great find man! looks great and good luck! btw, that toyota bug NEVER leaves, it only gets worse....

 

Great truck! I miss my '87 every day. Take care of that thing!

 

great truck, haven't had a 4runner yet but I know of 2 in my town both down around $700. It's getting tempting.

 

Do you like the bed liner paint job? Any ideas on cost for that, or did you do it
yourself?

 

where did you find those marker lights? if you dont mind me asking.

 

ezucker,
I like the way the bed liner looks. I didn't do it, though. The previous owner either did it himself or got someone to do it. I like how tough it makes the body's finish. I have no clue how much it cost to do.

m1ke777,
I got the corner lights off of Amazon. They are not Toyota. The lenses are a slightly different hue of orange, they have more red in them, but I'm happy with them.

 

thanks there pretty sweet, need a new pair for my truck, (wife backed into it while on her way to work...) how much did you pay for the pair?

 

Here's the Amazon link for what I ordered.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o01_s01_i00

 

I took the Runner in for an emissions inspection so I can get the title transferred to me. I'm about 4 months away from not needing an inspection due to vehicle age, immensely annoying.

The tech said he couldn't run the emissions test because he can't hold the engine at the RPM the equipment requires. If you hold the gas at a touch past throttle, the engine surges up and down. I did some quick searching and messed with mixture and timing, but I can't get it to stop. I just ordered a vacuum hose kit from LCE Performance. I'm hoping the problem is a vacuum issue. I can't get it inspected until it will hold a low RPM. I can't get a title until I get it inspected. Ugh.

Here's the kit I ordered: http://www.lceperformance.com/Silico...-p/1072442.htm

 

I got the Spidertrax 1.5" spacers and got them installed a couple days ago.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/7634713750/http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/7634713750/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/ocell/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/7634713096/http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/7634713096/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/ocell/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/7634712396/http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/7634712396/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/ocell/, on Flickr

 

I noticed a loud mechanical rattle in the back of the truck while driving around and decided to run it down. I figured out that it was the black linkages that hold the tailgate up when open... when the tailgate is closed they go lose and bounce around between the tailgate and body. I don't know if I'm missing rubber bumpers or if it's always this loud.

I used some felt furniture feet pads to cushion the linkages and everything is MUCH quieter now.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/7634716914/http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/7634716914/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/ocell/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/7634716052/http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/7634716052/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/ocell/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/7634714342/http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/7634714342/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/ocell/, on Flickr

 

Last update tonight...

I finally got the top off of this thing. This is why I hunted down a 4Runner! I figured out a decent tarp solution for overnight to keep tree sap (big problem in my yard right now), rain, and animals out of the carpet and rear seats.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/7634715228/http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocell/7634715228/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/ocell/, on Flickr

 

It looks great.

 

Vacuum lines didn't fix my erratic RPM issues, but they did make the engine feel a bit more responsive.

Working with my mechanic this morning we realized that unplugging the TPS solved the revving issue. So, today I read up on adjusting the TPS. Tonight I learned a lot about the throttle body as I took enough of it and surrounding components loose to be able to get to both screws for the TPS. I went through the procedure and now it looks like the engine can hold any RPM without issue.

I'm going to take it back to the emissions guy in the morning and see if he can run the tests. Fingers crossed.

 

Passed emissions and got the truck titled in my name! Now I'm a bit at a loss on what goal to work toward next. I guess I'll just drive it and enjoy it!

Oh, after I patch up the exhaust... pipe broke loose from the front of the muffler last night.

I also just ordered a new distributor cap/rotor, spark plug wires, and spark plugs. Idle is a little rough so I figure it won't hurt to swap out the obvious components.

 

Dude that thing looks great! Sounds like you are doing the basic essentials first. Good stuff. Good idea on the tailgate rattle too. Mine is pretty clanky as well and I will try the soft side of Velcro in there since I have a huge supply of the stuff.

 

Nice looking Runner.

I'm up in Dallas, let's go wheel.

 

Since I'm new to all of this, I'm still trying to figure out the simple things, like what the correct u-bolt for my rear leaf spring setup is. These round u-bolts are too narrow for the bracket they're going in to (is there a name for that bracket?) and the bracket is cutting in to the threaded section of the bolt. (See the red box)



I'm assuming I measure the distance between the holes in the bracket and buy a square u-bolt that's the right width and long enough. Am I missing anything?

 

Irab88 posted these a long time ago. I looked high and low (online) and couldn't find a better price. Nothing locally here, either.

http://www.stengelbros.com/catalog/361-368_2978666.htm

 

Thanks Resto-noob.

One of the plastic caps for my front bumper is busted, so I ordered new ones (so cheap from RockAuto!).

The bolts are trapped on the plastic end cap with a metal plate that's fused in the plastic. Because of the rust, the bolts just spin when I try to break the nut
loose. So to get to the bolt heads I ripped the plastic from the metal plate. In this pic you can see the old part on top of the new part, now missing the plate and bolts.



I was hoping the bolt heads would receive a screwdriver or have a nut, but they are flat blanks.





I did some searching and I couldn't find any posts that deal with this issue, I don't know if there's a common trick. My plan right now is to hold the nut with a wrench while I drill the bolt out from the head side.