I've been pretty sick for the last few days, but today I found the energy to install some of the parts I got from ChefYota4x4!

(Mark, the oil sender I got from Amazon works fine. Thanks for the offer on the OEM unit.)

First up was the climate control panel. It looks like someone slapped on the graphic panel from a 2nd gen Runner. It certainly didn't fit.


Ahhhh... much better.


The SR5 cluster looks so much better than the DLX cluster. In the details, everything feels cleaner and more thought out.


I'm so pumped to have a tach now. I feel a lot better about pushing the engine since I can see what's going on. After a lap through town comparing engine-sound to the tach, I'm pretty sure I've never reved the engine past 4k rpm.



Tonight I was messing with the dimmer, and now none of my climate control panel lights will come on. Odd, since I never messed with the lights or their wiring...

 

your first Yota is one you'll never forget...miss my '81 everyday

 

The cluster looks good. I noticed that the brake light is on. If my brake light does not come on I worry that something is wrong.

 

Thanks! I'm so excited about it.

I had the parking brake on when I took the photo, thankfully it's working correctly. It even goes off if I slam the parking brake handle in hard enough. (I may shim the indicator switch a little to fix that, or maybe there's a way to adjust it, I haven't looked in to it yet.)

The fuel gauge is also working correctly. I WAS on empty.

 

I wont go any where with out my brake light on. Seriously with a little twist and a pump fake on the e-brake handle and my light will turn off, but so what.
PS. What's the odometer at?

 

My old cluster was at 248,000. New one is a little over 216,300.

 

WOOT! Man, I'm REALLY happy that worked out for ya, Ocell... Was great chattin, etc... Keep in touch, k? BTW.... NICE AND CLEAN, RIGHT? .... That one, I actually had to take it apart, cleaning the inside of the plexiglass/panel backdrop..... AND, there's a TINY lil needle that keeps the tachometer needle from dropping below Zero.... See it? Had to Superglue it back in there... NOW, if you ever had to remove that.... the whole face would pop off! lol. Jk... But actually, it's held in with only a tiny lil bushing... and it was IMPOSSIBLE to find one.. So, I SuperGlued it back in ... Looks GREAT in your dash, man!

X2 on having a tach.... Had ONE rig without one... Really was annoying after always having one in almost every car/truck I've ever owned, lol... Plus, Oil pressure isn't a bad thing either, trust me! Now you have Oil pressure AND a Dummy light that will warn ya if it get's too low(iirc)...

Again, ........ keep it Touch, OCell

PS> WOW on the PO's Climate Face job! hahaha.

PSS. THANKS, Ocell, for helping me out! I'm glad it helped you out as well

 

How much did you buy it for with how many miles?

 

Too much and too many.

I'm in the office late getting ready for a presentation tomorrow, so I might as well waste some time updating my thread, eh?

Today I was heading out to the creek bed with a couple other first gen 4Runners, so I wanted to get my Energy Suspension low profile bump stops installed. ( ) I ordered red, but they sent me black... I was 50/50 on which I wanted anyway, so no problem.

My hands are beat from trying to break the rust on the old bump stop bolts while holding the round stops in place with my hand. The last one seemed impossible, so I finally just drilled a big hole through it so I could hold it with a screwdriver. It broke loose instantly. I wish I had done it from the start!

Old stop:


New stop:


Comparison:


This did it...



Here's my front flex with the stock bump stops. Back wheel is up on a rock:


Here is the same pose with the new low profile bump stops. It's not life-changing, but it looks like I got a bit more articulation out of it:

 

I've always kind of turned my nose up at "muddin'", to be honest. Well, don't knock it 'till you've tried it, right? We got in to some mud, and I totally get it now!



http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/8378426865/http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/8378426865/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/ocell/, on Flickr

We still did plenty of crawling.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/8378369591/http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/8378369591/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/ocell/, on Flickr



I just got the photos a few minutes ago, so I'll post more later. There's a video of me getting kinda scary-deep in some water... up to the headlights. I'm pretty anxious to see it.

 

Till you get stuck or find yourself cleaning mud out of the back seat? Looks fun though!

 

See, I knew a cluster from you would be the best condition cluster I could possibly get. It shows... the thing is super clean. Great of you to open it up and fix that needle. Details like that make all the difference in the world! Thanks so much!

 

True! I still don't see myself building up a mud bog truck, but it's fun to run in to some gunk on the trail.

We see so little of it in central Texas.

 

Firstly, ... thank you for the kind words, Bud!

Secondly, .... "HEY, PAL, YOUR WINDOW IS OPEN!!!!" ... "dohhhhhhh " hahahaha

Thirdly, .... THANK YOU, good sir, for posting those great pics of the bump stop removal technique, hehe..... HONESTLY, that's great. I could NOT break mine free to install my ONE pair of 9.9132R's.... AND THEN, I realized,... even though they were a gift... which I will return so he can gift someone else... They are ULTRA low... and really? THEY'RE ULTRA LOW! haha.. And I really think that extra 3/16 of an inch or so will be a smart security measure... SOOOOOOOOO, I ordered them from 4wheelparts(free shipping coupon I had and 20% off coupon....)>>>> they ended up being 19$ for 2 pairs of the 9.9102G's(I went for black, ..... just wanted to be more ''LO PRO', if you will, I suppose? hahaha.

So thanks, that inspired me to do that while I'm doing the Breather Extensions for my diffs and V6 Upgrade...

Have a great one, C/in the place to be! lol... NOW GET BACK TO WORK! lol.

PS> OH, btw.... I'm SO HAPPY about our new, EVEN HIGHER Sales taxes here... On 19.95 I paid 2.05 SALES TAX! YAYYYYYYYYY! .............. Yeah, or.......

Freakin Peoples Republic of Cali..... DANG it for being so BEAUTIFUL! GRRRRRR! lol.

 

Oh, yeah..... forgot to mention.... Your shocks are from Mexico... Don't see that as often as China, lol.. MANY are, I know that... just kiddin... And besides... mine are made in Australia...... I think? .... ARB-USA... Hmmmmmm, .. Yeah, I think they still said "Made in Australia"... So my point is,..... My shocks are NOT made in the USA either! lol. Oh, but my rears? Rancho's, 14 years old(yeah, think it might be time? hahaha........... MADE IN THE USA! I don't think they still are.... Which brand are those, bud?

 

OH YEAH.... and one more 'BTW', ..... hehe...

You KNOW it's a sad state of affairs when you go to check out.... They offer you "Pick up in store, locally, for FREE SHIPPING".... And you think about 10 seconds, ...then realize... You'd actually spend MORE in GAS, driving the 11 Miles and Back, .... and click "SHIP GROUND", .... ...... Meh! lol.

 

The shocks are Skyjackers. The ones I took off were red and said Made in Japan. I still have no clue what they were. Did Toyota ever put on red shocks?

Yeah, free shipping makes going anywhere make less sense. I order the silliest stuff from Amazon since I have Prime. Why mess with roads and people and lines when I can click on a website and have it in 48 hours?

 

My shocks are blue.. I haven't replaced them cause the ride is still good. I kinda doubt that Toyota made them blue so I'm thinking a previous owner replaced them! I had an older 89 Toyota and it had original Toyota shocks and they were like a tan/brown color. It rode rough however!

 

My buddy just posted a video of me driving down the creek... things got a little hairy near the end!

 

Oooooh, Lil scary! lol

Great vid!

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