aemravan's build thread - project TacoRunner
- Thread starter aemravan
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Was feeling ambitious today.. even though I still haven’t been able to pick up my FJ transfer case because it hasn’t gotten pulled yet, I decided to get whatever prep work I could done for the swap..
Well, it was much faster than anticipated… I pulled the tcase by myself and took apart and cut out the tunnel in a matter of about an hour or so… I’m pretty sure if I had the other case on hand this would be a very quick start to finish project … can’t wait to get it done ! Looking forward to having 2wd lol.
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Well, it was much faster than anticipated… I pulled the tcase by myself and took apart and cut out the tunnel in a matter of about an hour or so… I’m pretty sure if I had the other case on hand this would be a very quick start to finish project … can’t wait to get it done ! Looking forward to having 2wd lol.
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Well.. picked up my tcase today. The junkyard failed to include the shifter for it which is proving to be quite a big pain in the god damn ass to source.. this makes me a little upset because now I have to first find one and then wait for it to arrive. If it wasn’t for that I am fairly certain I would have had this done before the weekend no problem…
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Sound word of advice for those looking to do the FJ T-case swap:
Buy a Transfer Case WITH a shifter complete lol.
the T-case only ran me $200, which was a great deal, but sourcing the shifter complete with the base and all proved to be a NIGHTMARE. I had a local guy that had one but was over 4 hours away and wasn't worth the hassle, everything online would have priced out to be over $200. So what did I decide to do? Instead of buying an old J-stick shifter for that kind of money, I decided to hit up Front Range Offroad and see if their Twin stick was in stock. They got back to be quick, and luckily it is in stock! So guess who will be modifying his T-case tonight to accept the Twin stick mod?
Will I ever need 2-Lo? most likely not.. Will this add some more fab time to modify the twin stick levers to come out where I need? Yup. But for the same money I would have spent on a single stick I figured I may as well do the twin stick and not worry about messing with the J-pattern shift while I'm offroad, if all goes well i'll just have 2 sticks in a simple up/down motion and call it a day. Can't wait! I am having them Next Day air ship it since it was only 50 more bucks so fingers crossed I'll have it by end of day tomorrow!
Buy a Transfer Case WITH a shifter complete lol.
the T-case only ran me $200, which was a great deal, but sourcing the shifter complete with the base and all proved to be a NIGHTMARE. I had a local guy that had one but was over 4 hours away and wasn't worth the hassle, everything online would have priced out to be over $200. So what did I decide to do? Instead of buying an old J-stick shifter for that kind of money, I decided to hit up Front Range Offroad and see if their Twin stick was in stock. They got back to be quick, and luckily it is in stock! So guess who will be modifying his T-case tonight to accept the Twin stick mod?
Will I ever need 2-Lo? most likely not.. Will this add some more fab time to modify the twin stick levers to come out where I need? Yup. But for the same money I would have spent on a single stick I figured I may as well do the twin stick and not worry about messing with the J-pattern shift while I'm offroad, if all goes well i'll just have 2 sticks in a simple up/down motion and call it a day. Can't wait! I am having them Next Day air ship it since it was only 50 more bucks so fingers crossed I'll have it by end of day tomorrow!
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Well, doing what I can in between working from home to get prepped for the shifters coming. Took apart the case to take out the “pill” and shave down the shifter fork lockout.
This was the in between the hard, involved and easy but half asses route of modifying the case. I didn’t want to take shafts fully out. Cut the tab right in place and had to break open the case completely after 2 of the 3 keys or whatever they’re called, fell out from inside the synchro hub. Finally found where they go so should hopefully be easy sailing from here after I get some sealant. If all goes well I am hoping to get this into the car tonight or tomorrow.
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This was the in between the hard, involved and easy but half asses route of modifying the case. I didn’t want to take shafts fully out. Cut the tab right in place and had to break open the case completely after 2 of the 3 keys or whatever they’re called, fell out from inside the synchro hub. Finally found where they go so should hopefully be easy sailing from here after I get some sealant. If all goes well I am hoping to get this into the car tonight or tomorrow.
