aemravan's build thread - project TacoRunner
- Thread starter aemravan
- Start date
It takes quite a bit to get the snap rig seated a lot of the time.. so I was 100% sure it popped in when I was doing it. Looking at it yesterday my confidence was down to 95% lol
Surely I'm just overthinking it.. I think the small amount of diff fluid seeping didn't help. Looking at the pictures this morning it barely looks any different, under the rig yesterday it looked a lot more concerning lol. I mean it's not like the axle can come out, it's fully engaged to the diff, and not like it pouring fluid... so maybe I just have a shot diff seal which I definitely SHOULD have replaced with the entire damn diff pulled apart... but oh well. That just means I won't have to drain the fluid to replace it lol. I'll just add some time to time
Just stumbled across the LED cluster thread.. andddd I have a fine-tip solder iron with the cool white PLCC-2 Surface Mount 3528 LEDs on order. I figured since I have to pull apart the gauge cluster to turn off the VCV and TRAC lights (by literally removing them from the board lol) I may as well spend an extra hour or two and rework some of the backlighting while I'm at it. $40 bucks sounds pretty good for a little (hopefully) extra work. Not my first LED rodeo , but the first time working with smaller surface-mount type LED soldering so we'll see. Looks easy enough.
4RunnerAquasport
Senior Member
Aftermarket cv can vary in many ways. It might be just a hair longer stub.
I had one that was too long in my 5th gen. Couldn't tell until I buttoned it up and tried spinning the wheel. Half a turn and it would bind up. Pulled it, set it next another axle I had laying around, and it was a little longer.
Back in 17', I went through a shitty year of swapping aftermarket CVs every other month. And of course the seal was getting worn and started leaking.
Even had a factory reman tear in a months time. What a PIA.
I bite the bullet now and just buy the ridiculously over priced oem for $400.
I had one that was too long in my 5th gen. Couldn't tell until I buttoned it up and tried spinning the wheel. Half a turn and it would bind up. Pulled it, set it next another axle I had laying around, and it was a little longer.
Back in 17', I went through a shitty year of swapping aftermarket CVs every other month. And of course the seal was getting worn and started leaking.
Even had a factory reman tear in a months time. What a PIA.
I bite the bullet now and just buy the ridiculously over priced oem for $400.
Edit: finally able to upload pictures but had to delete the previous post... tapatalk being super weird last couple of days..
I just can’t live without projects.. I’ll have a few days off here and there throughout the rest of the year so I have a bit of a project underway.. or at least parts on order lol.
Been thinking about a better way to carry my jack and shovel and while I’m at it may as well rework it totally and be able to carry an extra 10 gallons of fuel ..
The Jerry can holder was cheap enough to buy on eBay for a starting point before I modify.. should save me some initial design time. Hoping it won’t take much to reinforce.
I also found a hi lift mount for jeeps that I should be able to weld right to the side of one of the Jerry can mounts for a nice compact setup.
I also found this cool hi lift shovel mount plate.. but for what it is I’m I’m not spending $80+ .. I have the clamps already and should take 2 pieces of flat bar and some mount hardware to make work.
The idea is to chop off the upper section of my ladder and mount this setup in its place on the swing out. Hopefully it all works out as I envision lol.
I just can’t live without projects.. I’ll have a few days off here and there throughout the rest of the year so I have a bit of a project underway.. or at least parts on order lol.
Been thinking about a better way to carry my jack and shovel and while I’m at it may as well rework it totally and be able to carry an extra 10 gallons of fuel ..
The Jerry can holder was cheap enough to buy on eBay for a starting point before I modify.. should save me some initial design time. Hoping it won’t take much to reinforce.
I also found a hi lift mount for jeeps that I should be able to weld right to the side of one of the Jerry can mounts for a nice compact setup.
I also found this cool hi lift shovel mount plate.. but for what it is I’m I’m not spending $80+ .. I have the clamps already and should take 2 pieces of flat bar and some mount hardware to make work.
The idea is to chop off the upper section of my ladder and mount this setup in its place on the swing out. Hopefully it all works out as I envision lol.
