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I had a 1st gen back when I was in college 20 years ago and have been wanting one for a while. I feel like they are quickly becoming either a collectors item or a beat up rock crawler with fewer and fewer on the road. I'm way to cheap to buy a nice one even tho no doubt that would be a better use of my time. I found this one for $1,500 on FB and it has no rust on the body but the top is rusty and fiberglass is rough. It has a legitimate 142k miles and has not been on the road for quite some time. TN allows the bonded title and it looks like that is the route I will have to go. The interior is only half there and in really bad shape. It has the 3.slow with automatic which I'm not happy about. The seller thought it needed a fuel pump and demonstrated that it would run on starting fluid. When I got it home I realized it had a hole in the cold start fuel line that was squirting fuel all over the engine. Some wires were melted under the throttle.body and the paint on the bottom of the hood may have been burnt off. Fuel was 15 years old. After draining / replacing the fuel, replacing the cold start line and adding some electrical tape (temporary fix) around all the fuel injector wires she started up. The cat had been cut off her so that was the next $$$ I spent. Needed exhaust all the way back and Maxi did cat and masterflow for like $480. I could have deleted the cat and registered as an antique without inspection but my son (15 year old) would like to be able to drive it to school so we will register it as normal vehicle. I've got a pretty long list of stuff to do starting with bolting the seats in and reattching the seat belts. It was a little disconcerting driving it down to Maxi with no seat belts, a rocking chair seat, breaks that sort of work, no mirrors and no license plate.
She has plenty of dents and scratches but the paint is original except for passenger rear quarter. I'm not sure if I should try to find a wrecked one to get the complete interior out of or just piece together with what I have. I have bought plenty of cars on copart and occasionally a 1st gen goes on there with good interior.
I have a good list of things my son can do starting with removing window tint and washing it good. I don't plan on doing a lot of offroad mods but more restoring it to be a clean daily driver. If the engine or Trans go out I'll be looking to do a 3.4 swap with manual. I really enjoyed the 3rd gen I had and it gave bulletproof reliability.
Let me know if you hear of someone parting out a 1st gen in the south east where I could get a complete interior.
After she sat outside for a few months I'm finally getting started on this project. My son is 15 and wants to drive it to high school starting in May. Knowing how my projects go he is bugging me to get started on it. I got a title for it (TN bonded title was very easy), put a catalytic converter on it (stolen) and it passed inspection even with a mixture of very old gas. It drives like a home made down hill wagon. Somewhere around 45 horsepower. There is crazy (like 90 degree) play in the steering wheel, not much brakes, the power steering fluid won't stay where it belongs and the only belt left on it squeals. I put it on the lift and the left front wheel bearing is so bad it feels like you could just wiggle it off. Right side is much better and only has about 1/4" of play. The pitman arm looks like a triple jointed thumb swirling around even with minor force applied. Front rotors and pads look good but I have no idea if the calipers are locked up. One wheel cylinder is greasy, other side is dry. Tires have tread but are 15 years old so I'm shopping for some newer wheels and tires.
Here's my list so far:
Replace battery - Done
Get battery tie down hardware so I don't eat another battery
Idler & pitman arms
All 4 front wheel bearings
Wheel cylinders and shoes
Check calipers. If stuck, figure out if I want to upgrade calipers & MC. Current are 43mm and I believe 2nd gen V6 are 45mm.
Pig tails for fuel injectors to fix the melted wires
Tune up (picked up spark plugs, need to check what else is needed because PO replaced coil and a few things trying to make it run)
Find & fix power steering leak
AC compressor is locked up - missing belt (not a priority)
Tires are dry rotted - find newer 4-runner / Taco rims and tires. Tire size / choice may drive bigger brakes or lift or??
I'd love to find a set of bronze TRD wheels like these but don't want to pay for new ones.
Thinking I like this set for sale near me for $900 with good ties.
The nut was on tight. I found an 1.25" wrench fit great but no chance of breaking it loose. My Harbor Freight 3/4" drive socket set fit the bill but I didn't have a way to put an impact on it so I used a cheater bar. With 5' of leverage it was still I could do to break it and when it did move it snapped so hard I thought my breaker bar had lived up to its name. Breaking loose the pitman arm nut.
The pitman arm was so loose I could spin it freely so there wasn't much hope of getting the nut off. I tried and then got out the sawzall.
After the required puller, heat and beat failed I ended up cutting it off the gearbox side as usual with a pneumatic cutting wheel. Just nicked one of the splines. Cutting pitman arm shaft.
Attempting to use the puller. After cutting, I put the puller back on and gave it a good wack with a 6 pound sledge from the top side and she came free. Nicked one spline with the wheel Ready for grease.
The idler arm was actually quite easy. Unfortunately a missing battery strap caused the battery to meet a pulley and peed acid everywhere the 1st time I drove it so there is a bunch of rust under the battery area. I took a wire wheel to it and sprayed some paint before putting the new arm back on.
New idler arm
I used Moog arms but for some reason none of the grease zeros felt like they would thread in. I cross threaded all of them just to make them go in.
I started on the wheel bearings but if took me so long to figure out how to get the cone washers out that I called it quits for the night.
check out this video of how much slack there is in the bearings.
I'm a decent shade tree mechanic but I've never changed wheel bearings before. Youtube assured me it would be easy so I dove in. Many hours later there are still some things I don't understand.
1. How the heck am I supposed to use this bearing packer?
2. Is there any way to do this without becoming a greased pig myself?
3. Why amy I staying up til 1am doing this instead of just paying someone else?
4. How tight/ loose so I make these axle nuts?
Anyway, passenger side only had minor slack while the drivers side was really loose. Both sides locking hubs were really stiff. Passenger side races were still clean so I reused them. Bearings looked good too but since I had the bearings and seal, I went ahead and replaced it all. Prior to disassembly New bearings and seal.
Before disassembling I tightened the driver's side nut about 2 or 3 turns with my fingers. At that point it felt snug and the slop was gone. I was tempted to leave it but tore into it anyway. Turned out both races were slightly worn and with a ring / lip. This meant I had to figure out how to replace the races without a press. It was late and I couldn't rent a bearing kit so I improvised. Damaged race New and old races Vearing press for inner bearings Using old race to push in new one worked until the old one got too far in and stuck.
Drivers side caliper took some coercion but seemed to move good and I drained all the rusty brake fluid out of it. Passenger side was completely frozen so I swapped it. Completely flushed and bled the brakes. Pedal feels good and parking brake seems to work fine also. I didn't actually drive it though as I started my next issue- melted fuel Injector wires. New and old injector plugs Soldering is not my forte Heat shrink Not sure how to fix this. One terminal attaches to shielding.
Last edited by jonnydclark1; 09-17-2021 at 03:31 AM.
05-31-2021, 01:16 PM
The pitman arm looks like a triple jointed thumb swirling around even with minor force applied. Front rotors and pads look good but I have no idea if the calipers are locked up. One wheel cylinder is greasy, other side is dry. Tires have tread but are 15 years old so I'm shopping for some newer wheels and tires. 
