Superman3043's Build Thread
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superman3043
Senior Member
Yo Blackoutt!! Thanks for stopping in. I think I did come across you in my Dobinsons research.
Anyway, to answer your question, no. No spacer with this set up. But, I still had about 3/8" driver side lean with the Metaltech AND Daystar combo. Right now I've got 1/2" driver side lean with just the Dobinsons.
The 677 definitely give a lot of lift. And yes, the ride is fantastic. Just when I'm not sure if I could love my truck any more, she finds a way to keep me coming back. Hope that helps.
superman3043
Senior Member
Thanks for the love my friend! Yeah I definitely got a thing for the white. I can take or leave the spoilers. Not a huge fan.
Head gasket.... Ugh. V6 I assume? Yeah you really went to the opposite end of the spectrum from white to black. Blacks definitely hard to beat when clean. Keeping it that way is the problem.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yes it was the V6. If it would sit for a couple days it would idle really rough for a few seconds. I read online about the HG problem with these, checked the coolant level and saw it was low and that was that. I only had it for a year so was not yet too attached. I didn't realize how much I liked the color until it was gone. Some cars look really good in white and the 4th gen is one. I don't think the 5th gen looks nearly as good in white but that's probably just me. I always like black cars for some reason(except the swirl marks). Sorry for droning on. Anyway...I can tell you put alot of love in yours and it looks good!
superman3043
Senior Member
All three of our current cars are white and so were our two previous daily drivers before these. If I can help, I won't own another color.
This particular paint, the 056 Natural White, is pretty fickle though. Since it's single stage, it requires pretty regular upkeep or it ends up looking like chalk pretty quickly and then requires a ton of work to restore the shine. I've always loved the Blizzard Pearl Urban Runners and almost bought my wife one, but she went with the BP Venza instead since it was newer with less miles. She also didn't see a point in having two of the same cars... Woman logic for ya. I think that UR I was looking at was a V6 anyway, which I didn't really want. Blizzard Pearl is a gorgeous color, but requires it's fair share of upkeep as well. If I don't keep the wife's car clean, it tends to develop these like little rust chips that are a huge pain to get off. I think it's the nature of the metal flecks in the pearl paint or something. Anyway, now I'm rambling lol. I do like the Super White in the new ones. Probably easier to maintain.
S p a r k y
New member
We have three white cars as well! Currently only one 4runner, but the wife wants a white 5th gen. We will get her one in the next year or so. Just takes some convincing for the woman logic!
superman3043
Senior Member
215K mile update.
So what's happened since last?
Not in the 4Runner, but added some headrest monitors on the Venza for the kiddos. These things have been money!
Put winter coats on all three vehicles
Installed an OEM fuel cap after 2 terrible aftermarket ones
Also ordered a Fumoto valve. Just waiting until next oil change to install.
Which brings us to yesterday. Put together a last minute end of season trip to Uwharrie before they closed for the season. Can you believe it's been over two years since the last time I've wheeled?? First time wheeling the King and Dobinsons coils as well as Toyota front axles. Bobby shows up on fresh 35's and Total Chaos long travel.
Truck had me grinning ear to ear at how flawless she performed off and on road.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
So what's happened since last?
Not in the 4Runner, but added some headrest monitors on the Venza for the kiddos. These things have been money!
Put winter coats on all three vehicles
Installed an OEM fuel cap after 2 terrible aftermarket ones
Also ordered a Fumoto valve. Just waiting until next oil change to install.
Which brings us to yesterday. Put together a last minute end of season trip to Uwharrie before they closed for the season. Can you believe it's been over two years since the last time I've wheeled?? First time wheeling the King and Dobinsons coils as well as Toyota front axles. Bobby shows up on fresh 35's and Total Chaos long travel.
Truck had me grinning ear to ear at how flawless she performed off and on road.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Last edited:
yotaguy674
New member
Great pics and awesome rigs! Love the build man, great job.:hatsoff:
superman3043
Senior Member
216K mile update
This documentation update contains a few fails and lessons learned. A couple of weekends ago, I performed an oil change and had the opportunity to install my Fumoto valve.
Install was straight forward obviously. But honestly I don't know if V8 owners have much to gain from these. We still have to wrestle with that front skid to get to the filter which is the biggest PITA of the whole process IMO. So honestly the only thing we gain is the ease of not using a tool to remove and reinstall the drain bolt at the cost of the valve and slower draining. I guess in a year or so I'll be able to decide if there is value here or not.
