Tacoed Tundra project

I got the swaybar bracket welds ground down on the frame yesterday. A little bit of primer and a little bit of rustoleum semi-gloss black paint did the trick.

 

I found a set of five 265/75-16 BFG All Terrains (D load) in the back of my shop yesterday as well! I completely forgot i had them. They seem to be a tight fit with the stock suspension, so hopefully they work out. They look decent in my picture, but keep in mind that there’s currently no engine in the truck, so the front end is probably close to 2” higher than normal. RWL for the win!

 

Turned out i bent the heck out of one of the arms on the steering rack. I’m pretty sure exactly which tree stump did that to us. I realize that i’ll soon be taking the junker truck apart, but i couldn’t just walk away from straightening out the problem. After removing the rack’s arm and tie rod end all in one piece, i put them in the hydraulic shop press to bend it back straight.

 

For kicks i removed the swaybar on my wrecked truck yesterday. I wanted to see how difficult of a job it would be when the engine is still in place. FYI, there’s absolutely zero difference between removing that swaybar if the engine is in place or not. Those top four fasteners can easily be accessed IF you have a (preferably) a 12mm flex head Gear wrench. It took me about 15 minutes to place the truck on blocks, remove the tires, unscrew the links, then undo the swaybar fasteners. My truck is rust free though. Maybe double or triple that if it’s all corroded.

 

Yeah, that...rust. I bought new brackets and fasteners because I suspect that I'll wind up cutting them off, but at least now I know I won't have to remove the engine

 

My 2000 wrecked Tundra didn’t come with the optional ABS system. For my 2004 tundra and for what i’ll be using it for, i don’t want ABS. I also don’t want the spaghetti noodles of brake lines going every which way but loose in my engine bay. I’m thinking about removing ALL of the existing ABS brake lines and ABS pump in my 2004 and replace them with the non-ABS lines from my 2000. My question is, does the ABS pump go through the truck’s ECU? I’m wondering if it’s just simple enough to disconnect the ABS pump from the wire harness.

I’m half tempted to swap the wires harnesses between the two trucks, but i’d kinda like to keep the power windows and door locks on my 2004 truck. I also don’t really want to remove the whole dang dash from both trucks to get the harness out.

The other thing i’m wondering is if the emission tests are the same for the 2000 and 2004 trucks. A concern would be that if i were to swap computers and harnesses between the two trucks that possibly the emission readings could be different...which i doubt would be the case, but i just want to be extra sure about that.

 

Pretty sure abs has its own computer. If you don't want the hassle of changing a harness you can just pull the fuse to disable it.

 

I got the transfer case, tranny, and engine removed from the truck yesterday. It took a lot longer than i thought it would. I started turning a wrench at 9am and finally set the wrench back down at 11pm. Nothing was that complicated, and nothing was rusty. It was just a slow process since everything is packaged fairly tight. I can pull the whole drivetrain in my jeep CJ7 in about a third of that time.

Part of the reason it took so long was because the truck’s cab was crushed against both the transfer case and transmission!

 

I ended up breaking off 3 (out of the 6) exhaust manifold studs when i tried removing the locking nuts. I ended up using a torch to heat up the flange and stud and managed to unthread it with a pipe wrench. Another stud i welded a nut to the end of it, then backed it out with a wrench. The last stud wouldn’t come out whatsoever. It’s the first time in my life that heat and a welder hasn’t been able to remove a broken fastener! I finally gave up trying to use the welded nut method last night around 11:30pm. This morning i drilled out the hole and tapped it back to a M10x1.25mm. I managed to get both the hole and the tap exactly dead center and rethreaded to the original thread ridges! So that was a win for me.

 

I ended up deciding to delete the ABS on the 2004 truck. In 2000 ABS was an option. My truck didn’t come with it. I have been driving the truck fine about a year in all sorts of conditions and decided i liked how it brakes in gravel, snow, ice, and dirt...no complaints with braking on pavement either. To make a clean delete, i swapped the non-ABS lines from the 2000 truck over to the 2004 truck. Yes i could have just pulled the ABS fuse in the 2004 truck, but by removing the all the extra brakes lines and ABS pump, it really cleans up the engine bay. Plus it will make bleeding brakes MUCH easier in the future.


