Luke does awesome work, but I sure can't afford it. The trail gear bumper is holding up ok, but it's definitely not a heavy duty piece. I can't decide if I want to rein force it or just start over from scratch. Now that I have tools and shop it makes sense to start over, but we shall see how long it lasts.

 

I recently put an aluminum fuel tank in the rear of a customers 2010 4 runner. Tig welded a fitting into the stock filler neck for fuel transfer. Ran a switch from an s pod set up and installed a guage in the dash. he could transfer fuel on the go and gained about 45 litres of fuel. the bumper I made for the truck swept right under with a 3/8 aluminum skid.plate.
I would do this in anytruck i own just for tue awesomeness and convenience. well worth the time


3/8 skid plate has tank mounted to the other side with straps and gasket material
Vent hose and transfer hose

 

That's some awesome work you've done there. Where does the filler stick out at?

One thought that I had, since the truck has to pass an emissions test and there are no smog legal gas tanks, is to plumb the second tank up with no fill. I would cap the filler neck and use either two seperate pumps or some type of plumbing wizardry to transfer fuel from the primary tank to the secondary tank to fill it up and then when I needed the reserves it would be transfered while driving. Does that make sense? Or is that going to be a PITA?

 

A while back I purchased a budbuilt crossmember and today I decided to go ahead and install it. Taking the old crossmember out went pretty good, and installing the new one was equally easy, until I got to the skid plate. It won't fit with the back of the transfer case hanging down like it does. I'm not sure if I have the wrong skid plate or what. Has anyone else run into this problem before?

 

I scored some craigslist wheels and tires yesterday. They are the classic wheels, which I like the look of on this body style, and the tires are 33x12.5 Goodyear MT/R's with around 75% tread. They are the older style, but are in great shape and don't look old at all. The combo clears the control arms and don't stick out past the fenders much. I'm waiting on some factory lug nuts, since my old wheels were different, but I'll add another picture when I get them all mounted up.

 

I talked with Bud from Budbuilt.Com for a bit today, and come to find out that I would need a V6 crossmember for my 4 cylinder rig because it has the chain drive transfer case. Since the plan is to swap the tranny and transfer case out at some point soon, I'll just leave it as it is until then. Yes, I will be very careful about the transfer case hanging down, but that shouldn't be a problem right now. I only have snow wheeling trips planned at this point.

For the record, Bud is an AWESOME guy, and I can't recommend his products enough. He is very humble and genuine on the phone and I can see why his business is doing well. If you have a vehicle that he makes gear for, you will not be disappointed with his work!

 

It finally stopped raining long enough to get some pics. The tires ride pretty good and don't rub at all.

 

I like it. makes me miss mine.
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Thanks. She's been a good ride so far.

 

Look what I picked up last night! Can anyone guess what might be coming up next?

I bought the housing off of a guy who had just swapped a trail gear housing into his truggy. It has all the armor and brackets welded up and looks good. He also threw in a complete set of stock axle shafts and birfields as well as stock length 30 spline inner axle shafts that are the original Bobby Long versions, and a V6 3rd member housing.

It will take me a while to scrounge up the rest of the parts, but at least I'm on my way.

 

Today I started and mostly managed to get just about finished with the tranny swap. All that I have left to do is cover the hole for the shifters and figure out how to make the 4wd indicator and reverse light switches work. This is a w56 tranny and a gear driven transfer case out of an 86 4runner. I rebuilt the case adding 4.7 gears and a twin stick shifter. I also was able to install all of the budbuilt crossmember and skid plate using a sky's offroad transfer case mount.

I took it for a little spin just to make sure everything was good and all I can say is 4.7 gears are awesome! The twin sticks are going to be really nice too. I'll take some more pictures of the finished product tomorrow.

 

I went to take it for a test drive today and ran into a problem. The shifters for the transfer case will not stay in one spot. There is no serious feeling of engagement of the shifter or clicking like it used to do. While driving it does not slip out of gear, but when I'm in neutral the shifters will both slip to center. In this case between high and low, and between two wheel drive and four wheel drive. I'm guessing that I must have missed something when I did the gear swap, but I have no idea what.

Has anyone else run into this issue before?

I also started a thread about the trouble I'm having figuring out the 4wd indicator. Any help is appreciated!

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116.../#post52346952

 

I figured out the shifter problem... I didn't put the detent ball and spring in! Oops! At least it was an easy fix and no harm came of it.

Here is some pictures of the crossmember and skid plate, along with the Sky's Off Road heavy duty transfer case mount.

 

Truck looks great! I was about to post that you might have left the detent ball/spring out but you figured it out. I have a first gen, but seeing built up 2nd gens makes me want one.

 

2nd gens are nice, but if I didn't have kids I would have stayed with the first gen. 4 doors was a must for me. Thanks for the kind words.

Here's a picture of the shifters all buttoned up.

 

The 4runner is still holding up well. I've been wheeling it quite a bit lately, and have had zero issues.

I'm still collecting parts for the SAS, but since the truck does mostly what I need as it is I am not in too big of a hurry.