I ended up ordering the 2 OEM seals for $30 bucks as a set... really hate the idea of tearing back into a freshly installed front end, but whatever lol. The axle must be seated.. I think i'm just being paranoid and with the amount of times I removed the axle and installed the stub-shaft while doing all this investigating certainly would have caused damage to the seal.. I was so caught up in the work that I didn't stop to consider replacing it... walk about being a PERFECT time to do so... fully apart, on a workbench.. but whatever.
The axles are RCV's and I know they are spot on with the factor ones I pulled out, maybe I just didn't pay much attention to it before.. or maybe it isn't fully seated, who the heck knows.. but not like it can go anywhere
I'll drive it around a bit more and see how bad the oil seepage is before I decide whether I'm pulling it apart to replace the seal or slapping the skid back on and sending it as is for a while.
4thGen4Life
New member
What an awesome thread and build. Thanks for sharing!
I can’t believe people pay and wait to have this done … no joke one of the quickest led conversions I’ve ever worked on ..
I just wish I did more research and bought more leds .. the video I saw only had a handful, mine has the entire sweep of the RPM and tach with leds so I ran out .. ordering some more but you get the idea. Super stoked with how it looks.
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I just wish I did more research and bought more leds .. the video I saw only had a handful, mine has the entire sweep of the RPM and tach with leds so I ran out .. ordering some more but you get the idea. Super stoked with how it looks.
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The rest of my dash leds should be here tomorrow. I can’t wait to get it opened back up and fully reworked.
If you look closely at the bare board , there are 2 leds not working on the tach. Don’t know how I missed it lol.
Also, replacing the red led needles with white leds is a no go. It’s too pink. But I did order some new red ones to put in in hopes that they will be nice and bright compared to the factory ones.
I think the only lights I’m leaving alone are the warning ones that are orange and the gear position indicator ones. Maybe I should have ordered a few green ones but I’ll see what these look stock with all the other lights replaced. Pretty excited. The difference is phenomenal
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If you look closely at the bare board , there are 2 leds not working on the tach. Don’t know how I missed it lol.
Also, replacing the red led needles with white leds is a no go. It’s too pink. But I did order some new red ones to put in in hopes that they will be nice and bright compared to the factory ones.
I think the only lights I’m leaving alone are the warning ones that are orange and the gear position indicator ones. Maybe I should have ordered a few green ones but I’ll see what these look stock with all the other lights replaced. Pretty excited. The difference is phenomenal
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Got my Jerry cans and hi lift mount delivered. The mount is already on its way back. Terrible chinisium design for the kind of money they charge. I’ll fabricate my own two pick up points off of the Jerry can mount.
As far as the Jerry cans .. after going to pick up some steel plate to fab up the holder I quickly realized i won’t be saving very much at all.. I was looking at nearly $140-$160 in just material … so i hit the internet and found a sweet set of LFD off-road Jerry can holders for only $200 .. and they are right up the road from me .. I will save literally hours of fab time with these..
The plan is to chop off the upper section of my ladder and use the lower for a mounting surface. I’m also planning on working in two pick up points off the side of this mount for the hi lift itself. One thing I’m probably going to end up doing is also chopping off my tire carrier and scooting it over 4 inches more towards the passenger side.. I didn’t realize how much room I had there for the tire and I’m pretty certain I’ll need every inch I can get to fit two Jerry cans and a hi lift mounted to the side of them ..
One thing I was able to get done today was replace the drivers side diff seal and verify my axle is seated fully. Didn’t take much time at all and after a decently long test drive it stayed dry so we’ll see.
I was also due for an oil change so I knocked that out before the skid plate went back on and added some seal revive fluid to see if it can slow the rear main leak just a little.
I keep finding the lockout nuts on the rear links loose after some road miles none stop and it’s getting aggravating. I can only crank down hard on a portion of them.. the lower mounts on the axle side get in the way and the upper link above the tank is near impossible to get to.. what I think I’m going to do is tack weld these in place now that everything is adjusted so I don’t have to worry about these backing out.. I’m not worried about anything coming loose.. but it those start to clunk over bumps.
