Topic: BigMike's Big Journey: A 2016 Tacoma Build Thread

[BigMike]

Nov 15, 2016: "Stage 1" - New 33" rubbers!

Off to the tire/alignment shop! The stock wheels will be sufficient for Stage I.



WOOHOO! Man just driving this thing with even a modest lift already makes me feel 1,000% better. The front shocks came pre-adjusted from All Pro but as you can see they definitely sat too low.



So we cranked em up a lil and got the truck re-aligned the same day for free (nice)



Look'n better!





Ride quality:
So at this point I've only driven the truck around town a bit but WOW it is seriously so much better than stock. Granted, I never had the nice Bilstein you TRD Off Road guys have, but compared to the overly bouncy and under dampened Hitachi shocks this is a night and day difference. The ride quality has been drastically increased. Definitely looking forward to seeing how this does off road!

[BigMike [OP]]

Nov 17, 2016: Convinced my Dentist to get a new Tacoma!

I've got an awesome dentist who is an avid outdoorsman and he was so intrigued by my Epic Journey that after reading this Build Thread he went out and found a new White Double Cab Automatic (lol) SR5 V6.

It was cool showing up to his office with the new lift and tires only after a few days since he bought his. He was crawling all over mine asking 101 questions for what I've got planned for it. Ohh man it's so cool owning a truck that is so new to the world!

Sorry for the overexposed picture, I wanted to get em both in the same shot despite him parked in the shade. My front end could probably still go up a bit more but I do prefer a slight rake when unloaded...



If I make a sharp and aggressive entrance to a driveway I will have front tire to fender rubbing. I'll have to get this addressed before I go wheel'n. It is contacting the rear leading edge of both front inner wheel wells.

I discovered he has this AWESOME feature that I'm lacking: Rear cargo light. What. The. Heck. Toyota?! I've got a higher grade TRD Sport and yet my center light is only a one piece red unit with no cargo light feature. I'll have to get this factory option installed...



Random November pic

[BigMike [OP]]

Dec 7, 2016: Can't believe I never noticed this

The title says it all: I can't believe I never noticed this before. I'm driving to work on a chilly December morning and both mirrors are fogged. I think to myself, if this truck has heated seats then it better have heated mirrors and sure enough I found one of the most obvious buttons for this that I have not noticed before I'm still like a kid in a candy store over here!



Ahh much better



Jan 22, 2017: Drove up to a snowy Shaver Lake

Marlin and I both missed the Central Valley Crawler's Annual New Year's Day Snow Run so I was itch'n to get back up to the mountains in this thing.

Wife and I finally had some time to run away so we took a quick spin up to Shaver Lake. Nothing special, just mainly stayed on the pavement and enjoyed some quiet time together for a change.

Took a quick stop at Cressman's



Wife taking some pics of the pretty snow-covered pine trees. I remember noticing that was the first water exposure to the inner door panels.



Haven't seen Shaver Lake this high in a good five years. I hope we can get out of this 7+ yr long drout!

[300k]

Yes yes, keep it coming!

so what are you gonna do with that lift kit once you SAS her? (sorry )

[emsvitil]

Please show side by side pictures of "old shoes" , "new shoes".......


 

[BigMike [OP]]

Jan 30, 2017: Finally no more hood scoop!

The next week I was leaving a Starbucks when a white TRD Off Road pulls up. I immediately walk over, introduce myself, and ask if the guy is interested in a hood with a fake plastic hood scoop? He got all excited and so did I so I had him meet me back at our shop and we both couldn't have been happier!!

I have to give a shout-out to a member on TacomaWorld by the moniker "bowzerdoo77" who originally contacted me way back in April of last year requesting a hood swap. We tried to meet up once in Barstow, but it didn't work out, and in the end I think I was too busy with other things to follow through and ended up backing out of the exchange. Brody, thanks again for the offer and hope you've found a hood scoop hood by now!

LET'S DO THIS! Death to fake hood scoops that limit overthehood trail visibility!



The donor (a DoubleCab Automatic of course ): Hey Ruben if you're on our forum then thanks for the exchange!



