habanero

96 4Runner 231,000 miles

Ok, this is Scuba's fault. I was going to get around to this eventually but my lazy butt got called out so....

Clock fix:
Sorry, no pics. The husbandio has the camera so just use your imagination...

My clock has become dimmer and dimmer, more recently with some parts unseeable and then coming back as it saw fit. I said to myself "self, bad connection, I need to get around to fixing that".
Then I saw this thread- https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/b...ou-too-242827/ and whined about how I need to get this done sometime between cv shafts. Scuba kindly reminded me that cv shafts only take a half hour and he is correct if you don't include stopping for homework, dinner, banged up knees, pad of paper to write tickets, laundry, etc etc.
So here is my write-up for fixing my clock in the 96:

1) Get home from taking kid to school
2) Pull 1 larger flat blade screw driver, 1 phillips driver, 1 small flat blade and 1 very small phillips driver from tool box.
3) Pull climate control knobs off
4) use lg flat blade to carefully pry climate control panel from dash, using upper slots and remembering that a/c button is plugged in directly and must also come out.
5) Unscrew the 2 screws behind panel that hold trim on but not the 2 that hold climate control mechanism in.
6) Trim will now pull away from dash.
7) Unplug clock, carefully use small flat screwdriver to pry clock out of its holder.
8) Bring inside, find strongest reading glasses.
9) Realize eyes have gotten worse and vow to stop by Target to get stronger ones for this kind of work.
10) Go downstairs and get small soldering iron
11) Remember you forgot to switch laundry over.
12) Bring whites upstairs
13) Run back down and put reds in dryer.
14) Notice slight dead animal smell downstairs
15) Bring soldering iron upstairs then go outside and check house overhang that you've already repaired twice.
16) Find the hole creatures have made to get into house.
17) Repair hole.
18) Come inside, plug in soldering iron.
19) Use small flat blade to take front plastic off clock. Watch out for the 3 buttons and 3 button covers as these could fall off and go who knows where.
20) Use very small phillips to uscrew 2 screws holding circuit board to the backing.
21) Be VERY careful when you pull these apart. There are 4 small springs you don't want to lose on 4 small blades.
22) I pulled the springs out a little to make them longer so I'd have better contact.
23) Then I picked up the soldering iron and realized 7 cups of coffee (been up since 3 am) are not favorable for soldering on circuit boards but dang it, I'm gonna get this finished! Also re-vow to get stronger readers- the board is pretty blurry.
24) I carefully carefully repaired a slightly cracked solder at one of the resistors (? larger squares on circuit board) on the circuit board, then went over the other 3 as well.
25) Then I added a little solder to each of the contact areas on the board for the springs because there was some wear there.
26) put clock back together making sure springs had good contact with board
27) plugged back into truck
28) turned on and checked. I have the time again and the lighting's all even!
29) clipped clock back into trim panel
30) pushed panel back into place, screwed screws back in, put climate control panel/ a/c button back into place, put knobs back on.
31) Came in and wrote lengthy ridiculous story about it and now I've gotta get ready for work.

So Scuba:

Actually, thanks for guilting me into getting it done.

habanero

And then the school nurse called me while I was on the way to work. Kid's suddenly got a fever. Call both supervisors and apologize profusely for the 15 minute notice, pick up kid, check temp again and set up humidifier, get un-ready for work. Hmmm. Stuck at home. Should clean house, make overhang rodent tooth proof, paint house trim, fold the reds, etc etc. Hmmm, wonder what needs doing on the truck???

Sick food in this house? Forget that chicken noodle stuff, it's matzo ball soup and tuna sandwiches.

aviator

Don't forget to put the darks in the dryer habsie...

Hope the stocker is feeling better soon... fighting a narly cold I caught from a co-worker who decided to come to work and go flying with a bad head cold...
read her the riot act and warned her against doing that in the future... note if you have a bad cold DO NOT go flying, diving, parajumping etc. you can blow out your ear drums due to the pressure changes.

Being sick is def. no fun.

speaking of smells did you find the critter that was causing it? Remember Halloween is coming soon and you don't want any ghosts in the house... or zombies for that matter...

habanero

Hope you feel better soon, couldn't imagine flying with stuffed ears!

Did not find the critter. Had a squirrel family in there last year, chased as many as I could out but one room in the house was hard to be in for a month or so. Therefore I've already got critter bones somewhere under the floor and above the basement ceiling. Looks like now we've got more. Ugh! At least this one's a smaller smell. I've gotta get some hardware cloth and cover under the overhang with that. I've already built chipmunk 'lookout towers' at the tops of all the downspouts, homemade cages that fit into the downspout so they can't get on the roof where they were trying to eat their way into the attic.