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As far as the Jerry cans .. after going to pick up some steel plate to fab up the holder I quickly realized i won’t be saving very much at all.. I was looking at nearly $140-$160 in just material … so i hit the internet and found a sweet set of LFD off-road Jerry can holders for only $200 .. and they are right up the road from me .. I will save literally hours of fab time with these..
The plan is to chop off the upper section of my ladder and use the lower for a mounting surface. I’m also planning on working in two pick up points off the side of this mount for the hi lift itself. One thing I’m probably going to end up doing is also chopping off my tire carrier and scooting it over 4 inches more towards the passenger side.. I didn’t realize how much room I had there for the tire and I’m pretty certain I’ll need every inch I can get to fit two Jerry cans and a hi lift mounted to the side of them ..
One thing I was able to get done today was replace the drivers side diff seal and verify my axle is seated fully. Didn’t take much time at all and after a decently long test drive it stayed dry so we’ll see.
I was also due for an oil change so I knocked that out before the skid plate went back on and added some seal revive fluid to see if it can slow the rear main leak just a little.
I keep finding the lockout nuts on the rear links loose after some road miles none stop and it’s getting aggravating. I can only crank down hard on a portion of them.. the lower mounts on the axle side get in the way and the upper link above the tank is near impossible to get to.. what I think I’m going to do is tack weld these in place now that everything is adjusted so I don’t have to worry about these backing out.. I’m not worried about anything coming loose.. but it those start to clunk over bumps.
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Just wrapped up a quick New Years trip to Carolina Beach and back this weekend. Ended up putting a little north of 500 miles on the rig. Slowly gaining more and more confidence in it again.. no apparent issues, tires were balanced smooth as butter going down at 60-75 mph the entire way, no weird noises or vibrations, the CV axle seal seems to be dry as all.
Haven't been able to confirm if the seal repair i poured in at the oil change I just did has worked it's magic on the rear main seal yet, it was definitely leaking so I'm hoping I can get another 30-40k miles out of it before I drop the transmission..
One thing I am seriously going to work on replacing though is the FJ T-case with the twin-sticks to a factory j-pattern fj t-case. While I was driving I had some time to think about the t-case and the twin stick mod and I'm not entirely sure it's the proper way of doing it.. in order to install the twin sticks you have to remove the "pill" , ie the lock-out mechanism that only allows you to hit the hi/lo selector fork once the other fork has been shifted from 2wd to 4wd. I think this pill may be a part of the mechanism that doesn't allow for other slop that I've been feeling with the t-case clunking under heavy acceleration. This, coupled with the fact that I can clearly see my front output spinning on the t-case when only in 2wd, and sometimes having heavy pressure on the front driveshaft when I shouldn't, all kind of suggest that something isn't happy.
I'll work on sourcing one locally at the junkyard and see about getting it swapped over. It shouldn't take long at all to do.. and I could probably sell my modified twin stick setup for the cost of the replacement T-case. Just need to make sure this one comes with the shifter
Haven't been able to confirm if the seal repair i poured in at the oil change I just did has worked it's magic on the rear main seal yet, it was definitely leaking so I'm hoping I can get another 30-40k miles out of it before I drop the transmission..
One thing I am seriously going to work on replacing though is the FJ T-case with the twin-sticks to a factory j-pattern fj t-case. While I was driving I had some time to think about the t-case and the twin stick mod and I'm not entirely sure it's the proper way of doing it.. in order to install the twin sticks you have to remove the "pill" , ie the lock-out mechanism that only allows you to hit the hi/lo selector fork once the other fork has been shifted from 2wd to 4wd. I think this pill may be a part of the mechanism that doesn't allow for other slop that I've been feeling with the t-case clunking under heavy acceleration. This, coupled with the fact that I can clearly see my front output spinning on the t-case when only in 2wd, and sometimes having heavy pressure on the front driveshaft when I shouldn't, all kind of suggest that something isn't happy.
I'll work on sourcing one locally at the junkyard and see about getting it swapped over. It shouldn't take long at all to do.. and I could probably sell my modified twin stick setup for the cost of the replacement T-case. Just need to make sure this one comes with the shifter
averyislost
Member
The drive from Charlotte to CB will definitely give you plenty of reflection time with all the miles of plain countryside, haha. I do that drive about every other month and it'll sure rack up the miles quick!
