Thanks, and thanks about the cakes but they're Molly's (Lysmachia's). Mine always look like poo.

Sounds like a good challenge for you, I will have to keep a look out to see what you come up with.

 

These guys still list a price for the discontinued add-on box 77701-35010...may be worth a try:

http://www.trademotion.com/parts/ind...&siteid=214140

 

thanks for the assistance and link; I had it in my cart and was a click away from ordering, but then I wondered whether it was really worth almost $50 (they want almost $20 in shipping charges) to simply rid that annoying (but apparently harmless) buzzing from the evaporator charcoal cannister...

 

That can be lowered by another dealer to about $35:
http://www.trademotion.com/shoppingc...D77701%2D35010

I'm with you...probably not worth it.

 

I'm telling you guys.....big friendly metal cow.

Looking at what the kit contains I still think it's buildable from bits and pieces. I've actually already bought a small container some months ago thinking I might play with a fix at some point. I'm ok with the beastie having some personality for now.

Today the hubby convinced me to go look at a 98 4Runner 4x auto 3.4 Red 238,000 miles. The guy wanted $1000 for it with bad front and rear diffs and a miss, plus a little rust on a rocker. The thinking was to put the 96's diffs on it and sell, then fund some locking stuff. I had massive doubts....both diffs bad??? How maintained could this thing even be? So we get there and what we see is...
No clear coat on the rear hatch or the right rear door, multiple reds here and there, overspray in the front w/newer radiator.
Rust holes in rear bumper and an 18" long rust hole along the rocker under the right rear door.
Tranny fluid that looks like milky overused motor oil.
Lots of crud as far as you can reach a finger under the oil cap.
Nothing in the radiator except some blackish crust, smelled funky
The oil looked well used and overfilled, but it did have oil in it.
Pumpkin unbolted to allow a bunch of water to drain out. Gears mangled.
Big hole in front diff with gear bits.
Missing sideview mirror glass
A broken rear shock
Missing catalytic converter with some weird stretchy pipe in its place. Also no o2 sensors.
Very leaky r&p
Original suspension, grease and oil flung everywhere.
Leaking valve cover
Tires in need of replacement on tri-spokes
No radio, cigarette butts everywhere, trashed interior
No battery
The list goes on, but doesn't get any better. Especially when we started it up.

I looked at the guy (who was very nice, had bought to flip but decided to ditch- wisely) and said 'I hate to say it, but what you've got here is a genuine cluster.
He wholeheartedly agreed. Usually deals in older 4Runners apparently, bought this one off some kids in east nowheresville who'd run the crap out of it over field and dale and creeks. NO maintenance. Felt bad for the guy but that doesn't mean I can afford to have my very own cluster. It would take way too much money to fix what was mechanically wrong and it doesn't have the pretty face to sell itself even if I did get it solid again. I did like the color where it still had clearcoat, Cardinal Red.

 

Sounds like a beautiful rig for a bit of mechanical challenge. Yikes.

The only reason that I posted that silly part again is that I keep finding it for sale and it was supposedly discontinued a couple of years ago. I doubt there is anything special to it and your idea sounds stellar. :-)

 

Jeez sounds like my 1st truck lol

 

Gonna be a live n' learn truck for somebody who'll never again look at any 4Runner without cursing it.

RW, if they actually have the part it's a good find. Not everyone wants to use baling wire and toothpicks as fixes. You're always welcome to put up anything you want here!!

 

Are u related to "stew pickles" ?? Lol

 

habanero, I'd be interested to see what kind of fix you come up with for the moo from your big friendly metal cow...

 

"Stew pickles"? I'ma have to google that one.

 

Lol he was a character in rugrats lol

 

Ohhh. Ok, we're talking H.R. Puffenstuff and Sid & Marty Croft and the Lone Ranger and Drinky Superman and Campy Batman old. I owned a house and had 3 jobs by the time Rugrats came out. The X-Files might've been more my cup o'tea back then. Guessing that's not really the same thing, is it?

 

Gee hab that woe begotten memory of a good truck sounds like the kind of beast you'd donate to a HS auto shop as a dismantle project and object lesson on the results of poor maintenance.

 

EXACTLY! Wish he could've given it too me, would love to tear into the engine to see what was in there, er, what was left of it.

 

Hi Hab! What? A whole week has gone and no goodness posted about the 4Runners?
We're under a temperature inversion here...28 at the house at 450' and 50 at 5000' at the ski resort. The resort temps have been above freezing for a week now. Bah humbug. I feel like hibernating until it warms up. Lol

 

Freezing downhill without being able to ski uphill? Seems so unfair. It's been all freeze/thaw on the trails around here so once it gets around 22 and the sun hits the dirt everything becomes unplayable.
It was 15 this morning and yesterday's high was 27 with winds up to 30mph. Bleh. Saturday was something like 65, got some trail built over at SIUE and a walk too. We've also been immersed in Science Fair.
Still got those same to dos but have apparently misplaced my round tuits. Again. I'm thinking for the switch for the voltmeter I need a double pole double throw off-on-momentary on, or better, on-momemtary on. Don't really need an off, do I?

That red truck is still for sale. Still $1000. Still absolutely not worth it. The funniest thing in the description is "The exhaust is intact and not damaged looking or rusted out". It's missing the cat and at least one o2 sensor, somebody stuck a pipe in it's place. Leaky and loud. Won't pass an inspection and can't be licensed around here. At least we saved the guy even more than he had into it, he was gonna buy some 2nd gen axles he found and "throw them on there". Told him it wouldn't work. Seems like a decent enough guy but I'd feel more sorry for him if he wasn't buying used up cars and flipping them as diamonds in the only a little rough. He's also got an 85 4Runner he's selling as the "Holy Grail of 4Runners" for $3750 and described it as having only some surface rust. Having seen it first hand I can tell you it does have surface rust. It just happens to stretch from the front surface to the back surface in several areas.

Good to hear from you rw, hopefully we can all get on with the fun and games again soon, I'm kinda getting withdrawlly.

 

habanero, you're in luck, I found it for you!

 

The cat wasn't even just replaced with pipe, it was replaced with this uber cheap kind of flex pipe:


Which was loudly chuffling and leaking. As soon as it started up the noise from it was loud enough to make me look under and discover the missing cat.

 

^^^ Some people's idea of what constitutes a repair is crazy. Sheesh. That stuff always looks like clothes dryer vent pipe to me when I see it in the exhaust repair section of the parts store.