machabees

Bear with me this might be long

I recently bought a set of 36x14.5's and then after reading more here decide that was stupid.
So I ditched those and bought a set of 33x12.5's
My truck is a 90 4Runner 3.slow auto
What I'm looking for is some trailability without sacrificing the ability to drive on road
I plan to purchase the Soronan steal IFS brace. regear the diff and buy a locker.
I think I can get away without a lift which is nice. I know I might have to cut away alot of my fender to do this but my fenders are in terrible shape so that doesn't bother me.

Pic of fender


My questions are:
1. I have an manual transmission that I will swap in at some point. Is there gearing I can purchase for my current automatic that will also work later for the manual (I know very little about regearing) And WHERE do I purchase it.

The 33's I have are on a their own set of rims. I would like to use them mainly for trails and keep my current set of 31's for around town and highway use. If I regear will that be impossible or not.

2. what Locker would you guys recommend and WHERE would I purchase it.

3. Is there anything else body armor wise that would be important.

questions? comments? criticisms?
If I am missing anything please let me know I need your advcie and am willing to alter my idea to what makes the most sense for the situation.

Thanks, Machabees

tc

First, I don't think I would put a lot of effort into a truck that eaten up with rust (and considering how rusty my truck is, that is saying something!)

If you had an auto and 31's, you have the 4.88 diffs which are not regearable, so you will have to buy new thirdmembers AND gears AND lockers. You should look at Randy's Ring and Pinion or TrailGear for their built thirdmembers. For 33's with a manual tranny, 4.88 is nice, for an auto, I would recommend 5.71 if you drive on the highway a lot.

As for lockers, you will have to pry my ARB's out of my cold dead hands.

Body armor? You need a body worth armoring (back to my first point). Seriously, you don't want to wheel something that the frame might fold on ya...

norcalsvx

how much do you want to spend on a locker $250 or $400+?
4.88 should work fine till you swap in a 5 speed
get a nice skid plate idler arm brace and some BJ spacers

machabees

Hold on a minute TC your jumping to conclusions. the frame is straight and clean. that rust is just on the body I guarantee it. I inspected the truck thoroughly before purchasing it. It didn't come with 31's I put those on. I don't know what the original tire size was.

This isn't going to be a hardcore off road truck just a weekend warrior kind of thing. So 250 is preferable to 400

Why BJ spacers?

Links please websites brands.

jeffy67

yeah agreed with machabees a rusted out body means nothing, my truck is rusty i mean like, when i wash it more body comes off lol, but i know for fact she has a strong underbody and frame, its almost mint, the panels go on these trucks all to quickly due to the chrome trim thats all, long as theres a strong under carriage worth saving!

and another thing swapping tires form 2 diff sizes is prbly not going to hurt your gears as long as its not on a very frequent basis and so long as you chnage them all at once so no odd sizes haha

all the power to ya though!

machabees

Thanks for that Jeffy. your absolutely right. the reason those fenders rotted was the stupid rubbery chrome trapped so much moisture and debris which the previous owner never cleaned out that it just rotted the fenders off. heres a pic of what it looked like before I tore those things off.

AxleIke

Sounds like you are in the weld range for pricing, or possibly a lockright.

If you are going to swap in a manual get the 4.88's. It'll be really slow until you swap trannies, but it'll work.

BJ spacers aren't going to help with that wide of a tire. Just cut the fender, and you'll be happier, since you won't destroy your steering as quickly.

Good luck.

machabees

Tc said I already have the 4.88s. Is that true? If not where do I get them and how expensive is it going to be?
I can take a picture or examine something on the rear axle if it would help. Like I said I'm kinda new to gearing though not new to automotive maintenance in general.

Wheelingnoob

Look at the info plate on the driver side door frame. On there you read it you will see one are a for the gearing if it says G144 there you have 4.88 gearing.

I have not seen factory 4.88's on anything older than 92 though.

Good Luck!

Jeremy

p.s. search is your friend, use it and most of your questions will be solved.

machabees

Thanks Jeremy. I tried searching for this info but couldn't find anything. maybe I just didn't try hard enough. I'll check that out and post up what it says.

machabees

Ok here is what i found I tried THIS site but couldn't figure it out. any help from people who understand what all this means would be appreciated. or if someone has one of those accounts with a vin decoder I would love it if they ran my vin for a full decode.

VIN= JT3VN39W5L0026134

VZN130L-GKPGEA

C/TR 3H7/HH11
A/TM G254/

A340H

this is the best formatting i could do to replicate the way it is written on the sticker. any help would be appreciated.

tc

G254 = 4.56

machabees

So should I regear? or will that work for now. Keep in mind I'm switching to a manual transmission eventually but will probably be driving with this setup for a while.
also are there any lockers that will fit in my dif?

stormin94

I told you what I think. I doubt 33's and auto, and 4.56's will be a total TURD. If it is, you'll have motivation to swap in the 5 speed.

machabees

Ok so the consensus seems to be stick with the gearing I have and it will be tolerable until i put the manual transmission in.

as far as body armor goes I'm only looking for things that will protect the functionality of the truck not the cosmetics. I.E. I don't want to smack my lower engine on a rock. So a stronger skid plate seems like a good idea to me.
This BudBuilt one seems good to me any other recommendations on that.

Norcal mentioned an idler arm brace. can someone elaborate on this. I'm not familiar with that.

Please comment and criticize. I want to do this right and am willing to invest money in protecting my truck.
I know that Ike hates Lunchboxes or at least thats the impression I get from other posts of his. any other recommendations on lockers. I know my gearing is 4.56 but I need help determining what sort of locker will fit in my diff.
If you point me in the direction of a thread that addresses these questions rather than typing up long answers I will be perfectly happy.

Thanks again for all the advice so far.

tc

In the "Offroad Tech" section, there's a locker FAQ that will answer all your locker questions.

4.56 with 33's and a manual is tolerable but you won't believe the difference 4.88's makes ... with an auto, 4.56 + 33's = 3 speed tranny

norcalsvx

your idler arm will bend w/ hard wheeling (the silver brace on there)


and budbuilt is the way to go on skids

machabees

Great thanks for that good info norcal.
where to i get one of those idle arm braces? I didn't see any on budbuilt.

@TC I drove it today on the highway and you were right on. The truck didn't even think about going into overdrive.

norcalsvx

i got the downey brace but if you are looking into keeping IFS than get the total choas idler arm ( www.choasfab.com

machabees

Went up to Silver lake today. its on Michigan's west coast. wasn't exactly sure what I would find but it seemed the place to go around here.
It was all sand dunes.
so I aired down the 33's to about 17PSI and had at it. It was not all I had hoped for. Most of the time trying to climb those sand dunes the engine was just screaming and the tires weren't moving. I wasn't losing traction or spinning one tire or another. It just that none of the power was making it to the wheels. So regearing is a must and that manual tranny swap I have planned can't come soon enough.
As an addendum: cutting the fenders wasn't enough for rear clearance and neither was it enough for front. I cut alot of the fender away but I am still getting some rubbing when I hit bumps. I put a nice gouge or two in the tires doing this. So I think a small lift is in order. just enough that I don't have to worry about it. I'm gonna go Sdori Ball joint spacers and Downey rear 1.5 springs.