06 DC Daily Driver / 2wd to 4wd Conversion

This is really impressive man. For a non mechanic to knock out a project like this in that amount of time is awesome. Nice work.

 

This is just great stuff, I wish to do this to my 2006 2WD in the future, but not being extremely mechanically inclined has kinda put me off. This however has give me confidence to do this in the future, excellent work

 

Thankfully I have a really understanding wife who I barely saw for an entire week.

The deadline was honestly all self imposed. We’ve got a week long camping trip to Big Bend State park planned and are hitting the road on the 22nd. I wanted to daily the truck for at least a week beforehand so that I could smoke out any issues that may appear.

Once you’re down in that area of the world, you can’t afford for anything to go wrong. And if it does, you have to be fully self sufficient. The campsite where we are staying is over an hour drive from the Ranger station and the Ranger station is over an hour and a half from any paved road. Cell service? Hah. The park slogan is “Bring two spares.”

 

Sweet that weekend is our first camping trip of the year and the first with the Tundra. We're heading to lake leatherwood. I think you would like it there.

Your trip sounds awesome. I have never done anything remote like that. Can't wait to hear how the truck does.

 

Awesome work! Send thanks to your better part for being understanding.

 

Wait. This only took you 2 days?!
That’s nuts!

 

Took me 5 days working 5-8/9ish stripping the donor truck.

Started pulling apart my truck at 8am Saturday morning and had all torque specs checked by 9 or so Sunday night.

I don’t feel like it’s that impressive to someone who does this for a living. But for someone with 4 jack stands, two floor jacks, and a driveway, I’ve gotta say that I’m pretty proud.

 

Ya I agree. Doing it in a shop you would be twice as fast.

I just had that conversation with a friend, if you have a lift/air/tools, cars are quite easy. Doing it in a garage with a floor jack, hand tools, etc... thats what makes it hard.

 

How did the camping setup work out on the trip?

 

My only complaint was that I’m just a smidge too tall. I tend to sleep on my back with my arms behind my head and I couldn’t do that. If I was by myself, it wouldn’t be a big deal because I could lay diagonal and be fine. I’m 6’-0” and my wife is 5’-10” and she had no complaints.

I ended up buying the 4” mattress below. I could feel my shoulder digging in a little if I laid on my side but I don’t think that would warrant the cost of the 6” version.

Milliard Full Tri Folding Mattress with Washable Cover (73 inches x 52 inches x 4 inches)

$170 Milliard Full Tri Folding Mattress with Washable Cover, Full Size (75"es x 52"es x 4"es)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W67PAPK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_4AQNR64W9JZ7KFJ85HWF?_encoding=UTF8


Otherwise, it was an awesome trip all around and everything else performed as intended.

 

Thanks for the heads up on the mattress. My wife is a side sleeper.

 

Excellent job! I’m considering a conversion myself. I currently have an 06 4 door tundra. The donor vehicle I have located is an 01 access cab. I’m assuming the swap over would be the same as yours. Am I correct in this assumption?

 

Some components may swap from AC/RC to DC, but best thing to do is find as close to your truck as possible like @MrDirtjumper did. No worries about fitment, or "is this gonna be enough?"

 

No that is incorrect. The 01-04 used the A340 while 05-06 used the A750. A 4 speed vs a 5 speed.

Bolt holes may match up but the ecu is gonna have one heck of a mess on its hands trying to figure out what to do with that 5th gear.

It took me over a year to find a compatible totaled truck that I was comfortable with buying. But like @Tundra2 said, it takes all of the guess work out of it.

 

Trust me, short words of "awesome build" does not do your work justice. While the other mods were a joy to read, the PTS is what my aged Tundra and this aged owner is most interested in.
Great work !

 

Here’s how to replace your rear door checks on your DC for $13 each!


So for as long as I can remember, I’ve been super sick and tired of the worn out door checks on my rear doors. Being my cheap usual self, I couldn’t bring myself to spend the $105 on the factory replacement.

Genuine Toyota 68630-0C010 Door Check Assembly

$109 Genuine Toyota 68630-0C010 Door Check Assembly

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G0LWDEY

Not too long ago, I saw someone on the Facebook group suggest a $13 Dorman replacement that says it’s not an exact fit but they said it’s close enough. I figured, what the heck, if it’s wack, I’ll just trash it.

