2004 Tacoma SAS

[8sixFabrication]

Small update from Sunday that I forgot to post.

The goal was to get the power steering wrapped up. First thing I needed to do was mount the small trans cooler I bought to keep the power steering cool. I made some super basic straps out of stainless and mounted it to the center support behind the grill. This should also set me up good for when I go with hydro assist.

From there, I plumbed in the return hoses and the high pressure hose. I had this custom high pressure hose made that keeps the stock banjo fitting, because there's a sensor built into it. I'm only so so, on the routing of the hoses, but for now it should do. I may change that up later.

After that was routed, I added fluid and bled the system. I believe its all happy now and fully operational!

This coming weekend, I am hoping to keep the momentum up. I will probably start with dragging the bumper out and getting that modified and mounted, so I have all the weight up front in order to set the ride height out back. More to come

 

[bkg]

Small update from Sunday that I forgot to post.

The goal was to get the power steering wrapped up. First thing I needed to do was mount the small trans cooler I bought to keep the power steering cool. I made some super basic straps out of stainless and mounted it to the center support behind the grill. This should also set me up good for when I go with hydro assist.

From there, I plumbed in the return hoses and the high pressure hose. I had this custom high pressure hose made that keeps the stock banjo fitting, because there's a sensor built into it. I'm only so so, on the routing of the hoses, but for now it should do. I may change that up later.

the fact that the cooler is slightly crooked is driving my OCD nuts.
Curious how the plate cooler works. I have had a PSC in-line cooler for a decade plus, but I've "read on the internet" that it doesn't actually cool as well as the plate style.

 

[8sixFabrication]

the fact that the cooler is slightly crooked is driving my OCD nuts.
Curious how the plate cooler works. I have had a PSC in-line cooler for a decade plus, but I've "read on the internet" that it doesn't actually cool as well as the plate style.

Yeah, I don't much care for how its a little crooked either, but I already had the brackets made haha. In an effort to not be my normal self, and mess with details that make no functional difference, I had to just leave it haha

 

[8sixFabrication]

I had to run real quick to HoboFreight to get a bearing tool, so I could pull the bearing off the old input shaft. It went pretty well, and installed on the new shaft without fuss

Here you can see the new shaft installed, and the stock one in my hand. The new one is from Marlin Crawler. Its one of their competition total spline input shafts

Thennnnn...... everything came to a screeching halt. After a lot of measurements, I found that the adapter shaft in the Northwest Fabworks adapter is hitting the machined lip on the new input before the housings seat onto each other. This is a pretty big problem unfortunately. I sent some photos and measurements in an email to them, so hopefully we can come to a speedy resolution on this. Without this resolved, this truck can't go...

Until then, I will have to move onto getting other things wrapped up. Luckily there is a lot to do still, but this has me nervous on making my deadline. I originally bought everything through Marlin to go dual cases. Then this kit came out and I got on the pre-order list. Once I had this kit, I sold my marlin stuff. Now I am wishing I kept it because the Marlin stuff went up in price, and the 5 speed to mini truck tcase adapter isn't offered by them anymore.

So we shall see what happens next

 

[8sixFabrication]

Back with some over-due updates. Life keeps getting in the way unfortunately. I've had some unfortunate family stuff going on, keeping me from working on this, but I hope to keep pushing through.

A couple weeks back, I was able to work over the phone with Northwest Fabworks on a solution for this output shaft issue. From the best we can tell, I got a real early version of the shaft, and the front edge that was contacting that lip on the input shaft, is .200" shorter. So they authorized me to machine it back that much, in hopes it would solve my problem.

Additionally, they said they developed this around a stock turbo 23 spline and TG inputs. It wasn't specifically tried with the Marlin one, so they're hoping to get some feedback to make adjustments for future shafts

So that's where I started. I covered the face of the bearing in tape so the hot chips wouldn't compromise the rubber seal. It didn't take too long, even chewing .010" off at a time.