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I should probably do a better job documenting but it’s so hard once you get working… anyhow, just wanted tho throw this up here since I haven’t see any pictures of where these come from if you go to modify your FJ tcase for a twin stick
2 of these keys fell out and I had a hell of a time figuring out what they were at first lol. There are 3 total keys and they sit around the synchronizer hub and are spring loaded. They fall out of you take apart the case and take it out of 2wd which exposes them and allows them to fall out. DO NOT lose these lol. You can get them back in without fully taking apart the case and taking off the fork.
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2 of these keys fell out and I had a hell of a time figuring out what they were at first lol. There are 3 total keys and they sit around the synchronizer hub and are spring loaded. They fall out of you take apart the case and take it out of 2wd which exposes them and allows them to fall out. DO NOT lose these lol. You can get them back in without fully taking apart the case and taking off the fork.
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It’s in! And it even moves !!
Obviously got a bunch of finishing touches left but functionality wise it works. Still fighting the vsc lights on and 0 point calibration doesn’t seem to be helping. Anyhow, I’m pretty stoked, the front driveshaft wasn’t an issue at all, just had to bleed some grease out.
Hoping to get the shifters worked out this weekend and get it buttoned up.
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Obviously got a bunch of finishing touches left but functionality wise it works. Still fighting the vsc lights on and 0 point calibration doesn’t seem to be helping. Anyhow, I’m pretty stoked, the front driveshaft wasn’t an issue at all, just had to bleed some grease out.
Hoping to get the shifters worked out this weekend and get it buttoned up.
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Learning to weld ha sheen one of the greatest things I’ve done when it comes to building this rig. Got my shifters relocated today and boy did it come out awesome. Got dark and I had to pack up so I didn’t get good pics, but they are funny in and working awesome.
Have just a bit more trimming to do in the tunnel and then figure out a good way to seal it all up. The road noise and heat coming through the opening is pretty strong so I don’t think my initial idea of a simple thin sheet metal piece will work.
I’m leaning more towards a rubber sheet riveted in place possibly in 2 layers with a little wool in between or something.
Also need to make a little gasket for the twin stick housing where it mates to the transfer case. Other than that all is well and the car is running. I have both 4wd/2wd as well as hi and lo in both.
As noted by other members, if you’re trying to go from hi to lo in 2wd you sometimes get a slight grind bc there is no synchro on that gear set and originally if you were fully engaged into 4wd first the shaft wouldn’t be spinning. Minor detail, and most of the time I can get it into gear without any grind, but I don’t plan to be running 2Lo very often, if ever.
I’ll try and throw up a few more detailed pics this weekend for further documentation. Then it will be to fight the vsc lights because the initial round of 0 point calibration wasn’t working.
Oh yea, I also bought some 1inch rear coil spacers that I installed today, I didn’t like how squared the rear was on the icon coils with all the added weight I have on the rear,the difference was small but amazing. Took less than 45 mins to do so well worth it in my book.
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Have just a bit more trimming to do in the tunnel and then figure out a good way to seal it all up. The road noise and heat coming through the opening is pretty strong so I don’t think my initial idea of a simple thin sheet metal piece will work.
I’m leaning more towards a rubber sheet riveted in place possibly in 2 layers with a little wool in between or something.
Also need to make a little gasket for the twin stick housing where it mates to the transfer case. Other than that all is well and the car is running. I have both 4wd/2wd as well as hi and lo in both.
As noted by other members, if you’re trying to go from hi to lo in 2wd you sometimes get a slight grind bc there is no synchro on that gear set and originally if you were fully engaged into 4wd first the shaft wouldn’t be spinning. Minor detail, and most of the time I can get it into gear without any grind, but I don’t plan to be running 2Lo very often, if ever.
I’ll try and throw up a few more detailed pics this weekend for further documentation. Then it will be to fight the vsc lights because the initial round of 0 point calibration wasn’t working.