Dorman 924-963 Rear Door Check

$13 Dorman 924-963 Rear Right/Left Door Check Compatible with Select Nissan Models

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ID3O8GM

Well it turns out that these are for a Camry or something and don’t allow the doors to swing out to their full position. I knew that I couldn’t live with that so let’s experiment a bit… After all, $13 right?

It’s pretty obvious that the factory arm is not worn out, it’s the pinchy, squeezy part that’s showing wear. Why not combine the new pinchy, squeezy thing with the factory arm and get this thing back in working order?

First the backing plate needs to be removed from the new arm. There’s a riveted stud that holds the new backing plate on. Thankfully this stud can be removed with the common hacksaw. I had already cut both sides of the stud off in the below pic but you get the idea.



Again, studs already cut but it’s pretty self explanatory:



Here’s the short arm with the backing plate and the squeezy bits removed:



Now you also need to get the backing plate off of the factory arm. Thankfully, Toyota made this serviceable it seems. There’s no riveted stud, the backing plate is cut in a keyhole shape and only needs to be turned 90 deg to remove it. I’ll upload a pic of how this is done when I do my other one next week. It’s easiest if you clamp the end of the arm in a vise and use a pair of channel locks to twist the oem plate off.

Once this is done, you can combine the good pieces and congrats, new door checks for $13 ea!

 

Alright DC-bags, I finally had a half day off and got around to doing the other rear door check. I know in August I promised to take more photos and update in a week but this is 2021 so yeah, you get what you get:

Here is the OEM next to the $13 Dorman. You can easily see how it comes up short.


Here is the stud that needs to be cut off of the Dorman.


Next, you want to twist the OEM backing plate off of the old arm.


Now, hammer the OEM arm into the new, good squeezy bits from the $13 Dorman unit and reinstall the twist on backing plate.

Reinstall the door check and go on about your merry way! The driver side that I did back whenever is still kicking. I’m actually still not used to it and still find myself trying to hold the door open.

 

Nice thread. I want to magic wand my 03 4Runner into 4wd.

 

Just an update on the 4wd swap. I would love to say that it’s been all wine and roses. To tell you truth, it hasn’t been far off. I’d call it, Boones Farm and beer farts. I wouldn’t buy the candle but it’s better than your buddies bathtub hooch.

I admit that I was in quite the rush to get the swap done but touché Mr. Mangler, I should have heeded your advice. I do have that tiny vibe that goes away when I hit 4wd. SoI definitely should have done it but I’m gonna drop the diff soon anyways and I’ll explain later.

I did replace the passenger seal on the diff, but I either went too far or not far enough. Regardless, it’s leaking and sends a single drop down about once a week. Not happy with that. It’s sending gear oil all over my pristine, rust free, west Texas undercarriage.

It also turns out that the passenger CV from the donor was pretty pitted. I’ve got a terrible click when turning in 4wd. Like real, real bad.

Plan is to replace the CV with CVJ and drop the diff. Ill just go ahead and and replace both seals and do the ECGS bushing while I’m at it. Hopefully this time I can get them seated correctly.

 

As someone with a floor jack, 4 jack stands, and a driveway I think this project is incredible and I would never have the confidence to take it on. Amazing thread here with awesome pictures too.

What did you end up doing with the steps? I'd be willing to take them off your hands if you still have them!

 

On your trans, did you consider cracking the cases open and swapping the tailshafts? Was that the only difference?

This is really impressive btw. I once put OEM cruise control in a Ford ranger and thought I was a boss for doing it. This is awesome.

 

Great thread and a great results!

 

I didn’t really want to open up the trans but yeah that was the only difference. When I drained the original fluid it was still very red so I felt confident that the donor wouldn’t let me down. I’ve got approx 20k on it so far so, keeping my fingers crossed.

 

such an awesome thread! thanks for the pics and explanations. I need to do the door checks as well.

 

Really enjoyed reading this! And mad respect to you for heading up such a crazy project. Out of curiosity would you ever do this for someone else for money?

 

I ran into a speed bump doing this... cannot seem to get the "squeezy bits" off of the new door check. Here's my post about it:

https://www.tundras.com/threads/door-check-problems.32194/page-2#post-2851551

Any help would be more than welcome!

TIA!

 

Worked perfect

this

 

So this project was really interesting.

it’s been a few years, how is it now?

 

She still puts out.