Hodakaguy's Overland Tacoma Builds - FWC Combo

[Hodakaguy]

Today's Progress.
Started back on the drivers side rear. Here I'm installing the new bracket for the lower shock mount. A new hole is required here as part of the mount.

Shock installed, I love the integrated rock shields for the shaft on the shock....all shocks should come with this feature! I put a dab with a yellow paint pen on each bolt that has been torqued to final specs. Some bolts will need to wait until the truck is setting on the tires again before receiving final torque.

Rear shock installed...minus the res mount.

The upper assembly for the Firestone air bags. The instructions show the big silver through bolt turned around the other way but it extends to far that way and will interfere with the reservoir mount, if your running both airbags and OME shocks the bolt needs to be oriented in this direction.

Reservoir mount installed

Getting ready to have the tires mounted on the new wheels, we removed my fathers front wheel to verify clearance on the calipers before diving in and having the tires installed. Calipers cleared so mounting is a go!

Tires mounted up. The wheels are AX201 16"x8" Zero Off Set, Tires are BFG KO2 285/75-R16. Here the tire is just leaned up against the hub to get a sneak peak on how it's going to look, the tires won't stick out this much once mounted properly. I really like the look against the Quicksand.

RCI Sliders showed up today, these babies are very solid and quality looks very good as well. Can't wait to get them painted and on the truck.

Got the passenger side rear spring installed and the upper portion of the air bags loose fit. That's enough for today.

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Not a lot of time to work on the truck today, I did manage to finish up the passenger side rear suspension early this morning.
Passenger side all buttoned up except for the lower air bag mounts/cradles.

The lower air bag mount is suppose to rest on the axle on the outer edge but with the thicker Dakar spring pack it hangs in the air 3/4" off the axle (bracket is sitting on backwards for picture). I will modify the lower brackets to get proper contact back before mounting.

Going to place the sliders up onto the truck for a sneak peak....

Well at this point my super squirrel powers took over and I jumped off the slider project and used the rest of my limited time to whip up a power brake bleeder. I'll use this bleeder when I install the new brake lines and re-install the calipers. These bleeders work really slick, way better than a vacuum bleeder and lets you easily bleed the system by yourself. The tank adds a bit of air pressure to the reservoir and when you open the bleeder it pushes the fluid out without having to pump the brakes, just need to check the fluid level in the reservoir often so you don't run low and push air into the system again. You can buy purpose built units but they are around $50 for the cheapest ones, I already had an extra small weed sprayer so I just needed a spare brake reservoir cap. My spare cap came in today so it's time to get it ready for the upcoming brake work.
New brake reservoir cap and brass fitting that will connect the cap to the weed sprayer.

Hole drilled in the new cap.

The brass fitting was threaded into the plastic cap with two part epoxy to ensure a tight seal. Cap is now ready to use.

Ready to bleed some brakes! (I'll add a small pressure gauge on the tank body to monitor air pressure)

More to come....
Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Up early this morning to get the Raptor liner sprayed on the sliders....but quickly got derailed when I realized I didn't have the 2K bare metal primer that I thought I had. Oh well...on to something else today.
Time to modify the lower mount for the air bags. The OEM mount is designed to rest on the axle on one side, it has a notch cut into the bracket to clear the curvature of the axle. When fitting properly the mount rests on the axle with two sharp points....probably not a lot of pressure here but I still don't like it. With the addition of the Dakar springs (This spring pack is thicker) it left the mounts support leg dangling in the air by 3/4" so modifications will have to be made to get it back to original design.
Firestone lower air bag mount sitting on the Dakar spring pack, this support leg is suppose to be resting on the axle (the mount is turned around in this picture for reference).

Starting to fabricate the new mounting leg, this piece of pipe will become the saddle at the bottom of the support. Here using a wrap around to mark a cut line. I like the idea of a saddle with any pressure being spread out instead of being focused on a sharp point.

Checking fit, I tweaked the curve a bit for an exact fit. Still needing a little tweak in this picture.

Laying out the new longer support leg.

Parts laid out, edges beveled and ready for welding.

Attaching the support base. Side Note....I absolutely love MagSwitches! These are super strong magnets that you can turn on and off with a switch on top. They are soooooo handy for holding parts when fabricating.