Oh yea, I also bought some 1inch rear coil spacers that I installed today, I didn’t like how squared the rear was on the icon coils with all the added weight I have on the rear,the difference was small but amazing. Took less than 45 mins to do so well worth it in my book.
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As promised, a few more pics, and an update.
Went and got some rubber sheets at Home Depot today to cover up the opening. Painted the shifters, made a gasket to the transfer case. Anddddd on the final test for round I didn’t realize the shifter didn’t fully seat on the 2wd4wd selector and when I torqued it down I felt it give way. When I removed the shifters my rod was now free to spin.
I figured I snapped the roll pin or something , but either way I realized the case had to come out and come apart… god damn it… lol. I was so close.
2nd time around the case came out and apart in about 30 mins, you can say I got pretty quick lol. No jack no stands, just took out the bolts and pulled it out and set it down. It’s really not that heavy.
Upon taking it apart I found out the issue was lent a roll pin, since this shift work is spring loaded and not pinned to the shaft, but rather a steel guide fork that rides on the other rod and keeps it from spinning. I snapped it right in half. I was VERY lucky that while turning the car around this piece didn’t make it in between the gears but rather settled nicely at the bottom in all the fluid.
Off to my parents garage where my dad has our welder and an hour later the case it back together , fingers crossed that it holds lol. I’m a normal situation there’s really no load on this fork, it just keeps the shaft from rolling to I think I’ll be ok.. but hey.. if anything , I’m REALLY good at pulling the case now lol.
Hoping to get it all wrapped up tomorrow morning.
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Went and got some rubber sheets at Home Depot today to cover up the opening. Painted the shifters, made a gasket to the transfer case. Anddddd on the final test for round I didn’t realize the shifter didn’t fully seat on the 2wd4wd selector and when I torqued it down I felt it give way. When I removed the shifters my rod was now free to spin.
I figured I snapped the roll pin or something , but either way I realized the case had to come out and come apart… god damn it… lol. I was so close.
2nd time around the case came out and apart in about 30 mins, you can say I got pretty quick lol. No jack no stands, just took out the bolts and pulled it out and set it down. It’s really not that heavy.
Upon taking it apart I found out the issue was lent a roll pin, since this shift work is spring loaded and not pinned to the shaft, but rather a steel guide fork that rides on the other rod and keeps it from spinning. I snapped it right in half. I was VERY lucky that while turning the car around this piece didn’t make it in between the gears but rather settled nicely at the bottom in all the fluid.
Off to my parents garage where my dad has our welder and an hour later the case it back together , fingers crossed that it holds lol. I’m a normal situation there’s really no load on this fork, it just keeps the shaft from rolling to I think I’ll be ok.. but hey.. if anything , I’m REALLY good at pulling the case now lol.
Hoping to get it all wrapped up tomorrow morning.
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And viola! Got it partially sealed up and everything is together. Not perfect but it works. Hopefully the weld holds and does break off down the road lol.
If I did it again I would definitely cut the shifter down even lower to the base before sliding it over. It’s a very tight fit with the rubber gasket, parking cable and shift lever assembly sitting on top of it. It works, but could have been better. I also put some sticky insulating foam tape around the Edges to help seal it off some. Last thing left is to come up with some sort of a shift boot. I’m leaning more towards another rubber piece with slots in it just to cover up the hole. We shall see.
Also installed my midland gmrs radio. Perfect spot was in place of the old hi-lo switch on the dash lol
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If I did it again I would definitely cut the shifter down even lower to the base before sliding it over. It’s a very tight fit with the rubber gasket, parking cable and shift lever assembly sitting on top of it. It works, but could have been better. I also put some sticky insulating foam tape around the Edges to help seal it off some. Last thing left is to come up with some sort of a shift boot. I’m leaning more towards another rubber piece with slots in it just to cover up the hole. We shall see.
Also installed my midland gmrs radio. Perfect spot was in place of the old hi-lo switch on the dash lol
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Thanks man ! I’m using both of the factory mounts that came with the radio. I have the unit itself screwed to the inside of the glove box, and the hand held is mounted on a piece of plexiglass I cut out and glued in place to cover the hole left after taking out the hi lo switch.