Before with ABS




After with ABS delete



Where the lines connect under the cab.



This is how the lines are located originally on the 2000 non-ABS truck.



Here’s a comparison of both brake lines. The ABS lines are located above the tools. The non-ABS lines are located below the tools.

 

A couple drivetrain specs...

A 2000-2004 4wd transmission weighs in at 130lbs (without the torque converter).



The transfer case weighs in at 74 lbs.

 

I pressure washed the engine last night while it was on the cherry picker, so when i started to remove the ancillary items this morning, everything was pretty darn clean. Definitely a game changer to work on a grease free engine!

It took me pretty much exactly 1 hour this morning to remove ALL all the bits and pieces, all the way down to the water pump. Once everything was disassembled i pressure washed the engine once again (on low pressure).

All the bearings and timing belt felt and looked fine, but will all new parts it will be even finer.

 

Here’s my spread of parts that i bought from Rock auto, Summit, and a local toyota dealer.

 

The only wonky thing i saw on this 2000 engine was the wire patching that went to the alternator’s plug. Someone needs to be slapped....or maybe someone had been slapped too many times?

 

Aftermarket alternator with non-matching harness I'm guessing. Yeah ... that's some BS right there.

 

I got the timing belt and other ancillary items all installed today. I made sure the engine was at TDC, all the dots, slashes, and other marks were lined up where they are supposed to be. Once the belt was installed i temporarily reinstalled the crank pulley and rotated the engine 360 degrees to make sure that indeed the marks still line up (which they did).

Once thing to note, make sure that you reinstall the spacer washer BEHIND the timing belt’s idler pulley pivot bolt!

 

I needed a way to keep the crankshaft from turning while while i torqued the bolt down to 181 ft/lbs. I decided to make a holding tool to use. I rummaged through my metal pile until something sparked my eye. I used a length of 1.5” channel and a piece of 1.5” schedule 40 pipe. After using a hole saw, welder, and a 3/8” drill bit, it was ready for use.

 

My holding tool works quite well!

 

The 2000 tundra uses a mechanical throttle body while the 2004 uses an electronic throttle body. I had to do the ol’ switcheroo between the two plenums. The engines also use a different coolant pipe and a couple different hoses so those had to be swapped as well.

Mechanical TB above, electronic TB below




If you look close, the mechanical coolant pipe (bottom) has a smaller diameter orifice than the electronic coolant pipe (top).




And how it looks with the 2004 TB bolted onto the 2000 plenum (and engine block). I also had to swap out the M8 TB mounting studs as well. The reason being is that the 2004 TB mounting flange is a little bit thicker in that particular area.

Sharp eyes will also notice that i swapped the correct alternator onto the 2000 engine. It was on the 2004 engine. It is a genuine Toyota alternator. I’m guessing that it could be the original?...if so, hopefully it lasts for a while.

 

Here’s the pile of parts that got replaced.


NOTE: the drive belt (fan belt) tensioner and pulley i did not replace. The tensioner on the 2000 engine felt a little bit gritty, so i swapped the 2004 tensioner onto the 2000 engine. The tensioner pulley and bearing on the 2000 felt MUCH better than the 2005, so i used the 2000 pulley on the 2004 tensioner.

 

So now that i’m down to the nitty gritty portion of the swap, does anyone know if the 2000 and 2004 fuel rails and plumbing are the same? The rails have a little bit different exterior casting, but everything else at least looks the same to me.

 

Awesome work! Love your crank pulley tool!

 

Amazed someone swapped from jade mica to white! Loving this build thread! Following this excellent read. The interior of your 2000 and how "intact" the interior is (I know it's really not intact) is one of the things I love about Toyota's. I was t-boned in my wife's 4Runner 8 years ago, and you'd have thought the interior would be a lot worse than it actually was from how the driver's side looked. Great work!

 

I removed the ADD (front differential) out of the 2000 4wd (duh) truck today. I pushed the truck (while my mother steered it) with the tractor through the field and into the shop. Once i got the truck up on jack stands i inspected the lower ball joints. The passenger side joint is definitely floppy. Without a doubt i’ll be replacing both lower ball joints, but i would rather spend the extra $$$ on buying a set of 2004-2006 4wd knuckles and the larger LBJs, rather than install the 2000’s lower control arm, 4wd knuckle, and smaller LBJs.

