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Toyota Project: TacoCart

Herzog

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wydaho
Amy took the tacoma up the mountain camping last week and said that the steering felt extra loose. Curious I drove up to check it out and the trackbar joint I was warned that may get loose, was definitely loose. It wasn't originally a trackbar joint, it was a teraflex upper CA joint that I used as a trackbar joint. Thinking that most johnny style joints were mostly equal I thought this would be just fine... turns out the tera joint race is a tad thicker and softer, which is nice for control arms, bad for trackbar / steering.

Luckily, after said warning I ordered a Summit Machine joint to replace it with should it fail.
Here's a comparison of the summit machine joint and the teraflex joint. Summit has a much larger ball and a harder race. The Teraflex race is actually pretty soft! Which, in it's proper use is probably a decent thing.
KoDc.jpg

KNof.jpg


Teraflex housing is pretty beefy for what it is. I wanted to keep as much of the housing as possible.
KXd1.jpg


Almost appears as if I could fit this summit case inside the tera case... hmmmmm
KCEk.jpg


Let's try it!
KQ1A.jpg


The teraflex case seems like hardened steel, so I just used lots of oil and a slow pace. Took a while but eventually I got through it.
KIj3.jpg


Like a glove :)
K6G9.jpg


Cleaned up so I could get some good penetration
KYM6.jpg


Cleared out a spot for the grease nipple
K48U.jpg


And now it's cooling for the night.
KAIg.jpg


To be continued...
 
Herzog

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wydaho
Alright, I've decided that the next step for the Taco Cart is a transfer case modification or upgrade. I've been planning on doing this for quite a while but the last trip with Greg solidified the decision. The Taco isn't geared well enough for the type of off-road I enjoy so that needs to change.

Current options appear to be:
1) Marlin Taco box which seem complicated and often out of stock
2) Atlas variant (4sp or normal 4.3:1 which I'd absolutely be ok with, but these trucks sure have enough room for that extra box... but damn that price tag)

I love the idea of the taco box as I get more variety of gear selection for a better price.
I love the idea of the atlas because I have experience with them already and you never really have to think about it ever again... and the fact that you can do front digs is always a bonus for overlanding right?

I also don't want to do any crazy adapting to the older toy boxes because I'm a fan of keeping the driver drop axle.

Any of you taco enthusiasts done something similar? Recommendations?
 
RockChucker

RockChucker

Well-Known Member
Location
Highland
What about an Atlas with a NWF ecobox-i?

Linky

That would put you several hundred cheaper than the 4 speed Atlas with all the same functionality. Bonus, the ecobox-i is also at least an inch shorter than AA's version. Thought I'm not sure you really care about an inch longer driveshaft in a double cab truck.

And bonus, if you order an Atlas now you might have it in 6-9 months! LOL Ok that might be exagerated. But not by much. I know it took forever for @xj_nate to get his.

Or to further bring on the price tag hurt....

Hero
 
Herzog

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wydaho
RockChucker said:
What about an Atlas with a NWF ecobox-i?

Linky

That would put you several hundred cheaper than the 4 speed Atlas with all the same functionality. Bonus, the ecobox-i is also at least an inch shorter than AA's version. Thought I'm not sure you really care about an inch longer driveshaft in a double cab truck.

And bonus, if you order an Atlas now you might have it in 6-9 months! LOL Ok that might be exagerated. But not by much. I know it took forever for @xj_nate to get his.

Or to further bring on the price tag hurt....

Hero
Click to expand...
That ecobox is cool! Man, I'd add that to the buggy if I had the length avail!
Spork said:
I've got a crawl box in mine, I'd have to go back through Steve's abner build to tell you which one though. I want to say it was budbuilt but I'm not sure they are even in business still.
Click to expand...
The more I look, I think I'm gonna build a crawl box. This is new toyota territory for me but it actually doesn't seem that bad.

Looks like I need a RF1A tcase, Adapters from either Trailgear or Marlin (Marlin looks much higher quality), I think I'll jump for the deeper gears (4.7) and then some stick shifters. That's not horrible.
 
N-Smooth

N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
RockChucker said:
And bonus, if you order an Atlas now you might have it in 6-9 months! LOL Ok that might be exagerated. But not by much. I know it took forever for @xj_nate to get his.
Click to expand...

Mine took 9 weeks, I just went back and checked since I documented it in my thread. I’ve heard longer now and I’ve seen people selling used Atlas’ for as much or more than you can get a new one for just because people don’t want to wait. It’s an interesting time.

That being said, it’s worth it!
 
Herzog

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wydaho
Ok, the parts gathering has begun. Today I acquired a tcase from Gravy that I will be using for the crawl box. I want to order the marlin parts but then I realized that is just for the tcase to box adapter and you have to get the transmission to box adapter separate (extra $ and out of stock...)

So now I'm looking at the trail gear kit... is the quality of this kit going to be OK? I'd rather not have to worry about it. Are there any other good options that will be in stock?

trail-gear.com

Tacoma Dual Case Adapter Kit

TACOMA DUAL CASE ADAPTER KIT
trail-gear.com trail-gear.com
 
Paul R

Paul R

Well-Known Member
Location
SLC
Herzog said:
Ok, the parts gathering has begun. Today I acquired a tcase from Gravy that I will be using for the crawl box. I want to order the marlin parts but then I realized that is just for the tcase to box adapter and you have to get the transmission to box adapter separate (extra $ and out of stock...)

So now I'm looking at the trail gear kit... is the quality of this kit going to be OK? I'd rather not have to worry about it. Are there any other good options that will be in stock?

trail-gear.com

Tacoma Dual Case Adapter Kit

TACOMA DUAL CASE ADAPTER KIT
trail-gear.com trail-gear.com
Click to expand...

I also prefer Marlin, but wasn't Trail Gear was the manufacture for a lot of the Marlin dual case stuff at some point? Or at least machined by the same place?
 
Herzog

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wydaho
Paul R said:
I also prefer Marlin, but wasn't Trail Gear was the manufacture for a lot of the Marlin dual case stuff at some point? Or at least machined by the same place?
Click to expand...
No clue honestly. This is new territory for me. I think some of the issues I've been reading about were from early trail-gear models. Maybe a lot of that has been resolved. I'm also guessing I'm gonna find out because from what I can see it's the most readily available kit right now.
 
Spork

Spork

Tin Foil Hat Equipped
Location
Saratoga Springs, UT
One thing to watch out for, on some of the kits there is a hole that shouldn't be there, I think it's left over from when the transmission and the doubler would share fluid, on a tacoma transmission it's sealed so the hole is just there to leak fluid. I really need to pull mine apart and find someone that can weld aluminum to fill the hole.
 
OrangeSkidPlate

OrangeSkidPlate

Active Member
Location
Pocatello
Had the trail gear adapter on my Tacoma, it worked well. Had to battle that leak mentioned by Spork. I remember resealing everything several times before I got it to stop. Wish I had gone with Marlin since the quality didn't seem all that great.
 
Coco

Coco

Well-Known Member
Location
Lehi, UT
My buggy had the TG adapter, twin sticks, and rear disconnect (which was absolutely amazing btw) never had an issue with TG product, I just made sure I used a shiz load of silly cone as I wasn't going to mess with leaks/taking it apart/re-sealing. Working at LROR, I had customers and even fellow employees that would have leaky dual setups no matter the brand used. Never had a leak or an issue on any of the components.

I wouldn't hesitate to use TG stuff again. Honestly I had wished several times that I stayed Toyota stuff. Never had half the leaks/issues I did when I went to the new drivetrain. Only complaint was after the duals, and the disconnect it was looonnngg.
 
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