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Another quick update on the TacoRunner:
-I've been fighting an intermittent check engine light, rough idle here and there, and a coming/going 02 sensor code. My current fix was to splice the upstream and downstream bank 1 sensor into the bank 2 sensors (or vice versa..can't remember) which resulted in me being able to get rid of the light.
My initial thought was that I have a bad O2 sensor (thought I didn't swap them places to verify if the problem follows) or possibly the converters going bad, but thinking back to developing a rough idle I am not so sure.. Being that I'm at almost 150k miles I decided it was time to give the rig a little TLC to see if I can get rid of the issue for when I need to take a long drive and not have to worry about throwing codes 200 miles from home.
My plan is to start with all 4 02 Sensors, replace all 8 ignition coils as well as replacing the plugs. I'll see where that gets me. I also plan on running some good injector cleaner through the system as well and then evaluate where I stand. I should also probably take a look the vacuum hoses all around since the last time I developed a rough idle was after a drive when the engine was able to get to operating temp and it went away on the next cold start.
If the above doesn't resolve the issue hopefully I am throwing an engine code that would point me in the right direction. I figured the worst case next step should only be the cats or injectors.. (I would much rather replace the injectors I believe... lol).
On the non-standard repair side, after 2 days of looking and thinking I went ahead and ordered a top spin pre filter for a snorkel... I've been thinking about doing a snorkel for a long, long time and finally decided I am going to take on the project. First step was to locate a local member who was willing to trade a completely stock air box for my volant system I have (it is FAR from water tight and not worth the hassle of sealing it up) which I was able to do. The next step will be to get some foam and shape up a few different variations of what I want this thing to look like. Running the wide fiberglass fenders gives a lot of freedom in how to run this thing and I plan on making it fairly minimalistic on the side. I don't want (or need) it spanning the entire length of the fender since I have plenty room inside to hide the piping.
My plan is to have a 6"x6" -ish semi-round shape coming out on the rear side of the fender and making its way up the A pillar. This will be done in a fiberglass base and top half, and then fully fused together in a layer of honeycomb carbonfiber that I've had sitting at the house for a long time.
A typical snorkel obviously mounts to the fender, but in order to simply things and also make them more aesthetic, I plan to hard mount the snorkel to the inner fender apron under the fender and just cut out the fender to surround the snorkel. This would give me the ability to remove the fender without having to remove the snorkel down the road.
projects upon projects.... now just fingers crossed that my wife doesn't kick me out to go live in this thing since I spend so much time on it :hurt:
-I've been fighting an intermittent check engine light, rough idle here and there, and a coming/going 02 sensor code. My current fix was to splice the upstream and downstream bank 1 sensor into the bank 2 sensors (or vice versa..can't remember) which resulted in me being able to get rid of the light.
My initial thought was that I have a bad O2 sensor (thought I didn't swap them places to verify if the problem follows) or possibly the converters going bad, but thinking back to developing a rough idle I am not so sure.. Being that I'm at almost 150k miles I decided it was time to give the rig a little TLC to see if I can get rid of the issue for when I need to take a long drive and not have to worry about throwing codes 200 miles from home.
My plan is to start with all 4 02 Sensors, replace all 8 ignition coils as well as replacing the plugs. I'll see where that gets me. I also plan on running some good injector cleaner through the system as well and then evaluate where I stand. I should also probably take a look the vacuum hoses all around since the last time I developed a rough idle was after a drive when the engine was able to get to operating temp and it went away on the next cold start.
If the above doesn't resolve the issue hopefully I am throwing an engine code that would point me in the right direction. I figured the worst case next step should only be the cats or injectors.. (I would much rather replace the injectors I believe... lol).
On the non-standard repair side, after 2 days of looking and thinking I went ahead and ordered a top spin pre filter for a snorkel... I've been thinking about doing a snorkel for a long, long time and finally decided I am going to take on the project. First step was to locate a local member who was willing to trade a completely stock air box for my volant system I have (it is FAR from water tight and not worth the hassle of sealing it up) which I was able to do. The next step will be to get some foam and shape up a few different variations of what I want this thing to look like. Running the wide fiberglass fenders gives a lot of freedom in how to run this thing and I plan on making it fairly minimalistic on the side. I don't want (or need) it spanning the entire length of the fender since I have plenty room inside to hide the piping.
