While waiting on parts for the front end, I flushed the coolant and put in some nice cherry red Toyota coolant/distilled water mix.

Here it is in the driveway.... 700 miles now on the clock.

 

Had a chance to go through your thread. Gosh how I do not miss the stack pile of dirty parts on the table

If/when the time comes to redo this 3.0, I'm definitely going to put in another engine.

Hope your 4Runner keeps running well

 

Tore the front end apart to:

-replace balljoints
-replace tierod ends
-new pitman arm and idler arm (duralast with 4crawler bushings)
-new OME steering stablizer
-new shocks - Procomp ES9000


Everything was going like a boss when I found this....






Has anyone seen this before? This is a stock rig, I can't imagine how this happened. Or is it more common than I thought?

The good news is I have an entire rolling chassis from a V6 'runner sitting on my RV pad, complete with steering box. Bad news is it set me back a few hours. C'est la vie.

 

Am I seeing this correctly? Are the spines bent down toward the left? If so, I guess an improperly torqued nut could lead to that.

 

Yep the splines are twisted.

 

isn't that the idler and not the steering box?

 

Dropzone, it looks like the steering gear to me. Also, the front of the car is to the left in the picture, which makes this device on the drivers side.

 

Definitely steering box. Also, if you disassemble the idler arm, there are no splines. The shaft is a part of the arm. I have a mini write up of the 4crawler bronze bushing install I'll be adding shortly.

Steering box swap is done, still wrapping up the rest of the work.. hoping to have it on the road tomorrow so I can make the alignment appointment I made tomorrow!

 

i was fubar...i was also looking at an Aussie for sale thread on facebook, too many windows open..

 

Dropzone I know that feeling... ha ha!!

Well work is done but I am beat... have some pics and stuff to post but it's gonna have to wait for now.

Getting it aligned tomorrow cause I eyeballed the tierod end stuff. Test drive is functional but out of whack. Should be fine to get in to work and the shop.

Will hopefully update tomorrow but I think I'm actually ready to say this rig is in "full production" at this point. Might even let the wife drive it

 

Filled in some corners today:

Realized when I was putting new shocks on the back that something is missing....




Luckily this is sitting next to my house:




5 min job to pull this out (PB nut busted it yesterday just in case)




Problem solved!




Now that the front end, engine swap, and all related hoo-ha is done, figured I'd reinstall the skid plate. One of the mounting holes had a broken bolt stuck in it so I spent the first hour of my day dealing with that. But got it sorted.

Skid plate - after pressure washing, still needs some help I think:




Washed up and wiped down with grease and wax remover- better...




Giving this a shot, can claims little to no prep required... we'll see about that!




All painted up




Installed!




Had a brake light out... pulled the tail light out and found this... I'll be adding a tail light harness to my junk yard shopping list. Pulled the ˟˟˟˟˟ty trailer wiring out while I was at it.... not pulling any trailers with this, and if that changes, I'll build a real wiring harness for it.






Not sure how my lights are even working...




Better for now....




Getting there... hoping to go wheeling soon..!

 

Got my ORV permit today, woo, legal now!




And mounted my fire extinguisher. I like them handy, this seemed like a decent spot.




Also, new rear window switch installed and working. Had to pull my new ebay switch apart and clean the contacts but works great now!

 

I don't like the factory bolts holding the lower part of the skidplate on. Looks like smashed bolt removal would be imminent if I kept these around. An easy fix is some button head bolts. I'm surprised I haven't seen or heard of this mod before, I'm sure I'm not the first person to think those bolts would become unusable after a few trips to the woods!

5 of these for $3 at the local Fastenal:




Old stupid bolt




New awesome bolt:




Both installed... much better!




And a teaser for what's next....



Blew one of the junk 4" front speakers the PO had installed. They were garbage anyways but it is pretty much forcing me to figure out a good door mount solution. I think I'll be borrowing from Dropzone on that one. And Amazon says those are decent lights. We'll see for $18.. they are no Rigid's, but I bet they'll work for the price.

 

That wiring mess you found looks like it was done by the same master that wired some of my trekker.

 

I'm pretty sure this villain is on the loose and responsible for wiring hack jobs all over the world... if I ever find him I'll string him up!!


In related news, pretty sure the fuel pump is on its last legs. Gave me some pretty good "I'm out of gas" stumbles today on my way in to work, right after filling up with a fresh tank of gas. It did this once before after I got it running, but I was low on gas on my first tank and I chalked it up to some remaining bad gas in the system from sitting for so long. Well, now as I think on it, there have also been some noted "fishbiting" incidents and acceleration not quite feeling right. Again, have been chalking it up to "new motor" that I'm "not used to", but it's pretty evident something is failing and I'm pretty sure it's the fuel pump. Only other thing I can think of would be the coil/igniter but it feels like fuel delivery.

OEM pump is almost $300... so screw that. Denso pump online is $100, any issues going that route?

Most annoying part is I currently have a full tank of gas to deal with also

 

Been lax on my updates..

-Thought my fuel pump was going out because truck was occasionally stuttering/stalling
-replaced fuel pump
-problem persisted
-did some reading
-cleaned the O2 sensor which was really dirty and fixed a loose wire on it
-"seems" resolved....


Meanwhile started a massive leak between transmission and t-case, so either tranny output or tcase input

Any have experience:

• Pulling a G58 (chain drive) case without pulling the tranny?
• Replacing input seal?
• Replacing G58 output seal?

Marlin doesn't list any parts for the chain drive stuff-

Not finding much as far as details etc on this, anyone have any hands on with the chain drive stuff? Would ideally like to get it pulled this Saturday, new seals in, be on my way without an extended project.

Any input appreciated....


Oh and just to keep it up, here's a pic from it today in the parking lot, next to my co-worker's '96. We both got ours at about the same time and have been steadily going through them replacing junk, so they are sort of brothers

 

In response to myself... I'm just going to pull the trans/tcase assembly.

Reading the FSM (always RTFM!!) looks like the seals shouldn't be too big an ordeal.. I'll keep everyone posted.

Feels like every time I fix something another thing pops up... but I'm literally running out of stuff to repair on this POS!!

But any tips or pointers from experience on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

About the stuttering.. There are so many things that can lead to a 'stuttering' symptom, it's really annoying... lol.. hope the cleaning of the O2 sensor did it for you!

 

Some GOOD news:

21.97 mpg on my last tank... that's up a full 2 mpg from what i've been consistently getting. So sorting out the O2 sensor certainly made SOME difference there!! I think I'll replace it anyways just because.

And so far all week no sputtering....


Picking up a used good condition transfercase attached to a toasted g58 tomorrow and just going to swap the tcase in. Going to give an attempt at JUST pulling the tcase and leaving the tranny etc in.

We'll see-


Also on the to-do list if I can get the tcase done early enough - just some teaser shots:

 

Me too, definitely.... keep thinking this thing is fine to drive full time but things keep coming up that prevent it... and I need it to just be good to go! My job is changing and I'll be needing to pound some pretty heavy miles here coming up in about a month, my old car is not up to it and I don't want to fix it at this point, so the 4runner needs to get good to go ASAP and stop giving me problems!!