sonic

Hey all,
I've been lurking around Yotatech for quite a while, making the most of the search button. With all the research I've done here, I decided that a 1st gen 4Runner is the truck for me. A month ago I got a 88 Toyota 4Runner SR5 22RE 5speed, I picked it up for $2200 up in Fond du Lac Wisconsin, off of craigslist. It was previously from Florida and has no rust! It also has 114k miles on it, a 3" body lift, and 32's with Tacoma rims.









Now for the list of problems. The truck's missing a couple things, such as the stick shifter boots. For now I've trimmed up some cardboard to keep the road noise down and keep the heat from the engine out of the cab.

None of the power windows worked. I spent a considerable amount of time testing wires and I found two things. First, someone integrated the courtesy light wires from the ds door into the master window switch (which maybe part of the reason my dome lights don't work). Second, the window/lock controller keeps smoking up everytime I try to operate a window. In the end I decided to rewire the whole mess. I deleted the window/lock controller, and the power locks. I modified the master window switch, grinding off the lock switch and window lockout button, rewiring the whole mess so that it controls the ds window, and the rear window. I pulled the power from the 20amp lock breaker for the ds, and the 20amp window breaker for the ps. You can operate all windows when the vehicle is off without the key in the ignition.

The dome lights don't work. It requires a 7.5amp fuse, but will blow 15amp fuses right when I insert them. Haven't tried to fix that yet.

The fuel gauge doesn't work, it stays on full all the time. The truck came with a new sender unit in the box on the back seat, so I put it in the other day and it still doesn't work. The oil and volt gauges also don't work.

The sunroof is cracked, although it's still water tight. Missing sun visors, windshield wiper resevoir and jets, a/c was deleted, and cruise doesn't work.

The last thing I can think of at the moment is the rear seats really suck. They don't lock in place, and in the center of the truck they like to bend back. I'd really like to replace them but I'm having a hard time finding 1st gen 4runners in the junkyards up here (Decorah Iowa).




My future plans: fix all the above problems, put in a performance cam that came with the truck, add a wind diffuser to the rear, put in my subwoofer/amp/capaciter and a pioneer head unit, change my mpg from 16 to the 20+ neighborhood

camo31_10.50

ditch the 32's for some 30's or so..and that'll get your mileage up in the range you want it!

or you could find some junkyard 4.88 diffs and throw those in there..

look for 90-95 v6 auto 4x4 4runners that came with 31" tires from the factory..

im still lookin for a set..so i imagine it will take you a LONG time..

with 4.88's..that thing will be gettin 20+ for sure!!!!

RMA

Damn you alrady took the top off , ive had mine about 1yr or so and still havnet taken it off.
NIce truck to start with , hey there is a guy on here sellin the sunroof glass search classifieds.

BigBluePile

iTrader: (3)

HA! I've had mine for 10 years and just NOW took the top off last month! lol!

Looks like a helluva project!! The back seats definitely don't look right. There should be brackets that engage them on the top there. Are the backs broken, they're all bent towards the center? Looks good though!!

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

Welcome to Yotatech.

Nice truck. Looks like you got a lot of "fun" ahead of you fixing all those things.

snowhite

I believe your problem with your rear seats is that they have been taken out and put back in the wrong order. It is hard to tell though not being able to see if the brackets are missing. That is what happened to me and they would bind up at some point.

olharleyman

I have the best upgrade you can do for gettin the mileage up there if your interested I have a set of injectors rebuilt by WITCH HUNTER that will help that thing out a lot $100 shipped to your door

AWorth

Hey we're twins!

Windsor

body is pretty clean, so that's the perfect project vehicle.

Keep an eye on the classifieds, there are about six guys parting out 1st-gen 4runners right now. You can probably get enough goodies to keep the wallet light for years to come.

sonic

So... here's an update on my little project. I found out that when I 'fixed' my power window problem, doing so also fixed my dome light problem.

I was able to solve my stick shift problem that was caused by the 3" body lift. I was considering doing a drivetrain lift but in the end I just bent the tranny stick. I removed the stick assembly, put it in a bench vise, heated it with a torch and bent it with a pipe, up and to the left. With the research I found on yotatech, I thought that you could bend the shifter extension, but when I put it in the vise and applied force with a bar (no heat) I snapped the top of the extension off instantly. To fix it I put a brass coupling on top of the extension, clamped it on with set screws, found a round headed bolt that the shift knob fit on, and fastened that bolt head into the other end of the coupling. It works good (see pictures below).
The other part of the problem was I could not find a shift boot to cover the hole in the floor, so I decided to use rubber roof material to fix it.





Also, while I was playing with the rubber roofing material, I decided to fill in some gaps in the wheel wells that the body lift caused...



Also, when I was at the junk yard the other day I found a 1990 4runner with the v6 auto, unfortunately I didn't remember to snag the differentials, but I took some seat belts and a spoiler. So, my dad and I did alot of work to get this spoiler on my truck (see below) but it doesn't work, when driving with the rear window down exhaust still comes into the truck, I'm not sure what I did wrong.




One more thing, I was going to have my father help me install a performance cam that came with the truck. When we dug into it we realized that it was probably a little bigger project than we wanted to undertake. When putting the top back on the motor we found a vacume line had been disconnected. We plugged it back in and now instead of 16.5mpg I'm getting 19mpg and I've got alot more power .