Playing battery box games, previous trail gear box decided it was no longer happy in it's current state and wanted to part ways with the truck. It tried to eject itself out the bottom of the fender well. Fender well ripped off the core support and let that sucker go free! Warning to anyone that puts an optima in the stock location, it will not last. First plan was place the battery under the bed on the frame rail on the driver side. Tacked the box under there and starting planning my routes for power. Decided that it was a terrible idea and placed the battery back in the stock spot in a new battery box welded to the shock hoops and directly to the frame out of 1.5" chromo. Keeping everything under the hood made out of 4130, and yes I know it's pointless. Keep you sub-par idea's to yourself.

Broke a bulb, replaced 85122+ with a new set of CBI bulbs, liking the output so far



New Box


Stitched a 1/8" plate to the bottom of the box to land my tubes onto.


Tube to frame




Lost the stock windshield washer reservoir, going to mount an aftermarket one somewhere closer to the firewall.

 

Also picked up a GPS dongle for my ipad, needed better GPS signal when off the grid. Using LeadNav and California Trail Maps for the most part. Works very well. The future of this build is starting to take a turn more towards over-landing usage.



My exhaust has been needing some attention too, so picked up some 2-1/4" v-bands. Will install soon.

 

Clutch pressure plate is falling, I have over heated the clutch to many times causing it to fail. Lasted about 38k miles. Ordered a 2,500lb HD clutch from Marlin Crawler. They claim to run them with 1UZ swaps and have no problems so hoping for the best.

 

Got the front end painted, still need to do the rest of the truck.


Mounted a second muffler back on the exhaust(magnaflow I had laying around), sounds pretty good. Don't plan on changing it but would like to make it exit somewhere else in the future.


Took the factory bedsides off and for fitment of the bedsides.


potato quality


Removal went very smoothly, combo of a Rotobroach and belt sander. Makes spot removal easy as pie.




Threw it on the ground!




Had to cut a ton of sheet metal in random spots for the bedsides to fit well.


Test fit


Test Mount

 

Since the bed was off, bed-linered it inside and out. Also did the insides of all the fiberglass.

 

More parts for the rear.

 

Guess I never put this into the build thread, made the shackles in CAD had them cut out on a plasma cam. Then TIG welded them together, took forever, first thing I had TIG welded that wasn't just a couple beads. Next big change to the truck is going to be the addition of a canti-lever shock setup, will also make it in CAD and cut out the various parts needed on the plasma cam. Just not happy with the shock angle produced by having the shocks under the bed.



2D print out

 

Now all you need is some wider tires!!

 

I'll go to 33x10.50's when my current 31x10.50's finish wearing out.

 

Design has started, need to measure more stuff and keep progressing forward. System can cycle 21" of travel with a 12" shock. The bed/frame/springs/etc will the limiting factor

 

Pretty cool design setup. You an engineer?

What tires next time? I'm guessing not bfg all terrains haha

 

Nope, I am not. Do not have the patience for that. I'm not sure on the tires, maybe try go back to street tires. They all seem to suck the same.

Pulled the T-case and transmission. T-case needs new bearings and the transmission could use new Syncro's and bearings as well. Changed the shifter seat and bushing in July of 2013. The Nylon Shifter bushing is completely deformed, It was a OEM Toyota part, I will be replacing it with the Marlin Crawler Heavy Duty Shifter bushing. See if it truly is any better.

 

Playing Tranny games



First coat of primer, will be on the truck painted by the end of the weekend.

 

Been doing a poor job of keeping this updated. Truck ate the OEM clutch I put in it, couldn't handle the heat cycles my truck see's being driven like a 2stroke thru the dunes. Picked up an HD clutch from marlin crawler, this is a 2500lb setup they commonly use on 1UZ and other enigne swapped trucks, hopefully it will hold up because it was the cost of two OEM clutches.


This little bastard stared leaking, the flange wasn't level anymore so I also had to get a new stainless pipe form 22re performance,m the rubber it came with sucked however, no where near the size required for it to seal. Had to sort thru my o-ring bins and find one that fit that.
Pic shows the size difference, new OEM on top, what was required to make it seal on bottom.


Good time to put in this gasket I bought who knows how many years ago, just had to have it.

 

And well since all that crap is off and the transmission is out of the vehicle, again. Might as well get around to deleting all the worthless EGR stuff.
Cut out of some plates for these


Used a mill for the head plate


Bye bye


Freshly rebuilt

 

Rebuilt the brakes, front and rear. Put new seals in the calipers from Toyota and new FJ slaves from LROR in the rear


Old rear slaves failed in a odd way, have seen this happen on Jeeps from bent axles.


So went ahead and ordered some new axles for the peace of mind. Upon removal of the old axles, the bearing on that side had failed, It only had a few thousand miles on it, so LROR warrantied it. Replaced both sides with new bearing kits.


Also re-geared the front and rear while this was all happening, went with 4.88's and threw an ARB in the front axle.

 

E-locker stopped locking up, upon further inspection a rock hit the motor case and dented it causing one of the magnets inside to break. Tried the old school RC motor fix with some super glue, worked temporarily while I sourced a used one, Found one on Tacomaworld, for $200 shipped.


Magnet out prior to gluing


Picked up a trasharoo in an Expedition Portal group buy


Got some black Friday goodies from SDHQ


My key broke off in my ignition switch, what night mare to remove. If your ignition is getting janky, replace it now!! Don't wait till it breaks. Drove around for a week starting my truck with needle nose pliers while I waited on an OEM switch from 22re Performance.
Turns so nice and smooth and my keys finally say Toyota on them, fan boy achievement level unlocked.


Shocks off to re-valve, can also see the shorty FOX air bumps I added

 

Idle has been moving around a little bit, so I replaced the last factory vacuum hoses on my engine to fix that.


I got rid of my stereo in favor of a 7 band eq and a Bluetooth receiver. Worth every penny, the door speakers can finally take all the power the little Rockford amp can put out.


Never use my cig lighter in my truck and with the removal of my Double Din stereo I lost my USB charging port so a solution was needed. Found this on Amazon and works perfectly for my needs.


Got my Pro Eagle floor jack mounted in the bed on the stainless mount it comes with. Also relocated my spare tire to in the bed. Going along with the stainless theme, I used a piece of stainless for under the bed to help keep the floor jack in place. Can also see one of the PRP tool bags I added to inside the bed to help keep things in place when off roading.


Spare tire strap mounts from SDHQ, also has a pieced of steel under the bed to keep them from pulling thru.

 

Sweet build!!!

 

Thanks! It's been a lot work but it's worth every bit of it. I also updated my mod list on the OP with all the new mods and removed the ones that are no longer present.