welp, this past couple weeks and weekend have been very eventful. i seem to always put myself in a bind and have to work my tail off to get my pile of parts ready for an event. i always did it when i had a race truck and i seem to have the same pattern with my yota.

got the beadlocks on and got it ready for the Thanksgiving charity slamboree ride this past saturday.


a pic and video of me riding at PLO.



i had a blast at the ride all day, tore some stuff up and learned a few things about my rig. carnage for the day ended with both bed corners curshed in and no tail lights and a broken bump stop. not to bad for a wild day.


i think im gonna lay off the weekly thrashfest on my truck untill i can aford the next round of major upgrades. i got a few on the list and hopefully i can make enough money up to get the ball rolling on them. i got a list going on in my head and i figured i better write it down to make it easier to figure out.

Exo-cage
tcase doubler setup
hydro assist steering.

i wanted to try to keep the factory bed on the truck as long as possible but after this weekend thats just not gonna be possible. it gets in the way too much and gets smashed up. so im gonna figure out how to make a truggy bed that can hold all the crap i gotta carry around and still be outta the way. hopefully gonna get started on this right after the first of the year.

and the truck sits right now covered in mud and in much need of attention. cant wait to get some time off during the thanksgiving weekend to wash it and change all the fluids and make sure i didnt break anything else haha. stay tuned

 

aight i got some free time today and got the ole yoter washed off and cleaned up. its really nice when you get a vehicle clean enough that you can actually work under it without getting crap falling in your eyes all the time.

the body may be all bent up.. but it still looks good when cleaned up.


both tail lights are trashed, bed corners are all bent up and the tail gate is ruined. time for a truggy bed. i have been looking at alot of pictures of exocages/truggy beds and all trying to fine tune the style i wanna run. im gonna take pictures of my truck and draw out what i want. i deffinatly do not want a jungle gym looking cage, but more of a basic setup that hugs the body close and doesnt get in the way. and the truggy bed needs to be big enough for my spare, tools and all that good stuff. its gonna look good when done



when i got my truck in the shop i started looking at my worn out front springs. i did the RUF using a set of springs out of an 82 toyota truck i had sitting by the shop. they are a little too soft and are starting to squat worse and worse. i know that the added weight of this bein a 3rd gen truck with a v6 and a big ole winch sure aint helping matters, so im looking at getting new springs. i dont want this truck sitting up alot higher than it sits right now.. just kinda looking for a little stiffer springs to hold the truck up better.

i measured the truck on all 4 corners to see how bad the springs was squatting and figure out just how bad the truck was leaning. turns out the truck sits as follows LF 45in RF 47in LR 42in RR 43in..... ohh the joys of using worn out springs all the way around haha.


i have a set of marlin 5 inch springs laying in my shop that i might put on the truck just to see. prolly will pull a couple of leafs out first so it wont sit so high. i just feel like the front springs are too soft and causes the front end to unload too quickly or allows the truck to rollover onto the front end too easy coming down hills and off of obsticals.


ive got a few things to iron out on this truck so im just gonna sit back and see what i gotta mess with first. lots and lots of thinking ahead.

 

welp... got a small update. i have neglected the yota for a lil while, but yesterday i finally got tailights put in the truck. sorry i had a brain fart and didnt get pictures of them (go figure lol). i took it up to monkey town today for a shakedown run with jeff and his jeep just to goof off and have some fun.




well i have a bad feeling that i hurt the 3.4 in the truck. i cranked it up to put it on the trailer to go up to monkeytown and it was missing... i hadnt cranked it in a while so i figured it just needed to run a minute. i tapped the gas and it cleared up fine so i thought nothing of it. got up to the ride and wheeled around and everyone kept tellin me they smelled antifreeze. i kept checking the gauges and it never ran hot but we noticed it started puffing white smoke out. every time i cranked it up it would run rough till i tapped the throttle and it would clear up so im not really sure whats going on with it but im gonna check it out tomorrow and see. i may be in the market for another 3.4.

