So I've had the Toyota bug for a while now and the disease finally spread to my wallet. I picked up an 87 4runner last week for a fairly decent price. 22re with a 5 speed trans,245,000 miles on the clock, PO replaced rear gate and front fenders with clean ones, someone in the past replaced the auto lockers with a set of Warn manual locking hubs. Needs some work here and there but the best part about it is that the frame still has the original paint on it. It was originally from Colorado (still has colorado inspection sticker ha) and the guy threw in some extra parts with it.
Things to do:
replace front wheel bearings (on their way from Marlin Crawler)
clean up PO's body work
paint
freshen up suspension
antenna for radio
figure out why e-brake isnt working
Heres some pics of her


next to the girlfriends 95






interior actually isnt too bad

 

Your runner looks to be in great shape overall. Looking forward to what you do with it. Your second gen looks great as well.

 

Thanks Terrys87 its definetly in need of some loving attention but its a work in progress. The only thing that really scares me is the mileage, and not knowing its service history, 245,000 miles but it runs quite and has surprisingly more power than I was expecting.
But i got an antenna wired up to the radio today(that was interesting haha). Driving around without it working was starting to driveme crazy. Someone just snipped the antenna wire while replacing the front fender with a new one


and of course it was too short so i had to rig this up with some extra co-ax cable


and the finished product.


Crystal clear signal coming from the original radio. Soon to be replaced.

 

Trying to find an antenna that isnt broke in the boneyard isnt easy. I cut the head off of a bolt and splice it together. The salvage wont charge much for a broken antenna base and the bolt trick works great. Link to how I fixed mine>>> https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f199...l#post51740271

On my 88 Runner thread below, I try to post some common problems and fixes for these trucks that might help showing on the first post as to where to find them.

 

Thanks for the tip Terry and thats a good idea on the antenna, i just used a spare CB antenna I had laying around. Also thanks for the link to your 88 build, I may just try the EGR block off. Maybe just maybe it'll improve the running condition of the engine, seems like it idles a little rough when i first start it up but after driving a little its fine? Worth a shot anyways I wouldnt doubt if there was a good bit of carbon build up. Well radios working now so thats one off the list now on to the parking brake. When I put it onall the cables are tight, might just need adjusting from the inside of the drums. Will have to check it out tomorrow hopefully

 

Oh ya and thanks, the 2nd gen is my girlfriends. Its a 95 sr5 3vz auto with 134,000 on the clock. Runs really well and the ONLY imperfections on the thing are a couple rust spots on the rear bumper and above rear wheel wells. Its a tank but she loves haha, she even asked if we could take it wheeling sometime hahaha.

 

nice sr5. does that say sex wax on the glove compartment??

 

Haha yes indeed it does kelvinb, just one of the PO's "special" touches. Although its kinda starting to grow on me being there. Makes it unique hahaha.

 

change out your corner lights for black housing ones. it will look better with the matching grill.

 

Ya I know I totally agree. I've been trying to find time to hit up a scrap yard but just isn't working in my favor lately. Hopefully soon

 

Ok so the runner has Warn manual locking hubs on it that someone, at sometime swapped on. I've always heard that Warns were inferior compared to the Aisins. But what makes them so horrible? I have however been looking for a good pair of stock Aisin lockers to rebuild and swap back on. Thanks in advance guys kinda just wondering what the deal with them is.

 

Ok so tonight after work I decided to tackle some of the PO's bodywork that he did to the rear fender above the wheel well. It appears that the sheet metal had some ripples or minor dents on both sides, not rust through (I checked it out from the backside before I started to see what I was getting into haha). I plan too start painting hopefully this weekend if the weather cooperates. It will be getting bedliner on the bottom half so it doesnt have to be perfect.

The PO had just slapped some Bondo on the sides and sanded lightly then sprayed it, here's what it looked like originally:




And after I started sanding all that crap off:




And here's where I stopped for the night, just put some primer on it for now

 

I have not had a set of Warns but for stock and daily driver use I dont see them being a problem. The Aisians seem to be alot better for the hardcore wheelers. If I had Warns, I wouldnt switch myself other then to stay with Toyota parts. Looks like you did a great job on the bodywork.

 

Haha well thanks Terry trust me it's not perfect but it's going to be getting bedliner over it so it doesn't have to be.

 

As of right now the runner is sitting in my driveway with a shot save cylinder. I noticed on my drive home that the clutch felt sloppy all of a sudden and getting stuck behind a school bus surely didnt help the matter. It finally gave out about 5 miles from home, so I crawled home in first gear and pissed alot of people off hahaha. But I did just order an OEM slave cylinder from Low Range Offroad for $36.83 shipped, pretty tickled about that!

Wasn't quite sure what was going on until I looked underneath and saw all this

And then checked the reservoir

And a pic of the SC on the work bench, I had to use channel locks to get the hardline off because someone previously stripped the nut

 

While the runner is down I thought I'd take time to fix and clean up some things that I've been wanting to do but haven't had the time for. So last night I recovered the center console armrest that was all torn up and crumbling.
Picture of what it used to look like


I tore all of the old nasty padding off and put some new padding down, then covered it with some old military tent canvas (have literally hundreds of old military pup tents laying around)


It turned pretty good I think and is alot more comfortable than that old crumbly padding

 

Last night I noticed a box sitting on the front porch, went out to check it out and sure enough my parts came in

So bright and early this morning I was up putting in my new slave cylinder. Got all hooked up and had the GF help me bleed the system and its backon the road again

Also painted the trim around the headlights and turn signals black to match the grill

 

I got the chance yesterday to finally put my front wheel bearings in. Went pretty smooth and only took about an hour per side. I went with OEM Koyo bearings, bought the kit from Marlin Crawler and they were actually pretty cheap I think considering the kit consisted of the bearings, races, seals, and new gaskets. Can finally drive above 50 with out being scared my bearing is going to grenade haha. The passenger side bearings were really bad (were completely covered in filings and all chewed up).
New bearings all greased up and getting ready to go in


The old chewed up bearing
Note all the filings between the rollers

 

Well no more updates on the 4runner from me anymore. I traded it to my friend for his 93 pickup 22re 5speed. I really miss it but I needed a truck, just more practical for me.

 

I can understand why you traded but you traded for another great truck. Maybe we will see another build from you going on soon.