During the oil change, I discovered a blown driver side inner CV boot. Yum.
After a conversation with Austin, I decided to go with an OEM boot kit. They were probably more than double the cost of aftermarket ones, but I've never really gone wrong with OEM stuff. Also picked up a center console organizer thingy while I was at it that I saw from some member on the forum.
Got the easy stuff out of the way first.
Before:
After:
Really pleased with this thing. A simple, cheap, clean solution to a real issue. Which was, every time I needed my wheel lug key, I had to fumble around and pull everything out of here.
Pulled and ready to make a mess:
At disassembly, make sure you mark the tripod location relative to the shaft, so that you can put them together the same way. Tape the splines up to prevent damage to new boots prior to re-assembly.
Cleaned up:
Now your boy has done some messy jobs in his life, like shoveling out the tunnel from below a car wash, and wrestling with that Wookie that lives in my wife's shower drain, but this one has to rank pretty high on that list. That grease man. I don't know if you'll ever get all of the old grease out of the outer joint, but just do your best.
So the kit comes with a new inner and outer boot, two specific tubes of grease, a new C-clip for retaining the tripod joint, a new snap ring for the shaft/diff connection, and FOUR different types of clamps. Fear not though, the brilliant engineers of Toyota have poka-yoked these in both diameter and width of the bands relative to the grooves on the boots, so just take your time.
So here at re-assembly is where the fails/lessons learned begin. Pay attention kids and learn from my mistakes. The outer clamps were the ear type that require some special type of pliers to crimp them. I bought said tool at a local parts store for about 9 bucks. So I used a write-up on this forum as sort of a guide and it said they pre-assembled the boots, clamped down the small clamps and squeezed the grease in **Pay attention, because that will be important in a second**. Crimped the ear of the small outer clamp and squeezed the dark grease in no problem. Go to cinch down the big clamp and one of the fingers on the pliers breaks off.... FAIL. This left me in a weird position, because not only was the half cinched clamp lopsided, but it was still lose. I managed to get the clamp tightened down by carefully using some little nippers that I had. Problem is, I basically broke my old nippers in the process as well. Good news is that I was done with that style clamp. So I took a lunch break to run back to the parts store, return the pliers for a refund (they didn't have any more and I didn't want another) and pick up some more gear oil and Brakleen.
Started back reassembling the inner joint. This small clamp was a latching style one that basically ratchets tight as you squeeze it together. Pretty straight forward and I was able to clamp it just using some needle nose pliers. I had considered doing the boot slider mod before clamping it down, but ultimately decided against it. For those that don't know what it is, it basically involves placing a new hard stop in the old groove in order to keep the boot stretched out to keep the fins separated. Okay, so then I squeezed the light colored goop in to the boot and realized the next issue. Unlike the outer joint where the housing is round the big end of the inner boot is contoured to mate with the tulip housing... Crimping the small clamp before lining them up doesn't work... FAIL. So I had to figure out how to undo this clamp that was pretty much designed to go in one direction. With a little bit of thought and careful finesse, I was able to get it taken apart and back together thankfully.
The last clamp (inner large) is one of those where you tighten the band, bend it over, fold and punch the ears to hold it in place and trim off the excess. Last time I used this style clamp, I was supposed to pull it tight before folding it over. Apparently this one is like pre-tensioned with a specific diameter, so all you do is fold it over and pin it. Not knowing that, I went to pull and bend it over and broke the damn thing... FAIL. Luckily I had plenty of worm drive clamps from fixing leaky boot clamps in the past.
All put back together:
And right about here is when I realized the next mistake. In just following that write-up, not only did I clamp the inner small clamp pre-maturely, I realized that the "filling the boots with grease method" made no mention of actually packing the joints (bearings and housings) themselves. You're literally just filling up the boots with grease. FAIL!!! Well, I wasn't about to take the thing back apart at this point. So I physically pressed as much grease from the boot to the joint as I could from the outside and then compressed and articulated the joints as well as I could in hopes of packing them enough and then said a prayer.
In putting everything back together and topping off the diff, I realized that i've done CV axles a couple times before, but this was the first time I've ever done it alone. Was a bit of a struggle to get the axle to re-seat, but I got her done. In the end it took way longer than anticipated with it being my first time, all the failing, taking my time working alone, trips to the store, lunch break, etc. I think it could possibly done around 2 hours per side if I had to do it again. Probably shorter with some help.