I started fabricating parts for the passenger side while my father commenced tig welding the mounts back together.

Testing fit

Mount primed/painted, Daystar cradle installed and everything bolted into place.

Alignment looks way off when the springs are at full droop, but it comes back into alignment as the springs are compressed.

More to come....
Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

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.
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

 

[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.

Continued Below.....

 

[Hodakaguy]

Continued from above.....

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

 

[ETAV8R]

You mentioned the vibes coming from the front drive line. I'm a bit confused. Do you mean the front diff? I've had vibes since I began changing suspension for my truck. The way it is now is the worst and usually happens within the first couple gear changes. I have shims and the carrier bearing drop but still get the crazy shudders. It is worse without the camper on the truck. There are a couple threads on Tacoma World about this but no definite solution or cause from what I've read.

 

[Hodakaguy]

You mentioned the vibes coming from the front drive line. I'm a bit confused. Do you mean the front diff? I've had vibes since I began changing suspension for my truck. The way it is now is the worst and usually happens within the first couple gear changes. I have shims and the carrier bearing drop but still get the crazy shudders. It is worse without the camper on the truck. There are a couple threads on Tacoma World about this but no definite solution or cause from what I've read.

Yeah the problem is the drivers side front needle bearing in the front diff. Try driving the truck and when you get the vibration put the truck in 4wd. Does the vibration go away when it 4wd? If so then it's the needle bearing causing the issue. You can replace the bearing with the ECGS bushing and it will fix the issue. More on the bushing here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ecgs-bushing-replacement-and-write-up-to-follow.472081/

Hope that helps

Hodakaguy

 

[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

 

[longhorn1]

Very nice

 

[Josh41]

Love it!

 

[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

 

[Hodakaguy]

Our Husky X-act fit Contour floor liners arrived this weekend . The stock Toyota all weather mats leave a lot to be desired and the passenger side mat constantly creeps forward since it doesn't have a anchor. The Husky mats come with a anchor for the passenger side, has an excellent fit and a heaps more coverage than the stock mats. The quality of the Husky units is top notch! Lot's of pics since I was having a hard time finding good pics when I was looking at them.
Pics of the Husky mats next to the OEM units.

Anchor for passenger side, screws into carpet/under matting. The floor mat snaps onto this anchor.

Mats installed.

Continued Below.....

 

[Hodakaguy]

Continued from above.....

Next up start installation of a dual battery system in my truck, I'll be piecing together the setup using different brand components. For the passenger side Battery I purchased an Off Grid Engineering aluminum mount, the battery in this location will be a NorthStar Group 35 740 CCA Batt and will be the starting battery for the truck.
The mount....machined aluminum goodness

The mount/battery will be placed in the open space on the passenger side, The TRD Off Road models have this space open since the ABS controller is integral with the master cylinder and located on the drivers side.

These three studs will be part of the mount setup.

Mount Installed........Well....Kinda

Should have been a quick and easy install but the mount does not line up with the rear most stud on the fender well, the hole for the stud (Blue Arrow) is about 2" away from the rear stud (Red Arrow). Maybe this battery mount is for a different year Tacoma? I'll make some calls on Monday, for now this project is on hold.

Picked up my fathers Wheels/Tires from the tire shop, all balanced and ready to go.

Managed to install both front shocks, reservoirs and upper air bag/mounts on my fathers truck this afternoon.

Almost twins...

More to come....

Hodakaguy

 

[ETAV8R]

I'm surprised Toyota went cheap on the passenger side floor mat anchors. The stock mats look better than the 2nd gen mats though. My 2nd gen has anchors on both sides. One of the first things any owner who is going to take their truck off-road should get are the Husky-Weathertech type of mats.

You might have a 2nd gen battery mount. I had my battery in there with a homemade mount and it broke free. Had to put the battery in the cab behind the pax seat. Not how I had planned but oh well.

 

[Hodakaguy]

Time to get some work done on this project.
Since I installed the lift on my truck I've had a vibration/shudder each time I pass through 20 MPH. I ordered some Degree Shims (3 Degree) to rotate the pinion upward and place the drive line back into proper orientation.
Dropped the axle, clamped the springs with two C-Clamps and removed the pins holding the spring pack together.

Shims Installed.

