T-Juan - `98 Toyota T100 4x4, 5-spd

[SaltyMethods]

It's been a hot minute since I've posted.

Back at the end of April we went out to Plaster City to take advantage of the relatively cool weather out in the desert. Snapped my lower ball joint and my buddy lost axle. I think I posted some pics in a different thread. But here are a couple of pics just to recap.



Once I got it home, I replaced the ball joint, tie rod, some bolts and fixed the CV boot and bent back a couple of other things.




I was able to pick up a set of Total Chaos lower uniball conversion kit off of Race-Dezert. Haven't put them in yet but will soon.


Once I got it back up and running, I was trying to drive it out to Vegas for a tradeshow. I needed to swap out the rear diff oil since I did 500-1,000 miles on the new diff. Once I drained the oil I got all kinds of silver specs, slivers and metal chunks. Damn... I thought the rear end was done, so I didn't drive it out and parked it on the side of the house. Once I got home I finally got the time to open up the rear diff and look inside. More chunks and glitter. I pulled out the 3rd member to see the damage. Nothing. No damage. Ring gear, pinion and wear marks all looked fine. The mini-locker looked good and the pinion turned smoothly. Scratched my head in confusion. After talking with a few people, I came to the realization that I didn't clean out the housing throughly from the first time I re-did the diff. I didn't pull out the baffles and I think all that shrapnel was floating behind them and in the axle tubes. Lesson learned.




I took out the two smallest leafs out of my Deaver H70HD to see if I could soften up the rear a bit and put it all back together. Stoked to get her back up and running.




Gave her a wash this morning and drove her to work.

 

[Austen2019]

Nice build I don’t know why there aren’t more of these built it’s such a perfect platform.
I would plate in the carrier bearing mounts they tend to rip off after some abuse

 

[SaltyMethods]

Nice build I don’t know why there aren’t more of these built it’s such a perfect platform.
I would plate in the carrier bearing mounts they tend to rip off after some abuse

How would you do that? Any visuals of plating it in?

 

[Austen2019]

How would you do that? Any visuals of plating it in?

Just box in one side of the u both sides mine ripped off I cut out entire frame cross member out and made a tube with 3/8 plate and 1/2 in grade 8 bolts.

 

[SaltyMethods]

Ran out to the desert for a day trip on Sunday. 98* at 8:30am. 109* at mid-day. I think we were the only idiots driving through the desert that day.

SD > Plaster City > Split Mtn. Road > Fish Creek Trail (had to turnaround because we got lost) > Carrizo Creek Trail > S2 highway > Stagecoach RV Park > SD. 11-hour day.







Going up Diablo's Drop


At the end of our off roading adventure we stopped at Stagecoach RV park. We were just taking a break after a long day of driving around. Every like 10 minutes we would see some new, interesting looking person or persons, come by. Like one chick was riding a bike down the highway with a bikini top, on a BMX bike, sunglasses and white headphones on. Then later some two crackheads (one black chick, and one white crackhead looking dude) stopped by to get some water from the water purification machine. As they left, her brakes were making the most god awful sound and as they took off a brake pad shot out from underneath their car. We were all looking at them in amazement. She stopped and asked if she needed that. We were, like, "It's your brake pad. But it's so worn out, it ain't doing you any good anyways." So she was like, "Oh. Ok." then took off. We were all laughing in amazement. Braking only slows you down. Ain't nobody gots time for dat!



Pretty dope hand carved wood map on the wall at Stagecoach RV Park. Has almost all the trails in the Anza Borrego desert area.

 

[SaltyMethods]

Started on repairing my busted up rear fiberglass fender.



Still more to do.

 

[dwphoto]

Ran out to the desert for a day trip on Sunday. 98* at 8:30am. 109* at mid-day. I think we were the only idiots driving through the desert that day.

SD > Plaster City > Split Mtn. Road > Fish Creek Trail (had to turnaround because we got lost) > Carrizo Creek Trail > S2 highway > Stagecoach RV Park > SD. 11-hour day.

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Going up Diablo's Drop
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At the end of our off roading adventure we stopped at Stagecoach RV park. We were just taking a break after a long day of driving around. Every like 10 minutes we would see some new, interesting looking person or persons, come by. Like one chick was riding a bike down the highway with a bikini top, on a BMX bike, sunglasses and white headphones on. Then later some two crackheads (one black chick, and one white crackhead looking dude) stopped by to get some water from the water purification machine. As they left, her brakes were making the most god awful sound and as they took off a brake pad shot out from underneath their car. We were all looking at them in amazement. She stopped and asked if she needed that. We were, like, "It's your brake pad. But it's so worn out, it ain't doing you any good anyways." So she was like, "Oh. Ok." then took off. We were all laughing in amazement. Braking only slows you down. Ain't nobody gots time for dat!

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Pretty dope hand carved wood map on the wall at Stagecoach RV Park. Has almost all the trails in the Anza Borrego desert area.

