Topic: Wyatt and Marlin back from Down Under

[AWSUMDC]

Well, we're back and all is well now but it didn't go with out a hitch,
we didn't have internet service so I wasn't able to give you the trip like I wanted to so lets start from the beginning.

Marlin and his wife arrived at my house on Friday and Marlin was surprised to see that his daughter was there as well. We packed up my wifes 4Runner and were off to LAX. We got there early and Marlin was off making new friends already. Didn't take him long at all to make friends with a couple of Aussies, a Chinese guy, a girl at the food court and an old man from Tasmania. I knew the entertainment was gonna be watching Marlin talk to everyone with in reach of him and e didn't dissapoint.

Here is Marlin at the food court in L.A.


Our flight to Sydney took a little mare than 14 hours and wasn't really that bad at all. Got to watch a couple of movies and sleep for a bit and then we touched down in Sydney.
Marlin and I waiting to get on our flight to Melbourne.


On the plane now heading for Melbourne.



The coast of Australia.


Getting ready to land in Melbourne.


When we got there we were going to Max's car we found all sorts of cars that we don't have here in the states. This one is a Holden, the same as the Pontiac G8 over here. Pretty cool car.


A right hand drive Prado which is our Lexus over here.



Once we got in Max's car we noticed something strange about it


Here is Marlin driving our rental car. I drove most of the time but Marlin wanted to drive so I got a picture of him on the wrong side of the car.
Those right hand turns were alot of fun since you have to cross traffic to make one. Just like our left hand turns but on the wrong side of the street. They have alot of round-a-bouts too. Those were fun.


marlin and I found this old Ford Falcon wagon that was right hand drive. Pretty cool.




Right off the bat we ran into a problem. Even though we researched this and we got all the information we could from Toyota, it didn't tell us the information we needed to know. On the Hilux in Australia the transfercase is a forward shift unit as opposed to our top shift units here. It shifts through the transfer case adapter at the back of the transmission instead of through the top of the transfer case like they do here. Also, all the books we looked at told us that the transmission was an a340f which was true but it use an adapter at the back of it that has the bolt pattern of the a750f that is found on the 4.0 Taco's and FJ Cruisers so the adapter plates from Marlin weren't going to work either.



Got the transfer case pulled out.


Here is the transfer case from Max's Hilux. Notice that the shift rods go all the way through the box and then have he little feet for the shift handle. This would be in the back of the transmission.


We took a little break when the post man came by. They ridesmotor bikes instead of mail trucks.


Max trying to calm down when he found out that this was a MAJOR set back. Everyman has to have his "binkie"... at least that as what Max was trying to get me to believe.


I'll get more up in the morning and finish it by tomorrow night.

[TheCookieMonster]

sweet. i want to see what you guys came up with 

[Cheesemaker]

That has got to be the first time I've seen Marlin in a shirt other than his shop shirts! 

[chim]

That has got to be the first time I've seen Marlin in a shirt other than his shop shirts! 

That's the exact same thing I thought! haha

Cool pics though!

[79coyotefrg]

[AWSUMDC [OP]]

I'll ge all the rest of it done tonight.  You guys will love the tour of ARB we had.

[Rocksurfer]

Just goes to show that everything isn't the same country to country, especially when the U.S. is involved.

[V-Man]

Well, we're back and all is well now but it didn't go with out a hitch,
we didn't have internet service so I wasn't able to give you the trip like I wanted to so lets start from the beginning.


Once we got in Max's car we noticed something strange about it

I'll get more up in the morning and finish it by tomorrow night.

  Sounds like you all had a great time.. though I am interested in the anntena in this and the previous pic..
Looks a lot like comet or Diamond  Ham antennas I have seen

[AWSUMDC [OP]]

Since the transfer case was a forward shift we had to figure out how to fix this little issue, so it was off to the junk yard to see if we could find a transfer case that we could use. We had also emailed Dave at Marlins shop to have him send out some parts that we were now going to need. A short through shifter, front and rear adapter plates, and the shorter shift rods that we needed.

We got to the wrecker, thats what they call junk yards in Australia, and Marlin was in heaven. We saw stuff their that they don't have here in the states.



Here is a 70 series that would be a great truck to modify here in the states.


I don't remember what Marlin was pointing too but I can tell you he was excited.


Another good 70 series body to work from. Wonder how much it would cost to ship one of these back.


