Thanks man! Haha I will if you can help me replace my timing belt, water pump, etc.

Thanks! Yeah I was just paranoid about getting the dreaded strawberry milkshake, and I am going to be doing some towing so i just made too much sense to ignore.

 

Definitly. I would hate to find a strawberry milkshake in my tranny. Ive had dnough of the milkshake phenomenon lately haha. Whatcha gonna be towing?

 

Touche'...did you already buy your kit?

 

Yeah there are entirely too many threads on here about guys and the dreaded strawberry milkshake. I'm not going to be towing anything for a while, but in September I will be towing a Uhaul trailer from Austin, TX to the Washington DC area because my fiance (soon to be wife) and I are moving up there after we get married. Hopefully once we settle in, I would like to get a pop-up trailer or something similar to take camping. I would also be just fine with a boat or jet ski

Haha thanks . I haven't yet, but now that the transmission cooler is done, I found this one on eBay that I am going to buy in the next couple weeks. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyot...Q5fAccessories

Then I just have to find someone to help me install it...

 

So either regearing or the timing belt replacement may have to wait a little longer...I just found these and I simply couldn't pass them up! https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f109...runner-236946/

 

Congrats on your pending marriage, I'm also getting married soon (in November).

Buy the kit from VOLKSTOY Motorsport, its $250 shipped and comes will all OEM parts...look em up on ebay. Its the kit I used and was quality.

Nice! I saw those but didn't want all black seat covers...good score for you though!

 

Thanks man! Congratulations to you too! Its really exciting, but really stressful at the same time...

Thanks for the advice, I will definitely go with VOLKSTOY when I order the kit.

Yeah I like the black because I have some other black accents in the truck so I think it will look pretty good. I am excited to get the stock upholstery covered up with something much better


Finally, here is an updated picture of my transmission temperature sensor setup with the ground wire.

 

Where did you order the LEDs for the map lights at??

 

I ordered the map and dome lights from here: http://autolumination.com/otherleds.htm. They are about 1/4 of the way down the page. They are the 36 LED array and they cost $14.99 each.

 

So ill get 2 bc there is 2 different bulbs or since its LED will it come one piece?

 

Nevermind im stupid.. HA 2 different bulb = 2 different LEDS and thanks i didnt see the map light ones at auto zone so ill just order them

 

haha its all good man. Let me know if you need any other info

 

Update: I got my Wet Okole seat covers yesterday and got them installed. It took me a little over an hour because the front seats take a little while to get just right. I must say that my first impression of these is amazing! They are really comfortable and you can just tell that they are high quality, hopefully they will hold up in the long run but I don't see any reason why they wouldn't.

 

Man those look good!!

 

Thanks man! I definitely think that I got them for a steal so I couldn't pass them up.



After looking at some of the treads on here, I decided that I wanted to build a rear storage box to hold my tools, recovery gear, tie down straps, etc. So last weekend I made a trip to the hardware store and bought some materials. After two full days of work over the weekend and some intermittent work during the week I was able to get it finished today. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the actual build process but I wanted to get it done as quickly as I could....

I used 3/4" plywood for the top and bottom because I chose not to use a center support and the 3/4" plywood is really strong and can hold a lot of weight on its own. As you can see in the pictures, I have my 2-10" subs sitting on top of it and it is not bending/flexing whatsoever.

I chose to cover all the surfaces in felt because I didn't want to look at a bunch of plywood. It just so happened that the felt matches my sub box pretty well. The felt is held in place by spray adhesive and some staples.

The drawers are not on any sort of tracks or rails, they just slide on the bottom of the storage box, which works really well with the felt. Here are some of the overall specs:
Length (front to back): 40.5"
Width: 38"
Height: 7"
Box materials used: 3/4" plywood and 2X6's
Drawer materials: 1/2" plywood and 2X4's

Let me know if you have any other specific questions.

 

Looks good, I keep meaning to do this but other stuff always takes precedent. where did you get the drawer pulls from? and I like the lockable latches, thats a good idea!

 

Thanks! Yeah I was carrying around a big Kobalt tool box for the longest time but everything was always rattling around and it just didn't have nearly enough room, so I decided that it was time to do something different.

I got all of the building materials including the lockable latches, drawer pulls, wood, screws, etc. from my local hardware store (Home Depot). The only thing that I had to get elsewhere was the felt, which I found at my local craft store (Hobby Lobby).

The only drawback to the design of the storage drawer system is that with my subs on top of them, I can't use the cargo cover anymore. So, I put the lockable latches on to protect my stuff in case my truck gets broken in to or something.

 

Update:

Here is the list of stuff that I want/need to do before the trip...
1) Replace timing belt, water pump, thermostat, etc.
2) Regear to 4.88's and locker(s)
3) External transmission cooler - DONE
4) Rear storage drawers - DONE

So, I just finished ordering the complete 3rds from East Coast Gear Supply. I had a question about their core charges so I gave them a call and talked to Chase in their sales department. I am really glad I ended up calling because he asked about what I was going to get and I told him that I was planning to order the front and rear differentails with lockright lockers. He was really helpful and honest and told me that there have been some issues with the lockright lockers in the front differential. I can't remember exactly what the problem was, but he said that they have had previous customers complain about small amounts of differential oil leaking from their CV axles. Apparantly something about the locker causes the axles to be pushed out slightly or something like that (maybe someone with some more experience can help me out here...).

Anyway, after hearing that I decided to do away with the front locker all together and upgrade the rear locker. Chase recommended a Yukon Grizzly locker so that is what I went with. The Yukon Grizzly locker is just higher quality and should last a lot longer than a Lockright. It should also be a lot better for my application because my truck is still a daily driver and the Yukon locker helps to cope with cornering and maneuvering without locking up like most other lunchbox do. In case anyone is curious the total for both differentials and the Yukon Grizzly locker in the rear was $1,800 (excluding core charges).

 

I love white 4runners! Keep up the good work

 

Thanks man!