Here it is after

With that machined I was excited to see if it would slide in further, and unfortunately, it only slid in a little further.

From there I began to see what was interfering next. After a thump with the rubber mallet, and some pink paint pen to help see, the next thing that was interfering was the corners pointed out here on the input shaft

After discovering that, I decided to take a leap of faith and lightly remove the corners. I spun it up in the lathe and gently sanded them off with a flap wheel on a little air grinder. I made sure to go slow and not get anything warm, as to not effect the temper of the shaft.

 

[8sixFabrication]

The next part to interfere was this corner on the inside of the output shaft. I forgot to get a photo of it making a mark in the paint on the shaft.

So I spun it up in the lathe and very lightly sanded that corner off with a little flap wheel on a small air grinder. Again, making a point to not make any heat and effect the temper

With that cleared, the next part to interfere was on the input shaft, where the splines widen out. You can see the marks here in the pink

That was tricky to make work, but I spent a good amount of time with the Dremel, and a small grinding wheel, taking that taper out a little bit at a time. I made sure to match the angle the best I could, go real slow, and take a little at a time until the shaft slid in far enough for me to be happy.

After I got everything to fit properly, I came back with a scotch brite wheel and a wire wheel on the air grinders to smooth everything out a little nicer.

After many hours of work, I was happy with the fitment, so I took a little time to scrape the big stuff off the RF1A case, re-assemble everything with new seals, and get the Eco Crawler bolted up. I really hate putting this back together without a full disassembly and cleaning. However, I am so far behind on this, that I need to prioritize things. A dirty rear case won't prevent the truck from running lol.

That's all for now. Next I will pull the Tacoma case and get this bolted in so I can see how things fit and get some measurements for drive shafts.

 

[8sixFabrication]

This weekends progress was spotty, but still in the right direction.

On Thursday evening after work, I made it my goal to get the stock T-case out, and the new set bolted in, so I can get measurements for drive shafts. I ended up needing to remove the rear cat to get the new setup in, but I was able to get it together.

Friday afternoon, I got a droop, and collapsed measurement for the front. I suspected that the slip on the driveshaft wouldn't move much, which ended up being true. It only moves about 3/4" throughout its cycle. The rear I only needed a ride height measurement.

While getting a compression measurement, I noticed the panhard bar is crashing into the radius arm mount on the drivers side, so I will have to cut that out and modify. No biggie

When I dropped the driveshafts off with the builder I am working with (Driveline Express in Portland), he pointed out that the double cardan joint on the rear shaft isn't an ideal one to use, and he recommended an older mini-truck/4runner as a donor to replace it. So that shifted my plans to working on getting my hands on one.

I was able to get my hands on a couple by Saturday evening. The shorter one ended up not being ideal, so I was able to pick up a good one from a buddy to use.

Feeling even further behind, I set out Saturday night and today, to work on a crossmember design. I need to have the transmission and T-cases to be supported by a crossmember so I can move on to compressing the front axle again, in order to modify the exhaust to clear the driveshaft.

Saturday night I was able to take some measurements to make sure I got the everything set properly side to side, and vertically. From there I cut out the temp crossmember and supported it.

Today I worked on starting the beginnings of a crossmember. I cut and drilled a 1/4" plate to tie the T-case and Trans mounts together. I cut down the center part of the stock trans mount, to use as a spacer. it sits much higher than the T-case mount. A lot of time was spent measuring, and staring at it to figure out the best way to make everything work together. Once I figured out how I want to proceed from here, I realized that I don't have enough material on hand. So for now, it will have to wait until I can make it to the steel yard to get more supplies.

I'm really hoping next weekend will be good for progress. I am supposed to be left alone for a few days to focus on this, so fingers crossed

 

[8sixFabrication]

This weekend was actually a pretty productive one.

Friday I was working on figuring out a design, and making parts for the cross member, when I got a call that my driveshafts were done. So I braved the traffic to go pick em up. I wanted the front specifically so I could use it to make the exhaust clear.

