Fitting Marlin Crawler gears to your Hilux - Simon Morris

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If you are wanting to have lower gearing in your Hilux SFA then you can consider the fitment of a Marlin Crawler kit, what you basically require are the following items;

Two complete transfer cases. Which you will use only a section of the one.
A front cardan prop shaft.
A twin stick (gear lever).
Nibbler machine. (used to cut away the floor metal of your cab body)
Single front seats if your Hilux has the bench seat fitted.
New gearbox/transfer case rubber mounting block.
Various tools, basic socket and spanner set as well as a puller set.
New flange seals for the transfer case as well as two flange nuts (new) cannot use the old nuts.

Depending on the condition of the transfer cases, we recommend that you (or you get The Marlin fitted by a business that reconditions gearboxes and transfer cases) they can then also fit The Marlin Crawler adapter plate and all new bearings at the same time or you can do the job yourself, some advise, if you strip the transfer case's, take photo's as you go along, we had our transfer case outer housing bead blasted, please note, we did not fit The Marlin Crawler adapter plates ourselves, we had them fitted by a business up in JHB called Mr Drive shaft and Gearbox & Diff Centre Pierre tel 082 447 3237. You must remember to fit a front transfer case flange at the rear of the transfer case, the front and the rear flanges of the transfer case are a different size.

Pierre also completely reconditioned the two gearboxes at the same time.

Also please note, only one of The Marlin Crawler kits was supplied by Guy Heritage, the other was supplied by Riceburner who is another member here :roll: also known as Darryl cell 083 307 6192, if you are requiring Hilux items to modify your Hilux then give Darryl a call, he can supply various lockers, Marlin Crawler kits and a vast amount of other items as well.

I am not going to go into the actual fitment of The Marlin Crawler adapter kit to the transfer case, if you want to see how this is done then you can visit Marlin's web site http://www.marlincrawler.com who are in America, but we refitted the reconditioned gearbox as well as the recon transfer case back into the vehicles, make sure that you first fit a new rear main crank seal behind the fly wheel, make sure that there are no high spots on the flywheel, if there are then have it machined or fit a new flywheel, if you re-fit the old flywheel, check that the ring gear teeth are still healthy (not damaged), fit a new clutch kit which will also include a release bearing, do not fit recon stuff, it might be cheaper but is rubbish, go for a Sachs.

Once the gearbox and the transfer case is fitted, you now have to measure up the correct length that the rear prop shaft will be, we decided to remove and do away with the centre bearing on the std existing rear prop shaft, with the added length of the additional transfer case section and the adapter plate, we found that the angle of using the two piece prop shaft would not be suitable, the angle is too sharp, thus we obtained a front cardan prop shaft, modified it to fit at the rear, this is why we fitted a front flange to the rear of the transfer case, the front prop shaft will not fit to the std rear flange of the transfer case.

Once the transfer case and gearbox were fitted, make sure that you do not forget to fill both units up with the correct oil, we use a GL 4 80 A gear oil, you can also lengthen the breathers if you want to.
We then measured up and cut a hole in the floor of the cab body large enough for the twin shifter gear levers, the existing gear lever that was used for the selection of the high/low and twd is removed, what you will basically have is now four gear levers, the small one will be re-fitted and will be used to select low or high range only, forward will be low range and back high range, you still will use the normal gear lever for the selection of 1st to 5th gears.

This is how you buy the kit and what it consists of

Note the extended speedo cable.

You should have seen the face of The Landrover driver behind me

With this Marlin Crawler fitted, this is what it allows you to do, your whole driving way changes

Here we have the rear prop shaft, we did away with the two piece prop shaft and the centre bearing. See photo for details, I said earlier, we have used a front prop shaft with the cardan joint at the rear.

Now you must also remember that this is a special rear modified prop shaft, it has to also compensate for the rear revolver shackles when we unlock them the rear axle drops down an extra 200mm.

The Cardan Joint they cost about R3 500. (in 2007)

This photo below shows the difference between the short normal std front prop shafts and the longer modified front prop shaft that we have used at the rear of my Hilux.

With the extra low range, this Hilux performs differently, you have more traction, you can handle the vehicle better, better control over side angle terrain, helps to protect the vehicle against breaking or abuse, but some warning, if we are out 4x4ing together, do not drive behind me.

And the twin shifter gives you the added gear selection and options, until you have fitted this kit into your Hilux, you will not understand the advantages of it until you have.

If you are wanting to buy this kit and fit it into your Hilux, then contact Rice Burner here he can supply and maybe will fit it for you, if you ask him nicely.