96 4Runner

The to-dos are piling up. Just got back from a MO OK NM AZ CA NV UT trip, but took the diesel jetta wagen so no 4Runner fun. I did see a lot of beautiful 4Runners, FJ40s, Land Cruisers of various years, etc. Will admit to being jealous of how little rust (like none) there was.
For grins: Badwater Basin, Death Valley...


I still have to drill holes and paint the 4xInnovations rear bumper fill plate- too cold to paint now.
A rear brake job is on tap once I buy a brake hardware kit (and it warms up some!)
Am still looking for that thump noise. At least it's getting thumpier, so maybe it'll be easier to find- or it will fall off, whatever the 'it' is. Then it'll either be less thumpy or possibly a whole lot more thumpy!
and the Box Of Mystery this year turned out to be a gianormous awning. Figuring that one out may take me a bit as it's pretty apparent it won't work with my roof basket. See the smoke? That's the thinking gears creaking into action.

 

That's a really good photo, like professional 35mm and a good lense! (Yeah I'm old..)

 

I'm well-seasoned...er....many-seasoned?.... too and that would have been really nice. These days a lot of our pics are cellphone based born from convenience and my 'good' Canon is a film camera gathering dust in the closet.

 

apparently my phone cam has a horrible aspect ratio or something then because I can't ever get a good landscape image captured they always look like they are miles and miles away. We are like five or so miles away from the bluff and all mine look like they are just over the horizon.

 

Mine too, I have to zoom in to get what I want sometimes and it's still only an okay pic. LG V20. My husband's OnePlus 5 (pic above) takes a lot nicer pictures.

 

So I'm pretty sure one of the two thumps I'm chasing is in the rear diff. I greased the rear driveshaft because sometimes that will make a clunk if dry- it wasn't, but it did need a bit of grease- and the thump has gotten worse. It happens when I hit the gas moderately hard, then quickly let off- THUMP. Now I gotta narrow it down a bit more. That adding grease and therefore stiffening the driveshaft caused a more pronounced sound makes me wonder about bearings? The back end has seemed a little noisier than the '99- growllier. Pinion health? Heck, I really don't know as much about this as I'd like to. I guess the first thing to do is pull the rear driveshaft. There is always the other side of the rear driveshaft ,the thump does seem pretty far back, but you all know how hard it is to judge exactly where a noise is coming from. It's gotten bad enough I'm not driving it much right now.
I do know I'd sure appreciate if the weather would most please cooperate more.

Tips, tricks, thoughts or ideas always welcomed!

The other clunk is smaller and up front....one clunk at a time folks, one clunk at a time.

 

96 4Runner 312,xxx miles

Sunday I went ahead and pulled the rear driveshaft. The driveshaft's double cardan is very notchy and catchey at the sharper angles. Test drove it in 4x (without rear shaft), no noise. We'd nabbed a manual trans driveshaft from pick n pull awhile back-worn but in a lot better shape, I went ahead and greased it and stuck it in. Test drove again and one of the nasties is gone along with an annoying vibration, but the other noise came back- the clunk on quick decel, usually while in first or second gear. The same clunk happens in reverse. It's not consistent. That's still pointing me towards the diff. I think.

I will need to replace the front driveshaft u-joints because they are worn, but will wait for the winter weather to go away. I'm gonna have a driveline shop do the work and also need to decide what I want to do with my rear driveshaft. Replace the double cardan with a single u-joint and deal with the likely resulting vibrations? Find a double cardan and have it stuck on? Find a driveline shop willing to replace the dc u-joints? Just go ahead and buy another driveshaft (may end up costing about the same if I get one from a shop Chuckles mentioned earlier).

Opinions?

 

Oh yeah, and for anyone who wants to know, the front of the rear driveshaft is held on by 4 nuts to corresponding studs on the output (?) shaft. It is often hard to separate, I can usually get a thin edge in there and work my way around until it suddenly cries uncle.

Front showing 3 zerks (one is sneaky)


The rear of the rear driveshaft is 4 bolts with washers. The nuts and washers go on the side towards the diff. This side usually doesn't give me any trouble.