The patient:



Hood off! Still have that sweet Moab red dust



My old hood on Ruben's Tacoma. Man, Ruben was super happy!



My new hood! YES, now I was super happy!! Haha we were both so impressed with ourselves



Interestingly, when performing the swap I noticed his hood was made at the Mexico plant. Well....... my Tacoma was made at the Texas plant so I can't spoil it, right..... but come to find out my hood is also made in Mexico.

I also noticed Ruben had the same switch/option as my dentist.



I really like this clear lens cover. Mine is 100% full red straight across with no cargo/utility light (see second pic up from the bottom of my previous post). I'll be happy to get this swapped in-

[BigMike [OP]]

Please show side by side pictures of "old shoes" , "new shoes".......

Good idea, I'll see if I can find good comparison pics...


Edit 5/24/17: I forgot to post up a short trip report!

March 18, 2016: I towed the Crawler Truck!

Holly "EvilToy", a long time family friend, local customer, and board member here got married(!) and we had both my Hilux and the Crawler Truck setup as a backdrop for her wedding. The wedding featured over 20 Rock Crawlers setup as backdrops and it was awesome. The next day after the wedding I drove the Taco up to retrieve the Crawler Truck. The All Pro springs don't carry much weight (which I am happy about since I'll be looking for some flex outta em) but the power was great. I pulled out in front of traffic and when you open up this 2GR-FKS and get it into the high RPM range man it pulls dang good.

Heading back home through the foothills



Made it back to the shop safely

[BigMike [OP]]

Spent Feb and early Mar finishing up and launching our new website, so didn't have anytime for the Tacoma.

March 29, 2017: The Meat of the matter

Finally I had reached the first day of the most important project for this truck.

Back on the MC lift



Oh, hello thar.



Whoops, was this not supposed to fall off?

[emsvitil]

What' s the '046' box on the transfercase ?

And how much lift did you get out of the suspension mods?

[mudmaster]

Still rear drums??

[THK Matt]

I get excited seeing all of the tweaks to this thing.

[Rockcrawlintoy]

What' s the '046' box on the transfercase ?

Shift solenoid for the turn of the dial 4x4?

[H8PVMNT]

I see a shifter and more gear reduction in your future.

[BigMike [OP]]

I get excited seeing all of the tweaks to this thing.

What' s the '046' box on the transfercase ?

Shift solenoid for the turn of the dial 4x4?

Bingo.

And how much lift did you get out of the suspension mods?

This is one excellent question. When I get the truck back from a special project I will get some measurements and compare with what I had posted before

Still rear drums??

Yes..... For now.

I see a shifter and more gear reduction in your future.

I've heard the horror stories about electric shift solenoids getting gummed up with debris or worse water damage such that they stop functioning, but so long as it still works for me I am planning on leaving it. I've got the push dial on the dash and so far it works well. If it starts act'n up then I'll definitely be changing things.

[emsvitil]

Still rear drums??

Nothing the matter with rear drums.......

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/08/2016-toyota-tacoma-still-rear-drum-brakes-heres-video/


BTW,  my 86 stock rear drums are bigger..............

[Redbeard1]

Nothing the matter with rear drums.......

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/08/2016-toyota-tacoma-still-rear-drum-brakes-heres-video/


BTW,  my 86 stock rear drums are bigger..............

I am with you on this there is nothing wrong with rear drums. I am quite glad that my 2016 still has them.

The parking brake assemblies in most of the disk break setups out there suck. Tiny little 1" wide brake shoes in a 6-8" drum that won't hold the trucks from rolling on flat ground. If they were like the Cadillac calipers of the olden days that used a lever on the caliper piston that would be a different story.

[79coyotefrg]

[R.DesJardin]

Been waiting to see the t-case drop.

[BigMike [OP]]

when you open up this 2GR-FKS and get it into the high RPM range man it pulls dang good.

Thought it would be fun to run a comparison of 4cyl and 6cyl past and present engines...

