AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

Not worried about making my own wires, already did that for the alternator upgrade. Probably have some 2/0 left as well. Though I'm also thinking about making something that mounts to the battery. Nice and short and there is some space there too. I wonder if there is a battery cage I can get and leverage for this. Ideally I want it to be big enough to accept the northstar AGM I want eventually as well.

 

Front Diff Oil Change - Not an Ideal Situation
February 21, 2018.

Not all that long ago, the truck got a gear change - from the 4.10 factory gears to 4.88's - meaning that it's now easier on the engine to turn the bigger tires as it climbs up hills, over rocks, and generally towards adventure.

Within a couple weeks of the gear change, I'd driven far enough to get 500 miles of break-in complete on the rear diff and changed the oil - and everything there seemed A-OK, which was nice. And then on our trip to Death Valley, we ran as much as we could in 4WD to give the front diff a workout and complete its break-in. That turned out to be great - since most of the roads were easy - so the diff could break-in without getting overworked.

And now, it was time to change the oil. I was hoping it'd go as well as the back.

But of course, it wouldn't. In fact, it wasn't an ideal situation at all.

I got started by removing the skids. They had to come off anyway to change out the speedo gear, and were easy enough to remove, though heavy.

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Unlike the rear diff, the front diff fill and drain plugs aren't a standard bolt head, but are instead Allen head bolts - where the hex key/bit goes into the bolt. I have no idea why this is, but with the necessary 10mm Allen key in hand, I wasn't worried.

(Note: Both the fill and drain plugs on 98-04 are 10mm, but on pre-98 models the drain is 12mm.)

The plan was to remove the fill bolt first (you always want to be sure you'll be able to refill anything you take out, plus it allows air in when you remove the drain plug) and then the drain.

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So I inserted the wrench and...that's weird, the bolt wasn't tight at all. As in, even though it was screwed what looked like "all the way," it turned freely.

Definitely not ideal. I wondered if a bunch of gear oil had leaked out. Were my gears toast? I'd put over 4000 miles on the truck with these gears, and several hundred in 4WD. It would suck for them to be wrecked already.

I paused to evaluate. Slower is always faster in these situations.

There was no indication of oil spilling down the diff from the fill hole. There was no oil "puddle" on the skid plate. I'd tested the air locker on the front diff a couple times and it'd held pressure for the short time it'd been on, so I decided that everything was probably OK. Not ideal, but probably OK.

So out came the drain plug. And then the oil.

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There wasn't a ton of oil that came out. I expected a bit over a quart, and got a bit less than a quart out - OK, I decided, given the locker and the fact that there was no way to get all the old oil out.

Then I checked the drain plug for debris. There was definitely some sludge on the magnet, but after spreading the sludge out on an aluminum plate there were no chunks. Seemed normal.

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So it was time to re-assemble and fill. I put some new crush washers on the bolts and started with the drain, getting it tightened so I could refill the oil.

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Once again, I chose to go with Lucas 80W-90 non-synthetic gear oil at the recommendation of JT's Parts and Accessories, but this time I couldn't just squeeze it out of the bottle and into the diff (like I could on the rear). The front is much tighter, and while I might have been able to do something in a pinch, it would have made quite the mess, I'm sure.

Luckily, I'd planned ahead and had a pump in-hand. This guy was only a few bucks and worth every penny. One tube into the oil and one into the diff and I pumped away.

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I ended up putting in about the same amount of oil as came out - a good sign that I hadn't lost a bunch of oil - and I was sure to overfill the diff a bit (plugging the fill hole quickly as oil was seeping out), given the diff drop I have installed, which changes the tilt of the diff slightly, thus the "fullness" level of the fill hole.

And then, I buttoned everything back up.

I was not happy to have found the fill bolt loose, but I was happy that everything seemed OK, that I was done with the break-in and oil change, and that the truck was ready for more adventure.

So that's 3-1 in favor of happy; a definite win in my book!

 

I sure wish my front diff drain plug came out as easily as yours seems to. Mine certainly always threads on easily enough. But the last two times I changed the oil, I've had to use an air impact gun to remove the plug. Talk about 'not ideal'

 

I'd be interested in trying one of these. I really dislike the allen key design plug.

Does anyone know the Toyota part number for the 1st gen front diff plugs?

 

My drain plug was definitely tight, but removable. Sure hope it's removable next time too. I wonder if it has to do with heat/cool cycles, where it loosens when it's heated, but gets tighter and tighter as it cools.

 

I think it could have been a "forgot to go back and do a final tighten." It was the last thing done (short of putting the skid back on). There was a crush washer on it that was at least partially compressed at one time, but I didn't notice if they installed a new one or put the original back on.

Of course, I'm going to keep an eye on it now, since I know it was properly tightened this time. If I find it loose in the future, then that'll be a good indication that they didn't forget to tighten it.

 

I Dread Cleaning the Bed
February 26, 2018.

I always dread cleaning the bed of the truck.

