Hey everyone! I am rather new here, but I can already say I am in love with it and I am inspired by many of the great rigs!

I just purchased my first yota last Tuesday (10/3). Its a 1996 4Runner Limited in Evergreen pearl. Its 4x4 and has ~158,000 miles on it. I bought it all stock. I have been searching months for a truck like this and I am so excited to start a long relationship with it.



I hoped to get a little advice on what to replace/work on? Mainly I just want to make sure it doesn't break down on me and or have a serious problem. The owners before me neglected this beauty, They were the kind that just changed the oil, but that about it.

This is a list of what has been done so far this week and half:

New Timing Belt
New Water Pump
New Spark Plugs
New Spark Plug Wires
Oil Change/Filter
Air Filter
Fuel Filter
New Front Brake Pads
New set of Michelin LTX A/T2 (265/70-16)

Future Plans (This will take awhile, don't have cash coming out my ears):
Yakima Roof Basket
Front bumper/winch & lights
Rear Bumper
A body lift
upgraded suspension
larger tires
Sliders

So what should I do next in the short term? I was thinking about installing a Tranny Cooler.
Any thoughts or advice is very much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

take off the running boards before rocks and such take them off for you lol

 

Yeah I forgot to put that in my post. I was planning on doing that rather soon. Thanks for reminding me, lol!

 

You can't go wrong with putting in a tranny cooler. Search for "strawberry milkshake" on here. It's cheap and will save you a lot of money and headache.

 

some of the early 96's had head gasket issues, do you know if yours has been replaced?

Definitely do the tranny cooler soon...you will regret if if your tranny blows

 

When, not if, you do the tranny cooler, remember the point. You are bypassing the stock transmission cooler in the radiator, with an external cooler. I've seen people add the external cooler in addition to the stock cooler. I don't think they got the point.

Strawberry milkshakes are tasty.

 

I think that belongs in my sig lol

 

 

from my experience I would get, in this order
a tranny cooler/clutch cylinders
check ifs tie rods, lower ball joints, cv joints, and steering rack bushings
a rear diff breather extension or you will have a mess on your driveway
get some sliders
wheels and tires
gears and a rear locker
get a fuse block

in that order I did it backwards and its been a experience

 

Nice looking truck. I'm not understanding the body lift on stock suspension with stock tire size. Sliders, bumpers, winch mean prolly going off road but how will raising your center of gravity help when it's not gaining clearance for anything?

 

I dont think it had its head gasket replaced...

I will order a Tranny cooler tonight. I am thinking the B&M 70268 and I will bypass the stock transmission cooler.

Ohh there wont be stock suspension and stock tires when that happens! This is a long term project. My list above was just inadequate.

Thanks for all the advice! I will let you know about it as things go along.

P.S. I am kinda a noob at all this, so if something doesn't make sense, please point it out to me! lol!

 

So when I install The tranny cooler, I was thinking about replacing the fluid. I assume that this is a must since I cant believe it was done anytime recently.

I was going to use ATF Type T-IV. I did read a few threads here and I don't think I missed anything important.

Does this sound right?

 

Replacing the fluid is definitely not a bad idea. It's kind of tricky unless you have a fluid exchanger. You can look up the method on here. I've never done it that way. You could put the cooler in and then have a shop do the fluid or change the fluid and then put the cooler in. When I put my cooler in I only lost about half a pint of fluid. When I was all done I just topped it off. One thing that worked great was using sharpie markers to plug the rubber hoses. They fit perfectly. Someone elses great idea, but a great idea none the less. You can ignore the other stuff in the picture. I just wanted to show off the sharpie trick.

 

Well I got my Tranny cooler in the mail this week, I am gonna have to wait till my day off on Friday or Saturday to do the install. Thanks for the heads up about the sharpie trick. lol!
I will then probably have a local shop do the fluid change.