 

How about upgrade to V-8? by the size of your rig you might need something bigger than 3.4L V-6...

 

ive thought about one day upgrading to a v8. but im not sure exactly which route ill go. the 3.4 in this truck works pretty good, a little under powered but that can be helped with tcase gears. i wanna keep this truck all toyota but if i swap in a V8 it will prolly be a chevy v8 with an auto trans. i just havent looked into it.

right now im interested in finding a TRD supercharged 3.4 and rocking out... just donno if ill score one around here

 

use a ford HO 302 then you won't have to deal with the rear mounted distributor :}

 

Heck a well built 22R/RE with the proper diff and tcase gearing will turn those meats fine. A 3.4 should be more than enough HP for your truck on Toyota axles, again with the proper diff and tcase gearing.

:wabbit2:

 

aight... got an update... well not really anything... but i tried

i took the truck up to the pressure washer to clean it up quickly so i could check out the engine and see whats wrong.


after that i unloaded the truck and parked it in the shop... when i cranked the truck up it ran really rough for a minute and then cleared up by the time i got it off the trailer. it was slightly smoking though. well i pulled the radiator cap and the coolant was just above the fins in the radiator so i filled it up and then ran a coolant pressure test on it. i pumped it up to 17psi and let it sit for 10 minutes.. lost 1 psi so it dont seem to have a real bad leak from the coolant system.


well when i did the 3.4 swap i didnt change the dipstick out so i can actually check the oil in the motor, i know i know dumb mistake. so i decided to drain the oil out to see if its got water in it. well i had the truck cranked for a little while then drained the oil and this is what it looks like.


i donno... i priced out a reman engine and there aint no way im gonna buy one. so im gonna put some stop leak in the coolant. put good oil in it and ride it for a while till i can do something else.

oh and i got a picture of my hack job tail lights to get me by till i can get the bed and exo built. they are sure bright at night.


so now that im having engine trouble yet again im kinda thinking about the future progression of this truck. i really like the idea of keeping this thing all toyota, and would love to eventually have a TRD supercharged 3.4 in it. i know that is hopefull wishing so realistically id be happy with a fresh built 3.4 and a new 5speed computer so it would run 100% right.

im also thinking about the possibility of running a chevy engine and auto trans in the truck. i like auto trans alot better than stick shift so that would be alot of fun for me. but i havent done any research to know if i can adapt a chevy trans to a yota tcase or anything like that so im just thinking outloud right now. i know whatever engine goes in this truck it WILL be fuel injected and id rather have a light engine. cause i dont wanna just keep adding weight to this truck cause its heavy enough.

so right now im just gonna sit back and take in all the research i can and then decide what route i wanna go. hopefully ill start working more hours and be able to get some work done to this truck, cause its a blast when its running.

 

yeah rabbit man, this truck will turn the tires over pretty good. i gotta get lower tcase gears to crawl better but i dont have any real trouble in the HP department, although more hp is always welcome in my party lol

 

so i thought about it today at work and as for now i think im just gonna run some bars stop leak in it and hope it stops the leak for a while and dont hurt the engine any more. in the meantime im weighing options to see what would do the best for this truck.

here are my options as i see it. i havent gotten the prices for everything, and most of this is off the top of my head but im just brain storming.

option 1.... rebuilding the 3.4) ive never had one of these motors apart so that would be an exciting challenge for me. if i can get a whole rebuild kit and just freshen the motor up that would be great. only thing about that is id still have the issue with the auto computer running a 5speed truck. it seems to run fine but has trouble idling in gear crawling around. also id have to do the yota doubler/4.7 gears in the tcase to get it to crawl like i want it too. which is expensive. but id love to do this option if it turns out to be the best one.

