Know ir direction is always a good thing!!!

 

Why am I just now seeing this build?! Sub'ed~

 

Better late then never!

Well, here's what I did yesterday. This picture is the back drivers side floor board where it meets the rear wall of the cab basically underneath where I'm guessing the extra cab seat would be. There's one on the pass side also but I'm just showing the drvr...

Somebody at sometime had put down dynamat or something similar. Well I had to pull that stuff up so I could get it down to bare metal to weld with. That crap is a pain to remove!



This is after yesterday.



Looking straight down from the rear window basically...

 

It either snowed in my garage or I picked up a new lucrative product to sell! Or neither...



I'm pretty tired tonight so I really didn't get a whole lot done. Oh well, everyone has their off nights!

 

Curious as to why i placed the tach there but it looks great!!

 

Couple reasons. I wanted to put it up on a cage tube more in line of sight but the darn thing is so big that it just took up too much viewing area where it would've had to be fitted. So then I started looking at the dash. I thought about putting it directly to either side of the column but then sitting in it realized you couldn't really see it cause the steering wheel would block a lot of it. Thinking about it more, the truck is an auto without a manual valve body in it. The transmission will shift when it needs to. We actually have a shift light setup for that tach too but really what's the point? The transmission is doing all the shifting so the tach almost is more of a novelty then anything in my opinion so I guess that's kinda why it ended up where it did.

Funny thing is my truck is a 5 speed manual. I never once really cared about the tach cause honestly, I can hear my engine and know when I need to shift. Running with helmets on you can still hear it. But I do find that when I'm wearing my headsets instead of the helmets those block out enough noise that you can't hear the engine and I found myself actually running around high rpm in the wrong gear not paying attention even with the tach in plain sight. So I ended up putting a shift light on my setup so that when I'm running with the headsets on I won't forget to shift it basically. Any other time I can hear the engine fine and don't need it.

 

Ok cool!! Im sure that during a race hearing 2 or 3 other screaming engines might make it hard to hear your own as well

 

I'm going to assume that you're running the stock tranny but I thought I'd share this. One member on here made his own paddle shifting kit. Not sure if that would appeal to you and you've definitely got enough on your plate but I thought it was cool enough to look at.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/paddle-shift-4runner-project-245425/

 

Oh cool link, I'd never seen or heard of that. Yes, right now we're planning on running the stock transmission and hoping for the best to see how it does. Coolers will likely be involved but we'll determine what and how big during testing. The top right gauges shown above is trans temp...

I'll have to look over that whole thread and see what's really involved cause that would be a very cool option! Actually just to have the manual valve option so we control the shifting rather then the transmission doing all the control.

 

Are you planning on doing a valve body upgrade? I've heard really good things about drastically improving transmission durability. Clownmeat (the guy who did the paddleshifters) and TexasAce have a lot of knowledge about the A340's. Both very helpful guys.

 

We've definitely discussed it. I've actually emailed that company on the east coast to check out options but we're undecided at this point.

I think right we're going to focus on keeping the temps down in the acceptable range and go for it. Auto transmissions are a dime a dozen and fairly cheap so this might be one of those things where we just go for it and see what happens and make changes as needed on the fly. If this transmission goes out fast or we're having issues we'll probably start tackling them as they come. I think it' a time will tell type thing but in short, yes we have discussed valve body upgrades and they are an option on the table for sure.

Heck, right now I'd just be happy with a motor in the truck that actually starts and then a shifter on the floor that actually will make the truck go forward and backwards. Then from there we can go whichever direction we need! LOL The day that truck actually does a lap around the block will be a damn good day for me! Part of me is hoping maybe that'll be relatively soon. Heck, even if it's just a matter of disconnecting the driveshaft and running I'd be happy. LOL

 

You'll get there! Thanks for sharing your project. It's great to see the progress. There's definitely a bright light at the end of your tunnel.

 

Exchanged the trans cable today on my lunch break with the one I picked up yesterday on my lunch break. LOL If things go well the shifter on the trans tunnel in the picture a few posts back might actually be mounted and do something! LOL

 

Got the gate shifter installed last night, I'm not 100% happy with it and am going to redo one mounting bracket on it tonight. I should be able to start mounting the center console and laying out the parts to go in it after that! The inside is starting to look legit. It'll be way cooler when it starts and all the stuff lights up and does stuff other then looking bitchin though!

 

Lol pics or it didnt happen lol

 

Tomorrow there will be proof... I actually took the pictures but left the camera sitting on the workbench.

 

See told you!

Moving along with the interior stuff still!





I think I'm going to attempt to make bolt in panels to make it look a little more finished cause I don't like seeing behind it and underneath it.

 

And for anyone that's interested and stumbles on this. The gate shifter is a sidewinder shifter by winters/art carr and it's for a TH400. Up top it's as simple as just bolting it thru the floor. I still need to fill the holes under it from the old shifter. You'll need to drill a hole in the floor behind it to route the cable thru. You need to pick up a 5' cable to go with it to. One that's threaded on both ends will work as the shifter comes with the hardware needed to mount to the transmission.

On the transmission end... I simply pulled the shift arm off the transmission and flipped it around so it points downwards instead of up. I also drilled a hole roughly 1/2" up the arm from the original linkage mounting point to secure the balljoint piece that's included with the shifter. I also had to put a slight bend in the arm to clear the oil pan.

I made the cable mounting bracket shown below. Had to get 2 longer oilpan bolts to bolt it on with and I spaced it down using some washers to get it below the lip on the oil pan. I probably could've trimmed the lip off the pan but this just seemed less likely to end up in a leaking pan.




With a little bit of fine tuning adjustment on the cable I was able to get it to where I can physically put the shifter in any gear selection up top and from under neath I can pop the cable loose and the check the adjuster arm and it's right in place where it wants to be for each gear. The application works perfectly!

I'll simply wire up a switch for the O/D... I've heard it's a momentary switch and not just a typical on off switch. I haven't actually tested the stock button to check that out yet though so I'll verify when I get to that point.

 

Cool cool!! Cant help u on the switch maybe someone else can!!

 

Not a big deal, I still have the O/D switch, I just need to hook the meter up to it and see how it functions before we buy stuff to do all the wiring.