Rear showing 2 zerks. My other driveshaft had 3 zerks, two for the u-joint.

 

The driveline shop could also make you a custom driveshaft with a HD CV joint up front and a u-joint in the rear - which would not produce vibrations.

 

Good point...add that one to the possibilities.

 

that is exactly what I did for my 81. Had the CV put up top and my driveline vibrations went away
And it looks like I many get luck and the same D/S might work in the 94

another thing to check is slop at the rear output shaft of the T/C, that is what started me down the rabbit hole and dual cases

 

Hmmmm....dual case rabbit hole you say???
Thanks for the real experience input and I'm crossing my fingers the ds does work in the 94!

I will definitely look for slop and will also be looking for loose/broken bolts and the like.

 

96 4Runner 312,461 miles

Right rear brake shoes, drum, wheel cylinder new pistons and seals kit #04474-35100
The bell crank is free and working, the new boot is keeping the crud out and the grease looks good. I did re-grease.
Need to get another cylinder kit for the left and do the brake job on that side. Really all I need is the rubber piston seals and boots, the pistons themselves are fine. I don't know if that's available.
The speed bleeder was pretty awesome, made bleeding the brake a lot easier.
I also checked the bolts in the rear lower control arms- one was frozen- and the rear upper control arms' bolts too. I torqued the rear lowers to 107 ft lbs and the rear uppers to 64 ft lbs.

The '99 got the bushings in the right rear upper control arm replaced, new bushings in the panhard that seems to have solved a weird not full-time butt wiggle at highway speeds, and new cat-back exhaust. Judging by the specialized phrases heard during said exhaust installation I'm NOT ever putting Gibson on the '96!

 

Yeah - the Gibson kit certainly wasn't a bolt-in affair. It was a couple of purpose made parts (fitted tailpipe, and a welded up hanger for the rear of the muffler) - the muffler and a short 90-degree bend were just stock parts. And it went together using muffler clamps and slip joints. Which were loose - and the supplied muffler clamps would bottom out on their threads before clamping enough to fit the pipes together (the joints were *very* loose, even between the supplied parts). And one of the clamps stripped out before tightening enough to hold the joint in place.

 

4Runner 312,461 miles

Just the left side rear brakes done today, I went ahead and did it without the wheel cylinder kit- this side didn't show any signs of leakage at least.

 

4Runner 3112,465 miles

It finally got warm enough to paint the fill plates for my 4xInnovations rear bumper, so I did that. Newer bumpers have holes pre-drilled, our older bumpers do not. I made a template and drilled and bolted and got the main part done. Now I just have to find some dark-colored bolts on the junkyard run (I had gold, meh) and make a bracket for the trailer wiring and one for the rear Anderson connector. I may also move my air lines for the rear air bags for easier access. Now I'll worry less about the dog getting a leg in the hole (was bridging with my own leg) when he jumps up in. I'll also have more room to make my coffee on the bumper with the jet boil. The rain quit and stay away for most of it.


For my birthday we went on a junkyard run and found a hitch for the '02 Highlander and tailgate struts for the '99 so both those things were taken care of by the hubby. He also installed the Sonoran Steel bushings for the dogbone and the Sonoran Steel rear lower control arms. His oe arms had shot bushings.
He also changed the fuel filter. He did all that while I was messing around with my fill plates.

 

Happy Birthday Hab!

 

Thanks dropzone! 52 years of dragging my butt out of bed every morning to see what's next.

 

It was a minor miracle that the fuel filter fittings came off. I was dreading that.

 

96 4Runner 312,528 miles

Bunch of little piddly things this warm mostly sunny weekend.
Finally got around to figuring out the voltmeter not working on the start side. Blown fuse, likely when I was dealing with moving the switches over to the new center console.
Found a blown fuse on the house side too, the mirror defrosters. Not sure what went on there, will watch for future problems.
Stuck those little convex mirrors on the side mirrors.
Cleaned up and repainted my lower control arm mount skids, then reinstalled.
And because I can't stand how painfully bright high-beam indicator is I made it much more dim using a bit of plastic that will allow less light through.


Just had to carefully lift it up and pop it off the little post without creasing or bending it...