KK6HWP's '97 Tacoma Build (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Feb 10, 2014
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Build thread of the taco. started a little late but, what can you do?
 
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got the front end installed. lower geared diff., to match rear e-locking diff.

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got the switch mounted in the dash and wired, it all works! the red light above the switch is an indicator that illuminates when the diff. is fully locked.
 
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temporary mount for the HF whip.
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coax and grounding strap routed through plastic bed liner.
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coax comes up along the frame rail and up through a rubber grommet in the cab under the passenger seat.
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coax comes up next to the seat mount and can be hidden form sight, it does not impede the movement of the seat.
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grounding strap goes to a grounding under the tailgate.
 
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final instal of the HF whip mount plate steel and 1x1 1/8 wall square tube.
 
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new mic hanger, convenient location.
 
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went wheeling this weekend, left friday night. drove to Mojave, spent the night. sat. drove to joshua tree, did some wheeling, tested the skid plates, they work. had food and spent the night camping under the stars in the desert.
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Sunday morning sun rise. we drove in to long beach and then up 101 back to the bay area. fun weekend with KK6HWO and KG6MOV.
 
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FT-8900 control head fully installed, not a wire in sight. so pretty!
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Finally got the override switch installed, it will turn the relay for the radio on when the ignition is off. it even lights up! pretty.
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nice and out of the way, don't notice it till its on at night then its the sun!
 
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now just got to finish the rock sliders ... and ... replace the 2 mud flaps i ripped off, accidentally of corse, in the desert. Oh! and the air compressor and surge tank, pics of that to come.
 
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got the mud flap remounted. yay! being street legal again, California and its laws... mutter mutter...
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not sure how long it'll stay there, but its on for now. tore the mount holes when it " fell off " on a rock.
 
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got the spring for the HF whip mounted. no more worrying if trees will try to remove the HF whip for me.
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ham radio mic extension for the ft-8900 finished, taped over the headset port to keep mud and dirt among other things out. i used the Yaesu MEK-2 it seems to work well. may be nice to have a noise canceling headset in the future for those loud off road sessions.
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painted the bracket for the control head, went with glossy black, mostly because i had it in the shed. a few more hours to dry and then re installing the control head.

also took the rear bumper apart and cleaned out the dirt and straw. yes, straw, for the goats and sheep. cleaned it and put it all back together. looks good, and its nice to know its clean even though you can't see it.
 
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got the special cable for the solid state relay in stalled, it has a diode inline on the positive side. before the diode i had a problem with power going up the control line and powering up other installed accessories.the diode is under the yellow e-tape.
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control head put back up with the newly painted bracket.
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back of the bracket, can't see any of the wires form the driver's seat.

the rock sliders have been put on hold till tues. last week work fell apart and i didn't have time to get much done with the tacoma.
 
Picked up a scan gauge II today. the scan gauge II can read check engine error codes, and gives real time stats from the computer. it has a very simple install, plug it in to your OBD2 port and connect the other end to the cat5 port on the scan gauge and it'll power up when the engine is running and powers off 12 seconds after the rpm reaches 0. a few very simple questions about your vehicle and your up and running. questions include fuel type, engine size, miles/kilometers, degrees F/C, and fuel tank size. got mine set-up and running well, just need to get it mounted and run/route the cable out of sight, and have my speedometer re-geared so it will read the correct speed. currently it reads 5 MPH high after the new front/rear-ends fully installed. the new diffs. are geared lower and as mentioned above the rear has an E-Locker. the scan gauge II has a setting that allows you to recalibrate the speed on the scan gauge. recalibrating the scan gauge won't fix the speedo, only the speed reading on the device. part of why i will be re-gearing the speedo is to keep the odometer accurate which i suspect is inaccurate.

I will post pics of the install in the coming days when i get it installed.
 
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Started Work on the rock sliders today. 2x2 10gauge wall square tube steel. got the passenger side mostly cut out and tacked together.
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going to test fit it tomorrow after work. still have to mark and cut the angles for the front and back outer edges.

