They came out with this new design that is suppost to solve the leaking issue the old design had. Has anyone done the install yet with this newly designed coupler? Marlin doesn't have any install instructions written up yet and I got a little lost with the instructions over the phone. I remember something about removing a bearing.

 

uhhh dale...a 3.4 swap with crawler! i wish i wasnt leavin, i'd come watch. good luck with it.
You doin' it all yourself?

 

Hey Kyle, yeah wish me luck. The crawler is already put together I just have to install the adapter and mount the cases behind that. I finally got through to Dave @ Marlin yesterday and he walked me through it again and I took good notes this time. I'd still like to know if anyone else has installed one yet.

 

This sounds awesome. Not to be negative, but can your front drivetrain handle all that power and gearing?

 

Not sure about that, guess I'll find out. I'm pretty light on the skinny pedal when I'm wheeling. I'm not the type that spins wheels up a trail. Plus the auto tranny helps a lot with that too. You are right though it will have enough torque to snap a cv like a pretzel if you get on in hard. I've been carrying an extra cv for a trail spare and I may need it now. I'm not too worried about the ARB lockers or US gears.

 

Time for Porsche CV's

The crawler will help for sure. I'm jealous.

 

No, the front can't handle it. Steering is doomed.

I have mine, but it the adaptor that is different, not the coupler. I am still using the same leaky one. It just catches the ATF down stream before it pollutes the crawler.

 

Important question - what type of wheeling are you doing? Rocks? Snow? Sand? That will make a difference in how long your front end components will survive. Keep in mind that w/ the balljoint spacers, your tierods are at a different angle and will put additional stress on your draglink causing more wear especially under the load of the locker and rocks.

EDIT: I see your truck is a 93 - are you running the A340H or have you swapped it to the F series? If you're running the H, you'll need to talk to Jim @ Inchworm as Marlin doesn't make an adapter for that tranny...

 

So Adrian you are waiting to see if the new design works or what? Are you saying that the old leaky one catches the ATF before it gets into the transfer cases or the new design does that?

I'm not too worried about the steering because I've never had any problems with it even running with a front locker for the last 2 years. I have stronger steering than the stock IFS, an extra idler arm in the middle is what I think makes the difference. Here is a pic of what I'm talking about:http://community.webshots.com/photo/...69793599RHVfsg

If I have too much of a problem then I'll go SAS. I'm not the first one to put a crawler behind a 3.4L engine am I?

 

Hey rockota, I mainly wheel the trails up in the Colorado Rockys so that would be mostly rocks I guess. I have a 2001 4x4 Tacoma donor truck that I'm taking the engine. tranny, ECU, and bolt on engine components from. Here are some pics of my donor truck: http://community.webshots.com/album/383446112ZpbXpN

 

Ahhh, got it. You'll be putting the crawler behind the F series tranny. Good call.

You have the old style multi-link w/ new a-arm SL kit, right? That's the only kit I know that came w/ the idler arm. I wish more did.

 

Yes, I can't believe someone else knows this Superlift kit I have. I've never seen another one like it, I was beginning to think I was the only one to ever buy one.

 

No, you are not. I have been running my 3.4 with dual ultimate for a year.

I have not put it in because the truck is busy addressing other issues and has not run in 2 months.

It is not the locker, it is the torque and control. If you use it hard, it will fail.

The first design relied on a freeze plug in the center of the coupler. The problem was the plug never made a perfect seal and was near a tranny outlet jet, so it took advantage of the imperfections and blew through.

The new design makes a seal after the freeze plug and keeps ATF in the tranny. I am hopeful, Dave has said they have no issues yet.

I blew through two couplers, one bad seal and then took the truck away from DD duty. It will be back on the road in a month or so, we shall see.