option 2.... swapping in a 5.3-4l60E-and whatever tcase i decide to run) i like the compact size of the 5.3s and their lighter weight than the earlier 5.7 chevy engines. and having an auto would make the truck somewhat easier to drive. i would prolly try to run a 205 behind it till i could afford to run a 203-205 setup on the truck. things i need to consider are placement of the tcase shifters in the cab of the truck, amount of room in the engine bay for the radiator and stuff, and how to get the chevy engine computer to run my yota dash gauges. i feel like the yota axles are more than strong enough to handle the power and weight of a 5.3 for what i do because ive seen them been put through much more hell and survive. i have good yukon gears in them with cromo shafts up front so i think the drivetrain carnage would be a minimum. this may still be a much later option after the truck progresses more.

option 3... 4.3/auto/toy tcase) this one would be a good option if i could get the parts.. but i know 4.3s aint as easy to find as the 5.3s. they are almost as hard to find as the 3.4 toyotas lol. and with it still bein a v6 id still want to put a doubler behind it to help it out. im not sure of the aftermarket support for the 4.3 chevy engines cause ive never really fooled with them. i know this option would be a little lighter than the 5.3 setup and the ability to run a decent auto would be a good plus.

option 4... TRD supercharged 3.4 with 5speed computer) THIS would be the best option if i could find one... but i know they are very hard to find and not very cheap... and even if i did go this route id still need to run a doubler to get the crawl ratio to where i want it.

im gonna tinker with the truck tomorrow... hopefully putting the stop leak in it will slow down the problem and help the engine last a while before it goes down. as long as the engine is still running im gonna keep driving it and keep building the whole thing. this engine problem doesnt really change anything, yet.

 

aight well i havent had much time lately to be foolin with the truck. been workin alot of hours and out of town. a couple weeks ago i ended up putting 2 bottles of bars stop leak in the radiator to see if it would stop the leak and maybe buy me some time. i drained some coolant out and poured a bottle in it and ran the truck... at first it ran bad and was smokin like hell so i pulled it out of the shop and just let it run... about 20 minutes of it running it finally stopped smoking and ran good, so i let it run for about an hour. i let it cool off and then poured the 2nd bottle in there and then drove the truck to town. it never ran hot or smoked or anything. i let the truck sit for about 2 weeks, went outside to crank it and it stated great with no missing or smoking at all.

i fooled with the truck today to try to see why my winch aint working worth a crap. i have the warn upright and it just has no power. i decided to check it out today and see what was going on. i pulled the truck down the steep hill of my shop driveway and run out some cable to test it out. the cable pulls out with some resistance when in freespool mode, not sure how much is normal. after i did that i started fooling with it.

this is the hill i pulled the truck up. barely



sat the 2nd battery on the bumper and hooked it up with jumper cables. it didnt seem to help very much. i ended up sitting in the cab and holding the revs on 1200rpms to keep the batteries charging and the winch was very slowly creeping along barely inching up the hill. the second battery has 840CCA


i pulled the truck up into the shop and pulled the solinoid cover off and checked out the wires. it seems like all the solinoids work and all the wires look in fair shape. i think im gonna weld a bolt to the end of the winch motor housing and run a ground strap back to the battery to see if that will help out. i need to see if i can find more information on this winch and see what else i can do. its not worth having on the front of my truck if it wont pull me out when i need it.... stay tuned for updates and if you know any tips or tricks let me know.. thanks yall

 

i got an update on my winch issues. i didnt notice the other day that somehow i had a melted ground cable on my truck. im not sure when it melted but i figure when i was testing the winch out. i had a ground cable running from the battery to the motor and a 2nd one running from the battery to the fender. the one from the battery to the fender melted, but the one from the battery to the motor didnt melt. i tried to run the truck without the 2nd melted Neg cable but it wouldnt run so instead of goin from the battery to the fender i went from the motor to the fender. seems like its running properly now

wwoooohhhooo carnage. i sure burnt it up bad.


i decided to back the truck back down the driveway and test it out.. but first i ran a ground cable from the battery to the winch motor housing. i made the first run up the hill without the 2nd battery and the winch had very much improved speed and power. it actually pulled the truck up the hill decently fast and i could even drag my brakes without killin the winch. i backed the truck back down the hill and tried it with 2 batterys.. it didnt really run much faster but felt like it didnt bog down quite as bad when i got on the brakes trying to make it die.