I think I'm starting to get a slight rear main leak on my '03 v8 as well. I'm curious to hear how the seal revival works for you, did you use AT-205? I've been thinking about giving it a shot on the next oil change.
I think I'm starting to get a slight rear main leak on my '03 v8 as well. I'm curious to hear how the seal revival works for you, did you use AT-205? I've been thinking about giving it a shot on the next oil change.
It's definitely one of the straightest shots to get anywhere from charlotte lol.
We'll probably be making the trip quite often this year ourselves, looking to do more camping out at Freeman park this year. Picked up the early bird pass on the last day of the sale while we were down there this weekend.
I can't remember what it was.. it may have been the at-205, I found some on the shelf in the garage while doing the oil change so I decided to give it a shot.. i'll see how it does over the next couple of weeks. If anything, I figured it wouldn't hurt to give it another (early) oil change and try a different additive to see if it will revive the seal a little. All the work I've put into this thing over the past year or so REALLY makes me not want to drop the transmission anytime soon lol
LFD off-road knocked these Jerry can holders out of the park.. cheap and quick turnaround.
Chopped off the top of my ladder and mounted the dual Jerry can mount instead. Reused the hi lift mounts and welded them to the side. Love the functionality and look this gave me.
One issue I foresee is that the hi lift overhangs the light a little .. I have a solution but I didn’t feel like tackling it today… I need to chop off the tire mount and move it over 3 inches.. I have plenty of room but will require some cutting and welding.
One last thing I need to fabricate is my shovel mount that will attach to the hi lift. And paint .. obviously a whole lot of prep and paint lol
Oh yea. I also welded in a full open lock-out to the tire swing so that I can lock it in the open position. Not as clean as a factory option but it was $7 and was easy enough to do.
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Chopped off the top of my ladder and mounted the dual Jerry can mount instead. Reused the hi lift mounts and welded them to the side. Love the functionality and look this gave me.
One issue I foresee is that the hi lift overhangs the light a little .. I have a solution but I didn’t feel like tackling it today… I need to chop off the tire mount and move it over 3 inches.. I have plenty of room but will require some cutting and welding.
One last thing I need to fabricate is my shovel mount that will attach to the hi lift. And paint .. obviously a whole lot of prep and paint lol
Oh yea. I also welded in a full open lock-out to the tire swing so that I can lock it in the open position. Not as clean as a factory option but it was $7 and was easy enough to do.
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Would be one hell of a trip, however , I’m just trying to make it 300 miles if needed between gas stations [emoji1787]
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Would be really nice to have a way to powder coat things quickly and cheaply at home .. but for now I guess it’s off to breathing fumes
Can’t wait for this to dry so I can finish lining some padding for the Jerry cans and get on the road somewhere.
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Can’t wait for this to dry so I can finish lining some padding for the Jerry cans and get on the road somewhere.
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4RunnerAquasport
Senior Member
I say you go full bullet proof w some military run flats. :usa2:
Truck looks freaking bad ass!
Truck looks freaking bad ass!
Just about dry , but with cooler temps I think I’ll give it another few hours inside before I mount this back on the swing out.
LFD has these "straps" fasten down with some M10 bolts, and also has provisions for some locks, which is nice and secure, but I'm thinking about practicality of having to have a 17mm wrench with me every time I need to fill up or use the Jerry Cans.. I have considered trying to install some sort of a latch mechanism instead of the bolts, but without getting overly complicating I'm thinking maybe I can just find some m10 hardware that has a knob which would be fastened just by hand.. off to Amazon I guess.
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LFD has these "straps" fasten down with some M10 bolts, and also has provisions for some locks, which is nice and secure, but I'm thinking about practicality of having to have a 17mm wrench with me every time I need to fill up or use the Jerry Cans.. I have considered trying to install some sort of a latch mechanism instead of the bolts, but without getting overly complicating I'm thinking maybe I can just find some m10 hardware that has a knob which would be fastened just by hand.. off to Amazon I guess.
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