Trimming the excess stud to clear the lower Air Bag mounts...and being careful not to touch the shock

And back together again. I took it for a test drive after installing the shims and the Vibration is gone, the shims did the trick! . Now to make progress on other items.....

Next up install the passenger side battery in my truck. I contacted Off Grid Engineering about the bottom rear stud (Red Arrow) not lining up with the hole in the mount (Blue Arrow), they said on the 3rd Gen's the rear mount isn't utilized and the mount is strong enough without it. Seemed like this mount was made for the 2nd Gen trucks and they just called it good for the 3rd Gen's instead of re-designing it to fit properly....bummer since it's not a cheap piece. Once installed I could pull up on the rear of the mount and get a little flex, I decided that it would be best to go ahead and anchor the rear of the mount down to prevent any fatigue over time from flexing when hitting bumps etc.

Mount removed. You can see the three studs in this picture. I will be installing a Rivet Nut into the hole just ahead of the rear most stud and will use a bolt to anchor the mount down.

Rivet Nut tool. This tool is very handy for installing threads into sheet metal.

Hole drilled out to proper size and Rivet Nut being installed.

And Rivet Nut Installed.

Mount re-installed, rock solid and no flexing.

NorthStar Group 35 Battery. This battery will be the starting/Truck battery.

Everything Secured.

Time to install the Drivers side NorthStar Group 31M Battery. This battery will run the Winch, fridge etc and will be tied to the Four Wheel Camper as well.

Continued Below....

 

[Hodakaguy]

Up early and started fabricating parts to extend the lower air bag mounts for my fathers truck. The thicker Dakar springs puts the outer support leg on the bottom mount about 3/4" off the axle, time to extend them for proper fit.
Marking and cutting the new support legs

Welding it all up

Lower mounts primed and painted. Installed the Daystar Cradles, these will allow the air bags to separate from the lower mount during suspension droop, this will allow full droop on the suspension and eliminate the stress on the air bag from the axle assembly hanging off the bag.

Continued Below....

 

[Hodakaguy]

Continued from above.....

Installing the extended Stainless Braided rear brake lines.

Installed the air lines for the air bags. I ran the fill fittings out the rear the same way I did on my truck, so they perform double duty as license plate mounting bolts.

Installed the carrier bearing drop spacers.

Lower air bag mounts installed, the cradles and bags come back into alignment as the suspension is compressed.

Re-installed the rear diff with REM polished 4:88 Nitro Gears . The 4:88 gearing is my favorite mod so far, makes the truck WAY more fun to drive! These 3rd gen trucks should have came from the factory with these gears installed!

Rear end complete, just have to finish torque on the spring eye bolts after the truck is sitting back on the wheels.

Next up re-install the front Diff. Installed painters tape over the axle seals to keep any nasties out during install. No pics of installing the support arms back onto the front diff.

Running the air tubing for the ARB front locker.

Locker air tubing fitted up to the Diff, tubing not yet fully routed and secured in this pic.

Front Diff back in the truck.

Should be able to test drive this baby tomorrow, my father is excited to get his truck back

More tomorrow.....
Hodakaguy

 

[ETAV8R]

I'm looking forward to your report on the shudders/vibes. I did shims and the carrier bearing drop and still have the vibes. It is much worse when the camper isn't on the truck. Waiting for the next time I take it off to see if activating 4WD stops the shudders. If so I may have to utilize the following thread on TacomaWorld:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ecgs-bushing-replacement-and-write-up-to-follow.472081/

 

[Hodakaguy]

I'm looking forward to your report on the shudders/vibes. I did shims and the carrier bearing drop and still have the vibes. It is much worse when the camper isn't on the truck. Waiting for the next time I take it off to see if activating 4WD stops the shudders. If so I may have to utilize the following thread on TacomaWorld:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ecgs-bushing-replacement-and-write-up-to-follow.472081/

The rear degree shims did the trick on my truck, the vibes are now gone. I was planning on doing the ECGS bushing upgrade and actually purchased the bushings and tool then changed our minds and had a ARB front locker installed while the diffs were opened up for re-gearing. (no need for the bushing upgrade with the ARB unit). I would recommend installing the bushing even if it's not your current issue, the factory needle bearings will eventually give you issues.

Hodakaguy