so now i got a ground cable on the winch and i mounted it to one of the starter motor housing bolts. eventually im gonna swap over to dual deep cycle batteries and i wont have any more winch issues... i hope


i havent looked up any information on my winch. i figure its pretty old so that may be why its a little weaker than some of the newer warn uprights ive been around. here is a picture of the data plate on the winch. looks like the data plate goes as follows

part no 8403
serial no 3 22 96
date co GL6



cant wait for the next ride... im so ready for the next round of mods too.. stay tuned

 

delete

 

aight well i havent been posting up about the build of my yota, well because i aint really done nothing to it. life is kinda crazy for me so i havent had much time or money to spend on it. ive been on a couple of rides and had a blast with it. also been doin some research and hard thinking about what my next moves will be on the evolution of the yota. i know yall love pics and videos so here we go.

me going up "stump hill" at PLO feb 11th. it was sloppy that day. i was the only one to make it to the top at that point, although everyone else had gave it a good hard try. boggers are good.


pic of me goin up "stump hill" that is one steep climb, honestly it makes me nervous every time i try it.



after the porter lane ride i found my front axle pouring fluid out of it. i thought the seal was bad so i cleaned the truck up and went to check it out. found out all the 3rd member bolts were loose. WTF!?!?! so i tightened them up and refilled it with fluid to see if it would leak. WOOHOO no leak for now. but im gonna replace all the seals soon on this axle. i hate leaks.


i love a good picture of it in the air while pressure washing it. looks really mean sittin like this.


a pic of my attempt of the sippy hole. that was a great suprise to me.


this was the first real time i had put my truck in any serious mud. i have to say it realy suprised me. i had no idea what to expect. and well the videos speak for themselves.
The mountain goat in the sippi hole

Mountain got run two through the sippi hole

im trying to save money now to do the 4cyl tcase/4.7 gears. i am also really trying to save up to get some hydro assist steering on this truck. it sure hates to steer anywhere when im in 4wd lol. im ready for the next set of upgrades and i promise they wont be too far away.

 

well i got a lil bored today and decided to tinker with my truck.


ha nah i wanted to hook up a cable to my radio so i could plug my ipod into it. i started pulling the dash apart to get the radio out and i figured i might as well pull the insturment panel outta the truck so i could do the "tach mod". it took a little bit but i got everything pulled outta the way.


once you get the insturment panel removed from the dash, just push the clips and seperate the lense from the panel.


then you gotta locate and remove the 3 bolts that hold the tach to the panel.


when you pull the 3 bolts the tach will easily come outta the panel. get to a clean spot and then locate where you need to solder the resistor. i had already bought the resistors a while back but never had the time to do this mod. you need a 10K-OHM resistor



be really careful not to damage the printed circuit while soldering the resistor on.


i plugged the insturment panel into the dash and then tested it. and WOOHOO the tach works. so now i can see what my RPMS are while on the trail and also listen to some tunes from my ipod while out there.


i also tried again to remedy my death wobble issue. this truck still death wobbles with the military tires on it, so i think im gonna junk them tires and buy some new radial military tires to put on there for when i wanna drive it on the street.

 

well i have been working alot of hours and trying to save money up for the next round of upgrades. and can yall guess whats in these boxes.



haha yeah i finally bough almost all the stuff needed to do my tcases.


v6 adapter


dual adapter.


set of 4.7 gears.


so basically i got everything i need to put the low gears in the back box, build the duals, and slide them into the yota. only thing left is shifters a crossmember and driveshafts.

im 99.9% sure im gonna run Davez triple stick setup so i can keep my center console. and since Dave is awesome he is gonna cut me a deal if i buy trail gears xmember too. i know i can get danny to hook me up with driveshafts for the truck so thats not a problem. only concern i have is what clutch to run with this new setup since my current clutch has been abused offroad. Dave reccomended a Luke clutch? im pretty sure im gonna order that from him too with the rest of the stuff but was wonderin what other peoples thoughts was.