Took her for a shake down and drove it to work the next day and so far so good. No noise, vibrations, or leaks. Chaulk this one up as a learning experience with a little luck. If it helps anybody, great. Any questions, please ask.
If you're still with me, thanks for looking.
This documentation update contains a few fails and lessons learned. A couple of weekends ago, I performed an oil change and had the opportunity to install my Fumoto valve.
Install was straight forward obviously. But honestly I don't know if V8 owners have much to gain from these. We still have to wrestle with that front skid to get to the filter which is the biggest PITA of the whole process IMO. So honestly the only thing we gain is the ease of not using a tool to remove and reinstall the drain bolt at the cost of the valve and slower draining. I guess in a year or so I'll be able to decide if there is value here or not.
During the oil change, I discovered a blown driver side inner CV boot. Yum.
After a conversation with Austin, I decided to go with an OEM boot kit. They were probably more than double the cost of aftermarket ones, but I've never really gone wrong with OEM stuff. Also picked up a center console organizer thingy while I was at it that I saw from some member on the forum.
Got the easy stuff out of the way first.
Before:
After:
Really pleased with this thing. A simple, cheap, clean solution to a real issue. Which was, every time I needed my wheel lug key, I had to fumble around and pull everything out of here.
Pulled and ready to make a mess:
At disassembly, make sure you mark the tripod location relative to the shaft, so that you can put them together the same way. Tape the splines up to prevent damage to new boots prior to re-assembly.
Cleaned up:
Now your boy has done some messy jobs in his life, like shoveling out the tunnel from below a car wash, and wrestling with that Wookie that lives in my wife's shower drain, but this one has to rank pretty high on that list. That grease man. I don't know if you'll ever get all of the old grease out of the outer joint, but just do your best.
So the kit comes with a new inner and outer boot, two specific tubes of grease, a new C-clip for retaining the tripod joint, a new snap ring for the shaft/diff connection, and FOUR different types of clamps. Fear not though, the brilliant engineers of Toyota have poka-yoked these in both diameter and width of the bands relative to the grooves on the boots, so just take your time.
So here at re-assembly is where the fails/lessons learned begin. Pay attention kids and learn from my mistakes. The outer clamps were the ear type that require some special type of pliers to crimp them. I bought said tool at a local parts store for about 9 bucks. So I used a write-up on this forum as sort of a guide and it said they pre-assembled the boots, clamped down the small clamps and squeezed the grease in **Pay attention, because that will be important in a second**. Crimped the ear of the small outer clamp and squeezed the dark grease in no problem. Go to cinch down the big clamp and one of the fingers on the pliers breaks off.... FAIL. This left me in a weird position, because not only was the half cinched clamp lopsided, but it was still lose. I managed to get the clamp tightened down by carefully using some little nippers that I had. Problem is, I basically broke my old nippers in the process as well. Good news is that I was done with that style clamp. So I took a lunch break to run back to the parts store, return the pliers for a refund (they didn't have any more and I didn't want another) and pick up some more gear oil and Brakleen.
Started back reassembling the inner joint. This small clamp was a latching style one that basically ratchets tight as you squeeze it together. Pretty straight forward and I was able to clamp it just using some needle nose pliers. I had considered doing the boot slider mod before clamping it down, but ultimately decided against it. For those that don't know what it is, it basically involves placing a new hard stop in the old groove in order to keep the boot stretched out to keep the fins separated. Okay, so then I squeezed the light colored goop in to the boot and realized the next issue. Unlike the outer joint where the housing is round the big end of the inner boot is contoured to mate with the tulip housing... Crimping the small clamp before lining them up doesn't work... FAIL. So I had to figure out how to undo this clamp that was pretty much designed to go in one direction. With a little bit of thought and careful finesse, I was able to get it taken apart and back together thankfully.
The last clamp (inner large) is one of those where you tighten the band, bend it over, fold and punch the ears to hold it in place and trim off the excess. Last time I used this style clamp, I was supposed to pull it tight before folding it over. Apparently this one is like pre-tensioned with a specific diameter, so all you do is fold it over and pin it. Not knowing that, I went to pull and bend it over and broke the damn thing... FAIL. Luckily I had plenty of worm drive clamps from fixing leaky boot clamps in the past.