Bored today so I replaced the bulbs in the ashtray and the glove box. I didn't even know I had a lighted glove box but I was trying to find a whistle having to do with the blend door (found it, bad box seal allowing air to whistle out) and happened to look up. For the record, Sylvania's #74 bulbs do not fit in either of these spots though that's what aftermarket calls for. The base is too short for the contacts to work. GE's looked like they might (online) but nobody I could find around here sells them. Toyota bulbs for the win and the guys at Toyota of West County always take care of me which may mean I'm in there way too often but I can call anytime and they know who I am from my Minnie Mouse voice and they remember my 96.
I've still got to replace my hazard switch bulb but those are around $12. It was a bad bulb in my rear defrost switch but I switched the bulbs because the hazards make a noise that lets me know they're on and the defrost doesn't. I may have to try to find aftermarket for those boogers.

Other than that I didn't get a darned thing other than the whites put away and the reds dried.

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

dang, quite a list up there! lol...

I JUST RECENTLY, the other day, caught 3 rats(8 total now) that were living in a area of my roof over MY ROOM! Scratching and gnawing away, dangit! lol... Well, I lured them out with a huge blob of peanut butter, then caught several in traps, then the cat caught 3 as I threw it up on the roof, hahahah.. I then went up and temporarily blocked off the vent hole the roofers never re-plugged with mesh... TOTALLY blocking them out with 4 layers of the stuff... CHEW THREW THAT YOU BASTARDS! HAHAHA. My Beretta 480fps gun got 2, as well.... and MAN, they will not die! lol. It was like a full on short series on "The rats that live in my roof.... ARE DEAD!" hahaha.

I feel for ya... you're a busy gal! Stay sane and keep us up to date, girl! lol

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

BTW, ...great pic of you under there, working! Smiling, to boot! lol.

aviator

Gees Chef don't talk about rats out loud you'll have the heath dept. down on yer butt... if you can't keep your home pest free what's happening at work right? LOL

Sure glad we don't have that kind of problem here [touch wood] only issue we have is a stubborn basement leak... dug up foundation new weeper, sealed wall... still get wet when rains... going to add a cistern/pump out side and try that next... more raz a frazin' hand digging...

hab hows the little guy doing? has his fever come down?

habanero

I checked this morning, down a little. Gonna check again in a little while cause it's a trail build workday and neither one of us want to miss it.
Hope you're feeling better!!!

Rats is about the only critter I don't have trouble with. At least, not yet. The chippers and mice are the worst, then squirrels. Yesterday a barred owl hung out on the garden fencepost for a long while but he didn't take any dinner home with him.

I hear you on the basement leakage. Someone did a lot of work to keep our basement dry with gravel and sloping away from the house and pipes on the downspouts to drain the water further out. So long as I keep the gutters cleaned out we're pretty good. Otherwise it's a mess. Finally got around to installing gutter guards this summer so I don't have to trudge around on the roof as often.

aviator

I'm feeling a bit better thanks... chest is clearer and sinus is better but not clear yet...

our basement was'nt that bad till the neighbour built a new house and changed the grade up a bit on that side and took away the driveway and moved the house over towards us.
it will get better once he finishes the walkway between the houses and his driveway gets paved. right now all the surface water comes off the road and goes right between the houses and soaks in right away.

rworegon

Habanero, great looking rig! Post 361 was a fun read.

I have the same jack stands you have in post #360 and try to keep the release lever on the opposite side of where I'm working. You'd really hate to hit that lever with a shoulder and have the rig suddenly drop 3-4". The bottle jack is there in the background so all was probably good.

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

Great news on the Fever LIL down angle!

I agree, mice are often even worse..... mainly because they can do nearly as much damage as rats and they CAN GET INTO ANYTHING AS BIG AS A SHARPIE SIZE HOLE! grrr! lol.

Aviator.... They don't live in the house or anywhere near the food, promise! lol. They found there way into the attic and they're content stealing fruit and bringing it in there........ BUT, .... As they started to come down into the Garage, fishing around for food and one time ripping into a bag of dry goods I'd forgotten to put away(I grab things before camping to go in my mess..... OOPS, left that one out, EVERYTHING was empty. Other than that, they didn't seem to come down until more recently.... and I got plenty of peanut butter and traps out for em! lol. Caught 2 in the last 24 hours and I've not heard a "gnaw" or "scratch" or "shuffling" in my roof above my room, since. BTW,.... I will get pics of this area I had to crawl into on the roof in order to SNUG UP the hole with vent cage..... HOLY CRAPULA, that was a very tight space! hahaha.

PS> There's a good brand of mouse trap at OSH and a couple others. They don't have it at Home Depot, Lowes, apparently..... It's a glue trap, yes, but it's SO FREAKY STICKY I can't even tell ya... and it has some added smell that lures them in..... and then, with a big blob of Peanut butter in the middle.... THEY'RE DOOMED! lol. Gotta say though... the Big Lots deal I got on "pic" Brand mouse traps, 4 for 99Cents... couldn't beat that, and they've worked QUITE A FEW TIMES, now!

Get them critters, sista! lol.

habanero

Thanks! That Scuba, he's a menace to society I tells ya.