i think this weekend ill try to get the old tcases out of the junk trucks and into the shop so i can clean them up and start building them I CANT WAIT TO ACTUALLY CRAWWWLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

 

alright... finally had a couple days off work this month to get something done on my truck. i got started on my doubler setup by digging the tcases outta the junk trucks and building the cases. i still gotta order a few parts before i can slide the tcases into place. NOW ON TO THE PICS.

redneck cherry picker at it again. getting the last of the good parts outta this truck. i wish someone would buy the body to build a rig out of.


got both tcases sitting on the table. now its time to drain the fluids and seperate them from the trans


this is the tcase im gonna put the 4.7 gears in. hopefully the internals are in good enough shape to use. ill see when i get it torn apart.


i am prolly gonna make a seperate write up on my experiences building a doubler/4.7 yota case so im just gonna hit some highlights and then if i do make a seperate thread about the cases ill link it here.

there is a little rust in this case. it had water in it so i was scared about rust. none of the bearings have rust and it seems to only be on the shift rails and stuff. nothing too bad to deal with.


when you get it all torn apart its time to clean the housings up and get all the internals cleaned up so you can get it put back together.


you gotta clearence the internals of the case to clear the larger countershaft gear of the 4.70 gearset. you also have to clearance the shift rails too to make it all fit together.


front view of the tcase showing the 23 spine input shaft and the triple drilled flanges.


and this is the tcase completed. im gonna run single sticks on the doublers cause im cheap and dont see any real advantages of running twin sticks and the triple stick setup will be in the way of my leg when driving the truck. i gotta pull that shifter apart and try to clean it up cause its very rusty.


ill get started on the doubler section when i get some more time and hopefully get them under the truck in the next few weeks. im still trying to decide on what type of clutch to run in this truck, so thats why i aint pulled the trigger and bought the xmember and tcase cause i donno what type im gonna run just yet. stay tuned cause its gonna get interesting, i hope.

 

well i thought i had enough time to tear into the 2nd tcase to get my doubler built so i just dove right in. its amazing how nasty drivetrain parts can get when people dont clean the underside of their rigs, so that took a ton of time cleaning everything up.

i snatched the front half of the case off and then remembered that i gotta tear the whole thing apart to get the low gear and bearing off the main shaft to use in the "doubler box"


it took me about 45 minutes to get the rest of the tcase torn down to get the low gear and stuff out. now its time to clean.


i got the housing cleaned up and ready to slap it all together. i was gonna keep on workin but it started getting late and i gotta be up early and on the road tomorrow so i leave my parts layin on the table for the next time i get some time to finish it up.


i think im gonna order my tcase and stuff tomorrow if i get some time. still aint decided on a clutch so im gonna have to hurry up and decide. i cant wait to get the cases in this truck and ready to ride.

 

got some more progress done on my doubler setup. its tough to get anything done on projects when im workin 70+ hour weeks so i just gotta keep digging and trying to get it done.

im just posting up the highlights of the build up. i used the instructions from trail-gear and they really are helpful.

first thing is to weld up the key stock to hold the shifter in place for the hi-low box.


if you dont have a good set of snap ring pliars then building these yota cases will drive you crazy. i fought forever to get that snap ring in place


this is what happens when you get pissed off and all your crappy snap ring pliars. i broke them so i spread them out wide enough to work and welded them together.. then man handled the snap ring into place.


all the internal gears sitting in place ready to set the cover on.


i always tap all the bolt holes. aluminum likes to act stupid when the threads are dirty so its just a small amount of insurance that you can actually bolt stuff together.


this is the doubler box all bolted together and ready to slide into place.


i didnt get the doubler setup finished, but i did slide it all together to check clearences and snap some pictures of it all together. its some pretty cool stuff and i cant wait to get it slid into the truck... gonna be a blast.

 

Awesome man!!!