habanero

96 4Runner 305,xxx miles

Whilst the hubby worked on the green truck I did a few piddly things with the blue one.
I used defrost line repair paint on the rear window and now have a good size circle of defrostiness. Not ideal, but I'll take it.

Finally got around to replacing the front caliper bleed valves with speed bleeders-
For the 231mm tundra front brake calipers:




And replaced my worn out stay the trail sticker plus added a few more


So basically spent a whole lot of time getting not a lot done.

chuckles89

"So basically spent a whole lot of time getting not a lot done"

My favorite!

RustBucket

iTrader: (1)

Where I come from we call that piddlin'

A certain amount of it is necessary for one's sanity.

habanero

As necessary as the 'got stuff done' days.

Fiddlin' here and completely agree!

It's been so cold and wet this year, it was nice to finally have sunshine and temps in the low 50's.
Definitely a therapy day of awesomeness.


Today the '99 got aligned (thank you lifetime alignment!!) and passed the state inspection no problem.

Jomoka

Now my front and rear diff ratios *ahem* match.

For no real reason, I firmly had it in my head that my factory 5 speed e-locker '99 had 4.30 ratios on it. And I got lucky at a pick-and-pull junkyard a while back and snagged a nice rear locker diff that had a 4.30 ratio.

Then last year my original rear diff started making 'bearing' noises. Nothing bad, just some whirring noises. That gradually got a little louder. Instead of waiting until it got even worse, I decided to swap it out for the junkyard diff (which after looking it over carefully, was in great shape).

And proceeded to drive it for 4 or 5 months, including plenty of wheeling, with no noticeable issues. Maybe a little more tire squawking on slick rock out in Moab - but the tires normally squawk and chirp a bit there. And it actually seemed perhaps a little better(???) in off-road situations, where I think the front wheels were 'pulling' in tight steering situations, instead of pushing wide like they normally tend to do.

But the real tell-tale symptom was that I *always* had to back up to disengage 4WD. And I figured it was probably not good for the transfer case to be under a load almost all the time.

millball

So what was your front ratio then??? 4.10?

habanero

Surprisingly, he did have 4.10
We both had it in our heads that he originally had 4.30, but I can't remember how that thinking came to be.

Jomoka

Yeah, I was so firmly sure of it being a 4.30 that I never checked the rear diff when I took it out, although I did check the 'new' diff to make sure it was 4.30.

I guess I just thought that since pretty much every factory locker equipped 4Runner seems to be a 4.30, mine was too? But I guess it being a factory 5-speed locker, that meant that it got the 4.10 ratio?

chuckles89

I bought my first elocker axle/ diff combo that was supposed to be 4.10.... it was actually 4.30. It was so bad, I just swapped my old axle back in till I could trade it for a 4.10 diff and get it swapped out. It was hard to get back into 2wd, made my truck hop, and skidded all over the place.

One time, there is this steep exit to a hill climb that goes up to pavement and has a sharp turn to the left. Terrible to do while still in 4low, but you have to due to how steep it is. It had my truck bucking up and down so much, I thought I had blown out my right rear tire till I got out and everything was fine

habanero

I forgot about that, glad you were able to trade it- and that you found a 4.10 elocker diff, they seem so hard to find....and here we had one under our noses the whole time.

habanero

96 4Runner 305,689 miles

Pulled the driveshaft and it was as suspected- bad rear u-joint. It does have grease but is still very notchy. I'm not sure what a double-cardan joint should feel like, mine is floppy and wiggly and not at all notchy.
I can:
1) Replace only the rear u-joint
2) Have a shop do both front and rear and balance it- the DC is original.
3) Have one made with something other than a double cardan.
THOUGHTS, INFORMATION AND IDEAS ALL APPRECIATED.

EDIT: Just looked back at the last time I replaced the rear u-joint, 245,xxx miles in 2012. Why did it seem like it was only a couple of years ago? Well, I guess 60,000 miles on an aftermarket u-joint is....okay.


Also pulled the front swaybar- the bar has several millimeters of movement within the poly bushings. Will likely go with another set of poly or figure out a way to make up for those millimeters because the rubber ones can't handle the wheeling, kept destroying the right side oem bushing. While it's not as bad to drive as when the rear swaybar is off I don't see leaving it off at this point.

habanero

We also bought a first gen Highlander (tall camry) from our neighbor. Bad engine at 193,xxx miles, will swap. Good transmission but automatic, will sell. Bought at double the junker price, the neighbor knows our plans. Its name is Lady.

Of course we'll test first, but misfire in cyl #2, diagnosed at local shop as bad, can hear it when cranking, burning oil. It does actually run and drive, a/c, 4wd-ish, body in nice shape, well-maintained, 3.0 v6.

