Since the creation of the 2nd gen Tacoma's, you six speed guys have been lacking in low gear choice's. The reason for this is because the transfer case for the six speed Tacoma's has a 22 spline input shaft instead of the more popular 23 spline input on all the other chain case's Toyota has made for the Tacoma.
Now, you did have an option of putting in a lefty or a dual lefty setup but the lefty has proven itself less reliable than the Stock transfer case so for me that was not an option.
So until now you've been left without an option. All the big boys have told you that you cannot put a crawler box in front of the six speed Tacoma or FJ Cruiser T case. Even I did for awhile. But thats all over now.
Since I've been messing around with the 2nd Gen case's and the FJ Cruiser case's, I've come up with a solution to this problem. We are going to modify the stock transfer case in the six speed Tacoma so that it will mate to the internal 23 spline coupler in the Marlin Crawler Taco Box and then use Inchworms 22 to 23 spline coupler to mate the Marlin Crawler Taco Box to the six speed Transmission.
So on we go.
This is the Marlin Crawler Taco Box with 4.7 gears using an Inchworm front adapter plate, the 22/23 spline coupler and my spare Marlin Crawler T360 rear adapter plate.
Here is the 2013 Tacoma Double cab that it is going into.
Here is where we are. Pulled the t case but first had to take off the front skid plate so that I could get to the front bolts on the front drive shaft to remove it. Man that was a heavy skid plate. Anyway, Once that was off and the front and rear drive shaft was off it was time to pull the t case.
Since this is the fully electronic case you have to pull the plugs on it. Don't forget those. Yes, I've seen it happen before
Once the T case was out I opened it up and did my magic so that it would be able to work with the Marlin Crawler Taco box. Now something similar to this had been done in the past when Kevin from ATO came to me and we had put together an RST FJ Cruiser twin stick case for a customer of his, along with a Taco Box for a six speed Tacoma. But this is using the electronic case from the six speed Taco instead. I swapped the Planetary gearset from the six speed to that of one from the automatic to make it work. But there is a little secrete that you have to perform to make this work. If not, your t case will hate you and you'll be cursing up a storm. Now you could just go out and buy a T case from the automatic Tacoma and make this work too, but these electronic t case's are questionable at best with the actuator and the shift rails and if yours is working properly I wouldn't swap it unless you go to an FJ case.
Next, once the case was put back together, we put it on a jack and raised it up enough to plug the connectors back in to test it. Turned the key to full power without starting the truck and turned the shift knob to 4wd and it it blinked, I then went under the truck and gave the front diff a small nudge and everything switched on. We were in 4wd. Then we switched it to 4lo and it went right in. Switched back to 4wd and the computer was happy and then to 2wd and the test was complete. The T case worked flawlessly.
Now it was time to make our cut in the floor for the crawler shifter. It comes right up behind the trans shifter.
Dry fit the crawler to the back of the transmission.
Once we were happy with that we started on the shifter placement. The owner had wanted the shifter to come up in one of the cup holders and so did I but once we got into it we quickly found out that it would end up being a shifter nightmare to do it that way. It would have multiple 90degree angles and a couple of long straight runs that would make it both floppy and the shift pattern would be WAY too long. So I used one of my FJ Cruiser shifters and came up right next to the Transmission shifter. Worked a TON better there.
So, one of the other things I do when working on someone truck is to mark all the wires I have to cut before I make the cut. That way when I put them back together they go back to where they belong.
These are the wires that need to be lengthened for the crawler install.
Next was the seal adapter and coupler. When you put these in, you'll need to put the coupler on the back of the transmission first, then you put the seal adapter on. Then you put the crawler onto the transmission. When we did that everything seemed fine but then when we went to put the last bolt in it would start. It looked like the hole was just a bit off on the adapter plate or maybe a small burr. after fiddling with it for some time we finally got it in and called it a night.
Then yesterday I put the t case in along with the crossmember and rear drive shaft. Still waiting on the front drive shaft. One of the things I found on the six speeds is that the drive train is one inch shorter than on the automatics. The transmission of the six speed is one inch shorter than the automatic tranny is. Just some food for thought.
Before putting in the crawler for good your going to want to clearence the bottom of the truck. A BFH is the tool of choice for this. I marked where I needed to work and then went to work. The last two crawlers I installed I noticed that putting the t case on the back of the crawler was really tight. I think they have brought down the tolerance on the rear coupler so if you get a new crawler it'll be a really tight fit between the internal coupler and the input shaft of the t case.
Then I installed the t case for the final time, put the crossmember in and installed the rear drive shaft, filled them both with fluid and drove it down the end of the street to test the crawler. Worked perfect. I'll have to test the crawler/T case combo tonight when it fix the wiring.
It's Done!!!..
It took some doing but we got it done. There were a couple of hickups but nothing we couldn't over come.
Here is everything all bolted up and oil in the case's.
Had my wife get the new shifter boot made up by Bill Dunn Upholstery in Huntington Beach Ca. The same shop that did some of the OverHaulin' show vehicles. I think it came out nice and looks factory.
Then did the patented Marlin Crawler "walking the Crawler" and gave it back to the happy customer. Thanks Marlin Crawler for your help in getting this project done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMQra1gAbjs