That jack stand's actually on the cross member so it's not as close to me as it looks. Normally I do the same as you, turn the levers away from me, but in this case to use the bottle jack there was a bigger risk of the jack's handle hitting the lever than me. Anyway, that's my reasoning for that and I'm glad you mentioned it cause who knows who might think of stuff like that. I usually also tuck a tire partially under the area I'm working on so it hits that if it falls and (hopefully) gives me a little space. Unfortunately I had to put the tire more to the front center because of putting the cv in. I'm not a big fan of being dead either.

rworegon

I've read enough of your posts and just figured that you had the work area well protected, but worth mentioning. I agree...alive is better. Happy wrenching!

habanero

Thanks. I don't know everything, not even close, so I'd rather someone said something that I did know than not said something I didn't.
Happy wrenching back at you!

habanero

And then the left inner cv boot on the 96 died a greasy death.
I remember reading something about Porsche boots....off to do some searching. Anyone that feels like it, chime in!

rworegon

Hmm, would these work for the 4Runner? Porsche 930 inner boot:

http://www.tacomaterritory.com/forum...t=porsche+boot
http://www.tacomaterritory.com/forum...t=porsche+boot
http://www.offroad-engineering.com/930cvboots.html Less $$ than the link below.
http://performancelifts.com/cgi-bin/...TK-BAT101.html

Quality of product???? I have no idea.

habanero

Those were very very helpful. I was also reading about 'stretching' the boot so the lobes won't rub and fail. I believe that's what happened to this boot but I'll know more tomorrow when I can really get in there and take a gander. Tonight all I saw was a whole lot of grease.
I may see if O'Reilly will allow a warranty on this one and try the stretch boot mod. If they won't then I'll prolly go with a 930 boot of some sort.

habanero

96 4Runner, cv boot saga
For now I've moved the rt side's inner boot down the cv shaft a little and wired it to the outer boot to keep it in place, effectively stretching the boot enough that the fins are no longer rubbing full time. It's been that way for almost 2 weeks now and is actually staying put so far.
I am considering this a temporary fix until I think of or find something better. At least I've bought time for the boot that hadn't eaten itself.
The left side inner boot is still torn and has about flung all its grease out. I'll either do the same to the new shaft's boot as I did to the right or, hopefully, come up with something a little less hoopty. My biggest concern is something catching on the wire though the wire's small diameter should cause it to simply break without doing too much damage. SHOULD.
Still awaiting Slee's reply email. They were out til the 24th according to an auto-reply, I'm guessing they're either busy playing the catch-up game or missed my cute little plea for info.

habanero

Did I mention I do not like CV boots? O'Reilly wasn't happy about it but they did warranty the shaft with the eaten boot. I appreciate that especially given that the boot failed at St. Joe and has a good size hole in it.
Oddly the stupid Chinese junk shaft boots worked better, well, until they dry rotted in a little over a year. Less lobes iirc. The inner cv boots on the A1Cardone shafts look just like the Toyota inner boot.

I've stretched both inner boots so the fins only rub at full droop to buy some time.

My husband thought an aftermarket bumper would help because of the weight bringing the front end down a little. I think he's right. Don't know that it'd be enough but it'd be a start. Unfortunately that was not a go-ahead for a new bumper. Pbbbt!

Haven't heard from Slee.

Located some EMPIUS mold numbers that look like they could work better but still need to match those mold numbers to some Beck Arnley or something boots.

Checked out the Dorman OE Solutions boot. WEIRD. Silicone, I think. Felt like they'd rip if you blinked at them but they are flexible enough to slide the boot on without dismantling the shaft, tool required. Weird.

All-Pro lists the 930 boot as an outer. Still looking for more info on using it as an inner boot, etc.

Saw some sort of weird blue boot that was supposed to be better but didn't get it bookmarked and I haven't found it since. Looks like a Kong toy.

Looked at manual hubs and/or bomb proof rebuilds. Both are WHOA more money than I wanna put into IFS. For the cost of either of those I'd start studying a SAS, which is ridiculous for my daily driver and occasional Toy. Oh yeah, and I have no funds for any of these things.

Still looking for other possibilities. Don't be shy, speak up! Anything y'all have can't be worse than my wired together boots. Poor shafts look like they've been to the orthodontist and scored head gear.

mightymouse

iTrader: (6)

Hab, look into getting toyota cv axles and stop messing with the after market crap boots and axles. I've been down this road with my old truck. I dealt with several cv's from vato zone and advance auto farts. none of them measured up to the toyota cv axles. Better angles, better life, smoother and stronger. Even at the angles that i ran them in when i had the ball joint spacers. Now my experience runs with my old 1990 ifs truck so it might be a little different with the 96 and newr ifs but to be honest i doubt the o'rielly cv axles are even close to being better than the toyota axles.
Oh and st. joes sand/mud and water wreak havoc on boots and axles. That's the reason i never wheeled there other than riding atv's. The sand and water have a way of getting into everything and eating it away in short time. Seems as though you're finding that out. sorry.