My plan is to have a 6"x6" -ish semi-round shape coming out on the rear side of the fender and making its way up the A pillar. This will be done in a fiberglass base and top half, and then fully fused together in a layer of honeycomb carbonfiber that I've had sitting at the house for a long time.
A typical snorkel obviously mounts to the fender, but in order to simply things and also make them more aesthetic, I plan to hard mount the snorkel to the inner fender apron under the fender and just cut out the fender to surround the snorkel. This would give me the ability to remove the fender without having to remove the snorkel down the road.
projects upon projects.... now just fingers crossed that my wife doesn't kick me out to go live in this thing since I spend so much time on it :hurt:
went down a giant rabbit hole in the last couple of days looking into the future of this build.. I know the suspension is all so fresh now, but I know for a fact (unless for some reason I end up having to get rid of the rig) I will be upgrading down the road..
I am very strongly contemplating between a +3.5 long travel setup up front or just going SAS. Ultimately the goal is to get significantly more articulation than the current IFS allows for. Obviously long travel is very straight forward and a direct swap of parts pretty much.. however, I don't know if it's going to net a reasonable amount of articulation for the amount of money spent.. SAS would be absolutely amazing, and since I would be doing my own fab on most of the stuff I think cost wise I would be no more (if not even cheaper) than going long travel.. I think getting higher coilover hoops to weld inplace of the factory location would allow to run a slightly longer shock which would also help with total articulation increase.
The issue then becomes the rear axle. I absolutely despise long travel setups that have the stock rear axle left. I'm not running a 4" spacer, thats for damn sure lol. So then I went down the rabbit hole of rear axle options, whehter or not to switch over to a 3-link, cut into the body and fit a 14-18" smooth body shock. If anyone is familiar with the Toothless4r build on instagram you can blame him for all my crazy ideas for the future build lol. I absolutely envy his rear suspension travel and think it would amazing to have a similar setup on mine.
So after hours of reading and searching and planning I realized that I won't be doing anything extensive like that for quite some time, and instead ended up ordering parts to piece together a CO2 tire inflator DIY kit.
I'm in it for around $320 for all the parts excluding the co2 fillup after ($30-40) on a 20lb tank. The viair compressor has treated me well, but I just can't stand waiting 20-30 minutes to air up after i'm doing offroading and don't want to run the ARB single compressor that powers my ARB lockers to allow it to last longer, and defintiely can't justify getting an additional ARB dual compressor pump for 600-800.... with the amount of times I wheel along with the stupid fast fill-up time on the CO2 tank, I think it is more than worth the money. It will take me 2-3 years (worst case) of fill-ups to even get to the cost of the dual arb compressor... I guess we'll see how it works out!
I am very strongly contemplating between a +3.5 long travel setup up front or just going SAS. Ultimately the goal is to get significantly more articulation than the current IFS allows for. Obviously long travel is very straight forward and a direct swap of parts pretty much.. however, I don't know if it's going to net a reasonable amount of articulation for the amount of money spent.. SAS would be absolutely amazing, and since I would be doing my own fab on most of the stuff I think cost wise I would be no more (if not even cheaper) than going long travel.. I think getting higher coilover hoops to weld inplace of the factory location would allow to run a slightly longer shock which would also help with total articulation increase.
The issue then becomes the rear axle. I absolutely despise long travel setups that have the stock rear axle left. I'm not running a 4" spacer, thats for damn sure lol. So then I went down the rabbit hole of rear axle options, whehter or not to switch over to a 3-link, cut into the body and fit a 14-18" smooth body shock. If anyone is familiar with the Toothless4r build on instagram you can blame him for all my crazy ideas for the future build lol. I absolutely envy his rear suspension travel and think it would amazing to have a similar setup on mine.
