Hello everybody!

Well let's just jump in...
I bought a 1989 4Runner 3.0 auto with a 4" suspension lift and 3" body lift. Detroit lockers and 5.29 gears. Worn 35" mud terrains and plenty of leaks.
Pics from the day I bought it.








I drove it for 2 months before I felt it needed some up keep. So I changed oil, flushed diffs (which I found front pinion seal leaking bad) and fully greased everything, cleaned K&N and cleaned throttle plate. But it still ran kinda sluggish. But I stopped dumping money into it cause I was looking to sell it.

 

After starring at it for a cupple months and no on wanting to buy it I felt it was time to upgrade the looks. So I took off the topper and repainted that. (did an alright job) removed the light bar in the front and repainted the front and rear bumper (turned out great!). I still don't have the rack on the top cause I can't decide if I want it or not.

Pics...

 

Looks good!

can't believe you could not sell it??

what's next?

what's the 4" lift in the rear? don't see blocks or long shackles.....

 

No rocks or trails to drive here in eastern North Dakota which make it really hard. But I'm fixing it up to drive hard this winter. We get assloads of snow here.
It's blocks and shackles

Sorry about the crappy iPhone pics.

Future plans...
New 35" all terrain TAs
Solid axle swap
Buick supercharged 3.8 (free )
3.0 manual transmission
New alxes in the rear

Just some of the ideas that float threw my head.

 

So after I cleaned it up I found out I really liked it. So I looked it over good to get it winter worthy. Plugs, wires, cap and rotor.



That gave it the pick me up it needed. So now I'm keeping it so the driveline and removal of the 3" bodylift was next...

 

Aha! Didn't see those blocks

 

So yesterday, Monday the 24 of October. I took the whole day off work.
Passenger side CV axle was torn and had been for a while so just picked up a rebuilt one from orailys 50 bucks and my pinion seal.

Took me 3 hours to get the axle and seal done. Would of been faster but I was at work and people kept stopping to chat.



I wish I'd of taken pics before and after but the axle was toast. No grease and hardware was worn and breaking.


New one


Pinion together

So sense that went so quick I got cocky and went for the body lift removal.
Sounded easy from what everyone here said, but I should of fallowed my gut and karma (smashed most of my fingers pretty bad after I took the second block out)
The side spacers came out easy but the front was a bitch. Took the bumper off and finally got the two spacers out. I had totally forgot what yotatech told me and just dropped the body after I got the blocks out. Bad idea. It was getting "hung up" on something. Tried to drop it twice more before we saw coolant running on the floor. Yeah the guy before me had lowered it and done a really crappy job. It cracked my radiator.

Photo doesn't do this ˟˟˟˟˟ job justice.

So we moved the leaking radiator and dropped the body again. It rested into place but we heard a pop/crack sound. We didn't pay much attention to it. After I got all the new bolts in and tight I went to drive it, which is when we found the pop/crack noise.


I forgot to take the shifter extender out. It broke that pivot point on the back of the transfer case and moved everything down. The shifter lever now hits the bots of the drive shaft.



So after 10ish hours of work, I still can't drive.

Here's how it sits right now...






More post to come...

 

I'm also building up my "new" 1988 pickup 2wd manual with the 22r.
I'm going to build a nice flat bed and sand the cab down and repaint it. It runs pretty good for 200 bucks but it needs some TLC bad!

 

Alight.
Radiator time.

Didn't take long. I'm getting a new lower hose to match the new radiator.

Guess I didn't have to take the fan off but made things real easy.

Hoping to stop at a local shop. He said they had a new one for a 1990s 4runner. $160