All put back together:
And right about here is when I realized the next mistake. In just following that write-up, not only did I clamp the inner small clamp pre-maturely, I realized that the "filling the boots with grease method" made no mention of actually packing the joints (bearings and housings) themselves. You're literally just filling up the boots with grease. FAIL!!! Well, I wasn't about to take the thing back apart at this point. So I physically pressed as much grease from the boot to the joint as I could from the outside and then compressed and articulated the joints as well as I could in hopes of packing them enough and then said a prayer.
In putting everything back together and topping off the diff, I realized that i've done CV axles a couple times before, but this was the first time I've ever done it alone. Was a bit of a struggle to get the axle to re-seat, but I got her done. In the end it took way longer than anticipated with it being my first time, all the failing, taking my time working alone, trips to the store, lunch break, etc. I think it could possibly done around 2 hours per side if I had to do it again. Probably shorter with some help.
Took her for a shake down and drove it to work the next day and so far so good. No noise, vibrations, or leaks. Chaulk this one up as a learning experience with a little luck. If it helps anybody, great. Any questions, please ask.
If you're still with me, thanks for looking.
Last edited:
Darklight
New member
Better make sure you use a skid so that fumoto valve is protected! I've been running a fumoto for about 6 years now on my V6 and love it, takes a little longer to drain but all good.
Them axles are messy! Thought you had some chinese axles or something, lol. Glad to see you have Toyota axles rebooted and back on their!
I always find the secret to get the axles back in the open side of the inner c clip needs to be facing down to reset easier. None the less it can be a pain.
Hope we catch up soon! Spring coming around the corner too.
Bobby
Them axles are messy! Thought you had some chinese axles or something, lol. Glad to see you have Toyota axles rebooted and back on their!
I always find the secret to get the axles back in the open side of the inner c clip needs to be facing down to reset easier. None the less it can be a pain.
Hope we catch up soon! Spring coming around the corner too.
Bobby
having fun
New member
Rocky Runner
New member
Just came across your build. Just wanted to say thanks for all the great info. Looking forward to the next update!
superman3043
Senior Member
Thanks for showing the old build some love sir!
Nothing new to report really. Cruising in at around 220K now. Still drive it about 20% of the week. No issues.
I wound up rebuilding the opposite side CV shaft about a month after the first one. Much less issues this go around and I brought in an extra set of hands. At last check, everything was still holding tight.
Also through some LED bulbs in the headlamps about a month ago:
I'm very happy with them so far. I read a lot of mixed reviews about these style bulbs especially in a reflector style application vs. a projector. I took a chance and I'm very pleased with the performance. They were fairly inexpensive and a newer style that just uses cooling fins instead of fans. Was able to adjust them so that they aren't annoying to oncoming. I've come to the realization though that my truck seems to blow through headlight bulbs a lot more than my other vehicles. Odd.
Also, our annual tree/truck pic:
Yeah, other than that, been doing maintenance type stuff on all of the vehicles. Did pads and rotors on all 4 corners of the Venza. That car has to be one of the lowest cost cars to own that I've ever had. One set of tires and one set of brakes in like 100k miles of ownership. That's it. Not even so much as an alignment.
Did a short throw shifter on the Subaru, but that's all. Got about 21K on it now. Also over the weekend, helped my buddy replace the driver side clamshell needle bearing with a bushing on his new Taco. Apparently this is a huge issue on those, but I've never heard of it in 4Runners. Weird.
I've got huge plans for the 4runner, but she is so low priority right now as funds and time allow. One day.
superman3043
Senior Member
So for documentation purposes, this could turn out to be a long post. So please bear with me. Just want to get down basically all of things I've been doing for the last 4 months or so, as time allowed. Some functional things, some maintenance things, some aesthetic type things as well.
Fumoto Valve
Looking back a couple posts, I can follow up on the Fumoto valve at least since I've been able to perform an oil change since that last post. Verdict: I like it. Easy, keeps the mess down (sometimes an issue for me), and doesn't actually drain as slow as I thought it would. I'd recommend it.
Front End Clunk
So apparently back in April, I had chased a front end clunk down, that had been bothering me for I don't know how long. Happened when the suspension would receive a quick bump. Discovered a missing nut on one of the front sway bar end links. Easy fix. Happy to have solved that.
