Took a trip to the Hammers last Tuesday, stayed until Sunday. Met up with ErikB and Big Bird.

Started to make a run to Outer Limits and had this terrible noise coming from my new front housing. Went back into camp and tore it apart. Dummy I had not checked the clearance for the Longs and they were scraping inside the balls. Did not have any paint so we used purple nail polish, BB decided I need one of my nails painted. While BB did the grinding, Erik and I pulled the other side apart. I really like the FROR Tacoma brake brackets, makes taking the front-end apart real easy. Got it put back to and took off for Outer Limits.
Everything was going fine on the trail, then Erik snapped a stub shaft in his front-end (D-44) we kept on going pulling when he needed it. In the mean time I started having a slight knocking in the timing cover on my 3.0, did not think much about it. Got to the last part of the trail, could not get Erik up it so after working for quite a while decided to turn around and go back down. The knocking sound had stopped but the truck would not idle right and it was starting to load up. We had about a quarter of the trail to go and it was getting dark real fast.

 Another person in our group with 4X4 Him blew something in his T-case and as they were dragging him down something was also blown in his front end, both wheels were dragging. Took one of the flanges off and it rolled free, so BB started pulling him down the trail. In the mean time I went back to my rig and it would not start. After putzing with it for a while we decided to leave it on the trail and come back and get it the next day. That is a scary thing to do.
T and I got into Erik’s runner to go back to camp, the buggy with the blown T-case and front locked up on the other side and we left it there. Did not get back to camp until four in the morning.

Went up to get my rig the next day, after checking it over we decided that the timing belt either broke or jumped.

Believe me it is a real bummer towing a full-hydro rig of a trail without a running engine. The starter got one heck of a work out. Once on the flats it steered great. Took us about five hours to recover it.

Have to give a BIG THANK YOU to Big Bird and Erik B for all the help.

On Wednesday it was cold and windy on the lake bed, so my dog Winnie climbed into T's lap. She only weights about 90 pounds and is a bit spoiled!!!!!

Sounds like a lot of things that could have been prevented with some decent pretrip check out. You guys end up running any trails?

While the scraping birfields were my fault, I do not see how the rest could have been prevented!!!!!

Looks like you guys had a good time overall.  Nice time of year to be at hammers.

Hopefully a 3.0 is a non interference engine. 

Yes it is non-interference. I have been wheeling this thing since 97 and this is the first time I have had engine problems!!!!

I wonder how many people actually torque those bolts. 

Make sure your cam pulleys aren't bent.  I had a 3.0l timing belt eat a mouse, then it jumped again later because the pulley was wobbling.