GeoRoss

In preparation for a highway trip I lubed up the 4Runner. I thought I had greased the u-joints when I put on the new OME leaf springs. I hadn't. I greased the heck out of them. The deceleration noise has been reduced greatly. I know now it is likely a pinion angle thing. I am planning on pulling a leaf. I'll address it with shims at that time..

GeoRoss

Well, I've run the medium duty OME rear springs for almost a year. I've carried weight, articulated the suspension, etc. They really haven't relaxed much so I'm going to pull a leaf. I thought about doing this when I did the initial install.

My question is, will I end up destroying the center pin when I do this? I seem to recall it is riveted in. I just want to have some replacements on hand when I do this if needed.

GeoRoss

Well, this is a tiny update. Last winter before a road trip I greased the driveline and chassis. I went to do the IFS and found it didn't have zircs, but plugs. I could easily get to the top, but the bottom was more tricky. Being in a hurry I skipped it.

I finally got around to replacing the plugs with zirc fittings as I was changing the wheels/tires. Here is were it gets funny, I spent an hour trying to thread a zirc into the lower arm. I finally realized if I just turned the wheel it would be easy.

I did find that the lower arm was pretty hard to squeeze a little grease in. The rubber felt pretty empty so I'm guessing clogged with dried grease. I'm also pretty sure I'll need to do some front end work soon if the swaybar bushings are any indication.

coryc85

Yeah, sometimes common sense escapes me too when I'm elbow deep in grease and dirt.

GeoRoss

One step forward, one step back. It is 112° today so the AC as been on high a lot. I've always had a terrible rattle when doing that. Today I found it, the defroster vents rattle. Some green felt and all is good.

While dropping the kids off it hit a bump, heard a thump and then a shatter. In the rear view mirror I saw stars sprinkling on the road. The PS mirror fell out of the housing. These are electric mirrors off a 1989 I found at a junkyard. I love these style of mirrors and I'm not hopeful I'll be able to find someone to cut a replacement mirror. Time for some eBay I guess.

rustED

iTrader: (2)

That sucks about the mirror glass. Might check your local auto glass installer, years ago My passenger side mirror fell off and I just had the local auto glass place cut out a new one. Installed it was like $20.

GeoRoss

Thats my plan. I am hoping it is that easy.

GeoRoss

I removed the lower/smallest overload spring. It didn't do much on the height, but it took most of the harshness out of the ride.

GeoRoss

Well the 4Runner is still just dandy. Interestingly I found another set of electric mirrors. Happiness again when I change lanes. I found out what my off-throttle transmission whine was. I replaced the shifter bushing (from Marlin) and no more deceleration noise.
I've had a little bit of intermittent high idle. I tracked that down to a sticky dashpot. I'll keep lubing it until it completely stops. It is mostly gone.

I did develop a hard cold start only when temps are below 60˚F. I do need to track that down, but I guess I have until late October to fix that. I think it is either fuel pressure or my ICV. I don't have a start-up high idle, but that predates the cold-start problem. Seat-of-the-pants HP feel makes me think it is better if I leave the key in the ON position for 30 seconds or so before starting. It runs fine now and I'll sort that out later.

It does need body work and paint. My original plan was to do the exterior and then the interior from a logistics point of view. Sadly, my slush fund/mad money for fun stuff keeps getting depleted by the real world, new roof, new HVAC, and a few other things. Plus, I've been thinking that this might be something I want to tackle myself. I'm somewhat handy, what the hell.

Sooooo, to keep some semblance of forward progress I moved to the interior. My 4Runner is a DLX model with the 3/4 door cards. They are in good shape, but the asshat PO put some sort of weird outdoor carpet additions that were tek screwed on. Plus the DS door is a replacement from a full door card SR5 that had a speaker cut out. Door cards on eBay are made of gold and bitcoin so I decided to make my own.

Here is the first one. It isn't perfect but not bad for a first stab. Details for the build can be found here.

Melrose 4r

GeoRoss

Melrose 4r

GeoRoss

Attempt #1 at recovering the dash is done. I learned somethings and can do a better job. I don't know if I'll use what I have and try to camouflage my mistake or find another donor.

Here is what I started with and the results. Details can be found here.

jakey poo

Not perfect but for a first attempt I'd say it looks pretty dang good! Better than I could do lol

RAD4Runner

Looks good. That's how I plan to do mine as well. I'll be extra careful around the crack as learned from your experience.