	Disp (cc)	HP	@ RPM	HP/Liter	TQ	@ RPM	TQ/Liter
20R	2189	90	4800	41.1	122	2400	55.7
22R	2366	96	4800	40.6	129	2800	54.5
22R-E	2366	112	4600	47.3	142	3400	60.0
22R-TE*	2366	135	4800	57.1	173	2800	73.1	Boosted @ factory 6 PSI
3RZ-FE	2693	150	4800	55.7	177	4000	65.7
3RZ-F(Z)E*	2693	218	4800	81.0	257	4000*	95.4	TRD Supercharged rating @ 6 PSI, Peak TQ RPM will be considerably lower, Including this to make fun of the 22R-TE
2TR-FE	2693	159	5200	59.0	180	3800	66.8
	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
3VZ-E	2958	150	4800	50.7	180	3400	60.9
5VZ-FE	3378	190	4800	56.2	220	3600	65.1
1GR-FE	3956	236	5200	59.7	266	3700	67.2
1GR-FE*	3956	270	5600	68.3	278	4400	70.3	Dual VVT-i (4Runner/FJ C), What I figured Toyota would run in the new 3rd gen Taco
2GR-FKS	3456	278	6000	80.4	265	4600	76.7	New 3rd Gen Tacoma, VVT-iW intake + VVT-i exhaust, Port + Direct Injection
	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
2GR-FKS	3456	295	6300	85.4	267	4700	77.3	Lexus RX350
1UZ-FE	3969	290	5900	73.1	300	4100	75.6	Lexus LS400, V8 + VVT-i

I see a lot of people giving the new 3.5-liter V6 a bad name but honestly it's a great engine. It's even putting out more HP & TQ per liter than the almighty 4.0-liter 1UZ V8. Also look at the Lexus version which is even better (however tuned for a car so likely even less bottom end TQ). I'm sure the complaint stems from less bottom end torque as it not only makes 1 ft-lb less torque but you also have to wait an additional 900 RPM to get there. I'd love to see dyno graphs of both engines. I should get mine dyno'd just to see what it looks like. There is a company called Orange Virus Tuning, https://www.ovtuned.com, who has found very interesting facts about newer Toyota engines such as Toyota closing the throttle once some predetermined peak (limited) power is met. (I can understand why; This is a simplified way to ensure all engines have the same rated output.) With new ECU programming, they have already shown to make upwards of 26 more HP and 30 more TQ from just a simple remap of the Lexus 3.5-liter engine. In case you're wondering, yes, I've already contacted them

Nothing the matter with rear drums.......

While I agree drum brakes have their place, the static holding force of a caliper and disc simply cannot be beat for Rock Crawling. When I went to discs in the rear of my '81 it became so much easier to hold the truck at a stop on very steep climbs such as long steep canyon climbs out at the Hammers.

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/08/2016-toyota-tacoma-still-rear-drum-brakes-heres-video/

I'll give this about a 2 out of 10 because:

We asked Tacoma Chief Engineer Mike Sweers last week why the new Tacoma didn’t have discs in the back (unlike the new Tundra) and he pointed specifically to that piercing wail — and that most owners don’t need them anyhow.

Here it is folks, the prime reason in plain daylight as to why we don't have a rugged live front axle Turbocharged Diesel 70-series Land Cruiser here. "They are too noisy and most customers don't want them anyhow"            

Regards,
BigMike

[V-Man]

which crawler box fits please tell me...please please.

[V-Man]

Nov 2, 2016: "Stage 1" - Differential Gearing

-- Because my truck is a manual, it already came with 4.30:1 gearing (vs 3.901:1 for 6cyl autos). So the drop to 4.88:1, which is a staple Hilux/minitruck gear ratio with history dating back to the late 80s and rice paddy use in Brazil, will only net a 13.5% reduction meaning any tire size larger than 34.7" (30.6" + 13.5%) will cause the truck to become overgeared. There is another common aftermarket Toyota ratio, the 5.29:1, but Nitro has no interest in making this ratio for the 3rd gen. Their reasoning is that anyone who needs that low of gearing would ditch IFS anyway. I agree. Here we have another negative strike against keeping the truck IFS.

With 4.88 you are only "OVER gear by 0.04:1 on 35's since the calculator calls for 4.92 with 35's.  You will be under gear by 0.37:1 with 5.29.  I'll just switch to 4.88 and keep it simple. 

