jeremyt

First off is the sunroof. The thing doesnt seat all the way, leaving a gap so the roof drains are getting a constant workout this winter. I dislike the top heavy feel this rig has and after reading the SR removal thread here where it was stated the frame and motor assembly weighs over 80 pounds got me to thinking. I dont really care if i can open a hole in my roof at will. My thought is to remove the frame and motor assembly and seal the hole with tempered glass or some good lexan (other products on table open to suggestions). Has anyone done this? experienced insights would calm my nerves before i hack out a large chunk of things out of my new rig.

Second issue is the rear suspension is very unpredictable, especially under power. I noticed my panhard bar is not parallel with the ground or axle. The guy who sold me the rig claimed suspension was stock all the way around except for cranked tbars up front. Could this be the culprit of the handling woes? it shifts left to right in a kind of roll and sit motion when power is laid down with any sort of urgency. Being stock geometry i was really surprised to see the panhard not parallel which is what 4crawler's write up said your after to maintain stock handling...color me confused.

jeremyt

Another random ghetto issue. I was buttoning up various plastic bits inside that obviously had been very halfaz'd back together with missing fasteners ect and this little fella dropped out from behind the glove box. Look familiar to anyone? not ringing any bells here, im thinking maybe its a shoddy CB radio wire job? its all hangy and wires are loose.

jeremyt

So after tons and tons of research pouring over all the stickied threads here and some other forums Ive decided to leave my front suspension pretty much stock except for moog joints and poly bushings. So with cranked T bars I get rubs.

So after reading pinch weld stuff/derp thats common sense. Ill be doing this today as well as ordering stock length shocks.

As Im not very thrilled with the suspension performance with cranked t-rods my goal will to hammer and cut till i can relax them back to stock and not rub. The suspension thread that is stickied with the very first post being that 33" tires fit my rig with no rubs...wtf? I think this size is between 32 and 33" and I deffinately get rubs while wheeling.

Still have no clue why the back suspension geometry looks off when its supposed to be a stock setup. This is how it sits right now

highonpottery

iTrader: (1)

Ditching the sunroof sounds like a good idea to me. Maybe look into whether or not the sunroof for a pickup is the same dimension? The truck ones simply flip up, no full slide, and have a lightweight insert to block the sun off when not using it - would save a lot of weight over the sliding sunroof. Otherwise, just silicone some lexan or the stock glass and make it permanently closed.

In regards to your 4runner, they're going to be top heavy it's just the way they are. In regards to lifting and stuff, I've got a 93 pickup and you can get an idea of height of my front suspension setup. I have stock tbars and 1.5" bj spacers added, I also run a 33x12.5 Toyo MT on a 15x8-3.75bs wheel. I did have to pound my firewall and trim a little bit with a grinder, but I clear my tires at full stuff/turn offroad. My ride height right now is 22.5" from center of axle to bottom of fender. Hopefully this helps.

jeremyt

So its hard to get motivated to climb around a rig when its raining on you, the sunshine today emboldened me to really start dinkering around under the hood of the rig.

This has to be the nastiest, sloppiest engine swap ive had the pleasure to see. I started recutting and smoothing the hood. Tons of vacuum hoses going nowhere. One hose/fitting off the air intake tube went across the top of the SC and then dropped down...to nothing, it was just hanging there, nice big fat 1/3" rubber tube. A tiny vac port off the back side top of the SC was tied into for the crap autometer gauge that did nothing helpful. So in removing that I followed the line down into a cluster of hoses, only to find out it too dead ended into nothingness. Where these dudes high? Why the hell does it run so well? Having problems locating names/functions and destinations of the various SC hoses. This is turning into quite the project.

So they went the quick and easy route and didnt relocate the battery, so the battery is sitting in front of a much shortened intake system that is sitting in open air inches above the exhaust manifold, not the most brilliant setup possible.

cutting the hood and not dressing the edges/serrated edges with primer. The hood still contacting the SC unit in at least 2 spots. Two electric wires ending in plastic clips with no home. One short one comes out of the firewall almost dead center and just stubs to the plastic clip with no home apparent anywhere near it. The other is split out of a main harness that runs past the power steering tank, and has a very distinctive looking plastic clip thing on it, but no home looks to be in sight for it either. Im going to need to start taking pictures of this mes to get some help!