One of the first parts I started with for the crossmember, was the mounts to the frame. I opted to have it mount similar to a 95 and earlier mini-truck/4runner. I kept it simple with some 1/4" flat bar and TIG welded on some nuts.

Next was to keep pushing forward on the crossmember. I added a "wing" to protect the bottom of the front output on the rear case. I TIG welded it together clamped on my table to keep it flat.

From there, I drew up, and hand cut with the plasma, a piece of 3/16 plate to laminate onto the existing 1/4" piece. It needed a couple plug welds, so I figured I would throw some humor in there and add some "Easter Eggs" lol. I've had the idea for a while and this was the perfect time to do it.

After I got the main center part of the cross member done, I bolted it in and moved onto the rest. I cut some parts out of 3/8" plate to have some beef. My little press brake cant handle 6" wide, 3/8" thick material, so I cut about half the thickness on the opposite side with a thin disc, then TIG weld it back up. It took some trial and error, but I eventually got it proper. I ended up adding another angled cut and bend to make sure things lined up at the center better, due to the center not being level to the frame.

The other side was basically the same process, just a little longer.

And, here is the current final product. I was going to add a little more, but I decided to keep it simple for now because I am not entirely sure I want to stick with this, or try a different setup.

I will need to add some 1/4" spacers below the T-case and trans mount, because the rear T-case train hole is pretty close to the crossmember. Under load, it will probably torque that way and contact the material.

 

[8sixFabrication]

Today, I ran into some extra time I wasn't expecting to have. It ended up being a pretty nice day working on getting the exhaust modified.

First thing I did was pull the coils and compress the suspension after I pulled the 1st cat.

But I did take a picture of the clearance at ride height. I could tell that it would crash on full compression. The panhard bar pushes the axle to the passenger side, so it would have crashed pretty hard

With the 1st cat out, I cut a small slice out, to shift the cat to the side. From there I was in a groove and worked on the rest of the exhaust. Several small tweaks like a small slice out of the rear of the second cat, and a small extension to shift it in multiple ways at once. It's a bit ghetto, but it should do the trick. With the miles on the truck, I figure this will out last the cats anyway. Then I dusted some high temp paint on the welded areas to slow down the rusting.

I do need to put back in an exhaust hanger to replace the one I had to remove, but I can do that when I gather some replacement seals and bolts to finish assembling the exhaust.

I did order a flex coupler to add after the cats, to build in some give to the system. The tail pipe will need to be re-routed as-well to get around the new shock locations, so the exhaust is only half done at this point. But it will clear the front driveshaft now which was the biggest obstacle. It ended up not being as big of a deal as I was fearing.

Here is a picture of the exhaust now, at full compression

And here is the exhaust, and clearance at ride height.

Hopefully next weekend will be just as productive.

 

[8sixFabrication]

More progress! I wish I had a little more time this weekend to work on this, but I still managed to hit the checkpoint I set for myself, more or less so I'm pretty happy all things considered.

Once I was settled in for the afternoon on Friday, I wanted to tackle the transfer case. That was the main hurdle that intimidated me. They're much more involved than the mini-truck cases I am familiar with. This doubler kit uses the low range planetary gears from the stock Tacoma T-Case.

After studying the instillation guide, I dove in and eventually got the parts out that I needed as donors.

I was on a role and eventually got the whole thing assembled. There wasn't much worth taking pictures of during this process, so here's a picture of the completed unit.

Getting the cases put together was sort of the last major hurdle on this project that I was intimidated by. Having that done felt good.

Saturday, before putting it in the hole, I wanted to add some spacers to the crossmember, to keep the rear case from contacting the crossmember under torque. So I whipped up some quick and simple 3/16" thick spacers, and welded them on.

I wanted to get that done, and paint it, so it could dry(enough) while I put the cases in for the last time.

While the paint was drying, I finished a couple small things to be ready to install the cases onto the transmission. I had the wife help, by lifting on a strap I slung around the assembly, and threaded through the transmission hole. I could bench press it off my chest, on the creeper into place without the extra parts in the doubler, but I didn't want to try with all the extra weight and have them fall on my face hahaha.