I don't know what you are talking about ARB has had 4.88 and 5.29 geared lockers for the 3rd gen Tacoma here is Canada since "LAST"  year.

[Hilux_Max]

Thought it would be fun to run a comparison of 4cyl and 6cyl past and present engines...

	Disp (cc)	HP	@ RPM	HP/Liter	TQ	@ RPM	TQ/Liter
20R	2189	90	4800	41.1	122	2400	55.7
22R	2366	96	4800	40.6	129	2800	54.5
22R-E	2366	112	4600	47.3	142	3400	60.0
22R-TE*	2366	135	4800	57.1	173	2800	73.1	Boosted @ factory 6 PSI
3RZ-FE	2693	150	4800	55.7	177	4000	65.7
3RZ-F(Z)E*	2693	218	4800	81.0	257	4000*	95.4	TRD Supercharged rating @ 6 PSI, Peak TQ RPM will be considerably lower, Including this to make fun of the 22R-TE
2TR-FE	2693	159	5200	59.0	180	3800	66.8
	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
3VZ-E	2958	150	4800	50.7	180	3400	60.9
5VZ-FE	3378	190	4800	56.2	220	3600	65.1
1GR-FE	3956	236	5200	59.7	266	3700	67.2
1GR-FE*	3956	270	5600	68.3	278	4400	70.3	Dual VVT-i (4Runner/FJ C), What I figured Toyota would run in the new 3rd gen Taco
2GR-FKS	3456	278	6000	80.4	265	4600	76.7	New 3rd Gen Tacoma, VVT-iW intake + VVT-i exhaust, Port + Direct Injection
	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
2GR-FKS	3456	295	6300	85.4	267	4700	77.3	Lexus RX350
1UZ-FE	3969	290	5900	73.1	300	4100	75.6	Lexus LS400, V8 + VVT-i

I see a lot of people giving the new 3.5-liter V6 a bad name but honestly it's a great engine. It's even putting out more HP & TQ per liter than the almighty 4.0-liter 1UZ V8. Also look at the Lexus version which is even better (however tuned for a car so likely even less bottom end TQ). I'm sure the complaint stems from less bottom end torque as it not only makes 1 ft-lb less torque but you also have to wait an additional 900 RPM to get there. I'd love to see dyno graphs of both engines. I should get mine dyno'd just to see what it looks like. There is a company called Orange Virus Tuning, https://www.ovtuned.com, who has found very interesting facts about newer Toyota engines such as Toyota closing the throttle once some predetermined peak (limited) power is met. (I can understand why; This is a simplified way to ensure all engines have the same rated output.) With new ECU programming, they have already shown to make upwards of 26 more HP and 30 more TQ from just a simple remap of the Lexus 3.5-liter engine. In case you're wondering, yes, I've already contacted them
While I agree drum brakes have their place, the static holding force of a caliper and disc simply cannot be beat for Rock Crawling. When I went to discs in the rear of my '81 it became so much easier to hold the truck at a stop on very steep climbs such as long steep canyon climbs out at the Hammers.
I'll give this about a 2 out of 10 because:Here it is folks, the prime reason in plain daylight as to why we don't have a rugged live front axle Turbocharged Diesel 70-series Land Cruiser here. "They are too noisy and most customers don't want them anyhow"            

Regards,
BigMike

Here's another one for ya....the current Hilux 2.8D

130kW = 176hP
450nM of torque = 332 foot pounds
(from 1600rpm to 2400rpm)

What are the plans for a Crawl Box in this Tacoma?

[BigMike [OP]]

With 4.88 you are only "OVER gear by 0.04:1 on 35's since the calculator calls for 4.92 with 35's.

Not sure which calculator you are referring to but at 33" tires I am already overgeared. It looks like I haven't mentioned this yet but with the 285/70R17 tires installed my speedometer now reads 3 to 5 MPH too low: When my GPS says I'm doing 75 my speedometer is showing 71 MPH. This doesn't make sense on paper as direct calculations shows, as quoted, that a 34.7" actual OD will lower my speedometer back to stock yet somehow now it's already too low. It will be possibly two more weeks until I can measure my new tires but they are only supposed to be a 32.7" OD. It's only gonna get worse with larger tires so I'll need to get a speedometer corrector soon.

