Northbound Tundra, building a 5 speed manual transmission swapped 2001 Toyota Tundra with 2uzfe 4.7 liter engine into an overland adventure vehicle

[northboundtundra]

Here is a thread about building a 1st Tundra into an adventure vehicle. After previously owning a 1987 4Runner and also a 1992 Toyota extra cab pickup, I knew I wanted to stick with a Toyota for their relentless reliability. My first thought was Tacoma. I had never owned one but had driven them and knew it would have to be a 6 cylinder with a manual transmission. Any generation would have sufficed, but it quickly became evident that I wasn’t going to find anything reasonably priced that hadn’t been thrashed. Then I met George, also known as Northbound Tundra, and realized that a 1st gen Tundra was actually a pretty sweetly built truck that was almost the same exact size as a new 4 door Tacoma.

After spending some time with this truck I’ve decided to build this thread to help answer questions about it and share what I’ve done with the rest of the overland community. I noticed that I’ve gotten a lot of the same questions on my trucks IG page @northboundtundra so hopefully this can be a resource for that, as well as anyone else who is interested in building the same type of truck.

In particular, this thread will probably appeal to anyone who wants to convert their automatic 2uzfe engine to an r150f 5 speed manual transmission and transfer case. This includes Tundras, 4runners, and Land Cruisers too. If you know of anyone else who has done this, I’d like to know about it because as far as I know this is the only 2UVFE V8 powered Toyota Tundra that has been converted to a manual transmission and transfer case. My goal here is to keep this as close as possible to what it would have been like if Toyota had built it at the factory.

 

[toyotech]

Nice. Looking forward to your build. Was the r150f a direct bolt on? Are you jumping the connector for the Ecu to read N all the time ?


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[smokeysevin]

Just based on a quick glance, the r150f looks shorter than the a340 is. The shifter for my j shift sits closer to the center console than yours does.

Granted, my transfer case shifter is custom shaft and 3d printed knob. I am waiting to get a fj cruiser shift knob but its low on my priority list right now.

The shift boot is from a 67 mustang and is big enough to allow access to pull the shifter assembly up though the cab floor.

Sean

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[01tundraAC]

2000 4.7L 5 speed manual conversion

www.tundrasolutions.com

There was this one, except it was a w58 (only 2wd). So this would be the first I know of. Looks like a great project! Would love to see the documentation and follow along.

 

[smokeysevin]

The "lift" at the end of that thread is sketchy as hell.

Sean


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[Kpack]

The "lift" at the end of that thread is sketchy as hell.

Sean


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Wow, yeah....that's scary-looking. I would be terrified to drive that.

 

[tennesseewj]

The "lift" at the end of that thread is sketchy as hell.

Sean


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Seriously... I'm amazed he got a shop willing to get that "professionally aligned"

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[northboundtundra]

Nice. Looking forward to your build. Was the r150f a direct bolt on? Are you jumping the connector for the Ecu to read N all the time ?


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Thank you, I’m pretty stoked about it. It was not a direct bolt on. I used the original bellhousing from the automatic transmission and an adapter plate to mate the bellhousing to the r150f transmission. I then drilled holes in the bellhousing to run lines through for a hydraulic throwout bearing. I’ll post some pictures this evening.

 

[northboundtundra]

Nice. Looking forward to your build. Was the r150f a direct bolt on? Are you jumping the connector for the Ecu to read N all the time ?


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I have the ECU set in Park mode right now. It lets it start but I’m waiting to get my driveline finished this week so I haven’t gotten to drive it yet to see what codes might come up when it starts moving.

 

[northboundtundra]

Just based on a quick glance, the r150f looks shorter than the a340 is. The shifter for my j shift sits closer to the center console than yours does.

Granted, my transfer case shifter is custom shaft and 3d printed knob. I am waiting to get a fj cruiser shift knob but its low on my priority list right now.

The shift boot is from a 67 mustang and is big enough to allow access to pull the shifter assembly up though the cab floor.

Sean

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That’s awesome that you did the j shift mod. How are you going about engaging the front ADD? I still need to get my sensors setup correctly to tell the 4wd module what’s going on and I would really like to make it engage the ADD when I shift into 4wd, but I’m not sure if the ADD needs to engage before the transfer case or not. Worst case scenario I might have to use a switch to control the ADD, but I’m hoping not because that would just make me want to install manual locking hubs which would be awesome but expensive.

 

[northboundtundra]

Just based on a quick glance, the r150f looks shorter than the a340 is. The shifter for my j shift sits closer to the center console than yours does.

Granted, my transfer case shifter is custom shaft and 3d printed knob. I am waiting to get a fj cruiser shift knob but its low on my priority list right now.

The shift boot is from a 67 mustang and is big enough to allow access to pull the shifter assembly up though the cab floor.

Sean

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And yes, the whole setup is about 2” shorter than the a340f. It seemed to place the shifter just about perfect.

 

[smokeysevin]

That’s awesome that you did the j shift mod. How are you going about engaging the front ADD? I still need to get my sensors setup correctly to tell the 4wd module what’s going on and I would really like to make it engage the ADD when I shift into 4wd, but I’m not sure if the ADD needs to engage before the transfer case or not. Worst case scenario I might have to use a switch to control the ADD, but I’m hoping not because that would just make me want to install manual locking hubs which would be awesome but expensive.

I am getting ready to install the manual hubs and a locked front diff. You can get the manual hub parts aftermarket now so its less of an issue to put it together. The one area I wouldn't cheap out is on the outer lockup parts and hardware though.

The only other hangup is that you need a set of tundra axles for the inner portion and a set of tacoma axles for the outers.

The shorter lenght probably put the shifter exactly where the knockout in the floor was, I kind of had to butcher mine to make the hole. Its almost like your setup was designed for the tundra and never put into production.

Sean

 

[northboundtundra]

2000 4.7L 5 speed manual conversion

www.tundrasolutions.com

There was this one, except it was a w58 (only 2wd). So this would be the first I know of. Looks like a great project! Would love to see the documentation and follow along.

Thanks for sharing that thread. Pretty cool that kid did all of that when he was 17. I guess I got lucky that they used the same speed sensor on the r150f so it sounds like the only thing I will need to worry about is the ADD system.

 

[northboundtundra]

I am getting ready to install the manual hubs and a locked front diff. You can get the manual hub parts aftermarket now so its less of an issue to put it together. The one area I wouldn't cheap out is on the outer lockup parts and hardware though.

The only other hangup is that you need a set of tundra axles for the inner portion and a set of tacoma axles for the outers.

The shorter lenght probably put the shifter exactly where the knockout in the floor was, I kind of had to butcher mine to make the hole. Its almost like your setup was designed for the tundra and never put into production.

Sean

Yeah, it definitely seemed like it was meant for it. There was even an extra clip on the firewall to hold the clutch line. That being said, the knockout was about an inch off so the stars were slightly miss aligned, lol

Do you have a thread somewhere on your front hub conversion? If I do it I’d like to use the factory style hubs.

 

[smokeysevin]

Yeah, it definitely seemed like it was meant for it. There was even an extra clip on the firewall to hold the clutch line. That being said, the knockout was about an inch off so the stars were slightly miss aligned, lol

Do you have a thread somewhere on your front hub conversion? If I do it I’d like to use the factory style hubs.

I don't yet, it's still in process. I still need axles, wheel bearing seals, and a gear install kit before I am ready to toss it all together. I will put something together soonish.

Sean

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