Ceramic Coat
Around late April early May, I decided to play around with something that I'd been wanting to for a long time and that was ceramic coatings. As good as I care for my 220k+ mile 14 year old truck with single stage paint, it's definitely seen better days and requires a lot of maintenance. I figured I'd give this a go to try and hold off the inevitable body work and respray that is long overdue. After a little research, I decided to just order a cheap one off Amazon.
The prep work was really the hardest part. Going off memory, I think what I had to do was:
- Wash
- Clay
- Paint Correct
- Polish
- Degrease
- IPA wash
Just to prep. Process took probably like a day and a half. Then I was ready to lay down the coating. Which TBH, was quite easy. Easier than waxing IMO. Time will tell, but so far I'm very pleased with it. Coating seems nice and hard. Shiny, and hydrophobic. So far I'm sold.
New Headlight Assemblies
Around mid June, I broke down and ordered new aftermarket headlight assemblies. Just tired of looking at my worn hazed headlights and the amount of maintenance required to keep them looking decent. I normally don't care for aftermarket lighting assemblies, but ordered a set anyway. I didn't have high hopes for them and they were cheap, so I pulled the trigger anyway.
Was pleased with the results. Made her look like a new truck from the front:
Locker
Late June, i dove into troubleshooting my e-locker. Decided I wanted to go the easy route and just purchase a plug and play solution, so I ordered a used locker motor from East Coast Gear Supply and a completely new harness from the 12 Volt Guy. It didn't quite work out the way I planned and needed a little more work than I had hoped.
New ECGS Locker next to my old one:
The new one was in considerably better shape than the one I pulled out of my truck.
New 12voltguy harness next to my old ORS (Offroad Solutions) Harness:
Initial impressions on the 12voltguy harness was that it was a nice neat package. He uses a DPDT switch where as on my old one, I provided my own SPDT switch and the harness worked the logic out through 3 relays. 12voltguy harness also integrates the lock position sensor from the diff and comes with a breather extension built into the harness. A nice touch:
To recap my adventures in getting this thing working:
- my first mock up I couldn't get the motor to run or synch up with the wiring.
- pulled the motor apart... Actually pulled my old motor apart first after trying to hit it with voltage and it not running, to find out it was absolutely disgusting inside. For informational purposes, the power circuit is on the big 6 pin connector, and is the 2 pins that are next to the blank. Hit them with voltage to cycle the motor one way and reverse polarity to back it up. Next I opened up the new one after talking with the seller (Chase @ ECGS) to make sure it was tested and good. He assured me it was and upon opening it confirmed that it was in great shape. He also said sometimes they overrun their limits and need to be re-clocked. After doing so, I hit it with voltage like and it ran. So confirmed motor worked.
- plugged the harness back to it and confirmed the harness power circuit works in mock up. Lock position sensor circuit and switch back-lighting was also previously validated, so switch and wiring were assumed good at this point.
- next wired it up on the truck. And of course, got nothing. After troubleshooting I finally came to the conclusion that the fuse tap was actually directional. So it mattered how I put that thing in. Duh. After I flipped it, the thing acted like it should except now the lock indicator light didn't illuminate.
- Next I decided to test a theory of maybe the rack position being just out of sensor detection range. So I place the diff in the "lock" position. Verified the light. Then just jogged the motor to the locked position and married everything back up.
Now everything works perfect. It probably took me a good month to button all of that up, working on it a little bit at a time when I had a spare moment. So satisfying to have gotten that all worked out.
In between starting and finishing the locker saga, I addressed a few maintenance items and added a couple of aesthetic touches to her.
Pinion Seal and Diff Breather
Being under the truck so much with the locker forced me to face the fact that the pinion seal needed replacing. Easy enough:
But the more important question was; What was really causing the oil to seep passed the seal, or why did it fail? My theory was that I needed a new diff breather. I also wanted to get it out of my fuel door, as that mod was making an absolute mess in there. Don't know if it was the breather itself, or the holes I cut in the membrane to pass it through and didn't seal it up properly, or a combination of both, but either way, I didn't like it. Pulled it out and relocated it elsewhere, cleaned up around the fuel door/cap, and healed the membrane back up. Good so far.
The whole mess also got me thinking about why my locker looked so bad when I got in there, and somewhere along the line, I discovered at some point I did this mod where I Tee'd the locker breather into the diff breather. I'm not sure it was the cause, But I definitely wouldn't recommend doing this. The locker looked night and day different from when I installed it maybe like 5 or 6 years ago. Plan is to try and rebuild that motor so I have a spare. We'll see how it goes.