We're trying to figure out where the best place to get a good used engine from is, want someone to get a good reliable vehicle.
If any of you have ideas I'm listening....

habanero

96 4Runner 305,689 miles
Junkyard date!! I love junkyard date sooooo much (and my husband too).

I did a thing....think he'll notice???



Found a hood of some imperfection off a '99 at pick n' pull
It had an insert that someone mangled trying to get it out BUT my husband pulled an insert off a different 99 with a destroyed hood ages ago so we're all good.
I'm not sure at this point what color it's going to end up being.
Maybe I should get some matching eyebrows so it might almost look like it's on purpose?


I also took a chance on a shifter boots assembly out of a '99 that has no holes at all, unlike mine. It's hard to tell from the pic, but they are exactly the same which is awesome.
So now we know that the early 3rd gen m/t shift boots with surround are the same as the later 3rd gen m/t shift boots with surround.



Other projects forthcoming...

Jomoka

Apparently, the runs-on-5-cylinders Highlander was whispering to my '99. Because yesterday, during some highway driving, it started running on 5 cylinders too.

The convertor didn't seem hot, and the exhaust didn't smell gassy or have anything visible coming out, so I just limped it the rest of the way home.

Engaged in some troubleshooting involving swapping parts between my '99 and her '96, and ruled out ignition issues. The miss stayed in place on #6 after looking at plugs, and swapping ignition module, coils, spark plug wire.

And the spark plug was dry when we checked, really points to that injector not firing.

This morning, it started up on all 6, and stayed running properly all the way to work (10 minutes or so). I guess it's just an injector that gets flaky when it is fully warmed up.

habanero

^ NOT the forthcoming project I had in mind....

habanero

96 4Runner 305,704 miles

Got the driveshaft back. I wanted the double cardan mess rebuilt plus the notchy-bad rear while they were at it. They did the rear, said they hadn't had any success with the Toyota DCs and didn't want to tackle that one.
Kinda bummed, but I appreciate an honest shop that isn't afraid to not do something that they don't feel right about so it's all good.
They did say they can build a dc-like joint that uses easy-to-find u-joints, if I wanted. He said there was a little play in the rearmost DC u-joint, that it wasn't too bad at this point and to keep an eyeball on it. At least with the new rear u-joint and the new upper control arms the rear shudder is gone.

Now I just have to figure out what's going on up front. My front sway bar is off because I need to get new sway bar bushings. It's a bit....sway-ey, but it doesn't drive as funky as when the rear was off.

The '99 is getting some new Denso injectors, hopefully this weekend. The #6 injector stops working when it gets hot, works great until then.

For anyone who cares, Pick n Pull has a 1/2 off sale going on this weekend

chuckles89

I had to buy a Tom Woods DS because my DC centering ball was loose.

habanero

That's most likely going to be my direction too. The local shop wants 5-600 to make the beefed-up one. There's also that place in Illinois that has double cardans available that I might also look into....Rockline? I'll have to find it again.
I've heard of people rebuilding them using the specifically sized u-joints and the Neapco ball, I don't see me as being one of those people.

Hubby pulled his '99s injectors out this afternoon, 1 through 5 all have very close resistance, 14.5ish ohms. 6 has .0152 k ohms. We didn't think it would test different cold because the engine doesn't miss until it warms up.

habanero

96 4Runner 305,759 miles

Moved my 3-hole (Rav 4) washer nozzles over to the 'new' hood
Deleted the stupid huge later 3rd gen ISR thingy and replaced with some aluminum pipe that was hanging around the house. For the vacuum lines (power steering and fuel pressure regulator) I used the hubby's neat trick and spare screw-on tire valves with the cores removed.



Couple of driveshaft notes:
To remove, I start with the rear. 4 bolts, both heads and nuts require a 14mm. Each also has a washer. Once I get those off I can drop that end of the shaft
Rear:


The front has 4 studs that stay in, with 4 nuts, 15mm wrench. There is a washer with each nut too. Mine is usually tough to separate though there's nothing holding it on once the nuts and washers are removed
Front:



Picked up a few things from the pick n pull sale, couple of front headrests my husband put in the rear of his '99, some injectors to have on hand, a driveshaft, a couple other this n thats.

The hubby also did a compression test on Lady the Highlander for fun and games- on #s 2,4, and 6. 4 and 6 were around 170? (I forget exact, but both about the same) and #2 was....30.

chuckles89

Oh no!!

Edit: Whoops, I thought you were talking about his 4Runner.... now THAT would be bad!