Marlin taking off a part he wanted.


We didn't find the transfer case we wanted or needed so we left. On the way back home we stopped at a metal yard to get some round stock for the shifter handles and spotted this right hand drive chevy diesel.



round the corner from the Chevy we spotted this FJ 40 with a chevy V8 in it.




We saw alot of their trucks there had flat beds. They call them trays down under. They don't understand why we like our beds so much over here. I told them it was all about vanity and not practicality.

Closer to home we found this 4 wheel drive shop that was just getting ready to close. They let us in and came to find out that the owner knew who marlin and I were. He has a Marlin Crawler box in is older truck. They had all kinds of off road vehicles in there and although the Toyota Hilux is not only the best selling 4 wheel drive truck on the market and the best selling vehicle in Australia, the Toyotas are not the most favored there or competition. The Nissan Patrol is. I seems that they just don't break down and their rear diffs are huge. We're talking 14 bolt size. Bigger than the Dana 60's in my truck. While Toyota has the better reputation for quality, the Patrol,has it for durability in the outback. Come on Toyota, get with the program.
FJ 40 wagon


An 80 series. With a tray or flat bed as we call it.



A right hand drive 4Runner before they started calling them Surfs.

[AWSUMDC [OP]]

The next day we got our email back from Dave letting us know that we had parts coming from the US. It wouldn't e until later that we would fin out that the expected delivery date was Friday at 5:20pm.

We headed off to ARB to see what kind of trouble we could get into there.


We couldn't believe that they just let us walk around and take the pictures we did. We were right in the workers stations taking pictures and asking questions about what they were doing. It was great.



These are some of the carriers before they are finished.



And the machine where they were machined in.


An unfinished diff cover.


Finished diff covers.


Carriers


The machine to finish the carriers






Rough casts









Here is a picture of the guy putting on the serial number before the locker goes in the box. It was pretty cool haw they do it. It is all computerized. He just holds the scribe on the locker and it writes the number on it.


Then he wraps it and puts it in the box.


A pallet of ARB air lockers waiting to be shipped.


Switches and stuff.


Compressors.



Parts for the compressors.




Metal going into the laser cutter.



The laser cutter in action.


Bumper parts.



Robotic welders.


A bunch of jigs for bumper parts.







Getting ready for the powder coating. No ARB bumper goes out in raw metal. They are all powder coated before they leave the factory.



Going in the powder coater


Coming out of the powder coating.


ARB makes bumpers for Toyota to put onto trucks coming out of the Toyota factory and they are sold as genuine Toyota parts.


Saw a couple of neat trucks in the parking lot at ARB.


They had two new Land Rovers in there and a right and drive jeep something or other. It's a Jeep thing and I dont wanna understand.



We went into the engineers room to see some of their cool stuff and found the axle testing machine. This is where they test the ARB lockers fro strength and end up breaking the axle's before they break the lockers.



This was a shock testing machine.


This is a massive rear end off of a Dodge truck, It's one of those AMA rear ends.


Here are some of the cool trucks that were sitting in front of the ARB headquarters.


This is Danial, the head engineer at ARB. This is the man!


This is the new 70 series with the V8 diesel. I want one.




This is the new 100 series landcruiser with the V8 diesel in it. Man was this thing quite.





The last picture from ARB. Me and Marlin in front of ARB headquarters. Man was this a cool time.

[AWSUMDC [OP]]

So now, onto the mission at hand. The install.but first we needed to alter Max's stock transfer case. You see, Max's transfer case is a front shifting case and we need it to be a top shifter so we went back to the junk yard and found a right hand drop case that ad the short shafts we were looking for. We couldn't wait until Friday to get the parts we ordered from Marlin Crawler.

We found a case that would work. It was a right hand drop but it had the rods we needed so we bought it and took it back. Here is Max's case on the left and the case we bought is on the right. Notice that the rods are shorter on the one that we bought and that the shift fingers are on the inside of the transfer case instead of on the outside of it like Max's is.



Here Marlin tearing down the donor case with a little visual insperation.



Here is Max cleaning off the transfer case getting ready for Marlin to take it apart and put in the correct rods for this modification.


Tearing apart the transfer case.


Notice how one of the shafts is shorter than the other one. Thats the one we need.