I don't mean sweeping or washing out the bed liner - I mean, I don't like that either - but the part I really dread is removing the bed liner and cleaning underneath it. There are a couple reasons for this: first, it's hard to get the liner out; it's really wedged in there (which is good the rest of the time). Second, I always worry (rightly, I think) that when I take out the bed liner, I'm going to see how it's destroyed my bed - rubbing off paint, etc.

Given that, one might suggest that I just dump the liner and go with a rubberized spray-on coating. I've considered that, but on the whole, I like the plastic liner. I think it does a reasonably good job keeping the bed from getting all dented with the types of loads I carry, it provides a "track" for my bed slide to run in, and it doesn't really cause all that much damage to the actual bed...so far.

Of course, my perpetual dread of finding catastrophic damage means that I've only ever done this once before - that was after hauling several tons (in several loads) of old bricks and mortar to the dump - when I wanted to make sure that any course grit that had gotten under the liner was removed before it could do even more damage than the liner itself!

But, after The De-Tour, I knew I had to remove the bed liner, and I'd been putting it off. See, I'd "lost" a nut and two washers (that held on the bed rack) behind/under the bed liner early in the trip. I'd replaced them immediately with a spare that Mike (@Digiratus) had handy, but I didn't want the old ones rattling around in there forever (rusting out my bed). I figured that a mere six months later was probably about long enough to wait, and so I got down to the task.

The first step was getting the bed liner out of the bed. There was only one part that was really stuck, and I used my handy heat gun to make that part of the liner a bit more...amenable to removal.

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Then, it was time to inspect the bed. Overall and to my relief, it still looked relatively good. There were definitely some wear spots from the liner, but there was no sign of rust, at all. Likely this is because the liner keeps the bed relatively dry - another benefit. I briefly considered spray painting the exposed metal in the bed, but ultimately decided against it - after all, the liner was just going to rub in those same spots again.

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There also wasn't all that much "stuff" under the liner, which was great. Of course, there was that nut I'd lost; and a single washer. No idea where the second washer went.

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At any rate, I swept out the debris and made sure that the weep holes were clean. And then, I loaded the bed liner back in. So I can procrastinate and worry once again.

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I love my spray-in liner. So easy to keep clean and I never lose stuff behind it either.

But then, I don't have a fridge slide that has to have some tracks so it'll function correctly either.

 

I agree with this. When I pulled my plastic liner out, my bed looked so much bigger

 

Ordered

 

I hear you. I'm lucky to have what is, I think, a liner that takes up relatively little room - it goes under the top rails of the bed (part of what makes it hard to get out) but it still robs about an inch on every side (and the bottom). I'm sure someday I'm going to a spray-in liner - esp. now that I do more adventuring and less hauling/shoveling from the bed. Just not yet .

Nice. Was a super easy change. 10-15 minutes if I hadn't had to take the skids off.

 

Dont have my BAMF skids yet

Do you find yourself driving slower due to the gears? When I regeared I found myself driving significantly slower. I know the 4.88s arnt recommended with 5spds. Not really sure I wanna be pulling 3k rpm on the highway just to keep up with traffic.

 

idk about him..but when i regeared...i drive faster

 

I accelerate faster, for sure

But cruising speed is definitey slower. What's your rpm at say 70mph? I'm tickling 3k

 

mmm 3200ish? idk. Im on 5.29s with 35s. IDGAF about the rpms. Just means im in peak power all the time 5vzfe doesn't care one bit about it.

 

This.

I'm used to the 2uzfe in my dad's truck. Cruised at 1700 and loves to rev. 3.4 just never sounded like she wants to rev. Like I'm asking her to go out of her way. The 4.7 was NOT like that haha.

 

hmm odd. My 5vzfe's(all 3) never have an problem going up that high. Igor with the Auto tranny to mean seems like its goes "ffiiiiinnnnneeee i'll rev that high!" sometimes. But never didn't like it.

 

I'll try caring a little less about her mood and see if that changes anything. That will def make me drive faster

 

When I got the grey truck it had a nice ARE canopy and a plastic liner. The bed was like new under that thing, probably cause the canopy was on there too. I'll be taking it to Line-X though soon cause that was one of the best things about my green truck. So easy to clean, so much tougher, and it makes it look more uniform than scratched paint and dents haha. Plus I love the wrap over the rails too so they don't look so shitty after having racks and canopies on.

 

Nah, I've not had a problem with the bed rusting, so I've never used FF or anything similar. I think the bed liner would just "wear through it" in the same spots that it rubs the paint off now. I didn't notice the bed bolts at all, and didn't take off the bed (that'll happen in a few weeks though). So far, I've been lucky with my bolts on the truck though - everything in relatively good shape. That's what you get with 80K miles and a truck that was garaged for a long time and only a "secondary DD."

I actually find myself driving faster, now. When I first got the gears, I was going slower - b/c I was watching the speedo, and the speedo said I was going 72 (when really I was going ~61). Now, with the new speedo gear, I drive faster b/c the speedo says 72, and I'm actually going 68.

Engine sounds great at 3000 rpm to me, though I miss my old gas mileage.

How does the Line-X hold up to a bed full of dirt and a sharp shovel? that's what I'm worried about (that I'll just cut right through the Line-X), and what the liner is great for.