You will be under gear by 0.37:1 with 5.29.  I'll just switch to 4.88 and keep it simple.

I pine deeply for 5.29s.

I don't know what you are talking about ARB has had 4.88 and 5.29 geared lockers for the 3rd gen Tacoma here is Canada since "LAST"  year.

As far as I know this is only true for the front locker, which was unchanged for the 3rd gen. Regarding the rear, keep in mind I'm only caught up to March. As I recall we got a rear 3rd gen Taco locker from ARB's first batch only a week before we got it installed. So maybe ARB had them in Feb but I don't think they had them has far back as Dec 2016. I don't do the ordering around here so I probably have wrong information. There is no such thing currently as a 5.29:1 R&P for the non-Electric Locker 3rd gen Tacoma rear end.

Here's another one for ya....the current Hilux 2.8D

Ohhh man if only we got a diesel here!!

	Disp (cc)	HP	@ RPM	HP/Liter	TQ	@ RPM	TQ/Liter
1GD-FTV	2755	177	3400	64.2	330	1600	119.8	Turbo Diesel 4cyl

That is so amazing. I don't know why "Americans" literally do not want this.

[emsvitil]

30.6 (old tire) / 32.7 (new tire) = .936 * 75mph = 70.2mph  (71)

Which pretty much agrees with your GPS and speedo..................

[R.DesJardin]

I have the 2wd Tacoma speedo from my donor truck, ironically with 4.88's and 36's it's right on. What are the odds.

[BigMike [OP]]

March 29, 2017: The Meat of the matter (continued)

Happy to see we have some nice room to play with in here. Duals should be a piece of cake but it will require a good deal of cutting to get Triples in.



The goal at this point is to just get our Dual Ultimate (4.70:1) installed so I can make it to TLCA's Cruise Moab which is a month away.

This will make my Tacoma...

• 4.7 times slower than stock
• 4.7 times more torque than stock at any RPM
• 4.7 times more control
• 4.7 times longer reaction time
• 4.7 times stronger engine compression brake force (never use your brakes dropping off any size obstacle), and
• Big increase in traction due to moving slower minimizing tire slip

Additional upsides include...

• Less bouncing
• Less breaking parts
• Less trail abuse, and
• Less risk.

It will be transformed into a 28-speed, having 24 forward gears and 4 reverse, and an overall final drive / Crawl Ratio of 235:1. All of this from just one Marlin Crawler setup!
 

I'll run the Dual Ultimate through the year and move up to Triples in the off-season/winter as I'll have a lot of other work to get done in the interim.

After removing the stock t/case we took measurements and used this opportunity to introduce our MC3X adapter product line! Say hello to our brand new USA-made Billet Aluminum 3rd gen Tacoma transmission bolt pattern adpater!



We have made considerable improvements to our Transmission-to-Transfer case bolt pattern adapter plate kits, now branded under an all-new MC3X product line:
MC30 - All 3VZ 4WD drivetrains (formerly known as a 30-4GT Adapter Kit)
MC31 - All 5VZ/RZ 4WD drivetrains and some UZ 4WD drivetrains (formerly known as 27-4GT, 34-4GT & 47-4GT Adapter Kits)
MC32 - 1GR 4WD drivetrain (formerly known as a 40-4GT Adapter Kit)

Improvements include simplification of fastners (no more elusive Ford "D-bolt" nor having to clearance transmission tail housing flange), increased oiling/cooling, an 8% weight reduction, and an increase in strength across the transmission pattern by a solid 25%. For the cherry on top we're now hard anodizing them Marlin Crawler red :smokn:

What our Transmission-to-Transfer Case Bolt Pattern Adapters do is convert transmission tail housing bolt patterns to that of a 1979-1995 gear drive Toyota transfer case. This opens the flood gates to the entire world of everything Marlin Crawler Rock Crawling. They are located in the lower section of our website here, https://www.marlincrawler.com/transfer-case/adapters, however as these are brand new we need to get this section of our website updated to reflect the improvements.