I have to shout Chase owner of ECGS and Darren the 12 Volt Guy out. Please support their businesses. These guys customer support, expertise, and patience were top notch I'm helping me sort out my issues. Highly recommend them.
Rear Window Flag Decal/Caliper Wrap
A couple of aesthetic touches. Added those shadow American Flag decals that are pretty popular. I like the look. Subtle. Got a good deal on the 4th of July.
Also, my Amazon recommendations spiraled me down a path where I discovered that people are now wrapping brake calipers. figured I'd give it a go. Now my vinyl whispering skills are horrendous, but for a first timer and a admitted hack job, I'm actually kinda pleased with this little mod. The vinyl is reflective and gives it a dope pop that you can't really capture on photos:
Lastly, took her and a couple of new Jeep friends to ride Richland Road this past Sunday... Found out it was a bad idea. Been 5 years since we last rode this trail and apparently quite a lot has changed. First off, there are plenty of posted trespassing signs along the way, so we knew we were in the wrong. Anyway, there's on going apparent controversy on whether or not it's ROW state route or private property and land owners are putting up gates, blockades, cameras, arming themselves, etc. They are not happy with folks riding this land. We got out fairly unscathed, but man what an adventure.
Some pics (Flag decal maybe visible)
So stay off this road please guys. At least it's caused me to discover a couple of new legal wheeling destinations within driving distance. Also not sure if I've ever wheeled with my locker functioning properly but it was good to have. Not totally necessary but made things a little easier. That's it for now folks. Gotta run.
Fumoto Valve
Looking back a couple posts, I can follow up on the Fumoto valve at least since I've been able to perform an oil change since that last post. Verdict: I like it. Easy, keeps the mess down (sometimes an issue for me), and doesn't actually drain as slow as I thought it would. I'd recommend it.
Front End Clunk
So apparently back in April, I had chased a front end clunk down, that had been bothering me for I don't know how long. Happened when the suspension would receive a quick bump. Discovered a missing nut on one of the front sway bar end links. Easy fix. Happy to have solved that.
Ceramic Coat
Around late April early May, I decided to play around with something that I'd been wanting to for a long time and that was ceramic coatings. As good as I care for my 220k+ mile 14 year old truck with single stage paint, it's definitely seen better days and requires a lot of maintenance. I figured I'd give this a go to try and hold off the inevitable body work and respray that is long overdue. After a little research, I decided to just order a cheap one off Amazon.
The prep work was really the hardest part. Going off memory, I think what I had to do was:
- Wash
- Clay
- Paint Correct
- Polish
- Degrease
- IPA wash
Just to prep. Process took probably like a day and a half. Then I was ready to lay down the coating. Which TBH, was quite easy. Easier than waxing IMO. Time will tell, but so far I'm very pleased with it. Coating seems nice and hard. Shiny, and hydrophobic. So far I'm sold.
New Headlight Assemblies
Around mid June, I broke down and ordered new aftermarket headlight assemblies. Just tired of looking at my worn hazed headlights and the amount of maintenance required to keep them looking decent. I normally don't care for aftermarket lighting assemblies, but ordered a set anyway. I didn't have high hopes for them and they were cheap, so I pulled the trigger anyway.
Was pleased with the results. Made her look like a new truck from the front:
Locker
Late June, i dove into troubleshooting my e-locker. Decided I wanted to go the easy route and just purchase a plug and play solution, so I ordered a used locker motor from East Coast Gear Supply and a completely new harness from the 12 Volt Guy. It didn't quite work out the way I planned and needed a little more work than I had hoped.
New ECGS Locker next to my old one:
The new one was in considerably better shape than the one I pulled out of my truck.
New 12voltguy harness next to my old ORS (Offroad Solutions) Harness:
Initial impressions on the 12voltguy harness was that it was a nice neat package. He uses a DPDT switch where as on my old one, I provided my own SPDT switch and the harness worked the logic out through 3 relays. 12voltguy harness also integrates the lock position sensor from the diff and comes with a breather extension built into the harness. A nice touch:
To recap my adventures in getting this thing working:
- my first mock up I couldn't get the motor to run or synch up with the wiring.