That went pretty smoothly, however the top 2 nuts were really hard to tighten. I had to use a ratchet strap, and pull it all the way to one side, while lowering the rear of everything all the way. That allowed me barely enough room to use a really short wrench to tighten the nuts. I had to do that in both directions to tighten them up, so hopefully I don't need to take them out anytime soon.

Minus the 2 nuts, it went pretty smoothly and quickly.

With them bolted in, I moved onto getting the triple sticks in and setup. That took a surprising amount of time to do, and get everything to jive well together. I am not sure if I want to keep this configuration, or make custom handles to re-locate the sticks. They work as intended like this, but I want to consider moving them a little further back, and having them all in line for some cosmetic reasons.

Just before calling it a night, I got the crossmember installed so I could see how the sticks sit in the truck.

Today was a little more mellow. I started out by wrapping up the exhaust. I picked up new seals and bolts from Toyota earlier in the week, so that's all buttoned up. I did decide against adding a flex coupler. Since that was never in the system from the factory, I figured it wasn't a good use of my time at the moment.

The front driveshaft got bolted in for the final time too.

Next I wanted to give one last try at seeing if I can make the sway bar work. I drooped the suspension to see how low it needed to be mounted, to clear the front driveshaft. This is where it would need to be, to barely clear. And with it sitting flush with the bottom of the radius arms at ride height, that means under compression, it would be low hanging fruit. So for now I am going to try and see how the truck handles without it. I have a couple other ideas that might work if I need it. However, for now, I feel like it's worth trying without.

With all that out of the way, I wanted to put the wheels and tires back on, and fire the truck back up to see if the power steering whines under a load. It seems okay so that good.

I also used the wheels and tires being back on, as an opportunity to start eye-balling how I am going to trim the fenders and flares to clear the tires.

I finished out the day with trying to wrap my head around getting the whole electronics side of the 4WD system to function as it should. Primarily when its in low range and the ABS is disabled. That brought more questions than answers, so I have some homework to do.

I originally thought the 2 switches here on the right, were a simple switch that when they're triggered, complete a circuit. The one on the left is the indicator for a mini truck T-case for the dash light

Now, either both of the Tacoma switches died while the truck was sitting, or they don't function as I thought. I was hoping to use a couple switches to trick the 4wd ECM into thinking everything was stock, but after studying the schematics more, I am thinking this is going to be a can of worms.

So this will have to be something I push off for now, while I gather more info.

All in all, I am pretty satisfied with where I am at this point. With the exception of this current 4wd wiring issue, I am pretty confident in the rest of the work not being so bad. The truck is finally at a point where I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Next weekend, I won't have the entire weekend to work on it, but I should still be able to get a bunch done.

More to come!

 

[8sixFabrication]

I decided to work on some small stuff this evening after the gym. With the light at the end of the tunnel being visible at this point, I am getting a little more motivated to work on it in small pockets of time.

I ordered new headlights and corner markers a while back. The ones on the truck were just some junk ones a buddy replaced, and I used to make sure I got the front end straight enough to hang a grill and lights.

It was mellow and simple evening, but I got it swapped out, and made sure everything worked. I'll probably need to aim the headlights but at least its one more thing off the list.

Previously, I had a really nice projector retrofit on this truck. But for now, I want simple and street legal so I can work the bugs out. After I have more confidence in the truck, I will upgrade things here and there.

 

[8sixFabrication]

I've been on the struggle bus all weekend, but still making steady forward progress.

I spent some time figuring out all the wiring for the 4wd, but I'm saving that post until I get the wiring done so I can make a separate post, incase it's helpful to folks.

Once I had that all figured out, it was time to move on to the bumper finally. I drug it out from the side of the house, and cleaned a crap load of pine needles and such out. Then I stripped everything off it, and gave it a super half assed simple green bath so I wasn't working with so much grime.