[BigMike [OP]]

Basics of a Marlin Crawler Dual Case Setup:
When Marlin founded Rock Crawling in 1994, he created what he called a "Dual Transfer Case". This term is actually inaccurate as there are not two transfer cases (nor are there four drivelines): There is still only one transfer case. Rather, he has duplicated the low range section (containing High-Netural-Low) of the transfer case.

"Don't Gear Down, Double Up!"



If you ever get a chance to go wheel'n with Marlin and sit with him at a campfire you'll be in for some amazing stories. He'll describe how Toyota pickups were outnumbered on the trails 30:1 by Jeeps, save for but a few Land Cruisers. How back in the 80s and early 90s very few people wheel'd Toyota pickups. How Jeeps owned & ran the show. And how it was common to be told to "get his Jap tin can off the trail".

As many know Marlin is famous for carrying a ton of recovery parts that he uses to help rescue broken rigs. But the reason why he began carrying so much is actually because he would go out for a weekend and never see another pickup for three days. He carried so much out of necessity. He'll even tell you it was out of fear. Forget about trying to find spare parts -- there weren't even other like vehicles on the trail.

The reason why Marlin was able to finally get recognition for Toyota pickups is due to the unique 4-housing design of the Toyota Gear Drive T/Case. The first housing contains the High-Netural-Low (low range) components while housings 2-4 contain front and rear output components (2WD-4WD). A bit more is explained on this very old tech page of ours, https://www.marlincrawler.com/java/gearvschain.html.



This design of the 1979-95 Toyota Gear Drive T/Case is highly unique and is unlike 99% of all mass produced 4WD truck transfer cases. This is not possible with any Jeep/GM/Ford/Chrysler/Nissan/Suzuki/etc t/case except for the older, unpopular, and almost 3 times more heavy NP203. This is why Marlin was able to transform the Toyota pickup into a break-out star: By extracting only the first housing, we can stack and combine High-N-Low sections, what Marlin calls a "Crawl Box", one after the other as many as desired like pancakes. Two? Three? Four? How about Ten? The limiting factor is how much can be removed from your rear drive line -- and this is where the Toyota Hilux/4Runner and even more so these long wheelbase Tacoma's shine. The traditional Jeep has a very short wheelbase rendering this process either impossible or very difficult (requiring a very tall lift or repositioning the engine forward). The same applies for the classic FJ40 Land Cruiser (which used to be more common on the trail than Toyota pickups) and Suzuki Samurai. As such the Toyota pickup became extremely capable off-road and an overnight sensation all thanks to the Marlin Crawler. The rest as they say is history!

[BigMike [OP]]

March 29, 2017: The Meat of the matter (continued)

At this point I had a decision to make:
1. Keep my original 6-speed manual transmission-type transfer case with it's electric shift solenoid,
or
2. Replace it with a 6-speed manual transmission-type transfer case from a FJ Cruiser which uses a manual top-shift shift handle (just like our older Hilux pickups!)

I decided to keep my original t/case with electric shift solenoid. The reason is three-fold as 1) I like to keep parts original as much as I can and it would be neat to retain it, 2) while I've heard horror stories of dust, grime, and water getting into the electric shift solenoids causing them to not function, I've already got a nice push dial on my dash and I'd like to keep it and see how it does for a few years (we make the most successful seals on the market,  Marlin Crawler EcoSeals, so if this does prove an issue then we will flat-out resolve it), and 3) not everyone is willing to give up a cup holder so I'm planning to design a proper remote shift setup that will satisfy Tacoma, 4Runner, FJ Cruiser, T100, and Tundra customers alike.

Next is an issue with my manual-transmission-type t/case input spline count.

When Toyota introduced the 6-speed manual transmission, they finally made a man-sized input gear, namly the 19-spline. This input is massive compared to the older 6-cyl manual transmission's 23-spline input of the golden years (adopted from the 1986 Turbocharged 22R-TE 4cyl & still in use after all these years). Starting with the 2nd gen Tacoma, there are two 6cyl spline types offered: The traditional 23-spline input (auto applications) and the new, massive 19-spline input (manual applications). Unfortunately for us our world-famous Double-Roll output coupler/mainshaft bearing does not have a large enough ID to accept the 19-spline t/case input. Marlin already designed a solution for the 19-spline back in 2006 but demand has been too low to produce it. Little by little things like this are going to be changing as we move deeper into newer Toyota models.