BEST PART!! New Tools!!
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got a new DeWalt 14in. metal chop saw. The D28715, very nice abrasive saw. so much better than using the angle grinder to cut bits of metal.
 
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Got all of the pieces cut tacked and dry fitted.

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Got my sliders welded out on one side. decided to stop for the night, mostly because the welders duty cycle was up and i had to stop and let it cool anyways. i figure i can finish welding out the passenger side and move on to cutting the pieces for drivers side. then tack and maybe start welding it out. after welding it out i will measure and look at how to mount it to the frame. think will get some 1/4in. or 10gauge plate steel and bend/weld a "u" shaped bracket and bolt it to the frame with 1/2in. grade 8 bolts.
 
Got the scan gauge II installed temporarily. i like where i have it now i've just got to mount it fully.
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the tape is slipping but it won't have to last too much longer.

the air compressor got installed.
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still need to run the airline to the tank. oh, and mount the tank. the problem i ran in to with this install was 3 different sized fittings. a 1/4in. fiting for the quick connect, and some thing smaller for the compressor outlet, and an even smaller fitting for the airline and tank inlet and outlet. i see lots of adaptors in my future.
 
got the air line and air tank installed today.
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cut half of the original quick qonect off and tapped it to 1/8 pipe thread. turns out that the other fittings on the tank and air lines were 1/8 pipe threads any way. I will post pictures of the final product and the air tank soon.

still have to adapt the tank output to 1/4in. airline fitting. I also need to wire in the pressure on/off valve and find and build a relay and switch so i can power on/off the compressor from in the cab. i think i might add a digital pressure gauge so i know what the tank is filled to. I tested the output today and can run an impact driver for brief periods of time, like breaking loose a lug nut.
 
What lift did you use?
 
No lift, just the bigger tires, 31's. I plan on installing a 2in. lift when I get the old man emu suspension.
 
Most projects still on hold, winter doesent help. welded the mount for the exaust back together, but it broke apart again. Not sure if it was too cold of a weld or if the engine shaking was too much of a shock load for the weld. New HF radio installed, Icom IC-7100. pics to come. Had to rethink the power wireing some, kept overloading the 25amp relay. Now there is two relays one 30amp for the HF radio, 22amp draw, and one 25amp for the quad band and other radio accessorys, radio draws 9amps. pics to come of the new power distrubution. Have the 7100's control head mounted where I like it, but it's inconvient for pasangers, so it will get moved. probably going to mount it on a Lido LM-700-ultimount and adhesive it to the dash near the glove box. Going to try to get out and go wheeling soon, probably Holister Hills SVRA.
 
pics from the updated power install.
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the new relay is at the bottom with multiple wires coming off it, it a 60amp automotive style relay. the rig runner (power distribution) is now direct to battery and the relays are between the rig runner and the radios. the power pies in the split loom is the feed to the HF radio, the split loom is to protect the cables from the passenger seat when it move to get stuff in and out of the back seat. the control cable and mic extension cables run down the center console from the dash area to the main body and join the power cable in the split loom under the enter console.

and the control head mount.
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the control cable runs down the aluminum and, as mentioned before, down the center console to the main body. The control head will be moved over above the transfer-case shifter, when I pick-up the new mount. the mic was extended same as the mic for the 8900, except easier the 7100 uses standard cat5 cable.

the mic for the 7100 is temporarily mounted on a removable stick on hook, when i decide on a final location i will mount a piece of aluminum and put the lido 1201 icom mic hanger.

I'm researching a gps antenna so i can do DPRS or Digital Position Reporting System, one of the outputs on the rig runner will go to a powerwerx USBbuddy. It's a 12v to 5v converter with powerpoles in and USB out.

in other news the Scangauge II is getting moved to above the 8900 which is above the rearview mirror. I was going to put the HF radio control head there but the 7100's control head won't fit and would be inconvenient to use the touch screen that high. So the scan gauge is getting moved.
 
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