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that pad still has some life in it.. I'd reinstall

 

[SaltyMethods]

Installed lower uniballs



Re-valved my front coilovers to #30 (all .008 valve stack) for both compression and rebound


Replaced my 600# 18" spring with a dual rate 500# 4" spring and a 500# 14" spring







Dropping down the valving and the spring weight has helped smooth out the street bumps. No more harsh hits like going over speed bumps. It will be interesting to see how it feels out in the dirt. I'll probably be dropping down a valve stack or two for the rebound in the rear bypasses.

 

[SaltyMethods]

Went out to Plaster City/Superstition area for a day trip with a friend (F150) and his friends (SxSs). Knocked out about 60 miles. Great weather, drank some beers, covered some fun dirt miles. Truck did pretty good with the new shock valving and spring setup. Made it through the whole day up until the last .25 mile. Lost my brakes all the sudden and power to the rear end. Once we got back to camp, I realized that the rear brake hardline fatigued and sprung a leak running into my proportioning valve. So I took a bleeder valve out of one of my drum brakes and screwed it into the leaky line hole and got back brake pressure to the front brakes. Good enough to get me home. Had one more beer and took off for home. Got right around Buckman Springs off the 8 and lost all forward power. The truck was in gear but wasn't going. Finally pulled over and realized that my rear diff shit the bed. Since I didn't want to wait for AAA chase truck to come, I locked my front hubs and put it in 4WD high and drove home. Fuck ya!




So now I'm on the hunt to replace my rear diff. I replaced my stock, open diff with one of those lunch box lockers. That thing was garbage. I think it last me about 8-months. I'm currently running 4.10 front and rear gears. If I was to go with a 4.88 rear gear and keeping the 4.30 gears in the front, would that put too much strain on my setup when running it in 4WD in the dirt? Trail-gear has a deal going on for a setup 3rd member for my truck but they tallest they go is a 4.88 gear ratio. The 4.10 gear setup works pretty good since I try to daily drive my truck and I'm only rockin' 285 sized tires. I'm planning on going electronic locker this time around.

 

[SaltyMethods]

Opened up my diff to assess the damage. Lunchbox locker shit the bed. All the pin/spring slots were cracked and the teeth are rounded off. Spoke with San Diego Gear and Axle (El Cajon). Showed him that locker and he said that is a common issue on those. He said they are junk.



Picked up an Eaton electronic locker from a guy on OfferUp. He put it all together years ago but sold his project and had it laying around. Came already assembled and with wiring harness. Took the new diff and my old ring/pinon to SD Gear and Axle to switch out the 5.29 gears to my stock 4.10. Steve (@SDGA) said I didn't need to break in this new diff because I've already been running it in the past. One day turnaround on the gear and pinion swap. Cost around $470. Super cool guys at SDG&A. Fingers crossed that this new setup holds up (at least longer than 8-months).

 

[SByota]

Opened up my diff to assess the damage. Lunchbox locker shit the bed. All the pin/spring slots were cracked and the teeth are rounded off. Spoke with San Diego Gear and Axle (El Cajon). Showed him that locker and he said that is a common issue on those. He said they are junk.
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Picked up an Eaton electronic locker from a guy on OfferUp. He put it all together years ago but sold his project and had it laying around. Came already assembled and with wiring harness. Took the new diff and my old ring/pinon to SD Gear and Axle to switch out the 5.29 gears to my stock 4.10. Steve (@SDGA) said I didn't need to break in this new diff because I've already been running it in the past. One day turnaround on the gear and pinion swap. Cost around $470. Super cool guys at SDG&A. Fingers crossed that this new setup holds up (at least longer than 8-months).

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Bummer on the failure. What brand lunchbox locker? I have had good luck with the Spartan in my XJ (Chrysler 8.25) and the Lock Right by powertrax in my Tacoma (Toyota 8.4). I’m nervous now, I’m on 35’s and 5:29 gears.

 

[SaltyMethods]

Bummer on the failure. What brand lunchbox locker? I have had good luck with the Spartan in my XJ (Chrysler 8.25) and the Lock Right by powertrax in my Tacoma (Toyota 8.4). I’m nervous now, I’m on 35’s and 5:29 gears.

I got the Powertrax 1615-LR Lock-Right. Paid $323.25 through Amazon.

Not sure if maybe I installed it wrong but I had my buddy who runs a auto repair shop look over my work and he said it all looked good. I also daily my truck (when it's not on jackstands) and maybe driving on it on the street on the daily just wore it down super quick? Don't know. But it would do some really weird stuff when it would release and re-engage. My buddy was telling me that maybe the way it was made was just dog shit. He says that he believes that parts aren't made all that well nowadays. He's had a handful of parts just break apart because they were produced poorly.

 

[Exploder_M]

Bummer on the failure. What brand lunchbox locker? I have had good luck with the Spartan in my XJ (Chrysler 8.25) and the Lock Right by powertrax in my Tacoma (Toyota 8.4). I’m nervous now, I’m on 35’s and 5:29 gears.

I ran the spartan lunchbox locker in the rear, ford 8.8 with stock 3.55 gears for almost 2 years. "Slipped" a couple of times but besides that did great. Took me where an open rear wouldn't dream. Granted, 32" tires though. Many people have great experiences with lunch boxes in the front diff that experience lighter loads.