Those shifters do feel amazing. Installed one for a customer few weeks back while doing a clutch job. It does give the shift a much more positive crisp feel.

 

I didn't notice this when I picked the truck up (it was dark) but it looks like the upper part of the door frame is tweaked a bit. When the door is shut there's a little give between the top of the door and the truck and there's a gap at the forward window track.

I gave it a half-ass try to bend it back today but I figured I'd ask before I put some real effort into it.

Does anyone have any tips to do this successfully?

 

Ah, just realized I never updated this!

The body shop made good on it. Everything's back to the way it was, plus my hood doesn't have peeling clear coat now.

Also, I finally tightened my alternator belt so I can use my headlights, radio and blinker without the belt squealing.


No further updates, just burning gas to and from work. Soon enough I'll need to fix the timing cover oil leak, probably this summer.

 

Well I'm glad it worked out. You never really told us what happened other than you got a 3rd party opinion. How much was the body work and what di they value your vehicle at? If it were me I would have pulled some values from Bring A Trailer and completed eBay transactions; the $10k ones. What di the body work cost? Did you eat the deer?

 

My 3rd party vehicle evaluation came out to 3,500 or so. Still low in my eyes, but high enough to make the truck repairable.

I sent the insurance company a copy of my 3rd party valuation and invoked a clause in my policy about contesting market value. In accordance with the clause, they then hired a different 3rd party evaluator who communicated with my 3rd party guy. This raised the insurance company's valuation of the vehicle to the same value that my 3rd party guy gave it. This lowered the repair cost percentage below the state law limit for a total, so it was considered repairable (instead of totaled) and I used the insurance policy to repair the damage. It ended up coming out to $1800 or so, but I just had to pay for my deductible.

It was actually a pretty easy process once I used that clause. The print in our policies is what protects us. The company legally can't change a policy that's been signed after an accident happens, and their policy was to use that company they originally used for market valuations. It just so happens that the company they use sucks at valuating older vehicles. Which is why the clause I used exists - to make sure the process is fair for everyone just in case something doesn't work out with the normal procedures.

I didn't eat the deer. I had a flight really early the next morning and had to get rest vs. cleaning and processing the deer. I would have kept it otherwise, though. I've got a nice deep freeze that doe could have helped fill.

 

Thanks for the info. Now I know better what to do if my '89 gets wrecked. I would have thought a nice 4Runner would be worth at least $5500. I wonder, now that they are over 25 years old if it's worth getting antique car insurance for agreed value. People rave about Haggerty but I think you have to garage the vehicle.


I have USAA and it's pretty cheap for all three 4Runners. My son just started driving and at 16 he only cost $79 more per month to drive. I thought that wasn't too bad. The agent has said I "wouldn't be too happy" with what they'd give me for the first gen.

 

No worries. It's a crappy realization to have in the middle of the situation, but when I first insured the 4Runner I'd have never guessed it'd be valued so low.

It costs almost nothing to keep the full coverage on it, and now with the body work and fresh paint it's in better condition than before. That plus my knowledge of how that clause works has me prepared in case anything else happens in the future.

 

Random question, does anyone know where I can find one of these black taillight dividers?



I need one for my passenger side taillight. Hopefully I can also find new hardware for the assembly at home depot, most of the screws were really rusty.

 

Probably a parts yard..
Also that's a good time to upgrade to stainless!

 

I'll start looking for one close to me. In the meantime, does anyone have an extra they don't want?

 

Joy of joys, neither home depot or any of the auto parts stores nearby have hardware like what comes out of the tail-lights.

Still looking for a pull-a-part near me that has an old Toyota to get that light divider thingy.

 

Disregard, I found a set of "new" oem's on ebay for cheaper than it would have been to drive to Birmingham and back to get the ones out of their pull-a-part. Plus they're a little darker color plastic, so they should look pretty good.





My left turn signal was pretty well oxidized, so this'll end up working out better anyway. Not sure if they'll come with hardware, but there's always the fastenal in case they don't.

Funny how noticing some light bleed-over one night turns into looking for a little piece and then turns into a purchase like this, hahaha

 

Nice 4Runner bro. I'm up in HdG. I need some wheelin' buddies.

 

Thanks!

I actually moved this spring. Down in northern AL now.

 

I found out last thursday that my clutch master was leaking into the cab. Found out when it ran dry. Luckily I had just enough hydraulic fluid to get me home and in the garage. Got a new Aisin one and put it in today. No pics, but a super easy job. My wife's getting really good at helping me bleed hydraulic systems

 

For a while now my truck has run like crap on warm starts. As it warms back up it picks up cylinders, so usually I just hold the engine to 1200-1500 rpm until it smooths out. Once it smooths out it runs really well.

