weaselman

Good work man!

coopster

Subscribed.

Dog looks like it's thinking "WTH you doing under there? This is your seat up here!"

strykersd

I've been really busy lately so I haven't had much time to work on the 4runner but I did get some progress done. The hardest part to track down for the swap was the rubber shift boot with it's metal frame. The dealership wanted $82 and all the ones I found in junkyards were ripped so I turned to the internet. After putting up wanted posts on here, TTORA.com and Pirate4x4.com I was able to pick up the shift boot and a set of shift knobs for $40. After I got the parts, I had to make them fit.

Here's my transmission tunnel all set up for the automatic transmission shifter when I started the swap.


At first I was a little worried after I read this thread online and saw how one guy cut out the transmission tunnel of a manual 4runner and fit it into his 4runner. Here is the picture of what he did.


I figured I'd try to make it work without having to graft the transmission tunnel of a manual transmission truck/4runner and turns out it works just fine! I first cut a large enough hole just to get the shifters through the floor, then lined up the metal frame of the shifter boot and opened up the holes some more. The hardest part was getting the stock square plastic clips that hold the shift boot down in! I had to drill mounting holes in the floor then file them into squares! I managed to get five of the six in and that's good enough for me! Here's the final product. It's not pretty but it works!


And last but not least, the new shift boot and shift knobs in place!



These are just baby steps, but I'm getting there! The boot and shifters set me back $40 so that brings my total cost up to $588. More than I originally wanted to spend, but at least I'm doing it right!

strykersd

Still been super busy, so I do a little here and there when I can. Thanks to one of my jobs, I have too much downtime at a computer so I'm able to log it all here.

I spent today adapting my second generation 4runner center console to work with the manual transmission and top shift transfer case. I had to lengthen the opening for the transmission and transfer case shifter. The only problem with this is that I had to cut away the portion of the center console that housed the switches for the rear wiper, rear window window lock. Here's a picture of how my center console used to be on the top and how I modified it today on the bottom.


After getting the center console in, it got me thinking about how it sits compared to the second generation center console I threw in my last 4runner which was manual from the factory. Looking back on my last build thread, I didn't have to trim out all the switches from my center console until I added my trail-gear twin sticks. Hopefully I won't have to trim out the storage pocket at the rear of the center console when I upgrade this 4runner to twin sticks. Another thing I learned was that if you ever put a second gen 4runner center console into a first gen 4runner, auto or manual, get the center console from an automatic second gen 4runner. The shifter sit a little further back on the first gens and this allows you to mount the switches on the center console in front of the shifters, that's what I'm planning to do for this 4runner. You can see the difference in this picture. My old 4runner's manual second gen center console on top and my new 4runner's auto second gen center console on bottom.


Although I thought about finding a leather shift boot for my 4runner, I decided against it since I plan on upgrading to twin sticks anyways. If you don't plan to run twin sticks, find the factory shift boot and make it look factory!

KBar

I in the process of doig this swap and judging by this picture your cb radio is in the same spot as mine and looks like it sticks out about the same as mine. Does the shifter hit the radio in 1-3-5?

strykersd

Hey, sorry for the slow response, I've been on the road traveling the country for the last two months. My shifter didn't hit my radio, but when I shifted into first it hit the microphone connector. The factory micrphone plug was straight, so to remedy that problem I bought a 90 degree CB microphone connector off ebay and the extra inch or so of clearance was enough.

93runner223

if this were reddit i would upvote the hell outta that pic of the dog