Which reminds me, nobody has commented on the angle of my panhard bar ..dangit, i need closure. Ordering a 4set of bilstein 4600s unless someone talks me into the 50$ more a shock for OME

And highonpottery: My other rig is a 91 pickup at stock height, some cutting and 33/10.5/15s. Still get rubbing here and there but acceptable levels at full wheel crank/extension where my CVs are usually barking at me a bit as well. The truck handles 8000x better than the 4runner so far as far as giving me confidence to huck it into corners sideways at speed.

jeremyt

So almost all the parts are gathered, waiting on the hyperflex poly kit from energy. Paid 152$ for the poly kit, covers front and rear.
Went with skyjacker nitro 8000 shocks, paid 45$ each.
Have CV axle (65$) and MOOG lower ball joints as well (50$ each). going to start disassembling/cleaning/greasing hubs/bearings today to make it quicker once poly kit gets here.

Been a learning experience as far as sourcing the quality parts for decent prices. Going to take what i learned with the 4runner and rebuild the front end of my 91 truck next. Going to order a whole MOOG front end rebuild kit for the truck though, so thats 320ish $, 180 for shocks and I imagine the poly kit will be cheaper for the truck given the leaf spring setup in the rear instead of trailing arms.

jeremyt

So i think i'm going to rethink this hood situation completely and trim it back to a more uniform square shape then wire brush the paint off the supports and the metal and have a neighbor weld a flat steel square support to it then repaint the sucker.

You folks think i should split the questions in this post into separate threads and different forums to get answers? I was thinking a central thread would lessen my footprint but maybe it isnt the most effective route for information gathering.

jeremyt

So 100% sure the large errant hose was actually ment for the valve cover vent. I also understand why he ended up just laying it across the top of the motor. With the supercharger is damn near impossible to get it onto the fitting. So, besides causing a mess I cant figure any detriment to that hose not being connected, at least nothing that should cause alarm as I continue to try and find ways to get the hose onto the valve cover in such a tight space.

So I love getting burned when buying used vehicles, always learning that some folks just are not great people. So dude had the whole rig littered with these air freshener things. Ones that clipped into ventes, ones hanging off seat pockets, dude liked his truck minty effin fresh i tell ya! So when I take all that out there is a distinct coolant smell when heater is on, first month im just hoping it is residual coolant from a previous problem the last owner had fixed, It did have a brand new radiator, so figured he fixed any issues when he installed that. Im stupid. The coolant level is going down and the coolant smell is as powerful as ever.

So, the list of issues with truck keep piling up, i must maintian positive outlook. But ef that guy, seriously. Lie to people's faces about several issues on the truck.

jeremyt

egads, i think it might be official i got scammed. more I dig in the deeper and worse this gets.

The new radiator, leaking. coolant also coming off both sides of the motor.

oil pan leaking badly, oil also coating driver side of motor from somewhere above the oil filter.

PS box leaking badly, and looks to have been in this condition for quite awhile. Almost sure that the PS leak took out the ball joints, cv boots and the swap tie end. the cv boot spray added too the mess. Im now two full days into putty knife, screw driver and tooth brushing the bottom of this truck clean so i can figure out all the problems. Oh, also looks like the rear main seal is leaking as well.

The front was converted from ADD to manual, they left everything there, hoses dangling yadda, crap.

There is a large/new looking choke system, the cable cant reach across the super charger...so he tucked it under some wires...the vacuum tubes on the thing are routed back into themselves. crap, how does this thing run so good?

Both heater cores are leaking.

the whole headlight/grill assembly is mysteriously floating in place with more cracks and broken tabs than i can count, and its bent outward like maybe one of the fenders got crunched inward.

control arms look decent, but some rusty spots, so going to have to clean and get them repainted.

ordered oring/gasket repair kit for power steering pump, going to tackle that tomorrow. i keep getting distracted from doing things by all this mess, i need to control the leaks before i throw all new bushings and rubberbits on it again. hard to keep motivated when it just looks like a pile of crap now. dude had no workmanship or pride in the quality of his rig, this is disgusting some of the crap he did

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

I have seen some hack jobs in my life time. It is surprising at what they will do to fix one and sometimes it took more effort to hack it up then to fix it right. Age is taking it toll on these trucks now and have to add that to the mix. Any more I expect the worse and hope for the best. I just start at one end and work my way to the other end.

Even trucks that look like they are in original great shape I have found issues with them that make you wonder. I don't even hold my breath on them anymore and just know there are going to be issues with them. It is frustrating what PO do.