I ended up removing disassembling the knuckles far enough to remove the CV axles from the center section. After four hard tugs the clamshell finally relinquish them. I reinstalled the 4wd hub/knuckle/spindle assembly on the 2000 truck. I’m not planning on using them on my 2004 truck, so it now lets me able to roll around the truck.

The front diff isn’t too heavy. I didn’t weigh it, but it might scale in at around 70lbs?

And now that i swapped all of the ancillary items over from the junked 2004 engine to my good 2000 engine, i needed to find a place to get it (the junk engine) out of my way. So i thought, why not just reinstall it back into the wrecked 2000 truck? It only took about 15~20 minutes to get the engine hooked up the cherry picker, set in the engine bay, and engine mounts bolted up to the frame. Then i thought, why not reinstall all the hoses, fuel lines, radiator too? By doing that it will help keep the engine sealed up. It also keeps me from having a large random parts pile that i would inevitably trip over.

 

I didn’t get too much done on the truck today, but what i did get done was flush and bleed the brake system in the 2004 truck. It’s waaaay easier to bleed without ABS!


I also replaced the filter in the 2000 4wd transmission. It’s super simple when the transmission is upside down. You don’t get the cherry juice drizzle in you face, eyes, and hair, plus it’s very quick to clean all the oil off of the gasket mating surfaces!

 

I also forgot that i also popped all the ball joints loose from their seats as well...upper BJs, lower BJs, and tie rod ends. They're all finger tight right now. It will make it smooth sailing when i have to come back and remove the spindles/knuckles. It's almost looking like the 2004 2wd and 4wd spindles/knuckles are exactly the same...i think. I hear that i would only need to buy 4wd bearings and seals to make that conversion?

I gave up on researching what it would take to convert my 2004 2wd engine wire harness into a 4wd harness. I know it's been done a couple time before in the past, but the wiring wasn't very well documented. I ended up ordering a 2004 4wd engine harness on ebay for $250 this afternoon. As much as i'd like to sling this engine back into the engine bay ASAP, i will have to wait and install the engine harness onto the engine block before the install. I think it might be possible to install the harness after the engine in place, but it wouldn't be realistic to do that. Since the ebay seller is only 300 miles away from me, there stands a REAL good chance that the harness might show up before the weekend! If that's the case, i should be able to have the whole drivetrain installed as early as Saturday night? If so, that will give me some warm fuzzies!

 

I stopped at the wrecking yard today to search for some parts. The only this 1st gen that was at any U Pull It wrecking yard within 500 miles of me was a 2001 Sequoia. I ended up grabbing the 4wd transmission crossmember. The 4wd crossmember that was in my 2000 trick was buckled from the crash. I suppose i could have straightened it out, but i had zero desire to go that budget. Especially since it was 50% off day at the junk yard. $16 was all it costed me!

Since the whole drivetrain was still in the Sequoia, it took a little bit of thought on how to remove the crossmember that holds up the tranny, T case, drive shafts, and some of the engine. I ended up finding a random engine part that i used as a makeshift jack stand. No blood or fingers were lost today!

I thought about also removing both the front differential and rear 3rd member since they have a 4.10 gear ratio, but i don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze from coming from a 3.90. Definitely 4.56 ratio, but there just isn’t enough jump between the 3.9 and a 4.56.




The X member in my hand is buckled.

 

Shoulda grabbed the whole sequoia axle, welded some spring perches, and had rear discs.

 

Great project and as you initially started... these trucks are fun to fall in love with!!! just bought mine about 3 weeks ago... I've owned several Toyotas although never a Tundra and I drove 2 gen and 2015 but these first gen are seriously some of Toyotas best work in my opinion... these 4.7 motors are solid work horses and I just read that it wears them out quicker over revving... so let the torque push you and do the oil changes... 2 of these 4.7 motors have a million miles and they were tugging cargo... absolutely amazing!!

 

I was tempted, but i think i read somewhere on a Tundra forum that the guy who did it didn't really care for the design of the Sequoia's disc brakes? And i also read that the axle housings are different lengths (not by much though). Do you happen to know which housing is wider? It wouldn't be too difficult of a project...