwaf3PG_dh9R6PYrY_X2cyxLv/view?usp=sharing
Honorable mention to the girlfriend, who spent 2 hours learning to weld before producing this absolute gem. Never held a stinger in her life prior to this.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13zqw2l-oU6BcoYU4t8xK5hdNwxyD26D9/view?usp=sharing
And we have a running, driving truck. With a garbage panhard and horrid drag link. 32 hours straight at this point for the two of us.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13wLO1QFti--DRJsBC1NGuTTpZDVEZSAT/view?usp=sharing
Cute flex, garbage steering and panhard = no bueno.

Lets fix that. Jumping ahead to final product aaaaand...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yntlJcT0HC6NdDdKYp5hZoHYE0tOQwrv/view?usp=sharing
THAT's more like it. 37" below the tire. Full range of steering. We have a completed SAS. 6 years in the making!

I got lazy and sped along closer to the end, but you probably don't care about the stuff I left out. Here are some pics from the shake down weekend, wherein I broke nothing, but did find a couple tweaks that are to be made.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f5I-MmuzmfdFwSyhVYASV596ebllGteP/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W7ukME-OIjB5UShKA92iiE00QMSVshhD/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C6gdKIOL-Hu6xX10x3XPGPN_UsL9DGG-/view?usp=sharing

Front:
Diamond Axle Toyota FJ80 8" HP
Drilled and tapped ARP slug studs
ARP trunion studs
ARB Air Locker w/ 4:56
Slee Offroad HI-Steer arms in double shear configuration
Old school Longfield (Made by RCV) Birfields/Chromoly inner shafts
Width - 67.5" (63" WMS-WMS + 2.25" spacers)
Ballistic coil+shock+lower link all in 1 brackets
Ballistic adjustable upper chock and coil towers
Ballistic forged chromoly johnny joints
Ballistic forged chromoly rebuildable heims (1.25")
TMR universal panhard kit (only used the heims lol)
Toyota 100 series rear swing steering box
XJ 6" lift springs (18.25" tall out of vehicle)
2" OD .250" wall upper link, tie rod and drag link
2.25"OD .375" wall lower links
1.5" OD .250" wall panhard

Rear:
Diamond Axle Toyota FJ80 9.5" LP (centered)
ARP axle shaft hub studs (full float axle)
ARB Air Locker w/ 4:56
Centered with custom length chromoly axle shafts
Width - 67.5" (63" WMS-WMS + 2.25" spacers)
Factory leaf springs, re arched 2" +2 layers (5 years ago... time and abuse made them perfect!)

5vz-fe supercharged
2.2" pulley
URD 7th injector kit
dual bed mounted 850CCA group 65 batteries
GM 140a alt
2/0 cable for all power feed and winch wiring
Marlin Crawler pickup 4.7 gear driven transfer case

And that's all i can think of at this current time! Hope you enjoy the pics and if you have any questions, ask away!

 

Awesome! must feel good to have it done