So currently the only way to install a Marlin Crawler Dual Case into a Tacoma, which since 2001 is known as a "TacoBox", is to use the 23-spline automatic-type t/case input. I cracked open my t/case of only 8,000 miles to perform an input gear conversion





While looking things over I noticed my freak'n oil pump is already galling!!



Here you can see a lot of wear on the softer aluminum housing:



What's up Toyota? Only 8K miles and my t/case oil pump has noticable wear? Not much I can do now beings I've open up the t/case (bubye warranty) but I'm sure glad I noticed it. I promptly ordered a new pump gear & housing from Toyota -- which was delivered with perfectly smooth polished surfaces.

When changing to the smaller 23-spline automatic-transmission-type input we must also change to it's matching t/case nose cone. So here we have automatic input and nose cone installed onto my manual t/case:



Now we are finally ready for some MARLIN CRAWLER MAGIC!



The test mule is a modified MC11 USA-made Billet Aluminum Dual Case adapter with our signature double-roller maximum capacity 32-ball count main bearing now for the first time ever utilizing our Extreme Duty lower cage bearing:

[300k]

You've got me sitting here refreshing the page, Mike! I'm glad I stayed up to witness this magic as it unfolds. Maybe the future for offroading won't be so bleak with Marlin Crawler around

[BigMike [OP]]

I was out of town for a week and knowing time was critical I had Rocky, who is our drivetrain specialist of 16 yrs, build my TacoBox with a set of our 4.70:1 Competition gears (made from Chromoly by Toyota's own gear cutter in Japan) that feature our Total-Spline technology (world's strongest Toyota input design).

This also meant I missed the opportunity to get pics of the build. I do have studio pics for a 1st gen Tacoma which is nearly identical except for bolt patterns...



This is our MC09 TacoBox with our new updated front & rear adapters. Click each thumbnail for larger resolution:



We are looking at a 1979-95 Toyota High-Neutral-Low t/case section extracted and placed between two Marlin Crawler adapters ready to be mounted between your choice 1995.5+ transmission and transfer case.

Described by location:

Transmission --> TacoBox --> Transfer Case

Described by shift modes:

Transmission --> H-N-L --> 2H-4H-4N-4L

The nice thing about duplicating the High-Neutral-Low section is that in High Range we have a 1:1 direct drive meaning that whatever torque we have entering the Marlin Crawler will be the same exiting (ignoring insignificant parasitic losses).

New T/Case Gear choices become:
1. Marlin Crawler in High, stock Tacoma t/case in High = 1.00:1 x 1.00:1 = 1:1 (cruise on highway same as factory)
2. MC in High, Taco in Low = 1 x 2.57 = 2.57:1 (same as any other Tacoma on the trail)
3. MC in Low, Taco in High = 4.70 x 1 = 4.70:1 (83% lower than stock!)
4. MC in Low, Taco in Low = 4.70 x 2.57 = 12.08:1 (370% lower than stock!!!)

When you replace the 1979-95 2.28:1 factory Toyota low range as I've done with our 4.70:1 ratio (which Marlin created in 1995), you have what we call a "TacoBox Supreme". Probably 95% of all TacoBoxes we build are Supremes. The primary reasons for this are 1) if you're going to do this much work why not go all out, and 2) with the Supreme you get three very distinct ratios (2.57:1 & 4.70:1 & their combined 12.08:1) instead of a similar pair of 2.28:1 & 2.57:1 which isn't nearly as interesting.

There is one final part remaining and that is how do we get the smaller 23-spline automatic-type t/case input to connect to my manual transmission's larger 19-spline output and for this we designed a 19-to-23-spline coupler with an extended length specifically to match our Total Spline input technology. I'll update the thread with more info & pics of this once we get actual production couplers ready.