Today I got fed up and popped the hood at work. I pulled plug wires to see what cylinders were running, and at the moment it was only running on 1 and 2. I bought some new plugs on the way home and noticed that my old plugs were caked in ash. Sweet. They are pretty old plugs: I thought I'd changed them last year, but turns out it was about 2 years ago. I haven't put more than 8k on the truck since then, though. It only recently became the DD.

Anyways, here's some pics.



Some of the deposits flaked off really easily and others were caked on pretty tough.

My assumption is that the rest of the cylinders look that way so I'm planning on steam-cleaning the engine with the water trick. I'll probably do it on Sunday and change the oil after.


I'm guessing this is being caused by worn valve stem seals? I do sometimes notice a puff of smoke on start-up, but not all the time. Any other ideas to the root cause?

 

This is an update I accidentally dropped in the wrong thread. This is from last weekend:


Rebuilt my drag link on Saturday. All the old parts came out unbroken, but extremely dirty. The balls looked good, so I gave it all a good cleaning and reassembled with the new parts. I still get some wander on the highway, but I'm due for an alignment so hopefully that will take care of it.

Decided while I was in the garage and dirty that I should stop putting off cleaning and lubing my speedometer cable. It's been howling in the colder weather and had a pretty steady 3-5 mph wobble. The Haynes and Chiltons were pretty vague, so I just jumped in and figured it out as I went. I was hoping to be able to pull the cable from the sheath but I found out that it's not designed that way. So I disconnected the transfer case side and hung it over a bucket, then pulled the gauge cluster out and zip-tied the cluster end so it pointed up at ~45 deg. I hooked a drill to the cluster end of the cable and I spun it while I sprayed brake cleaner in it. At first it took forever for the brake cleaner to make its way down the cable. But the more I did it the faster it started coming through. There was some pretty nasty looking stuff in the bucket when I got done. It took me about an hour or so until the brake cleaner was coming out "clean enough" on the bottom. I left the whole set-up out overnight in the garage to air dry, and then this morning after church I repeated the process with white lithium grease spray. I knew the grease would take a while to work its way down the cable, so I heated a pot of water to 110 deg F and submerged the can for about half an hour to loosen the grease up. It still took nearly half an hour to start seeing white grease from the T-case side of the cable, and another 20 or so minutes until it came out "clean enough" for me to be happy. I still have a slight (1-2 mph) wobble at low speeds. It starts to clean up around 35 mph and is almost imperceptible at 45 mph. Time will tell if this fixes the cold weather howling.

While I had the dash apart, I pulled the gauge cluster to fix my intermittently operating coolant temp gauge. I didn't see anything wrong with it, but since I put it back together its been functioning fine. I assume there was just a loose connection in there somewhere that I tightened up in the process.

I have been ignoring my PS pump for a little while, too. It's not been bad, just a little whirring a little when cold, but I figured I ought to give it some love. All I did there was siphon the old fluid out of the res and pour fresh fluid in. It'll mix with whats in the lines while I drive and I'll repeat the same process next weekend as well. Took all of 5 minutes to do.

It sure was nice to have a laid back weekend to catch up on some garage work!

 

These turned out to be off just slightly. They sort of fit in place but would have to have been modified to bolt in.

Here's the part I just ordered. Toyota calls it a "shade" and it cost right around $1.

http://www.toyotaonlineparts.com/aut...ail-lamps-scat

Item #4.

Hopefully that works!

 

And it turns out that "shade" is no longer available. Crap. If anyone wants to make a buck pulling one and mailing it to me, I'd pay $20 shipped. No old Toyotas near by and I'm not driving to Birmingham to look in their pull-a-part.



But on a side note, I removed my top today on a whim.



Interestingly enough, the wife loved it and convinced me to buy a softopper with my tax refund!

I also got tired of the "gangster lean" my driver's seat has done since day one, so I pulled the upholstery off the back and saw the frame was broken. The welds had broken. I made a temp repair with some hose clamps and it's vertical like it ought to be and is very sturdy now, but I'm going to look for another seat for peace of mind. The driver's seat was already an upholstery odd-ball. All the others have the "SR5" pattern.

 

I can look, but I won't be able to hit the yards for a couple of weeks. Almost done with school haha.
Side note, did they repaint the rig after the deer damage?