So after hours of reading and searching and planning I realized that I won't be doing anything extensive like that for quite some time, and instead ended up ordering parts to piece together a CO2 tire inflator DIY kit.
I'm in it for around $320 for all the parts excluding the co2 fillup after ($30-40) on a 20lb tank. The viair compressor has treated me well, but I just can't stand waiting 20-30 minutes to air up after i'm doing offroading and don't want to run the ARB single compressor that powers my ARB lockers to allow it to last longer, and defintiely can't justify getting an additional ARB dual compressor pump for 600-800.... with the amount of times I wheel along with the stupid fast fill-up time on the CO2 tank, I think it is more than worth the money. It will take me 2-3 years (worst case) of fill-ups to even get to the cost of the dual arb compressor... I guess we'll see how it works out!
forgot to mention something regarding the shakedown yesterday. The last couple of trips out I would hear this intermittent clicking/clunking noise, almost like suspension decompressing under stress with low lubrication, didn't sound like a rotating assembly sound. Well, while playing around with the 2wd option (2lo could be handy if you ever lose front driveline for some reason and still need to get off the trail) I noticed a pattern... every time I would go into 2wd vs 2wd and drive the same section of the trail the sound wouldn't be there.
I am suspecting that my front driveshaft is the culprit (at first I thought cv axles, but they are RCV axles and I only had a partial rip in the boot that I repaired and filled back up with grease so i HIGHLY doubt that is the issue (not to mention I can whip U turns under good power with 0 sound emitting from either CV). When I was installing the front drive shaft back I noticed a little resistance spot in one direction on the U joint. Didn't think much of it until I got on the trail yesterday and now I am fairly convinced I have a failing driveshaft in the front. So i'm looking at options of having one built instead of rebuilding this one but haven't decided yet..
edit* I just realized there's no reason to have a new front shaft built since it fits perfectly fine and doesn't have any slip yoke movement during articulation like the rear shaft.. I have 2 Moog 387 U-joints on order with amazon and going to do a quick repair sometime this week when they show up.. I think (hopefully) I should be able to have the shaft pulled and u joints replaced in 2-3 hours tops.. I'll probably take off the front drive shaft tomorrow and get it ready for disassembly- oh how I am loving the 2wd drive option right now
I am suspecting that my front driveshaft is the culprit (at first I thought cv axles, but they are RCV axles and I only had a partial rip in the boot that I repaired and filled back up with grease so i HIGHLY doubt that is the issue (not to mention I can whip U turns under good power with 0 sound emitting from either CV). When I was installing the front drive shaft back I noticed a little resistance spot in one direction on the U joint. Didn't think much of it until I got on the trail yesterday and now I am fairly convinced I have a failing driveshaft in the front. So i'm looking at options of having one built instead of rebuilding this one but haven't decided yet..
edit* I just realized there's no reason to have a new front shaft built since it fits perfectly fine and doesn't have any slip yoke movement during articulation like the rear shaft.. I have 2 Moog 387 U-joints on order with amazon and going to do a quick repair sometime this week when they show up.. I think (hopefully) I should be able to have the shaft pulled and u joints replaced in 2-3 hours tops.. I'll probably take off the front drive shaft tomorrow and get it ready for disassembly- oh how I am loving the 2wd drive option right now
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Preliminary test fit of my diy snorkel. I don’t hate it so far. Just need to figure out the transition from inside the fender to the runner.
Would probably be much easier out of an actual mental pipe but I don’t feel like sourcing that and having to cut and weld it since I’m pretty set on wrapping it in carbon fiber anyway. We’ll see how it comes out ..
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Would probably be much easier out of an actual mental pipe but I don’t feel like sourcing that and having to cut and weld it since I’m pretty set on wrapping it in carbon fiber anyway. We’ll see how it comes out ..
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Got the moog driveshaft joints in today. Can’t believe I was gonna take it to a shop to have rebuilt.. literally took me 20 mins to pop them in and another 30 to put the driveshaft back in. I guess another off-road trip is in order for some testing
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