Then it was time to put max's transfer case back together again. First we needed to pull the coupler off. This is the hard way if you don't know how to do it or have the right puller. Lucky for us that Marlin not only knows how to do it, he also brought along the correct puller.





And here are Max's new shift rods. Now we can go to work.


The shift rods back into the case.


Putting it all back together.



And here it is. All back together and ready for the crawler.


Here are the four Muskateers.

Marlin, Max, Matty, and Me. Hey look. All m's in our names. I know! Don't say it. I saw the flag too.


Marlin and Matty gettin' down with the homies.


This is something we don't see in the states either. A factory short through shifter. We found a bunch of these and found out that they use the because they use more bench seats in their 4x4's than we do. Notice how tall the base is for the shifter. The higher the pivot point is for the shifter, the shorter the through will be for the same shifter.

[AWSUMDC [OP]]

The next day we went to Super Cheap Auto Parts which wasn't so super cheap. We needed to get some wire and shrink wrap along with gear oil and stuff. While we were there we ran into one of Max's friends. Zuckie is his name and like all of max's friends, he was really cool. He has an awesome Prado so we snapped a few pics.






This is Marlin with our new friend Zuckie.


Me, Zuckie and Marlin.


Anyway, on to the install.
We had to lengthen the sensor wires and the speedo wires and I got the job.


Marlin started working on the shifters. We had to make this one come forward under the floor and then up and out through the stock location.


Marlin was using a stick welder to do all of the welding chores. He did one hell of a job.



Marlin found a new tool that he liked. Hey Marlin, that tool has been around for a long time.....  Sorry Dave and Chris.  Marlin wants one of these for fathers day!


Still playing with those wires....


Still playing with that shifter....


We got tired of watching Max comb his hair and drool all over his wife since it had been awhile for him so we put him to work. Aint nothing like jumping on a high torque drill with a dull hole saw... can anyone say broken wrist???



After Max and I ran to the "Home Depot" and spent $120.00 for a three inch hole saw we finally got through the tree plates of steel that Toyota thought we needed to cut through. We had to come up between the parking brake and the auto shifter cable. It was a tight squeeze but we got it done after some modification to the hand brake bracket.


When we cut the hole for the transfer case we lost one of the bolt holes for the hand brake so we had to make something else. Marlin came up with this fix. We found a piece of metal that had a hole in the perfect spot so Marlin cut off the foot that we didn't need and welded this one on. Perfect fit.


While we were working the parts came in a day early. Boy were we happy.

In the package came the front and rear plates that we needed, along with the short throw shifter and the shorter rods that we had already found at the junk yard.
Here in this picture you can see Marlins short throw mount on the left followed by the factory short throw, followed by the stock shifter base and then by a factory cover plate.



Next it was time to install the coupler and the seal adapter into the back of the transmission. Because mrlin Crawler has redisigned the coupler, you no longer need to remove the back part of the transmission to put the seal adapter in. All you have to do is remove the old seal, install the coupler and put the new seal adapter in.


You really need to hammer this coupler on because it is a really tight fit. I thought Max was going to cry when I was Banging on his tranny.


When you put the seal adapter in you need to make sure that there is no interference with it and the coupler. Notice in this picture that here is a small space between the coupler and the seal adapter.

[AWSUMDC [OP]]

Then it was time to mate the transfer case to the crawler box. Marlin signed his name along with the date on the rear adapter plate. That is a collectors item now.





One proud Papa.  Yes Miss crawler  This is why his shoulder was hurting....


Now with the 4.0 transmission adapter there is some grinding to do and a bolt hole that needs to be drilled out in order to bolt the crawler box to the transmission.




This is a picture from an FJ Cruiser transmission adapter. It is the same bolt hole that needs to be drilled out in the Hilux.


Max Marlin and I got the dual case set up in Max's truck and we started bolting it all together.


All bolted in.

[AWSUMDC [OP]]

OK. Time to try and finish this up.

Once it was in we could now make the rear shifter.


Here is where the rear shifter comes up through the floor. We used a Malin Short throw shifter for this application.


Got the cross member and the front driveshaft installed.


Got the rear driveshaft reinstalled.


Now it was time to make it look good in the cab as well. We needed to put a hole right in the center of Max's console and it needed to look like it came from the factory that way so we took a rubber boot from Marlin that is supposed to go beneath the console and made it come up through the console. I think we achieved what we were after. It's got to be both functional and look good or it just doesn't work for us.