- pulled the motor apart... Actually pulled my old motor apart first after trying to hit it with voltage and it not running, to find out it was absolutely disgusting inside. For informational purposes, the power circuit is on the big 6 pin connector, and is the 2 pins that are next to the blank. Hit them with voltage to cycle the motor one way and reverse polarity to back it up. Next I opened up the new one after talking with the seller (Chase @ ECGS) to make sure it was tested and good. He assured me it was and upon opening it confirmed that it was in great shape. He also said sometimes they overrun their limits and need to be re-clocked. After doing so, I hit it with voltage like and it ran. So confirmed motor worked.
- plugged the harness back to it and confirmed the harness power circuit works in mock up. Lock position sensor circuit and switch back-lighting was also previously validated, so switch and wiring were assumed good at this point.
- next wired it up on the truck. And of course, got nothing. After troubleshooting I finally came to the conclusion that the fuse tap was actually directional. So it mattered how I put that thing in. Duh. After I flipped it, the thing acted like it should except now the lock indicator light didn't illuminate.
- Next I decided to test a theory of maybe the rack position being just out of sensor detection range. So I place the diff in the "lock" position. Verified the light. Then just jogged the motor to the locked position and married everything back up.
Now everything works perfect. It probably took me a good month to button all of that up, working on it a little bit at a time when I had a spare moment. So satisfying to have gotten that all worked out.
In between starting and finishing the locker saga, I addressed a few maintenance items and added a couple of aesthetic touches to her.
Pinion Seal and Diff Breather
Being under the truck so much with the locker forced me to face the fact that the pinion seal needed replacing. Easy enough:
But the more important question was; What was really causing the oil to seep passed the seal, or why did it fail? My theory was that I needed a new diff breather. I also wanted to get it out of my fuel door, as that mod was making an absolute mess in there. Don't know if it was the breather itself, or the holes I cut in the membrane to pass it through and didn't seal it up properly, or a combination of both, but either way, I didn't like it. Pulled it out and relocated it elsewhere, cleaned up around the fuel door/cap, and healed the membrane back up. Good so far.
The whole mess also got me thinking about why my locker looked so bad when I got in there, and somewhere along the line, I discovered at some point I did this mod where I Tee'd the locker breather into the diff breather. I'm not sure it was the cause, But I definitely wouldn't recommend doing this. The locker looked night and day different from when I installed it maybe like 5 or 6 years ago. Plan is to try and rebuild that motor so I have a spare. We'll see how it goes.
I have to shout Chase owner of ECGS and Darren the 12 Volt Guy out. Please support their businesses. These guys customer support, expertise, and patience were top notch I'm helping me sort out my issues. Highly recommend them.
Rear Window Flag Decal/Caliper Wrap
A couple of aesthetic touches. Added those shadow American Flag decals that are pretty popular. I like the look. Subtle. Got a good deal on the 4th of July.
Also, my Amazon recommendations spiraled me down a path where I discovered that people are now wrapping brake calipers. figured I'd give it a go. Now my vinyl whispering skills are horrendous, but for a first timer and a admitted hack job, I'm actually kinda pleased with this little mod. The vinyl is reflective and gives it a dope pop that you can't really capture on photos:
Lastly, took her and a couple of new Jeep friends to ride Richland Road this past Sunday... Found out it was a bad idea. Been 5 years since we last rode this trail and apparently quite a lot has changed. First off, there are plenty of posted trespassing signs along the way, so we knew we were in the wrong. Anyway, there's on going apparent controversy on whether or not it's ROW state route or private property and land owners are putting up gates, blockades, cameras, arming themselves, etc. They are not happy with folks riding this land. We got out fairly unscathed, but man what an adventure.
Some pics (Flag decal maybe visible)
So stay off this road please guys. At least it's caused me to discover a couple of new legal wheeling destinations within driving distance. Also not sure if I've ever wheeled with my locker functioning properly but it was good to have. Not totally necessary but made things a little easier. That's it for now folks. Gotta run.
Last edited:
edwardvmassey
New member
What ceramic did you use? Did you use heat to cure it?
superman3043
Senior Member
This one. Heat? As in like a heat gun? Man no. Just gave it plenty of time to cure in and out of the Carolina sun.
superman3043
Senior Member
223K mile update
Just keeping the build current with the little goofing around I've been doing lately.
