What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

Hm thought the limited in like 01-04 came with color matched front bumper and flares and handles. And I think I've seen a green one before..

But whatever.

 

I don't even want to look at mine...

 

Same

 

red silver black only

 

Damn I thought I would be the first person to do this mod similar to the 2nd gen guys doing the fj tube swap. Did the bolts on the manual hub diff it came with not work out? Or did you source just the tube/shaft? Good to know about those bolts in case mine don't work.

Yeah that might be why I don't even see LT cv's on RCV's site for our trucks. TBH I wouldn't bump up to RCV's unless I was going to 37's and I wouldn't go to 37's unless I was LT, so either way the Tundra CV's solve the issue. And realistically if you don't have a front locker the spiders are the first to go on big tires vs CV's. At least it was for me. I get the idea of trying to keep the CV's as the fuse but blowing a locked front diff is relatively pretty damn difficult unless you are being stupid with the gas pedal.

I thought about it, but not a ton of people are into going this route I think. All I know is I don't want to break anymore stubs.

Yeah rear locker actuator. I wouldn't have dug into it if it didn't fail on me. I am not sure if it was the corrosion that did it in or the broken chunk off the back of the actuator I found jammed up in the gears.

Here's a better pic of the chunk put back in place. It looks like that chunk is there to stop deflection if the actuator arm does go all the way to the metal raised part. I plan on just filling it with jb weld and sanding it down smooth to be the same height it used to be.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

 

Gotta love Toyota electric lockers, even after cleaning em (blast cabinet helps), make sure the magnets in the motor are affixed well (they will come off after time or a good bump) and if you re attach them make sure the poles are arranged right too. I would probably seal em up with a bit of RTV since the o rings tend to fail rather often.

 

Yeah I learned a bunch taking it apart this time in my actual shop, unlike the first time I took mine apart in my parents front yard when I was like 25 and just got the truck, and was living in an apartment. I think I lost like half the shit. Needless to say that actuator never started working.

The biggest thing I learned was the trick for the brushes. I think @ToyRyd04 used zip ties for those, and I saw someone else use tooth picks, but for me alligator clips worked great to keep them in. I also learned that the main shaft actually rides on two ball bearings on either end of the shaft, and it was a miracle I didn't lose either of them. Thankfully the magnets are still firmly glued to the housing, even after beating on the damn thing with my impact screw driver to get them to open in the first place. Unfortunately on the motor side, even with how well I cleaned it up, RTV is the only solution that will seal it. I hoped to source an o ring for the main section but I might just fully RTV that too. I also said fuck it to the Toyota grease and am using Bel Ray Waterproof grease for the gears/shaft/spring and dialectric for the face of the wheel. I have used it on all my motorcycles for years and have good faith in the stuff. The only thing I need now to reassemble the motor are new M5 bolts that I am going to use socket cap screws for instead of the stupid phillps shit.

This was my take on keeping the brushes seated:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

I will say though, I much much rather rely on this system than an ARB in the rear any day. The beauty of this is that if it does fail, I can still manually engage it, which I did when it failed on the trail.

 

Yeah, I'd probably go for the high strength black RTV, semi thick bead hardened for a minute in open air for good measure.

 

Yeah I gotta go pick me up a new can of "the right stuff black" for this.

Any chance you know if this ohm reading looks good for pins 2 and 3 with the armature in place? From what I read I should be able to at least watch the shaft spin via pins 2 and 3.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Before I took the motor portion apart, I tried to bench test it like this and the motor would not spin at all. Wasn't sure if I was correct or not with the way I bench tested it, or if the 18v dc (I have a little test pack I use to test my DC shit) was too high for it to test.

 

Seems okay to me, not sure if it is right, but doesn't seem unreasonable. I'd try to spin it up with an RC battery or something less than 12v, shouldn't take a ton of power since its driving something with lots of mechanical advantage.

 

True, yeah I could always tap into my MC battery too. I need to get something for simple bench testing for the future that's actually 12v.

Also I hit up the company that used to make actuator kits and they sent me this:

https://landtankproducts.com/products/e-locker-actuator-kits

 

Yeah Rich is a good guy, I wouldn't hesitate to buy from him. We talked on the phone for an hour or so about superchargers not too long ago, really smart guy.

 

I just bought it mostly for the o ring that seals the diff and for the weird o ring that was so hard on mine I thought was metal, so I used brake cleaner on it

 

The front diff I bought (for my 4wd swap) was originally ADD. When I bought the manual tube it didn't come with bolts, so I found those, and they worked like a champ.

 

Gotcha and you did it for manual hubs correct? Saw that later that you are running manual hubs and not running ADD axles like I still plan to I think.

 

Correct, I'm running manual hubs. And I switched the tube to accomplish that.

 

@cynicalrider

Back in the late Cretaceous it was standard practice to slather every joint/seam on installed e-locker actuators with some sealant, not just the motor can. Brand new trucks too. In addition a little "pocket" gets created between the top/rear of the actuator and the diff housing, this would also get coated and some folks would fill it to prevent the formation of a toxic corrosive lake.
If any moisture enters the actuator be it a leak or condensation, the dissimilar metals, road salt and electricity can corrode things quick.
Also of note, you may be aware of them but there are two tiny balls, like a 3/16 ball bearing. They sit at each end of the armature/worm gear shaft and serve as crude thrust bearings.
At disassembly they typically stick to the shaft or in the shaft bore via grease. They are easily disguised or camouflaged by the grease. The first "wipe away" of the old grease can easily wipe away the balls, never to be seen again.

 

Haha yup, I found one ball by accident when it fell from the actuator and stuck to one of the magnets. The other was on my bench, both were absolute dumb luck in finding them and even learning they existed. I stuck the bottom one on with some grease when I put the armature shaft back in and actually super glued the other lightly to the top of the armature mostly because I know this thing will fly off when I try to put the magnetic cap back on. I figure it still rotating at the top of the housing should be enough motion to keep friction at bay.

And yeah that's what happened to my original e-locker actuator, it rusted a hole through the housing. @ToyRyd04 mentioned I should liberally antisieze that back side, and I want to get in there and clean it up and paint it before I reinstall as well.

Also I have read mixed things on properly positioning everything in the actuator/automatic calibration. Some people say you NEED to have it in the exact position to install it, or put it in the locked position to install it. But in this video, the guy said you just need to get it kinda close, plug it in, cycle it a couple times, and then put it in with the button in the "unlocked" position. That seems to make the most sense to me since the way the wheel is designed it seems like it should auto calibrate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqPmA0J0Zco

 

I was thinking the same thing since I have no idea if or when it's ever been done along this trucks 318,000 miles. I'm a big fan of preventative maintenance

 

I did some sand blasting last night it
Helps to keep the rust off haha






And my upper control arm's didn't even squeak