Great overview on the Marlin story. I too lived through that time wheelin era and saw all the Toyotas were mall crawlers, lots of chrome.
I remember the time where if you didn't have dual front shocks then you weren't hot stuff
So you'll have the range box, 1.1 or 4.7, and the rear case with still work as stock? Until you do the LC case where you case twin stick the rear of course.
I am going to keep my Tacoma t/case and the factory push knob for 4WD & Low Range.
Clearance issuesTo check for clearance we reattached the drivetrain in it's original location of crossmember to transmission tail housing.
It turns out there are only two issues.
1. T/case top is contacting the bottom of the cab where the e-brake cables are held:
2. The top of the t/case front output section is not touching but is very close to a body rail:
All things considered that is really not bad at all, even the (dumb) factory crossover exhaust clears. As for Triples......forget about it. I am going to have to cut out and replace an entire section of the body. I must go Triples. I will go Triples. I'll have to save that for a later date.
Because I'll eventually be cutting this stuff out I just told Rocky to "use a big hammer" and appropriate clearancing was performed
We test fitted it three or fours times taking measurements each time so now we know how far to clearance for clean customer installs.
Seems like there is a lot of weight out past the cross-member. Is the plan for a second cross-member to support it?
There are two upsides for weight concerns: 1) The Chain Drive is almost 20 lbs lighter than the older Gear Drive t/case and it's long been proven that one t/case mount is sufficient for the extra weight and length added by a Dual Case setup, and 2) because the #1/front gear drive housing is where the t/case cross member was originally mounted, the Marlin Crawler adds an optional/additional t/case mount. As such there are many crossmembers designed for the Marlin Crawler that incorporate dual crossmember mounts to help spread the drivetrain load prolonging the life of your engine mounts.
