SirDan's 4runner Build thread!

[sirdan]

I woke up Saturday morning and hammer had a 88 4runner parked on my front lawn with for sale signs in it. I just had to have it so we struck up a deal. He said If I swapped the front diff and rear axle into his truck and installed the front end kit he bought for his truck I could have it. His front diff is perfect and the rear I think has a leaky pinion seal and axle seal. Should be easy to fix and it will be out already making it easier to work on.










The truck is an 1988 22re automatic with 118k. The rear window was stuck down for a few years and mold and animals were inside it. There is no carpet which is probably better anyway for me. The floors are in great shape no holes the frame is in perfect shape as well. Dash is not the greatest seats are a little ripped but the foam is still all good. door panels and headliner are all moldy. The body has a little rot and the paint is fair at best.

I did a little research looked at some pictures of trucks and I think my game plan here is to stuff a 2 inch ball joint lift up front and 4 inch blocks out back. Hammer might have both of those items and said I could have them so quick easy small lift. I would like to stick 35 inch tires on it after that and cut the fenders a little bigger which as a bonus i can also get rid of the rust in them that way. I am going to have to have a quick look at hammers rear before I stick it under my truck and fix what is leaking on it. I am also strongly considering sticking a locker in the rear end while I am at it. also that ugly useless pushbar has to go! At the moment this is the basic plan.

The first thing I did to the truck was figure out why the rear window wouldn't go up. Alittle digging and I found out there is a button that tells the window controller if the top is on or off. If the top is off and the button isn't pushed the window wont go up. I guess so you don't break it. Whatever is supposed to push the button isn't there so I rigged something up to push it in, Ill fix it more properly when I take the top off for the first time. Anyway that got the window working and a little lube got it working decent. I want to do everything for hammer before  really bother doing anything else to the truck so I am leaving it stinky and moldy until I finish that stuff. I did throw a little baking soda around the inside to maybe soak up some of the smells. Then today I decided to start on the axle swap. Started a little later than I wanted but I managed to get the front diff and rear end out. I cleaned the front diff as well. Going to throw a little paint on hammers diffs.



you should have seen this thing before! the engine leaks oil somewhere, I honestly haven't looked at that yet could just be a valve cover gasket for all i know.



Rear end out at around 10:30 pm, I hope the neighbors didn't mind me using the impact gun....

[Sigma Projects]

hehe boombox

[corax]

Congrats! (did you notice the passenger door has 2 interior handles yet? - took me nearly a year to find that)

4crawler's site has just about any info you'd need for that gen 4runner: http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/
if it's not on his site, ask me, I might know a thing or two about '88 4runners
Try to avoid lift blocks in the rear if you can, they tend to amplify leaf spring wrap and wheel hop - you can junkyard Chevy leaf springs (weld on new front hangers) and get about 3" lift for under $100 - search online for specifics
front/rear regears are awesomely easy, 2nd gen 4runners came with 4.56 (good for 31's and 32's) and 4.88 gears (perfect for 33's) and can be found in junkyards now and again - the 4.88 rear center section can only use the factory 4.88 gear set though due to an offset pinion on that particular housing.
ToyotaFiberglass.com has some body parts that you might be interested in, I've heard their quality is pretty damn good and I'll probably get a set of rear 1/4's from them at some point
a 7M swap is an easy bolt in affair and could be running in 2 days, if you're interested (but radiator fitment is a bit tight)

(a few of mine)

[sirdan]

I don't like blocks either but its quick and cheap. An add a leaf might get it back to stock height but then the suspension is stiffer which I don't think would be good. I could probably fab up a antiwrap bar or something to save the u joint. Gears will have to come down the road at some point. Going to stick with the 22re it will be slow but I don't think this will be a vehicle i want to go to fast in anyway.

Do you have any experience with any lunchbox lockers? I am trying to figure out what brand is the most reliable.

[sirdan]

I painted up hammers front diff and rear end. I don't know if I should even bother painting mine.

[sirdan]

So I found out the differential from my truck leaks out the pinion seal. It was a little wet on the bottom, I couldn't tell if that was from the engine leaking oil or not when i first took it out. MY guess is that the oil when sitting only partially covers the seal so half of it dried out and cracked. Anyway I ordered 2 new seals since I know his needs one as well. Ill stick the seal in over the weekend at some point and replace the broken line on the rear as well. He doesn't want to give up his truck until sunday because he wants to go fishing this weekend. I can't argue with that I would like to catch some fish this weekend.

[sirdan]

so hammer finally dropped his truck off tonight so I can start swapping. The seals showed up finally too. Started working at like 7:30 got the truck up on stands and popped the wheel off. Went and got a brake line for the rear, put it on and had to replace the one clamp that rotted away. I had some harbor freight clamps but of course the hole was too small. Started drilling it out and my stupidity got the best of me and i slicked my finger open. oops.... it was bleeding pretty good but i wrapped it up and kept working got that god damn clamp on the brake line. I was hoping to do a little more but a thunderstorm went through so i called it a night.