With it clean-ish, I was able to assess the damage to the mounts, take measurements on the truck, and cutting stuff out.

I took a bunch of measurements trying to find a good point of reference on the bumper to built the mounts off of. Once I began that and tested it for the first time, everything was way off from the body. I'm not entirely sure what exactly made it sit so crooked on the body, but it's probably a little bit of the frame being slightly out, the body not being perfect, and the bumper probably having a slight twist to it.

Either way, it looked like crap, so I had to cut the tacks off and fit the bumper to the body. Which ended up being a little ghetto(cosmetically) but will work. At least the bumper looks half way decent against the body now. having to make those adjustments, and make a bunch gap fillers/shims took extra time.

While it was mocked up, I also marked the corners to know where to trim off to fit the tires.

I welded what I could on the truck so stuff wouldn't move as much. Then I took it off and finish welded it on the saw horses, cut the corners and caped them.

And to keep things in the spirit for the weekend, I ran out of gas on my MIG machine tonight, at like 6pm lol. Unfortunately my work schedule would prevent me from getting more gas until next weekend, so I had to bust out the TIG to finish it up. I was pretty determined on finishing it and painting it. And to make matters worse, my torch on the TIG was overheating so I had to stop and figure that out mid way through.

I didn't prep things for TIG, so the welds didn't look amaze-balls, and took longer. But I wasn't going to let it beat me. After some clean up, I painted everything, and even dusted some fresh paint on the outside to church it up a little bit.

Then, the icing on the cake for the weekend, was discovering that my poor winch might be bad. I couldn't get it to go into free-spool. I wanted to pop the end off and see if there was something simple. It was half filled with rust. I currently have everything soaking in a blend of ATF/acetone and some PB Blaster to hopefully free things up. If I can get it all apart, I will asses things and see if I can clean it up and salvage it. Otherwise, I might have to pony up for a replacement winch.

This week I am taking off from the gym and boxing, in order to let my body rest and focus on this. So there should be more frequent posts this week, and hopefully some good progress! More to come.

 

[8sixFabrication]

This evening I was able to make a little bit of progress. On my way home, I stopped for some supplies. Including getting a switch for low range.

When I got home and settled in, I wanted to just rip the band aid with the winch. I broke the end apart and fortunately was able to get everything free. There was a lot of pitting on the end piece that was seized. That part has been repaired once before, so it's been due for a replacement.

I cleaned everything up, and re-assembled it with a little grease just to make sure everything still works. I didn't want to order replacement parts without doing that first. It seemed to bench test fine after I wiggled the controller plug around some, so that will need to be cleaned for good measure. With that sigh of relief, I ordered the replacement parts.

I am going to wait to put the bumper back on until I get the winch buttoned up. I probably could have packed the gears with grease and run it. But since its sealed within the bumper, I can't take it out for service/repair as easily. So it seemed worth the effort and money just to throw some replacement parts at it for good measure.

Some of the parts inside have a little bit of rust, but I was able to wire brush most of that off in a tray with some gas, along with the old grease. I thought about ordering everything new on that end of the winch, but I figured this will do.

Hopefully tomorrow evening, I will get more progress worth more pictures. For now, here's just a boring picture of the parts for the winch cleaned up

 

[grizzlypath]

What I like about your build is that it's basically an OEM+ SAS using the 80-series as a base. Often when I see someone doing a SAS it's immediately to tons with major modification . This is exactly the type of SAS build I'd be interested in doing one day. Thank you for your effort sharing!

 

[8sixFabrication]

What I like about your build is that it's basically an OEM+ SAS using the 80-series as a base. Often when I see someone doing a SAS it's immediately to tons with major modification . This is exactly the type of SAS build I'd be interested in doing one day. Thank you for your effort sharing!

That's basically what I am going for. I'm such a purist with my fleet of Toyotas. I wanted to build a truck that was as close to what Toyota might have offered, if such a thing was made and offered in the US.... plus a couple extra goodies.