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Time to unbolt the steering rack. 2 nuts, 2 bolts, 3 mounting spots.
Right to Left (passenger to driver)
This is one nut and one bolt on a horse-shoe shaped mount- save that rubber bushing, you'll still need it (or have a replacement available):
The center one unbolts from the top. the nut is tacked on (mine is not, but that's another story).
The driver's side is a nut that unscrews, then the long bolt comes out from the other side and slides just under the diff. I usually use a screwdriver or something to tap it out of the rack.
You aren't done yet. The blankety-blank power steering lines must be removed.
Looking up on the driver's side, between the back of the rack (towards the front of the truck) and the cross member. You can see the lower control arm bolt in the foreground. Look for the 2 blurry lines at the upper mid part of the picture. I loosened the rack and used a bungy to hold it up-ish so I could gain a little more room. The rack is also resting on the center mount. Oh, what a bear this can be, even when they aren't rusted on. Yay me, mine were not. A 17mm flare wrench is very useful here. The nuts are at different angles (refer to your new rack and you'll see) that make it very hard to fit the wrench in and on the nut. It can be done.
Fluid will come out of the lines, have a pan ready.
Get that sucker out of there!
Center the new rack (this one had two useful marks on the rubber dust boot by the splined shaft that helped center it perfectly once it was darned close.
Mark and remove the outer tie rod ends (this one came with inners). Count turns to help get them on the new rack as close as possible. I was able to remove them by putting a wrench on the flat side of the tie rod and one on the hex at the end of the rack. The lock nuts stayed put as the tie rod end came off and I had only to screw the tie-rods into the new rack up to the lock nuts, careful not to let them turn. It worked great for me...
I also put the rag joint on (the aluminum thing in the middle of it is a spacer for the 1" body lift) and that's where I should have left it hanging on the steering shaft. I did end up pulling it back off, making sure the steering wheel was straight and putting it back on the steering shaft in a way that allowed me to reach both upper and lower bolts. I tightened the upper bolt and slid the rack up onto the lower part of the rag joint while maintaining the rack's shaft position and the straight steering wheel. It might have helped to have someone hold the wheel straight rather than rely on the bungee to hold it. Once I got everything lined up I loosely bolted the rack enough that it wouldn't fall out and got to work on those stinkin' power steering lines. After that was done I bolted the rack in and tightened the rag joint bolt too.
Once the rack was in tight I put in the sway bar, the front diff drops, and the tie rod ends. If they refuse to tighten use a jack to push up from underneath and they should hold still for you to get the castle nut on. Don't forget your cotter pins!
Add dex/merc to the reservoir and turn steering wheel back and forth, checking on the fluid level.
I should have flushed it first and need to learn how.
That's pretty much how I did it. Feel free to critique if there's something I could or should have done differently, as I said, I did it logically rather than knowingly.
And, then you ran off to the alignment shop....nice work as always.
We have a 3500 acre wildfire about 3 miles away called the Rowena fire. I can see some of it out my front window. Inside my house smells like a camp fire. The west wind is neatly depositing the smoke here. Bah.
You will only need sliders once for them to pay for themselves.
Too true! With a choice of an either/or and mild to moderate trails though, given your own experience, what's your opinion?
Originally Posted by rworegon
And, then you ran off to the alignment shop....nice work as always.
We have a 3500 acre wildfire about 3 miles away called the Rowena fire. I can see some of it out my front window. Inside my house smells like a camp fire. The west wind is neatly depositing the smoke here. Bah.
Even with the wind today and this evening, they made great progress burning from the Hwy 30 road up the hill to the black that burned previously. It looks like they've turned the corner and the smoke is lazy white smoke now. The house is cleared of smoke now too.
Looking out that way I can barely see any smoke this am. Winds will be less than 10 mph today so it should be another good day for the fire fighters. Thankful for the resources that have came in from within the state and from afar to fight the beast.
You will only need sliders once for them to pay for themselves.
good point, and I certainly have no misgivings about having had them custom built for me
I will eventually beef up the factory oem "skids" with something aftermarket and more robust; I just need to decide how much protection I need down there...
Habanero, which skid plates do you have, and how far back do yours go underneath the 4Runner? Do you also have a gas tank skid? It would be awesome if you had access to a shop with proper tools with a press and brake and water jet and blast cabinet and welder and paint booth and powder coat, et al, as there's no telling what you would fabricate...!
I have Trail Carnage skids that came off fellow forum member Amorphous' truck when it was totaled (thanks Aaron!). They go from front to the cross member in front of the gas tank. No longer made.
Front
Inner side of front
Rear (tapered side goes to the rear)
inner side of rear
No gas tank skid yet, no rear lower control arm skid. No rear diff or locker skid. No bumpers.
HI CHEF!! Vitamin H..... Gotta go look and see how your front end is coming along.
rw- cold front, 65 this morning. 107! Give that temperature to somebody else!
Hrt4me- no problem!
Not much happening here, back to feeding the kids today. Chef Boyardee ravioli. Got some serious nasty food poisoning from that stuff when I was a kid and it's still rough to be around it. At least we'll be getting it out of the way and won't see it again for another 6 weeks.
Good morning! 50's this a.m. You must've shooed that weather over to dropzone, he was saying something about too much hot.
Nothing much going on truckwise here. Did forget to attach the little hose back to the airbox after filling the p/s and got better gas mileage. Could have been the mostly highway driving that tank but I traded out my tru-flow air filter for a 'paper' filter to see what happens. Good ol' curiosity. Not really a fair test as I'll be doing more short drives this week, but maybe it'll tell me something- or nothing, which would be something in itself.
And, good morning to you! 60s here this am. Hehe, dropzone is about 80 miles west of me and they were hot and we were hotter at the same time.
The truck needs its annual oil change before winter and its annual fix of rock chips on the hood. Oh yea, the cracked windshield needs to be replaced too. Always something to putter on... My glass guy will do the window tho.
Your results with the paper filter could be interesting. I'm curious what vac tube it was that was left open.
Last edited by rworegon; Aug 13, 2014 at 03:57 AM.
Your results with the paper filter could be interesting. I'm curious what vac tube it was that was left open.
The one that runs from the no-more-moo box (charcoal canister to some of y'all) to the filter box, it comes in behind the filter.
I also need to figure out the difference in my
4.10 w/31" tires
vs
4.10 w/33" tires
vs
4.30 w/33" tires
to get a more accurate account of mpgs.
Time to find one of those calculator thingies.
Aug 8, 2014 | 09:44 AM
Gotta go look and see how your front end is coming along. 