This is the rubber boot we used. I placed it on the console to see what it would look like and where we needed to place it.


Made the initial cut and test fit the boot to see where and how it would look.


Needed to make further adjustments before it was finished.


This is the crawler box shifter coming up through the stock location for the transfer case.


Got the rear shifter made and installed and the bottom boot on.


This is how it looks under the console.


And with the console back in place. Looks like it was meant to be there.



Put max's interior back together again.



While we were finishing up Max's truck a couple of Max's friends dropped by. Man they had some cool trucks. Who knew they made double cabs before 2002.


Just to let you know. This is above street legal in Australia. I wouldn't even get my truck off the boat there.



Turbo Diesel 4 cylinder. This thing sounded so cool when he took off.



And of course the steering wheel is on the wrong side.....


A 100 series



Me, Mic and Marlin.. man, did every bodies name start with a M there.


So...Marlin, Max and I got done with Max's truck so our last day was a day of fun so what better way than to start it off making friends with the local authorities


And this is what they were driving.

[AWSUMDC [OP]]

Then it was off to the city to find some gifts for the wives. There was no way we were going all that way ad not bring back something for the loved ones.....


Of course we had to stop and take pictures of any cool trucks we saw.


Marlin and I found a real Aborigine.


So this is what women think of us....


Then it was back to Max's house to test out his new crawler.


Driving out to the test spot.


We found a little spot that really didn't test much but hey, we were off the road...


Max going down a little area that Marlin and I came up with.  Don't know why the videos don't show here.  Go to my website to view the video's.  Here are the links.    
http://s230.photobucket.com/albums/ee73/awsumdc/Australia%20trip/?action=view&current=MOV03097.flv
http://s230.photobucket.com/albums/ee73/awsumdc/Australia%20trip/?action=view&current=MOV03093.flv




So there you have it. A truly one of a kind truck in Australia. There is not another one like in the land down under. Marlin Is a proud papa and Max is one happy owner.


Here is the family minus the new born baby. Thats right... Max's wife just had a baby just a month before we got there.


Max just never smiles
Marlin, Luka, Max, Lily, and me.


Thats it folks. Marlin and I left the very next morning and met another Aussie whom m wife and I are going to see perform later this year. He is in a band that plays music my wife and I like. He was really cool.

Had a great time with Marlin, Max, Matty, Peter, Mic, Jenny, the kids, and our new friend Jaimie.

[Rocksurfer]

Nice placement of the cresent wrenches, channel locks and pliers.

Sucks to see all the good Toys we don't get here.

[V-Man]

 

  Here still wandering about the antennas.

Nice looking trucks, I've got to get back there some day..

[AWSUMDC [OP]]

I know nothing of the antenna's but I'll have Max come on here and he can sort that out for you.

[Hilux_Max]

  Here still wandering about the antennas.

Nice looking trucks, I've got to get back there some day..

that is a cb antenna mounted to a portable bar mount that you can fit anywhere on the front bar.....you can purchase them from 4x4 stores here or communication shops. the antenna has a spring base.

heres what the antenna mount and wiring kit looks like -


heres a site where you can get them from in OZ
http://www.zcg.com.au/antenna_springs.htm

hope that helps...thanks guys for coming down, was a great experience, one ill never forget....you blokes made an impression on everyone you met here....hope we meet again some day.....

[Gixxer Jon]

That was really cool seeing all the photos from the trip from down under...  Gotta love seeing all the different models of toyotas that we dont have in the US

[Cheesemaker]

After a quick search, Max might be able to back this up more, from what I could find is that Australia runs more than one freq. than we do.  Our CB freq. is limited to 27 MHz.  But they have 27MHz and a 477 MHz cb frequency.  Which I'm gonna assume, the 477 takes a heavier antenna.  But those antenna's do look like the style they are running on our US military rigs. 

[blackdiamond]

So if the trip Down Under was to installed a dual transfer case, do we have another meaning for the term "Double Down?"

[BirdDog]

Marlin were you able to fit any 5.15 gear sets from the wrecker into your suitcase ?

Thanks for the trip report and all the pic's looks like allot of fun.

[ajordan1975]

 

[46&2]

Great photos and what a bunch of cool Toyotas. Really enjoyed the ARB factory tour. That was cool!