[pramsbey]

Bleeding pretty good?  Well at least your an optimist!  It looks like you are still heading in the right direction!  I've got a 98 4Runner with 278,000 miles on it.  Everything works on it, just a tiny bit of rust and it drives like its got 50,000 miles on it.  Uses no oil.  We've had it for two trouble free winters so far.  Previous owner had it for 15 years and maintained the heck out of it.  I bought it for the wife to drive in the winter when it gets bad.  We live out in the country in MN on a gravel road and 4x4 is a must sometimes.

[sirdan]

Didn't get as much accomplished as I wanted today  Anyway I took everything off the rear except the u bolts. The u bolts are maybe 6 months old so we figured they would be re usable. Went to take it off and the nut just doesn't want to come off easily. I could get them off with a big breaker bar but it would take me a few hours but they could potentially be weakened. The safe bet is new U bolts. The crappy part is I only have 1 set of big stands to use on this truck so I had to put the wheels back on and put it back on the ground instead of taking the rear out and feeling like i accomplished something.  The new U bolts will be a few days to get so no sense cutting them off yet.

I did snag a video of the loose pinion flange. Its so loose that the nut would have backed off if it wasn't staked. Ill have to see if its worn bearings or a failed crush sleeve. I'm thinking crush sleeve since it didn't make any noise that I noticed. Its been like this for quite some time!

https://youtu.be/KnYqj5lqA_A

So anyway I moved on to the front got the wheels off and put it up on the stands. Then I figured let me loosen these torsion bars before I do anything else. Well I got under there and I have no idea what I am doing. so I go online and i find a website that says what to do. http://www.off-road.com/trucks-4x4/torsion-bar-adjustment-19258.html

These are what the adjusters look like.


so it says if the nut turns when you tighten it the bolt is bad? I have only tried to loosen it but the nut does turn. I put a wrench on it and turned the nut but its a real PITA to turn and i have to use a big breaker bar. Am I doing it wrong? is the bolt broken? or is it the right way but its just a bitch to do? I soaked it good in PB blaster before I came in because a storm was coming.

[TransAmBandit]

Oh shit that's you selling the brush guard on Craigslist. Lol I'm going in the morning to pickup a 87 Xtra Cab 4x4 with almost no rot anywhere for $1000. 22re/auto.

Good luck with the truck man!

[sirdan]

so I figured out the torsion bar bolts. just a simple nut and a bolt nothing crazy. So the first one i went to take out the impact did nothing on it so I got a huge breaker bar on it. It was such a PITA even with lots of pb it was just so corroded or something. Then I get it halfway off and it snaps in half. He said he has adjusted them recently too. Then I went to the other side broke it loose a few turns with the breaker bar and the impact worked and it came out fine. Then I had to figure out how to get them out, torsion bars aren't a new concept to me at least. Took a while on the one side until i figured out what to do. Then the other side took 5 minutes to get out! Anyway straight forward from there got both sides out dropped the front diff and put the new one in.





I just pulled everything as one unit because i figured it was easier to pop apart ball joints once they were off. so I popped the ball joints and split everything apart. Went to work on the upper control arms and managed to get the old bushings out and new ones in before I decided to call it quits.

[sirdan]

Lower control arm bushings came out and went in pretty easily once i figured out how to go about doing it. Then I cleaned everything up and slapped a coat of rustoleum on it. Let that dry and installed the upper and lower ball joints then put the upper and lower control arms in. Swapped the brake calipers with new ones and put some new pads on. ordered a couple parts for tomorrow. If everything shows up tomorrow maybe just maybe I can finish it tomorrow night.

[sirdan]

So I got everything in today!! Stopped at 11pm trying to bleed the brakes but everything is essentially done. Tried to get some pictures but it was too dark when i tried to take them at 9pm. Ill try and grab some tommorow.

[pramsbey]

Good report hoping tomorrow is a very happy day for you testing it out!  Nosey question for you:  In your photos what kind of car is under the cover under the car port?

[sirdan]

Its my moms barracuda convertible. It is not for sale and will never be in my lifetime. It was my moms first car, I am not allowed to ever sell it and i will tell my kids the same if i have any. It needs a full resto but hopefully that is our first priority once we move to PA.

anyway I'm pretty happy to be basically done with my buddies truck as I now have done all the work and officially own my 4 runner! now I can get to messing with the 4 runner. It looks like it would be easy as hell to make my own shackle lift but I don't know if it would look retarded if I did a 4 inch lift with just shackles. The front is only guna be a 2 inch lift but the back had to have been down 2 inches so i think it needs 4 to be level with the 2 inch front lift. I don't want to change my rear springs, hammers lift springs are like twice as think and flex like shit. I want to be flex out a little bit at least. The front isnt guna flex good but hopefully i can get the rear to flex a bunch to make up for it.