Flasher Relay
Order an LED flasher relay for $10 from Amazon. A long time ago when I first installed my bumper, I ordered some inline resistors ($5), and for whatever reason they never worked. So I've been living with the hyper flash ever since (about 7 years). Upon initial install, I discovered that I have the 12-pin DRL relay, not the 8-pin like I ordered. So after a little more research, ordered an adapter harness from Lowe Toyota in Warner Robins GA which hit me up for another $12 plus $8 shipping. All in 30 bucks to go from a fast flash to a slower flash... Oh well, for whatever strange reason, it was still satisfying to get done:
Spare TPMS Sensor
Starting to work through fooling my 5th sensor. I've been riding around without a spare for a long time, so I've been living with a dash light. I stumbled across a Youtube video where a guy was just able to squeeze down on the sensor to get the light to come off, so I thought "great!". The idea was just to lock a little C-clamp down on the sensor body and call it a day. Didn't quite work like the video. So now I'm back to the pipe bomb idea, though I haven't built it yet. I've never dismounted a tire from a wheel before and it turned out to be a little more challenging than I thought. Probably since it was the original spare from 2005. But using what I had and a little creativity, I got the job done:
White Outline Tire Lettering
This next one isn't for everyone, but I thought it would be a fun, cheap, quick mod that would change things up a little bit, and I personally like the old school look of white letter tires, especially on white trucks. The option for the white lettering wasn't available on my tires, so I just took a paint marker to them. I like it:
eimkeith PCK (Panhard Correction Kits)
So if anything good came out of [MENTION=65653]aha2988[/MENTION] selling his 4Runner, I guess it was that my truck was able to inherit his left over [MENTION=28464]eimkeith[/MENTION] PCK. Austin even agreed to weld it on for me if I took it off his hands. What a swell guy. This mod is everything it's cracked up to be. If you have a lifted truck, you need this. Truck overall drive-ability, predictability, and handling have greatly improved. Actually several years ago, I started to develop this solution myself, but the project died. I'm so glad somebody did it and did it justice by coming to market with a quality project. Also makes me happy that the adjustable panhard I bought a long time ago didn't quite.... "pan" out.... See what I did there? Okay, sorry about that.
Anyway, doesn't get any more level than this:
All for now kids. Build is going to pick up and get pretty exciting soon, so stay tuned.
Just keeping the build current with the little goofing around I've been doing lately.
Flasher Relay
Order an LED flasher relay for $10 from Amazon. A long time ago when I first installed my bumper, I ordered some inline resistors ($5), and for whatever reason they never worked. So I've been living with the hyper flash ever since (about 7 years). Upon initial install, I discovered that I have the 12-pin DRL relay, not the 8-pin like I ordered. So after a little more research, ordered an adapter harness from Lowe Toyota in Warner Robins GA which hit me up for another $12 plus $8 shipping. All in 30 bucks to go from a fast flash to a slower flash... Oh well, for whatever strange reason, it was still satisfying to get done:
Spare TPMS Sensor
Starting to work through fooling my 5th sensor. I've been riding around without a spare for a long time, so I've been living with a dash light. I stumbled across a Youtube video where a guy was just able to squeeze down on the sensor to get the light to come off, so I thought "great!". The idea was just to lock a little C-clamp down on the sensor body and call it a day. Didn't quite work like the video. So now I'm back to the pipe bomb idea, though I haven't built it yet. I've never dismounted a tire from a wheel before and it turned out to be a little more challenging than I thought. Probably since it was the original spare from 2005. But using what I had and a little creativity, I got the job done:
White Outline Tire Lettering
This next one isn't for everyone, but I thought it would be a fun, cheap, quick mod that would change things up a little bit, and I personally like the old school look of white letter tires, especially on white trucks. The option for the white lettering wasn't available on my tires, so I just took a paint marker to them. I like it:
eimkeith PCK (Panhard Correction Kits)
So if anything good came out of [MENTION=65653]aha2988[/MENTION] selling his 4Runner, I guess it was that my truck was able to inherit his left over [MENTION=28464]eimkeith[/MENTION] PCK. Austin even agreed to weld it on for me if I took it off his hands. What a swell guy. This mod is everything it's cracked up to be. If you have a lifted truck, you need this. Truck overall drive-ability, predictability, and handling have greatly improved. Actually several years ago, I started to develop this solution myself, but the project died. I'm so glad somebody did it and did it justice by coming to market with a quality project. Also makes me happy that the adjustable panhard I bought a long time ago didn't quite.... "pan" out.... See what I did there? Okay, sorry about that.
Anyway, doesn't get any more level than this:
All for now kids. Build is going to pick up and get pretty exciting soon, so stay tuned.
